How the Wings Ache
A Spencer Reid Story
A/N: Just a quickie UST between Spencer/OFC I couldn't get out of my head, so here, like Dumbledore I pull the memory out and put into the pot of memories…an arcane Harry Potter reference. This is a Criminal Minds one shot that came to mind during Honor Among Thieves. It is likely to have a non-linear timeline to show, i.e. may contain bits and pieces from earlier and later shows. Disclaimer: All plots and characters you recognize belong to CBS and PTB. The OFC is my own as is this tiny little drabble. I have no idea why, but I find Spencer Reid hot. I'm usually the bad-boy rock star type (see my other stories ), but something about his innocence and loneliness makes me want to wrap him in a big blanket and make it all better. Enough. Here we go.
"...the cold winds of insecurity... hadn't shredded the dreamy chrysalis of his childhood. He was still immersed in the dim, wet wonder of the folded wings that might open if someone loved him; he still hoped, probably, in a butterfly's unthinking way, for spring and warmth. How the wings ache, folded so, waiting; that is, they ache until they atrophy."
---Harold Brodkey
Spencer tiredly joined the team in the conference room. Everyone was surprised to see Emily Prentiss' mother there, Ambassador Prentiss. She brought with her an older lady with red hair who spoke only Russian and her daughter, a pretty girl named Natalya who spoke English very well but with a Russian accent. The woman was the wife of the victim and the girl was the daughter. He listened to the team discuss whether or not they should take this case, but Hotch had already made the decision. When the cut finger with its wedding band still attached was shown to the group as well as the urgency of the ransom note, it was clear to everyone they had a very short time-line. They each broke down the assignment and Spencer was to head off to the abduction scene with Gideon and Morgan, while Emily would go with her mother to make phone calls, while Hotch stayed at headquarters with the wife.
It was clear immediately they would need a translator for the wife if the daughter was going to return to the house in Maryland. Hotch called and found there was an FBI consultant translator in the building who could come upstairs to help right away. A stunning auburn haired woman stepped off the elevator in front of the BAU glass doors. She was dressed in an expensive suit and high heels. Used to her effect on men, she smiled softly at the three casually dressed men who were passing her to enter the elevator. None of them hid their surprise or interest in the woman who wore a FBI consultant badge. They stood watching her walk away from them, her snug suit skirt swaying slightly but unintentionally, almost missing the elevator as the doors began to close. As she entered the glass doors, she turned back to look at the three men, her eyes drawn into the depths of the youngest one's eyes. He looked at her so innocently, not with the obvious lust from the dark man or the curiosity from the older man. He was a puzzle to her, one she didn't see often. Such innocence and loneliness behind those eyes she thought as the elevator closed, disconnecting their mutual contact.
Once the elevator doors closed Morgan and Gideon both turned and looked expectantly at Spencer. Spencer was still staring at the closed doors, his mind playing over the woman and her look at him. Morgan cleared his throat breaking Spencer out of his reverie.
"Do you know her, Reid?" Morgan asked.
Spencer slowly shook his head his eyes still not moving from the last place he had seen her before the elevator doors closed. "Never seen her before today."
"Well, I'd say she wants to see you again," Morgan teased.
"Why? She doesn't even know me," Spencer's voice cracked in embarrassment at Morgan's teasing.
Gideon smiled slightly at his protégé, "Reid, you're a profiler. Think about what you saw and what it could mean. I think she profiled you right off the bat."
"Yeah, I'm some weird geek who works at the FBI. You guys are acting like she's interested in me. Something like that never happens to me," Spencer's tone had become annoyed and he wanted the subject closed.
"Yeah, never happens to you. Like that starlet in Hollywood… Lila wasn't it? Or what about that hot bartender who fell for your magic show? Chicks dig you Reid. Damned if I know why though," Morgan finished as they walked out the elevator doors and headed for the car.
The woman walked over to SSA Hotchner introducing herself as Dr. Ella Bauer.
"I'm glad you could get here so quickly, Dr. Bauer. You speak Russian, right?" Hotch asked.
"Of course, Agent Hotchner. I'm fluent in 10 different languages including several dialects of some of them. I consult with the FBI, the CIA, and work primarily at the UN when it is in session. I'm happy I was already in the building so that I could be here quickly to help."
"Very good then. Let me introduce you to Mrs. Churnes. Her daughter just left with the other agents to return to the home where the abduction took place," Hotch gave her a brief background on the case and some of the gorier details before they reached Mrs. Churnas.
Ella was surprised that this giant quiet man was so gentle with the old lady. She was frightened and obviously upset, and probably feeling very alone right now. Hotch did his best to introduce Ella but she quickly stepped in and began to speak soothingly to Mrs. Churnas.
"Г-жа Churnas, я Элла. Я здесь помогут, хотя они выглядят для вашего мужа," Ella said quietly in perfect Russian, already soothing the hysterical woman. ("Mrs. Churnas, my name is Ella. I'm here to help you while they look for your husband.)
Ella continued to speak quietly to the woman as Hotch left Mrs. Churnas in Ella's capable hands. After a while, the woman's panic quieted and the two women were engaged in a conversation where Mrs. Churnas even smiled slightly.
Hotch got a phone call and quietly hung up looking over beseechingly at Ella. Ella caught his eye and excused herself briefly from Mrs. Churnas, offering to bring her some tea. Hotch followed Ella into the coffee room while she prepared tea for Mrs. Churnas. "I take it you just got some bad news, Agent Hotchner."
"Just Hotch is fine."
"Very good then. Just Ella is fine. What has happened?"
He sighed, his mouth drawn in a tight line, "They've moved up the timeline. An ear was just delivered to the house."
Ella looked quickly at her watch, "An hour ahead of time. What happened?"
"Apparently, they got mad that Natalya brought us into the investigation. And they have raised the ransom to $500,000."
Ella gasped. "Hotch, these people, they don't have that kind of money. From what I can tell from talking to Mrs. Churnas, they have no money at all. And they are not criminals, Hotch. I'm not a profiler, but I know people and I have lived with people like these and there is no way they are criminals."
"We know. We haven't found anything either. Now we have less than an hour to find Mr. Churnas and we still don't know where to look."
"Well, she has no idea. I'll go back and tell her about her husband." Ella closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. "And she had just calmed down too. This is just going to upset her more."
Ella returned to Mrs. Churnas giving the bad news. As expected, the woman cried out and threw herself into Ella's arms. She already felt bonded to Ella as the only friendly face in the entire room. Ella spent the next hour calming her down and getting her to drink her tea.
When Mr. Churnas was found alive, albeit very injured, the team was relieved and a slightly smiling Hotchner walked into the office where Ella sat with Mrs. Churnas to deliver the good news. Mrs. Churnas' constant flow of hysterical tears quickly turned to tears of joy as she hugged Ella and then a surprised Hotchner. Soon arrangements were made to drive Mrs. Churnas to the hospital where her husband was in surgery. It was a two-hour drive and Hotch felt that it was important for Ella to accompany Mrs. Churnas to the hospital for help with translation while he prepared the hospital to have another translator waiting at the hospital. Ella agreed, so she, Emily Prentiss, and Mrs. Churnas climbed into one of the bureau's Suburbans and headed to Maryland.
Once settled in, Mrs. Churnas just stared out the window while Emily and Ella struck up a conversation. Ella explained how she translated for the different areas of government as well as the UN, while Emily asked if Ella knew her mother, Elizabeth Prentiss, the ambassador.
Ella laughed, "Not very likely. As a translator, we stay up in a room with headphones on just translating for the country we have been chosen for. Unless she is in some way infamous, I would not have known her."
"Well, my mother thinks everyone knows her. She is quite imperious so I won't tell her what you just said."
"Tell me about working in the BAU. What about this team?"
Prentiss began describing how, while she didn't enjoy the work exactly, she felt she was doing something useful, that she was contributing in some way. And she started to talk about the team. "Because of what we do, we are a very tight group. Even so, we don't really know that much about each other. Little tidbits get dropped now and then, but we don't go out of our way to find out much about each other just because, well…I guess because we see so much horrible stuff here, we want to keep something of ourselves untainted."
Ella thought about that for a while, looking at the country side flying by. "I can see how that could be very important. Compartmentalizing is a special gift that not everyone has."
"Yeah, that is what JJ asked me not too long ago. How could I see scenes like what we see and not be horrified and overwhelmed with the brutality of it all? We had found JJ in a barn where a woman had been entirely eaten by dogs. JJ had to kill the dogs in self-defense or she would have ended up like that woman. It was horrible, and JJ was very affected by it. She had been trapped in that place unsure if she would ever be found alive, everything covered in blood, and alone in the dark like that. I'm not sure I could have compartmentalized that either."
"Jesus. These are the things you see?"
"That was a bad one, one of the worst, but yeah that is what we see. That same person who killed the woman kidnapped one of our agents, Reid, and we watched over the internet as he was tortured, drugged, and tortured some more. It was awful and I still think Reid is struggling with it."
"Reid, he is the young genius right?"
"Yeah, that's him. He knows every statistic that has ever been or ever will be. He remembers everything he reads or hears verbatim. And he's only 27. Three PhDs by the time he was 24. He knows more about everything than anyone will ever know."
Ella smiled, "Does he speak any foreign languages?"
Emily turned her eyes from the road and smirked, "Not that I know of. Certainly not Russian. I've never heard or seen him reading or speaking another language."
"Hmmm, then maybe there is something I know that he doesn't. He surely knows more than I do."
"Reid, huh? You just passed him in the hallway didn't you?"
"Yeah, but there is something about him. He looks so sad."
"I won't share any of his secrets, the extremely few I know. I'll let him tell you himself."
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Emily."
Ella introduced Mrs. Churnas to the new translator that would help her at the hospital. She was anxious to see her husband so Ella made their goodbyes quick, and returned to the waiting team. They decided to fly back to Quantico. Ella quietly followed the group with Emily and Gideon on either side of her. Gideon was very warm and welcoming, which was nice. She already felt she knew Emily, and could peg Morgan pretty quickly. JJ also spent time talking with her on the car ride to the plane. They all seemed very nice, but Spencer hadn't said a word to her, and if anything tried to avoid her eyes.
Gideon pulled him aside to introduce him formally to Ella. "Dr. Ella Bauer, this is Dr. Spencer Reid. She was the translator for Mrs. Churnas."
Ella gave him a bright smile and put out her hand, while he cautiously placed his hand in hers. "Very nice to meet you Dr. Reid."
He removed his hand reluctantly and just nodded and smiled a little quirky smile. "You can just call me Reid or Spencer."
"Good. I'm just Ella."
He followed her up the plane steps and she took a seat beside Gideon where a chess board was set up. Reid took his usual place across from him as if to play.
Gideon asked Ella as they buckled up, "Do you play chess, Ella?"
"I do."
"And cards?"
"Yes. My dad was a gambler and a genius. He taught me how to play it all."
"So are you a gambler or a genius?" Gideon teased.
"I would rather hang onto my money than throw it at the house when the odds are in its favor. But I have been willing to take chances in other areas," she looked across the aisle at Spencer, who looked at her and then quickly looked down pretending to adjust his bag. "As for a genius, no. Not like the two of you. Really really smart, but not a genius."
Gideon laughed out loud in his soft way, "The only true genius on this plane is sitting right there." He nodded his head at Spencer.
Spencer blushed and started to nervously talk. "Genius is not really quantifiable. IQ scores are often used but in reality if you don't do anything with whatever intelligence you have the IQ score doesn't matter."
Ella smiled, "Regardless of IQ, which I'm sure yours is very high, you also had 3 PhD's by the time you were 24. In things like physics, chemistry, and math. That's pretty esoteric stuff. You must have been the smartest kid in your class." Ella's voice dropped down to a quiet empathetic voice as she realized what that must have been like. "You would have been forever the smartest kid in school, and that must have made you the loneliest too."
Spencer's head jerked up as he heard her words, surprised that she knew that about him. "Being the smartest kid in the room never is a good thing, no matter how old you get."
She looked at him and sighed, her eyes slightly damp as she could feel what it must have been like for him. She softly nodded her head and ended his discomfort by looking out the window, breaking off contact for the short 25 minute flight.
She followed the team up the elevator and into the BAU to gather her stuff. She lived in Alexandria and had quite a drive in front of her. She went to the coffee room to fill up her travel mug for the drive. Spencer was already there pouring sugar straight into his coffee mug. She smirked slightly when she saw this, "Having a little coffee with your sugar?"
He smiled back, not quite as nervously this time. "Yeah, it's been a long day. And I like my coffee sweet. If we had some mocha syrup it would be perfect." He turned to face her as she made up her own coffee, leaning his hip against the counter.
"So, where do you live, Ella?"
"Alexandria, the historic part. It's beautiful, but a pretty long drive from here."
"Anywhere in the D.C. area is a long drive."
She slightly snorted in agreement as she put the lid on her mug. Emily had walked in unnoticed, while Ella had taken up a similar position as Spencer, leaning lazily against the counter with her hip. She took a sip of her hot coffee and licked her lips. He could hardly take his gaze off of the motion. She smiled at him as she pushed herself off of the counter. She touched his arm as she walked by him saying, "Ces yeux hantée avec ces boucles innocents. Une combinaison irrésistible."
Spencer turned his body as his eyes followed her as she walked out of the room and out the double glass doors. He heard Emily laugh behind him and he turned quickly around to face her. "Do you know what she just said, Reid?"
"No, but I have an idea that you do. Are you going to tell me?"
Emily smiled at Spencer, not teasingly but just happy for him. "She said, 'Such haunted eyes with such innocent curls. An irresistible combination.' " She felt satisfied with his surprised eyes and raised eyebrows. "And did you see what she left on the counter?"
Spencer turned quickly to look at the counter top, seeing just a small business card, only it wasn't a business card at all. It was more a calling card, or what would have been called one centuries ago. It simply had her name and two phone numbers on it. Spencer picked up the card rubbing the heavy card paper between his fingers. It felt soft like linen paper, and very expensive. He just lifted his eyes to the place where he had watched her walk away while his mind ran through the possibilities.
TBC
A/N: If there is any interest in reading about the "possibilities", now that we are past the "procedural" part, review and let me know. Ten reviews will have me write another chapter of possibilities. I don't usually do this bribe sort of thing, but I have several stories going and if there isn't much interest in this one then it will just continue in my head. :-)