chapter six.
(season one; episode ten)

"REID," Morgan happily began as Spencer walked into the office floor, "I've never seen you come in five minutes late. Is it because of your damsel in distress, loverboy?"

"My who?" Spencer asked, placing down his satchel in his chair before walking over to the coffee machine and having Morgan follow.

"Your neighbor, Anna-Jane," Morgan clarified, "Were you guys doing something you shouldn't?"

"If you meant talking to her mother this morning, then yeah," Spencer retorted and Morgan's eyes went wide, so Spencer quickly shook his head, "It's not that serious."

"So why are you meeting her mother?"

"Because we ran into each other before leaving for work. She was with her mom when I saw her," He went on to explain, causing Morgan's excitement to die down.

Morgan hummed, sipping on his coffee as Spencer made his own, "How is she though?"

"Okay.. I think," Spencer responded, "I haven't seen her all week until today on her way to work. She seems fine."

"You guys live across from each other yet you haven't seen her until today after her being abducted a week ago?" Morgan questioned, watching Spencer calmly nod. "It must be hard for her to go back there."

"She's strong, I think she'll do okay," Spencer shared and Morgan nodded.

"You know what you should do?" He asked and Spencer looked at him as he went on, "You should ask her out for dinner."

"Why would I do that?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"She's my neighbor and she just gone through something very traumatic, Morgan," Spencer explained, pouring sugar heavily into his cup, "I think the last thing she'd want is to go on a date right now."

"Easy up on the sugar, Reid," Morgan told him as he noticed how much Spencer had put in.

"I need something to wake me up," Spencer responded, glad the conversation switched topics. He wanted to ask Anna-Jane a million and one questions, to see how she was holding up, but when he saw her, all the questions disappeared from his mind. From a person's perspective, she looked like she was okay, but from a behavior profiler, she wasn't okay in the slightest.

"No sleep?" Spencer shook his head at Morgan's question, "What's keeping you up? Wait, let me guess- memorizing some obscure textbook. No, no, no, no, working on cold fusion- no, I got it, watching Star Trek and laughing at the physics mistakes."

"Actually, there aren't that many scientific errors in Star Trek, especially considering how long ago it was made. There are certain improbabilities, but not that many outright errors," Spencer corrected, causing Morgan's amusement to fade.

"Right.." Morgan then turned on his heels, about to walk off until Spencer called out his name, causing him to look back.

"Uh, do you ever have dreams?" Spencer asked, but Morgan furrowed his brows, "I guess nightmares would be a more accurate description."

"Is that's what keeping you up?" Morgan questioned seriously, watching Spencer glance down at his mug.

"I used to get them occasionally, but lately it's like I have them every night," Spencer explained, looking up at Morgan.

"What are they about?"

"This," Spencer glanced around the room, his voice lower than before, "What we do.. do you have nightmares?"

Morgan sighed deeply swirling around the coffee in his cup, "Reid, I'm not sure if I'm the right person for you to talk to about this."

"Why not?"

"It's just- Uh," He paused, "Did you ask Gideon about this?" Spencer shook his head again, "You should."

"Hey," Elle intervened, causing them to both look at her, "Hotch wants everyone in the round table room," She then raised a brow at them, "Something up with you two?"

"No," Reid answered before swiftly turning on his heels to walk away to the conference room. Last night his dream was about their recent case, Anna-Jane, and in it, Anna-Jane didn't survive because of him. He stood in shock as her captor, Carl Bowers took her life before his own and it felt entirely real until he saw her this morning standing in front of him, clear as day.

Spencer loved his job just like the rest of his team, but there were days when it took a huge toll on him. He often took his work home with him, focusing on the case, it's unsub and it's victims, causing him to either stay awake or to sleep with haunting nightmares on his mind. He had a sense Anna-Jane felt the same, especially after what she went through and empathize for her when he saw her.

He knew that what Morgan was suggesting was stupid, but he couldn't help but feel like he should visit her. When he finished the case with his team, he trudged home and up the steps to glance over at his neighbors door. He was about to turn to his apartment, but stopped when Anna-Jane's door swung open.

She smiled at him a little and he quickly returned one, "Hey."

"Hey," He greeted back before looking at the time, "It's pretty late, what are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep, you?" She asked, though felt somewhat stupid seeing as he just got inside.

"Just got back from another case," He responded and she nodded, hesitating a little to ask him something, which he instantly noticed. He pushed his hair behind his ear, "Something wrong?"

"Uh," She paused, leaning on the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest, "I know you're probably exhausted, but would you mind keeping me company?" His eyes went instinctively wide at her question, causing her to shake her head, "Sorry, I know it was stupid to ask-"

"No, it's fine," He assured, rushing out his words to stop her from speaking further, "Uh, I- I wouldn't mind, not at all."

She lowered her head shyly, hearing him open his door to put his bag down inside, before stepping to the side to let him inside her apartment. He cautiously walked passed her and inside, quickly taking in how her house resembled his. It was filled with books and papers that were stacked up endlessly.

"Excuse the mess, I've been trying to catch up on work," She explained, "It's not usually like this."

"It's funny because your living room still looks more neat than my entire apartment," He laughed lowly, going towards her bookshelf to look at the kinds of literature she had.

"Do you want something to drink?" She asked, "I have wine, water, and juice."

"Water is fine," She hummed at his answer before heading to the kitchen to pour them both something to drink. When she approached him with his water he pointed at her books, "I don't know many people that read Arthur Conan Doyle."

"I'm more a fan of Emily Bronté," She stated pulling out a book from the shelf, "Though she only published one novel, it was her greatest. Not many can say that."

He smiled at her depiction, watching as she put the book back, "That's true," He took a sip from the glass, "You have a lot of books, some of them in French."

"Yeah, I guess I'm bit of a Francophile," She joked, "I also began writing something that's up there now. It's not completely finished, however." His eyes scanned over her shelves until his eyes landed on one spine of a book that had the initials 'AJ.S', quickly pulling it out to see it's blank black cover.

"What are you writing about?" He asked her, surprised that he was beginning to know more about her. He thought he knew everything by reading about her in the case file, but he was wrong. She had little hobbies that fulfill her day and that made him want to know even more.

"Myself," She explained, "My time and experience with dealing with a serial killer." He then met her eyes, sympathy written on his face. She glanced down, "I'm using it as a coping mechanism, especially since my entire job is to have people like that be convicted."

"I'm truly sorry that you went through all that," He apologized and she furrowed her brows.

"You don't have to apologize," She assured, "It's all over now." She tried to make her words somewhat reflect back on herself. She wanted reassurance that it was over and that nothing like that will ever happen again.

He gave a brief nod and motioned towards her book, "Whenever you finish it, you should make me a copy."

She smiled at his words, "Yeah, but it might take a while since I will have to type it all." He raised a brow and she took the book, flipping through it to show her scribbling and brainstorming that she would come up with at 3 in the morning after a terrifying nightmare- or memory of her torture.

"Well, everything takes time," He explained, "Fun fact, the average amount of time for an author to finish publishing their book is up to six months."

A laughed escaped her as she made her way to her couch, "Do you know how long it would take for someone who isn't an author?"

"A year," He simply said, already knowing the answer, "Only because people who want become authors often make many grammatical errors in the writing process, along with having fragmentation words and sentences."

"You seem like someone to know the probability and knowledge of everything," She commented, but looked at him quizzically, "Do you?"

"Yes, because I have eidetic memory," He answered and she looked at him, watching him come over and sit next to her, "Often times it's a rare thing to have, only 20% of the population has some form of eidetic."

She rest her chin in her hand, looking at him in surprise, "Who would have thought that my neighbor, Spencer Reid, is Albert Einstein is reincarnation."

He took her words in silently and gave a soft smile. He often times doesn't receive compliments by how smart he is because he believes people overtime feel that his factual statements are more confusing and a bother. He was convinced that his mother may be the only person to appreciate his brains, but as he met Anna-Jane's eyes, he felt he was wrong once again.