A Light in the Dark

3.

One and a half hours into the car ride, and you had already exhausted your entire downloaded music library. You and Spencer had left before the rest of the team, gear already packed and ready to go, and you had suggested playing an audiobook over the car's speakers for you to both listen to, but he had simply shaken his head, claiming that it would waste his time to listen to someone talk slower than he could read.

So now, as you pulled out your headphones, the car was silent. You look to Reid, noticing his white-knuckle grip on the wheel, the tenseness of his body posture, how his jaw was fixed. If he didn't want to talk to you, though, then you weren't going to talk to him, so you leaned your head against the window and took in the view. 

It was considerably colder in the mountains than down in the city, and you could see the beginnings of autumn littered in the few leaves on the ground. Tall trees surrounded the road on either side, as if you were trapped. All that was left in the car ride now was a straight shot down one road to the location Garcia had sent the team. 

Finally, you couldn't take the silence anymore. "Can we talk?" you asked him, daring to look at him again. He kept his eyes on the road. 

"Sure. Yeah." 

So this was how it was going to go.

"I mean, I- I know it's not a super huge deal or anything, but I...I wanted to talk to you earlier at the station and you left me on read?" You phrased it like a question, even though you were afraid of the answer you might get. 

"Oh. Sorry Y/N, I had assumed you wanted to talk about something that was....not related to work. I didn't want to waste any time that could be spent on the case with something else."

"It was important to me, Spencer." You could feel tears in your eyes for the second time that day, and you tried to swallow them back. Why was he acting like this?

"Couldn't it have waited until after the case?" He asked the question innocently, and you could tell that he was trying to be as delicate as possible, as if you were a glass object that could shatter at any moment. Of all the men in your life, romantic and just friendly, it was Spencer that had never before treated you like that. In your friendship you were complete equals. At least, you were. Now, though, he was tip-toeing around you, and you were tired of it. 

Your sadness had transformed into anger, and you were fuming silently in the passenger seat. "How much time until we get there?" you asked.

"GPS cut out but if I had to guess I would say we have an estimated ten minutes left before we're at the location Garcia sent."

"Pull the car over."

"What?" he slowed down to look at you, his eyebrows  raised in a confused manner.

"Damn it, Reid, I said pull the car over." Your voice was cool, a thin-edged blade, and he knew not to protest. You never called him Reid, not once since the first day you met. Your anger, hurt, and confusion had taken over.

He slowed down, pulling slightly off of the road into the grass that lined the trees. You unbuckled your seat belt, grabbed your vest and gun and hopped out of the car, slamming the door. You set off, not looking back. You heard a door shut behind you again, followed by the sound of Spencer stumbling to catch up to you.

"Y/N, wait, what are you doing?" he asked, yelling to make sure you heard him.

"I'm walking, what does it look like?"

"Please, Y/N, just come back to the car. I'm sorry."

You whipped around, seething, and said, "What are you even sorry for? I bet you don't know. If you do, then I guess you just don't care." You threw your hands up, exasperated. It's always about time with you, Doctor,"  you continued, that word filled with malice. "Well guess what? I don't have time for this. I can't anymore."

You started to turn again, but he ran up to you, and grabbed your wrist. 

"Spencer what are you-"

"Stop talking," he said as he pulled you closer to him, his lips crashing onto yours. You lost focus of the world around you, only aware of him, there, then there, his hands roaming every inch of your upper body, his lips never leaving yours, not even to breathe. One of his hands tangled your hair up in his fist, and he pulled it lightly so as to tilt your head up. Despite your once rational brain being mad at him, the only thing you could think now was how good he felt, how much you wanted more. 

He was the first to pull away, and as you looked up at him, feeling dizzy, you noticed how hard he was breathing. You stood there staring at each other, both of you unsure as to what just happened or what was supposed to come next. 

You started trying to pull your thoughts together but got distracted by a small mailbox just behind the line of trees. 

"Look," you said, pointing in its direction. You and Spencer made your way over there, finding a dirt path next to the mailbox -- unnoticeable at first, but now that you knew it was here, it was painfully obvious. He opened the box, and you both bent down to peer inside. There were three phones. 

"I bet these belonged to the missing girls," he said. "Should we wait for the rest of the team to get here before we see what's at the end of the trail?"

You turned back to the road, noticing for the first time that it was starting to get dark, the purple hues of dusk settling into the sky around you. "As much as this feels like a trap from a bad movie, I don't think we can wait. Those girls might still be alive, but who knows for how much longer. We should go. The team will see the car by the road and figure out where we went."

He nodded, a thin lipped grimace resting on his face. Without a word the two of you set off down the path, guns at the ready, wholly unprepared for what was to come. 

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A/N: This chapter was slightly shorter than the first two, but please let me know what you think about the chapter lengths so far! I hope everyone that's read this far is enjoying, and thank you for reading it! -Liv <3