1 | TREPIDATION. [SPENCER REID]

TWENTY SIX.

TWENTY SIX ; HELP.

"Is everything okay?" Spencer asked, eyebrows furrowing as Quinn walked into his apartment without even looking at him. She had never been so forward with him before. Spencer shut the door, eyes following Quinn as she paced the floor of his living room, seeming unnerved and in thought.

The girl shook her head, hands intertwined together and cupped around her mouth. Spencer noticed the slight shaking that they had.

"I-I-I-" She started to stammer, unable to look at the man before her. "I, uh- I-"

"Hey, hey, look at me," he said, voice soft, walking over to her and placing his hands upon her shoulders, steadying her. "Breathe, Quinn. Tell me what's wrong. Tell me what happened."

She released a shaky breath, eyes closing for a moment, before opening them and meeting the familiar gaze of Spencer Reid. The eyes she had seen so many times, the eyes that she had looked into on multiple occasions, the eyes that somehow, made her feel at ease and giddy at the same time.

"Masters," she whispered, fixated on the floor beneath them as she saw Spencer frown. "H-he called me."

The doctor furrowed his brow, attempting to maintain his calm composure. "When?" he asked.

"Before I called you," she replied, feeling her heartbeat accelerate. "His lawyer let him have a phone call."

"What did he say?"

She shuddered. "The exact same thing that Nelson did." She glanced up to see the genius' face contort into confusion, then realization, then anger. "Spencer, I don't know what to do. I don't know whether to believe him or to ignore him. I don't know if I should be sleeping with one eye open or if I should be acting like nothing's wrong," she said, voice getting softer with every word she spoke. "All I know is that I'm terrified. I'm scared, Spencer. I'm scared."

The doctor's heart wailed for the girl before him. Some people were afraid of spiders or vicious animals. Some, like himself, feared the dark and the unknown that came with it. But Quinn Carson's fear lied in a single man. A man with a brain larger than his body, a man whose schemes had taunted innocents and enemies for years, a man whose singular mission was to destroy her.

"He said that they think the jury will lean his way," she murmured. She could feel Spencer's eyes bore into her head. "I looked up his lawyer. Apparently she's the best of the east coast. Keating, I think her name is."

Spencer nodded, processing the information he had received. His mind spun, creating scenarios, projecting every possible outcome of the issue at hand. He couldn't fathom the thoughts that were running through Quinn's head.

"You know," she began, a half-hearted laugh leaving her lips. "It'd make me feel a lot better if you said something."

The doctor's cheeks tinted pink, an apology slipping out. "I'm just trying to figure this out," he told her.