Journey Together Part One
A Criminal Minds fanfiction
Reid/OFC (Grace O'Halloran) rated M
Warning: may be a trigger for those sensitive to miscarriage
My eternal thanks to Droogie for the inspiration behind Grace; and to Aut for going above and beyond with betaing, bouncing ideas off, catching glaring mistakes—and little ones—and making all sorts of valuable contributions; and to Matthew Gray Gubler for being the embodiment of Spencer Reid, my very reason for writing.
All mistakes are my own.
Criminal Minds, the premise, the characters, the conference room, the jet, the coffee maker and all that belong to the Mark Gordon Company. No infringement intended, no monetary gain ever made.
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"Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving." –Khalil Gibran
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An aroused moan escaped his lips as he burrowed his face into the side of his pillow and tried to force his mind to concentrate on what was happening. Her teeth gnawed at his left nipple, sending waves of pleasure through his brain. And elsewhere. Her fingertips traced a line of fire along his other nipple and he pressed himself down into the mattress in an effort to hold still.
"Good?" she asked in a husky voice, stopping the proceedings for just an instant and stifling a laugh at his guttural, non-verbal response.
"Hrrmmph" was all Spencer was capable of and Grace's attention swiftly returned to his chest. Her tongue drew a line from his Adam's Apple down the center of his chest then ventured hard right to the nipple where once again her teeth took over.
"Oomph," he managed to spit out, bringing his hands up from under the covers to wrap around her back and hold her close.
Despite the heat of the moment, Spencer was suddenly cold and he shivered. As he did so, his mind made the connection and he opened his eyes and awakened fully. Pulling himself into a sitting position on the bed, he looked around in momentary confusion and then everything fell back into place.
"Dammit," he said aloud, as he realised he'd been dreaming. He smiled in spite of himself, and thought, 'At least it wasn't a nightmare! This. This kind of interruption I could get used to'.
Sighing, he leaned over to check the time on the alarm clock. Five thirty-seven a. m. he noted, squinting to see the digital LED readout. He pawed the nightstand, searching for his glasses and finally found them. The unfamiliar set-up of the hotel room was somewhat unsettling and everything took longer. At home, he had the layouts of both his own and Grace's apartments committed to memory and could make the nocturnal trip to the bathroom in the dark. But here in Kansas City, Missouri, he'd already stubbed a toe on the chair by the hotel room table and bumped his shin on the corner of the bed trying to blindly make his way to the bathroom and he wasn't about to flirt with injury again.
The BAU had successfully profiled and aided in the capture of a deranged man who'd had the people of Kansas City fearing for their lives for nearly a month while he'd kidnapped and killed a series of victims. After the takedown late the previous night, the team had completed the necessary paperwork and debriefing and returned to their hotel rooms for the night. Their Unit Chief, Emily Prentiss asked the pilot to have their jet ready to take them back to Washington at eight o'clock the next morning.
Reid decided to shower and after doing so, dressed and made his way down to the hotel coffee shop for some breakfast. As he waited for his eggs and toast to arrive, he sipped his first coffee of the day and pulled his wallet, phone and keys from his jacket pocket.
A smile drew across his face as he fingered his keys. Two new keys had recently joined the ring bearing his own apartment, security and car keys along with the key to his locker at FBI headquarters and he couldn't help but play with them. His smile beamed wider as he recalled part of the conversation surrounding their acquisition.
"I would like to propose a trade," Grace had told him over dinner at her apartment a few nights ago.
He'd sipped his wine and indicated for her to continue.
"As you know," she began. Rising from her seat next to him on the living room sofa, she made her way to the storage closet at the front of her apartment and entered it. She continued talking, but the sound was muffled and Reid couldn't make out what she was saying. A moment later, she returned to the living room and he broke out laughing.
Grace was wearing his overcoat, her purse perched over one shoulder.
He realised at that moment the coat had been missing for months but not once had he actually missed it. He stopped laughing long enough to take another sip of wine and gazed up at her expectantly.
She was watching him intently and finally, he prodded,
"A trade?"
"Ah, yes," she smiled, digging into the pocket of the coat. "I would like to trade you for this coat," she paused to run her free hand along the front of it.
His eyes narrowed and he tried to stifle the amusement in his voice, "What's in it for me?"
She pulled her hand out of the coat's pocket and held out two keys on a small ring.
His eyebrows rose. Grace sat down next to him, took his hand and dropped the keys into it. As he accepted the keys, she dug through her purse, found what she was looking for and added a pair of security cards to the keys in his hand.
"The apartment door. The front door," she explained the keys, indicating each as she described them then repeated the procedure with the cards. "This one unlocks the front door of the building, this one opens the back entrance and accesses the elevators too."
"Grace," he breathed, scarcely believing the level of trust being bestowed upon him. He leaned over and kissed her, nuzzled her neck and told her, "You can keep the coat. And," he pulled away enough to make eye contact.
"And the trade will be keys for keys, actually. I don't have them with me, but I'm gonna give you a set of keys for my place, too." She'd squeezed his hand as he spoke and asked,
"And the coat?"
"I said you could keep the coat."
"Okay. So it's keys for keys and coat for future considerations," she recapped, laughing when his brow furrowed. "'Future considerations' is sports trade speak. It means you'll decide later what you want in exchange for what you've parted with."
He laughed at that and told her he'd consider it.
Reid was jolted back to the present when his breakfast arrived and Margie, the waitress, asked if he wanted more coffee. Nodding, she refilled his mug and dropped several more packets of sugar next to it. As he smiled his thanks, Jennifer Jareau arrived and motioned to the chair across from him, "May I join you?"
He nodded and she noticed he was playing with his keys. JJ quickly gave her breakfast order to the waitress. After filling JJ's mug with coffee, Margie left. Reid's iPhone sat on the table beside his breakfast plate and just as JJ was about to speak, the phone lit up, indicating he'd received a text.
"How'd you sleep?" he asked her.
"Fine, knowing we made Kansas City a safer place last night," she replied, then waved at the phone, "Aren't you gonna answer that?"
"I will," he acknowledged before taking a bite out of his toast. "JJ," he began and then stopped abruptly.
"What is it, Spence?"
He sighed heavily before proceeding. "We said no secrets, after Mexico, right?"
She nodded, worried that something was very wrong and Spencer met her gaze and realised the seriousness of the expression on her face.
"Oh! It's not bad. I just," he paused and she watched intently as he considered his choice of words. "I guess I can start by saying I have a girlfriend now."
JJ relaxed visibly and chuckled. "That's no secret, Spence. Garcia's been pretty discreet but she did mention that you and Grace have been together for a couple of months now."
He pursed his lips and stifled a grin, "We've been together for five months and seventeen days but we've known each other since May 10."
"I'm happy for you, Spence. If anyone deserves happiness after the year like the one you've had, it's you."
"Thanks, JJ. I'm just, wondering, like, how to broach the subject—"
She sat up excitedly, "Marriage?"
He blushed and managed to reply, "Well, eventually, hopefully, yeah. But," he held out his keys to show her the new additions, "We traded apartment keys."
JJ smiled knowingly.
"So, if I may ask," he continued.
"Absolutely, Spence. What do you wanna know?"
"Is it," he paused, "Would it be too forward for me to just go to her place while she's at work? You know, to uh, set up a surprise?"
"Forward?" she repeated, then leaned forward and lowered her voice. "Spence, you love her, right? And she loves you?"
He nodded.
"I envy her. I would have loved to come home from work and find that Will had made some sort of effort to make dinner or whatever," she paused to let the significance of that set in. "Spence, she will love it. She gave you those keys because she loves you. She trusts you. Right?"
He nodded, relieved. Margie returned with JJ's breakfast and the two of them ate and chatted while they waited for the rest of the team members to arrive.
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