One

The human body breathes on instinct. The heart beats, the blood flows, and the lungs breathe. No one has to tell these body parts to move, and no one has to tell them when to move. The heart just beats. It's instinct. Because of that beating, the blood just flows. It's all instinct. The lungs, they breathe. They breathe on instinct. The human body just breathes on instinct. However, that wasn't the case right now. Right now, Spencer was telling himself to breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Breathe.

Staring at a word for too long can make the spelling look odd and incorrect. The letters standing next to each other just look misplaced and inappropriated. As Spencer was thinking of the word 'breathe' so much that the pronounciation no longer sounded correct, he realized that he was no longer thinking about breathing. Finally, his body had taken back control from his mind. It was instinct. His body was breathing.

Thankfully, Morgan had gone back to his office just as Spencer made this realization and was subsequently forced to begin his inhale, exhale mantra again. Spencer had known Morgan for years, and yet this feeling had never rushed over him before now. This feeling was unusual for Spencer, and the genius racked his brain for what word to call it. It seemed to be nerves. 'Nervous,' Spencer thought breifly, but he knew that one all too well. Any time he met new people, Spencer felt nervous. When he rambled on and on about existentialists in a classroom full of college students, he felt nervous. 'No, maybe fear?' This thought was also shot down quickly because Spencer knew fear. When he found out that Garcia had been shot, he felt fear. When Will had run into a bank mid-robbery and JJ began yelling for him to come back, he felt fear. When Tobias Hankel had kidnapped him, he felt fear. This wasn't fear. What was this?

"Pretty boy," Morgan yelled as he walked back down the stairs and into the bullpen area.

"Um, yeah?" he replied, trying to be as calm as he could.

"We're all heading to the bar, you in?"

"Uh, no. No, I dont think so. Thanks for the invite though." Again, Spencer was trying to control his breathing. He didn't want to give himself away, at least not before he even knew what exactly that would mean in this situation.

"Come on, man. I'm driving so you can let loose. We all need it after this case." Morgan flashed his trademark smile as he spoke, and before Spencer could even think he blurted out a meek agreeance. If only he hadn't been so focused on his breathing, he may have been able to think about his words before he spoke them. Regardless, he had a now made a committement that Garcia, who had overheard, would never allow him to break.

The tech-savy blonde had immediately screamed with joy, and rushed him into a group hug with Morgan. As his unusual breathing began again, he noticed his heart had also started to beat at an untimely pace. Although, this type of human contact was still a little foreign to Spencer, he had no time to take in the experience and analyze it because he was caught offguard, yet again, by his body's sudden lack of instinct. Breathe. Inhale, exhale. Slow down. Spencer now had to add an order to his heart along with his list of commands for his lungs. Slow down, please. Please, slow down. Just breathe.

As the members of his first three-way-hug disappaited, his body began acting on instinct again. His lungs began breathing as usual, and his heart steadied its pace. His mind ran quickly, which is also quite typical for him. As his body auto-piloted through cleaning up his desk, packing his messanger bag, and walking toward the elevator, Spencer's thoughts ran wild. He knew that he had to figure out what was going on with him, and that he needed to figure it out before he got to the bar with his team. A group of profilers who have know him for ten years would certainly catch his behavior. They were trained to notice sublties like changes in breathing, and they'd notice his without a doubt.

"What's going on inside that head tonight, Reid?" Morgan said as the elevator doors closed. He could tell that his friend was deep in thought. Luckily Garcia chimed in before Spencer had to respond.

"You're forcing my sweet and innocent Dr. Reid into a a breeding ground of bad decisions and debauchery, what do you think is going on his head?" She turned to Spencer and wrapped her arm through his. "Don't be nervous, sugar. No one expects you to get down like my chocolate adonus over here."

As Morgan and Garcia bantered back and forth in their lovingly silly manner, Spencer's mind was now filled with a new thought. He was going to a bar. And how exactly did Morgan 'get down'? His breathing started acting up again. His heart started racing. This must be nerves. He was nervous about the bar.

While Garcia jumped into Kevin's car with JJ and Hotch, Morgan told Reid to ride with him.

"Everyone digs Kevin's classic, but they'll all be begging me for a ride when the night's over. It never fails."

"Oh, yeah. It is a nice car. Yours is as well, though. I, um, I didn't mean to imply that it wasn't. I, uh, did you know that classic cars-"

"Reid, chill." Morgan laughed. "We can't have you giving lectures tonight. When we see some honies, you gotta play it cool. No facts, no stats. You can do that, right?"

"Statistics kind of make me feel safe. I'm not sure if I'd even know how to have a conversation without facts."

"You just said you weren't sure? I never thought I'd hear those words from you." Morgan said jokingly. "But you gotta tone it down just a bit, Reid. Don't think so much. Just let loose." Spencer could feel heat in his cheeks. His heart was starting to race again. Nervousness, embarrasment, and this strange feeling he still couldn't place were all happening at once, and it was too much for Spencer to take in.

"It's ok, Pretty Boy," Morgan could see that he had embarrassed Spencer. He thought that maybe he'd come off more harshly than he intended. Morgan really liked Spencer. He considered him to be one of his best friends. That's why he wanted to help Spencer. He wanted to show the younger agent a more fun side of life, a more social side, a side that might bring Spencer out of his shell a little. "I'll be right there with you. There's no need to be nervous." He reached his hand across the car and tapped Spencer's chest lightly.

Spencer's breathing had gone from irratic to non-existant. As he looked down at Morgan's hand on his body, his lungs stopped moving completely. Even though he had repeated his mantra in his head up until the point of physical contact, the simple and friendly touch had shut down every thought in his head. His body had reacted to Morgan in a way that it never had before. His lungs stopped moving. His mind was clear. He was sure his heart was next to stop at any moment. He watched the hand move back to its starting place as quickly as it had left it. Although the hand was gone, Spencer couldn't move his head or his eyes away from the spot on his body where it had been. He findly regained enough control to look up and over at Morgan. Morgan turned his head so that his eyes caught Spencer's, and, in that moment, a realization washed over the genius. This new feeling, this thing he couldn't name, this emotion that seemed unlike anything he had ever experienced, this new feeling had finally been given definition. It wasn't the bar making him nervous. It wasn't his inexperience with women that had embarrassed him. It was Morgan.