A/N: Thanks to Sue1313 for being the only reviewer for the past 3 chapters (as of the posting of this chapter). I always love and appreciate your comments and thoughts. Hope you continue to review & inspire others to do the same. I never know if it's going over well, or just how many people are actually reading this story.

Chapter 36

When Amanda got home that evening after work, Reed sniffed the note. Amanda picked it up and read: In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer. I'm out on a case, looking forward to basking in the warmth of your smile.

She thought his use of Camus was terribly sweet and endearing. Though she found herself a tad dejected over the fact that they couldn't be together in their first days of coupledom, she knew the game they were playing. The careers they had chosen would lead to many times they wouldn't be together. That was their burden to bear but she knew that they could wear it well.

She smiled looking at his chicken scratch writing and placed the note in a box, alongside the movie ticket stub, the Chekhov book note and the card from the flowers he had sent. She had never kept a box for a man before; she thought the notion was quite silly and adolescent. However, for reasons even unbeknownst to her, she felt it quite proper this time around.

She played with Reed for an hour before taking a bubble bath, taking with her a glass of wine and her headphones playing horror legend Christopher Lee reading Edgar Allan Poe, before she headed off to bed.

There was a knock at Reid's hotel room door. It was JJ; the team was meeting for breakfast and she was there to pick him up. After a few silent moments in the car he told her about what had transpired between Amanda and him. He apologized if he had acted rudely the night before; he hadn't wanted to talk about it yet. He told her that he wanted to stay though he couldn't, so he could be with his new girlfriend.

JJ was excited that the two of them finally got together. She loved Reid like a brother and though she hadn't spent much time with Amanda, she liked her as well. They had a lot to learn from each other and they would be good not only to each other but for each other as well.

She knew that being a new couple meant that wild horses couldn't drag them away from each other, but the FBI could. Amanda and Spencer hadn't had any time to truly be together since they met. Once she parked the car, she sighed deeply and looked him dead in the eyes. "I understand you not wanting to tell us. I felt the same exact way when I started seeing Will. It sucks being away, trust me I know. The first time is the worst but it's something you just have to do. We're lucky in that we have someone who knows what work is like for us. Will knows first-hand, and Amanda told me that her mom was a single mom and that she used to date a hockey player when she was younger so she's used to people being gone for a while. You'll just have to learn what we all have on this team… that you need to give 100% to your relationship when you're there and 100% to us when you're working. Make the most out of the time you spend together. Quality time. I know you're new to this and it's easy to get upset. I'm really happy for you and I know you can do this. Just remember that sometimes you have to think with your heart and not your head and that you'll be home soon. You'll be okay."

Reid smiled and took comfort in this. "Thanks JJ, I needed that."

She stopped him at the door of the restaurant. She pulled him into a hug saying, "I'm really happy for you two."

He was smiling by the time they got into the table. After breakfast he rode back to the station with Morgan to explain why he had been in a mood and that JJ had talked to him. Morgan occasionally looked over to Reid, shocked but impressed. He knew Reid had it in him, but he wasn't entirely sure that he would ever ask Amanda out, let alone to be his girlfriend. He was quite proud of him.

He smiled and mussed Reid's hair. "It's all cool. Don't even worry about it. I know you got it bad."

"Got it bad? What does that even mean?"

Morgan just laughed it off, shaking his head. "Just admit that you love this girl."

"But I don't. Yeah, we're dating now, but I still barely know her."

Morgan rolled his eyes. "I don't believe that for one second. Girl is all you talk about when you're not talking about a case. Sounds like love to me. Or at least, infatuation."

"She is not all I talk about. She's a great girl but we're not at that point. We barely started dating. Now, can you please pay more attention to the road than to my personal life?"

It was four days later that they got home and finish the paperwork to officially close the case was done by 11 at night. It was almost midnight by the time Spencer got home. There was a large sticky note on his door from Amanda. In her beautiful, girly script style writing, she wrote: 'Missed you, Spence!' She added a smiley face blowing a raspberry and the word 'always' above a heart before signing her name. He smirked at it as he took it down and opened the door. For some reason, he loved the way she wrote his name.

He put his things away and too a shower. With the only towel he owned wrapped around his waist, he stuffed clothes into a bag to drop off at the cleaners the next morning. He settled in with a cup of hot green tea and wrote his mother. Figuring that it was too late to call Amanda, knowing she had to be up early for work, he finished his tea, put pajama bottoms on and went to bed.