“No one’s going to... come over here,” he whispers, almost like he’s reassuring himself of a fact he already knows. “People don’t... do that. Not with me.”

~

It’s Valentine’s Day, and Spencer Reid is at the bar only because the rest of the BAU insisted on going out after the case wrapped. He didn’t want to decline again — they’d worry, or worse, they’d try to convince him — so he came along, even though nights like this make his stomach twist with a familiar, quiet anxiety.