Title: Slow It Down
Summary: He slows it down for her. She's glad.
Characters: Reid & JJ
Pairing: JJ-Reid
Episode: Season 2, Open Season
Notes: A series of one-shots.
She doesn't know if it's a conscious effort on his part, or if he really does just enjoy reading that slowly sometimes but she's glad. The lazy pace at which he reads lets her know that he, like everyone, can read at that pace; it reminds her that he's not a super-computer like she's sure they all sometimes forget. His choice of material surprises her, on these flights home; at times when she expects him to be submerged in another book whose author she's never heard of, let alone the title he's flicking easily through a magazine left on the table at the cabin door. When he's like that, there's always a space beside him at the window – just where she likes it.
She reads it over his shoulder and she knows he knows though he doesn't turn to her. She smiles and flicks a finger to show she's finished and a few moments later the page is turned and she glances between it and the others on the plane. Gideon, like Hotch beside them, is sound asleep though the stress still lingers about their foreheads. Behind them, Emily and Morgan talk quietly but like many of their conversations, she doesn't dare listen in. She's always been surprised by how often private conversations happen on the plane but none of them question nor attempt to alter the tradition.
She sighs and glances back to the page – something about Hollywood scandal – and she flicks her finger without reading it; neither she nor Reid has any particular interest in that brand of gossip – not anymore. His hand drops and she feels the brush of his skin across the back of her hand, fleeting, almost evanescent and she looks down to where she still feels the pressure, the lingering heat of his hand that is no longer there.
She glances to him and he turns to her, his lips twitching in a smile before glancing back to the page in front of him.
The memory of his smile, his skin against hers, lingers as the pages turn in time.
He slows it all down for her sometimes and in moments like this, she's glad.