The Keeping of Words | Spencer Reid

24| Shelter From the Storm

Spencer was adamant that the rest of his time off be spent doing whatever she wanted. She had to admit, it was great fun, pretending to be a normal couple. They went grocery shopping - Spencer was quickly depleting the meager stock she had previously bought - and book shopping, which took them hours. They went out for ice cream, and even to a matinee movie where they had the theater to themselves. They passed mornings reading and evenings watching old films. Sometimes they would just spend time sitting together, enjoying each other's presence. One particular afternoon was spent on his couch, his feet on the coffee table while she reclined with her head in his lap, telling stories and talking for hours about whatever came to mind.

With their days together coming to a close, she found herself trying to take in everything while it lasted. All the little details about how he lived, small habits and new discoveries. There were the various volumes of books he kept in his room, the abundance of sweaters in his closet, and the photos on his desk. Bianca examined them one by one, asking him to explain their contents. The blonde woman was his mother, whom she still hoped to meet someday. To her right was a photograph of Emily with Penelope and Morgan in front of the London Eye.

"Who are they?" she asked, pointing at a shot of several people.

"I guess that's sort of the 'original' team," Spencer answered. She could make out JJ and Morgan, who both looked much younger in the image. "That's Gideon." He pointed to an older man with thinning hair and a reluctant smile. "And that's Elle Greenaway." Elle had sharp features and appeared to be laughing at something. "She left the team after a year. Things were hard for her after she was attacked in her home. I think it just got to be too much for her." Of the team members who had come and gone, Elle was the only one he hadn't received some form of a goodbye from, and he often wondered what she was up to these days.

The end was obscured by a gorgeous shot of JJ, Will, and Henry at the previous year's wedding, and she pushed it aside slightly, realizing why he kept it hidden. "Is that you?" The man in the picture looked so different from the one beside her, his face slightly rounder and his expression a little more distant. In many ways, a stranger to her. What was that version of Spencer like? She would have to ask Morgan or Garcia sometime. "What's with that haircut?" she laughed.

"I know, it's ridiculous," he muttered.

Bianca pushed the wedding photo back into place, saving him the embarrassment. The last two photos were two she'd never seen before. One was an unfamiliar woman whose face instantly fit to stories she'd heard. Dark red hair and kind eyes, the only person it could be was Maeve. Finally, there was a framed picture of the two of them, embracing in a park.

"When was this one taken?" It wasn't one she could remember.

"Remember that time we ran into Garcia in the park? She took it when we weren't looking. I showed up to work one day, and it was sitting on my desk." What she didn't understand was why she'd never seen it until then. "Well, I kept it at the office for a while, where I needed it most," Spencer admitted. "After we broke up, I put it in a box with the rest of your things."

"There was a box?" Bianca raised an eyebrow.

He nodded, pursing his lips. "Yeah, there was a box. That picture, your book, the mug you used whenever you were here. A few of the letters and notes you'd written me, they all went in there. It was too hard to look at them, but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of them either. So I put them in a box, and left it under the bed." He'd placed her things in a box, and she'd packed his sweater in a suitcase to take across the globe. "It's silly, isn't it?"

"Not at all," she said. "It's kind of sweet. And definitely better than that haircut." Spencer conceded that was true. That haircut would embarrass him as long as memories of it still existed. "You know, you're not the only one with ridiculous things in their past. When I was little, I used to watch The Sound of Music whenever I was sick. It always made me feel better. I wanted to be just like Maria, so I learned all the songs. One day, I tore down our drapes and tried to cut them up into clothing just like she did in the movie."