Author's Note: This is it! The first chapter of Part 2 in the Spencer/Derek novella. Admittedly this is a SHORT chapter, but I have to get warmed up again. The next one will be of a more acceptable length. Also, this is going to jump onto a new title. From now on, you'll find it under a new story called Fixing It. Unfortunately, updates won't be a once a week promise. I don't think I can meet that deadline. My dear readers will have to settle for once every two weeks (better than 3 years of silence). Also, in creating my new story Fixing It, I just agreed not to write anything "explicit". So on that note, I closed my LiveJournal account because it sends me too much spam, but I now have an Archive of Our Own (AO3) account. It does accept "explicit". If this story or my account disappears from Fanfiction, you can find me in AO3.

To my beta IDIC: Are you still around? If so, I shall be calling on your services :).

Disclaimer: The original characters and any borrowed plot ideas belong to Mark Gordon Company, and the writers of Criminal Minds.

Where to Run?

Prologue: It was done. Finally. Spencer and Derek walked into the school hands clasped. The football team, Derek's group and the most popular guys in the school, stood behind them on this. So one might think it was all blue skies and sunshine, a fairy tale ending. Poor saps. Welcome to reality.

Spencer chewed his lips with nerves, from both excitement and anxiety. Blue skies and sunshine his lily white ass. He and Derek both knew that they'd have battles ahead when they officially came out to their schoolmates, and it wasn't worse than they'd expected. It was precisely as expected. Except the outrage wasn't directed at the pair, or the team for accepting them. That could have been handled. The young lovers had a support group for such a response.

No. Instead, the backlash came entirely at Spencer and it didn't just stick to the school. It leached out into the town like poisoned ground water. Spencer Reid, the young genius, such promise, but so out of place. He was the root of this issue. Clearly, at least to the eyes of the school and the town, he'd manipulated his older peer into this relationship. Perhaps as payback for helping Derek improve his grades (they were notably improved), or to help him write a scholarship essay (college was right around the corner for Derek). Or perhaps Derek had found it in his kind heart to reach out as a mentor to his underclassman who obviously didn't fit in, but Spencer (being emotionally deprived with all of those skipped grades) had twisted the relationship into a love affair in his own under-developed mind. Poor, poor unsuspecting rising young star athlete, his future ruined by a child who never belonged in the first place…

Spencer rolled his eyes at first when he heard these mutterings coming back to him.

Little do they know.

His thoughts were almost bitter, but he brushed them aside.

Months passed this way and life had only gotten harder and harder for Spencer to bear. Derek and his friends did all they could to shield Spencer, as did Spencer's parents. But closed-minded people will think what they like and shout it loudly for all to hear. So Spencer did the only thing he could do for his own health.

He ran. To college in fact. The SAT was a bit of a joke in his mind, really. Nothing to fret over, just one more test. The boy could have passed the exam in his sleep. But he didn't. He put on a nice shirt, comfortable jeans, road to the testing center with his mother and ignored the wide-eyed stares and giggles of the teenagers around him. When asked for an ID, he put his library card and Social Security card on the table. He breezed through the test and was gracious enough to hide a small smirk of superiority at the pained looks of the students around him.

So now was the moment of truth. He held the California Institute of Technology letter in his hands, the cause of his now raw lips. Derek sat beside him and rubbed his shoulders in a show of support. He'd gotten into Yale, that was a given, his safety school in fact. This was the one he wanted. Spencer had hemmed and hawed over this decision. Cal Tech was so far away. So far from Derek, from his first friends. But Derek had stepped up to the challenge and given his blessing, assured Spencer that it didn't matter.

Spencer smiled as he recalled Derek's laugh.

"We're not in the stone age, Pretty Boy. Internet is a thing for poor people now, too."

So they would Skype every day, Derek promised him. "Maybe I can give you the occasional show," he said with a wink.

Derek would graduate soon and maybe even with good enough grades to get into college as well. He'd cursed the GPA requirements for college athletes too many times to count. Spencer only scolded him for his early laziness in classes, making Derek hang his head sheepishly.

Derek head-butted him from the side. "Common, baby. You have to accept their acceptance, you know. They don't just assume. And your folks have to put he house up for sale. Want me to open it for you?"

Spencer chuckled weakly, his stomach writhing. He didn't want Yale. He wanted Cal Tech. His parents had already agreed to move. They could work from anywhere, they promised him. His future, his choice. Anything to see him happy again. All the comforting words and affection they could provide and still he doubted in the back of his mind. But Derek was right. Now or never.

So he opened the letter, a little too fast, grumbling at the paper cut while Derek shook his head and sighed quietly with a smile.

There it was.

We are pleased to inform you….blah blah blah. The rest didn't matter. He was in. The end.

Spencer was moving across the country and going to the college of his dreams. On a full ride.

Derek kissed his cheek softly, ignoring the sinking in the pit of his stomach. "I knew you'd get it, Pretty Boy."

Again, readers, AO3 account is where I'll be if this story disappears.