The lecture hall was full of people, and they talked noisily as they waited the fifteen minutes left before the speaker was to begin.
Penelope Garcia was behind the stage, watching Dr. Spencer Reid frantically pacing.
She touched his shoulder in mid strife, stopping him for a second. "They really can't make you talk about that. You should just talk about what you had planned to." She took away the flyer he had been wringing in his hands.
The lecture had been originally titled "General Crime Prevention tips," but some doofus had changed it in the last day or so. The title of the lecture on the flyer she had taken away was now "How Not to Get Your Kidnapping Video on You-Tube."
Garcia pulled him into a hug. "You really don't have to talk about that."
Spencer hugged her back fiercely, turning his head so he could rest it on his shoulder. "I guess I can pretend I wasn't informed of the name change." He said in a quiet voice that made him sound like he was ten years old.
"There you go." She rubbed his back. She felt like punching the person whom had changed the title of the lecture, especially since Spencer had been working hard to get past that whole Hinkley investigation, and the subsequential drug abuse. This whole lecture was a joke, first they had scheduled him to talk without asking permission, and now they were trying to get him to repay a private terror in front of the whole world. "Take a deep breath. How about after the lecture, we'll go out for chocolate ice cream."
Spencer broke the hug, and took a deep breath. "That sounds good."
She gave him another quick hug.
Agent Linda Brant, who had scheduled the lecture, peeked back stage. "Are you ready?" She asked with a professional smile.
Spencer nodded, and Garcia gave him a thumbs-up sign as he made his way to the stage.
Spencer stood in the background as Agent Brant made a long introduction which Spencer wasn't fully paying attention to.
"The Esteemed Dr. Spencer Reid." Brant pointed to him, and the crowd burst into a round of applause.
Spencer walked over to the podium she had just vacated. "Thank you." He said, raising his hand for the applause to stop. It took almost a full minute before the crowd became completely silent. "There is a Latin proverb that translates into English as 'He is safe from danger who is on guard even when he is safe. As Law enforcement officers, we like to think that we know more about crime than the average person does, but we are all human. We can all easily believe the fallacy that crime won't happen to us.
Unfortunately, no one can be one hundred percent immune from crime, unless we became the last person on earth. Maybe if we moved to Mars." He paused as the crowd laughed slightly, and gave them a half smile, not really feeling it. Though, Spencer loved teaching people new things, he also got nervous in front of large crowds.
"We can't live on Mars though, the atmosphere would kill us." He let the audience laugh again, and decided not to expand anymore on Mars. He didn't want to lose the audience, but if they thought he was throwing in a joke now and then and not giving them facts they might still listen. "Our whole lives, especially in law enforcement, is a balancing act between feeling secure in the joys of being alive, and knowing that evil is not just something you read about in fairy tales…"
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"Thank you for your attention." Spencer said, as he answered the last question before slipping backstage.
As Spencer got behind the curtain, Penelope Garcia pulled him into a brief hug, and Spencer could see everyone from the B.A.U., except Rossi, were standing waiting for him.
"That was a great speech, Dr. Reid." Garcia kissed his cheek. She hadn't told Spencer she had told everyone to meet her backstage, because she had wanted it to be a surprise.
"Good job, Spence." J.J. gave him a brief smile, as she patted his shoulder.
"Good speech, Dr. Reid." Rossi came up from the place he had been in the audience. He had decided to watch the speech in the front of the house. He thought it would be a way to show respect for Spencer's work, since Spencer showed a deep respect for Rossi's books, and even had most of them memorized.
"Thank you." A tinge of blush played on Spencer's cheek. "And thank you for asking the first question, I wasn't sure anyone was going to ask me anything."
"They all wanted to ask you questions, I am sure they were going to riot because your time was up." Rossi gave Spencer a paternal smile. The young genius' speech had impressed Rossi, and he thought it a very intelligent and thought-provoking speech. Reid had also thoughtfully avoided talking about any information that would come from the title dubbed to the speech, but in a masterful way that no one felt like they were missing out.
Derek ruffled Spencer's hair. "You ready to go get some ice cream."
"Definitely." He gave his co-workers a broad smile, sending a small prayer up to God for blessing him with such wonderful people to work with.