✓ | delphinus ( reid )

ii

"you know you shouldn't love me, yet you still love me"

layla walked into the bau, her pink heels clicking against the wood floors. she held a paper cup of coffee in her left hand and a carrier with four coffees in her right hand. layla reached her desk and sat down her coffee before sauntering over to spencer's desk.

"five sugars just the way you like it," she said with a wink as she handed him his cup.

spencer smiled in thanks and turned his attention back to his computer where he was going over some old cases. layla gave the other three coffees to emily, jj and penelope before she went back to her desk to start on her paperwork.

only thirty minutes later hotch emerged from his office to call everyone to the round table so jj could present a case. layla tossed her empty coffee into the trash by the stairs before picking up her pace so she could catch up with spencer. once she reached him, she intertwined their fingers and smiled at him.

"morning spence."

"good morning to you too," he replied with a grin.

she swung their hands slightly as they walked while she hummed the last song she'd heard on the radio that morning. layla sat next to spencer at the table, and jj hurried in to brief the team.

"georgia," she said as she clicked on the tv.

"the kyles, dennis and lacey, were murdered last night inside their suburban atlanta home," jj explained.

layla sat with one of her arms on the table while she rested her other hand on spencer's knee. she was so absorbed in the briefing that she didn't notice how flushed reid was.

"police were on the scene an hour after the murders happened," jj added.

"an hour?" hotch asked.

"the police were on the scene unusually fast," jj replied.

"why?" derek asked as he stirred his coffee.

"because one of the unsubs made a 911 call that the other was about to murder the kyles." jj answered.

"that's odd, so there's two unsubs?" layla asked, her eyebrows scrunching together in confusion.

"at the moment we believe there's three. the unsub who made the call, the other one you could hear in the call and the one they both referred to as rafael. i had the atlanta pd send the tape to garcia," jj answered as she passed around files on the case.

layla got the files and handed them to reid to check. layla wasn't super squeamish, but she did have a thing with extreme bloodiness. she didn't mind if the unsub had shot the victims or maybe something a bit worse, but extreme torture or mutilation just made her feel sick to her stomach. layla and reid had a system where he'd always check the crime scene photos to make sure they weren't too bad. spencer looked at the photos and then passed the file to layla. she flipped through, observing the pictures.

"the unsub seems to show remorse. at least one does," she determined as she passed the file to hotch.

jj nodded in agreement, "one of our unsubs killed them pretty messily and another cleaned it up and posed the victims."

the team continued to bounce around some ideas based on the photos and what atlanta pd had said about the call before hotch ended the briefing. he announced they'd leave in fifteen minutes, and layla walked to her desk to grab her go bag.

"any theories boy genius?" she asked reid as they walked.

"i don't know, this is a weird one. the organized unsub is probably the submissive one, but i don't understand how a submissive would fit into the dynamics of two, most likely dominant, unsubs. normally it would be a dominant and two submissive," he answered, kind of trailing off towards the end as he got lost in thought.

"you know spence, you have the most adorable thinking face," layla teased with a playful smile.

reid laughed and grabbed his bag, "thanks for the coffee this morning. i don't think i verbally thanked you."

"you didn't, but you were busy. it's all good," layla said as she walked over to his cubicle.

"i'll make sure to get you coffee the next chance i get," reid promised as he finished gathering his things.

"are you asking me out?" layla joked, feigning shock.

reid chuckled, "i'll bring you coffee one morning okay?"

layla grinned and nodded, "that's perfect spence, thanks."

"c'mon love birds!" derek snapped from across the office, making reid blush. layla grabbed her bag, and began wheeling it over to the exit as she laughed at reid' reaction.

"you heard the man, let's go spence." she called out as reid shuffled to grab his suitcase and follow her.

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a/n: btw, they aren't dating yet! layla is very affectionate with her friends, and that's just part of her character. her and spencer are just friends at this point in the story, and holding hands isn't a weird thing for them, it's just part of their relationship.