She had to pull back from the kiss sooner than she would have wanted to in order to breathe. You could suffocate from kissing for too long when congested, she thought and mentally rolled her eyes.

"Alex…" he said and reached out a hand to touch her cheek. He was trembling; the poor man was still nervous that he had done something wrong.

"It's okay Spencer. I'm just really not…"

Not what? Not in the mood for funny business? Well, God knew she wasn't, but she didn't think he had such business in mind right now either way.

"… not feeling fantastic," she finished, rather meekly.

"What can I do?" Spence asked.

"Unless you can either convince the trees to stop blooming, or my immune system to stop launching a full-scale counterattack at imagined threats, not much," she replied sarcastically and sneezed for what felt like millionth time today. How he could possibly be alright with kissing a dripping mess like her defied logic, but he didn't even seem bothered. Concerned, yes. But not bothered. She rubbed at her itchy eyes although she knew better; it would bring her no relief and only make them burn and water even worse.

"Lay down," he said.

"Excuse me?"

"Lay down, on the couch," he said as he was exiting the living room. Alex blinked, but found no reason to argue. He returned a minute later.

"Just lean your head back and close your eyes, I'm going to put this cool wet cloth over your eyes to ease the burning," he said. Alex had to admit that sounded wonderful - in theory. Her eyes were really swollen and they burned with a fierce determination, but as Spencer leaned over her she panicked and jumped out of the couch. He stared at her, confused, a little hurt, and quite worried.

"Alex, I… wasn't going to hurt you…" he said, hesitantly.

"I know. I know. It's just that…"

She made a helpless gesture with both hands, at a loss of words. She couldn't even explain it to herself. But Spencer could.

"It's a control thing," he said. "You feel like you're no longer in control. But you can trust me. Please, trust me. I only want to make you feel better."

She nodded slowly. She had trusted him with her life on the field, but on a personal matter she was definitely having trust issues. She was fully aware of it, but that didn't make it any easier to overcome.

As she returned to the couch she sneezed again and groaned in annoyance. Then something struck her.

"You're not blessing me."

"I'm not. I figure it would make you feel even more uncomfortable. The last thing you want is to have attention drawn to you in a moment of weakness."

He cleared his throat awkwardly as he realised what he was saying.

"Not that you're weak or anything…"

She smiled in response and lay down, leaning her head back. Spencer sat down next to her, caressing her shoulder for a while until she relaxed, and then gently placed the cloth over her closed eyes.

The coolness against her feverishly hot eyelids was amazing and it brought a greater relief than she could have hoped for.

"Better?" he asked.

"You have no idea," she moaned.

"Is there anything else I can do?" he asked, running his fingertips up and down her arm, so lightly the touch gave her goosebumps of pleasure.

"Just keep doing what you do," she mumbled. "I like that."

"Good. That's good. Because… I sort of like doing it."

"This is rather insane for a first date," she remarked, but her voice sounded amused.

"Well… as soon as you're feeling better I'll take you out for dinner, how does that sound?"

"Sounds like a date."

He chuckled and kept caressing her arm. Given how tough she was, he never would have dared to approach her at all if she hadn't obviously needed some TLC; something he was happy to provide her with. He knew he wasn't the best at comforting people, but on the other hand Alex wasn't used to accepting comfort from others, so he supposed that made them even.

Although she was right; it was rather insane for a first date. Even the inexperienced Spencer Reid could see that.

Not that it mattered at this point.

A/N

Yep, one-shot turned into two-shot because of no reason. My muse does that from time to time, I've learned not to question her. She's a bit touchy. XD