Note- This will be an anthology of stories about Spencer Reid's love life.

Whenever I write a one shot, drabble or short story about his character I will put it here. The stories stand alone. They are in no way connected or a continuing story.

Reid and Emily

Compartments

September 2013

Contrary to what he probably thinks, Emily Prentiss did not give up her job at the BAU because of anything any man did or did not do. She moved on because it was time to move on. She let them go so she could have something else she wanted more: a child.

Of course everyone swore they would keep in touch and, for a while, a few of them did but working that job takes just about everything from a person and so she understood when the phone calls and get togethers started to grow further and further between.

They were still friends. Still family. But, of course, it wasn't the same as when she worked with them. Nothing can stay the same forever.

She has no regrets. Her adoptive daughter keeps her busy at night and every weekend and her desk job in the FBI keeps her busy all day during the week. She has a full life.

Does she miss them?

Of course but she's grown used to it. A person can grow used to almost anything. She knows this and reminds herself of it often, usually when she is in bed with her lover who she keeps away from her daughter because she doesn't want to let him that close. Let him all the way into her life. She is only with him because she really can't stand having bad first dates or short, unsatisfying flings anymore. She doesn't want to bring a parade of strange guys through her daughter's life or take time away from her kid to search for a lover.

So she stayed with Marcus longer than she probably would have back when she worked at the BAU. But he gives her some of what she wants and a little of what she needs. Its good enough for now. She doesn't want to devote the energy it would take to have more than that with some other man...to go out looking for it.

That all made sense in her very analytical mind- keeping her lover compartmentalized from her daughter and her job and her family and her past- until the day she bumped into Spencer Reid in a coffee shop on her side of town....she had moved to this neighborhood to avoid moments like this and for three years she did....and then she was stuck in a moment she didn't think she wanted to have, alone with him for the first time since that one time that went so wrong, and she doesn't have a clue what to say.

She was heading for the door, her eyes on her blackberry and a coffee in her hand, when she ran right into him.

"Oh! Sorry about that," she muttered apologetically before her eyes fluttered up. "Reid....uh."

"Emily."

"Hi!" She felt foolish for her bubbly greeting. He always did reduce her to a school girl when she was calm, cool and in control with every other man she ever met. "What are you doing over here?"

"A new bookstore opened down the street and I wanted to check it out."

"Oh. Sure. I heard about that place opening last month. I thought about you when I read the article...." Gulp, that was great, she chided herself. There she was letting him know she thought about him still. "Uh...thinking how you probably read every book they have in there already!" She let out a strange laugh that she knew sounded strained.

"Actually no because new books are released each week. During an average year there are 300,000 titles released by traditional publishers and just slightly less by non-traditional. Even reading as many words a minute as I do I couldn't make it through all of them. Of course, if I had more free time and eye strain was not a concern, I probably could read every book published in English."

She shook her head at him and smiled slightly. "Maybe when you retire."

"My eye sight will most probably be quite diminished by that time as age usually-"

"I was just joking."

He stared at her. She smiled brighter.

It was really unfair. She missed him. Missed moments like this.

(I think that possibly maybe I'm falling for you.

Yes there's a chance

that I've fallen quite hard over you

I've seen the waters

that make your eyes shine.

Now I'm shining too

Because

oh because

I've fallen quite hard over you.

If I didn't know you

I'd rather not know.

If I couldn't have you

I'd rather be alone.)

Emily let herself relax for a moment as she stood there looking into his eyes. Let herself have this one second where she could remember him in a good way.

Unlike the memory that had haunted her for the last few years.

XXXXXXXXXX

May 2010

She couldn't blame it on alcohol but she wished that she could. They were at a party for Henry's birthday. She ended up in the kitchen with Reid, just talking casually, and for some reason that night she felt so good and relaxed.

Maybe it was being around the kids, being away from work, just feeling normal for once.

And Reid was there. Over the years she had developed a thing for him, in her own head, but she never thought she'd do anything about it. She had her bad dates and her sad little flings with men who wanted her to work less and dote on them more, or ones who didn't care she was hardly around and were more than happy to be not much more than a booty call to her.

But Emily lived for the moments when she had Reid's full attention. Sometimes she even did things to get it. She didn't plot or plan or anything like that but she would just do something to make his eyes and his mind be on her, for just a minute, and when she had his full attention she felt truly alive.

Standing in JJ's kitchen she felt like that. He was listening to her talk about when she lived in Italy and this shrine she used to go to that people believed could heal them. Reid told her that was not possible- that a place could heal a person if they prayed there- and she told him that wasn't the point, if it worked or not. The point was it made people feel better.

He just gave her a look like he didn't get how something that couldn't be real could make anyone feel good and, seeing that very familiar look, she felt this rush of something warm and sweet through her...something as close to love as she had felt in years...and then she walked closer to him.

Without giving him any notice she pressed her mouth to his.

For a second she thought he might respond back but he didn't. It grew awkward and she moved away from him, running her hand through her hair and laughing in an embarrassed way. "Way to make a girl feel rejected, Reid!" she joked, trying to play it off.

"I'm sorry," he told her in a serious tone. "I'm just not sure what brought that on."

"It was just an impulse gone wrong," she said, shrugging her shoulders before she walked out.

He didn't bring it up again. By summer Emily was in a lawyer's office filing out paperwork to be a parent and soon after she left behind her desk in the bull pen, and her chance to see Reid every day.

XXXXXXXXXX

September 2013

Emily's phone buzzed. Looking down at it, in her hand, she then told Reid "I need to get into the office."

"Could I walk you out?"

She was taken aback by that, for a second, and stilled but then said "Sure. I'm parked down the block. I have a mini van now. Funny, huh?"

"That is the most popular vehicle for parents."

"Right," she said, in a tone that told him he didn't have to constantly prove to the world he knew everything.

As they walked down the block he asked her "How is Cassandra enjoying St. Johns?"

That was the prestigious pre-school Emily's daughter attended. Emily's mother got her in there. Emily had almost refused to send Cassie there but then she thought about how she didn't want to deny Cassie a chance at the kind of future being in the right schools gave a person. In a way Emily almost wished she could forget about all that and just raise her kid in a stress-free, fun matters more than anything, kind of way. But she feared that would be short changing Cassie somehow.

It was hard to know what was right and what was wrong when it came to parenting. And Emily had to figure it all out alone.

"I guess she likes it enough. There's a few bullies though. Can you believe it? At that age."

"Unfortunately I can."

She cringed at her stupid slip of the tongue. Of course he could understand that. She never saw him as that kid who got picked on but he still seemed to never forget that was who he used to be. "I almost didn't send her to any pre-school at all. Would that have made me a bad mom? I can afford it and she was accepted....but, you know, she's four. Why so much pressure already? Can't she just make mud pies and flash her panties at the boys in the park for right now?"

Reid's eyes widen. "She does that?"

"Sometimes!" Emily laughed. They made it to her car. She hated for their time together to end but she had to get to work. Even though she didn't go into the field anymore her position still was fast paced and highly stressful.

She didn't really look forward to going to work right then. But she knew that this time she had with him would help her get through the day. She would put Reid into a place in her head that nothing else could touch and she'd go there when she wanted to smile.

Emily might not let herself think of him often but now when she did at least she'd have a good memory to remember. And that was something.

After all, nobody gets everything. And Emily didn't think she could let herself mourn not getting Dr. Reid as her lover.

She just put it in a box in her memory and left it there. The lingering longing for more with him.

Looking at Reid, as she stood next to her minivan, she said "It was good to see-"

And then his mouth connected with hers, drowning out the last word and changing her mind about a lot of things that might be coming for her in the future. All because she randomly ran into him in her favorite coffee shop.

(I never knew just what it was

about this old coffee shop I love so much.

All of the while

I never knew.

I never knew just what it was

about this old coffee shop I love so much.

All of the while

I never knew

All of the while

all of the while

it was you) (Landon Pigg)

THE END