The Keeping of Words | Spencer Reid

5 |Closer

His phone was buzzing. Reid was pouring over stacks of paperwork, hoping to finish the stacks before he ran out of coffee.

Was it JJ again? They had just gotten back from a case, and even he was starting to get tired from the constant merry-go-round of cases. In the past weeks they'd had barely hours between trips. He glanced at the name on the phone, and smiled as he answered.

"Hey," he said. "How are you?"

"I'm good," Bianca answered from the other line. "Are you still working?"

"Yeah," Reid said, leaning back in his chair. "We just got back from a case. I'm finishing up on paperwork before I head out."

"Hm... how much paperwork exactly?"

Reid flipped through the stack. "I don't know, might take me five or ten minutes?" He glanced at the clock. It was nearly 5:30, it would be getting dark soon. "Why?"

"Oh, well, I was just hoping to talk to you. If you're busy, I can wait until then. You read fast anyways." She bid him farewell, with a promise of talking to him soon, and Reid got back to flying through the papers.

It was easy, relaxing, filling in blanks and checking reports. He wasn't sure how much time had passed until Morgan sat down on the corner of his desk. "Hey, pretty boy. You've done enough. You oughta head out."

"I'm fine," Reid insisted. He knew he could finish faster than the rest of the team; that was why they often asked him to lend a hand when they felt swamped. Besides, they were far more likely to have plans for an evening, whereas he typically returned home to more books.

"No, really," Morgan insisted. "I've got this. You go home, okay?" Confused, Reid relented, wondering if this was part of some sort of practical joke, or if Morgan was trying to avoid something and paperwork was an easy excuse.

Either way, he collected his things into his messenger bag and made his way to the elevator. He'd go back to his apartment, he told himself, and make dinner first. He wanted to be awake to call Bianca, and at the moment he felt rather dependent on his cup of coffee.

When he pushed open the doors of the building, his mind was lost in thought, deciding what to cook, wondering how crowded the metro was, reviewing the details of the case in Atlanta. A serial killer with a thing for twins, abducting the set at the same time, and pitting them against each other to decide who would die first. He was glad they'd caught him before another pair of sisters went missing. Only one thing could jolt him back to the present.

"Spencer!" a voice called. He nearly did a double take, shocked to see Bianca walking towards him. Was he really that tired? But no, she was real, standing before him- black blouse, a red skirt, tights, and shiny red flats- everything he could identify her by made her presence seem so much more there and so much more incredulous.

"Bianca! What - what are you doing here?" he asked. It was a pleasant surprise, seeing her there before him. Seeing his... well, he didn't know exactly what to call her. Was she his girlfriend? They'd never defined what they were explicit terms. Between their jobs and the distance, they rarely had a chance to see each other face-to-face, save for Skype. It was nice to see her in person, to be able to hold her hand when she reached towards him, to see her smile without looking through a screen.

"I thought I'd surprise you on your way home from work," she said, as if that was the most natural thing in the world for her to be doing.

"Well, consider me thoroughly surprised. Are you here for the weekend?" Neither of them had ever been able to get more than a few days at a time to visit the other, and there never seemed to be enough time when they did.