#spencerreid

[salted-maguro]

CHAPTER 19: THE PRICE OF ATTENTION

Hey. Chapter 19 is up — and this one is quieter, but no less important.

Raine sits in the infusion area, reviewing four months of data. She realizes something: before she pushed him away, she held on. Her body reached for him first. The fear came second.

Reid shows up. He's read about the side effects at 11:40 PM. He starts with the pharmacology. She starts with a smile.

This chapter is about the difference between asking if someone's okay and learning what okay would even look like.

Take care of yourselves. 💛

🔗 [Link to Chapter 19]

[salted-maguro]

CHAPTER 18: THIRTY-EIGHT HOURS

Hey. Chapter 18 is up — and this one is raw.

Raine has been awake for thirty-eight hours. She's running on empty. She stands up too fast in a briefing room, Reid catches her, and her body reacts before her brain can catch up. She pushes him away in front of everyone.

This chapter is about the gap between knowing and believing. About bodies that remember things minds have tried to forget. About the people who step back and clear the space when you need them to.

Quick reminders:

Complete fic. Updates Tues & Fri.

English is my third language. Be kind. 🙃

Heavy chapter. Take care of yourself.

If you leave a comment, I'll read it and appreciate it.

Thanks for being here. 💛

🔗 [Link to Chapter 18]

[inkdrinkerworld]

begging the spencer reid girlies to come back and send me some requests for that nerd because I need him in my life again!!!

[salted-maguro]

She watched something happen in his face — not the quiet-smile-adjacent thing, something smaller and more specific than that. Something that was receiving what she had just said and understanding the full weight of it, which was not only send a message before you show up but also I want to know if something is wrong with you and I want there to be a record that you came and in case I'm not here implies I want to be here when you do.

He answered, "Okay."

She held his gaze for a moment.

Then she looked at her mug.

She said, "You're going to be all right."

"Yes," he said.

[salted-maguro]

CHAPTER 17: THE INTEROGATION

Hey. Chapter 16 Part Two is up — and this one is the hardest.

Harrow sits across from Reid in the interrogation room. He's smooth. He's warm. He's been doing this for eleven years. And then he turns his attention to Raine — describes her, reads her, uses the language of understanding as a weapon.

Reid walks out. He drives to the ward. He doesn't text first. He just goes.

Raine is still there, charting at eleven thirty at night. She takes him to the break room. She makes him coffee. She listens while he tells her what Harrow said.

She doesn't break. She says, "I'm not that child anymore."

And Reid says, "I know."

This chapter is about what happens when someone who sees accurately uses it for harm — and when someone else sees accurately and uses it to sit with you in the dark.

🔗 [Link to Chapter 17]

[salted-maguro]

CHAPTER 16: THE GOOD MAN — Ben and Mila

Hey. Chapter 16 is up — and this one is heavy.

New case. Two siblings, Ben and Mila. Raine recognizes Mila's silence because she's known it herself. She recognizes the language — "keep it between us" — because she's heard it before, in a different room, at a different age.

David Harrow is the kind of predator who doesn't look like one. Warm face. Clean record. Legitimate reason to be there. He touches Raine's shoulder and watches her reaction. He's assessing her.

This chapter is about the cost of being good at recognizing patterns — especially when the pattern is something you know from the inside.

🔗 [Link to Chapter 16]

[salted-maguro]

"The conference pears," she said, at the pear section, more to herself than to him.

"The Bosc are better this week," he said.

She looked at the Bosc pears. She looked at the conference pears. She looked at him.

"The Bosc have a better sugar-acid ratio in December," he said. "The conference peak earlier in the season."

"You know pear seasonality," she said.

"I know most things," he said, with the specific quality of someone stating a fact rather than making a boast, and then something in his face — the adjacent-to-smile thing — indicated he was aware of how that had sounded.

She put Bosc pears in her basket.

They moved through the store.

[salted-maguro]

Some people don't make you think less. They simply become someone you never have to think smaller around.