Well, this is my first story on this account and I started off on Criminal Minds. Since it is the summer I've been constantly watching it and I've had my idea for this character for a long time and I ended up writing again and the entire summer I worked on this story. It looks to be roughly forty chapters. This is just the beginning. Other chapters will probably end up being longer. For the rest of the summer I will update when I can which I'll try and do weekly. But once school starts it'll probably slow down. But don't worry. I will finish this story I have pretty much the entire story done so it's not like theres a lot of work to do but... theres still work to do. The parts of the story will be organized into the seasons and at the beginning of each season there will be a quote rather than a quote every chapter.
Alright. So here we go...
Obviously I do not own Criminal Minds.
SPRING
Someday, everything will make sense. So for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, be strong and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason. -John Mayer
Chapter 1
"Excuse me…" came a small voice from the other side of the lab desk. The woman behind the desk, Natalie Grierson was picking up a bunch of files and papers she dropped onto the floor trying to scramble out of the classroom as quick so she could get to her other job. Whoever told her that doing two jobs would be a fun and rewarding experience must have been on drugs. Because she was ready to start pulling her hair out right before falling asleep for an entire week.
"Uh. Sorry." she said pulling herself back up and placing the messy pile onto the top of the desk. She already knew that her blonde hair was probably going in every different direction. Not only that but she wasn't really wearing the best clothes. She had about three hours of sleep and pulled out the first thing she found in her drawers which happened to be a t-shirt from three years ago, which was ripped in some places, and a pair of jeans that were worn probably over a thousand times, that were also ripped in some places… she couldn't remember if that was how they came or not.
"I'm looking for Dr. Natalie Grierson. I called the hospital but they said I would find her here."
"Yeah. Right here." she said with a small laugh. "You're looking at her." she said awkwardly as he continued to stare at her. "What do you need? Actually could you walk and talk. I need to get to the parking lot on the other side of campus and I don't really have much time."
"Uh, sure." he said putting his hands in his pocket nervously. She eyed him wondering if he was a student who was about to ask her a million questions. "A doctor you met up with a while ago was found dead this morning." he said. Well he's not a student. "Dr. Robert Grant." He said as they started walking up towards the exit of the large lecture hall. "We saw you on the surveillance footage when you were with him three days ago at a diner in the city. He was found dead in the alley. I just need to ask you a couple of questions." the man pulled out a wallet but it wasn't a wallet and showed her his badge that read FBI.
"He's dead?" Natalie responded. "How…?"
"We believe he was murdered. You might have been the last person to see him alive."
"And you think I'm a suspect in the murder don't you? That was the first time I met the man. He was asking me to consult on one of his cases. I was also trying to persuade him in coming to Georgetown for a guest lecture for the chemistry department."
"Do you mind me walking with you to your car?" he asked. "I'm afraid I have more questions."
"Depends. Are you going to arrest me?" she asked pulling the files together and cradling them all in her arms.
"Even if you did kill him we currently don't have enough evidence to arrest you. I could bring you in technically for questioning but I wouldn't even be able to hold you for long because I don't have any grounds to do so. Besides we don't think you match the profile. You've been to very high standard schools and the person we're looking for has little to no college education."
She stared at him baffled for a second. Who the hell was this guy? Profiles? "Okay." she said not looking away from the agent. "I need a bag." she muttered to herself. She could have sworn that he laughed at her a little but she ignored it and then continued out the door with the FBI agent in tow. It was strange that he was an FBI agent. He was the complete opposite of what she would imagine an agent to look like. He was skinny, probably didn't have an ounce of muscle on his body.
"I was wondering if you could tell me if he was in a hurry to get somewhere? Or perhaps did he seem like he was being followed? Maybe he mentioned something to you?"
"I never talked to him before, in person anyway, I talked to him through email to set up the meeting. So it's not like we were friends. I don't think he was in much of a hurry. He forced me to eat there with him but I didn't want to. I took most of my food home."
"You said you were going to be working on something with him? What was it?"
"Well. There's a patient at Georgetown he was going to be coming in and helping. He mostly does research though. He was staring on a new project recently and read my thesis from graduate school and that's how he found me.." she explained. "I couldn't even tell you if he was married. I just met him. He was practically a stranger."
"Did you notice anything weird about his research? Maybe he was in competition with others."
"It's alzheimer's research. There's a large amount of people working on it. He was just starting out in his research. There wouldn't be anyone trying to hurt him for that." she explained.
"Could you think of anything else? I know you didn't know him that well but you are the last one to see him alive."
"I'm sorry." she responded. "I don't know anything about him. I wish I could tell you more."
"About what you said... You said you didn't know he was married?" he ended the sentence with a question mark looking at her through narrowed eyes. It just didn't make any sense to him.
"Yeah. I mean I suppose he wasn't."
"Why do you say that?" he asked. "He was married. That's why I'm curious."
"Oh." she frowned and shifted the files around in her cradle. "He wasn't wearing a wedding ring."
The FBI agent nodded his head. He was wearing the wedding ring when his body was found so he took it off to meet her? He questioned it, but came up quickly with the notion that he was cheating on his wife. It was the only thing that made sense. Perhaps he was trying to get with Dr. Grierson and that's why he wasn't wearing it when he met her. He probably did something like this before.
"Listen. I have to go. I'm in a hurry to get to the hospital. I have surgery… a date with a tumor actually." she stated walking away from him towards the parking lot.
"Even though you didn't know him that well you could be affected by it and not even realize it. Do you think it's a good idea to perform surgery right now?"
"Sorry. I don't even know your name...But listen up. I know that it seems weird that I'm just ignoring this but in fact I'm really just postponing it. I have surgery to save a man's life and I don't have the time to deal with the tragic murder of this man I met once. So if you don't mind please let me deal with it myself."
"I'm sorry if I stepped out of bounds but…" He let his sentence trail off and then opened his mouth and asked, "You weren't romantically involved with him were you? It's only because you said you would talk with email. And you didn't know he was married it just seemed a bit odd to me that he wasn't wearing a wedding ring."
"In fact you did step out of bounds. You don't know me. I don't know you. You know nothing about me." she shouted. "And no! I was not."
"I… didn't mean…"
"I have to go. I'm sorry Mr. FBI that is telling me how to do my job but I gotta go." Natalie yelled angrily. "If you don't mind, you could reach me at the hospital or some other time. Goodbye."
"Dr. Spencer Reid."
"What?"
"My name...Spencer Reid."
Reid finished the case with the rest of the team when he got back from interviewing that woman named Natalie. It was close to eleven at night when they finally came back to the BAU to just sit down and not worry about someone out there. At least for tonight. He was surprised Hotch let him go alone to talk to Dr. Grierson. They usually worked in pairs but this was an all hands on deck kind of thing and eventually the unit chief just let him go by himself. It might have a been a bad choice considering the first thing he thought when he saw her was how pretty she was.
Reid was at his desk trying to finish some paperwork when Garcia came over to his desk followed by Morgan. "We're going to go and get food do you want to come?" Morgan asked.
"No, I'm kind of tired." he responded.
"Oh come on!" Garcia begged. "You don't come anymore."
It was true Spencer would occasionally give in and go with them wherever even though a lot of times he would rather just go home and read. Sometimes Morgan would try and get him to hit on girls but he was never good at it and he just didn't want to. After Maeve there wasn't a lot of determination to get out and actually move on. He had heard that love hid behind every corner. He felt like that was an overstatement. Either that or he must be walking in a straight line, with no corners for love to hide behind and jump out at him. Maybe he only had one corner. He had his chance. For awhile he was comfortable with the thought. Not comfortable, rather he just accepted the thought. "Don't you ever just want to go home?" he asked.
"What fun is in that?"
"There could be a lot of fun in that actually. I was going to go home and read this book about chicken farming." he said. "Are you aware of the incredible injustice there is with big name brands and their chicken farmers. They aren't nearly being paid enough and some of them will even face poverty or losing their jobs. Not to mention the company doesn't pay for a lot of the costs to keep a farm running."
"Reid." Morgan said. "Are you even listening to yourself? You need to get out more."
Spencer thought about that for a second realizing that his facts were now moving to something like… chicken farming when they used to be at least somewhat interesting. He frowned and decided his book could wait, even just for a night and got up from the desk and agreed to go with them.
"Another." Natalie said to the bar tender. She slammed the glass onto the bar and looked to the bottle of whiskey behind the counter. She knew she should slow down but in the moment all logic went out the window.
"You know Dr. G. You're past your usual number of drinks. I'm gonna have to call someone." the bartender told her taking her glass. "In fact. I think you're done."
"Call who? I have no one to call. Remember? My sort of friends are on call at the hospital, and I'm not married. I swear you do more harm than good you know. You point out the three things that make me depressed in one sentence. Alone. My job and my friends jobs take up our entire life. Probably never going to get married." she counted the three things putting up a finger to represent each one.
"Oh you'll get married…"
"Yeah right. Look at the line of guys just waiting for a turn with me. See them all? They might be invisible you just have to look really hard." she shouted moving her arm out gesturing to the empty space between the bar and tables. She actually almost hit a guy walking past her and she decided it was best that she shouldn't move again.
"Any guy would be lucky to have you…"
"How many guys are you seeing there? I think you're the drunk one. Because I see zero."
"I thought they were invisible?" he asked. "Besides, I see at least one guy eyeing you from across the room."
"GREAT. A drunk psychopath to come feel me up." Natalie said rather loudly. People shot her looks from the seats next to her. "Fantastic. I think there's a wedding shop down the street let me just go quick and pick one out."
"He doesn't look like a psychopath…" he said.
"Tom. That doesn't mean anything."
"He's looking at you like you're the only person in the bar Dr. G."
"Next time you find yourself in a dark alley with a bullet in you, don't call me. Then I won't have to listen to you telling me about how depressing my life is."
"Aw. Hunny. You come here because you pulled a bullet out of me. And let's get one thing straight I didn't call you. Why are you drinking so much anyway?" It was true that Natalie and her friend Patrick came to this bar for the sole reason to support Tom. About two years ago Natalie and Patrick were walking around the city when they heard gun shots. And found Tom in a alley. It was a strange night.
"I lost my patient in emergency surgery. It was a complicated surgery but I should have been able to do it."
"Things happen." Tom said trying to comfort her.
"Things don't happen to me." she sneered.
"Are you okay? I realized that it was you a little while ago." said a voice Natalie barely remembered. Like in a dream maybe?
"Dr. Reid!" she yelled finally realizing the owner of the voice, well once she turned to see his face. "Is this the psychopath you were telling me about?" she asked Tom pointing to Reid.
"Psychopath?" he muttered. "I hardly think I could be defined as a psychopath…"
"She's a little drunk. She's not all there." Tom said cleaning out a beer mug.
"I'll have you know that I am perfectly lucid."
"Yeah. Sure." he said rolling his eyes. "
"Do you normally come here and drink a lot?" Dr. Reid asked.
"Oh, all the time. Especially on Tuesdays." she said sarcastically with a smile. Tom started to laugh and roll his eyes at her, well, what she would call a joke.
"It's Wednesday." Reid said obliviously and not really understanding the joke or quote.
"I know." she said slightly upset that he didn't pick up on it. "I'm not that far gone."
"Dr. Grierson maybe I should take you home?"
"Natalie. Drop the whole doctor thing I hate it." Natalie commanded swatting his hands away from her.
"You hate being called Dr?"
"Makes me feel old."
"I call you Dr. all the time." Tom commented frowning.
"Oh. Look another reason you make me feel depressed. NUMBER FOUR!" she said pointing her finger at him. "I should start writing these things down. You know you two should do a tag team. Take turns telling me what makes my life suck." she said with a drunken laugh.
"I didn't see anyone with you so….so I thought I'd offer." he explained nervously.
Natalie looked to Tom with a plea. Her plan was just to stay here and have him drive her home. "You're just going to let me go home with a stranger?"
"You knew his name!" Tom said quickly to defend himself. "Go home with the psychopath. It'll be another four hours until I'm done here." Tom told her. "Besides. You could take him if you needed to."
Spencer eyed the big boned bar tender and wondered why he even came over here or why they kept calling him a psychopath. He checked what he was wearing and it was just his standard clothing.
"Fine, fine." she said getting up but then almost falling onto the floor but Spencer caught her and helped her regain balance. "Do you have any coffee?" she asked Spencer.
"We can stop somewhere."
"Perfect." she said and then started walking towards the door but when they got to the doorway she pulled on Spencer's sleeve and then turned around. "Yo! I'm not gonna forget" she yelled pointing to Tom. "You owe me a whiskey."
"Shut up!" one of the guys at a table shouted to her.
"Hey! No one was talking to you." she said pulling up her arms like a "come at me" gesture. She swore she heard the FBI agent laugh again behind her back. "Why don't you just shut your mouth and mind your own DAMN BUSINESS!" Reid started to pull her back away and out of the bar before she started a fight.
"Let's just get you home, alright?"
"Fine. Lead the way." Spencer walked out the door and held the door open for Natalie. "Why are you here anyway?"
"I'm over there." Spencer said pointing to his car. "My team members dragged me here after work. Said it was important for me to get out for once. Which I'm starting to think if true because I found myself reading a lot about farming lately and I've never been interested in farming. They left already and I lied and I told them I was going to stay and talk to this girl but I really just spotted you and I was going to offer to take you home." he said explaining himself. "Do you have blood on your neck?" he asked. "Or do you know that you have blood on your neck?"
She started rubbing her neck. "The blood splattered up and hit me in the neck and all over. I don't want to talk about it." she let out a breath while looking to the ground. "So what? I'm not a special girl you wanted to talk to?" she asked mocking him her mood changing.
"What no! That's not what I meant! I just-" he got extremely nervous realizing that she might have been offended.
"Whoa. Calm down." she said holding up her hands. Geez. This guy took things way too seriously.
"Is your patient fine?" he asked. "Why didn't you wash it off? You know someone could get the wrong idea and call the police" he was referring to the blood on her neck again.
"Oh. No. He died." she said. "Nasty car accident. It was just a bomb waiting to go off." she said looking down to the pavement. "Pew." she said making a blowing up motion with her hand and adding the sound effect. "I must've missed it." she said pointing to her neck.
"Well what about the guy with the tumor?" Spencer asked. He was asking way too many questions.
"Oh, he's fine."
"Is this how you deal with your emotions?" he asked. "You know it's not healthy to not deal with grief."
"Sometimes." Natalie said with a smile. "Sometimes it's the only thing that works."
"Do you really come here to drink so much? You and the bartender really knew each other."
"What?"
"You said you come a lot." he stated.
She just nodded her head while laughing to herself lightly. "I was joking." said dryly. Spencer nodded not really sure how that answered his question but he didn't ask any more on the matter.
"So. Where do you live?" Spender asked.
"I'll show you the way." she said. "Besides you promised me coffee." she opened the car door and got in before Spencer and made herself comfy in his car. "Come on. Dude. I got work in the morning." Spencer got in the car and started the ignition and drove out of the parking lot.
"On your records it said you went to Yale." Spencer said trying to make small talk. "I was going to attend there if I didn't get into MIT."
"Yes. Thanks for reminding me." she said tiredly. "Any more remarks?" Spencer didn't get the hint and decided to keep going even though Natalie really wasn't in the talking mood.
"And that you have a phD in chemistry, also from Yale." he continued. "I have one too actually."
"Super." she muttered.
"I actually read your thesis." Spencer said to her looking to her with a glance and not even hearing her comment. "It was quite interesting. What made you want to give up research and become a surgeon? You seemed to enjoy the subject on alzheimer's and the chemicals in the brain."
"These are some deep thoughts doctor. Could I take the time to remind you that I am drunk?" she asked closing her eyes. And then she opened them again and asked, "You met me today and you already read my thesis?"
"I'm just curious is all." he said. "When our technical analyst looked you up I couldn't help myself."
"You know you're not the only one with a computer and Google. What made you want to give up all of your fancy degrees and instead work for the FBI?"
"I wanted to catch killers the degrees help me believe it or not." he said. "Actually for a matter of fact I've had a lot of information to give for the cases that we had because of my degrees. I also have a pretty great memory so everything that I ever read helps the cases. I feel very useful at work. Even though I ramble and my teammates don't really like it when I do that. But I'm just offering all the information I have."
After listening to Reid's long explanation, she not only got to experience a "ramble", but she learned why he wanted to work for FBI. "And I wanted to save lives."
"So you became a trauma surgeon?"
"So I joined the military and became a medic...then a trauma surgeon." she said with a smile. "I served four years in Afghanistan."
He hesitated to say anything but he eventually opened his mouth and said, "You never told me where you lived."
"You never took me for coffee so I guess we're square." she said laughing. "Just take me to the hospital. It'll be easier. I work at Georgetown University Hospital. I'll sleep in the on call room."
"Are you sure?." he asked. "You should probably sleep in some sort of comfortable bed or somewhere you feel at peace."
"Well. I'm not looking for comfort. I'm looking for a bed. Besides. I have to get up in a couple hours anyway. The closer to the hospital I am the more sleep I can get." she said nuzzling into the car seat.
"If you say so..." he said with a smile.
"Did you find the killer?" Natalie asked abruptly.
"Uh. Yes. As it turned out the killer was murdering men who were unfaithful to their wives." he said. "In fact the killers were two women who were working together. A mistress and the wife started with the man that they had in common and continued on finding other men. Women often-"
"Good." she said quietly while he was still talking, she was almost falling asleep while thinking about how long he was going to talk. She must of really fell asleep because next this she realized she was at the hospital and Dr. Reid was shaking her awake. "I'm up. I'm up." she said shoving his hand away from her shoulder.
"Maybe I should help you in…" he said. "I don't want you to hurt yourself."
"I'll be fine…Good thing I'm at a hospital." she said opening the door and pulling herself out of the car. "You should go home or something."
Spencer noticed her almost fall out his car rather than simply get out so he turned his car off got out of the car and hurried over to take her into the hospital.
"I told you I could get there fine…"
"You look like you could fall over any second." he said. "And I would feel much better knowing you're inside and safe and not wandering around a parking lot somewhere."
"Fine. Whatever." she said giving in. "Let's go."
So that's it for Chapter 1. Thanks for reading! It turned out longer that I thought it would because I decided to combine the smaller prologue with the actual first chapter. I'll update as soon as the next chapter is ready to go!
Thanks again.
Review, favorite, or follow if you like it!
Amelia.
