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When they got back, Shawn waited at Mara's desk. Mara went over to him, collapsed into her chair and sighed heavily.
"You look like shit." Shawn chuckled, pulling a leaf from the back of her hair.
"You try running into a tornado to save someone and see how you look afterwards."
Shawn laughed, Reid watching how stupid he looked when he did that. Reid was "packing" his stuff to go home but really, he was listening to their conversation.
"Wanna go grab something to eat?" Shawn asked Mara. "Head to your place afterwards?"
"Actually," Mara said, her eyes landing on Reid. "I have something to do."
"Oh.." Shawn frowned. "Call me later."
Mara nodded, letting him kiss her cheek and disappear from the BAU. Reid smiled to himself as he headed to the elevator, hoping Mara was behind him.
"Where are you going?" Mara asked Reid, standing next to him in the elevator.
"Muggs."
Mara looked up at him and smiled. "Care for some company?"
"Always."
Mara and Reid walked to the coffee shop together, their shoulders brushing and a smile on their lips.
Reid was the first to speak. "You don't look like shit, by the way."
Mara looked up and him and smirked. He was listening. She let out a laugh as he opens the door for her, the cool breeze from the coffee shop hitting her in the face.
"Doctor Reid," the barista smiled at the boy, his eyes falling on Mara. "Late night?"
She realized that her hair and clothes were a mess from the twister and to the people that didn't know what they'd just endured, it looked like they just had sex.
Reid smirked and looked down at her. "Something like that."
Mara elbowed him in the ribs, making both of them laugh. "What'll it be tonight?"
"I'll take the usual," Reid spoke. "And what she's getting."
Mara opened her mouth to object to him paying for her but with one look, he shut her down. "I'll take a hot chocolate."
She thanked Reid for buying her drink before the two sat down at a table, sipping on their hot drinks.
"You know," Reid started. "There were two kids in the tenth case of the Fox."
Mara sat her drink down and looked up at the young doctor, already starting to get angry. "You've been looking into the case?"
"No," he quickly answered. "Eidetic memory, remember?"
"Yeah," she shrugged. "I had a brother."
Had. Reid's eyes looked up at her, examining her face. Profiling her. Mara quickly noticed what he was doing and sent him a stern look, eyes focusing on her drink.
"You don't have to talk about it."
"Good," Mara replied. "I'm not."
Reid knew that Mara wasn't going to open up to him. Not for a while anyway. Surprisingly, Reid wanted to open up to the girl. Not to earn her trust but Mara didn't judge. She wanted to help out anyways she could and Reid needed that.
"My mother is a paranoid schizophrenic." Reid spoke quietly, making Mara look up at him in surprise.
"Spencer, you don't have-"
"No, it's okay," he replied. "I know you don't trust me. I know you think I only take interest in you because of your past. I know you don't like to talk about your past because you haven't accepted it."
Mara's eyes bored into his, searching his face for any tells that he was lying. "It's just..hard."
"I know and I understand," he said to her. "I'm not going to sit here and tell you that talking about it helps because you've been told that many times before but I am going to tell you that the people on this team, including myself, are here for you."
"Thank you," Mara smiled gently, leaning on her elbow to look at him. "Now tell me about your mom."
***
Mara does this thing where she begins to despise people when she gets close to them. When she started to become comfortable and reveal things about herself, she writes the person off. She makes up things about them in order to make the separation easier.
The next day, Mara walked into the BAU in the worst possible mood. Shawn was sitting at her desk, making a grimace wipe across her face at the sight of him. She was not in the mood.
"There you are, I thought you were already here since there was a coffee here," Shawn said, gesturing to the coffee mug with Muggs plastered across it. "I missed you last night."
She glanced over at Reid, seeing his eyes rolling at Shawn's comment. Mara opened her mouth to say something but Shawn cut her off again. "What were you doing anyway?"
"Shawn, don't you have somewhere to be?"
Shawn looked up at her in surprise, furrowing his eyebrows. "What's the matter with you?"
"I just- I've had a rough morning and I'm not in the mood." Mara answered.
"There's something else-"
"Will you-" she huffed, trying to raise her voice and failing. "Will you get out of my seat?"
Morgan's head snapped around at Mara's agitated voice, instantly moving to defend the girl. "Everything okay, Mara?"
"Yeah, everything's fine-"
"I was just about to ask him to leave." Mara cut him off, Shawn looking up at her in shock.
"You heard the woman." Morgan said, crossing his arms over his chest, eyes never leaving Shawn's.
Shawn raised his hands in surrender before standing. "We'll talk about this later."
And with that, he left. Mara collapsed into her chair and let out a heavy sigh. Morgan lingered. "You okay?"
Mara nodded and spun around in her chair. She pulled the trash can out from underneath her desk and slid the coffee into it.
Reid's mouth fell open in shock but quickly recovered, watched her press her fingers into her temple. She was a difficult person to understand and Reid wanted to figure it out.
