Addicted to You

4

Attici was finishing up tattooing a client when her phone rang, "Hello?", it was an unknown number. 

"Hey, it's me", she could hear Spencer's smile through the phone.

"Hey, Doc, if you don't mind me asking why the fuck are you calling me from a payphone?"

"It's a long story--I'm on a case, well I was. But we're heading back now and I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out?"

"Uh, yeah but I don't get off until 10:00--ok I gotta go, I have an appointment right now sorry. But I'll see you later ok?"

"Ok, bye Atti", she smiled, "Bye Spencer". 

"What are you so smiley about Att?", Vinnie, her coworker laughed. 

She shook her head, wiping the smile off her face, "Nothing Vin, fucking focus on that dude's tattoo before you make that shit worse than it already is", Att wasn't usually so hostile but today was a weird day for her. 

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Spencer hung the phone back up and ran back around the corner to the police station. As he sat on the jet with the rest of his team he couldn't help but recall all his conversation with Attici. He hadn't realized it but as he was pretending to read his book, a huge smile had spread across his face. Morgan sat across from him, "So kid, what's going on with you?"

"What do you mean?", his smile dropped in hopes that Morgan wouldn't push him further. 

"Who's the girl?"

"W-wh-what--there's no girl. What girl?"

"Aw, come on kid, you know I'd love to meet her. I mean she has to be one hell of a woman to keep up with you."

Reid sighed, "How'd you know?"

"You've been acting weird these past couple months, and Garcia told me you asked her where the nearest payphone was. And I know you've got this weird thing with technology, but not that weird", Morgan laughed, "So...what's her name?"

Spencer looked at him and dragged his fingers across his lips, like he was zipping them shut.

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Atticus went to pull her keys out of her backpack as she approached her front door. She put her hand on the doorknob when she heard a voice, "Hey", it was Spencer, of course it was. She took a deep breath and sighed, "Hi", still not turning around. 

"What's wrong?", he sounded genuinely concerned. 

"Nothing", she clenched her jaw. 

"Attici, I'm a profiler. I know something's up because you're doing that thing."

"What thing?"

"The thing, where you repeat stuff in threes. You just tapped your fingers against you jeans 3 times and even though you're not facing me, I know you just repeated 'thing' three times silently to yourself. I noticed that you do it when you're feeling nervous, unsure, or like something is wrong. I always figured it was because your safety number is 3 although I haven't really been able to figure out why yet."

"Spencer, stop.", she said through gritted teeth. He kept going but she had tuned him out by this point, "Good god--FUCK. Spencer--stop!"

"Ok."

She took a deep breath and sighed, "Sorry, I didn't mean to--I just--I don't know", Spencer smiled, "What?"

"Nothing, you look really cute when you srunch up your nose like that", she rolled her eyes but he could see the smile tugging at the corners of her lips, "Sorry, but do you wanna talk about it?"

"Hmmm, not really. But I know you're gonna worry about it the whole time we're talking anyway so might as well.", she walked in and sat on her couch, Spencer sat next to her. She took yet another deep breath, "Today's my brother's birthday."

"You always said you didn't have any family."

"Yeah, because in a way, I don't. See, growing up shit really sucked for my brothers and sister and I-"

"Three? Well that explains the safety number thing, what are their names?", he realized that he cut her off, "Sorry, go ahead"

"Well, now that you ask. I'm the baby so it's Aeacus, Apollo, Athena, and then me, Atticus. I know, I have a boy's name because my parents fucking suck and that's the point I'm trying to make. When we met, I told you I moved here from Arlington, which again true, but I'm actually from Jersey--so, already, awful", she laughed, "But we grew up in trailer parks and our parents abused the living fuck out of us every chance they got, because they were druggies and--drunks. And well fast forward, and I haven't seen my siblings in six years."

"Ok, quite the time jump but--and I don't mean to be a dick but why don't you just call him an wish him a happy birthday?"

"Can't. Don't have his number."

He looked confused as hell, "One more question, how'd you end up in Quantico?"

"I'm getting there, ok, stick with me.", she chuckled, "Basically everything in my life sucked, so by the time I was 14, I was addicted to coke and then heroin. Which ya know, good one Atticus. But, my siblings put me into rehab and made me promise that I would never become a low life just like our parents. I got my shit together, graduated highschool early, got a scholarship to Stanford and got my degree in English literature. I went for doctorate but I had to drop out because I went broke. By the time all of this had happened, my siblings and I said that we would split up, so that if our parents or any of our family came looking for us, we would be harder to find. But back to my other thing, when I went broke, I joined the Marine Corps. The last time I saw any of them was when I was done with boot camp, and they said they were proud of me. And the last place I was stationed was in Arlington, but my shop is in Quantico so I'm here now. I think that's everything--Oh! Wait no, I lied sorry. Bonus thing about me", she giggled, "We used to all sleep in one bed and not because we had to, but because we felt it was the best way to keep each other safe. And even though I'm the baby, I used to sing us all to sleep. Which I guess, is the reason 3 is my 'safety number'."

"Why don't you sing anymore?"

"I do, just not when you're around", she smiled. 

"What? Why? Now I feel like I'm missing out on something.", he flashed his puppy dog eyes. 

Attici kissed him, "Don't look at me like that. Trust me, you're not missing out on much. I promise."