The deafening sound of shots being fired filled the air. It was all Spencer could hear. He couldn't keep them straight; which ones were firing towards him and which ones were firing away. It made no difference at one point. Suddenly his whole world was being turned upside down; spun inside and out. It all happened in less than a second, but it all took effect in what seemed like slow motion.
The first thing he saw in the midst of the cross fire was the barrel of the gun across the street, pointed right at him. There was no place to run or hide. There was no time to undertake either one of those things either. He could only stand there as the black gun directed it's fatal bullet's path towards his chest.
The second thing he saw was only a flash of color at first. It was a person in his peripheral vision. He knew it wasn't Hotch, or Morgan, or JJ, or Rossi. They were all shooting from different spots behind him. Spencer's heart lurched as his eyes flickered to her for the fraction of the second he had. At the last possible point, she ran in front of him.
He didn't have time to yell out in protest. He didn't have time to even move his pinkie finger. In slowed time he watched in horror as the gun released, and almost at the same moment he watched her fall in front of him, the bullet burying deep into her abdomen. Spencer could hear someone cry out, and not until later would he realize it was his own horrified scream.
His one truest love hit the pavement, below the chaos of the shootout that carried on without her. Her gorgeous hair... her hair that always smelled of his favorite Eucalyptus and Rain. Her beautiful delicate body... her body that he spent so much time cuddling and kissing; it stilled. Her eyes... the ones that had caused him to fall in love with her in the first place, flickered with a glimpse of sparkling life one last time before they went empty and blank. His heart felt as if it was brutally ripped from his chest as he realized his worst nightmare had come true. Evie was dead.
1 Week Earlier
Spencer went running through the halls of the BAU, looking in every room as he passed, becoming more and more disappointed as he found each one empty every time. He ran down the steps to the bullpen, running to Evie's cubicle to find that vacant as well. Spencer groaned in frustration. Where was that girl?
"Hey, what's the rush, kid?" Morgan asked, watching Spencer with an amused smirk as he anxiously continued looking for Evelyn.
"Evie... Have you seen Evie?" Spencer asked, scanning over the people rushing around the room carrying out different tasks like every other day at work. He went to JJ's desk where she was tacking up a new picture of Henry to the wall.
"Have you seen Evie?" he asked. JJ looked up at Spencer and gave him a sympathetic look.
"No. Sorry, Spence." she said. Spencer ran his hands through his hair with frustration. He couldn't wait any longer to see her!
"Hey, woah." Morgan said, calmly walking over to Spencer with the usual Morgan-swagger in his step. "Calm down, Pretty Ricky. I think she might've walked into Hotch's office a minute ago to put her files on his desk." Morgan told him, holding his hands out in front of him in attempt to calm Reid down. He couldn't calm down though.
"Thanks!" he exclaimed before bounding off past the office cubicles and to the stairs where he jumped up to skip every second step. He ignored the stares of everyone his whizzed past and made his way to Hotch's office, pushing through the door. She stood in front of Hotch's desk, completely breath takingly beautiful like always. Her brown curls reached past her shoulders and her slim figure perfectly fit into her tight black pencil skirt and low cut shirt that drove Spencer off-the-wall insane. And one of the best parts was that Hotch wasn't there.
Evie glanced back and locked eyes with him for a moment, her gorgeous gray orbs meeting his. She smiled for half of a second before she turned back towards Hotch's desk to set down a few brown FBI folders full of papers.
"Hey, you. I-" Evie began to say, but Spencer never let her finish. With one sweeping movement, he rushed into the room and tore Evie off of her feet from behind, lifting her high into the air with his arms secured around her waist. Evelyn shrieked with astonishment as Reid spun her around in his arms, burying his face into the back of her neck.
"Evie, Evie, Evie, Evie..." he continued to chant excitedly over and over again. She giggled with childish delight as he whirled around with delectation.
"Spence..." she laughed, nearly out of breath. "Spence, you're going to make me sick or something." she joked. He kissed her shoulder one last time before setting her back down onto the dull gray carpet that covered all of the floors of the BAU. She turned to face him, her eyes sparkling with amusement as he excitedly pulled her waist close against hers.
"I'm so proud of you." he said, thinking to himself about how much he really needed to lay off of the coffee. She blushed and looked down at the ground with a shy smile while brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. Sometimes she would do this. She'd go back to being that apprehensive girl he met in the cafe a little over three months ago. It felt like so much more than three months though. With how much they've been through, it felt like a lifetime. The greatest part was that he got to have a lifetime more.
"Thank you. It wasn't as bad as I thought, you were right." she said as he felt her arms wrap around the back of his neck that was uncovered now that he had gotten a haircut not long ago. It was starting to get pretty long and it'd always be in his eyes so he cut it short again so that it perfectly ruffled on the top of his head. Evie still had trouble keeping her hands from playing with it all of the time.
"I told you! You had no reason to worry yourself so much! The gun qualification tests are stupid anyway." he said, rolling his eyes and waving it off. Evie chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Is that because you failed it so many times?" she asked, eyeing him knowingly. Spencer 'pffted' and shook his head.
"Uh... No..." he said doubtingly. Evie laughed and leaned in to peck his lips. Spencer hummed happily and pulled her body against his into a hug. He rubbed her back and felt her melt into him. He was so glad she'd passed her gun qualification tests. He knew she would, but she had been stressing so much over the past week that she nearly made herself sick. Having it done and over with was like a breath of fresh air.
"Okay. What do you want to do tonight? We can do whatever you want." Spencer said, backing up to see her gorgeous thinking face. She bit her bottom lip and pulled her eyebrows together just a bit while diverting her eyes to stare off into space and thought.
"After all that anxiousness over the past week, I really could use a nice relaxing movie at home with some take out food." she said, smiling at Spencer over her shoulder, beginning to walk out of Hotch's office. Spencer followed her into the hallway where they had to remain professional again to his dismay.
"Did you know 24% of Americans get take out food 2-3 times a week?" Spencer asked her, more facts popping into his head that he wanted to share but held back from. Evie shook her head, her hair brushing against her back.
"I did not. Thanks for sharing." she said, glancing back at him again and giving his hand a subtle squeeze. "I'm going to grab my stuff, then we can go." Evie told him. Spencer slowed to watch her walk through the bullpen, smiling and thanking everyone who congratulated her on passing her qualifications. He remembered back to when he'd almost lost her two months ago. Well, it was more vice versa, but still. Without her, he was only a shell of statistics. She was his purpose, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Evie struggled with her handful of bags as she ascended the stairs to her and Spencer's apartment. She nearly stumbled on the last step, but regained her balance and continued down the hall to their door. After work, Spencer and Evie had returned home to find they were almost completely out of food. She'd let Spencer go to the store but he always came home with jello, rice crispy treats, and a lot of pretzels, and nothing else. His eating habits were definitely different. Sometimes she wondered how he stayed so skinny.
So instead, Evie told him to stay home away from any temptations of candy or anything like that. She reached the door and stumbled around in her pocket for the key, twisting it into the lock. With a few clicks, it popped open, the door hitting the wall on the opposite side. She stammered inside, setting the heavy bags down on the kitchen counter with gratitude, finally ridding of the load.
Sighing, Evie looked around at the dim apartment filled with books and things that were purely Spencer. Her things were slowly starting to blend in with his, making it her apartment just as much as his. Her newest drawings were scattered on the coffee table, and her favorite fiction books were stacked in her corner that looked small compared the the thousands of books on philosophers and other informational readings that Spencer had collected over the years.
Spencer himself was a sleeping heap on the couch. His face was buried in his arms that were crossed in front of him. He lied on his stomach, his legs stretching all the way to the end of the couch. His back steadily rose and fell, keeping time with his soft breathing. Evie smiled to herself while watching her little sleeping angel. It was the end of the week and her and Reid were always exhausted by then. When usual couples would go out on Friday's, these were their days to just crash at home and fall asleep in each other's arms.
With this in mind, Evie tried to be quiet as she let him sleep. She eased the products out of the bag, putting away milk and eggs in the fridge for tomorrow and restocking the pantry with Spencer's favorite snacks, and chocolate pretzels for herself. She gently hummed while doing so, still in a good mood from passing her gun qualifications. She really felt like someone had lifted a billion pounds off her chest. She wished she didn't worry about things so much, but she couldn't help it. It was who she was. Spencer always said it was cute. She didn't see what he was seeing because all she knew was that she stressed too much.
"Ev- Ev..." she heard a moan come from the living room. Evie shut the doors of the cabinet under the sink where she was throwing away plastic packaging. She looked over the marble counters to see Spencer stirring on the cushions he rested on, his hair running through his fingers that he was anxiously burying his face into.
She walked around the counter to carefully make her way past the coffee table and to his side. She knelt on the carpet and immediately went to put a delicate hand on the side of his face that was contorted and twisted into a pained expression. Evie's heart fell seeing the way he cringed away in fear. Ever since the whole torture incident, he'd been having awful nightmares. Everytime she'd wake him, he'd either be silent and just lie in her arms shaking, only to wake up the next morning and deny the fact he remembered it, or he'd wake up and instantly say he was fine and deny the fact he ever had a nightmare at all. She tried to confront him numerous times, but he was distant about the issue. Within the next two minutes he was completely fine anyhow, and the situation was altogether forgotten.
"Spence," Evie whispered, running her hands through his now short hair that sweeped across the top of his forehead. He moaned and stirred once more without waking. This was usually when Evelyn would be getting more distressed. "Spencer, honey wake up." she pleaded, trying to keep her voice as calm as she could.
His eyes abrubtly opened, his brown irises looking around the room in panic, seeing images from his dreams that weren't there. She put a hand on his shoulder and moved her face in close to his so she could feel his breath on her skin.
"Hey... You're okay." she assured him. Spencer's frantic eyes landed on hers and instantaneously softened, slowing her fast heart beats to a normal and more serene state. They looked into each other for a few moment, just acknowledging in one another's presence. Spencer was the first to move, leaning forward to melt into her shoulder, nestling his face deep into her neck.
"How was the store?" he asked with an obvious attempt to keep his voice bright, completely avoiding the ordeal once again. Evie sighed and let her shoulders sag, deciding that maybe now wasn't the right time. She just kept telling herself that it wasn't time yet, it wasn't time. Maybe he'd come around soon. He had yet to do that, but she didn't know what else to do.
"It had a lot of food." she answered. Spencer sniggered at her plain comment and moved to encase her in his arms. Evie couldn't help but smile despite her angst towards his disturbed thoughts and sleep. She kissed the soft hair on top of his head and took a deep breath in, smelling the wonderful scent that was purely Spencer.
"So how does Chinese sound?" he mumbled.
"Sounds perfect."
The night had ended up with Evelyn and Spencer lying to face each other on a blanket they had spread over the carpeted floor. There were empty cartons of what once held Chinese food scattered throughout the room. Every single candle that they could dig up in the flat was set out around them in different shapes and sizes, each of them lit with a soft flickering flame against the rest of the darkness throughout the apartment that they'd created after turning off all of the lights.
The flames cast shadows across Spencer's features as Evie looked into them, enhancing every curve and edge of his face and every darkened outlines that shaped his face became even sharper and more obscured, angling his face perfectly. The way he propped his head up on the palm of his hand as he looked back into Evie's eyes from a few inches away was provoking every ounce of her body that longed to feel every part of him.
"Alright... Favorite Musical?" Evie asked him in a whisper since they were close enough for it to be all they needed in terms of volumes to talk in. Spencer scrunched his nose up in an adorable thinking face, slightly arching his back behind him to stretch, pressing his body into hers in the process. She closed her eyes and sighed in true bliss at the action.
"Phantom of the Opera. Andrew Lloyd Webber is a genius." Spencer said, his eyes sparkling with amusement at the thought. "You?" They'd been playing a game they often liked to play where they'd ask for a favorite of something or they'd say something like 'sweet vs salty' and then they'd compare answers.
"I honestly can't decide." she admitting, smiling guiltily. Spencer's face broke into a smile as he chortled with entertainment.
"You can never decide!" he pointed out. Evie joined in, chuckling at her own indecisiveness.
"Mm... Les Miserables." she said, finally picking. Spencer raised his eyebrows and nodded.
"Alright. I should've seen that coming since you've made me watch it a total of four times now." he told her. His face then changed into an expression she knew all too well. It was his matter-of-face expression that told her facts and statistics were coming. "You know, Victor Hugo was the original author of the book. He published it in..."
"1862." Evie smiled, reaching up to push her fingers through his hair at the nape of his neck. Spencer smirked at her before leaning his head back into her hand and making a content noise that almost sounded like a cross between a happy hum and purring.
"You smartcookie." he cooed, closing his eyes and gently smiling with complacency.
"You're the genius." she said, continuing the way her hand and fingers massaged the back of his neck. Spence let out a soft groan and she instantly knew she found one of his vulnerable spots. He had certain places where she could either calm him down in a split second or make him go crazy. She always joked he was like a cat the way he loved being rubbed and massaged.
"Well, if we are talking in technical terms." he said, raising his eyebrow cockily. Evie rolled her eyes and poked his side, making him jump. His eyes snapped open and he was ripped from his little zen moment.
"Hey!" he interjected. He glowered at her before taking hold of her waist and pulling it into his. "So... Worst fear." he said, carrying on with the game. Evie sighed and looked down at the ground. She was worried he'd eventually get to that question. She whispered her answer in a small voice that she couldn't even hear herself. Spencer mildly ran the back of his hand against the skin of the side of her face. She knew his concerned eyes would be looking down at hers, so she couldn't bring herself to look up into his gaze.
"Hmm?" he asked again.
"Abandonment." she said, still diverting her eyes from his own. Spencer sighed and she found herself binded in his arms faster than she knew what was happening even though he did it slowly and gently. She let herself descend into his chest, listening to the calming thumping of his heartbeat that she listened to everynight as she fell asleep.
"Evie. I'm not going to leave you, honey." he told her soothingly. Evelyn wrapped her arms around him, pulling herself closer to the best thing she's ever had in her life. She listened to his breathing and felt the hot air blow against her neck as he inhaled and exhaled with a alleviating rythm.
"I know. You tell me everyday." she said, a smile creeping up on her lips that she pressed against his exposed collarbone above the opened collar of his dress shirt. She closed her eyes as Spencer rubbed her back, making small cirles through her camisole that she was left in after she got rid of her work clothes. She loved coming home and instantly getting into leggings or sweatpants, or pajama pants. She wore her soft flannel pajam shorts now so her soft legs were exposed in the candle light. She knew how much Spencer loved when she wore those shorts.
"Then why don't you believe me?" he asked. It wasn't accusing. It was truly worried. Evie sighed hot breath into his shirt as he loosened his grip so she could lean back to look back into his eyes.
"I do, I do. You're just so amazing, Spence. You can't blame me for being scared of losing the best thing in my life." she tried to explain. She wanted to tell him it didn't have anything to do with Calvin. Well, her ex-boyfriend may have sparked the fire that caused her to be this way, but Spencer wasn't Calvin. He wouldn't do to her what Cal did. It had taken her a while to finally accept and believe that since she had such difficulty trusting people, but she did. Spencer deserved all of her trust.
"Evie... I love you with a love I never thought was even possible. It's strong enough to move mountains. Metaphorically of course. In fact to this day, it's what I still consider the reason I'm still here. Without the thought of you waiting and counting on me to come back to you while I was dying in that prison, I would've let go long before we were rescued. I still tell myself that you saved my life, Evs. I have someone who is my night and day, my everything. I have something to live and fight and die for, and I'd be a fool to ever take that for granted. I promise you. I will never ever leave you." he told her, putting a fragile hand up to cup the side of her face. Evie smiled at him, rolling her eyes at herself at tears gathered in her eyes.
Don't cry, you wuss. She told herself, but no one had ever been as loving as Spencer was to her. She couldn't imagine a life without him. To think that she'd only met him about four months ago was unparalleled. She still had a hard time believing it.
Since the words were taken from her, Evie leaned in and pressed her lips to his instead. The softness and gentle feel never ceased to melt her insides and flip her stomach in circles. She moved her hand through his hair at the back of his head and pulled him closer as he did the same with her waist where a strip of skin was just barely showing in between her shorts and shirt. She could feel his tongue grazing her bottom lip lightly so she opened her mouth to him as she tasted the chocolate strawberries they had just eaten on his tongue.
Without even realizing what she was doing in the moment, Evs wrapped a leg around his waist and pulled their bodies flush against each other. Spencer moved his own legs to tangle with hers. Soon their bodies were completely entwined together nearly as one as they continued to kiss in the midst of their indoor picnic set up. When Evie pulled away for air, she was left breathless and staring into his longing eyes.
Evie smirked and reached past him to dip her finger into whipped cream left over on a plate that they had also used one their strawberries. With a devious smile she booped his nose, leaving a spot of whipped cream on the tip. Spencer closed his eyes and sighed with dissaproval as she laughed at the childish gesture. He smiled even if he was desperately trying not to and let out a short laugh. Before he was able to say anything, Evie quickly touched her tongue to his nose and licked it off, making Spencer squirm.
"Are you enjoying tormenting me?" he asked as he smiled a lopsided grin. Evie raised her eyebrows at him and leaned in close to press her lips against his warm neck. Their bodies were still bound close to eachother, neither one of them making any move to change that. She gently kissed the soft skin there at first, eventually getting hungrier with her movements and licking and sucking on his flesh, definitely leaving marks for the morning. "Jesus, this is the best torment ever." he joked while he moaned, increasing Evie's desire for him.
Getting impatient, Evie turned him so he was flat on his back on the blanket. With the leg still around his waist, she pulled herself up so she was straddling his hips on top of him, smiling down with a wicken gleam that said 'you're mine'. Spencer looked up at her with lust heavy in his eyes. She had always admired how much more intense his appearance grew when he was driven with want and eagerness, especially his eyes.
When she started moving her hips into his, he was completely lost. She loved when he went into his own world where his eyes rolled back and moans escaped his lips, even if he didn't intend them to. He'd whisper her name over and over without realizing it, like she was the only person in the world to him. She'd never felt this way about anyone before.
Evie continued grinding their hips together while feeling more and more of Spencer through his jeans as she went on, a few moans leaving her lips as well. His hands began traveling up her back, under her shirt. They felt every inch of her skin up to her bra strap and back down again where he began to tug the hem up, pulling the shirt up over her stomach. She felt the slightly colder air hit her skin, but the way Spencer and her were growing more frantic in her movement didn't leave option for being cold. She could hear the thump of their bodies hitting each other with each thrust of her hips and hear both of their breathing speed up drastically.
Her shirt was discarded within a couple of seconds so she was only in her black bra. Spencer's hands were now playing with the tips of her hair with one and tracing patterns in her back with another.
"You hair is getting long." he said in between pant, opening his eyes just a sliver to look up at her with glossy brown orbs.
"Mmm..." was all she managed to get out in return. Her hands were now fiddling with the buttons of his dress shirt. She only had four to go, but the way Spencer was thrusting his hips up into hers was making it hard to concentrate. When she had finally undone them all, she hurriedly slid it over his shoulders, discarding his as well.
"I love you." Spencer breathed out with a moan as he began tugging at the hem of her shorts. Evie arched her back and felt along the ridges of his chest.
"I love you too."