Reid took a step towards her, saying, "Samantha-"

She shook her head, but her eyes stayed on his. However, it was her mother who directed her daughter, trying to distract her. "Sami, go get Lily and Ava from the kitchen and take them to the park down the street. I know Lily has wanted to go for some time now, but your Papa and I have been so busy."

"Dr. Reid can also go with you," Gideon added quickly with a small, harmless smile. "He needs his daily walk and I don't feel like walking him today." He was joking, so she was forced to crack a smile.

She had to remind herself that she had to keep the mask on for everyone else. It had normally always been her duty since Joan's head usually was in the clouds. She knew the routine well enough by then…

Taking in a deep breath of air, she smiled lightly at them before nodding at her mother as she headed into the kitchen, trying to be as cheery as possible when she told them that they would be going to the nearby park.

Lily was practically hopping the whole time out of the kitchen while Ava followed her little sister slowly. For a second, Samantha was going to run upstairs and change, but everyone in this neighborhood had known her since she was a kid meaning not many would care about the fact she in shorts and a t-shirt. Plus, it was uncomfortably warm outside, she didn't feel like wearing anything else.

"Come on, Dr. Reid, let's go out for your walk," she sighed as she walked past him with Ava and Lily already out the front door. She sighed, "I better get paid for this."

Reid followed at her side, trying to talk to her as they began walking down the sidewalk towards the park, which was just down the block. Most of his 'casual' talk came off as uncomfortable since he was fidgeting most of the time. However, Samantha didn't mind since she hardly paid attention to his chatter. Her mind was once again elsewhere, but she didn't purposefully tune him out. Samantha just needed time to think things out, but sadly this wasn't the time to do it when Reid asked her something.

"I'm sorry, what?" She asked, looking up at him.

"How are the children?" Reid repeated, nodding at the giggling girls up ahead. A few other kids were already playing around on the street that was usually empty of cars driving by.

"Well, there is Jon, the youngest, but he's napping back in the house and he's too young to understand his mother is gone. He's only a year old, so everything is pretty much still filled with sunshine for him," Samantha sighed. "Lily asks where her mother is daily, but none of us have the heart to tell her what is really going on. Everyone sort of waited until I arrived…Ava is a mess, but I'm doing my best to help her through it."

"Everyone in your family count on you?"

Samantha crossed her arms over her chest, nodding her head in response. "I don't know why people count on me, though. Joan was the stronger one, no matter what anyone said. She pulled through for everyone when I wasn't there or couldn't make it. She was the one who had three kids and raised them on her own. No matter what people say about my sister, she was the best kind of person out there…," she sighed, but added with a dry laugh, "I wouldn't be the average cook without her help and I was one horrible cook."

With a small smile, Reid shrugged. "I'm not a great cook either. The mechanics of such things are very confusing. I mean how does one separate the egg white from the yoke? It seems tedious and unnecessary. Plus, most of the time, the team goes out for food whenever we have time for actual food."

"I bet your main diet consists of donuts and bad coffee?" Samantha quirked a real smile.

"My coffee is never bad the way I make it," he replied, grinning.

"That's true," she chuckled, but frowned when Lily stumbled to the ground. For a second, Samantha was about to run over and help her up, but Ava was the one who slowly helped her little sister to her feet and then brushed her off before setting off running down the street again.

It wasn't long until they reached the park, where there were a mass swarm of small children and adults running around and having fun in the summer heat of New Brunswick. It wasn't that big of a park, but it was nice enough for the people living in the surrounding neighborhood.

Without any warning, two thick arms grabbed Samantha from behind, picking her up and swinging her over the person's shoulder. Samantha screamed out in surprise, but laughed when she recognized the red and yellow football jersey with Payton 17 printed on the back. She began struggling, which forced her neighbor to put her back on the ground laughing.

"Payton, you jerk!" Samantha giggled, punching him in the arm. Of course, it didn't do much since he had more muscles than most guys. It always surprised her that he didn't break every bone in a person's body when he went for a hug.

"Sam Sam!" he smirked down at her. He frowned slightly when he noticed a tall, lanky man standing a little awkwardly not too far from them. He didn't look like much or really pose a threat against Peyton who was twice his size. This guy was wearing an oxford with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and black slacks. He had brown hair that reached his chin, which Payton found a little odd, but didn't think much of it until he noticed the gun at his hip.

He nodded at Reid, saying, "Wanna put that away, man? There are little kids around."

"Payton," Samantha began with a frown. "This is Dr. Spencer Reid, he's an agent of the BAU, which is a department of the FBI."

Reid waved with a slight smile, but didn't say anything.

"FBI? Sam, what's going on?" Payton asked.

"Don't call me Sam," she sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. It was the one thing that bothered her and everyone knew it, yet everyone still called her by that dreaded nickname. People calling her Sam was simply annoying. Her name was Samantha and if that was too long for them, well too bad. With a sigh, Samantha shook her head and went on. "Nothing you need to worry your thick head about. Spencer is just here, that's all you need to know. Now, if you excuse us, we're going to go sit somewhere where I can watch over the girls. See ya, Payton."

With that, she motioned Spencer to follow her after she waved off Payton.

His dark eyes watched her walk across the park with excitement; his goddess was finally there and within his reach.

She was exactly as he had remembered her from when he had first saw her years ago on that college campus. Back then, she had her long, dark hair in a high ponytail and wore a t-shirt with Harrison Ford as Hans Solo on it and a pair of torn up jeans. Before she could afford contacts, she had worn those large, black rimmed glasses, but luckily her braces had been taken off by then so she hadn't looked terribly goofy.

Well, no matter what, he always saw her as perfect. Though as he looked upon her then, he noticed that her hair was up in a messy bun, but a few strands of hair was framing her heart-shaped face. Though that didn't please him at all; he liked it when her hair was down, framing that lovely face of hers.

However, his scowl deepened when he noticed her with someone else, a guy to be exact. Snarling, he left the park, bumping into people on the way. Some people yelled at him, but he kept running until he reached his van, got in, and drove off.

"Wow," Samantha whistled when she saw Reid rapidly win a game of chess against some of the nerdiest kids she knew back in high school and some new nerdy kids. She started laughing when Reid asked if she wanted to play next.

"Right, because I can play against you," she laughed, shaking her head. "I would most likely loose within the first five minutes."

"Well, maybe I could teach you how not to loose," he began, sitting back in the old-fashioned metal chair. His brown eyes looked into hers, showing her that he was serious as he continued. "The number of possible, unique chess games is far greater than the number of electrons in the universe. The number of electrons is estimated to be a mere ten to the seventy-ninth power, while the number of unique chess games is ten to the one hundred twentieth. So, as much as there a possibility of winning there is of losing. I can teach you some tactics, but ultimately it's up to your own strategy."

Samantha blinked, a smile frozen on her face. "Hah, right."

"You're scared of losing." Reid smirked, tilting his head as he assessed her.

"Oh, really?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You don't ever put yourself in a situation unless you are sure to win. It's pretty common among women such as you," he answered, shrugging as if it was no big deal. "Hard working throughout your life, doing anything you can to get out of the mediocre life style. You probably saw the other kids with 'better' and you couldn't help but strive towards for possibly your own children. It wasn't particularly because you had a bad childhood, but you wish certain things were different."

Samantha frowned. "You can't possibly be so sure of that."

"It's my job to be sure of things like that." He leaned forward, arranging the pieces as another kid came over to play with him. It didn't take long for them to start the game and quickly be consumed by it. It was interesting to watch Reid rapidly move his hand around the board, taking pieces and putting them to the side as the other player tried his best to do the same. As he played, Reid eventually went back to what he was telling Samantha. "For example, you don't like people forcing things onto up, such as being there for people unless you are certain you can be there. You don't make promises because you want to mean it so as to keep it, which could mean that as you were growing up someone constantly broke whatever promise they made with you."

She only blinked, stunned into silence.

"Checkmate," Reid said, grinning, The other boy shrugged, waved, and walked off without really saying much, not that Samantha was really paying much attention. Samantha just sitting there, thinking it all over. However, there were some things she did not want to dwell on, so she quirked a smirk and nodded.

"Okay, genius, teach me how to play."

Don't own Criminal Minds. Like reviews. Thank you for reading~

Right, if anyone was annoyed with how I responded to all the reviews, I'm here to say that is stopping. I never really liked doing that because I'm really lazy and I normally just list the names of my reviewers, so yeah. Anyways, if my readers could tell me what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong would be nice. I mean seriously, I'm a big girl. I can handle criticisms because I know I'm not some fantastic writer...yet. =P So, in simpler terms...review or no update.

Also, I need a beta reader because my grammar is...blah. So anyone up for that?