Hi! This is a Spencer ReidxOC fanfiction. It takes place before Maeve, and before JJ goes to work for the Pentagon. I do not own any of the characters from Criminal Minds or their storylines. That credit belongs to the writers and creators of the show.

Reading people hadn't always been a strong suit of his.

As a child, Spencer Reid had struggled quite a lot with understanding facial expressions, body language, and tone. He would try to connect with other children, but failed drastically, and in high school, he couldn't make friends because of his young age. But as he got older, he started studying, truly studying, how to read people. And while he was blessed with an eidetic memory, actually implementing the practice of social skill and body language took time and intense study. But he learned to do it.

So why was it that when Agent Bradley walked in tiny steps on ballet flats into the office and into his life, he couldn't read her?

It had never happened to him before. In the entirety of his life, birth through his 28th birthday, he had never forgotten how to do something. But when he tried to figure out the blonde woman with the electric eyes and powerful steps, his mind came up empty.

It was 8:36am when she appeared. He remembered that, of course. He remembered the clothes she wore and the way one of her shoes squeaked more than the other. He remembered the way her curly hair was pulled into a ponytail, and he remembered the exact way she looked at him as she passed. She had blinked twice in the time of her glance. She had made pure eye contact. Not "I'm acknowledging you" eye contact, either. The kind of eye contact with a stranger that makes your heart jump. The kind that makes you wonder if you've met them before, or if you were supposed to. The way her eyes met his instantly intrigued him. He craved to know her.

After eleven and a half agonizing minutes watching her silhouette through the blinds in Hotch's window, they emerged. She had a smirk on her face, one of pride. Hotch had his natural look. Stern. Concerned. He walked her down the staircase and gestured to his team.

"Everyone, this is Agent Bradley. She just transferred here. Round table in five minutes."

Agent Bradley. A name. That was the first real information he had of her. And she transferred. Transferred from where? Why did she transfer? The short introduction wasn't enough; Reid needed more.

"And this is Spencer Reid, our resident genius, who is apparently too deep in thought to speak." Penelope Garcia nudged him on the arm, and he flinched and shook himself out of his head. He had missed the team introducing themselves.

"Genius, really?" Bradley responded. "How did you all determine that, exactly?" She raised her eyebrow teasingly, already warm with no signs of nerves. Interesting. Most people are pretty nervous upon meeting new coworkers, especially coworkers that are already in such a close-knit group. Reid knew he had a lot to learn.

"Well," he started, "I do have an IQ of 187."

Bradley furrowed her eyebrows. "Ah, IQ. Is that the only evidence you have of being a genius? Because I don't really believe genius can be quantified with such a narrowly focused test."

Most people were intimidated by Reid's IQ, not even thinking to challenge him on his genius. Agent Bradley was not most people.

"I also have three PhDs," Spencer offered, awaiting her response eagerly.

Bradley looked at him suspiciously, then nodded. "Fair enough. Genius it is." She smiled at him, and the brightness of it made his heart skip a beat. He wanted nothing more than to make her smile like that again.

As the team walked toward the round table room, Spencer analyzed his feelings. It was rare for him to feel instantly attracted to someone, and he knew that his attraction so far was purely physical. He couldn't help but wonder about her anyway. Who was she? Where did she come from? How did she get that stunning confidence, the kind so powerful it led her to question the genius of a stranger with an IQ of 187?

The team sat around the table naturally, even Bradley. She didn't bother to wait for everyone else to sit and see where the empty seat would be. She just took one. Right next to Spencer, who blushed. Morgan gave him a knowing smirk, which made him blush even more.

JJ presented the case, a classic sexual sadist. It was textbook. Torture with knives, simulating sex. Bradley watched everyone carefully as if taking notes in her own head. She nodded casually when Reid presented a statistic on the number of sexual sadists estimated to be active in Minneapolis, where they were going. Ried couldn't help but feel insecure when he spoke, not only because of the attractiveness of the woman beside him, but also because of the need he felt to prove his intelligence.

"Wheels up in thirty" dispersed the team, and Reid left to get his go-bag, wondering about the newest addition to their team. A beautiful, confident stranger. He hoped she would stay long enough for him to get to know her, but he tried not to hope too hard. After all, everyone tends to leave him. So why wouldn't she?