"if this unsub is so obsessed with death, then jake shepherd was the perfect person to talk to," hotch began. "he'd been there and back again."

"but come on, guys," morgan spoke up as you looked down at the table still, messing around with a pen in between your fingers. "gentle lights, shadowy figures? those are the lights in the emergency room and the doctors hovering over the patients. we all know that. no one actually sees the afterlife." 

it was after that sentence that you looked up to see your boyfriend, who was standing by a pillar, speaking up.

"i did," he said as he caught everyone's attention. "before tobias hankel resuscitated me, i had that exact experience. and i wasn't in an emergency room. i was in a shed."

morgan looked over at him in surprise as you continued to stare at him with soft eyes.

"reid, you never told me that."

"i only felt the need to tell one person, and i did," he began, looking at you as the two of you locked eyes for a while. "but i'm also a man of science. i didn't know how to deal with it. there's no quantifiable proof that God exists, and yet, in that moment, i was faced with something that i couldn't explain. i still can't."

morgan glanced between the two of you, seeing how you were staring at him with a such softness in your eye.

"at least you did tell somebody," he muttered.

"theoretically, i could've kept it to myself," he began as you looked back up at him from glancing over at morgan. "but i respect my girlfriend too much to do that."

you smiled at him sweetly, nodding to yourself to talk after the meeting.

-
"are you okay?" you asked reid as the two of you were off in a separate room to talk. morgan looked into the room from the window that was slightly sealed off by the partially opened blinds.

"why wouldn't i be?" he asked you.

"well, maybe because you clearly are still uncomfortable talking about what happened to you," you said to him. "i thought you said that after talking to me, everything was okay."

reid sighed, leaning against the wall of the room as he looked over at you while you sat on the edge of the desk, staring over at him sweetly.

"i love you, ______," he said, trying to distract the conversation.

you got up from the desk and walked over to him, reaching out and grabbing his hand in yours as you shook your head.

"spence, you can't distract me with all this love talk," you told him sweetly while staring up into his eyes as you tried to find what he was hiding. "you can always talk to me, and i hope you know that."

he nodded, looking back down into your eyes.

"i'm not necessarily scared of dying," he began as you nodded. "but i'm more worried about the aftermath because of it."

you furrowed your brows in confusion.

"i don't understand."

he let out a sigh, looking off to the side before finishing his explanation.

"i'm not ready to leave you alone," he said as you looked off to the side, biting your lip before answering.

"spence, are you-?" you began but he shook his head.

"oh, no, no," he said. "but i know that someday, i will most likely go before you."

"why do you think that?"

he looked back at you, tightening his grip on your hand.

" ______, i'm like a magnet for abductors. they always get me and hurt me and want me to nearly die or live on the edge of death," he responded. "it's only time now with this job that i go before you. and i'm not ready to leave you alone- no matter how nicely the afterlife was accepting of me."

you shook your head, wrapping your arms around him as you kept him close to you.

"no," you told him. "you're going to be fine, spence. we're going to get married, and soon i hope considering that we've been dating for seven years, and we're going to have kids and you're going to be here for all of it. for every event that occurs in my life and our kids' lives."

he held back onto you, looking down at you as you waited for him to respond.

"do you want to get married?" he asked softly.

"well, yeah, of course i do," you responded, still holding onto reid. "why wouldn't i?"

reid smiled at you.

"how about we get married right here, right now?" he asked as you looked a little taken aback by the words he just told you.

"like right, right here? right now?" you requestioned him.

he smiled down at you, shrugging his shoulders.

"we can go get married now and then have a ceremony later on if you want to," he suggested.

"but we have a case," you began.

"but we always have after the case to get married, sweetheart."

you smiled up at him, pressing a kiss to his lips before letting go and laying your head down on his chest.

"let's get married after the case then," you told him before opening the door and going back out of the room and into the main room where the team was gathered as reid followed after you shortly.

-
after the case, you and reid were ready.

you both had agreed that getting married now and then having a ceremony for the rest of the team was the best idea for the both of you.

when walking up to the chapel with reid, you tightened your hold on his hand. the preacher was waiting as he greeted both of you with excitement.

"mrs. _____ and mr. reid?" he asked.

"it's doctor actually, but yes, that's us," reid told the preacher as you smiled to yourself.

he always corrected people on saying 'mr' instead of 'dr' and it was one of the many reasons you had become so entranced with him from the very first date.

"we can begin now, if you'd like?" the preacher asked as reid looked over at you. you were staring down towards your hand holding reid's before looking up and nodding.

"yes," you said with a sweet smile as you looked up at reid. "let's get married."