So this actually happened to me, and this story is the result.

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.


Exasperating, she thought. This confounded thing is utterly exasperating!

Emily stared down at the long, thin remote she held in her hand. Actually, "held" wasn't so much the term. "Strangled" was more like it.

"Of all the days to go completely stupid on me…" she muttered, trying desperately to resist the urge to throw the device straight into her flat screen. In front of her, the images and sounds of her favorite program streamed forth, but Emily was too upset to even think.

Tossing the remote onto the couch, she snatched her cell off of the end table and punched a number.

"It's almost eleven o'clock, oh strange and weird one," a voice mumbled on the other end of the line. "Unless there's some horribly creepy man with severe mommy issues going around your neighborhood looking like Anthony Perkins, I'm going back to bed…"

"Garcia, I need your help."

"Okay. Glad to know they're not casting for the next Psycho installment. Now, can we do this in the morning? I'll be up, bright and early…"

"Garcia. Focus. It's ten fifty-three on a Thursday night in July, and I'm calling you. What's wrong with this picture?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone. "Oh," she said, softly at first, then again a bit louder. "You're telling me…"

"Uh-huh. I missed it."

"No!"

"Y'know, I wait all year for it to begin; I even invest in a recorder so I can program the thing, and what happens?"

"I'm guessing you had technical difficulties…"

"If that's what you call 'missing the first half because I got the start time wrong' and 'missing the second half because I couldn't get the stupid machine to record right,' then yeah." Emily puffed so loud she half-expected to see smoke coming out of her nostrils.

"Maybe JJ managed to get it?"

"No dice. I know for a fact she's in New Orleans this week—vacation time."

"So you…"

"Uh-huh."

"I've got a couple hours. I'll see what I can dig up for you. Rest assured, I can get you the season premiere of Burn Notice."

Emily chuckled. "Can you kill my DVD recorder too?"

"On what grounds?"

"That it nearly came between me and my Michael Westin fix."

"Honey, you do live on the twelfth floor…"

Emily glanced outside her gigantic picture window, staring out at the sight of the Mall and letting her gaze drop to the street below.

"Y'know, that's not a bad idea…"


Disclaimer #2: Burn Notice and Psycho are also not mine. But I recommend them! :)