The dim light of the bedside lamp cast mild shadows over the pale textured walls of the rather modest looking hotel room. The walls were and side tables were blank and impersonal, however, the warm, pale colours were calming and inviting. The colour scheme continued to the bed, with darker yet still warm coloured sheets, which threatened to engulf anyone who dared slip between them. The duvet was clearly meant for winter but the temperature of the room was less than chilly, in fact the air outside had been mild for this late on in November, making Spencer believe that the thickness of the duvets might cause him some trouble sleeping.

Right now, though, he was sitting at the dressing table, staring at his phone. It'd been exactly fifty seven minutes since he'd text her back saying that he'd call her in an hour and in his mind there was a war raging.

Could he just call? Should he call at exactly one hour? Or should he wait till it was a few minutes after the hour mark had passed? The social etiquette on these things was a little blurry but his main concerns were her actually being available to talk or worse, if he waited and left her waiting too.

The glow from the screen illuminated his thumb as it hovered over her name, seeming to glow brighter the closer it got either threatening or encouraging him to call. Spencer's lips pursed as he glared at the phone, as if he were willing her to call him instead and take away the pressure of being the one to call. If only she could sense his anxiety.

Suddenly, the time in the corner of his screen clicked forward a minute, causing him to panic as if he weren't expecting it. Fifty eight minutes had now passed. Was it acceptable yet? He really couldn't tell, he just hoped she wasn't sitting with her phone doing something similar. In actual fact he was pretty sure she wasn't doing the same as he was, he was sure she'd be busy and he'd likely call and she'd not answer or it would take a few agonising moments of listening to the phone ring before she picked up.

Spencer's palms grew clammy just thinking of the agony of listening to the phone ring off, wondering if panic would set in then too, causing him to hang up prematurely. That would be embarrassing, but why was he obsessing? This was worse than the time he tried to fill in the crossword of his latest subscription newspaper at four in the morning and it'd taken him nearly three minutes, which was quite distressing. Could it be that he was so focused on doing the correct thing that he was actually mentally blocking himself from just being able to enjoy this? Derek was right. He'd be fine, so long as he just continued to be himself as he had been over the last couple of weeks.

Click. Fifty nine minutes since he sent the text. Spencer closed his eyes while the thoughts of doubt rushed in again, asking questions like 'If I call at fifty nine minutes it, will it make me look like I was sitting waiting for the exact minute and got impatient?' It wasn't until he realised two things at once that he calmed, suddenly at great ease of the situation. Firstly, Anwyn probably wasn't comparing the time that he text to the time that he called, therefore it didn't matter. Secondly, the tolerance of time set on his phone compared to her phone could be out by a couple of minutes, so in actual fact, no one would ever be any of the wiser.

Click. One hour exactly. Screw it. His thumb hit the call button and he quickly put the phone to his ear, dreading the thought of what could happen but either way it was too late. The phone rang out its sequence, once, twice then almost a third time but cut out as if he'd lost connection. There was just silence. Panic didn't even describe what hit him as a million scenarios, the most prominent being that she'd closed his call. Then suddenly…

"Hello?" Came the familiar voice down the phone line, sending a wave of relief from top to toe.

"Hey there, Anwyn." Spencer said with utter joy in his face but trying to mask it in his voice as he stood from the dressing table and wandered to the bed. "I'm sorry for cutting and running on you, just… it happens."

"No, no, it's ok. Promise." Came the tinny, slightly muffled voice. "You have to do your job, otherwise bad people hurt good people." He smiled at her sense of his heroism, sliding onto the bed and getting comfortable.

"So, er… how was your day?" Spencer's shoulders rested against the headboard while his feet crossed themselves at the opposite end of the bed.

"It was good, I got to spend some time with the girls… You may have come up."

"Oh really?" Spencer chuckled. "All good things, I hope." There was a pause before she sighed.

"Aiden didn't really understand the up and leaving thing but she got over it when you text to check in. They both thought it was sweet. I thought it was sweet." Her tone changed to a slightly lighter one. "By the way, who's Morgan?"

"Oh, that's just Derek, one of my team. He may have talked me off a small panic attack that could have kicked in when I started thinking about how I just walked out on you." That sounded over dramatic… "I mean, not a literal one, just… you know."

"Aww, Spencer. You needn't worry about that. I get it. Really, I do." She laughed lightly. "Although, you do have one unfair advantage."

"What's that?" He asked, frowning a little in confusion.

"Well, you get to ask about my day and other small talk but I'm sure if I wanted to ask most of that stuff the answer would be 'I can't tell you that' or 'that's classified'." She joked and Spencer smirked to himself.

"Well, not quite. I mean, there's a lot we do that we have to make public to assist the case and to warn people of what to look out for." Spencer adjusted, leaning the phone on his shoulder so that he could brush his hair behind the opposite ear then pick at his nails. "In fact, even though most hotlines bring in more than ninety percent useless information, the remaining good information can be exactly what it takes to progress a case. Proved mostly by a case we had last year when a witness came forward with the information that solved one case while also giving himself away as the unsub involved in several other missing persons cases."

"Wow, that's pretty good. I always imagined that most of those hotlines would be inundated with people just making your jobs harder."

"In some cases, yes, but in a lot of serial murder cases, the personality of the killer will drive him to insert himself into the investigation, making them highly likely to call the hotline themselves. They might not give themselves away in an obvious manner but it's led to the solving of a few cases in my time at the BAU."

"So… The case you're on now. Is it… you know… is it really bad? I mean, of course it's bad, otherwise you wouldn't be there… I just…"

"I know what you mean." He said, saving her from refiguring her question. "It's always a challenge and it's always upsetting for you but… there are cases that can get to you a lot more than others. Not to take away from the suffering but this isn't one of those cases. Did that answer your question?"

"I… I think so. I just can't imagine doing what you do, seeing the things you see and still having such faith in people."

"I feel it, sometimes. Thinking the worst of people but… when you see what people can do for each other when they need it most… it kinda reaffirms your faith in humanity. It seems like people can really shine in the darkest times."

"That's sweet." There was a pause as she thought to herself. "You know, what magic has taught me is that there are no good or evil people, just good or evil actions and we all have the power to do either." Spencer chuckled to himself, knowing what she meant, that deep down we're all capable of good.

"Experience has taught me that some people just can't know the difference. I know that some people have different brain chemistry to the rest of us, making them unable to see or even feel what most should. Some people just need help." Her smile was all but audible, hearing his compassion for even those who do terrible things.

"Do… do you think that you'll be coming back soon?" Her question gave her away. She was clearly missing him but afraid to seem jealous of something much more important than herself. The honest truth was that he didn't know, not really. Spencer paused for a long while, wishing that he could say something other than what he had to.

"I don't know." His mind raced through the details of the current case. "I…" His eye's glanced side to side as he thought.

"Spencer? What is it?" Anwyn's voice was puzzled yet concerned but Spencer wasn't listening, his focus was completely elsewhere. "Spencer, talk to me."

"Anwyn, you are brilliant. Absolutely brilliant." The atmosphere lifted somewhat, causing Anwyn to laugh. Spencer shuffled forward frantically, trying to get up from the bed to check on the thought.

"I know that but… why?" She asked, trying to figure out what it was she could hear as her eyebrows furrowed. The duvet that had engulfed her like her own personal cloud of comfort fought back as she tried to sit up straight and listen even more intently. "Spencer, what are you talking about?" It was that moment that the realisation dawned on her.

"I'm not going to get to go to bed talking to you, am I?" There was another rustling sound on the other end of the phone, the sound of paper being moved and a chair being pulled across the floor.

"No, no, I'm here." He assured her but her confidence in it had already waned. The tips of her finger met her lips as her shoulders dropped from disappointment.

"Spencer, I told you. I get it. Your job… it's going to make things difficult, cutting us off when we're enjoying ourselves…" Glancing back toward the nightstand, she read her clock and realised that it was getting late. "If you need to go do something, go do it. It'd be bad karma for me to hold you back from saving the day." The pause on the other end of the phone told her all she needed to know. "Go… go be a hero… just don't be too much of a hero, stay safe."

"Thank you, just… I don't think I'd have seen it without your help. I'll be sure to tell the team you solved the case for me." Anwyn smiled broadly, being childishly proud of the action which she knew deep down she never really took but it was nice of him to say. "Goodnight, Anwyn. I will call you when we're on our way back."

"Goodnight, Spencer." The phone lit up, blindingly bright as she pulled it away from her ear, tapping the end call button and smiling.

The disappointment of him having to leave her hanging yet again was lifted but the sting of it was still there in the back of her mind. Frowning, she leaned down the side of her bed to plug the charger into her phone before pulling the duvet from beneath her and sliding under the sheets.

Curling against the thick, warm blanket and sliding a fold between her knees for comfort while sleeping on her side, she thought about what it might have been that had sparked such a eureka moment. She'd seen him reach an epiphany before and it really didn't take a lot to help him piece together the most complex of puzzles, to the point she'd never leave her morning paper anywhere near him.

The memory of his quirks made her smile broadly to herself once again, taking comfort in the knowledge that there were people like him in the world acting as a force for good. Her last thoughts before drifting off to sleep had been a wish to any force of magic that might listen to bring him home safely to her. Surely he would… wouldn't he?