Author's Note: If you haven't read "A Mystery To Her" it's a bit of a drabble from Garcia's pov about Reid and it mentions her relationship with Ash. This may make a little more sense after you read that, but it's easy to follow even if you haven't.
-EDIT!: Okay guys, so sorry about the confusion that is about to hit you... lol I have had to hack into my story and split up a chapter. I didn't realize when I was posting 4 that I wanted to stick the next two chapters like righhhhhht in the middle of the whole thing. ;p So I am going to leave the first half of Chapter 4 as is. Then I will post my next two chapters, and post the second half of Chapter 4 as its own standalone: Chapter 7. Confusing? Yes. Annoying? Also yes. Necessary? Sorry...but yes. Please bear with me.
Disclaimer: If I owned even the smallest right to either Supernatural or Criminal Minds, I would be writing stories for the episodes and mailing them to everyone even remotely related to directing/writing/producing the shows. ;)
The next day, Reid decided to talk to Garcia. She needed to know about Ash.
Reid had barely slept the past night, but he still got out of bed when his alarm went off at 4am. Actually, he was still awake when it went off, but whatever. He had researched all night. He'd mentally flipped through several books from Bobby's library, and sat at his computer for hours, looking for new information.
Nothing yielded a good result. When his alarm rang only half an hour after he decided to finally try for sleep, Reid was frustrated and exhausted. On automatic, he got up and made his way to Quantico, downing two cups of coffee as soon as possible and flipping through the files on JJ's desk with only mild interest.
When the rest of the team arrived at 7am, Reid was waiting in Garcia's office. She smiled at him, with a cheerful, "Hey, Reid! What's up? Got another search for me?"
It had become a semi-regular occurrence for Reid to come and ask her to help him find things on the computer. His researching skills were nothing like hers. Heck, they were nothing like Sam's or Bobby's... And for a second, he considered the offer. Nearly took her up on it, too. But he found himself shaking his head, not knowing how he would ever tell her what to search for. He hardly knew what to do, himself. Most of the night's computer research had come through flipping from one Internet page to a connected page somewhere nearby. He hadn't had any structure, which was something that frustrated him to no small degree. He needed to find a way to actually research Dean's deal. No more flipping through random pages and sites.
Garcia took her seat, studying Reid until he realized he had spaced out.
"Sorry," he mumbled, looking away.
"What's wrong, Reid?" She must have picked up on his mood. No big surprise there—Reid knew he wasn't doing a good job of masking his worry and exhaustion. "Are you okay?"
He shook his head, trying to figure out how to go about this. He wished someone else could give her the news. But there was no one.
"It's Ash," he finally blurted out.
"Ash? What about him? He said he was working on some big project—super important and super secret. We haven't talked to each other in a few days. Is he okay?"
"No, he's not."
"What's going on? What happened?"
Reid swallowed. "Garcia...Ash is dead."
"What?" she gasped.
"The project he was working on—it was for some friends of ours. Really good friends. It was to help protect them from some...people, but...I guess those people found Ash. My friends found him a few days ago. He..." Reid shook his head. "They couldn't do anything. He was gone before they got there."
Garcia had tears in her eyes. "You're sure he's...?"
"Yeah," he answered softly. "I'm sorry. I know you guys were friends."
Garcia wiped at her eyes, nodding.
Reid stood and left the room without another word. There was really nothing left to say. He made it back to his desk, before he even realized he was shaking.
It was a bad way to start a terrible day. And a terrible day to start a worse year.
Garcia wore black for a week and a half. Reid fell asleep at his desk three times in the first two weeks. Their work suffered until Hotch started questioning them about what was going on.
AN: Sorry this is now really short! In the next chapter, you'll get a better idea of how the deal is affecting Reid. Then the following one, I will go into his background with Bobby and the Winchesters. :) Thanks for all the awesome reviews, guys! They totally make my day!
