Broken Goods - Criminal Minds - Spencer Reid

The Waiting Room

(Surprise prequel!
Even to me.
I guess this may become a series of one-offs without a chronological order.)

The waiting room was gradually emptying and that meant that it was getting quieter and I was getting more agitated, my leg bounced as my nerves spiked and I failed to distract myself.

When sat in waiting rooms, I would turn off my music and take out my headphones in fear of missing the announcement for my name, so I'd typically take out the book that I'd carry everywhere with me for such an occasion, which would always ultimately go left resting on my lap, unread, because I would be too anxious to concentrate on the story within the pages.

Thus, I sat there, bouncing my leg, twiddling my thumbs and staring at the announcement board that would eventually flash up with my name with an accompanying, loud beep.

I'd exhausted the posters that were dotted around the walls multiple times, if given a test on the subject of booking flu-jabs and the symptoms of a stroke, I would probably have scored a near perfect mark from pure memory.

A loud beep sounds around the room and my heart jolts in both hope and nerves, then deflates in disappointment when a different name appeared and the only other person leaves the room.

I sighed and began to wonder if maybe I hadn't been booked in properly, this had happened once before at my dentist's and I had ended up sitting there like a plum for an hour before I had to ask what was going on at reception.

It turned out that either she or the dental nurse hadn't booked me in correctly and therefore, had I not plucked up the courage and asked, I'd have wound up sitting there for considerably longer.

That entire appointment in general had ended up being awful and I had thus since become a nervous wreck about going to the dentist.

As the door patient-X had left through finally came it its slow close, one of the double doors on the opposite side opened and for a brief moment I had to stifle my laughter at the thought of a portal in the doctor's surgery.

I could have choked on that snigger at the sight of who had just walked through the door.

From the glance I got at him before forcing myself to look away, he seemed pretty cute, tall with great hair.

Of course, their hair would be one of the first things I'd noticed, I was a stickler for a man with long hair.

The new guy, patient-Y as I'd fondly dub him, moved to the corner of the room long seat and settled himself comfortably onto the well-worn green leather, or at least as comfortably as you could get on these things.

It was a strange set up for a doctor's, one waiting room contained separate chairs lining the walls with only one grey cushioned seat that always reminded me of a carnival ride, while the other, the one I currently occupied with Patient-Y, had four L-shaped seats that lined the walls, only leaving gaps for the door and two wooden blocks in the center of each chair that acted as a table for out of date newspapers.

Letting out another loaded sigh, I gazed around the room once again, momentarily making eye contact with the cute man across from me, who I could definitely announce as attractive with this second look.

He gave me an awkward smile, which I returned.

"Welcome to Purgatory," I laughed gently, trying to break the silence.

He returned it with his own cursory laugh and took his own look around.

"Has it been that bad?"

I gave him a friendlier and more genuine smile.

"It has, at least it has been for me."

"Bad day?"

"Not quite that bad, just a long wait."

"How long have you been here?"

I looked at him then reached into my jacket pocket to pull out my phone, in all the time I had been sat there I hadn't checked to see if my wait was truly as long as I felt it had been.

Flicking the little button on the side of my phone, the home screen flashed up with the time.

"Thirty-seven minutes," I sighed, "past my appointment time, might I add."

"Oh," he nodded, "not long then."

I laughed and rolled my eyes good naturedly.

"No, not at all, I'm only a few minutes away from becoming part of the furniture and gathering dust."

Although we both chuckle from my little joke, I still feel a little ridiculous and wonder if he's perhaps just humoring me.

To avoid making myself look more like a fool, even if it was only according to myself, I started to fiddle with my book, picking it up and flipping through the pages to see how long the next chapter I needed to read was, checking many more pages I'd need to read before I was halfway through.

For the strangest reason, that only succeeded in making me feel even more awkward.

Picking up my bag, a black fake-leather handbag decorated with white bats, I took out a separate plastic bag and placed my book inside to wrap it up so that it could sit in nicely without fear of damage from the other contents, which had also been shuffled about to create the perfect space within.

This took more shuffling than desired and I once again felt like I was making a scene, all just to put my book away.

Another beep sounded and drew our attention, but didn't seem to call for either of us, it certainly wasn't my name that appeared and the man opposite me didn't go to move.

Thus, we were stuck together for a bit longer.

"It's a good thing I'm not here for anything important," I mumbled to myself.

"According to a research survey in 2012, it was estimated that the average waiting time for most patients would be sixteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds, which was already an increase total of one minute compared to their previous survey just the year prior."

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, unable to stop myself from smiling in amusement.

"Really? You just happen to know that?"

"I 'happen to know' a lot of things," he said, returning my smile.

This man was adorable, where had he been for the last almost-hour of my life?

Typically, just as our conversation was getting into the swing of things, I was summoned for my dreaded one on one time with the doctor where I would no doubt have my weight scrutinized once again despite them having my medical notes.

Whether they would voice their concerns or not was a whole other story, not that it really mattered by this point, I tried my best to control my eating habits and to exercise but my PCOS and a few other ailments seemed to make losing the weight I had gained in my teens that much more difficult.

Hopefully, this would just be a quick in and out case and won't turn into a lecture about something I'm attempting to keep on top of.

Standing up and sliding my bag over my shoulder, I give the mystery man a smile and follow after the beckoning nurse.

Though I find myself smiling goofily over our interaction, like a schoolgirl with a crush, a stupid, fleeting attraction.

It would fade.