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Strangers On Vacation | Part 2

Summary: Spencer convinces reader to go to the pool with him, where she meets his co-workers who try and convince her to spend the rest of the cruise in Spencer's room. (This is a really bad summary of this chapter sorry lol) Pairing: Spencer Reid/Fem Reader Content: Fluff, angst (ish) eventual smut. Warnings: negative body thoughts, mentions of alcohol, low self esteem but shes working on it (pls let me know what i missed, i wrote most of this like 3 months ago and only skimmed for spelling mistakes lol) Word Count: 4k Part One also on AO3 masterlist

I awoke the next morning to the delightful aroma of freshly brewed coffee. For a second my brain imagined that John had brought me breakfast in bed, before I opened my eyes and remembered the events from yesterday. I was in some strangers room, still in my bikini, with the dress bunched up around my hips from a night of restless sleep.

I pulled the dress down and was smoothing my hair as the stranger walked back into the room from an adjoining door which I assumed to be the bathroom. I did remember that we were on the top floor, most definitely in an expensive room. It was three times the size of the room I had gotten for John and I. With 2 full size king beds and what looked to be a separate living space through an open door on the far wall. Plus a spacious balcony outside to my left.

“Good morning,” the stranger said when he noticed I was awake and sitting up. “I have coffee ready in the next room, as well as some breakfast. Eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes and fruit. I wasn’t sure what you liked.”

At the mention of food my stomach decided to remind me that I hadn’t ate since breakfast the day before. And now that he mentioned it, I could smell the bacon wafting into the room as well.

“Oh, um, thank you,” I didn’t know what else to say.

“The bathroom is right in there. I’ll be in the other room whenever you want to come eat.” He gestured to the doors as he spoke and moved towards that open doorway where I had suspected the other living space would be. He stopped in the doorway and turned his head to look at me and said, “My name is Spencer, by the way.”

“Y/n.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Y/n.” He replied and then softly closed the door.

I took a moment to take in more of my surroundings. Spencer had a pretty spacious room just for himself. No other belongings seemed to be in the room besides his. Half the closets and drawers remained empty, and only one side of his bed looked to be slept in. Why did he need such a big space all to himself? Who was he to afford all of this?

The bathroom was no different. Spencer was very neat and organized. His toiletries lined up perfectly on the left side of the counter, and inside the shower his supplies sat neatly along the built in shelf. I dug out my own bathroom bag and vigorously brushed my teeth, washed my face and tied back my ratty hair. I wasn’t about to strip and take a shower in this mans bathroom. I thought about changing out of my bikini but I did want to experience at least one of the pools on board the ship before I got off at todays dock, so I left it on.

True to his word, Spencer was sat on the couch in the next room, flipping through the pages of a book at an inhuman pace. My nose dragged me over to a small kitchenette where a catering cart was placed with more breakfast food than two people could eat. I grabbed a mug of coffee and a plate that I loaded with strips of crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, and a fluffy pancake.

When I was halfway through eating I could feel eyes on me and looked up to see Spencer gazing my way with a small smile on his face. I realized I was eating like a starved animal and slowed down. But then my thoughts again went to yesterday. Would Spencer also think I was disgusting for eating this much food? With only a few bites left on my plate I lost my appetite and pushed it away.

Why was I thinking these thoughts? I didn’t even know Spencer, and I would be leaving him soon anyways. Plus these thoughts had never crossed my mind until John’s accusations last night. He had just successfully gotten into my head. I didn’t want him to ruin the only day I would be having on this ship, so once again I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and went to clean up my dishes.

“So, thank you for the place to sleep last night. I’ll be getting off the ship today so I’ll just take my stuff with me to the pool in the meantime and get out of your way.”

“Are you sure? You kind of sounded last night as if you had some more plans,” Spencer said.

“Well, I did. But they’ve been cancelled and I’ll be getting off early,” I replied, trying to avoid specific details.

“What about your other friends?” Spencer pressed on. “They won’t miss you, or think you’ve gone missing since you didn’t show up last night?”

It was hard to avoid his pointed stare. I didn’t want to go into details about my messy breakup that happened less than 12 hours ago, but Spencer’s stare was so soft and concerning. He looked genuinely worried for my made up cruise ship friends thinking that I might have fallen overboard or something.

Spencer hadn’t done anything to make me not trust him so far. Besides not knowing anything about him, at least. But he gave off vibes of an old soul. Someone you could trust, who would have your back no matter what. Deciding that I owed him a little bit of truth as well after all he’d done for me, a stranger, I sat down across from him in the living space and told him most of the truth.

“There are no friends,” I said, to which he scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion. “I made up that story last night because you were a stranger inviting me to your room when I was in a vulnerable position and I was scared you would murder me or something.”

Spencer was speechless, staring at me with his mouth agape and blinking as he processed my words.

“The truth is,” I continued, “I was supposed to be on this cruise with my boyfriend. But I broke up with him last night and I was hoping to switch rooms because obviously I didn’t want to spend the next week stuck in a windowless room with him. Which, off topic, but how on earth do you have this whole suite to yourself? It must have been so expensive.”

I waited patiently as Spencer gathered his thoughts for a reply.

“I’m sorry to hear that” he started off saying. “I was trying my best not to come off as a creep. My friend and I overheard you at the front desk, and she made me come ask you to stay with me because of the extra bed.”

“Why isn’t your friend staying with you?”

“She has her own room, with her husband. We’re here on a mandatory work vacation.” That made me laugh, and Spencer cracked a smile as well. “Ok, I can admit saying that out loud sounds like a rouse, but I promise you I’m here with work.”

“Oh, so your work company is one of those people who booked up a big chunk of rooms then, aren’t they?” I smirked.

“I guess so, yes.”

“So, if your coworker friend was allowed to bring her husband, how come you didn’t bring your partner?” I tried to make it sound like I wasn’t prying on his personal life, but let’s be real. I was.

“I’m single, that’s why.”

I nodded my head in reply, looking everywhere around the room except for at him.

“Where do you work where they can afford to put everyone in the most expensive rooms on the ship?”

“The F.B.I.” he said matter of factly.

“Shut up. You don’t work for the F.B.I.” I denied. Spencer just nodded and pointed to a badge on the coffee table that I somehow did not notice earlier. Sure enough, there was his smiling face, Dr. Spencer Reid of the behavioural analysis unit.

“Taking vacation is mandatory, but none of us ever really book it off so the department booked a week long trip for all of us,” he explained.

“Oh, so the bad guys just take a break as well when you’re gone?” I joked.

Spencer gave a light laugh, “We have other departments filling in for us while we’re gone.”

We sat together in silence, Spencer thumbing the pages of his book, neither of us knowing where to take this conversation to next.

“Well,” I eventually said, “Spencer, thank you so much for your hospitality. I’m pleased to know that you’re not a creepy axe murderer. I should get going though. I want to take advantage of one of the pools before I disembark and hopefully not run into my ex.”

I stood from my seat across from him and went to make my way into the bedroom to gather my things.

“Oh, right.” Spencer trailed behind me. “You know, I have access to the vip area’s. There’s a lounge and a pool, and most likely no chances of running into you ex. Then you can leave your stuff here instead of dragging it around. Someone might steal your bag if you left it unattended at the pool. Or they might think it was a bomb.”

Spencer chewed on his bottom lip as I pondered his suggestion. I wanted to turn down his offer, he was being too nice to me after we’d only just met. But the thought of running into John at the pool in my bikini, the very one that started our argument that led to the breakup, was enough to make me accept.

“That would actually be very nice, Spencer. Thank you.”

“Of course. Let me just get changed and we can go. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen, if you want,” Spencer offered. I watched as he grabbed some clothes from the closet and locked himself into the bathroom. Not wanting to stand around in the bedroom like a lost puppy, I followed his suggestion and went to the kitchen to look through the cabinets. They were empty apart from a few boxes of granola bars, and the mini fridge was stocked full of water bottles so I snagged one of them to put into my pool bag.

Soon after, Spencer emerged from the bathroom wearing a pair of dark purple swim shorts and a black t-shirt. It was distracting to see his arms and legs for the first time. He was hiding some seriously toned arms underneath that long sleeve shirt of his. And his legs seemed to go on forever, he was so tall. In his arms he held two pool towels that the ship provided to guests, and he handed one to me that I put into my pool bag.

Spencer grabbed his own bag, a brown satchel, and made sure he packed his book and grabbed his room key from the coffee table. It was a bright and shiny gold colour, indicating its vip status. My previous room key had just been white with the cruise ships name written in a dark blue cursive font.

“We might run into a few of my co-workers, if that’s ok with you,” Spencer informed me as we made our way outside his room. He made sure the door was closed behind us then we were on our way. I had no idea where we were going so I trailed half a step behind Spencer, which wasn’t hard since he walked fast with those long legs.

“Oh, not a problem at all. There’s nothing I want more than to be surrounded by F.B.I. Just so you know, I’m well over 21, so don’t arrest me if I order a drink,” I joked.

Spencer laughed along with me. “There won’t be any arresting, I can promise you that. It’s nearing noon, I’m sure most of them are on their second drink by now.”

I felt bad at the mention of Spencer’s friends having fun without him, but I refrained from commenting. Something about Spencer told me he liked the quite more times than not.

It didn’t take us long to make our way towards the vip areas. I would have never known this spot on the ship even existed if not for Spencer. He scanned his gold card to open up the door, and then we were in. Right into the spacious lounge, with a shiny bar on the left, lots of comfortable seating and a grand piano in the centre of the room. No one was sitting at it right now, but there was some soft music playing over the speakers. We walked through onto the deck, and I was stunned by the view.

We were at the very top of the ship. All I could see around us was the open blue waters. I knew we would be docking later this evening, but wherever that piece of land was, it was not visible to us yet. Looking over the side of the railing, I could see the pool on the main deck. This was the one John wanted to go to last night. I didn’t spend that much time spying on the people from up here, just in case I caught sight of him. Although from this high up, it was hard to make out details.

As Spencer and I made our way around the deck looking for open chairs, someone called out his name. With a glance to me and a nod in the persons direction, I followed behind him as we made our way over. The call came from a gorgeous blonde, looking effortlessly like a model as she relaxed on her lounge chair. She pushed up onto her forearms as we reached her, a wide smile on her face as she looked between us.

“Spence! Is this the girl?” She asked. The girl?

“JJ, this is Y/n. Y/n, this is JJ. My friend I was with last night who convinced me to ask you to take my extra bed.” Oh, it clicked into place now. This was one of his co-workers. The one with the husband, who apparently wasn’t around right now.

“It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for pushing him to ask me. He found me later on and I relented, which I’m glad I did. Those beds in the vip suites are so comfortable.”

“Oh good! Spence here didn’t want to intrude, but he’s always the one with the extra bed when we’re at hotels, so it felt like a good option. Come one, take a seat! The other’s are just hanging around the bar.”

I followed JJ’s orders and sunk into the lounger beside her, and Spencer chose the one on the other side of me. He immediately pulled out the book he was reading early this morning and started reading at that inhuman pace again. After only a few minutes of basking in the sun I was getting too hot. The vip section was great because there were only a few people bobbing around in the pool, so I decided I would join them.

“Ok, I need to get in the water,” I informed my two new somewhat friends as I sat up. I pulled my pool towel out of my bag to set on my chair, ready for easy access whenever I got out of the water.

Thoughts of John’s comments about my body threatened to sneak back into my mind again and I locked them away. I was never one to feel self conscious about my body, and I did not want to start now. So, with a deep breath, I removed my bikini coverup dress and bunched it up to shove into my bag.

“Wow, Y/n. I love that bikini, it’s so cute! Where did you get it?” JJ immediately asked.

“Oh, thank you. I just stumbled upon it at the mall. I felt it gave off nautical vibes that would be fitting for a cruise,” I chuckled.

“It looks so good on you. I’ve never been one to pull off lot’s of colour,” she gestured to her own black two piece that was stunning on her slender frame. “Wait until you meet Penelope. She’ll be down after lunch, she’s a colour fanatic. She’ll love you!”

“I can’t wait to meet her. Anyone coming in the water with me? Spencer?” I turned to look at him and found him already staring. Tinges of red stained his cheeks, probably from the exposure to the sun and heat.

He cleared his throat before speaking. “Maybe in a few minutes. I just want to finish my book first.” He said, very intent on not looking anywhere but my eyes.

“Alright, well, you know where to find me.”

I tried to feel confident as I walked towards the water, but it was like I could feel eyes all over me. When I reached the edge of the pool I turned around, but couldn’t see anyone looking. Spencer was leaned over whispering with JJ, refusing to look my way.

I stepped into the pool, not even caring that the water was a bit cold. I just wanted it to be up to my shoulders so that I could feel hidden. So much for those self conscious thoughts not overtaking me. Most people in the pool were just hanging around the edge chatting to their friends, so I swam to the far side where no one was around and started to swim laps, back and forth.

It was meditative. The feeling of the water rushing over my body started to calm me down, and I ran over lists in my head about all the great things about myself. Like my ability to swim multiple laps of a pool without getting tired, for one. Or my skills in baking. My small client list was always supportive and excited when they picked up their weekly treats from me. There was also the fact that I was a strong woman. I had spent my entire twenties fighting to prove to my family that I could make it on my own. That I didn’t need to be some stay at home wife to a husband who expected me to bend over backwards for him. They truly didn’t leave me alone until I moved to Virginia and met John. Because they assumed I would drop everything and ‘let him take care of me’.

Okay, now these calming pool thoughts were starting to become angry thoughts. I took a pause from swimming laps to lean against the pool wall. Thankfully my brain was interrupted from overthinking by Spencer finally swimming over to join me in the pool.

“Penny for your thoughts?” He asked me as he leaned against the wall beside me.

“They’re nothing interesting. Your friend JJ seems really nice.” I told him to change the subject. Both of our gazes drifted off to the side where she still lay on the pool chair. A man walked up beside her and handed her a drink before leaning down to give her a kiss.

“That’s her husband, Will.” Spencer informed me. Soon after Will had taken a seat beside his wife, a few other people joined. Spencer was in the middle of explaining to me that they were his other work friends when I noticed they were all staring at us.

“Spencer, why are they looking at us?” I interrupted him and turned around to avoid looking back towards the crowd of people. Spencer shifted his body to look back towards the edge of the pool and gave a sheepish laugh.

“Uh, probably because I’m in a pool with a beautiful girl they’ve never met before,” he said. My heart skipped a beat at the unexpected compliment. I was shocked to hear one like that after only knowing the guy for less than 24 hours. He looked just as shocked that it came out of his mouth if the red tint to his cheeks was anything to go by.

I chose to ignore how awkward we both felt by his statement and attempted to move the conversation forward.

“What, they’ve never seen you in a pool before?” I joked.

“Actually no, they haven’t.”

“You’re kidding.” I said, but he shook his head.

“I’m known to be a bit of a germaphobe. Pools hold a lot of bacteria and things that I don’t even want to think about,” he shivered.

“Gross, but I’m honoured you joined me in here. It was getting kind of lonely. But what do you say we get out and you introduce me to your friends?”

Spencer nodded his head eagerly, clearly happy to have an excuse to get out of the water. Lazily, we swam back towards the pool stairs. I climbed out after Spencer, and was met with eyes of multiple people on me as we walked back to the chair to get our towels. It was a little unnerving, but the small smile Spencer gave me as he handed me my towel distracted me from how nervous I was feeling in a bikini around these strangers.

He was so distracting. The tips of his curly hair were dripping with water onto his face and shoulders. I watched as a particular drop rolled down his collarbone, gliding its way down his chest and over a nipple. Why did I want to follow that trail of water with my tongue?

A not so subtle cough broke me out of my trance. After I wrapped my towel around my body I looked at the new people standing around our chairs. Most of whom had just witnessed me staring right at Spencer’s nipples. They introduced themselves to me.

Emily, Luke, Penelope, David, Tara, and Matt and his wife Kristy. Will introduced himself as well.

Spencer was about to explain who I was, but I beat him to it.

“Hey, I’m Y/n. Spencer rescued me last night when I had no where to sleep. I’m leaving when we reach the port today, but he invited me to the pool first so I could at least experience some of what the cruise had to offer.”

There was a jumble of nice to meet you’s and how are you’s as everyone spoke at once. But then someone talked over everyone else.

“Why do you have to leave? Just enjoy the rest of the cruise with us!” It was Penelope, pushing her way in front of everyone to come over and give me a hug.

“Oh, thank you for the offer.” I spoke into her hair as she clung to me. “But I shouldn’t. I don’t want to impose on Spencer for that long. It was so generous to lend me a spot to sleep last night, but this is his vacation. All of your vacations. I don’t want to intrude.”

“I don’t think he would mind. Would you, wonder boy?” Penelope laughed, finally letting me go with a look to Spencer’s direction.

“Plus,” Emily stepped forward. “It would be nice to hang around someone from the outside. Someone we don’t see every day.”

“What, are you sick of us already?” David joked.

“You know what I mean.” Emily said.

“Wouldn’t everyone love to have Y/n around for the rest of the week?” Asked Penelope.

There was a resounding yes. I couldn’t believe these people I met just minutes prior were trusting enough to want to spend 6 more days together. I looked to Spencer, expecting him to say no thank you, please leave. But he was giving puppy dog eyes.

“I don’t mind,” he said, and I couldn’t say no to that face.

“Well, I guess so.”

His friends cheered, resulting in a nearby group of people to look over at the commotion.

“Come on, let’s go celebrate with a drink!” David said, and put an arm around my shoulder to steer me towards the bar.

“I definitely won’t say no to that.”

#spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid/reader #spencer reid/fem reader #alleys writing

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