Author's Note: About a year and a half ago, I wrote this book and left it unfinished. I'm now revisiting it as I don't really like the way it was written. I'm going to finish this book and do some major editing to the chapters.

Disclaimer: This book's timeline is going to be different from the show. Everything that happened with Maeve happened about a year and a half before this book was set. Haley and her death also happened before this book takes place. Characters like Elle, Kate and Alex will not be making an appearance. Instead, Emily will be talked about as if she was always part of the original team.

Trigger warning for this chapter: Mention of suicide.

There might be things more terrible even than losing someone you loved by death.

C.S. Lewis

Spencer looked around the bullpen and just like every other night, most of his teammates had already left. Most of his teammates had been in a hurry to leave as they had a week of work thanks to all their hard work. JJ had told everyone that she wanted an early night as Henry was sick and missing his mom. Emily, Garcia and Morgan had all left going out for a drink and hoping to live it up before their next case. Gideon was god knows where; the minute they landed he had disappeared not that anyone seemed to mind. And just like always, Hotch was holed away in his office finishing his paperwork so over the next week he could focus on spending time with his son. Spencer estimated that Hotch would be done and leaving in the next 20 minutes.

Spencer wasn't in a rush to go home. Unlike the rest of his team, Spencer didn't have anyone to go home. Sure he could have gone and visited his mother in Las Vegas, but it was already known that his mother wasn't having the best week and there was no way Spener would voluntarily go and see his father.

This left him alone.

As a result, he enjoyed the time he spent with the team. It was like he had found himself another family. And even though Emily, Morgan and Garcia had asked Spencer if he wanted to go drinking with them, he turned them down. Clubs were not his scene.

Spencer sighed and looked at his watch. It was coming up to 8:00 and seeing it had been a long day, Spencer decided that he would leave and make his way home. If he was lucky, he would go and get a coffee.

Packing his things and leaving Spencer noticed that it was cold. Even though Spencer had his scarf with him, Spencer couldn't help but mental groan as it meant that there was probably going to be people coughing on the metro. He was going to need that coffee.

Once he got off the metro Spencer decided to go and retrieve his coffee from the café near his house. While drinking his warm coffee, Spencer decided to take a long way home and go through the park. The chilly breeze helped clear his overworked brain making Spencer feel at some sort of peace that it hadn't been in the last 4 days. This case had been a bad one, having everyone on edge and with his eidetic memory, Spencer found it hard to forget details that others might have not even noticed.

He was brought out from his thoughts when Spencer noticed a woman standing near the edge of the bridge. Under the bridge, there was a river flowing with a current so strong that it would be near impossible to save someone once they were in there.

Spencer slowly approached the bridge in the hopes not to scare the woman.

"Ma'am? Are you okay?"

The woman didn't answer but instead moved closer to the edge of the bridge.

"Ma'am, my name is Spencer. Can I talk to you for a bit?"

The woman didn't move for about a minute and then slowly nodded.

Spencer went silent for a second not knowing what to say. "Did you know that butterflies taste things with their feet? They have taste receptors on their feet to help them find host plants and locate food. Female butterflies land on different plants and drum their feet into the leaves until the plant releases its juices. The spines on the back of her legs have chemoreceptors that detect the right match of plant chemicals. When she identities the right plant, she lays her eggs. A butterfly of any biological sex will also on its food, using organs that sense dissolved sugars to taste food sources with fermenting fruit."

The woman had stopped moving and had slightly moved away from the edge while listening to Spencer talk. Spencer continued.

"Butterflies also live on an all-liquid diet. Adult butterflies can only feed on liquids which are usually nectar. Their mouthparts are modified to enable them to drink, but they can't chew solids. A proboscis, which functions as a drinking straw, stays curled up under the butterfly's chin until it finds a source of nectar or other liquid nutrition. The long, tubular structure then unfurls and sips up a meal. A few species of butterflies feed on sap, and some even resort to sipping from carrion. No matter the meal, they suck it up a straw."

The woman hadn't moved since Spencer last spoke, but she didn't seem so rigid and tense.

"Did you know that butterflies cannot live on sugar alone, they also need minerals." The woman whispered, causing Spencer to smile.

"Yeah, that's right. Hey, I would love to talk to you more about butterflies, but I would prefer if we were here on the ground. Could you come down from there ma'am?"

"Ray, I don't like it when you call me Ma'am."

Spencer nodded. "Okay Ray, can you come down from the edge pls?"

Ray shook her head and took a big step near the edge of the bridge.

"Ray, please don't do that. Come down from there. We can talk about butterflies more or whatever you like, but I need you to get down from the edge."

When Ray didn't respond but leaned over the edge, Spencer quickly grabbed her and pulled her down.

Ray, who had been crying began to cry harder, softly begging Spencer to leave her alone. Spencer, however, held her until Ray had stopped crying.

"You're good man Spencer, but please let me go," Ray whispered. "I need to do this."

"I can't let you do that I'm afraid," Spencer whispered back.

Ray shivered against Spencer who had loosened his grip on his hold on her.

"How about we go and get something to eat and we can talk about anything you want?" Spencer asked Ray.

"No point, I don't have any money on me."

"I'll pay," Spencer said slowly, helping Ray to her feet.

Ray nodded to let Spencer lead the way.