𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 ➳ [ SPENCER REID ] [PARTS 1 & 2]

━━━━ xxii

"O-OH," LEAH RESPONDED hesitantly. "i'm sorry for your loss, mr. porter."

"its okay," he responded, lacking emotion. "after his mother passed, it was only me and him. he didn't really like staying with me, though, so he stayed with his uncle."

leah nodded, feeling bad. she then turned to greg, who seemed to have never took his eyes off of her. "well it was nice seeing you, mr. campbell. and it was nice meeting you, mr. porter."

she then walked back over to spencer, thoughts flooding her head. she remembered things her father said about boli's, and she had finally come to the realization that his only two friends from work were the men in front of her. she smiled at the thought of her father having friends. of course, he had a lot of friends, but when it came to work, her father wasn't the most social. there were only three people at the pizza place that her father would talk to- and those people were his boss, mr. porter and mr. campbell.

"hey spence?" he looked over at her. she wanted to tell him that something seemed off about mr. campbell. she found it odd how nervous he sounded, and how he immediately stopped talking after mr. porter coughed. even mr. porter acted strangely- while he talked about his dead son, he showed no emotion, which isn't- normal.

"nevermind," was what she had told spencer though. she honestly didn't want to burden him with her thoughts- again. it was that moment she decided she would ask mr. campbell if she could look around his apartment once more for anything suspicious. yes, of course it's already been months since agnes passed- but looking once again couldn't hurt- right?

the two grabbed the ice cream and got back into leah's car. and don't ask how he managed to do so, but spencer convinced leah to listen to mozart all the way back to work.

𖥸

"we're back!" leah announced to derek and emily as she dropped her bag on her chair. she took out two different cups of ice cream and two spoons and placed them on each of their desks.

"thank you, my love!" emily told leah as she took the lid off of her cup, picking up the spoon.

"yes, you guys are life savers!" derek told spencer as he sat down in his seat.

if this event had taken place months ago, leah and spencer would be teased endlessly. however, the teasing died down after almost four months of derek and emily's jokes.

jj and garcia came by to get their ice cream and spoons, both thanking leah and spencer.

leah then grabbed two spoons, and both her and hotch's cups of ice cream, walking up to his office.

"did somebody order a strawberry ice cream?" leah announced jokingly as she entered his office. he looked up at her and smiled, taking the spoon and the cup from her hand.

"thanks, gray," hotch said as he starting eating his ice cream. leah sat down in the extra chair in the room and started eating hers.

after a few minutes, leah spoke up. "hey, hotch?"

he looked up at her, insinuating she continue.

"do you mind if i take a few days off? starting tomorrow?"

hotch raised his eyebrows even higher. "why? are you okay?"

"oh, i'm fine. there's just- i have some things to take care of."

"are you in any trouble?"

"never, aaron. it's just- let's just say a friend of mine needs my help."

aaron sighed, and then said "okay. just let me know when you'll be coming back."

leah mouthed a quick "thank you" to hotch before leaving his office to return to her own desk. she threw her empty cup of ice cream away before taking a seat.

30 minutes later, everyone was called to the round table.

before leah walked into the room, hotch walked up to her. "hey, this next case is in florida. we might be there for a few days. you're welcome to come, but i just know you wanted to take a few days off."

"right," leah sighed, a bit disappointed she wouldn't be around to solve the case. "i'll listen in, and if you guys need anything, you can call me and i'll actually know what's going on."

hotch nodded, and leah took a seat next to spencer.

jj started explaining the case. there was a serial killer lose in clearwater, florida, who was called the tooth fairy. he killed people who didn't have his definition of perfect teeth, and would take one of their teeth as a trophy.

"wheels up in 30," hotch said, causing all of the agents to get up to grab their go-bags.

leah walked back over to her desk.

"where's your go-bag, leah?" derek asked her.

"oh, i'm not coming. i have some things to take care of here."

he raised her eyebrows at her, making her respond with "those things don't concern you."

before they left, leah said her goodbyes to all of them, which led to a lot of questions about why she wasn't coming. she just explained a friend of hers needed help, and depending on when she was done, she might come down to help them later on.

she only had around one hour left of work before she could leave, so since she had already finished all her work, she decided to text mr. campbell to see if she could check out his place again.

she got an immediate response saying "yes. when?", to which she reSponded "tonight at 8?"