A timid knock on the door of her lair woke Penelope Garcia from the excellent daydream she was having . Unwillingly she opened her eyes and took her feet off the table, settling herself into a slightly more presentable position.

"Come in," she called, removing bits of fluff from her bright pink cardigan. The peacock feather hairclip that was holding up her tightly curled hair seemed to have decided to shed bits of itself all over her. 'Guess that's what you get if you go to the 'reduced by 70%' section,' she thought, making a mental note to bin the hairclip when she got home.

A sheepish looking Spencer Reid popped his head around the door. "Uh, hi Garcia, can we have a quick chat?"

"Of course my precious, anything for my favourite junior 'G' man," Garcia replied, beaming up at him. Spencer came in quickly and shut the door behind him. He sat down on one of the spare chairs and entwined his long fingers together, looking down at his black Converse trainers. There was a brief silence. Penelope observed him, trying to gage his mood.

"I need some advice."

"Sure thing honey bunch, talk to your Aunty Penelope."

Spencer shuffled his feet, looking incredibly awkward. He cleared his throat. "It's about…a girl."

Penelope positively beamed. She loved helping out her colleagues with this sort of thing, but it was usually Morgan or Prentiss who wanted her help. It wasn't often that Spencer Reid didn't have the answer to something. One of the things that she absolutely adored about Reid was that his IQ of 187 could be reduced to about 60 by the presence of a pretty girl; seeing him blush and stumble over his words made her want to give him a huge hug.

"Oh Spenny, you have no idea how happy you've made your Aunty Penelope! I was beginning to think I would have to force you to go to one of those self-esteem building classes."

Spencer blushed to the roots of his hair. Ignoring him Penelope continued, "so…dish the dirt. Who is this magical minx who has stolen my baby boy's heart?"

Spencer gave her a slightly pained look, like he was already regretting coming to see her. However the weight of his problem was too much for him and he really needed to get it off his chest.

"She's a girl who goes to my local café every morning. I see her all the time but we didn't speak until last week. She came over and asked me what I was reading," here Spencer's eyes lit up slightly, "which happened to be Michio Kaku's fascinating book 'Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension'. Did you know that over a quarter of…"

"Reid!"

Spencer broke off from his ramble to see Penelope glaring at him. "Sorry." He coughed awkwardly.

"ANYWAY…" Penelope said, gesturing for him to continue.

"Well we started talking briefly every morning and then I didn't see her for a few days whilst we were on that case in Boston. Then this morning I bumped into her and she said had she missed our chats. And she said it was a shame we both always had to rush off in the mornings. And then there was this really awkward silence and I had to leave." Here Spencer stopped, frowning at the memory.

Penelope was giving him one of her most 'mum-like' stares. "Please tell me you asked her out first," she said. Spencer looked genuinely perplexed, and a hint of red covered his cheeks again.

"W-what?"

Penelope rose up from her seat and came towards him. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she looked down at him with a mixture of annoyance and laughter. "She gave you the sign and you just walked away. Honestly Reid, for a genius you really can be so clueless!" Returning to her seat she sat back and stared at him, shaking her head.

"I know, that's why I need your advice." Spencer ran a hand through his unruly hair. "Was she really expecting me to ask her out?"

"Well it definitely sounds like it."

"Oh God." Spencer leant forward, putting his head in his hands. " I've really messed up haven't I?"

Penelope snorted. "Don't be such a drama queen baby boy, now Aunty Penelope's on the case it's pretty easily fixed. But first you have to tell me, do you actually want to go on a date with this girl?"

Spencer shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. "Um…I guess so." He looked up into Penelope's questioning gaze. "I don't really know."

Penelope decided to come straight to the point. "Well do you fancy her or not? What's 'her' name by the way?"

Spencer answered the less awkward question first. "Her name's Angela, she's a psychology major at the University of Virginia."

"And…"

"I hadn't really thought about her in that way. I just thought she was really…friendly."

Penelope managed to hide her smile behind her hand. Reid truly was too adorable for words!

However his next comment sobered her up pretty quickly. Looking down at his hands again Reid said quietly, "And I don't get the same feelings that I get," he stopped; "that I got, when I was around…Morgan."

Leaning forward Penelope put her hands on top of Spencer's. He jumped at her unexpected touch, but Penelope didn't move back. "Spencer. Look at me."

Spencer looked up at her and behind the thick glasses she saw his wary hazel eyes hiding some other emotion he couldn't quite control. "What?"

"Do you still have feelings for Derek?" She silenced his muffled protests with a look. "Truthfully?"

Spencer swallowed and looked back down at his hands. His answer, when it came, was nothing more than a whisper. "Yes."

Penelope sighed and gave his hand a squeeze. "I thought as much. Boy oh boy does that throw a spanner in the works."

Spencer's head snapped up. "W-why?"

"You can't go on a date with this poor girl if you like someone else. That wouldn't be fair. Then again…" Penelope tilted her head and gave Spencer a contemplative look. "Maybe she's exactly what you need. A distraction."

Spencer ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "I hate feeling like this Garcia. It's ridiculous and illogical and I can't explain it away with facts or theory. I know he'll never feel that way about me and yet there's still a tiny bit of me that hopes. When he looks at me with that smile, or touches my shoulder…" Spencer grimaced. "It's pathetic."

"Spencer you listen to me. You are not pathetic. The heart can't help what it feels. And Derek is hot stuff! I don't call him my Chocolate Adonis for nothing you know," Penelope added jokingly trying to lighten the mood. But Spencer didn't even smile. "I know you think it's a bad idea but if it's making you this unhappy you should just say something to him."

"I can't," Spencer moaned through his fingers. "Best case scenario he'd be nice about it but it would be horrendously awkward afterwards, and worst case I'd lose his friendship entirely. Either way it's a terrible idea.

"Derek would never drop a friendship over something so trivial," Penelope corrected him. "Especially not his friendship with you. He cares about you a lot…just not in the way you want him to. But he might, one day."

"Even if he did have feelings for me, which he doesn't, he would never, never be able to act on them. Not after what happened to him as a child. And I wouldn't ever want to be the reason he has to think about that man again."

There was a silence as the truth of his words sank in. Penelope was at a loss as to how to cheer Spencer up; he looked so young and forlorn. But she wasn't about to give up on him that easily.

"Focussing on the past and the future clearly isn't getting us anywhere is it, so let's focus on the present instead shall we?" She said forthrightly. "Let's focus on what you could have rather than thinking about what you can't. What's the likelihood that you will see this Angela girl tomorrow?"

"About 96.5% if you allow for certain anomalies and…" Spencer broke off. "Sorry I'm doing it again aren't I?"

Penelope smiled at him. "There's the Reid I know. Well I think it would be wise if I come to the café with you tomorrow and check this girl out. Then I'll be able to assess what your next move should be with more confidence. And I'll be able to see if she's good enough for my baby 'G' man too of course. I won't settle for anyone less than perfect." She gave Spencer a wink and was relieved to see him give a weak smile in return. "I'll pick you up at 8. Now shoo we've both got work to do."

Spencer got up and stretched. He couldn't tell if he felt any better than he had done when he'd first arrived in Penelope's office, but it was a relief to get the despair and frustration off his chest. And you just couldn't be too depressed around Garcia, she wouldn't have it.

He made his way to the door. "See you Garcia…and thanks."

She half-turned and blew him a kiss. Spencer opened the door and found himself face-to-face with Morgan who was just raising a hand to knock.

"Oh, hey pretty boy. Baby girl what you doin' blowing kisses at Reid? They should be for me shouldn't they?" he joked, patting Spencer on the arm and looking past him at Penelope who gave him a wide grin.

"Don't worry sugar plum there's plenty of this goddess to go round," she replied, rising and kissing him on the cheek flirtatiously. Spencer took this as his cue to leave. Shutting the door behind him he leant against it and shut his eyes, breathing in the scent of Morgan's cologne that still hung in the air. Through the door he could he Morgan's deep throaty laugh mixing with Garcia's high-pitched giggle, and he was surprised to feel a surge of jealously rising up in him. He was so envious of the way Garcia could just flirt with Morgan…touch him…kiss him. Alarmed to feel tears rising up in his throat he pegged his way to the bathroom and locked himself in the empty cubicle. He sat on the toilet seat and took a few carefully measured breaths. He had gotten so used to hiding his feelings towards the older agent that it was only moments like that where he was caught off guard. Even that light touch of Morgan's hand on his arm had caused a tightening sensation in his lower regions, and he could still feel the hardness slightly as he imagined what those strong, practised hands could do to him in the bedroom.

'Stop it,' he thought to himself. 'Stop torturing yourself. It's never going to happen.' Although he had let his imagination run wild sometimes, Spencer rarely gave in to the images and let himself masturbate. It was so callous, so cold, and so messy. Although he hated to admit it, Spencer knew he was a bit of a romantic. Despite his aversion to being touched, he longed for the closeness of another body next to his. Sometimes being a socially awkward genius was a very lonely existence. Every time Morgan came into work after a long weekend, bragging about his conquests, Spencer could feel his heart breaking a little more. The thought of all those women in Morgan's bed…they didn't even know him! Morgan was always very honest with them…"they all know I'm not ready to settle down"…and they never seemed to hold it against him, but Spencer couldn't understand it. He was hardly experienced in the 'love' department, but he had always imagined that to sleep with someone he would have to feel something more towards them than just plain simple lust. But not Morgan; he never pressed Spencer about his sex life (or lack of it) but he did seem to find it hard to comprehend how he could go for such long periods without it.

'We're such different people,' Spencer thought as he unlocked the cubicle door and stepped out into the bathroom. He stared at his reflection in the mirror critically and sighed, thinking about his breakfast date with Garcia the next morning. 'What have I got myself into?'