THE CAGED BIRD || Spencer Reid [1]

one; extreme agressor.

Spencer snorted quietly and stepped behind her so the oncoming crowd wouldn't run right into him. It was routine now, for Jodi to pave the way in crowds for him. "You wanted me to stand on one so I could be on a roll with my science puns," he murmured. "I'm hoping I don't have to explain that pun to you."

Grinning to herself, Jodi nodded and turned to make grabby hands for her coffee. The caffeine withdrawal headache had eased slightly, so the definite answer was to drink more. "You know what's sad, though?" She snickered to herself. "Sober me still thinks that's hilarious."

Spencer shook his head, but still smiled. "It was clever," he admitted as they turned down the main walk to their office building. "But not nearly as funny as you made it out to be."

She opened her mouth to protest, then thought about it. Jodi sighed. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

Spencer held the front door open for her as they walked inside. The both of them scanned their ID cards to be let in the second security door. Jodi quietly hummed the chorus to a song she had bouncing around in her head. Couldn't remember the words to the damned thing, but the tune was nice.

They stepped into the elevator just before the doors closed.

She chugged down half her coffee, ignoring the way it burned her mouth and throat as she swallowed. She was desperate enough for caffeine, it didn't matter. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Spencer twitching nervously, cringing a little bit every time someone bumped into him, and she frowned.

Jodi never liked seeing him this uncomfortable.

Getting to know each of his quirks and hates and likes and habits had been a marathon rather than a sprint. The more comfortable he got around her the easier it was for her to distinguish what she needed to do to help. Most of what that was, was just playing weird games the two of them had come up with on long flights and drives with Gideon that she had noticed took his mind off the things stressing him out.

So she knew what she had to do.

"Alrighty Spencer; time for my random fact of the morning," she grinned, adjusting her stance so he was in the corner with all the buttons and she took all the awkward nudges that came with being in a crowded elevator. "Give me the weirdest ones you can think of, about...hmm...the weirdest facts you can think of about sea cucumbers."

He only had to pause for a moment, and in that short time his shoulders dropped from his ears. "Well, they breathe out of their anus, expel a venom when under stress that can blind a person if it gets in their eyes, and they can expel their inner organs if under stress or just feel crowded."

Now that he'd had the chance to sort through the different pieces of his memory, Jodi could already tell he was much calmer and she smiled internally at that. But the satisfaction was brief as she processed what he said. "You're kidding about that last one, right?"

"Nope."

"Of course not...that would be a cool party trick, though."

The looks they received as they stepped off the elevator never failed to make her laugh.

The two said good morning to Gideon and drank the rest of their coffee with him, saying goodbye only when the bell rang to signal the start of classes. Once the halls had cleared, for Spencer's sake, Jodi dragged him from Gideon's office and out to the hall just outside their boss's classroom. There was more space there and things were cleaned far more frequently.

Jodi grabbed two fiction books from her carry bag — she'd been trying to get Spencer to read literally anything other than non-fiction for months because she felt they were too boring for his brilliant mind — and gave him Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie, while she settled for an old, all time favourite; The Hobbit. "You have a serious obsession with that book, you know that?" Spencer noted with the tiniest of smiles.