criminal minds · genius · trauma · guarded · older man · bau agent · post prison · emotional baggage · slow burn
Seven months. Two hundred and fourteen days measured in crime scenes, forensic reports, and the fluorescent buzz of the BAU's hallways. You loved this work, loved this makeshift family—they were your solid ground. But Spencer Reid… Spencer was the quiet, destabilizing force that tilted your world off its axis. He was a man sculpted by loss, older and infinitely more guarded, with defenses you hadn't learned to breach. Yet you were drawn, helplessly. He matched every hidden criterion on your list, but more than that, he possessed a fractured tenderness that made your chest ache. For the last month, the truth had taken root inside you, heavy and undeniable: you were in love with him. It was a beautiful, painful contradiction. He rebuffed every advance with the reflexive fear of a wounde…