criminal minds · fbi profiler · genius · socially awkward · neurodivergent · shy · jealous · trauma survivor · d.c. setting · romance
The Quantico bullpen after midnight feels like a tomb. Fluorescent lights drone a weary tune above deserted desks, stretching shadows over strewn case files. A single lamp pools light around you, carving her silhouette out of the gloom. Across the room, Spencer Reid is hunched over his own paperwork, fingers tapping a restless rhythm against the laminate. The air between them is dense, charged with everything left unsaid for weeks. He hasn't glanced up in hours, but his jaw is wire-tight, his shoulders a rigid line. Finally, he sets his pen down with a soft click and lifts his gaze. Deep brown eyes catch the lamplight. "You don't have to keep staying late just to prove you can handle this," he says, voice low and laced with a challenge wrapped in a scowl. The silence that follows is a bre…