I hope people are enjoying this.

Chapter Five:

"Slow down!" Reid said as they skated a cross the rink hand in hand.

"I'm going as slow as I can!" she said with a laugh.

"Can we take a break?" Reid asked.

"Sure," she said.

They sat on a bench on the side of the rink. Reid was breathing heavily and rubbed his ankles. It was definitely a new experience for him.

"Next time we'll do something fun you like," she said.

"A museum, with non-slippery floors," he said.

She laughed. Her mood became somber then. It was now, or never.

"I need to tell you something," she said.

"About whether you have siblings?"

"Yes," she said. "I had a brother I don't remember. I was six months old and he was in kindergarten. My mother had been drinking all day and left me to pick up my brother from school. She ran a red light on rainy day. They say they both died on impact."

"I'm so sorry," he said. "How'd you cope?"

"My neighbors looked in on me occasionally. My father had no idea how to raise a child. I was left mostly to my own devices. He mostly ate and smoked his emotions. He died of a massive heart attack the summer before I started Georgetown undergrad. I hate to say it, but it was a relief knowing I had nothing to go back to in New Hampshire and I could start a completely new life here."

"Thank you for sharing that," he said. "It seems only fair that I share about my childhood. My mother is a paranoid schizophrenic and my dad left me-us when I was ten. I had my mom committed when I was eighteen."

"That is rough Spencer," she said. "I guess you never know how good you have it until you see another perspective."

"My mother loves me, and I love her," he said. "I write to her every day. I feel like one day I am going to be punished for what I did to her and that I deserve it."

"Spencer," Wright said seriously. "Your mother is sick. You saved her by having her committed. Don't think like that. You're a good person."

"I haven't even told my team about her," he said. "There are things I'm just not ready to share with them."

"Darla and Amy know," Wright said. "They say I have trust issues about letting people see the pain I've gone through. I'm beginning to think you have the same issues."

"I'm afraid of how they'll react," he said. "There's a chance I'll develop schizophrenia too. As soon as I hit thirty, I should be clear of any risk of getting it, but nothing is guaranteed."

"If their your friends like you say, they'll understand," she said. "Trusting people is hard, but it can be very worthwhile in the end."

"You're going to be a brilliant lawyer, you know that?" he said. "I can't always empathize with the victims as well as others because I understand facts better than humans."

"You're still young Spencer," she said. "You don't know everything. Everything is a learning experience and you'll find your way. I believe it."

"Lila just wants to be friends," he said suddenly. "Why is it every girl I date just wants to be friends with me?"

"I don't get it either," she said. "You're a great person to be around. I really know nothing about relationships."

"My job deals with understanding human behavior, yet I feel like it is a foreign language I still can't master."

"But you're good enough at it to be in the elite BAU," she said.

He checked his watch.

"We should get going," he said. "You're a good friend Chloe. Thank you for today."

"Thank you, Spencer," she said. "You're a good friend too."

…

"The average woman doesn't know she's pregnant at six weeks," Wright argued. "These 'heartbeat laws' are ridiculous, and they're being made by men. Some women are not equipped physically or emotionally to have children, yet we're forcing religious doctrine on them."

"What about the writes of the unborn child?" her opponent Derek Stone argued. "A child shouldn't be killed because the mother wanted an even number of kids. Some women use it as form of birth control."

"Enough," the professor. "You both make good points. Wright you have grown an enormous number of back vertebrae since I met you. Good work. Stone, back your arguments with more facts. Class dismissed."

Everyone began to pack up and leave. Stone approached her.

"You did good," he said.

"Thanks," she said. "You weren't bad either."

"Hey, you want to get coffee?"

She looked at him.

"Didn't you start the betting pool for when I'd quit?"

"I underestimated you and your determination. I want to get to know the person who is now my fiercest competition for top honors in the class. What do you say?"

"Just coffee," she said.

"I count that as a win," he said.