Early Season 5
"I swear, if they don't start giving us a two hours' notice each time we need to fly their damn plane, I'm going to crash it straight into the Rockies," Delphinus muttered with contempt, yanking his computer from his bag as Langdon stared on. Although the older man tried not to show it, amusement filled his form, watching his copilot angrily open the laptop and click away at the keys with furious fingers. The younger man's complaint was only somewhat valid; for all Delphinus knew, they had indeed been called in with only an hour to prepare for the flight, and get the jet ready for takeoff. It was only by Langdon's discretion that the feisty man hadn't gotten the full story behind their stunted preparation.
Langdon had received the call to come in earlier that morning, and as usual, Garcia had given him the standard two hours to prepare. But only minutes after he had hung up with the cheerful woman, his phone buzzed again. In an unusual turn of events, another member of the team seemed to be calling his personal number. While all of the BAU agents had his personal number, it was the first time in memory that his particular agent had called. The request had been brief, and it had been one that Langdon figured he had best agree to honor. When it came to the BAU, there was never any degree of predictability, and it was always favorable to relent to even the most unusual demands.
So now the plane sat on the tarmac, steps down, waiting for the first arrival nearly thirty minutes before the plane was actually scheduled to take off. It had already been fueled, and the flight mapped out with meticulous care, all in nearly record time. Delphinus was the only one to show any degree of frustration; Langdon himself had merely been curious as to what situation required their early preparation.
Leaning out the entrance to the jet, he was able to see the answer to his question far before he could actually confront it. The tall and wiry frame of the BAU's youngest agent was slowly making its way across the open space of the tarmac, moving towards the base of the stairs leading up to the jet. There was no profiling needed to see the problem that the young man was facing, or why he had requested to have the jet ready a fair amount of time earlier than usual. It appeared that the young doctor was forced to make his way on crutches, practically staggering as he attempted to walk.
From where he sat at the top of the stairs to the jet, Langdon knew already that there was no way that Reid could make it up the steep climb unaided. The young man seemed to be struggling enough with the simple act of walking on level ground, balancing his trademark messenger bag as he went shakily, each step more cautious than the last. At that moment, an image filled Langdon's mind, one of his son.
About a year prior, Neal had taken quite a nasty fall and broken his foot, forcing him to make his way on crutches for the better part of a month. Every dip in the pavement had been a valley, and every staircase had been a mountain. Obstacles rose up out of shadows, out of the streets that had been walked hundreds of times. To say that it had been trying would have been an understatement, but in a way, Langdon was able to see a similar situation reflected in that moment. Even though Reid was an FBI agent, the elite of the elite, in this moment he looked so incredibly weak and vulnerable.
That was when the pieces fell together; Langdon knew that it had to have been a matter of pride. If any of the other team members were to witness a struggle such as this, Langdon knew that Reid would have been terribly ashamed. But as an outsider, Langdon wasn't a part of the team; he was just their pilot. There wasn't any reason for him not to help, and he would have felt terrible just watching Reid's painstaking efforts any further prolonged. Leaning his upper body back into the jet, Langdon called out to his partner.
"Hey, I'll be back in a few. Don't get yourself into any trouble."
"No promises," Delphinus muttered with his usual attitude, and Langdon rolled his eyes before making his way down the stairs, jogging the last few yards to close the distance between himself and the doctor. At his arrival, Reid stopped in his tracks, staring at Langdon with a degree of caution glittering in the depths of his calculating eyes.
"Afternoon, Doctor Reid. Do you need any help?" Langdon asked this genuinely, hoping that the offer for help wouldn't offend the man. Unfortunately, his question was enough to make Reid look down at the ground, almost as though he were shirking away from the possibility he needed assistance. A moment later he spoke, the most uncertain that Langdon had ever heard him in the entirety of their interactions.
"I- I think I'll be alright. I just figured that I should get here early so that I wasn't holding up the rest of the team. It takes me an average of six-point-four seconds to make it up a step right now, and I move at about one-third my typical walking pace. I didn't want to create a delay," Reid explained, hands gripping the crutches until they were white knuckled. Cocking his head to the side, Langdon turned over his shoulder and looked back at the steps to the jet, which were steep and unwelcoming, even to someone who was able-bodied.
"Doctor, I insist. It would be a safety hazard for you to go up those stairs unassisted. I don't want to risk you falling down the stairs of my plane," Langdon insisted, nodding his heads towards the precarious obstacle. Reid's brows pinched together, and he took a hand off his crutches to adjust the strap on his messenger bag, something that Langdon could only identify as nervousness.
"Really, I'll be fine. I've been on these for a few days already, taken plenty of stairs, it's really no problem," Reid tried insisting, but Langdon knew better. With one final check that no other agents were making their way towards the plane, Langdon held out his hand, and looked down at the messenger bag. Trying to put a sense of easygoing into his inflection, he made an offer that he knew the agent would be more likely to take.
"At least let me take your bag up to your seat. That might make things a bit easier for you on the way up." As soon as the words left the pilot's mouth, Reid's grip on the bag grew even tighter, as though he were afraid to part with it. Taking another deep breath, hoping that the gesture wasn't perceived as hostile by the doctor, Langdon gave a shallow smile.
"I promise I'm not going to look into it. I just think you need both hands if you're going to make it up those stairs," Langdon urged gently, and to his satisfaction, he saw Reid's grip on the bag loosen just a bit. By the glittering determination in Reid's eyes, it was easy to see that the man was fighting a battle within himself, whether to tough it out or give in, to hold his own or to show weakness. Within another breath, Reid nodded, a nearly imperceptible gesture, and shrugged the bag over his head. It took a moment for him to balance on his good leg, trying to pull the bag completely free from his body, and when he held it out, it was clearly reluctant.
Smiling in an attempt to reaffirm his good intentions, Langdon took the bag gently, and put the strap over his own shoulder. Reid took that moment to look him up and down, giving another subtle nod, as though he approved of the image before him. A chuckle slipping loose from his lips, Langdon turned towards the steps of the jet, knowing that Reid was watching his cargo quite carefully.
From behind him, Langdon could hear the clicking of crutches against the ground, moving much slower than the typical rate of footsteps. However, he spared Reid the threat of eyes staring at him, and simply went up the steps into the plane, back into the heart of the jet. He never spent much time in the private workspace, but still knew which table it was best to set the well-worn bag on, placing it as gently as he could manage.
As soon as the bag was in its rightful place, Langdon went back to the steps, expecting to see Reid at least halfway up by then. Instead, the agent was stationed firmly at the bottom, staring up as though the staircase were endless. For the look in Reid's eyes, there was no word that Langdon could draw on as a descriptor aside from hopeless. Sympathy blossoming in his heart, he made his way back down the stairs nimbly, pausing on the penultimate step, just a bit taller than the doctor as he looked down on him.
"Are you sure that you don't need any help?" Langdon asked, watching the Adam's apple in Reid's throat bob up and down with a heavy swallow. It was as though there was no oxygen nearby, and even Langdon strained to draw a breath in anticipation, hoping that the younger agent would see some sense in the assistance. The man was a genius, after all, but from everything that Langdon had seen, an incredibly stubborn one.
"Alright," Reid whispered, pulling his crutches out from under his arms and maneuvering them in front of him. As Langdon took them, Reid adjusted his grip to the railings that lined the stairs, holding onto them warily as he balanced on his only good leg. Moving with as much urgency as his aging body could manage, Langdon bounded up the steps and placed the crutches just inside the entranceway before heading back down to where Reid balanced, lips pursed.
Langdon went all the way to the bottom step, and offered out his arm to Reid, who took it in both of his hands. Neither got the chance to even work their way up a single step before Langdon backed up, knowing that the agent's singular leg wouldn't be strong enough to carry him up with just one hand's aid. This time he bent down, twisting his body so that Reid could drape an entire arm around Langdon's broad shoulders, enough to carry most, if not all, of his weight.
Without words, Langdon pulled upwards, and Reid used his free arm to push upwards, successfully maneuvering the pair up a single step. After a short breath the two were forced to try again, Langdon heaving his weight up one of the steep steps, helping to yank Reid's form up with him. It was like this they made their way up the steps, painstakingly slow, all the way to the very top platform, right where the steps gently kissed the entranceway to the plane.
Unashamed to show his exhaustion, Langdon breathed hungrily, trying to fill his lungs after the trying experience. It seemed that Spencer was doing the same, now leaning safely on his crutches, hand grabbing at his leg while his face contorted in pain. The silence split only by the weary panting, Langdon hoped that Delphinus had his headphones in, and wouldn't open the door to see such a pitiful display.
It only took a minute for the pair to recover, and for Reid to stand up straight, running a hand through his hair. Beads of sweat had formed on the agent's forehead, but Langdon had the basic courtesy of pretending that Reid appeared perfectly fine. While he prepared to wish the agent a good day, Reid surprised him by speaking up, albeit in a soft tone of voice, drawing in a deep breath as he spoke.
"You never asked me what happened. Didn't you want to know?" The inquiry had a borderline accusatory tone, but it wasn't enough to make Langdon so much as flinch. In a way, he was prideful that he had dodged the 'all-seeing-eye' that the profilers seemed to have. But at the same time, he was sorrowful that Reid had automatically assumed there would be nothing but judgement for his injuries, or even been perceived as an inconvenience.
The team came onto the jet in all states of harm, sometimes with butterfly bandages pinching together gashes on their face, sometimes with their arm in a sling, sometimes with bruises wrapped around their necks. Langdon never asked, simply because it was not his job to know. They could suffer among one another with more dignity, so he let them be. Knowing that this was the purest truth, Langdon figured that it was best to answer with. Shrugging his shoulder in nonchalance, he spoke evenly, trying to put a positive tone to his words.
"I don't find it important. All that matters is that you can safely access this plane, and have a safe flight. You are cleared to fly, aren't you?" Langdon questioned jokingly, but once more he saw Reid's eyes dart to the floor, clearly in shame. Although his heart sank into his feet at the thought of this young man fighting to make the right decision, despite his obvious pain and difficulty, he knew that he could expect nothing less from the BAU. They were the best of the best from the FBI, and resilience was to be expected. Rather than forcing Reid to answer the rhetorical, he smiled again, this one slightly more forced.
"Well, all that matters is that you're here," he tried to comfort, but Reid's demeanor didn't change. With a nod from his head, Langdon gestured towards the interior of the jet, back where he had placed the bag, attempting to draw attention away from the matter at hand.
"I put your bag on the first table, just let me know if you need me to move it. But you might want to get settled in, we have a pretty long flight ahead of us. If you need anything for the pain, we might have some ibuprofen in the pantry, but you would know better than me. If you need anything else, just let me know," he finished gently, turning his back so that Reid wouldn't have to initiate the parting. Just as he was about to open the door to the cockpit, Reid called out gently, the noise carrying to the pilot's ears in a hushed tone.
"Thank you, Hunter. Thank you." Turning around, Langdon cast one last genuine smile.
"My pleasure, Doctor Reid." Without another word, he opened the door, and made his way into the cockpit. The rest of the team would be arriving soon, and he still had to go over the flight plan with Delphinus. As for the young genius in the back of the plane, he would be in Langdon's mind for the rest of the flight, and perhaps he would even go back to check on him during the flight. But all of that could come later; for now, he had enough work ahead of him.
Wow! The support on this story has already been incredible. Thank you all so much for reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing. I'm actually overwhelmed by all the positivity. Even more so than the positivity is the suggestion for this chapter. I wrote this whole chapter based on an idea put forward by ahowell1993, and if anyone else has something they would like to see, feel free to put it in a PM or review! Seriously, an endless world of thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy days to read this story and give me support. Have a wonderful day!
