A/N: I swear I don't mean to keep making all these dress references.
Slightly different style. Hope it's still okay.
"Oh, tie me up tightly by your side
So I may go with you where ever you reside"
Rosie Thomas -- Kite Song
"I can see a lot of life in you
I can see a lot of bright in you
And I think the dress looks nice on you
I can see a lot of life in you"
Sufjan Stevens -- The Dress Looks Nice on You
JJ toyed with the blue silk ribbon around the waist of her plain white sundress, twirling it around her restless fingers and wondering exactly how she should be feeling about this particular situation.
Here she sat, with a man she barely knew outside of poring over case files and bantering over lukewarm coffee, a man with which her most intimate moment was probably when he spilled his drink on her pants at that Red Skins game. He was odd, gangly and awkward and unspeakably nerdy, with sweater vests and old sneakers and a tendency to never shut up – nothing at all like any man she had ever been interested in.
And yet, for some reason she couldn't quite figure out, she found him incredibly intriguing.
She couldn't for all the world explain exactly what had happened. She couldn't quite recall when his identity in her mind had shifted from just Genius Dr. Spencer Reid to Spence, the man whose smile had a strange, inexplicable propensity to bring back to mind what her sister Nicole had said of their pathetic tree seventeen Christmases ago (Jenny, babe, there's beauty in asymmetry.).
It was stupid, she told herself. Just a trick of propinquity, nothing more. After all, it was Reid. Just Reid. Just the only man whose enthusiasm could match hers; just the only man who could turn plaid pants and fingers drumming thoughtfully against his coat lapels and an inability to use chopsticks into things she absolutely delighted in.
"We're here," came the voice of the man himself from the driver's seat, startling her. She had almost forgotten he was there; he was being uncharacteristically quiet today.
The gravel crunched beneath the tires as Reid pulled into the driveway of a modest, rustic cottage that the government had somehow obtained still furnished and granted to the BAU for this particular mission. It was actually quite charming, surrounding by nothing but grass and trees and ponds until the nearest neighbor, which had to be at least a mile away.
Hesitating slightly, Reid slipped a small envelope out of his pocket, carefully opened it, and tilted it so that two gold rings slid out and into the palm of his hand. (Oh God.) They were fake, of course, cubic zirconium and gold plate all the way, but they were still wedding bands, and that was just extraordinarily weird. He looked up at her and grinned that crooked grin, and she returned the gesture, conflicted feelings be damned. She could respect the fact that he was genuinely endearing, no matter what that meant.
"We'd better make this convincing," he said, opting to hand her the ring rather than slide it on her finger.
"Yes, dear," she nodded, her smile all buoyancy and innuendo. Deciding to contemplate exactly what "convincing" entailed later, she slipped the band onto her ring finger. "Let's go."
Before JJ even had time to reach for the door handle, Reid was out of his seat, around the car, and opening the door for her like a gentleman, a husband. She smiled her thanks, putting her sandal clad feet on the ground, straightening up, and failing to notice the miniscule, strangled noise from his throat when she ran one hand down the curve of her side to smooth the creases in her dress.
"Shall we?"
Together they tramped up path to the house, its dirt tightly packed by years of being trodden on, and up the steps to the quaint covered porch, complete with a blue wooden swing and a small white wickerwork table. She walked closer to him than she normally would have, given the circumstances, and watched him unlock the door with a feeling eerily like coming home from a date and leaving for one at the same time.
"Home sweet home," he said, not without a slight sardonic tinge. He turned the knob and pushed the door open to reveal a quaint living room and kitchen with a large mahogany table and overstuffed sofas that were reminiscent of happy families and warm winters.
"Well?" she said expectantly, raising her eyebrows at him and bobbing her head a bit. He stared blankly at her for a moment, her nose wrinkled up in a smile, before it finally clicked.
"You… you seriously want me to carry you?" he said, the words stumbling on his teeth. She nodded, leaning closer to him, and he almost took a step back.
"A husband always carries his new wife over the threshold if their first house," she said plainly, looping his arm around his and feeling it tense slightly through the fabric of his sleeves. She leaned closer still and murmured in a low voice, "Hey, you're the one who said it had to look good."
And so, with a bit of teamwork, he managed to hoist her up in his arms and carry her over the threshold, JJ kicking her feet with something akin to glee and pretending that she didn't think she felt his hands shaking
They stood there for a moment, his face a poorly concealed picture of blushing admiration and her body cradled like a child in his arms, just staring at each other, before she threw her head back and laughed. Laughed because he had actually just carried her through the door. Laughed because this was just so surreal and absurd and outlandishly ridiculous, and he joined in too, the brass of his laugh mingling with the windy vibration of hers, harmonizing, filling every corner and crack and crevice, floating up around the wooden beams to the lofty ceiling. And suddenly, the tension dissipates.
For a moment, Reid thought that maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.
He had absolutely no idea what he was getting himself into.
"Everything's going fine," Reid said into his cell phone, unpacking one of his many boxes in the living room. There was only one bed in the cabin, and so they had agreed to take turns sleeping on the sofa while the other had the bed. "We've just started unpacking, and we can probably have everything set up for JJ to work from here before the end of the night."
"Good," replied Hotchner's steady voice from the other end of the line. "I've made arrangements with that company for you to pose as a temp there, so you can go in starting Monday."
"Excelle—"
He stopped mid-sentence, a laugh cutting the word off as he watched JJ, heavily laden with bags and boxes, attempting to maneuver the bedroom door open with her knees, elbows, and hips.
"Hang on, Hotch," he said, rushing over to open the door for her. "JJ, you're going to lose an eye."
"Thanks, mom," she mocked, panting slightly from the exertion of energy. She staggered through the doorway and dumped her things unceremoniously on the bed.
"Sorry," he said, once more speaking into the phone. "JJ overestimates her own strength."
"Shut up!" she shouted from the next room.
"Reid," Hotch said patiently, clearly hearing JJ's giggling over the line. "Just a warning: it might not be a great idea to bring anything personal into this."
"Right," Reid agreed after a moment of hesitation, drawing out the first consonant as if he didn't know what Hotch was getting on about. "Of course not."
He watched her silently from the door of the bedroom, her knees drawn up to kneel on the large window seat on the other side of the room, her bare feet dangling off the edge. He could see a fraction of her face, sugarspun skin aglow with the affection of the afternoon sun, the slopes and curves of her features enhanced by the light spilling through the glass. Her small form was draped in that billowy white fabric and bathed in the radiance, making her look immaculate and pure and holy. She apparently sensed his presence, for she addressed him without his saying a word.
"The view is spectacular!" she told him, fluttering one hand across the warm expanse of the pane. The sunlight caught upon the ring on her finger, and it winked slyly at Reid as if it knew just what he was thinking. He gave a soft, almost undetectable chuckle, and she cast her eyes back towards him, letting her chin touch her shoulder and smiling.
"This is going to be interesting."