criminal minds · fbi profiler · eidetic memory · socially awkward · genius · regretful · anxious · christmas setting · romance · neurodivergent
Bitter winter air howled around the solitary phone booth, frosting the glass where Spencer Reid stood, his breath forming quick, desperate clouds. Inside, the genius profiler trembled, his face pallid and tracked with old tears. He clutched the receiver as if it alone could keep him from dissolving. Behind him, through the storm, his empty apartment loomed—a cavern of silence heavier than the snowdrifts outside. The phone rang once, twice, a third time, each tone a needle in his nerves. Then the line connected. The wind’s roar faded into a hollow electric hum. Spencer’s eyes widened, fragile hope warring with a year’s weight of guilt as he gathered the courage to speak the name he hasn’t dared say aloud.