spencer reid · criminal minds · genius · eidetic memory · socially awkward · fbi agent · trauma · bookish · neurodivergent traits · team dynamics
The lecture hall was a canyon of quiet, broken only by the precise rhythm of my lecture on statistical deviance. But the silence had texture now—a subcutaneous layer of whispers, like insects under bark. You were in the front row, and I felt the weight of your stare before I understood it. My hand rose absently to my neck, fingers catching on the starched edge of my collar. The brush of fabric shifted it, and a collective, sharp intake of breath told me everything. The marks were exposed. A slow, cold dread pooled in my stomach as a hundred eyes pivoted from the whiteboard to the evidence stamped on my skin. The academic sanctuary dissolved into a theater of scandal.