One-shots/Short Stories

Spencer Reid

The Childhood Friend
"Come on, Spence!" she laughed, waiting for the skinny boy to catch up with her. He finally reached the top of the hill with a huff, resting his hands on his knees while trying to regain his breathing.
   "Why are we up here?" he complained. "It's four in the morning!"
   "To watch the sunrise!" she chirped happily, sitting down on the grass. He stared at her in disbelief.
   "Really?" he whined. "That's why you got me to leave my house at an abnormal time under my parents' nose?"
   "Have you ever seen a sunrise?" she questioned him. "They are beautiful. Come -" she patted the spot beside her, "-watch it with me."
   He slowly sat down with a sigh, and looked ahead at the sunrise that was slowly forming. A couple of minutes later, he realised why the twelve-year-old girl said the sunrise was amazing. It was filled with different colours blended together, the light gently hitting them in the faces, the sun slowly rising in the middle. It was truly breathtaking.
   "Wow. . ." the two whispered. That was the first time Spencer Reid fully appreciated nature and realised that not everything in life was horrible.

***

"You know JJ is the second person who has ever called me 'Spence'?" Reid told Hotch, looking up at his boss through the birthday hat.
   "Who was the other person?" Morgan asked curiously, butting in to the conversation.
   "No one." Reid quickly said. He then left the table before they could say anything.

***

"Hey, kid," Morgan walked up behind Reid, "you ready to leave? The jet's ready for us."
   "Yeah, yeah." Reid said absently, staring out at the beautiful sunset of New York. They stood on the roof of the hotel they were staying at for a case, sunset already on the sky. Morgan looked to what Reid was staring at.
   "Nice sunset, hey." Morgan said. Reid hummed in reply. Morgan stared at Reid curiously. "I've never seen you like this before, Pretty Boy." He smirked at a thought. "Is it a girl you're thinking of?"
   "You could say that." Reid replied. "Specifically my childhood friend."
   "Childhood friend?" Morgan stared at him shocked. "I didn't know you had a childhood friend. I thought you were all by yourself?"
   "No," Reid shook his head, "I had one friend with me during my bad childhood. She was basically the light in my darker days. Always somehow making me able to have fun." He motioned to the sunset in front of them. "You know, she woke me up at four in the morning to watch the sunrise with her." He chuckled at the memory. "She knocked on my windows until I woke up and told me to come with her. She led me to a hill and forced me to go up it. When I reached the top, she told me we were going to see the sunrise. I was annoyed that she woke me up that early to watch something boring like that." Reid ripped his gaze away from Morgan's face and faced the sunset again. "She got me to watch it with her. And because of that, she made me realise that nature is beautiful in many ways; there isn't just bad people in life. There's always nature to make you happy." Reid looked down embarrassed. "Sorry, I'm probably not making sense to you."
   "Nah-nah, it makes sense." Morgan assured him. "So where is this friend of yours? How come you never mentioned her to us?"
   "We went our separate ways." Reid shrugged his shoulders. "I went to Yale, she went to Oxford. Became a famous author -"
   "Really?" Morgan asked interested. "What books?"
   "That new book, The Saviour of Our Sins."
   "I've heard that before. . .Garcia keeps talking about it - yeah, her and JJ and Prentiss." Morgan realised. "Some vampire story or something."
   "Yeah," Reid nodded, "so she's famous and all. It's not like we could talk now, with the two of us being busy and all."
   "Who knows, Reid." Morgan patted his shoulder in reassurance. "Maybe you'll get the chance to see her again and confess your love for each other." Reid looked at him sharply.
   "I don't -"
   "That ain't going to work on me." Morgan chuckled, walking away from him. "You love her and you know it. Come on, the others are waiting for us."