This is an idea that has been bugging me for a while, so I thought I'd put it all down in words to get it out of my head for once. I know that Spencer / OC has been done to death more than anything else, but I hope to put a unique twist on it. I hope you enjoy!

Please review so I know what needs improving. Thanks for reading!


Had he been in a different position, and had he not been the modest and easily embarrassed individual that he was, Spencer would have enjoyed staring at the poor girl's chest in front of him. But seeming as he was in fact Doctor Spencer Reid - last time he checked, of course - and the circumstances of which this particular situation had come about were not romantic in the slightest, it was not enjoyable for either party involved.

Mentally separating himself from the present circumstances for a brief moment, Spencer analyzed it objectively. This much he was sure of: he had entered The Happy Bean café at 7:45am, he had ordered his long black - the largest the café sold - and turning around to add some sugar at the condiments station, he had spun around into a very shocked looking woman, knocking her beverage all over her chest.

"Shit, that's hot." Spencer was brought back into reality by the quiet exclamation of the small brunette woman in front of him, the very same woman whom he had been inadvertently staring at only moments ago. She looked down at the soiled item of clothing, frantically swiping at it with her free hand.

"God, I'm so sorry!" He answered somewhat in horror. Trying to be ever the helpful individual, Spencer reached out at the bench for a wad of napkins. He went to blot out the spilled beverage, before stopping himself.

No Spencer, you've basically assaulted a young woman by throwing hot liquid on her. You don't want to take it a step further by touching her in an inappropriate place.

Noticing his hesitation, the woman reached out and grabbed the napkins and dabbed at her shirt, sighing a little. Her haste was understandable, what with her skin burning and everything.

"It's fine, really. I shouldn't have been standing so close. Besides, these things are designed to withstand a whole lot worse than tea." She replied, looking up at him. At first, Spencer didn't really understand, until he realized that she was wearing hospital scrubs. Spencer smiled slightly. She didn't seem all that angry about it.

"Still, I feel horrible about it." He replied, rubbing the back of his neck in shame.

"It's really fine. It was only tea; it'll dry right off." The woman paused, her dark eyes meeting his lighter ones. "You know, if you feel so terrible about it, feel free to buy me a new one. I still have a bit of time before I start work."

"Oh. Like, buy you a drink, buy you a drink?" The woman found this amusing, giving Spencer a slight giggle.

"Well, you did just spill hot tea all over me, so replacing that would be the be the least you could do." Placing the remnants of her beverage in a nearby trashcan, she continued. "But yes, I do mean buy me a drink. I had a ginger and lemongrass tea and I'll be sitting right over there."

The woman smiled as she pointed to an empty booth in the corner, and with one look back to Spencer, went to claim it. Spencer smiled slightly as he turned away to order her tea. From what he could gather, she had offered to spend more time with him over coffee even after he had spilled her tea all over her scrubs. But then again, despite being an FBI profiler he wasn't the best at reading social cues so this could be completely different from reality. Never the less, armed with two hot drinks, he made his way over to the woman, who smiled brightly when he approached.

"Thanks for that." She said, accepting the tea from Spencer. He smiled back.

"It was the least I could do, remember?" He sat down opposite her in the booth as she laughed in response.

"Right." She took a sip of her tea before nodding. "This is definitely my favorite. So uh, what's your name, anyway?"

"Doc- uh, Spencer Reid." Out of habit, he began to address himself as doctor, but he stopped himself. Somehow, in the company of this woman, it felt like bragging. He looked up at the aforementioned woman, but her expression hadn't changed. It still seemed like she was enjoying herself. She was young, too young to be a medical doctor, despite her scrubs. She wore no makeup and the dark circles under her eyes were prominent. She was overworked then, if she had no time to sleep adequately, and the lack of makeup indicated she had been working in her field for at least a couple of months. Medical personnel, especially females, learned after a while that the cons far outweighed the pros in concerns of makeup. Considering her friendly personality, it was much more likely that she was a nurse rather than a doctor.

"It's nice to meet you, Spencer Reid. I'm Elena." The woman - now known to be Elena - smiled fondly as she took another sip of her tea that she had cupped in her hands.

"Likewise." After a small silence, Spencer spoke again, rather abruptly. "Did you know that surgeons didn't wear specialized garments until well into the 20th Century? In fact, the surgeon would simply wear his own clothing, with a butcher's apron to prevent blood splatter. This is in contrast to nurses, whose uniform has been long required." He looked down to his coffee and took a large swig, while Elena's small laugh broke the silence.

"I can't say I knew that, no." She looked up at him, but his attention was focused intently on his coffee. "So, which am I?"

"Sorry?" Spencer questioned, looking up in confusion. Elena smiled.

"Which am I? Surgeon or nurse?"

"Oh, that's easy. You're a nurse." He replied, matter-of-factly. Elena smiled into her tea.

"Lucky guess." She mumbled, but she didn't seem upset about it.

"Not at all," He replied quickly, "it was a profile." Seeing the confusion on her face Spencer elaborated, telling her of his impressions based on her appearance and disposition.

"Well then, I'm impressed. So, what do you do that would need your astute powers of observation? Crime fighting?" She leaned in closer to Spencer and whispered in a low, gravely voice. "You're Batman, aren't you?" Spencer laughed whilst shaking his head.

"I'm not nearly that affluent. Or for that matter, skilled in combat. But I suppose I do fight crime. Sorta."

"That's a shame. About the not being Batman, I mean. You don't even have a butler that makes witty retorts?" The Doctor shook his head.

"Sorry to disappoint. I'm actually a profiler for the FBI." Elena's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"You say that as if it's such arbitrary fact. You might as well be Batman." Spencer wouldn't admit it, but Elena could have sworn that the man in front of her blushed slightly.

"One would say that being a nurse is just as noble." Spencer retorted gently, but Elena snorted.

"One would be wrong. It just pays the bills." She took another swig of tea. "Barely, at that."

"I'm sure it's not that bad."

"Well, I love my job but there's always this nagging feeling telling me I could have done something more with my life, you know?" Elena looked down as Spencer spoke again.

"So why didn't you?" Elena thought about this for a moment before replying.

"I suppose I was so eager to get out of the house and be my own person when I turned eighteen that I never really thought about what I'd actually do once I got there. I didn't really have any talents in any specialty areas, and nursing just sorta came to me." Spencer noticed at that moment that Elena began to play with the napkin in her hands, twisting and pulling at it anxiously. He could tell she was somewhat distressed, so he made an attempt to change the subject.

"So you've been a nurse since you were eighteen?" Elena smiled.

"Nope. By some miracle or glitch in reality, I managed to land myself a scholarship to Georgetown." She said brightly as she lay out the remnants of the napkin on the table in front of her. "I spent three years there, working on my BA in Russian Language. It was only after that time that I realised there's shit-all you can actually do with a BA in Russian." Both she and Spencer laughed lightly at that.

"So nursing it was?"

"Nursing it was." There was a small silence that followed Elena's account. Spencer contemplated what she had told him. Sure, there was much more of a market careers wise for a nurse, but that didn't mean that there wasn't a niche market for a young woman that could speak fluent Russian, especially in a place like Washington D.C. Never the less, Spencer respected the choices of the stranger in front of him and remained quiet until she spoke again.

"But please, enough about me. So what were you doing before you became an FBI profiler?" Spencer looked down at his coffee and then back up to Elena. He was suddenly very aware of the fact that what he was about to say could be considered as bragging, but as she looked at him in anticipation, he spoke.

"Well, I went to high school in Nevada, but I moved to Los Angeles to go to college."

"It was a good idea that you moved out of Las Vegas at eighteen, huh? That's probably not a good place to be a legal adult." She laughed but Spencer simply smiled nervously.

"I was actually fourteen."

A very long silence followed that declaration. Great, Spencer thought, I've gone and blown it by admitting I was some sort of alien-child prodigy. Come on, I could have lied and pretended I was a normal person.

He looked up to Elena whose face, at first, was indistinguishable. But after a few moments, she looked back at him with a large smile, her dark eyes gleaming cheerfully. She was really quite pretty when she smiled. Her aesthetics weren't something you'd notice straight away, but now that he had spent a small amount of time with Elena, he began to notice her features. While she wasn't stunningly beautiful, there was something quite pleasing about her face, especially when she smiled.

"That's… God, that's impressive. I've never met a child prodigy before." She encouraged endearingly, finishing the last remnants of her drink. "Well, then what happened?"

"Uh well, I got my first Bachelor of Science, and after that, I got three PhDs. I joined the academy after that and well, here I am I suppose."

"Huh. So you're a doctor three times over then?" Elena spoke calmly, but Spencer could tell she was trying to contain how impressed she was. Perhaps it was because she thought it would be too forward of her. If this were the case, Spencer would disagree. He found it nice to talk about it with someone who didn't look at him like he was a freak.

"Yeah, I suppose you could say that." Spencer said rather hesitantly, not wanting to push his luck. Elena looked at him, oblivious. She was still cheerful.

"Well Doctor Spencer Reid, you're certainly the most interesting person ever to throw tea on me, I'll tell you that." At that, they both laughed, Spencer looking more sheepish than he usually did.

"You mean I'm not the first?" Spencer gasped in mock horror.

"I regret that you are not the only one." Elena replied with a slight giggle. It was then that she heard a frantic beeping from her handbag next to her in the booth. She pulled the offending object out - a surprisingly new phone - cursing quietly when she read what was on the screen.

"And that's my cue to leave. One of the nurses from the last shift got sick so that means I have to come in an hour earlier." She sighed, shoving her phone back into her back, a look of disdain contorting her face. She had rather enjoyed the small liaison with Spencer and hated to cut it short. The slightly downtrodden look on his face told her that he rather felt the same way. She got up to leave and he stood out of respect. Not knowing how to politely say goodbye to someone she had known for twenty minutes, Elena simply gave a slight wave.

"It was really nice talking to you, and thanks for the tea."

"No problem."

"Oh, and I'll talk to you soon." With that, Elena turned on her heel and made a beeline for the exit. Spencer waved to her retreating form, wondering how the hell he was going to contact her again. Dejected, he sat back down at the booth, noticing a neat white napkin in stark contrast to the deep brown bench top. Picking it up, he smiled.

She had left her name and number on the back of a napkin for him. He chuckled slightly. So this is how you got a girl's attention.

All you had to do was throw tea on them.