A/N: This is my first Criminal Minds fic and I've only just started watching. NZ is between seasons atm so what I've been watching is repeats. So far, this has nothing to do with any of them. A few of them are mentioned, but that's it. Enjoy – oh, and please review.

The library was quiet. Reid had known many types of quiet throughout his life, but the peaceful hush he always found in the library was his favorite. He stopped for a minute, watching an elderly woman reading a huge book propped against her knees because it was too heavy to hold up. He smiled as she looked up at him through thick glasses, and she smiled back. He extracted his own glasses from his satchel and moved down the racks of books.

The thing he liked most about this particular library was that the books were sorted by author, not genre; science fiction rubbed covers with romances without a care in the world. He wandered musingly down the shelves until he reached the 'S's. There he stopped, but he didn't know what he was looking for. It had been quiet at the office for longer than usual; perhaps a thriller to remind him what he worked for? Or… his hand strayed towards a sci-fi series, an old favorite. He hadn't read those in a while…

A teenage girl made her way down the aisle. Reid surrepticiously looked her up and down. She was looking for a certain volume, he could tell by her face and the speed of her gait. She walked proudly, her weight back, so he put her at reasonably well-off. She, too, wore a largish satchel, so she must have been well educated, too –

Stop it, Reid, he told himself firmly, lookingback at the shelf. Stop analysing everyone you see. It's like a disease. He kept his eyes fixed on the books.

"Snyder, Snyder…."

He looked up. "Maria V. Snyder?" He knew the library back to front and often helped people find the book they were looking for. She looked back at him, an interested smile on her pretty face.

"Yeah," she said, a note of surprise colouring her voice. He pointed.

"Which one?" he asked, stepping across the aisle to the right shelf. She joined him.

"Magic Study."

"The second one…" he plucked it from the shelf and held it out to her. She took it, but Reid found his hand lingering on it so that they both held separate ends of the book. He looked up, to find that her chocolate-brown eyes were studying his face.

"Thanks," she said. "Have you read them?"

"Yes," he replied brightly. "All three. Snyder's plot is –"

"Amazing," she finished, nodding. "It's like a roller coaster."

"Yeah," he agreed, "but her characters are a bit –"

"Lacking. Yeah. Valek especially annoyed the – I mean – I didn't like him." Reid nodded. There was something amiable about the girl, something warm and friendly that made him want to stay with her and keep talking about things that no-one else seemed able to talk about properly. She smiled at him awkwardly. He let go of the book and cursed himself for looking like a fool. "So, what are you looking for?"

"A thriller." It popped out of his mouth before he knew that that was what he was going to say. She frowned thoughtfully.

"Have you read Heartsick, by Chelsea Cain?" He thought. If he had, he didn't remember. He'd read a lot of books.

"I don't think so."

"You'd remember if you had. Well, you have to! You have to go and get it now, you'll love it. And hate it. In a good way…" He smiled as she babbled on. His whole arm tingled as she grabbed his hand and pulled him down the aisle the way she had come. She took a red volume from a shelf and pushed it into his hands. He looked at it.

"Thanks. I'm Spencer, by the way," he said, knowing that it was rude of both of them not to have introduced thenselves before now. "Spencer Reid."

She laughed. "Oh, sorry," she said in an airy, carefree manner. She held out a hand. "Juliette Clearwater." He took her hand and shook it. After she had dropped it again he looked down at the book. "Make sure you start it early in the day, because you won't be able to put it down," she said lightly. "Or sleep. Gretchen is just… terrifying. She's the kind of serial killer I'd want to be."

Reid did a double-take. Did she mean what he thought she meant? "You… you want to be –"

"Oh! That sounded really bad. I don't want to be a serial killer! I just find her fascinating. The way she always stayed five or so steps ahead of the police. She was so random, she had no type or anything, never left any traces…" she paused and looked at Reid shyly, sizing him up. He tried to look inviting; anything she wanted to say, he found himself wanting to hear. "That's what I want to do. You know, catch them. Like, behavioural stuff… profiling…"

A thrill ran through Reid. "Wait… you want to be a criminal profiler?" She nodded. He frowned. She was embarrassed – why would she be embarrassed? "Oh my gosh – that's what I do!" he said. She looked up, her eyes wide. He grinned. "I work in the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI. Catching serial killers and terrorist threats and stuff." They laughed together.

"Wow," she said, looking at him so intensely that he felt as though he were about to melt. "That's so… I'm so jealous! That's, like, my dream job. Do you like it?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "I love it. It's so exciting, every day is different, and the rest of the team is just… they're all great." An inkling of an idea came to him. "Have you finished school?" he asked her. She blushed.

"Yeah," she said. "Last term."

"Are you… do you think you're any good? At profiling? And behavioural analysis?" She nodded happily.

"I can always tell when people are lying, or hiding something. I –" He smiled to himself. Her voice had regained that burbling, excited note again. He cut her off.

"Do you think you can prove it?" She looked around thoughtfully, then grinned and pointed at the elderly woman Reid had smiled at.

"That woman," she said, "do you think she's enjoying her book?"

Reid looked at the woman, bent over the huge book. A slight frown creased her forehead. "No."

"Why not?"

"Her micro-expression –see, it's a frown of disgust. Her finger is tapping on the page – that shows irritation." The woman turned a page. "Did you see that? That was harder than necessary. Maybe the language isn't very good, and it's annoying her. Something is." He looked back at her, pleased with his assessment. She was smiling – smug! "What?"

"Nothing," she said softly, teasing. "That was very good. Wrong, but very good."

"Wrong!" he repeated, incensed. "You, an eighteen year-old high school graduate, are telling me, a professional FBI analyst, that I'm wrong?"

She giggled. "Yes. And I'm seventeen – eighteen in two weeks."

"Even worse!"

"All right! But look – if it were something immediately affecting her, it would be more than a micro-expression, wouldn't it? And she's more than halfway through it. If it was annoying her, don't you think she would have stopped by now? It's a big book, obviously a hassle for her to read."

"Not if it was… like Snyder. Good plot, but terrible characters, or something like that. And your explanation doesn't cover her hands." Satisfied, Reid watched her face. To his surprise, she was still smiling.

"I think that what's annoying her, disgusting her, is a character inside the book. Like, someone just raped someone, or somehting." She stared at the woman for a few seconds. "Well," she said finally, "let's find out. What are we betting? Your job? If I win, I obviously deserve it more than you do."

An unusually bold sensation crept over Reid. He laughed. "Coffee?" he offered.

"What, if you win, I'll buy you coffee, and if I win, you'll buy me one?" An amused smile played with the corner of her mouth. He agreed, holding his breath, hoping…

"It's not as good as your job, but… okay." And she was off, bouncing over to the woman and sitting down next to her. "Good book?"

Reid crept closer as the woman looked up in surprise. "Yes, it is, thank you, dear," she said. Reid's heart sank. He flopped down onto the vacant seat on Juliette's other side as she shot him a self-satisfied smile. "This man is such an asshole, though," the woman continued conversationally. "It's disgusting." Reid scowled. This girl had been right, and he, Spencer Reid, the genius, probably, modesty aside, Hotch's top analyst, had been wrong. He wasn't wrong often, and he didn't like it. Juliette patted him softly on the knee.

"Bad luck, Spencer. Don't tell your boss." She turned back to the old woman. "Thank you," she said, standing up. The woman followed her with her eyes, confused.

"Thank you? For what?"

"You just won me a free coffee." She looked back at him, her dark eyes glittering. "Coming?"

"No," he said grumpily, but of course, he was. She laughed, and pulled him out of the couch.

The coffee shop was quiet; not silent, but compared to the busy street outside, what noise there was seemed subdued somehow, covered in a blanket of hush. Contentment radiated from the shope, people chatting happily over coffee.

Juliette sat down at a table by the window. He followed and sat down opposite her. She watched as he took off his glasses and replaced them next to her book in his satchel.

"So," she said expectantly, "tell me about your job."

"What do you want to hear?"

"The… strangest case you ever had."

He thought for a minute. "There was one –"

"What can I help you two with today?" A chubby waitress squeezed into a too-tight skirt stood pompously in front of them.

"Ah, yes," Reid stuttered surprisedly, "yes – I'll have a tall cinnamon cappuchino, please. And …" he glanced at Juliette.

"A small mocha, thanks."

"You don't have to get a small, if you don't want to," he said, hating the slightly anxious note in his voice.

"I know," she replied coolly, "but you don't want to see what too much coffee does to me." He laughed. "So, anyway," she continued, "there was one…"

"Oh. Yes; have you read the novel Empty Planet?"

"Um… the one with the robots? And Allegro? Yes, it was really good! Why?"

"Well, there was this guy once who thought that the book was written for him. He thought he was Allegro. He was blowing all these buildings up because he thought that he was doing what the author – his mother – wanted him to… he nearly killed her before she convinced him that he wasn't actually her son."

"That's weird. I suppose the case was solved because you'd read Empty Planet and knew exactly what he meant when he called himself Allegro, or something?"

"Something like that." He shared a knowing grin with her. They sat in silence for a while. "I was kidnapped once. That was… well, terrifying, really. That was another weird case. The guy had a split personality. It hit me kind of hard, I guess. I thought I was too good for that, you know?"

She nodded thoughtfully. "I guess it would be kind of electrifying, though, too," she remarked. He frowned. He'd never thought of it like that, but he supposed it was, really.

"Yeah, kind of. Not as electrifying as the chase, though. Like, chasing the killers. Tracking them down. When you know what you're doing, you know you're faster than them…" her eyes lit up with some sort of spark.

"Yes! That's what I want to do most, I suppose. It just seems so cool, to use my useless skills in somehting that actually helps people. "

He smiled at her. She was reminding him so much of himself before he was accepted into the BAU. It had seemed like an amazing but unreachable dream –

His phone rang. He apologised to Juliette, who just waved at him to answer it. He glanced at the screen. Incoming Call, Agent Hotchner. He grimaced.

"Hotch?"

"Reid, something's come up. I need you here. Asap." Disappointment cascaded into Reid's stomach. He would have to leave Juliette without a backwards glance. Her and her dreams that seemed to mirror his own… an idea popped into his head, as ideas often did.

"I'll be there. Uh, Hotch?" Hotch grunted. Reid turned away from Juliette, sitting calmly opposite him, and lowered his voice. "Can I… bring somebody? A… a girl?"

"This is an urgent case, Reid. We don't have time for you to bring your girlfriend." Disapporval dripped from Hotch's impatient voice.

"She's only seventeen, Hotch, not my girlfriend," he hissed into the phone, glancing up at her. Although he was sure she couldn't hear exactly what he was sayong, she surpressed a laugh.

"That's even worse, what the hell do you want to bring her for, a school trip?"

"She wants to join the BAU. She's pretty good –" he paused embarrassedly, "-she proved me wrong." There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, so long that Reid thought Hotch had hung up. Their coffee arrived in the pause. He pushed his wallet across the table at Juliette, smiling at the mock-glee that crossed her face. Then there was a click, and Hotch's voice sounded again.

"All right, Reid. You'd better be right about her."

"Yes, sir." He hung up the phone and looked up at Juliette. She was toying with his wallet in her fingers teasingly.

"You have to go, don't you," she asid, a hollow, empty smile on her face. "It was great to meet you."

"You too," he said, standing up and slinging his satchel over one shoulder. He picked up the styrofoam cup of coffee. "Come on."

She blinked. "Sorry? Wh – where are we going?"

He grinned at her. "I've got you a case."

A/N: So, there it is.

I can leave it like this, if you like. Or, if I get at least 5 reviews telling me I should continue it, I will. I have some interesting ideas for other chapters. It'll have to wait until I've finished my current chapter fic, so I warn you, it won't be soon, but it will come, if you want it. I hate to blackmail you, but nothing else seems to make people review. Please, please, PLEASE, even if you didn't like it, review it. Constructive critisism is, in my opinion, even better than praise (although I love that too) and way better than nothing at all.

But, yeah. Reid/Prentiss or Reid/Juliette? I'm still not sure, so your opinions will be counted. Any ideas are also welcome! Should I use a case from an existing episode (I'll have to tape one – I'm just watching the repeats that are playing on TV and I don't know what season it is or anything) or should I make up my own? If I do, someone will probably be kidnapped/injured. Or something.

Just so as you know, working in the BAU would be my dream job so any advice on how I could get there would be awesome too! Love you!

-for you!