Disclaimer – I do not own Criminal Minds.
A/N – I'm TOTALLY borrowing a case from the serial. I kinda suck at writing cases so yeah.
Emily Prentiss had been back only for a couple of days from her vacation. It was one that she had taken to see her grandmother on the ninetieth birthday in Rome. The place of her downfall. If it had been anyone else, she would have refused to go, but her grandmother had weirdly been there for her when no one had.
As she sat at her desk, she remembered her thirteenth birthday. It was a special one because Nonna had come down just to see her. She remembered waking up to somebody in her room and smiling at the wrinkled face that peered above her.
"Hi Nonna! Is it time to get up?" Emily asked her grandmother.
"No sweetheart. It's early. I just wanted to be the first to give you your presents." Her grandmother, who she called Nonna, said.
Emily shot up straight at the idea of presents and grinned at her. "Well, I wouldn't want to deprive you of that. Where are they?" She asked, peering around the room.
Nonna handed her two presents. One felt like a book and the other like a jewellery box. "You may open this one now and the other one when I've left for Italy." Nonna said, pointing to the jewellery box, indicating that Emily could open it then.
Emily touched the ruby necklace that she was wearing today. She then, opened her drawer and took out the yellow, brittle notebook. It had been the thing she turned to when things had gotten rough. It was her Nonna's diary. Her Nonna had made entries in it since she was 13, right until Emily was 7. That was when her grandfather had passed away. It detailed all the difficulties a 13 year old could go through along with the disasters that adult life could bring. Nonna hadn't had it easy.
She sighed and put the diary back in her drawer and looked up to see the elevators open and Reid and Morgan come out. She smiled a hello at them and turned back to her desk to work. Visiting Rome still left her unsettled.
Morgan came up to her desk, holding a file.
"Hey Prentiss, do you think I could consult with you on this case?" He asked her.
"Sure. What is it?" Emily asked, holding her hand out for the file.
"Um, maybe we can go somewhere else?" Morgan asked her.
"Okay. Conference room? JJ hasn't called us yet, so it should be empty." Emily said and stood up. Morgan went behind her till they entered the conference room and shut the door.
"Is everything alright?" Emily asked, looking concerned. It wasn't like Morgan to behave with such secrecy.
"Well, here." He said and handed her the file. They took seats at the table and went over the file.
"This is from Chicago! Morgan?" Emily asked. It was a fairly simple case, she didn't really see why she had to consult with him on this.
"The suspect list that the police have given? I know about five out of the seven people there. I mean, one of them is Sarah's ex! I just don't feel comfortable handling this. I was wondering if you would trade with me. I'll take one of your cases, if you take this." Morgan explained.
Emily immediately understood. She would have done the same thing if she were him. "Sure! I have a particularly nasty case that I would love to get off my hands!" Emily said grinning. Morgan shook his head and followed her as they headed out of the conference room.
Reid looked up as the duo entered the room. Again, he felt strange. He couldn't quite describe it. It wasn't really like anything he had felt before. He opened up a bottle of Tums and popped a chew in. He hoped his stomach would settle before they got called in. Emily smiled at him, after handing a rather large folder to Morgan. He smiled faintly back and turned to face his computer. He had two more cases to go over and then he was done for the week. It was convenient having no social life.
Emily looked at Reid concerned. He looked funny. She didn't know what it was, but he had seemed a little, off, since she had gotten back from Rome. She couldn't quite place it. She saw the bottle of Tums on his desk and realized that he was just having a stomach upset or something. She turned back and started to work on her case consults.
After about 2 hours, JJ came out of her office and looked at the bull-pen. The agents were hard at work, except for Reid, who appeared to be sleeping at his desk. She shook her head in disbelief and went into Hotch's office.
After ten minutes, Hotch and JJ emerged to tell the team that they had a case and they had to go to the conference room in five minutes.
Emily shook Reid awake and he looked at her through eyes clouded with sleep.
"Hey sleepyhead, it's time to go. We've got a case." Emily said. Her hand was on his shoulder, making him a little uncomfortable. It was weird because it felt strange, but he sort of liked the weight and the warmth.
"Uh, yeah. Sorry. I'll be right there." He said. Emily took her hand off his shoulder and straightened and he reached for the Tums. His belly was acting funny again.
"You alright?" She asked, never quite getting the 'okay' bit of the American culture.
"Yeah. Just feeling funny. Hopefully it will go away." Reid said, looking sad, almost pouting. God, he had the most gorgeous bottom lip she had ever seen. She lurched back, a little shocked by her brain and thought process. What the hell was that?
"Yeah. It should, uh, yeah. We have to go." Emily said, and made her way to the conference room. Reid followed her, chewing thoughtfully.
The case was rather complicated. It was in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, where posters of women missing were posted everywhere, before the woman actually went missing. When a woman reported it to the police for the first time, the detective had brushed it off as a prank and regretted doing so when they found the woman dead.
After JJ briefed the team, Hotch told them that it was wheels up in thirty minutes. What was truly horrifying about the case were many creepy factors, like the woman's face being cut off, the "Missing" flyers tacked in her house, all over and the fact that there was a white mask with the word "one" painted on it.
Emily shuddered and went to her desk to pack up and shut down her computer. She looked up at Reid who was doing the same. "Are you going to be alright for the flight?" She asked him.
"I think so. I have some air sickness tablets just in case." Reid said, and winced when she smiled.
"What happened?" Emily asked, walking over and putting a hand on his arm.
He gently removed his arm from under her touch and just looked at her strangely. He then leaned in a little bit and sniffed the air next to her. She stepped back with a look of alarm.
"Reid, what are you doing?" Emily asked him, taken aback by his behavior.
"I'm sorry. It's just that I realized that I feel funny around you. I was wondering if I was having a reaction to the perfume you were wearing." Reid explained. Emily visibly relaxed.
"Oh alright. But warn a person before you sniff them. It's a little alarming." Emily said, laughing. "Is it my perfume? If it is, I can always wear something else."
"I don't know. " Reid said, looking pained and puzzled.
"Well, I'll tell you what. I'll quickly go wash up and wear something else, just in case." Emily said, grabbed her go-bag and headed to the ladies room.
Reid put his hand on his stomach and watched her leave with the same pained and puzzled expression. Like he was trying to figure something out, but couldn't quite do so and it was irritating him.
"Reid, did Prentiss get you pregnant or something?" Morgan asked, laughing at Reid clutching his stomach and looking at Prentiss' retreating figure.
"No. She makes me feel funny." Reid said, and picked up his go-bag and headed to the elevator.
Morgan shook his head. For the life of him, he would never be able to understand the kid. He grabbed his go-bag and shouted at Reid to hold the elevator.