Escapade Fidelity

A/N: No, I do not own Criminal Minds or its characters.

Chapter 1:

"Hey, kid?" Derek asked Reid suddenly, staring at him from the seats on the jet which were opposite to the ones that Spencer was sitting in now, one of his legs crossed loosely over the other in an attempt to be comfortable.

"What?" Reid replied, moving his gaze from the window closest to him to his coworker, with a startled edge to his quiet voice. He was thinking, as usual. But this time it wasn't about the usual mathematical or scientific subject that was usually consuming his mind; no, this time it was about a case, one from around six years earlier. He didn't want anyone to know that, though. The case was usually on his mind in the first place, but now it was especially taking up his thoughts.

"Something bothering you?"

Reid shook his head in response, knowing that if he spoke, Derek would detect the lying tone in his voice. If he figured out what was bothering him... he would never let it go. Ever.

"Don't bullshit me." Derek leaned forward on the table separating them, leaning his muscular arms against the light-colored wooden surface and staring at the young, tired-looking agent in front of him. He was almost positive on what Reid's mind was occupied by, and it amused him to the highest degree possible, but he was holding that inside for the moment. He kept his voice fairly quiet, because most of his fellow agents were sleeping not that far away from him. The last case, the case that they were coming back from, had been exhausting, both emotionally and physically.

Spencer grimaced and moved his gaze away from his curious friend, back to the window and into the dark night sky. Why was Derek pestering him? And how did he know that something was on his mind? All he wanted was to be alone in his own thoughts, and briefly considered sitting on a different part of the jet. He brushed that thought away fairly quickly, thinking that it was immature.

"Kid," Morgan paused, "Reid. It's about that stalker case we had in Los Angeles six years ago with Lila Archer, isn't it?" It was plainly obvious that it was what he was thinking about. Their most recent case was another stalker case, set in New York this time. It even involved a beautiful young actress, just like it did previously. This time, though, Reid stayed well away from her, much to the team's secret amusement.

Reid visibly flinched at the sound of Lila's name, but didn't move his gaze away from the darkness of the night that was outside of the window closest to him. All these years, she was on his mind almost constantly, consuming his thoughts even more than any complicated algorithm did. Around two years ago, he accepted the fact that he was in love with her. Unfortunately, he didn't - and thought that he couldn't - do a single thing to advance that feeling. He thought that she was over him, and never really was in love with him in the first place. That she had just liked him because she was his 'hero'. Transference. Multiple times - he had felt absolutely ridiculous doing so - but he went to every one of her films that premiered over the years. She had gotten continually much more famous and popular, her name was known worldwide now, and she had received countless awards for her work. Embarrassingly, he still owned the magazine with his and Lila's picture on the front of it. Not that he would forget what it looked like, but he liked having a physical picture in his hand, not a memory. Even if that memory was crystal clear.

"That's what I thought," Morgan said smugly when Reid didn't reply, and leaned back into the cushioned, off-white chair, a small grin on his face as he stared at the young agent before him.

A small blush crept onto Spencer's face, but he tried to suppress it as much as possible, still staring out of the window and trying to advert his mind from Lila. Of course, this was -or at least seemed- impossible. He had also learned that over those six years: once his mind was on her, it was incredibly hard to change the course of his thoughts. Not that he really minded, but it got distracting. Sometimes, he just got plain irritated at himself- he was never going to get her, so why think about her so much? But he couldn't help it.

A few minutes passed, Derek not taking his eyes off of Reid, when a realization hit him, and his eyes widened involuntarily. "You don't have a thing for her still, do you?"

Spencer winced at his words and didn't reply still, not trusting his voice, and knowing that silence was enough of an answer.

"Reid..."

"Yes! Yes I do. Now leave me alone, Derek." Spencer lost his composure, his voice rising a few octaves as he stood up and walked to the other side of the jet, an extremely irritated expression plastered on his face. Holding in a sigh, he sat down in a seat that was isolated from everyone and leaned his head back on the chair, closing his eyes. He had been stressed enough the past couple days, he didn't want the stress of Derek teasing him every chance he got on top of that. Stress was usually not a big problem for him, but he was especially sensitive to it at the moment.

He could feel Derek's eyes on his face from across the jet but did his best to ignore it, letting his thoughts about Lila take over his mind and drown out the world around him. Being bothered was at the top of his 'things not to do to Spencer Reid right now' list, and he would probably snap at anyone who did. He usually wasn't like that, but this was a sensitive subject to him. And all he really wanted was to get back to Quantico, alone.

He had to do it. He had to.

Spencer had gotten back to his apartment around an hour ago, with his mind set on a decision that he had made while he was on the jet. There was a very low chance that he would actually go through with it, and an even lower chance that it would work. But he figured that he would never know if he didn't try.

As Reid sat on the edge of his black leather couch that was placed in the center of the living room, with his hands holding up his head, he tried to muster up the courage inside of him to go through with it. What if he just got humiliated by it? What if Morgan or other members of the team found out? It wasn't very likely that they would find out, but he couldn't help but worry.

Several minutes later, he finally found the courage inside of him that he thought that he never had, and sat up straighter on the sofa. Reaching over to the end table he picked up the silver cordless home phone and stared at it for a few short moments, biting his lip hard. Eventually, he started pressing the black-colored buttons in a sequence which would give him the number he wanted.

Lila Archer's number.

A/N: Yeah. Review if you have time. :)