The Summer With Spencer

Epilogue

I wrote a letter to Spencer every day after that. Sometimes I addressed the whole team in them, sometimes not. I sent them gifts at Christmas, and they came to see me for New Years. Everything back home was just as I’d left it, though my family and I got along better now. Sophomore year was going great, and I was thriving. I still missed everyone in Virginia though, but I knew I’d made the right decision. After March though, the letters stopped coming. I still continued to send them every once in a while, but not as often, and I never got a reply. It didn’t hurt me as much as I’d thought, because I was so busy with everything. It still hurt for years afterward though to hear about the FBI on the news and still not have an answer as to why they stopped speaking with me. But again, I figured somehow it was for the best. By the time I graduated high school, I had all but forgotten about my fourteenth summer. I guess nothing was really the same after that summer with Spencer.
I stood stunned, looking after Llysa. I turned and walked back to the truck.

I received so many letters from her after she arrived back in Michigan, sometimes three in a day, but judging by what she’d dated them, she wrote one each day. I replied back to her of course, happy to hear from her. This went on for quite a while, and she even sent gifts at Christmas, giving me a picture she had painted. It was a beautiful painting of a huge, colorful library. I still have it to this day. The whole team went to visit her at New Year’s, and we had an amazing time. It wasn’t the same as when she was in Virginia, and I knew everyone could tell. After April I made the decision to stop replying to her letters. That didn’t mean I still didn’t read them though. She continued to update me on her life until about December. I knew that we couldn’t live our whole lives waiting for each other, and I felt that I was just holding her back from continuing a real life, her actual life. I focused on my job, and getting another PhD to advance my career. Things came up, and then I wasn’t thinking about her as often anymore, and then barely at all. It was only little things that reminded me of her, such as flour, that doctor show she liked, and people who had funny laughs. I guess after that one summer, everything was changed.

*Six Years Later* Spencer, 30 years old, top ranked FBI profiler

I hurried down a crowded sidewalk in Michigan, thinking intently about a case we had just finished. It had really gotten to me, because the unsub killed only mothers with young sons. I tried to focus on the nice fall weather, but my mind kept wandering. Someone calling my name broke my reverie. I turned to see Llysa coming toward me. I recognized her immediately, she looked so much the same, yet so different. She was slightly taller, and her face was more angular. Most of her freckles had disappeared, and her hair was shorter. But she was smiling broadly, and I could see an array of medical texts in her arms. It looked like she finally got to do the thing she loved. “Llysa. Wow. I see you’ve made it into medical school.” She nodded. “Yeah….would you…like to get some coffee with me ?” I chuckled.”You know me too well.” I grabbed her arm, and for a minute, I swear we turned back into that gawky kid with the long hair and the young girl with the big cast.
*Six Years Later* Llysa, 20 years old, med student

I rushed down the steps of the library, carefully cradling four large medical texts in the crook of the arm. I looked down at the crowd gathering at the bottom of the concrete steps, and I stopped cold. For a moment, a flash of a second, I thought I saw someone familiar. The more I looked, the more I realized it was true. Before me was none other than Spencer Reid. Sure, his hair was much shorter and more modern, but I would know that head anywhere. I raced up to him, “Spencer Reid.” I was not questioning that to be his name, I was acknowledging that he was before me. He turned to look at me, his eyes lighting up in recognition. He smiled widely- “Llysa. Wow.” I smiled back, more glad than I would have thought to see him. “I see you made it into med school ?” “Yeah. I’m in my third year…” My voice kinda trailed off at the end. “Would you like to….get some coffee with me ?” I asked him, hopeful. “You know me too well,” He replied, leading me by the arm. It felt nice to be a little girl again, always tagging along with Spence.