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You couldn't work in the BAU without the subject of soulmates coming up.
Between the faked marks and delusional matches, not to mention the unsubs that thought branding their mark on the victims actually made them a true soulmate, it was impossible to avoid talking about soulmarks.
Despite all the ways that they saw marks abused the team was still full of hopeful romantics. The team celebrated with JJ when she matched words with the cute Louisianan detective. They mourned with Hotch when his mark burned and faded to a dull gray. They gently teased Morgan after every date he went on with still no bloom of color or trace of words appearing.
It was a little surprising to Reid that it had actually taken them so long to bring up the subject of his own bare arms.
"Do you have a soulmark, pretty boy?" Morgan asked during one of the quiet times they had.
"No. I think I know who my soulmate is though."
"How would that even work? You've never talked to them or touched them?"
"I have never seen him. We've never been in the same place but we're pretty sure that as soon as we are, the marks will show up."
"Oh that just won't do. You two need to meet." Garcia pointed her chopsticks at him. "Tell me his name and I will get you an address, then you can visit."
Reid smiled, "Last I heard he was in Hong Kong, not exactly easy to meet up with him. When he’s ready he said he’d come visit.”
“Wait, if you two have never met, how do you know him?” JJ asked.
“We met on an internet forum. For years we’ve fought in the chats about theories and then one night we got to talking and he’s … he is brilliant and…” Reid started to blush. “He’s amazing and I fell in love with him, I don't even know his name but I know I love him.”
“I thought you hated computers.” Morgan said.
“No, I prefer print because I absorb it better; the digital interface doesn't hit my brain the same way. I can read and recall the information twice as fast when it’s printed out. I never said I couldn't use a computer that was just assumed.”
Of course work in the BAU never stops, so it wasn’t surprising when Hotch called a halt to the discussion with news that they were starting a new case.
Reid thought that would be the end of his teammates' involvement, he was wrong.
A week later Morgan and Garcia double teamed him again trying to get him to go meet his possible soulmate.
“How can you stand not knowing, little brother?”
Reid just smiled and shrugged.
“It’s not like we’d be able to live together just because I get his words magically appearing on my arm. He still has a life in another city, one he can’t really relocate. I still live here and travel for days or even weeks at a time at the drop of a hat. We’d have a long distance relationship at best, and we already have that. I don't understand why it matters, nothing would change.”
“Seriously, you’re not willing to fight for the man you love.” Garcia chimed in.
“Oh no, I didn't say that. If he needs me, he can ask me to come anytime. I just don’t see the point of going to meet him just to see if words get burned onto our skin. I don’t need some mystic thing to tell me to love him, I already know I love him.”
“I can’t tell if I find that sad or romantic.” JJ said.
Every few weeks the team would once again try and convince Reid to ‘go get his man,’ and every few weeks Reid would remind them that he was perfectly fine how he was.
Eventually the status quo had to change.
It was in St Louis, the Team had just finished their latest case, but a case of abnormally sized rodents attacking had grounded all flights in and out of the city.
Of course Reid’s terrible luck struck again. He’d just gone to the corner bookstore. It wasn’t like he planned on getting snatched by a Chinchilla the size of the statue of liberty. One minute he was browsing Germanic poetry and the next he was in the air being held in the gigantic paw of a Chinchilla. Thankfully the superheroes started arriving not long after he was lifted into the air.
There were a few aliens flying around the rodent looking to find a way to get him. Then there were other members of the team, a green bear was slashing at the thing's ankles. The team worked great together even if Reid did think they were a little reckless. Maybe that was just his biases talking but you try being waved around in a huge chinchillas paws for half an hour and then being dropped to the ground because one of the supers used their lazer vision on the big beast.
Reid thought for a few moments of absolute terror that he was going to die going splat on the pavement. Then all of a sudden there was something colliding into him and changing his trajectory. Instead of falling to the ground they arced to a nearby rooftop.
“You always spend your Saturdays just chillin’ with giant Chinchillas or is today just special? You should keep your feet on the ground from now on. It’s much safer.”
The black and red uniformed vigilante nodded before he flipped off the building and was caught midair by a flying girl quickly engrossed back in the rodent roundup.
Reid only had a moment to realize the pain in his arm was his mark burning those words onto his skin before he lost sight of the fighting.
He was unusually quiet on the plane back to Quantico. He had been so sure that Flashmoon52 was his soulmate. But the vigilante's words appeared on his skin. Did that mean that he was wrong about Flashmoon or did that mean that he was the Hero?
So lost in thought Reid didn’t notice Morgan sitting next to him until he started talking.
“You still upset that you played Ann Darrow for a giant Chinchilla?”
“No,” he replied absentmindedly.
Reid didn’t elaborate or go off on a tangent about the history of King Kong movies and the damsel in distress stereotype, so Morgan knew something was bothering him, but what?
Morgan didn’t get any longer answers no matter what he tried to talk about the rest of the plane ride home. Something was definitely bothering him.
Reid’s mind spun with the new data, examining every possible reason why he would have a vigilante for a soulmate. He didn’t exactly approve of Vigilantism, even the actual recognized Heroes like the Justice League left him uneasy. He couldn’t imagine his soulmate not caring that Reid was against his chosen lifestyle. He also didn’t think that he could support a soulmate that was constantly subverting Law and Order in an effort to impose his own vision of Justice on the world. So why in the world was he soulmates with a vigilante.
It was almost a month after St Louis that the team brought up soulmates again. Morgan had once again come back from a date still markless. Garcia, Prentiss and JJ were all teasing him about his perpetual bachelor status.
“Well at least I’m trying to find my soulmate, unlike Pretty Boy over here who is doing everything they can to avoid meeting his.” Morgan defended himself with a teasing jab at Reid.
The four of them all picked up on the ill hidden wince.
“Wait did you… did you actually meet your soulmate, Spence?” JJ asked.
Reid looked down at his desk and rubbed his arm where the words hid under his sweater.
“You did!” Garcia got excited and then deflated when she realized he wasn’t celebrating. “You don’t look excited, how are you not excited to have met your soulmate?”
“We got a case, grab your go bags, debrief on the plane, be ready in thirty.” Hotch interrupted the friendly interrogation.
When they finally landed in San Francisco the team was fully briefed and ready to get to work finding their unsub.
Reid worked out a pattern with the unsub’s victims that related the killings to Wayne Enterprises’ board members and their new properties as dump sites. Someone was targeting WE or possibly even the Waynes themselves.
Looks like they were going to go to WE’s local offices to see if they could find anything relevant for the case.
“You lucky that he is willing to see you, anytime Mr. Drake-Wayne is in town, he is constantly busy.” His secretary led Rossi, JJ, and Reid into Mr. Tim Drake-Wayne’s office.
“Mr. Drake-Wayne? I’m SSA David Rossi. These are agents Jennifer Jareau and Dr. Spencer Reid.” Rossie then JJ shook his hand while Reid just waved.
“How can I help the FBI today?”
“We are looking into people that might have a grudge against you, your family or the company in general. Do you know anything that might help?”
“Do you have any idea of how much hate mail we get on a daily basis?” Tim asked.
“On average a corporation as big as Wayne Enterprises would be expected to receive over a thousand pieces of hate mail or threats on a daily basis. That would of course be expected to increase exponentially if they espoused any controversial opinions, products or beliefs. Not to mention that a family as famous as the Waynes would also have a…”
Tim let out a hiss and clutched his arm as the burn of his soulmark started transcribing Reid’s statistics on his skin.
Everyone froze for a moment, this was not the typical way for soulmates to meet. Tim rolled up his sleeve to reveal the freshly etched scrawl that was quite familiar to the agents.
“Oh.” Reid said quietly in surprise. He blinked a few times like he was uncertain of what to do. Before anyone else could say anything he got up and left the room mumbling an excuse under his breath.
“Rossi?” JJ asked, looking over her shoulder at the still shutting door.
“Go ahead and follow him JJ, I can handle it here.”
“I can have security bring you the latest list of death threats and hate mail sent to the company.” Tim typed in an email as he spoke. “The company screens the mail for all of us. The Security department handles most threats internally; they track volume, and the craziest of them we turn over to the police.”
Rossi took his cue from the young executive and reverted to business while JJ kept an eye on Reid. After an hour the discussion was done and it was clear that Reid and JJ weren’t going to return.
“Here is my card in case you need to get in contact with me directly. Please give the other one to Dr. Reid, he can contact me whenever he is ready.” Tim gave Rossi two of his business cards, one with a handwritten cell phone number.
“Thank you for your time Mr. Drake-Wayne. I’ll make sure he gets this.” Rossi nodded.
Rossi found his teammates in the SUV. JJ looked confused and helpless, and Reid had shut down completely. It was clear that Reid was lost in his head. They silently drove back to headquarters.
Reid felt like he was trying to piece together a puzzle while blindfolded, drunk, and underwater, with half the pieces missing. There was literally no way that his soulmate could be Timothy Drake-Wayne, Youngest CEO of a fortune 500 company of all time. There was no way that his soulmate could be Red Robin, vigilante crime fighter and leader of Young Justice for at least the last eight years. There was no way that Timothy Drake-Wayne was Red Robin. He had been so sure that Flashmoon52 was his soulmate, IS his soulmate.
When they were back in the precinct Reid managed to pull himself together and focus on the case. He refused to talk about anything soulmate or Wayne related at all. It was another long four days before they got enough information to catch their unsub.
Once on the plane home Reid once again retreats to his mind trying to figure out what exactly was going on. He missed all the concerned looks from his teammates. He moved on autopilot deboarding the plane and heading home. Once he was there he logged on to his computer, with all this mess in his head there was only one way to get his brain to calm down.
He sent out a message to Flashmoon52. He hadn’t even waited two minutes when he got a reply.
‘ What’s up?’
‘A lot on my mind, too much on my mind.’
‘Want to talk about it or want to ignore it?’
‘Both?’
‘Something weird happened to me this week.’
Reid jumped on the possible distraction.
‘ Oh tell me about it.’
Tim really didn’t think this through… he hesitated before he typed the next words.
‘ I met my soulmate this week, at work during a meeting. He didn’t say anything except for my words and then he left. I don’t even have any way to contact him..’
Reid had no idea what to say to that. Could it mean that his soulmate was Flashmoon52? What were the chances that both Tim Drake and Moon both met their soulmates in meetings at work this week?
‘ Reideverythign …you still there? Sorry, I know we don’t talk about soulmates much. …I just don’t have anyone else to talk to about this.’
‘I’m still here.’ Reid typed out quickly. ‘It’s fine. We can talk about it if you want.’
The two of them talked for a few more hours. Every so often Moon would go silent for a few minutes. Sometimes he would send a quick brb before he left other times he’d shoot a quick apology when he got back. The more Reid thought about it the more it seemed like it was possible for it to be the lulls to be times when Red Robin needed to go take care of crime.
Reid finally made a decision. ‘Can we meet in person?’ He typed before he could lose his courage. ‘ I think it is time we met face-to-face.’
It was hours before he got a response. More than long enough for Reid to panic and change his mind several times.
‘ Ok’
Reid finally relaxed enough to go to sleep. He would finally get to meet the man he was in love with for the last four years.
It was another month and a half before they could meet in person.
Reid got pulled into cases in Miami and Omaha taking him out of town for a couple of weeks. When Reid was back in town, Tim Drake Wayne was spotted touring the W.E. facilities in Hong Kong. As Tim returned to the states, the BAU boarded a plane for Seattle. It was beginning to look like Reid's theory might actually be correct. Reid became convinced when the next time Moon delayed their meeting, Red Robin was seen leaving the planet.
Finally, Reid had a day off, Tim Drake Wayne had a day off and Red Robin didn’t have any pressing missions. Reideverything and Flashmoon52 met in a small bookstore cafe in DC.
Reid was waiting with a few new books, a chai tea, and a mocha with far too many espresso shots. Tim paused as he walked into the cafe. Then he came and sat down next to one of his oldest friends.
“It is you, you’re Reideverything.” he said as he sat down.
Reid nodded, pushing the coffee across the table.
“Did you not get words too?” Tim knew that he hadn’t spoken directly to Reid in his office so he couldn’t have been marked then. It was rare but there were known cases of mark mismatch.
“Actually, I got your words earlier, in St. Louis,” Reid rolled his sleeve up and showed the damning words.
“Shit.” He breathed out. Tim had not expected to have to tell his soulmate about his superhero life just yet.
“I haven’t said anything, I won’t say anything, but we should talk about that eventually.”
Tim looked up across the table into his soulmate’s hazel eyes.
“Yeah.”
Instead of any of the many things they needed to talk about, Tim asked about the books Reid was reading. Tim smiled as Reid started to gush about his latest finds. Tim sipped his coffee and let Reid’s enthusiasm wash over him. This was familiar, it may be the first time the two had talked like this in person but they had had many conversations like this over the years.
It didn’t take long for his team to notice that Reid had lost the simmering tension that had followed him since San Francisco, since St. Louis.
“Pretty boy, anything new with you? You seemed pretty relaxed lately.” Morgan wondered.
Reid looked over at his friend. Wondering if and how much he was going to tell him about his developing relationship with his soulmate.
“It’s been a good week.” he shrugged.
“Doing anything special this weekend, Spence?”
Reid paused. “I have a date,” he admitted.
“Oh, do tell.” Morgan looked interested.
“My soulmate is in town.”
“You actually started talking to him?” JJ asked excitedly.
“It turns out I was correct, he was my internet friend after all. It just took us a little while to figure that out.”