AN: Alright so I'm editing this story up a bit. Fixing grammar and spelling mistakes, maybe combing some of the shorter chapters, and just making it better all around. The story was formerly titled 'Criminal minds a Spencer Reid love story' but I've decided to change it to 'Poppy of Love'. I've also decided to use Erica Durance as a face claim for Poppy. So if you want to know what Poppy looks like just look up a picture of her.

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Poppy of Love

Chapter One ~ Of introductions, terrible former partners, and explosions

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~Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds~

~Franklin Delano Roosevelt~

I was finally moving into my new apartment in Virginia after having arrived late this morning after having drove through the night to get here from New York. I used to work for the FBI in New York for five years, but after having, Ashton, a serial killer stalk and attempt to kill me I felt it was time for a change in scenery. So I applied for a transfer to the BAU in Virginia. It took two weeks for the transfer to be approved, and then it took another week for me to find a new apartment. I spent two nights packing up my old apartment before having all my stuff shipped off to my new apartment. I had arrived at my new place just as the moving truck had pulled up so I decided to help the men unload my stuff from the truck and bring it inside.

I set the last box on the living room floor, gave the moving men a tip and sent them on their way. I sighed and glanced around my new apartment. The living room was medium sized, with a half wall separating the living room, from the kitchen. I had instructed the moving men to put my couch up against the back wall, and had them set the coffee table up just in front of it, and the T.V. at the other end of the room. There was a sliding door off to the side of the living room that lead to a balcony.

I walked over, and stepped out onto the balcony. It was winter, but getting close to spring. The wind blew my long brown hair back in my face, and blew my bangs to the side of my head. It looked like it was about to rain. I was on the fourth floor, and the building was facing a park. I could see a group of kids playing tag. I smiled, and walked back inside. I opened the box and pulled out my jousting trophies, and set them on a shelf that was hung up over the T.V. I looked down at my watch. CRAP! I'm late. I grabbed my keys, and ran out the door. I jumped into my car and headed to the office. I walked into the building, and headed to my desk. I set my keys down.

"New here?" A voice behind me asked.

I turned to see a tall, skinny, brown haired man sitting at the desk in front of mine. He was actually really kind of cute. His brown eyes seemed to sparkle in the light of the room, and his hair was the kind you just wanted to run your fingers through. I blushed slightly at the thoughts running through my head.

I nodded my head at him and held my hand out and said," I'm Poppy."

"Spencer," He said, shaking my hand. I sat down at my desk just as a man with short blackish brown hair walked into the room.

"We gotta a case let's go," He exclaimed to Spencer. Then he seemed to notice me.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Poppy, I transferred here from New York," I replied.

"I'm David Rossi," He said.

Rossi and Spencer left, and I followed behind them. When we got down to the car's I realized I'd left my keys on my desk.

"Dang I left my keys on my desk," I exclaimed, turning around.

"No time to get them, just ride with us," Rossi said. I nodded my head and got into the car.

We drove down to a dump. When we got to the scene I could see the body. It was a woman, about 26, with long red hair, and green eyes. I recognized the woman. Her hands were tied behind her back, and there was a knife sticking out of her chest.

"What's the matter?" Spencer asked.

"I knew her. I mean I worked her case when she went missing, back in New York. It was the worst case I've ever done. We linked her disappearance to five other missing women. I found out who kidnapped them, but he was never caught," I explained, starring down at the body.

"When did she go missing?" Spencer asked.

"About a week ago," I replied.

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Spencer's P.O.V.

I looked up at Poppy, and noticed how tense she was. Her whole body was shaking slightly. She was staring down at the body on the ground and I could see the anger in her eyes.

"It's the whole reason I moved here. The ass hole must of followed me," She said, looking up at me. Her hands clenched into fists, and I noticed a large water color like tattoo of a flower on her wrist.

"Who was this guy?" David asked looking over at us.

"Ashton, my old partner. I worked with him for five years, and never even suspected he would do something like this," Poppy replied, walking back to the car.

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(Later that day)

All day Poppy was tense. She wouldn't go near the body. She seemed to be thinking about something. But what? I looked over at her, she was looking down at file on her desk with her head resting in one of her hands. She looked up at me, and I quickly looked away. When I looked back she was staring at her computer. David walked in and handed me a file, looked over at Poppy for a second, then walked out. I opened the file and looked at the papers. It was Poppy's profile. Why would David give this to me? I flipped through the papers, reading each one carefully.

She graduated from the academy with high marks, and she was recruited to work at the FBI branch in New York right out of the academy. She spent five years there working along side her partner Ashton. There wasn't really anything special about her career in the FBI so far. But from all the notes in the file she had from her previous boss she had a promising career ahead of her.

We spent half the afternoon reading through the case files from the previous murders. The rest of the night was spent calling the families of the victims so we could re interview them. By the end of the night we were all tired and I was really wishing Emily hadn't taken a whole three weeks off for vacation. We could have really used her for this case. But right now I assume she's sitting on a beach in Hawaii soaking up the sun just like she'd been planning on doing for the past year. Around eleven Hotch told us all to go home and get some sleep. So I packed up my bag and head out of the office for the night...

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{The next morning}

Poppy's P.O.V.

I was sitting on the couch staring at the T.V. I thought moving here would get me away from Ashton. I sighed. Damn it Ashton, you were always so stubborn and sarcastic. But I had never pictured you as a murderer. Beep, Beep, Beep. I looked at my watch, time to go to work. I grabbed my file on Ashton, and headed to the office. Spencer was sitting at his desk when I arrived. He was staring down at a file on his desk, and I couldn't help but stare at him for a moment.

He was staring so intently at the file I could practically see the gears turning in his head, and he was making the most adorable face I've ever seen. His long hair was hanging down around his face like a thin curtain, and he had to keep pushing it back behind his ear. He just looked so damn cute! I groaned silently and shook my head, then walked over and set the file on Ashton onto the desk.

He looked up at me, and I said, "Ashton's file." I walked over and sat down at my desk. Spencer opened the file and quickly read it over.

"He seemed like the perfect partner," Spencer mumbled, putting the file down, "Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Yupp... No kidding," I said, sitting back. Ashton didn't seem like a killer.

He was always the funny guy that everyone wanted to be around. Who would of thought that Ashton was a killer? All that time, I spent 5 years not knowing. Why didn't I see it?

"Hey, you there?" A man asked, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Huh," I exclaimed, snapping out of my trance.

The man standing in front of me, smiled, shook his head, and said, "I'm Morgan."

"Poppy," I said, smiling.

"Nice to meet you," He said.

"Same here," I replied.

He went over and sat down at his desk. I looked over at Spencer. He was staring down at Ashton's file. Hopefully Ashton will get reckless. But I doubt it. I was moving my keys around in my hand. I looked down and noticed that one of the keys was missing. It was the key to my old apartment. I hadn't gotten around to throwing it away.

"What's wrong?" Spencer asked.

"Nothing, just missing an old key," I mumbled.

"Which key?" Morgan asked.

"My old apartment key...was gonna throw it out any way so it doesn't matter," I replied.

Spencer went back to the file, and Morgan started shooting paper balls into my trash can. I smiled when he missed 5 in a row.

"You're not very good at basketball are you?" I asked.

"Only when there isn't a net," He said. I smirked.

"Mhm," I mumbled.

"Oh, and what's that supposed to mean?" He asked, throwing a paper ball at me.

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Spencer's P.O.V.

Poppy and Morgan were talking about basketball. But I couldn't stop thinking about Poppy, and Ashton. What had really happened between them? Why was he so fixated on Poppy? Hotch walked into the room, and walked over to Poppy. He quickly introduced himself to her then turned to look at Morgan and me.

"We got another body. Let's go," He stated, walking towards the door. I jumped up and followed behind Morgan and Poppy. We met Rossi at the elevator and the five of us headed down to the cars.

"Need a ride?" Rossi asked Poppy.

"Nope got my keys right here," She said, dangling them from her thumb.

She turned towards her car, and pressed a button on the key chain. I heard the door unlock. Suddenly, the car exploded, and Poppy was flung back into me, and we fell to the ground. Poppy landed on top of me, and I quickly rolled us over shielding her from the pieces of the car and glass that was falling down around us. After a minute I sat up, pulling away from Poppy and glanced around. The car was on fire, and people were running in every direction. Morgan ran over and helped Poppy up off the ground.

I jumped up and I heard Morgan say, "Are you guys okay?"

I glanced over Poppy checking to see if she was hurt in any way but she seemed fine. She was breathing heavy, and she was staring at her destroyed car in disbelief and horror. I reached out and placed my hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. I absentmindedly nodded my head as an answer to Morgan's question.

"I'm fine, but my car's not," Poppy exclaimed.

She reached up grabbed hold of my hand that was resting on her shoulder. She squeezed my hand for a second then let go. She glanced down at the keys in her hand, then pulled the key to her car off of the key chain and threw it on the ground.

"Just one more key to throw away," She muttered bitterly.

"How can you be so calm, Ashton just tried to kill you?" I asked.

"No not kill. He was probably watching. He just wants to scare me," She replied.

Hotch walked past me, and looked from me to Morgan, and said, "She's not to go anywhere by herself. I want you two to stick with her."

I nodded my head. Poppy watched, her mouth hanging open in disbelief, as Hotch left. She shut her mouth and walked back into the office grumbling under her breath but I couldn't make out what she was saying. Morgan and I followed behind her. She plopped into her seat, and turned on her computer. She typed something in, and waited for the computer to load. She hit the enter button again. Then she started to hit the computer.

"Damn computer," she mumbled. I heard Morgan laugh.

"You can't hit the computer to make it work," Morgan stated.

"It's worked before," She grumbled, smacking her hand on the computer.

"Yes finally," She said, putting her hand over her mouse.

I smiled and looked down at the two files sitting on my desk. I'd read Ashton's file five times hoping to find something that would help. But there wasn't much in the file. His file had almost the exact same thing Poppy's had, graduated at the top of his class hired right out of the academy and spent five years working for the FBI with nothing big happening. The only difference between their two files was the murder charges tacked on to the end of his...