After the USPS creates a penpal pairing program, Elizabeth Mills is encouraged by her friends to sign up and talk to someone new. Spencer Reid, bored with only getting bills and advertisements in his mailbox signs up for a penpal.
The two get paire...
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Spencer smiled as he re-read Elizabeth's letter to him. He'd rushed to work that morning and put the letter in his bag and of course they had a case that day, so now he was sitting in the back of the plane reading the letter Elizabeth had sent to him. He'd hidden it in the pages of his book. At this point he'd read it at least 10 times and was still trying to figure out what he was going to write back.
The three weeks of their correspondence felt natural at that point. He would write to her from wherever he was and send it the second he was finished. And, by the time he was home, her letter would usually be waiting for him.
Should he write his next letter in french, or would that be too much? Should he ask her more about chess? He always wanted to become better at the game, at least enough to beat Gideon if he ever got the chance to play him again. He wondered about Cannon Beach, how did she spend her summers? Did she sit on the beach and play chess with her friends? Did she drink coffee on her porch in the mornings?
His thoughts were interrupted abruptly by Derek coming to sit beside him. "What you got there pretty boy?"
"Nothing." Spencer said, closing the book.
"Really, because you've been reading that page for the last fifteen minutes."
"Well, it's colloquial french from the 17th century, using 17th century slang. It's going to take me a while."
"Really, so you know all about obscure planets that no one has ever heard of but nothing on colloquial French slang? Come on man what's really going on?"
"Derek it's nothing. I've just been thinking about the case."
"Really, what have you got?"
"The unsub probably has a daughter that he's frustrated with, she's probably leaving soon for college, which is why he's taking his anger out on teenagers. He probably has some kind of background with abandonment and feels personally attacked by it."
"Maybe he grew up in foster care or had a mom who left and died soon after." Morgan nodded. "Good work 187."
Spencer smiled as Derek walked away. He was going to have to be more careful with Elizabeth letters.
Elizabeth was sat in a booth in a small diner in Cannon Bay. Jasmine was sitting opposite her and had bought May along. It wasn't that Elizabeth didn't like May, it was that May thought it was okay for her to get into everyone's business. Other than that May was a lovely person, she volunteered to read to children at the library and at every beach clean up. She worked in one of the small resorts Cannon Bay as a cleaner and she loved her job. May was one of those people you couldn't hate, even if you tried to. In fact, May had somehow managed to wiggle her way into Elizabeth's heart and her phone book.
"So, hows your penpal doing?" Jasmine asked, "I've been seeing you at the post office more often, dropping off your letters."
"Yeah, they're okay. I like them, they're nice." She nodded, looking at her tea.
"A penpal! How exciting!" May exclaimed, her green eyes widening with delight. "Tell me all about them."
Elizabeth looked up to see both May and Jasmine staring intently, waiting for her to spill the beans on her newest- acquaintance, friend? She wasn't quite sure.
"His name is Spencer, he's 25 and from DC. He's cool, we're just getting to know each other at the moment."
"So, he's a guy. Is he cute?"
"I wouldn't know considering we haven't sent each other pictures of ourselves."
"But what do you think he looks like? You have to have at least some kind of an idea!" May asked.
"I don't know, I think he has dark eyes. And he's probably taller than me."
The girls smiled at Elizabeth. She seemed happier than before, as if talking to Spencer helped her in some way.
Elizabeth walked home, she was awaiting a package. A copy of Great Expectations she had ordered from the local bookstore. Unlike most, she had never read it in high school and so when Spencer said it was his favourite, she figured she'd give it a read.
Upon returning home, she checked her mailbox, nothing. Taking a sigh, she walked up to her house and went inside. What she was going to do for the rest of the day was a mystery.
