AN: This is my first CM fanfic. Hope you enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds.
Chapter 1
She was 17 when they first met. He was 7 years older than she was, but he was younger in some aspects.
It was a string of events, a thousand choices and coincidences that led to their inevitable meeting.
He didn't believe in fate.
She just called it an accident.
He was finally on his way home after a few days of being a thousand miles away on another state for a case.
She was on her way home after sneaking out to go to a party.
They were both in line for coffee.
What made them go for a cup at that ungodly hour was irrelevant. Although her excuses ranged from not wanting to face her father buzzed to wanting to be sober when walking alone in the streets.
She faced down, which was a huge mistake considering her condition, and stumbled forward in her heels, bumping the man in front of her and making him drop his files.
He gave her a nasty look and checked his pocket for his wallet.
His day was probably as shitty as hers was, if not shittier.
"I'm sorry." She mumbled. She crouched down and started to gather them all. She caught a glance of her bracelet and sighed, touching it slightly.
The man in front of her didn't budge. He looked down at her and judged.
She was too tired to care.
Another man crouched beside her and helped her pick up the pieces of paper.
"Thanks." She said before they both stood up.
She handed the files to the man in front of her.
"It's not in order." The man said, not accepting it.
She breathed deeply, careful not to breathe too deeply and exhale all the contents of her stomach on the man, no matter how tempting it was.
"I don't care. I'm not the one who needs them." She pushed the files forward.
"You dropped them."
She was going to make another remark when the man who helped her stepped in.
"Technically, you dropped them. She just bumped into you."
The flustered man narrowed his eyes at the two younger people in front of him.
He snatched the papers, wrinkling them in the process.
She pulled her hands up in defense when he stared at her.
She was still out of it.
She turned her head, not bothering to really look at him, "Thanks for that."
"No problem."
Reid saw how troubled the girl was. She kept playing with one of the bracelets around her wrist, touching it with endearment. Her eyes glazed, probably from the liquor she drank that night, and her face was so defeated for someone so young.
She was looking for someone to talk to, even if she didn't know it.
He found her outside, looking at both ends of the street.
Reid couldn't blame it on alcohol or drugs like she could. He was a grown man; he didn't need excuses for his out of character decisions.
He was tired, he reasoned. He just got home after a long flight after all.
"Hi." He said.
She nodded and stood confidently. She wasn't scared of being alone in the middle of the night. She didn't even find him as a threat. Should he be offended?
When he asked her, she gave him straight to the point answers. Her name was Ronny.
It wasn't long until their short talk turned into a long conversation on a bench in the park.
There was a box of donuts between them. He bought them after realizing that she wouldn't eat willingly.
He profiled her, just enough to get her to eat.
She thought he was just guessing.
"You eat or you don't eat because you think that's the only control you have left. The same goes with the smoking and the drinking. You think that your life is out of your hands and you don't know how to get back in control."
He said all of that because she wouldn't eat.
"But it's your choice. Everything's your decision."
She got a donut after that.
"I'm going to ask you a question." She said, she had long discarded her heels and didn't care if she walked barefoot, just as long as she saw her path.
"I'd like to hear it." Reid encouraged.
"Do you think it's possible for complete strangers to trust each other?"
Reid thought about it for a moment and nodded, " I do. Under the right circumstances."
"Sounds reasonable enough."
"But we're not strangers." Reid frowned.
Ronny clicked her tongue, "If we go to friendship, we'll have to start rebuilding that different kind of trust friends have."
"What do you mean?"
"As friends, we'll have to consider what to say or what not to say. As strangers, we'll have that bind trust and say anything because we know that e won't see each other ever again and we'll have nothing to worry about because we're, you know, strangers."
Reid was pretty sure then that she was still drunk. She was too.
He just went on with it.
"To you, I'll just be Ronny. No last names and no assumptions."
"And I'll be Spencer."
Ronny smiled, at that split second smile, nothing bothered her.
Reid decided he liked her smile. He felt a sense of achievement.
She tucked her hair, making her glance at her wrist and frowned.
"Do you trust me?" He asked.
Ronny looked down and started to play with her bracelet again.
"Today's the 3rd anniversary of when my boyfriend and I started dating."
"Why isn't he with you now?"
She looked up at the dark sky and shook her head. Her breathing became shaky.
Tears slipped down her cheeks, "He passed away 3 months ago."
Reid was never good at social cues. He wasn't good with girls, especially crying ones.
He did what he thought he would've wanted if he ever loved someone deeply like that and lost them.
He held her.
He held her hand, at least.
She wiped her tears with her free hand, "You're probably thinking that I'm just a kid and I don't really know what I'm talking about when it comes to love."
"I don't. I believe you." He stopped short, thinking carefully about what he was going to say next, "I think you know what you're talking about and for you to say you love someone deeply, shows just how much deeper it was."
Ronny looked at him weirdly, "Have you ever been in love?"
He felt uneasy under her stare, "No. I haven't."
"She'll be a lucky one."
Reid became confused, "Who will be?"
"The one who gets to love you."
They talked about a lot of things. They avoided personal information, like addresses and full names but they didn't minds sharing the most intimate details of their lives. He doesn't know what made him share. They talked about his parents and his troubles about genetics and schizophrenia. They talked about her parents and how she went to a private school and he figured out that she was a trust fund kid. She got to guess how many PhD he had. It only took her one.
She shared her experiences in high school that were way different from his and he did the same. The most personal information she shared was that she didn't live in DC, she was just there for the weekend.
"So there's Gideon, who taught you there's a different way."
"Actually, he told me to think outside the box." He corrected.
She was repeating what he shared about his "friends" since she was getting too sleepy to remember. That was why they were walking to the station.
"I like this Gideon. He seems like a cool guy."
Reid nodded and shared more about his team.
"You have a crush on this JJ." She teased, "I bet she's a blonde."
He was going to say something else when he processed her second sentence, "How did you know?"
She shrugged and grinned, "Lucky guess. You should ask her out."
"I don't know how to."
"Gideon will help you, I'm sure of it."
Later on, he would think about her and her comment and remember that she was right.
They didn't exchange numbers or emails. They agreed on being strangers and they were going to stick by it despite their long night.
He didn't event walk her to where she was staying.
They parted in the metro.
"This is my stop." She said, slipping back her heels.
He stood up, feeling awkward when he was sitting down when she wasn't.
He lifted his hand to wave, not knowing what to say.
She did.
She hugged him when the train came to a stop, "Thank you."
"You too."
It was right.
They didn't greet with pleasantries and their acquaintance didn't end with one.
She was Ronny. The girl he met one night and was gone the next day.
He was Spencer. The boy she had coffee and donuts with.
They were just two people who had an odd agreement.