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River Tam ([info]remembertoomuch) wrote in [info]utr_logs,
@ 2011-01-14 23:18:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:river tam, spencer reid

Who: River Tam and Spencer Reid.
What: Reuniting after their returns.
When: Friday evening.
Where: Spencer's apartment.
Warnings: ... yes? Geeky ones.


It wasn't hard for River to not hear Reid's thoughts. All she had to do was close her eyes, and she felt her body moving toward him like the needle on a compass pointing north. She didn't have a key, but one of the windows was open on the bottom floor of the building, and she moved her way through, passing by a janitor's closet, on her way to Reid.

When she got to his door, she tried the knob, finding it turned easily in her hand. Locking it behind her, she moved toward the living room. When she saw him, the familiar ache settled in her chest again, and she couldn't help whimpering as she ran toward him. They'd both been gone too long.


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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 05:46 am UTC (link)
While he'd been gone, he'd been having a swell time worrying himself sick (Sometimes even literally!) over what happened to River and her brother, and if they'd gone back to the reality from which they came. He had spent weeks after being pulled back home in a faraway state of mind, where he was worried about River. Spencer Reid loved her - or at least he felt it was love - and was shattered when he knew that it wasn't going to ever happen that she would show up in their original world.

He heard the door open and Reid picked her up briefly as he wrapped his arms around her. "Now I know I'm dreaming," he whispered into her hair, before bending down to kiss her.

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 05:52 am UTC (link)
River and Simon had gone back to their time, but after exposing the incident on Miranda, the Alliance had started to dissolve. Soon enough, they'd forgotten about the Tams almost entirely since they were trying to cover up something far greater. With the Reavers quieting down a bit, River had found her own mind settle and still. It was easier to think, easier to speak, and she was grateful.

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders tightly, she shook her head. "Not unless it's a shared delusion," she murmured. Tiptoeing upward, she smiled as they kissed. "Were you all right? I worried." She smoothed out his hair, looking up at him. Her brown eyes searched his face, and she smoothed out his hair. "I can't keep you safe if I'm not near."

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 06:07 am UTC (link)
He looked over her face in turn, still barely believing that he was seeing River, holding her, being able to experience her joy and fretting, even just once more.

"I worried for you!" Spencer laughed under his breath. "I've been as fine as I could be, all things considered. I had a few tough cases, but I came out all right," he shook his head, "I worried for you, because I wasn't sure I could keep you safe either. I just... I couldn't stop worrying, to be honest."

He kissed River a little less quickly this time around, albeit with some hesitation. He hadn't been keeping in practice, and it showed. Why would he have, when could he have, and who would he even want after her?

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 06:12 am UTC (link)
Her lips twisted into a lopsided smile, and she reached up to cup his cheeks. "Didn't let the dark get you? Good." She could tell that he was hesitant, and she felt her fingers curling in the fine hair at the back of his neck. "No need to worry now. I love you too, Willow." She had worried that the Reid she'd found wouldn't be hers, but she could tell that it was.

"I'm staying here," she murmured. It wasn't a question, or a proposal; it was a fact, something she wouldn't allow him to argue with.

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 06:24 am UTC (link)
And in what sane, rational reality would he even think of arguing the point with her? He smiled sheepishly and chuckled. "I spent six months hoping that this wasn't all just a dream, River. I couldn't even begin to believe it once I was back there. But the sweetest part of the dream," Spencer said, brow furrowing as his tone dipped into a whisper, "was having you so close." He was so overloaded with joy and surprise and an unknown emotion that sat in the back of his stomach, weighing it down and making him feel like bundling her close and tight against him. His eyes went wide then and he laughed, almost despite himself.

He'd almost forgotten that he'd been wearing a chain for the past half-year under his shirts, and he pulled it out, and around it was a delicate, but still beautiful ring. "I was, um... I was going to give you this in October. It... It doesn't seem right to just... um. Just wear it around my neck." It had been purchased to be an engagement ring, but he felt like they'd been robbed of six months for that. That and he wasn't entirely certain he could truly propose with all the other new emotions piling one on top of another, without losing his head.

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 06:33 am UTC (link)
"Was it that long?" She frowned a little to herself, closing her eyes and pressing her head to his chest. She liked to use his heartbeat to measure out seconds, and it made her smile. His laughter was a bit contagious, and she giggled with him.

His movement was curious, and she cocked her head to the side. She reached out to take the chain as well, putting it around her own neck. "Plenty of time for it to travel south." She put a hand over her own heart. "I'll wear it right here 'til then."

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 06:37 am UTC (link)
"It's a good place for it," agreed Spencer, slipping over to the couch, holding her hand as he sat down, guiding her to sit beside him. "I don't know if I'll be able to ever have the nerve now that I'm so nervous." He took a deep breath, sighing it out and looking at her. "Simon didn't come with you? Garcia came back with me... I guess it figured you didn't need your anchor, but I still did?"

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 06:40 am UTC (link)
River curled up next to him like a kitten, letting her head rest against his shoulder and her legs splayed over his lap. She toed off her boots, always having preferred her feet bare. "I miss him. But we're always together somehow," she smiled. "Maybe someone else needed your friend." She didn't want to move away from him for fear he'd disappear before her eyes. So she remained close to him, almost in his lap. Her fingers fiddled with his tie, loosening it and letting her fingers skim his neck.

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 05:49 pm UTC (link)
Spencer was never one for closeness and having his personal space invaded, but with River, there was no such thing. He was comfortable with her so close. "I hope so. Penelope is... well, she's got a heart big enough to hold the whole world in it, but it's easily broken. She's strong, but I worry about her, because of how affected she is by our work, and how easy she is to fall in love, and get hurt in the process."

He bowed his head with a sheepish smile, looking at River's hands, kissing the knuckles of one before continuing, "Little brother worries, I suppose."

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 05:54 pm UTC (link)
"You're a good didi, I expect." She smiled and kissed his cheek, still playing with his hair. "She's stronger than you think. Silk can stretch further than most imagine." With most people she would have whimpered when he kissed her knuckles, due to their callouses and scabs from fighting, but she knew Reid loved that part of her as well.

"You're here to keep an eye on her, and I'll keep an eye on both of you. That's mei-mei's job."

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 06:05 pm UTC (link)
"You don't have to, but..." He knew he wasn't ever going to talk her out of being the protector. He smiled and pulled her closer to him, half-whispering, "but I appreciate it, River. I really do." He rested his forehead against hers, and chuckled, before speaking in Mandarin, "I practiced while I was back home. I wanted to be able to do something for you, so I wouldn't forget."

It may have been the strangest thing for Spencer to have decided to do to remember, but he'd already learned to read and write it, the language was just as important to speak. And it reminded him of her. He knew, logically, that it should remind him of China and of the third of the world that spoke it, but he couldn't help his bias.

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 06:11 pm UTC (link)
"I want to. I know I don't have to, but it pleases me." She traced the shell of his ear, running careful fingertips over the lobe. She'd remembered surprisingly little about what he felt like, and it alarmed her. She needed to remember, she needed to relearn.

But then her already-large eyes grew bigger and filled with tears. "For me?" She kissed him gently, smiling all the while. It meant quite a lot to her; they'd have their own way to communicate beyond the thousands they already knew. "I read a lot of history about your time. Your home."

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 06:23 pm UTC (link)
He couldn't help but get a bit misty eyed with her, and chuckled, despite himself. "For you," he affirmed, before kissing quickly, and playing with the ends of her hair, like he'd been so used to doing half a year ago. It was strange and amazing to him, how easily he fell back into the moment with her. He replied back in English, "You read about now, then?"

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 06:28 pm UTC (link)
She nuzzled closer, content just to be near him. Even she realized how special it was that it didn't feel like any time had passed between them. "I did. If I wasn't a dancer, I'd want to help you with your work. I'd be good, too - I hear things other people don't - but I miss dancing." And she was going to learn everything she could, obviously, but that wasn't dictated by her profession. She could learn anywhere. Of all the things the academy had taught her, that was the most important. "Read about your work."

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 06:38 pm UTC (link)
"You'd be a good profiler, even without your ability to hear things we don't. I'm certain of it." He traced his fingers over her back lightly, where he'd been playing with the ends of River's hair. The small, gentle movements were familiar and second nature, but he hadn't done them for so long that it made his chest ache with how it was something he missed most. Being able to sit and talk and just touch with idle, chaste but loving touches.

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 06:41 pm UTC (link)
"Good at reading people. They're books to open up, even though some are fairy tales with witches in the woods." She ran her fingers over his chest and smiled. "I'm still going to teach you how to dance. Read about wedding rites here, you'll have to learn, it's mandatory."

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 06:52 pm UTC (link)
"I still know how," teased Reid, simultaneously going seven flavors of red, smiling sheepishly, "I'll get better, though. I know I'm not as light on my feet as you are, but nobody could be." He leaned back against the sofa and rubbed her arm. "I um. I just have to wonder about one thing?" He looked into her eyes, "I don't mind the change. In fact, I'm really intrigued. What changed where you can parse more traditionally than you used to? I had assumed it was due to the lack of amygdala that you phrased things the way you did. Did something happen?" He was actually really happy that she could more easily express herself. She said that thoughts weren't butterflies, so apparently they were easier for her now.

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 06:57 pm UTC (link)
"I just want to dance with you, and to see your cheeks go red." She stroked a cheekbone with a fingertip, but quickly ducked her head. "Back home... I went to a school." She hadn't really ever told him everything about herself, and wasn't aware that he might have known some parts. "They did things. But while I was gone, we found out I wasn't the first. I was the last." She curled her legs inward, trying not to cry and mostly succeeding. "They ... a whole planet, and they just - most of them just fell asleep and stopped trying and fell like birds and the rest of them got too angry and I'm the only one who didn't, the only one who wasn't affected and they wanted me to find the Reavers and reap them." She closed her eyes and wiped her cheeks. "But the 'verse knows now. The screams are more quiet. Easier to find my own thoughts when the screaming stops."

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 07:13 pm UTC (link)
Spencer listened, his brow furrowed, his tone hushed as he ran his thumb over her cheek and jaw, "my god, River." He brushed away her tears and pulled her closer. "I'm glad that you helped them, and I'm glad that things were put as right as they could be, given the situation, but still..." He had guessed at the things that had personally happened to her due to her body language, the way she fit the psychological profile for a young lady suffering from PTSD, alongside conditioned behavior and the effects of what he found out was a missing amygdala. He'd profiled her and he felt a little guilty about doing it, even subconsciously, but she delighted him and surprised him and made him feel not so alone in the world.

"That's terrible. To know that they'd done that to a planet full of people, as well as you? That's... That's..." He couldn't even find the right word to properly express the depth of injustice and sheer evil of those actions. "It makes me damn glad that all I need to worry about is one country on one planet. It just makes me feel a little better that we have isolation like this, so something of that magnitude cannot happen here."

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 07:19 pm UTC (link)
"The whole crew helped," she murmured. Slowly she grew less tense, unfolding herself and resuming her original position. "Reavers were a ghost story for most, but they were real. Didn't like the gas that was supposed to pacify. They rebelled. Ate each other, wore each other. Became rage. Don't blame them really, the other choice was sleeping." She shook her head and looked down. "Being forced to sleep... it's not right." She squeezed his hand, glad that she was not only far in the universe from Miranda, but far in time.

"They can't touch us here. I wouldn't let it happen anyway." She smiled, partly glad that he didn't know exactly how adept she was at fighting, at what a warrior she'd been made into. "Did you see her while you were home?" She wanted to change the subject, and even through the faint murmurs of memory she could hear from him, she liked his mother.

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 07:47 pm UTC (link)
"Yeah, I um," he shook his head, trying to clear his own mind of the subject of Miranda and of Reavers, and smiled a little about her question. "Yeah. She um. She's not doing great? But she's um... She still has lucid days. They're few, but..." He sighed and rubbed his face, clearly worried for not only his mother but himself. "I um. I told her that it might be the last time I can come to see her, but I'd still send letters. I wrote 52 letters that are on an automated system to be sent to her once a week unless I go back there. I told her about this place, because she... she'd believe me, and even if she didn't, she wouldn't judge." He bowed his head and sighed. "If I don't go back there within a year, then... the fifty-second letter will tell her what's gone on and where I am." Of course, not straight out. Spencer had built a cipher into the fifty-two letters, and he knew that it would keep his mom busy and entertained in her lucid moments to find the little messages he'd hidden throughout the letters.

"I'm hoping that she'll be all right without me actually being there. At least this way, I've actually got safeguards in place."

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 07:53 pm UTC (link)
"You're a good son." She could feel his worry as much as she could her own emotions, and she moved into his lap to straddle him, forcing him to meet her eyes. "You have nothing to be guilty for. You didn't shoot the albatross." She smiled, because that had been her own nickname. "You're a bird collector, I think." Smoothing out his hair, she kissed him lightly. "Wish I'd had a mom like yours." Her mother had been too much the socialite, too busy to see her, and her father had been too busy being a high profile doctor of marginal talent. They'd have let her die in the academy.

"Happy things. You're here now." She moved off of him to look at his plants, smiling and moving to get some water. She lightly pricked her own finger to put a few drops of blood into the water, knowing that they'd like the minerals.

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 07:59 pm UTC (link)
The ones that were still alive would likely need as much help as they could possibly get. He felt awful that they'd died, but he wasn't thinking about his plants. He was considering what she'd said, and smiling, watching her as she moved. "Well, I'm the wind," he reminded in a faraway, but amused tone, standing up and following her, "Birds naturally find their way to me. You know, River... I hope you know that when you said you're staying here, I took it to mean that you're moving in. If Simon isn't here, I wouldn't just leave you to live alone. You deserve better than that. That and... Well, I would love the company."

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 08:04 pm UTC (link)
She hummed a little to the plants as she watered them, murmuring encouragement in Latin. "I'm a little albatross, but my wings are mending." She smiled and moved past him to water another plant, stroking its leaves encouragingly.

When he said that he figured she was moving in, she gave him a look that Simon knew well, the one that said "well duh, idiot". "Of course I'm moving in. Would I have meant something else?"

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 09:10 pm UTC (link)
"Staying the night, staying until you got a place of your own... Really, River, you could have meant just about anything." He checked to see which ones were still alive, and was surprised that even a third of his plants were hearty enough to still be alive, six months later. Well. Five, his cleaning service stopped coming by around then. "I'm glad you meant what I thought you did, though."

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 09:12 pm UTC (link)
"And I'm sharing your bed." Her tone was matter-of-fact, and she smiled at him. "You should get a small animal, a dog or a chinchilla or something." They'd both been popular pets when she was a child, and he seemed to be a natural caregiver.

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 09:31 pm UTC (link)
"I don't know about pets, having a girlfriend who lives with me will be a major change for me, as it is!" He grinned and took her hand. "I wasn't planning on being up this late, actually, not until I got vortexed." He was actually in bed, reading and mentally preparing for tomorrow, when the team's rotation came up and they got a case. He wasn't expecting the Vortex, or River, or to be pulled in literally moments within Garcia's arrival as well. He was a bit shaken, but all the more happy for the change of plans.

However, his body seemed unable to be quite so exuberant about it. He was tired. "So speaking of bed, I'm going to go get ready for it again." He'd have to put on new sheets, since the duvet was dusty. The whole place was dusty. He would have to get another cleaning company.

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 09:34 pm UTC (link)
River smiled and nodded. Wordlessly, she moved to the bedroom and started to strip the sheets. She found a set in the living room that didn't smell too musty, and started to put them on the bed. Taking care of him made her happy, and little things were how she tended to show she cared.

Once the bed was made, she moved to the closet to strip out of her dress. She picked out one of his button down shirts toward the back of the closet, figuring it had less wear, and put that on as a nightshirt.

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 09:45 pm UTC (link)
Spencer helped her with the sheets, smiling over at her as they worked together to get the bed made. It was funny, in a very comforting way. He hadn't ever expected to see her again, and prior to River, Spencer hadn't been sure he'd ever find a woman who'd put up with him long enough to be his girlfriend. "The first bed was supposedly Egyptian. Pharaohs elevated their sleeping space from the floor, though they didn't have mattresses, and instead of pillows, they had a neck brace which held the head and neck up. The first mattresses came along in the age of the Roman Empire, and were filled with wool, feathers, straw, and hay."

She probably didn't know that, so he didn't feel so bad about pointing it out, especially as he undressed down into his underwear, before slipping under the covers. "Tomorrow, we're going to have to clean."

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 09:56 pm UTC (link)
It was familiar and familial in a way that she'd often longed for and knew she'd end up cherishing. He made her feel normal, and she knew that without him, she'd have lived a long, lonely life. Simon would have stayed near her, but one day she'd have insisted upon him marrying someone. He didn't deserve to sacrifice any more than he already had for her.

She listened to him carefully, smiling a little. She liked that he told her things, because they tended to be things that she didn't know. His arcane knowledge was her ancient, unknowable history. But once he started to undress she couldn't help but stare at him with a fond smile, moving under the covers as well. "I'll help." Wrapping her arms around him, she pressed her nose into his neck. He even smelled comforting and good.

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 10:16 pm UTC (link)
River smelled like home to him and he held her close, eyes closed. "I can only keep thinking that I'm dreaming already. Nothing this good just happens."

Spencer ran his hand over her back, however, and it comforted him, just as much as he hoped it comforted her. He thought back on how they first met at a cafe, and how the next day he felt... practically giddy, to be honest, as she kissed him. How they were entirely comfortable with each other when he felt nervous around every other person in the world.

"I love you, River."

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[info]remembertoomuch
2011-01-15 10:26 pm UTC (link)
"Of course something this good just happens, it already has." She smiled and traced along his arms with her fingertips. "Not very often, though.

Just being near him was comforting to her, and she made a content noise in the back of her throat. "I love you too, Willow." River was nuzzled against the flat of his chest, breathing slowly. "I won't lose you again."

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[info]watchoutunsubs
2011-01-15 10:40 pm UTC (link)
"I'm not going to lose you either, Wǔ zhě, you will anchor me here," Spencer murmured, as close to a promise as he could make. He kept his arm around her as he drifted off to sleep.

They'd have an infinity of tomorrows for speaking and catching up, but for now, they had a night to be comforted by each other.

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