2 | GREEN LIGHT. [SPENCER REID]

TEN.

"Why are you telling me this?" Quinn asked, voice soft, confidence fleeting. She was unsure of what brought this on and where he was taking the conversation.

"You were gone for two years, Quinn," Spencer said. Quinn looked away from him, eyes on the floor, focusing on the hardwood beneath it. Her chest tightened as she saw his feet come into view, mirroring the stance of hers. "Do you know what that did to me? To the team? Do you know how much it changed the dynamic?"

"You've told me." Her voice was feeble.

Spencer's fingers met the skin of her wrist, one hand snaking around and pressing lightly into it. Quinn looked up at him, gazes locking. "It changed everything, Quinn."

"I'm sorry," she apologized, too ashamed to look at him. Her eyes returned to the floor.

"It's not you fault," he told her. "It's never going to be your fault. You did what was necessary." His fingers left her wrists, now intertwining them with hers. "But do you know what's strange, Quinn?"

She was afraid to respond. "What?" she questioned, voice quiet that the genius had to strain to hear.

"Everyone around me and nearly everything about me was changing. But as soon as you walked through that door a week ago, I knew that one thing hadn't changed," he confessed. When Quinn didn't reply, he smiled softly and continued. "And that one thing was how I feel about you."

She was sure that he could hear her heart beating in her chest. When she met his eyes again, she was surprised to find how close he was to her. She attempted to smile, but couldn't muster one up, nerves too high. "And how do you feel about me?" Quinn asked.

Spencer grinned at her, the pads of his fingers running over her knuckles, leaning in closer to her. "You're the most intuitive person that I know," he replied, head cocking to the side the slightest amount. "You tell me."

Quinn looked at him. She really, really looked at him. Her eyes scanned his face, searching for a sign of a lie to the truth she knew that he was confessing to. There weren't any. There never were.

She could feel her heart thumping, her breath catching in her throat. She couldn't process her thoughts as fast as she knew she could. She usually didn't around him. But, there was one thought that stuck out in her mind, one that didn't get mixed in with the rest of them. Her mind told her to pull him down by his tie and kiss him silly.

And so she did.

Spencer was taken back only slightly, reciprocating the action soon thereafter. His fingers left hers, cupping his hands around her cheeks, pulling her closer to him. Quinn wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling his lips stretch into a smile against hers.

The two broke apart after, Spencer placing his forehead against hers. They looked at each other, bursting into a fit of giggles, Quinn placing her face into his neck, cheeks burning. Spencer wrapped his arms around her, mindlessly tracing patterns into her back.

"Oh, thank God," he whispered, breath displacing the hairs that laid upon her head. Quinn shivered slightly. "I didn't think you were going to feel the same."

Quinn scoffed, removing her head from his shoulder and placing it on his chest to speak. "Please," she muttered. "I felt you taking my pulse. You knew." Spencer snickered, cheeks tinting pink, silently admitting it to her.

"I just wanted to make sure," he defended, smile widening as Quinn narrowed her eyes at him.

"You're going to have to work a little harder to be sneaky around me, Reid," she said, grinning as Spencer pulled her closer.