Miriam

When she agreed to be a good Samaritan to Morgan's work buddy by graciously letting him take half of her rent check, she did it under the pretense that he would be in a different city for his job at least 11 of the 12 months of the year. Or at least gone when she was home from her traveling job. Not that when he was home he would be nothing less than a holy terror. Her door was sealed tight, but still she could make out the incoherent rambling coming from his mouth in their living area.

Her clock told her it was 0235. Her body told her it was half past shut the fuck up. She flung her blanket against the wall, scooping up the nearest pillow as the weapon with which she would commit his murder. His team would have no trouble solving this one.

"Doctor!" She bellowed, storming out of her room in nothing but her tank and biker shorts.

She originally decorated the room with sparsely placed blue and green throw pillows to bring out the lighter hues in the muted brown wallpaper. The curtains were arranged neatly to allow her a view of the neighborhood but also keep prying eyes away. He, however, saw the space as his working office and tended to decorate it with pictures that sent her guests stumbling for the doorway.

Spencer Reid did not even glance up from his pacing. He wore only socks but he could have been marching with the marines for all the noises he emitted. On top of that, his mouth ran as fast as a motor to keep him on track with whatever blood and disturbing case he worked on tonight. Her pillow hurled at gale force speeds to smack into his back.

"Miriam, you are brilliant!"

He whirled, a tangle of short sloppy curls and clashing patterns from his shirt and tie. She considered tackling his lanky form and silencing him forever, but her unrelenting writer's curiosity took over. She growled out a reply and collapsed to join the multitude of files on the couch. The newspaper would have her up in a few hours anyway.

"From behind. Of course, that makes sense. The unsub was inferior but not just mentally. It was physically. So, let's say I'm a delusional histrionic who blames everyone else for not realizing his great potential."

"Let's," she deadpanned.

He carried on without hearing the laced sarcasm. "So I come at you from this angle," he circled around the couch. Long arms rested on either side of her shoulders and his infernal scent washed over her. No matter how many air fresheners she hung, it would not cancel out the overwhelming smell of sugary coffee and stale airplane peanuts. "And I incapacitate you enough to get you in my van. God, why haven't I realized this sooner?" The tie became a burden which he wrenched off and discarded atop his miscellaneous pile in the far corner. She was fairly certain it was starting its own ecosystem.

"Because normal brain functioning shuts off at midnight just like McDonalds and drug stores and anything decently useful to society."

"That little store on the corner is 24 hours."

"Since when?" She asked through a yawn.

"The whole time I've lived here at least."

"Oh, thank god. I am craving hot chips. You're driving brainy bunch."

"I'm sorry what? I only found a piece to this case. I haven't put the puzzle together yet. Based on my observations there's at least three vital factors I'm missing to even begin piecing together this profile."

"Come on, you need a break. Don't you get middle of the night munchies like normal people? You've got to be craving something. Might as well give in."

"Food does help brain function improve," Reid allowed.

"As does sleep, but you look too far gone for that to be of any use. So what's it gonna be?"

He sighed, reaching for his wallet as a sign of resignation to the task. She grappled with the dirty basket of laundry that had been waiting on her to do it for going on two weeks now. The pair of sweats she found would pass for decent and the hole in the ass only showed her pink cheekies and not her actual cheek. Reid found a whole shoe and searched for a solid two minutes before making the bold choice of pairing the loafer with a house slipper.

"Sexy," she winked, flip flops smacking the wooded floors beneath her as she strode to the door.

Reid swept up his car keys, trailing after her less than reluctantly. She might even dare to say the doctor was relieved to move out from under the weight of the straining case load. Two hands swept his short hair back into place though the wind could not grasp the short strands. A thumb adjusted his glasses as the harsh street lights glared down on them.

While she lived in the very best neighborhood her limited salary could afford, she had heard too many of Morgan's stories to not be conscientious of her surroundings. The apartment complex was gated. East and West wings stretched out from the center to box in a courtyard where the majority of her inspiration for writing her articles came from. The parking lot was out back, but fortunately for her, Reid had found a spot right in front. She blamed it on his unpredictable work hours. After her immediate surroundings and lack of a threat set in, her peripherals shifted to her roommate. A gun sat on his hip and a tight frown on his lips.

A nudge of her shoulder to his broke him from his thoughts at least for the moment. "Did you know that crime actually peaks between 9 pm and midnight? By now it's starting to wind down. Did you know that is completely reversed in adolescents?"

"You seem like a pringles guy to me? What's your poison? Original? Nacho cheese? Oh god, is it the sour cream and onion. Those are like crack, I swear."

Neither rambling party ceased as they got into the car and began to drive. Reid filled her in on weird and somewhat disturbing facts and she filled his lapses with banter that slowly weaned off taking jabs at him. By the time they pulled into the parking lot, her face was cramping. It was from smiling, she realized. This utter jackass of a roommate was not completely horrible at being a person.

He turned to her with the sobriety of a monk. He leaned close like the secrets of the white house itself were at risk of being revealed in that moment. "War heads," he said.

"Like, nuclear?" she questioned, still caught in the previous train of thought.

"Like the candy." He smiled now too. Thought it was faint, it was enough to provoke a highly unwarranted reaction from Miriam's chest. She blamed it on delirium from lack of sleep. Caused by him. To distract from the twist in her heart and the flutter in her gut, she climbed from the car and plucked them a lonely buggy from the parking lot. "In you go," she said.

"Do you know how many germs those things cart around? Plus that's just undignified," Reid chastised. "Also, I don't quite trust you enough to push me around in that thing. Statistically speaking, based on our limited interactions, you would more likely push me into a ditch and drive away than actually take me into the store."

"I'm classier than that. I'd probably just leave you with your own kind. The trash."

"Very funny. Actually…"

With a shrug, she crawled in instead and grabbed at his belt loop. "Then you push." She waited for the rebuttable. For the bite that always came when they held any conversation the length two normal humans would in passing greetings. But he just sighed and wrapped his long fingers around the handles, pushing up the hill to the entrance.

Aisles decked in summer garbs stretched out before them. A blow up palm tree waved as it deflated and refilled with air. Fake grass was sewn onto the bottoms of the walls to give the landlocked store an islander feel. Miriam plucked a lei as Reid wheeled her towards the snack section. She turned, setting it around his thin neck. The purple flowers complimented the stripes in his shirt and she added another few out of spite.

"You know I'm from Nevada, right. Now, Hawaii?"

A laugh claimed the quiet atmosphere. She sat back in the basket to roll her eyes up at him. "Dear, doctor, I didn't know you could make a joke. Did it hurt? Should I call a different kind of doctor? Do you need to catch your breath?"

"It was a statement of facts, rather. You interpret it however your brain sees best fit to cope with a situation. Each party reads it differently no matter what we were discussing. We could be talking about puppies and you could be giddy, while I would be neutral because I have never owned one."

A launch from her coiled legs set her free of the metal encasing of the buggy. She seized up the first bag of hot chips and immediately opened them. Reid's mouth pursed, but a few feet later he distracted himself with his own discovered candy. He set it carefully in the basket while Miriam stormed ahead to throw her pocket full of change on the counter of the clerk.

"That'll cover the both of you, miss," the greying man behind the cash register said.

"You're lucky this isn't a first date, Reid, otherwise you would be forking over for the fortune for this haul."

"Jerry gives me a discount," Reid replied.

"How's it going, Spencer? No coffee tonight?" Jerry called. He folded his wrinkled hands over a distended belly that was no doubt caused by the empty case of beer at his feet.

"Had some earlier, but thanks. How is your knee treating you? Did you go to that specialist I recommended?"

"Fixed me right up. Can't pronounce my medicine, which I take to mean it's good shit. Finally got you a woman, I see?"

"Oh, Jerry," Miriam patted his hand, collecting their bag of junk food. "You will see our names side by side in the obituary before wedding invitations. We called a temporary truce for the higher good of trans fat and sugar highs tonight, though."

Reid had his hand on her back, pushing her towards the exit, cart long forgotten in the middle of the wannabe tropical paradise. "I'll see you tomorrow, Jerry."

Miriam munched as they traveled, eyeing Reid's lanky form for any more of the strange secrets he harbored. He probably hid them in the pockets of those baggy cardigans or maybe the frumpy waves of hair atop his thick skull.

"Any way I can get in on that discount?" she asked.

Spencer turned the keys in the ignition but reached for the bag instead of pulling away. She flicked a chip at him, giggling when I landed in his hair. Her fingers snatched it back, plopping it in her mouth before he could wrinkle his nose in disgust.

"Do you know the amount of pollution hair acquires in just one day?"

"I'm sure you're going to tell me," she leaned closer with mock enthusiasm. "Or you're going to say it's been more than one day since you've washed it."

He did not take the bait, but instead set to work on his candy. There was something to the angle she sat at. The parking lot lamps must have lit his face just so. The music surely manipulated her heart with the perfect mixture of curiosity and mischief. His brown eyes flitted and his hands fidgeted in his lap while he fought the urge to be a smart ass. She blamed the air conditioner vents for the chill that claimed her spine when he noticed her sudden stillness and met her gaze. A nuclear bomb truly could have dropped on them and she would have been none the wiser. She was a willing captive in the radiating cloud of his presence.

Attractions did not happen like this. They were leisurely and deliberate not demanding and suffocating. God, it was everything she could do to not check her life off as complete and give in to the grave. Because women dreamed of men looking at her the way Reid was. Like they were worth more than any check could quantify. It was definitely the delirium talking. And fuck it, she was ready to answer.

She leaned forward slowly, giving him ample opportunities to run screaming into the night or laugh in her face. He met her halfway. She inhaled sharply and his lower lip slid between hers, melding their mouths into one succinct instrument capable of creating the most delicious melody from their mingled sighs. Her teeth toyed with the offering, her hands tested the waters of his hair. They both could have stood to brush their teeth. Sour and salty; logical and free-willed. She was not half, and he was not her whole, but when she kissed him none of the nightmares she wrote about or he lived stood a chance against the light they created.

"Stop," Reid murmured between sweet satisfying pressing of their tongues. It was half-hearted and his voice wavered, but she obliged still.

The seat back collided with her own. The reality hit her a full minute later. Her hand wiped across her mouth, taking all remnants of the deed with it. "Good call there doctor. Let's hit that hay before we make any more bad decisions."

"It was not bad necessarily just unplanned, uncalculated and could lead to complications as we continue to live together."

"Wouldn't have happened if you would just sleep like a normal person."

"Normal is so relative. What's perceived as normal to the western world would be completely foreign to people say from the Himalayas."

"Fucking drive," she grumbled, curling up in her seat. The chips were forgotten. The sour taste remaining in her mouth spoiled everything else.