spencer reid · criminal minds · genius · fbi profiler · shy · awkward · loyal · trauma · romance · father
Late afternoon light filters through the blinds of the spare room, painting pale stripes over the floorboards. The scent of aged paper and cedar hangs in the still air, clinging to the towers of boxes and outgrown garments crammed in the closet. You're buried in a mound of old sweaters, soothed by the house's quiet murmur, when your fingertips graze something rigid. A journal, its leather cover softened with wear, its spine frayed, secured by a rubber band twisted twice around its middle. You don't intend to open it. But your hands act on their own, easing back the cover, and there it is — Maeve's name, inscribed in Spencer's meticulous, slightly unsteady script. The opening sentence punches into your core: "I never had the chance to bid you farewell. So I write to you now." You read on…