Chapter Text
ONE: "Saved by the bell, kid. Saved by the bell."
Emma Gray got coffee in the same shop every morning. She enjoyed the routine, as she was a doctor who worked crazily hectic days and she could never quite keep a routine. Her morning coffee at Joe's Café was the one thing she could rely on to be the same, and to be calm. The other thing that she enjoyed about the café was the fact that a brown-eyed, messy-haired boy also got coffee there every morning. She didn't know his full name, but caught that his first name must be Spencer, considering that they call out names when their coffee was ready. He wasn't in the shop every morning, but most mornings, and when he was, he sat in the same seat every time, as did she and they had a good view of each other from their chosen seats.
She would be lying if she said she didn't find "messy-haired boy", as she liked to call him, attractive. She would also be lying if she said she never caught herself staring at him. Spencer also wouldn't lie, he found Emma attractive too. Their problem was not that the attraction wasn't there, it was that both of them were as shy as can be. Spencer noticed that his very best friend, Derek Morgan, would ask out any girl he found attractive, but Spencer just wasn't like that - and neither was Emma. Both of their jobs were highly demanding and didn't allow them much time for social interactions at bars or places like that to learn how to be as social as someone like Morgan.
Despite getting coffee at the same place and seeing each other almost every morning, the two of them would never go over and talk to the other. This morning painted the picture of most every other morning. Emma entered the coffee shop at around 7:15, to see Spencer about three spots ahead of her in the line. He ordered, the people in between them ordered, she ordered, then he waited, she waited and they both went to sit at their regular tables. That's it - that's how it went every morning. No simple "hello's", not even any awkward bumping into each other. They were both aware of the attraction, but neither of them were confident enough to act upon it.
It continued like this for many more mornings, until, one morning Spencer brought Morgan into the coffee shop to discuss a case that had really been racking their minds. Today, Emma was ahead of Spencer in the line and she sat down before Spencer and Morgan. From what Morgan noticed, he definitely saw that Spencer had a crush.
"Hey, Reid, who's that?" he asked, nonchalantly.
"Who, her?" Reid answered, looking towards Emma.
"Yes, her. Don't act like you haven't been staring at her for the past 10 minutes, kid," Morgan said with a slight smirk.
"What do you mean, I am not staring," Reid defended.
"Oh pretty boy, me guess, you sit here every morning, she sits there every morning, you both stare at each other but have never even shared a simple hello to each other," Morgan analysed.
Spencer was surprised at how correct Morgan was, but refused to let him win. "Hey, the whole team agreed not to profile each other."
"I'm not profiling kid, I'm stating the obvious. You don't need special training to see that you find that girl over there attractive," Morgan said. "Go talk to her."
"I will certainly not, what if she's busy," Reid said.
"Yes, so direly, extremely busy reading whatever papers she has and sipping slowly on her coffee," Morgan said, with another one of his signature smirks.
Morgan was actually reading the situation pretty correctly. Emma was reading over some medical files to get ready for work, but she could go without reading them, she really wasn't busy and would actually not have minded some company. She didn't fail to notice that Spencer had a friend with him today and noted that she still found Spencer attractive. She took notice that Spencer's friend would most likely attract the most attention, and with his built arms you could almost definitely assure that he had an 8-pack of abs underneath his shirt, however Emma thought there was a charm to Spencer. He was attractive in a way more than just having abs, he looked like he had a real character which is what initially sparked Emma's interest in him. She thought she could read people pretty well, so she assumed that his attractiveness went beyond physicalities. Spencer's friend, on the other hand, she couldn't tell if he had much going on behind the washboard abs.
"Shut up Morgan, she looks like she's reading something, I don't think she really wants an awkward stranger wasting her time by stuttering away at her," Spencer said.
"Come on Reid, you have to at least tell yourself you have more game than that. I'm not leaving until you go talk to her," Morgan said.
"Well then looks like you'll be here all day," Spencer said with a laugh.
Just at that moment, Emma got a call from the hospital and quickly got up. She was in Spencer and Morgan's range of hearing when she said "No, I'm not on call, but I'll come to the hospital early to check out what's going on, just keep the patient stable." After that she hung up and quickly dashed out.
"Saved by the bell, kid. Saved by the bell. And hey, she's a doctor! Did you know that? No, I'm guessing you didn't know that seeing as you're too scared to talk to her," Morgan said in a teasing tone.
"Hey, I'm not too scared, I just don't want to disturb her," Reid said.
"Come on now, Reid. I'm coming back here with you every morning until you go up and talk to her. Now let's look over this case," Morgan said, and they directed their attention to the file they brought with them.
This was going to be a long week for Spencer, thanks to Morgan.