It is the unknown that excites the ardor of scholars

- Wallace Stevens

The stories never warned you about this part.

They always came in peace, in the hopes of elevating the consciousness of mankind, of somehow teaching us a grand lesson to bring us up to the next level of evolution. Or they came in pursuit of pure science and discovery. Or else they came to take, to conquer, the ultimate enemy to be fought, and eventually defeated.

Spencer Reid always felt that no matter how much he studied, no matter what he experienced, when they came he might not be up to the task of welcoming them to our time and place.

But in the stories they never came like this.

As the desert chill steeped into his bones, Spencer realized he had been ready all along.

BAU headquarters
Quantico, VA

Garcia

"Directory of all things knowable and unknowable, speak and be recognized."

"Garcia?"

Penelope Garcia smiled into the phone. "Hey Genius Man, how's the vacation going? See any interesting stars out there?"

"Yeah, um, a lot. Um, is Hotch available?"

"Nope, he's off at a conference. He ought to be back tomorrow though."

"Oh, um, okay. Could you tell him that I changed my mind? I'm, um, going to take the full two weeks after all."

Garcia chuckled. With Emily moving to London, JJ off on her honeymoon and Rossi off on his annual book tour Hotch had taken the unprecedented move of standing down the team for a solid month. He said they were too shorthanded to be of any use anyway and so insisted everyone take the opportunity to take vacation time. Morgan was off visiting his family in Chicago and after that was planning to spend some time someplace tropical, even Hotch himself was planning on taking Jack for some Disney time, but they hadn't been able to talk Reid into more than a long week-end visiting his Mother and doing some star-gazing out in the desert. But something changed his mind. "What, did you meet a girl?" The pause on the other end of the line was too tense and went on too long. She gasped and giggled. "You did meet a girl! Tell me, what's she like?"

"Garcia…."

"Oh, all right. But you have to tell me when you get back." Oh the gossip she would have for JJ later. "Go, have fun. I'll let the boss man know."

"Thank you Garcia. You're wonderful."

"Yes, I know. Wonderful out!"

.

Notes: I'm starting this as a CM fict but it will eventually be a crossover fict, and I will be listing it as such. For now feel free to play guess the crossover in the comments.

Not related to any of my other work. Spoilers for Criminal Minds through the end of Season 7. Look for the spoiler warning for the other work at the beginning of Chapter 5.

All CM characters belong to their creators, all of the characters from the other work belong to their creator, who will be listed at the end of Chapter 5.