⚠️TW⚠️
Talk of self harm and abandonment

You look out at the crowd of students. You're usually confident presenting stuff like this, but for some reason you're nervous. You aren't used to younger crowds. You take a deep breath and start talking.

"Hello everyone, like Professor Davis said I'm Dr. y/n y/l/n. I'm a psychology intern."

A boy in the crowd raises his hand. He's slouching and wearing a dirty gray hoodie, his hair messy. He obviously doesn't want to be here. You look at him and point, signaling that you can answer his question.

"If you're a doctor, why are you only an intern?" he asks. You actually get this question a lot.

"Well, a psychology intern isn't a regular intern. I get paid for my job. I do things like conduct tests and experiments and I make patient assessments. I'm not a registered psychologist because I don't have my PhD in psychology." The guy nods and looks down at his notebook. He begins to write something down and that makes you feel a little better. You walk over to the desk and grab your clicker. You go to the first slide of your presentation and read the first sentence.

"Behavior in humans and animals is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individuals history. Can anyone tell me what antecedent stimuli is?" You look around the room. A girl with dark coily hair and glasses has her hand raised, along with a few other students. You point to the girl. She lowers her hand.

"It's a stimulus that cues someone to act on a learned behavior."

You nod. "Yes, correct. These behaviors can be big or small. They can be as simple as putting water on your toothbrush before brushing your teeth, or they can be complicated. I can't really give examples on complicated ones because every individual has different learned behaviors." You look back at the whiteboard. "Now individual history is a very important factor of behaviorism. Any moment or event in your life, big or small, good or bad, affects your actions. This includes accidents, promotions, family and romantic life, etcetera." You press the button on your clicker to go to the next slide. A picture of Albert Fish pops up.

"Take Albert Fish for example- He was an American serial killer who's wife left him and their six children, taking everything they owned with her. This caused him to start having auditory hallucinations of John the Apostle. He told law enforcement that the apostle would tell him to roll himself up in a carpet. He would also indulge in self harm by stabbing needles into his abdomen and groin." You switch to a picture of a x-ray of Fish's pelvic region, and the needles in it. You get some gasps and whispers from the crowd. You take a quick glance at Dr. Reid and notice that he's looking at you instead of the picture. When he notices you looking he quickly looks away. You try very hard not to smile too wide- again.

The rest of your lesson goes by very smoothly. You use a few more serial killers as examples, but you mostly go over points of behaviorism. You get asked a lot of great questions, all of which you answer with confidence. It made you happy to see all of the students taking notes as you talked. You really enjoyed teaching and by the looks of it, the class enjoyed themselves too. Even the slouching boy from before had a little more pep. There were a few times where you caught Dr. Reid staring, and it definitely put you in a good mood and gave you some confidence.

After an hour you finally completed your lesson. As you walk back to your seat you are applauded by the students, Professor Davis, and Dr. Reid. It makes you happy that they enjoyed something you worked hard on. As you sit down, Professor Davis stands up again.

"Alright everyone, now that Dr. y/l/n has finished her wonderful lesson Dr. Reid will start with his."

Dr. Reid stands up out of his chair and goes to the front of the room. He plugs his laptop into the projector with absolute focus. He furrows his eyebrows again and licks his bottom lip slowly. It makes your insides flip again. Once he has it on the whiteboard he begins to talk.

"Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Spencer Reid." He looks a little awkward. Not shy, but you can tell he doesn't go to a lot of social settings. "I'm here to discuss terms used when talking about criminal behavior."

He pulls his hands out of his pockets and that's the first time you see them. You have a big hand kink, and the only person who knows is Cecilia- and his are perfect. The sound of his voice is drowned out as you look at how long his fingers are. The veins on the back of his hands show through, and they're a nice size. Not only that, but there's no hair on them. You stare at them for a while, watching how they move around as he talks. You come back to reality when he turns away to grab the clicker sitting on the desk. You check the time. He started talking at about 8:32, and it's now 8:40. Were you really staring at his hands for eight minutes? You look down at your lap wondering if anyone noticed you practically drooling over something so stupid. But is it really? Instead of overthinking it you decide to listen to his lesson.

"Now a stressor is something that causes a strain of distress or anger. That mixed with the trigger, the thing that brings back memories of a traumatic event in the individuals history," he gives you a quick glance. "is what causes a criminal to commit a crime." he looks out at the crowd and they all look down to take notes. Watching him teach is kind of sexy. You've always been a little bit of a sapiosexual. You look at him a little longer but you make sure not to stare. He starts speaking again once most of the class looks up from their notes.

"Are there any questions? I know my part wasn't as interesting as Dr. y/l/n's, but I'm happy to answer questions that weren't included in my lesson." Nobody raises their hand. You feel a little bit bad for him. He looks a little disappointed, and it makes you sad. "Ok, well thats the end of my lesson. Thank you."

Professor Davis stands up out her chair again, beaming. She obviously loved the lesson. As Dr. Reid walks back to his seat, you smile at him. He gives you a small smile back and looks down at his feet. He sits down next to you and you lean over to whisper.

"For what it's worth, I thought it was a very intriguing lesson." Even though you were distracted by his hands the whole time, you wanted to make him feel better. He smiles enough to show his teeth and you almost gasp at the sight. It's one of the most contagious smiles you've ever seen in your life.

"Thank you. Yours was very well put together, are you a fan of serial killers?" You laugh a little bit at the question. The corners of his mouth lift a little bit, and you look down at your hands to twiddle your thumbs.

"Yeah, I love watching true crime documentaries and listening to podcasts. One of the reasons I applied to the BAU was to learn more about serial killers and the way they think." You look up again and notice him looking at you in a way you don't recognize. No man has ever looked at you like that. It makes the butterflies in your stomach reappear for the third time. You don't know why it keeps happening, you usually don't get like this around guys. But something about this one is different.

Your quiet conversation is interrupted by Professor Davis. You feel bad that you weren't listening to her talk all this time, but she doesn't seem to notice or care.

"Now let's give one last applause to Dr. y/l/n and Dr. Reid. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit us! Class is dismissed."

Everyone applauds you and Dr. Reid one more time as they start to leave. Both of you stand up. You smile and give a wave while Dr. Reid purses his lips together and just raises his hand awkwardly. You walk over to the desk and start getting your things together.

A few students walk up to you and and spark conversation. It makes you feel good knowing people are interested in you and your work. Once everyone leaves, Professor Davis makes her way to you and Dr. Reid.

"Thank you again to both of you for coming. I will make sure to put in a good word with your superiors."

You smile and say thank you. Dr. Reid says thank you as well, and you shake Professor Davis's hand. She wishes you well and says that she hopes to see you again, and she leaves the room. You stay behind in the classroom for a little bit to look around. You want to reminisce on the memories before you leave.

"So how long will you be in town?"

You look behind you and see Dr. Reid with his hands in his pockets and his satchel on. He's smiling a little bit, but not enough to show his teeth. You hope that you'll see the full thing again before you leave.

"I leave tomorrow afternoon, I have to be back to work on Friday. What about you?"
You look back at his eyes. You could get lost in them if you stared too long. Part of you wishes you could.

"My train leaves tomorrow night."

"Isn't driving faster than taking a train?" You ask. It takes about four and a half hours to get there by train, but only two and a half by car. That's why you drove.

"Yeah, it takes longer but I prefer the scenic route. I also have a soft spot for public transportation."

You smile at the statement. He smiles back, shining those beautiful teeth. It makes your heart melt when you look at him.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your road trip back. Again, great presentation. Drive safe."

He starts towards the door and you watch him open the door. You don't know what happened, but all of a sudden you're overcome by this feeling of urgency and adrenaline. You don't want him to leave. So you do something absolutely unpredictable and erratic.

"Wait, Dr. Reid!"

He whips his head around and looks at you with the same unfamiliar look as before.

"Do you want to get coffee with me tomorrow?"

•••••

Sorry this chapter is so long, I got sucked into the writing. I'm just so excited that Spencer is finally here! This story is kind of a slow burn, and I'm sorry for that so I'm gonna try and update it twice a day.
BUT OMG SHE ASKED HIM OUT!!!  And it feels weird calling him Dr. Reid instead of Spencer :/
Also how do we feel about the hand kink? I have one myself (hehe) so I thought it would be fun to add.
Ok that's all for now, happy reading!