Snowbound
(CM, NC-17, Reid/Loker)
©mccabebabe
author's notes: inspired by a major snowstorm dumped down on the eastern United States Jan 22-23-24/16. Quotes taken from Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau. I've also taken a few liberties, like making the DC electricity supply ( the company is called Pepco) more vulnerable than it actually is. Necessary for storyline purposes. Sue me :-P and finally, thank you to my JittTwin Diana for her creative input and feedback )
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"They found his car, Hotch. In the commuter parking lot near his apartment," Garcia was nearly in tears as she relayed this new information to the unit boss.
"That makes no damned sense. Why would he drive to a lot to catch the subway when he can grab it pretty much right outside his door?" Hotch frowned. "And why wouldn't he have just gone back home?" Garcia was still on the phone, half listening to her caller, half listening to SSAs Hotch and Rossi who clustered around her desk.
"Maybe the snow, Aaron?" Rossi piped up. "He doesn't drive much and the weather, well, this has been quite the snowstorm. Stormzilla, they're calling it. Hell froze over, I say."
The storm had come in and hit DC and area with a vengeance Friday night. Tara Lewis and Spencer Reid had both left the office in the early evening, both had long commutes home, Reid took the train making his trek even longer. Most of the other members of the BAU left for home later that night. Lewis had checked in with David Rossi, letting him know when she'd arrived safely home but the roads were closed behind her. Morgan and JJ were both turned back by closed roads and whiteout conditions. Rossi had bullied his way past a roadblock to go home. And Hotchner and Garcia had never left the office, both felt it was best to stay put and finish work. As it turned out, JJ and Morgan both had to return and the four of them had had a popcorn and movie night at the office, before hunkering down on couches and cots they had retrieved from storage.
It was Saturday afternoon that the group began to worry about Reid, who hadn't checked in with them. Rossi returned to the office after Garcia had called him to let him know they still hadn't heard from Reid.
"Derek says the key's still in the ignition. It won't turn over, but the gas tank's not empty," Garcia informed the others, moving her cellphone from one ear to the other.
"There's gotta be three feet of snow out there," Rossi exclaimed. "What the hell-" he trailed off as the power flickered on briefly and then off again. "Wonderful."
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"Then where the hell is he?" Derek Morgan slammed a fist down on the hood of the car and turned to face his colleague Jennifer Jareau.
"Let's go back to his apartment and see if we can figure that out," she suggested. Morgan opened the car door, and reached in with a gloved hand to retrieve the key from the ignition. It was frozen in place and try as he might, he couldn't move it. His brow furrowed and a frown crossed his face.
"JJ. Reid wasn't the one driving his car."
"What? Derek, how do-" her question died on her lips as she realised what Morgan had noticed. The driver's seat was pushed fully forward. Reid was tall. Taller than even Morgan, who was trying to sit in the driver's seat and couldn't in its current position.
"Oh my god, check the trunk!" JJ fairly shouted as law enforcement intuition kicked in. Morgan pushed the trunk release, extricated himself from the vehicle and together they raced to the back to open the trunk.
She held her breath but let out a relieved sigh when they found just the expected kinds of things in the trunk: spare tire, jack, fire extinguisher, a jug of windshield wiper solution.
Morgan's face still bore a grimace.
"What is it, Derek?"
He let out a sigh. "Come on. This is Reid. He'd have an emergency kit in here."
She nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Spence would have flares. A flashlight. Blanket. First aid kit. He'd be Mr. Prepared."
A thought occurred to each of them. JJ drew a sharp breath and Derek voiced his speculation. "He took it with him?"
"Or someone else did," JJ exhaled. They looked around the car but found no footprints or any other clue to the missing agent's whereabouts. There was at least two feet of snow accumulated on the ground around the car, and around each of the other four cars still parked in the lot. The plow had not yet been through.
The two agents plodded their way back through the snow-drifted lot, climbed into their dark SUV and set off for Spencer Reid's apartment, a journey covering several snow-covered blocks down the road.
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