Unbroken Souls (Spencer Reid x Reader POV)

Chapter 1

The keys of my keyboard click rather loudly as I finish typing my report on the last case I worked with the field office, and I notice my mind wandering into the thoughts of how warm my bed will be once I get home. The clock on the wall of my office reads 7:23pm, and the headlights of passing traffic line the freeway in an orange glow. I've been working with the FBI in the Quantico offices for nearly a year now as a victim specialist. I don't get the fancy agent title, and without a weapon, I usually don't see any major action. My role revolves around the people and their families who have experienced a heinous crime. I help with interviewing, doing death notifications, and aiding victims and their loved ones in understanding the proceedings while supporting them emotionally. I know, not as exciting as being the agent kicking in the front door of a house in search of a target, but the work I do is more fulfilling than I could have imagined as I was completing my schooling in Social Work. Since I am newer to the job, I haven't been on any major news headline-consuming cases yet, but after the last case of murder and abduction, they've told me I am ready for the major leagues.

I finish my report and send it off, shutting down my monitor and clearing my desk for the next call I get. I grab my purse and take one more look out my office window at the traffic flowing down the freeway like water. The victim services unit is located just down the hallway from one of the most elite FBI units in the country, a unit that you could only ever dream of working with... the Behaviour Analysis Unit (BAU). As I walk towards the parking structure and pass the BAU offices, I peer in the window to see Hotchner still at his desk, the cold blue light of his monitor illuminating his face in the dark office. Hotch usually works late, as I do, so I've had the opportunity to talk with him before and we usually exchange niceties in the elevators and halls, but I have yet to get the pleasure of meeting the rest of his team. He catches my gaze and we both wave and smile as I continue towards the exit of the building.

I'm a girl of simplistic things; I don't have a fancy car or a house to gawk at. My apartment is small and cozy, but it's simple and it's me. Walking through my doorway, the brighter whites of my cabinets and furniture brighten the rooms, with neatly hung wall decor, marble accents, and every surface neatly tidied and clean. I like clean spaces with no clutter, especially after days like these where the work we do reminds you of how quickly life can shatter around your feet, leaving you bare and bleeding as you try to put the pieces back together as neatly as you can... only for it to never be the same again. I hang my keys on the small hook beside my door, place my bag on the front bench and go to the kitchen to pour a glass of wine before I go to bed. The time is now 9:35pm, leaving me enough time to mindlessly scroll through Instagram for a little while sipping wine before retiring for the night. I throw Taylor Swift's Speak Now vinyl on my record player and put my work phone on my docking station in the bedroom down the hall. Knowing that my boss feels ready to send me out to the big cases has me anxiously waiting for that phone call, which sounds horrible considering the circumstances I am called in for, but something about working a big case, maybe even one the BAU is involved with is something my younger self would never even fathom. I end up scrolling for way too long on Instagram, and I only realize this when I notice the record no longer playing. With that, I got ready for bed and burrowed under the weight of my blankets, checking my work phone one last time, making sure the ringer is on full blast. One day, I'm going to work with the BAU, I can feel it.