This is the second story in this arc, and it's waaay better written. When I'm done this one, I might go and rewrite Independence Day, cuz it was pretty terrible. You probably should go read it, it's fairly short.

Remember, I own nothing except Kyle, the plot, and other things unrecognised from music, movies, books, or Criminal Minds.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Three months.

Kyle Valentine had been a part of the Behavioural Analysis Unit for three months. During that time she'd joked with Penelope Garcia, flirted with Derrick Morgan, gone for drinks with Emily Prentiss, and met Will and Henry. In some ways, she seemed part of the family, but she knew they didn't fully trust her yet. Not that she blamed them. She was 23, hardly an age which promoted experience.

Valentine sighed, and rubbed a hand over her face. She'd shown up for work at six this morning, and most of the lights in the bullpen were now already off. She leaned back and rolled her shoulders; it had been a long day. At least it was Friday, and they weren't on call this weekend. She smiled to herself, as she logged off her computer. She leaned into a desk drawer, and pulled out a small notebook. Inside was a list of things she planned to do this weekend. On it were things like curtains, and finding a couch, she was sick of all the chairs. Maybe she'd even splurge and get a La-Z-Boy; she missed the one at her dad's. But tonight was going to be spent with her old movie collection and take-out.

Kyle grabbed her bag and headed for the elevators. She punched the "down button" and waited patiently, still looking at her list.

That was how Spencer Reid found her as the elevator dinged and opened its doors. She looked up at his approach and smiled. He smiled back, rather nervously, and hit the button for the below ground garage.

"What are you up to this weekend?" Valentine asked.

Reid shook his head. "Nothing, as usual. I'll work on my Philosophy degree."

Valentine looked up at him. "You wouldn't happen to know where I can find most of the things on my list, do you?"

Reid glanced at it, and thought for a second, his brow creasing slightly. "There's a new mall on 18th street that does all sorts of house stuff, you could probably find what you're looking for there."

Kyle smiled up at him. She lights up a room with that smile, Reid thought. He was brought out of his reverie by the ding of the elevator. He was headed towards his car, when Valentine called out to him.

"Do you want to go for supper with me?" Reid looked back at her, and she blushed. "Not as a date, just a friendly supper."

"Sure," Reid replied, surprising himself. "Do we want to go together?"

Valentine shrugged. "If we do, we'll have to go in your car; I've got my bike here today and I don't have a spare helmet with me."

Reid nodded, and waited for her to catch up to him. He led the way to a PT Cruiser. Kyle smiled when she saw the dark green colour, it suited him. He opened her door then walked around to his side. Pulling the car out of the garage, he hit a button, and the top rolled down. Valentine sighed as the wind played with the fringe of her short hair.

"Where do you want to go?" Spencer asked as he turned onto the freeway. It was a beautiful day in fall, Halloween was only a few weeks away and Quantico was a riot of autumn colours.

Kyle shrugged, "anyplace you choose is fine with me, I'm not fussy."

Spencer chuckled as he hooked a left onto a smaller street, obviously heading for somewhere in particular. "So what did the impulse of asking me for supper pull you away from?" He stopped at a red, then turned down a one-way, into what seemed to be the industrial part of town.

"Not much, just a date with Rhett and Scarlett, or maybe Julian Carter and Vicky Page, I hadn't decided yet. Oh, and some really good take-out food." She snorted, "Really, you're doing me a favour by letting me out of the house without getting lost. I can find my way around a forest without a compass no problem, but put me into an urban setting and I'm totally confused." Kyle stopped as they stopped in front of what appeared to be an old warehouse. "What is this place?"

Spencer looked embarrassed, "it's called Yeats' Place. It's a cafe where young artists can come show their work, and it's open mike night tonight. I noticed a book of poetry in your overnight bag; I thought you might enjoy this."

Kyle grinned. "It sounds awesome! I didn't know Quantico had a place like this." She followed Spencer through the entrance into a single large room. The walls were brick and construction metal, and the bar on her left was made entirely out of what looked to be old car parts. The whole place had and industrial feel, with the ducts open to the room. At the far end was a stage with mikes and what seemed to be a decent sound system, to her inexperienced eye. Spencer led her through the crowded room to a small table next to the wall opposite the bar, which was covered in artwork. She looked at the different pieces, with the names of the artists underneath.

A young woman walked up to the table and handed them small menus and took drink orders. As she walked back to the bar, a very obese man stood up at the mike on the stage. He began an introduction of the open mike, Spencer turned to her. "You said you knew your way around a forest fairly well, where did you grow up?"

Kyle sighed softly. Here goes, she thought. "Until I was eight years old, I lived in Juneau, Alaska. The winter after my birthday, my mother was murdered. She was killed by Orville Pederson." She watched as comprehension lit up Spencer's dark eyes. "When the trial was over, I was sent to my mother's uncle, in Washington State. He's a horticulturist, and I spent a lot of my free time hiking with him, looking for rare species of flowers. In the winter, we'd press some awesome specimen and work in his greenhouse." Kyle chuckled, "I was so quiet when I first moved there, so timid. I don't think he realised how much I loved those flowers, because they never made noise."

As she spoke, Spencer's mind was churning. He remembered the case mostly from a study he'd done on it while in University. Pederson, he remembered, had killed just over twenty women, and had been caught in the act of attempting to murder a young girl who had caught him while finishing her mother. She'd spent weeks in Intensive Care; he had tried to slice her throat. Spence sat back slightly, astounded that a girl who had watched a man who was often considered one of the most brutal serial killers in American history could become a part of the team that caught the bastard. "How do you do it?" He asked softly. Neither was paying attention to the youth reading his latest work; Spencer's gaze was set upon Kyle's face, and Kyle was staring just as determinedly into her glass.

The tension was broken at that moment by the waitress coming for their order. After she left, Kyle couldn't find a way to ignore the question. "If David Rossi hadn't shown up when he did, I'd be dead right now. So I think if I can just stop one little girl from being killed, all the hell was worth it.

Silence permeated the table until the food arrived. Kyle's head was swimming; this was usually the point where someone asked the question 'what was it like?' and she'd never been able to describe the nightmares that haunted her, or the memories of her mother's screams. But no, she thought, he knows better than most the answer to THAT question. She looked up from her Caesar to find Spencer had not yet touched his food. "Do I have dressing on my face?"

Spencer shook his head a little to clear it. "Sorry, my mind wandered." At Kyle's snort, he looked up. "What?"

"There's a big difference between your mind wandering, and someone else's. Did you solve world hunger on your journeys?"Kyle teased lightly, bemused when she watched him flush. "Oh, come on, I knew from my first week here that you were smart. I may not have three PhD's to my name, but I'm not that dense."

"I know," Spencer murmured, and they finished the rest of the meal in silence. He held her jacket for her and led her back out to the car.

"You had better take me back to my bike, I don't really want to leave it over night," Kyle told him as he eased the car out of park.

"All right, you'll be all right by yourself?" Spencer asked.

Kyle laughed, "I've been driving a bike since I was fifteen, this one's just a little bigger."

Indeed, when he pulled up behind the monster, he didn't understand how she could climb up the thing. It sat high, with a great deal of chrome. Bikes weren't something he'd ever studied, but he knew enough to recognise the little insignia as the Harley-Davidson seal. "How do you drive that thing?" Spencer asked, swallowing.

Kyle laughed. "It's actually pretty easy, I'll have to give you a ride sometime."

Spencer had turned down numerous offers from Derek for a ride, and he'd thought that Kyle would be a little more responsible, but looking at her "toy" gave him major doubts. "I don't know," he stammered. "It doesn't look safe."

Kyle bent over in hysterics. "You can go into a house with a psychotic serial killer, but you won't ride my baby? You might want to rethink your priorities. I think it's time you live a little." She shook her head over his disagreement. "No 'buts'. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning and take you out for breakfast, since you wouldn't let me pay for supper." She threw on her helmet and grinned as she pulled down the visor. "I'll see you at eight."

OoOoOoOoOoO

A/N so there you have it! If you are Cedricsowner, I'm really glad to have you on board, and I hope you enjoy this first chapter!