One-Shot
AN Enjoy! :)
I laugh at the face Reid is making at Morgans retelling of his previous night when my desk phone starts ringing.
"Prentiss" I answer
"Agent Prentiss, there is a Mr. Matthew Gordon here to see you. Should we send him up?" asks the other agent.
"Um, yeah" I answer, confusion marring my face as I hang up the phone.
"What's up Prentiss?" Morgan asks, moving over to talk to me.
"I'm not sure. There is apparently a Mr. Matthew Gordon here to see me" I tell him, sitting back in my seat as I try to think of where I would know that name from.
"What's the problem?" he asks
"I don't know anyone by that name." I tell him, watching as Garcia enters the room and heads straight towards us, a smile on her face.
"Good news, I convinced Hotch to come out for drinks with us tonight" she says with a bounce in her step, joining the rest of us around my desk.
I'm about to reply when I hear the ding of the elevator from around the corner, and for some reason I find myself holding my breath, waiting for whoever it is to come around the corner.
The rest of the team seem to sense the shift in me, as they too turn to face the door, and although none of them react to the person who walks through them, I do.
"Holy shit" I murmur, standing slowly from my chair as he loiters halfway through the room, his eyes on me as he grins, waiting for me to go to him. Probably nervous around so many FBI agents with guns.
I walk normally, calmly, until about three feet away from him, at which point I throw myself into his chest, laughing when he catches me and spins around to diffuse the force of my hug.
"It's been a while Princess" he says, his voice rough from what I know to be way too many cigarettes.
"Shit Jason, I haven't heard from you since you left to, what was it? The Amazon Fucking Jungle five months ago" I say, punching his shoulder as the joy of seeing my best friend melts away to show the anger i'm holding onto for the radio silence these last months.
"I'm sorry. I got held up, almost got arrested, got shot. Not fun. It's good to be back in your beautiful arms though" he says, teasing me.
"Yeah, well, your's aren't so bad either" I tell him, letting out a small sound of surprise as he ducks down to pick me up and over his shoulder, walking towards my team, who are all laughing.
He sets me down a few seconds later, dropping an arm around my shoulders as I lean into his side, although I am surprised to see that Hotch joined the team sometime between when I went to greet Jason, and now.
"Hey guys, this is my best friend, Jason" I tell them, leaving it up to him which last name he wants to give them.
"What happened to Matthew Gordon?" Morgan asks, raising an eyebrow.
Jason raises his hand with a smirk "Present" he says, his eyes straying to, and sticking on Hotch.
He straightens after a moment of staring at him, cocking his head to the side before he sticks out a hand, the smirk off his face and his cold mask up in its stead.
"Jason Todd" he says, his lips twitching as if deciding whether or not to give a polite smile, or to keep on looking cold and blank. They decide on the latter.
"Aaron Hotchner" Hotch says, his voice just as blank as Jason's.
And then the moment is over, just as quickly as it had started. Jason's smirk is back on his face, he pulls me back into his side, the lazy stature back in place as he introduces himself to the rest of my team.
He laughs when Reid asks how he got the Agent at the front desk to tell me that his name was Matthew Gordon.
"A magician never reveals his secrets" he says, the cheesy line coming out almost without thinking.
"Oh jeez, when did you become Dick?" I ask teasingly, laughing when he flicks me on the forehead, a scowl on his face.
"Never" he answers me, an over-the-top scandalized tone in his voice.
A few minutes later Jason is flirting shamelessly with Garcia, which obviously annoys Morgan, until Jason turns his charm onto him, which has Morgan looking more relaxed than i've seen in a while.
He gets more of Spencer's references than I do, and can keep up with his genius babble.
"Damn man, how can you keep up with him like that?" Morgan asks
"I've been dealing with my own genius brother for years now, learned to keep up or get left in the dust." he says, playing down the fact that he is not nearly as dumb as he plays at.
"Hey man, why don't you come out for a drink with us? We were about to leave" Morgan says, getting nods and encouraging smiles from all around the group.
"Yeah, sure" Jason says easily, even though I know he would much prefer to go back to my apartment with me so that we can eat Ben and Jerry's and watch shit reality T.V until we're ready to talk about the shit that's been happening with each of us recently.
"Cool, everyone ready?" Morgan asks, grabbing his leather jacket off the back of his chair, waiting while Reid picks up his bag and everyone else nods before leading the way back to the elevators.
Me and Jason are the last ones in, and I grab his hand just as the doors close, knowing his dislike of closed spaces, the phobia which only surfaced after he woke up in his coffin.
He tucks me into his side, dwarfing me as I squeeze his hand.
He lets out a barely audible sigh of relief when the doors open, and I pull him so that we're the first ones out, and I watch the tension practically leak out of him as the rest of the team files out.
We lead the way to the front desk, where instead of just walking out, Jason stops and drums his fingers on the desk, something that is obviously annoying the Agent sitting there.
"Yes?" he asks, passive-aggressive-polite.
"I would like my things back now" Jason says, glaring at the man as Jason snatches my purse off my shoulder.
"Of course, sir" he says, a disgusted look on his face.
Jason then parrots his "sir" with a mocking look on his face as soon as the man turns around to go to the locked room in the back. The one that they use to hold people's belongings that aren't allowed in the building.
"Sorry about that, me and Dave don't really get along." He says as he digs around in my purse for, something.
"I put…" he trails off while he digs further into my bag.
"What are you looking for?" I ask, chuckling as he struggles to find whatever it is.
"Mine" he says, pulling out a knife and a bag of jelly beans, making my mouth drop open.
"What-" I stutter, taking my bag back as I gape at him.
He grins back at me before popping blue jelly bean into my mouth, making me close it.
"You never go through your bag, sometimes I leave things in there that i'll want later" he tells me, making me wonder what else he's left in my bag before.
"I think i'm gonna start going through my bag" I say, wondering what's actually in there.
"As long as you leave my stuff in there" he answers, eating a few jelly beans as the Agent comes back out of the room, a basket full of knives and guns in his hands which he sets down on the counter in front of Jason.
"Thanks Dave" Jason says sarcastically, pushing his bag of candy into my hands as he begins strapping holsters and guns on his body and stuffing knives into unseen pockets in his boots, pants, jacket and sleeves.
"What, the hell man?" Morgan asks from where he's standing as Jason straightens from where he was strapping a gun onto his ankle.
"I'm a bounty hunter, and as Dave learned, I have licences for all of it" he says frostily, and I hold back from asking, knowing that he'll tell me over ice cream later, or, depending on how drunk he gets, tomorrow.
"Damn" Morgan murmurs and I roll my eyes.
"Safe than sorry Princess" Jason says, not even looking at me as he puts his final gun on his hip.
"I know Jase" I say, and I do. I just wish he would have left at least some of his stuff at home to come and meet my team.
A few minutes later finds me in my car, following Garcia as she leads the way to a new bar she wants us all to try out, leaving me time to think about how me and Jason met, and how I wouldn't change a thing.
"Shit" I curse as I stumble over an outstretched leg, my heels helping nothing as I tumble to the ground, suddenly all-too aware that i'm walking around in heels and a poofy dress at midnight in a city that I know nothing about, except for it's crime rates.
I turn to apologise to the person that I tripped over, only, I don't see a homeless man like i'm expecting, I come face to face with a boy who can't be more than a year or two older than me.
"I'm sorry" I murmur, meeting his shockingly blue eyes and shrinking back slightly as he pulls himself to standing, towering over me.
"You okay Princess?" he asks, bending over to reach out a hand to me.
I know what my mother would say.
But I ignore her words ringing in my head, and instead I listen to my gut, a gut which tells me that this boy isn't going to hurt me.
"I'm okay" I respond, taking his hand, surprised when he easily pulls me to standing, taking a step back when i'm back on me feet.
"What are you doing out here lookin like that? You're gonna get yourself hurt" he says as his eyes run over my outfit before coming back to land on mine, and I don't respond as I study the concern and confusion on his face, the guarded wall behind eyes that looks like it doesn't want to trust me.
"I was at an event with my mom, I wanted some air. I got lost" I tell him, watching as he looks around us before he looks back at me.
"You aren't from around here, are you?" he asks, sighing.
"No, we just moved here. Mom said we should be staying for a few months though" I tell him, wondering how exactly he knew I wasn't from around here.
"If you were from around here you would know that you shouldn't be here, especially not at night. Jesus princess, you're lucky it was me you tripped over, anyone else and you'd be dead, or worse" he says, making me wonder what exactly 'worse' was.
"Why do you keep calling me princess?" I ask instead, my eyes widening as he pulls a cigarette from his pocket before lighting it and leaning back against the wall.
"Cause' you look like one" he says simply
"You shouldn't smoke you know, it's bad for you" I tell him, watching curiously as he pauses, his eyebrows furrowing as he cocks his head to the side, studying me back for a moment before he snubs it out against the brick wall, stuffing it back in his jacket pocket a moment later.
"Come on, tell me where you need to go. I'll walk you" he says, and again, I can hear my mother's warnings about strangers, especially strange men, but he isn't a man, he's a boy, and I don't think he'll hurt me, his eyes are too kind to be bad.
"Okay" I say, taking his outstretched hand and rattling off the address that my mother told the driver before we left.
"Fuck princess, you are a long way from where you belong" he says, shaking his head as he sets off, his longer legs making it harder for me to keep up.
I smile as I remember him getting fed up with my stumbling, how he stopped completely before telling me to take my shoes off, and then turning around and telling me to hop on.
How he piggy backed me the rest of the way to where the Gala was, and how I demanded his address before I would get off so that he could leave.
I remember laughing and talking the whole way back, and how we had so much in common, and so much different, despite being only 10 years old at the time.
I remember knowing that he was good, and that he was special.
I remember telling my mother that I wanted to go to the park, and then later telling my bodyguard, who always liked me more than my mother, Jason's address.
I remember the surprise on his face when I showed up at his door, and the way he only opened his door a crack, and then closed it on me as he grabbed his jacket and his wallet before he came back out into the hall with me, locking his door behind him. The whole time making sure that I never saw inside his apartment.
I remember having my bodyguard take us to the park, where we talked and listened to music, where I realised that Jason was my friend. My real friend.
Knock knock
"Fuck!" I exclaim, startled, I look out my window to see my grinning best friend looking down at me, questions in his eyes.
I grab my bag before I open the door, making sure to knock it into him a little before I close it.
"What're you thinking about in that pretty little princess brain of yours?" He asks, laughing when I glare at him.
"I was thinking of when we first met" I say as he steers me onto the sidewalk.
"Oh, you mean when you tried to get yourself fuckin killed?" He says, and although he's joking, I also know how he feels about the what-ifs of that night.
"I wasn't trying to get myself killed and you know it" I say, punching him in the shoulder as we all start to move towards the door, movement which is sidetracked when Jason scoops me up bridal style, making me drop my purse.
He then grins down at me before moving into a more open space.
"Oh my god Jason don't you dare!" I yell as he starts to spin, picking up speed as he tries to make me tap out.
My hair flies out behind me as I let my head drop over his arm, hysterically laughing.
"Uncle! Uncle!" I yell, my laughs quietening down as his speed drops.
"Damn princess, either I'm getting worse, or you've gotten better" he huffs out as he walks in a somewhat straight line towards the team before setting me down.
I'm unprepared for the wave of dizziness that hits me, and I end up stumbling headlong into Hotch, giggling when Jason stumbles into the wall of the building.
"You okay?" Hotch asks as he steadies me, an amused look on his face.
"I'm fine. He's been pulling that since he hit his growth spurt at 13" I say, trying to catch my breath and laughing when Jason "stumbles" into Garcia and JJ, a shit eating grin on his face as he begins shamelessly flirting with them once more.
Morgan leads our now laughing group into the bar, where we struggle to find a table, finally locating one big enough for all of us a few minutes later.
"Drinks?" Jason asks as everyone sits down, taking orders before heading off to the bar.
"I have never seen you as happy as you are now, Prentiss" Garcia says while Jason is at the bar.
"He's, well, he brings out the best in me" I say, unsure how else to explain the way my smiles come easier, my laughs more carefree, and this ridgid, cold person that I know that I am, makes way for a better version of her when I'm around my best friend.
"Then why aren't you together already?" She asks, leaning over the table as she chuckles at me.
"What do you mean?" I ask, the idea never having actually come up.
"I mean, why aren't you guys together?" She asks again.
"I don't- we just, we aren't like those friends that are like brother and sister, but we have always been platonic. I know that he's hot-"
"And you are fucking gorgeous princess" Jason interrupts, leaning over me as he deposits my drink in front of my.
"There's that. But we just, never felt that way I guess. We met when we were ten, and the rest is history. He was the only friend that stuck around through all my moves, which drove my mother crazy. She really doesn't like him, she also apparently thought that he was going to "steal my innocence"" I tell them, laughing at that particular memory.
"Steal your innocence?" Hotch asks with a smile.
"Oh yeah. He's a flirt, and I used to take real joy in flirting back with him to make her mad. Once we were probably 13 she thought we were dating, the nicknames and the want for sleepovers didn't help the image but… it is what it is." I say.
"And what it is, is platonic" Jason finishes.
I nod, happy with the way the explanation came out.
"That's cool. I mean, you don't really find a lot of boy\girl friendships where it isn't complicated by feelings, unrequited or otherwise. At least in books and movies." Garcia says, making me smile.
"Yes!" Jason exclaims, going on to geek out with Garcia over books and the tropes that they both hate, before long Spencer joins them, and then we lose JJ to the dark side.
"So, how exactly did the two of you meet?" Hotch asks, sipping his beer as he turns slightly in his seat to face me.
"Ha, funny story. Princess had a death wish at ten" Jason says, getting the attention of the whole team, drawing them out of their geek fest and into mine and Hotch's conversation.
"You need to stop telling people that" I tell Jason, rolling my eyes at his dramatics.
"Oh, I would. If only it wasn't the truth" he says, grinning before downing a shot, rolling his hand at me, telling me to get on with my version of the story.
"I was at a Gala with my mother, it was midnight and I wanted some air, so I snuck out of the venue and went on a walk-" i'm interrupted.
"In one of the most dangerous cities in the world, by yourself, in crime alley" Jason interjects
"And then I got lost, I ended up tripping over Jason because of my stupid heels, and he piggy backed me back to the Gala." I tell them, leaving out a lot of the details.
"What were you doing there?" Morgan asks Jason
"I lived there, Princess on the other hand, was new to town. Decided a nice stroll down crime alley, dressed like a fucking princess nonetheless, would be a good idea. Then she trusted a complete stranger to take her back to the Gala, and then to top it off, she wouldn't get off my back until gave her my address. She was-" I interrupt him here
"Fucking lucky that it was you who she tripped over." I finish off his sentence, having heard it enough times to recite it by heart.
"Yeah" he answers, grinning across the table at me as I roll my eyes at him.
"Are the boys in town?" I ask suddenly, wanting to know if we'll be crashed by anyone.
"Uh, Dick is in Bludhaven, being a good little cop. Tim is working, joint with Damian and Bruce I think. Roy's here though, we both had some people to visit up here, he might drop by later, either here or at your place" he answers, and I nod, slightly disappointed that I won't be seeing any of the boys tonight, it's been a while.
"His brothers" I explain simply, answering the confused looks that i'm getting.
"Don't worry, i'm staying in town for a few months, picked up a job. The boys will be by to annoy the shit out of me at some point" he says, slamming back another shot before holding his hand out for me, asking if I want to dance.
"Anyone wanna join?" I call over my shoulder, taking his hand and following him out onto the dance floor.
"Hell yeah" Garcia says, snagging Derek's hand as she gets up.
JJ is right behind them, coercing a hesitant Reid onto the the floor with us, leaving Hotch the only one at the table, an amused smile on his face.
Eventually everyone leaves the bar, me and Jason being the only ones left, Jason is hammered, and i'm sober, my two beers having worn off hours ago.
So it's with a grin on my face that I try to half carry-half convince my best friend to walk out to my car, he's laughing at everything and i'm failing at being stern enough to make him stop.
"I love you Princess" he says, only slurring slightly as he leans against the door i'm trying to get him into.
"Yeah, I love you too big guy" I say, trying, and failing, to push him along the car so that I can open his door.
It takes me a moment to realise that he isn't laughing, and that he's staring at me with an unidentifiable, heavy emotion behind his eyes.
"No, seriously. You are my best friend, and I need you to be careful. I am so happy for you, that you got the job you wanted, that you have friends and a place other than with me that you belong. But this is dangerous, and I might have taught you how to fight, but that was for handsy men who didn't know what the word 'no' meant, not serial killers. You have a good team, and they care about you, but I need you to be careful for you. I don't know where i'd be without you." he says, and I know that if he wasn't smashed, he wouldn't be saying this. I also know that that doesn't make it any less real or meaningful, just easier for him to say it.
"I do know where i'd be without you Jason, and I don't like it. So the same applies to you. Stay safe, be careful, not reckless. Know that someone needs you to be alive, that you aren't just living for you. I love you, and I don't ever want to lose you again" I tell him, giving up on moving him and instead leaning against the car next to him.
I melt into his side when he lifts his arm and pulls me in, dropping a kiss on the top of my head before tipping his back to lean against the car.
"Promise" he says
"Promise" I repeat, hoping that I never have to bury him again, and that he never has to bury me.
AN Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh? Lemme know what you think. :)