"On the corner of Main Street. Just tryin' to keep it in line..."

Everyone has their sanctuary. Some people go to church, others enjoy spending time in nature. Some people find solace in their local coffee shop. Cole Kingsley soon found out that nothing put Spencer Reid more at peace than a late-night visit to the local 24/7 diner down the road from his Washington apartment. He loved everything about the diner: the ivory cakes in the glass display case, the dreary lighting, the slow service, and even the bar that looked like it was straight out of The Shining.

For an insomniac like himself, the reliability of the diner was always so comforting. While the rest of the world slept, the diner was always there, like a good friend. For whatever reason, his mind found clarity in the wee hours of the morning, while the sun still hid behind the horizon. When he was there, he would be the most productive. He read better, thought better, and simply felt better, which was why he was sitting in his favorite booth at the particular moment that he and Cole happened to encounter each other for the first time that October night.

Cole had been having a very rough evening. She had received a call earlier that day informing her that she would, starting the next Monday, be joining one of the best teams the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI employed. See, as a teenager Cole realized how sensitive she was. Not only as a person, but to the world around her. She could sense a change in someone's temperament almost immediately, and she was able to pick up on something about someone without having to be told. A curiosity to know how she could use this unique trait fueled hours of research, culminating in the conclusion that being a profiler would be a rewarding career for someone like her.

Despite her dream coming true, she was a nervous wreck. At 27, Cole was younger than most agents offered the opportunity. This made her anxiously await how hard she would have to prove herself, and so at 2:50 in the morning, she wanted nothing more than a delicious, steaming cup of coffee from that very same diner. The clearly over the hill waitress sat Cole and poured her a cup of coffee before sluggishly sauntering back to her spot behind the bar. Watching her walk away led Cole's eyes to the only other patron of the diner.

The man was handsome. Actually, he was almost... inhumanly handsome. He had wavy, chocolate brown hair and side-swept bangs that fell just over his eyes. He stood up to steal a case of sugar from the booth behind him, and Cole noticed that he wore quite the stylish purple button down under a black sweater and black slacks with mis-matched socks underneath them. She wondered if this was his work attire, or if he just cared that much about his appearance.

He noticed Cole watching him, so he awkwardly smiled then quickly averted his gaze. Cole, herself, was too afraid to look back in his direction, for fear of looking like an idiot, so she continued to stare out of the large window beside her.

"Would you like some more coffee, Miss?" A few moments later the waitress's raspy alto took her by surprise. She shook her head, sending the woman off. The moment she moved, Cole noticed that the man that was sitting two booths away, the man she'd spent a good ten minutes looking at, was gone.

She felt that it was time for her to go as well, since she had to arrive for her first day in mere hours. Five minutes of walking brought her back to her apartment, and she quickly fell asleep underneath her cold, white blankets. She didn't remember dreaming that night, but she genuinely thought that if she did, she dreamed about that man in the diner.

Morning came in, what seemed like, the blink of an eye. Without permission, Cole's eyelids opened, and she caught her first glimpse of sunlight. She reluctantly sat up, and the friendly exposed brick walls of her small loft apartment greeted her warmly. Her smile quickly faded after she extracted her phone from underneath her pillow and saw the time; 8:21 A.M. She was running late.

After hopping out of bed and carelessly grabbing whatever clothes she got a hold of first, Cole grabbed her messenger bag and rushed out of the door. The thirty mile drive to the headquarters of the BAU in Quantico, thankfully, took a little less time than usual, and when Cole walked in, it seemed as though no one even noticed her delay. She was immediately spotted by a tight-lipped, serious man dressed in a very nice black suit. "Nicole Kingsley?"

"Yes."

"SSA Aaron Hotchner. I'm your unit chief. We don't have a case at the moment, so you can find your desk and get settled in. The team members will be over to meet you shortly, I'm sure." His curt manner caught Cole off guard, but she recovered quickly and did as he said while he headed in the opposite direction.

Cole walked further into what was known as the 'bullpen' and noticed a desk that was almost empty except for the normal office supplies and a stack of books. The stack was made up of novels by Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and Charles Bukowski, some of her favorite authors that she studied in her undergrad years and continued to adore after. Assuming this was to be her new desk, she took the liberty of sitting down and grabbing Bukowski's Factotum off the top of the pile.

"Excuse me... That's m-my book, and this is, um... This is also my desk." Cole looked up, and she recognized who spoke right away.

The man from the diner stood in front of her in another fashionable outfit; he stuck out to her against the corporate coldness of everyone else's looks. He had an almost haunting presence that Cole couldn't get past. Maybe it was the deep purple crescents around his eyes or the way the light from the overhead lamps made his flawless porcelain skin somewhat glow. Either way, she hadn't even formally met this man, and she was already intrigued. She felt that if he just sat down across from her, it would be enough for a little while. They didn't even have to talk. She just felt drawn to him, and she didn't know why. "I'm... sorry."

He eyed her. "Weren't you at the diner on the corner of Main Street this morning?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I was." He remembered her? "And now I'm in your seat."

Cole stood up and handed the book to him. When she did, their fingers brushed lightly. The man quickly pulled back and furrowed his brow slightly but then forced his face into a light smile; it didn't go unnoticed by Cole. "I go there a lot. It's nothing special at first glance, but it's kind of my place of refuge."

Cole nodded lightly and smiled. "I'm sorry I was sitting at your desk. It was so clean and organized; I figured it was for the new girl." She motioned to herself playfully and chuckled a bit.

"Oh, no. It's-It's fine. I, um, think that's your desk." One of his long fingers pointed to the desk directly across from his. Cole looked behind her, closed her eyes and sighed.

"Right, the even more empty one. Of course it is." The man smiled at her as she internally cursed herself. She shook her head, silently shaking off the embarrassment as well. "I'm Cole, by the way. Or, Supervisory Special Agent Nicole Kingsley."

He grinned at the nerdy delivery of her official title and name. "Doctor Spencer Reid."

Cole remembered the way he reacted when their fingers grazed each others, so she opted out of a handshake. She took a few steps backward and set her bag down before taking a seat. "Lovely to officially meet you, Spencer."

Cole smiled again before swiveling around to take in her new desk. Not even a moment later, two blondes approached her to introduce themselves: Jennifer Jareau, who preferred to be called JJ, and Penelope Garcia, whose eclectic outfit made Reid's seem much more professional. They were, not long after, joined by a tall and very muscular agent named Derek Morgan who couldn't turn off his flirtatious mannerisms for even a second while talking to her. That made JJ and Garcia giggle to themselves. Cole took it all light-heartedly, but she still didn't feel a hundred percent comfortable around them. Even with all of those people around, she still felt a bit lonely.

It was the frequent glances from Reid that really put her at ease. In the end, it's the glances and the grazes that change people in ways only they can see. The eyes that lock across crowded rooms, the wordless sighs that stop the shaking and calm the stormy seas. Cole was right from the start: He only had to sit across from her, and things would be alright for a while.

||| A/N: My first fanfic on this site. Please review and/or message me to let me know what you think! |||