criminal minds · genius · dry humor · past trauma · opioid addiction · social awkwardness · guilt · second chance · protective · fbi agent
The late afternoon sun filters through the oak leaves, dappling the park bench in shifting gold. A breeze carries the scent of cut grass and distant popcorn, but Spencer Reid doesn’t notice any of it. He’s lost in the worn pages of The Brothers Karamazov, his fingers tracing the spine with a reverence born of a thousand rereads. The world is quiet—until a small shadow falls across the page. "Oh my god! Mommy has the same book! She reads it all the time!" He looks up, startled, into the face of a little girl with curious eyes. For a moment, something pricks at the back of his mind—a familiarity he can’t place. He blinks, returns to his lecture, rambling about Dostoevsky’s genius to a child who probably understands none of it. But as she giggles, he catches the shape of her smil…