Chapter 4: Meeting Titania

The following morning, Reid insisted that Moni take her pain pills before leaving, as well as to carry some extras in her drawing bag just in case she felt the need during the day.

As they left the building, he was surprised when he found his landlord standing by the door, as if waiting for some delivery. He was even more surprised by the warm hello he gave Moni, who, always in her happy self, chatted amicably with him before following Reid out of the building.

"Since when are you friends with my landlord?" he asked, surprised, noticing the bright smile curving her lips as she looked at him with shining eyes.

"Mr. Jones? He's a sweet man, he is helping me with a project of mine." Reid felt his eyebrows rising to his hairline, as in the five years he had lived there, Jones had never even shown the smallest hint of smile on his face and had a sour and downright rude attitude towards everyone in the building.

Yet, with Moni, he had been all smiles and handshakes.

"Really?"

She just smiled and kept walking to a Bureau issued car, which he opened the passenger door, shook his head confused and went back to the driver's seat.

Reid chuckled and drove off to Quantico, as Moni observed the scenic drive with curious eyes. Once arriving at Quantico, he parked in one of the designated parking spots and rushed Moni through security, assuring the guards of her identity and getting her a visitor's badge.

With a visitor's badge hanging from her black turtleneck, she felt herself being slowly guided by Reid's hand on her back towards the BAU's lair. She looked at the serious people in somber looking suits walking in hurried steps down the corridors and towards the elevators, noticing the intensity that seemed to charge the air with electricity.

These people were working hard to save lives and solve problems, they needed answers fast and that could be felt in the very air she was breathing.

"Come Moni, I have someone here that I want to introduce to you." He said as he opened the glass door and guided her inside the main bullpen of the BAU.

Moni followed Reid holding his hand until they are in the middle of the room where Morgan is standing beside Prentiss and a short blond who had her back turned to them.

"This is Penelope Garcia. She's our computer tech here..."

Everything else Reid said was lost to Moni as the short blond woman turned around and smiled with a huge smile towards them, her bright clothes very different to the sober colors of the other agents in the room. Moni looked fascinated from the bright blond hair, framing a face dominated by stylish red rimmed eyeglasses. The bright pink lips made a sharp contrast to the white skin, while the embroidered yellow top was a nice complement to the tartan style skirt, in green and dark brown. The attire was completed with net thighs in bright purple color, crowned with red ruby doll slippers.

Moni captured Garcia's attire in a glance and all agents noticed the glazed look in Moni's face as she left Reid's side and started to look Garcia up and down, slowly going around her.

"Is something wrong? Is this something she usually does?" Garcia looked confused at Reid, who simply shrugged, uncertain of the reason for such strange behavior.

"I don't know. I've never seen her do that."

He approached Moni who was looking at Garcia with a smile on her face, "Hey, are you okay?"

"Titania?" Moni whispered in such a soft voice that Reid could barely make out her words.

"I beg your pardon, what?"

She glanced up at Reid giggling, excited, "Titania." Reid opened his mouth trying to speak, but Moni beat him up to it.

She turned to Garcia, "You're so pretty. Would you let me paint you?"

"Wow," the computer tech smiled, charmed, "Nobody has ever asked that from me."

"No, but you don't understand." Moni took Garcia's hand in hers and started studying the delicate lines up to the purple polish on the nails. "Not everybody mixes colors because they can't understand them or can't match them. But you do. And that makes you… extraordinary. Would you let me paint you?"

"You think me … extraordinary." Garcia was looking at Moni barely containing her surprise at Moni's surreal request.

"Yes, unique. I could paint you like Titania."

"And who's that?"

"Titania was the fairy queen from Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare." Said Reid, while Moni looked around the desks, trying to find something.

"I need paper," she glanced up at Morgan, who went to his own desk and gave her a note pad with some pencils. Moni immediately started making a draft in soft lines to the astonishment of the agents observing her.

"I would draw you like Titania, sitting on a bench of Hera surrounded by flowers, many flowers. Your dress would be made of herbs, delicately woven to contrast with alabaster skin. We could draw ruins in the background, surrounding you with fairies all sitting at your feet as you bestowed upon them pollen and songs. And in your hands you could hold a basket overflowing with fruit, a prelude to harvest."

Moni drew the elements in quick lines as she spoke, bringing to life a masterpiece in artful strokes right before the surprised eyes of the agents.

"And we could give you a crown of butterflies, their diaphanous wings in blue and green."

She finished the draft and showed it to Garcia, who had a hand covering her mouth as she stared at herself in the drawing as the fairy queen, surrounded by fairies with a forest like background. It was richly detailed for a drawing made in just a few minutes.

Garcia felt her eyes filling with tears as she pointed the drawing.

"You could do something like that? Paint me like that?"

Moni nodded, smiling shyly. "Would you pose for me?"

Garcia grinned wickedly and grasped Moni's hand, "Girl, we just became best friends. Come, you're staying with me the rest of the day." She looked at Reid, shaking her head astonished. "She's going with me and I'll hold her hostage until you're done with your job. When you need her, she's in my office. Come Moni." She started dragging Moni towards the door, who followed her docilely eager to stay with the colorful tech. She glanced smiling at Reid and waved at him, who waved back grinning at them.

Hotch, who had observed the scene from the door of his office, approached Reid and stood by his side, as they both watched the two women talking excitedly as they disappeared down the corridor.

"Should we be worried?" asked Hotch, imagining Garcia's office filled with colorful girly things and Moni adding her drawings of cute stuff to the walls.

"She will draw Garcia exhaustively until she is satisfied she memorized every nuance of her body, before she commits herself to sketch her for a painting. She will be busy for a long time."

Hotch nodded, satisfied to have Moni busy for a while. "Does she have any idea why you've brought her here today?"

Reid grimaced, unwilling to explain what had transpired when he arrived at home from the office, "Not really, I've just said that you and Rossi had to talk to her again."

Hotch immediately looked down at his younger profiler, noticing how he blushed and fidgeted under his gaze. "Let me guess, no time to explain why we needed her here."

Reid's blush was enough to answer his question. Derek and Prentiss giggled as they've noticed how uncomfortable he became, both grinning wider as they've received a glare from the younger man.

"She wasn't in the mood for talking, okay?" He explaining, blushing even brighter.

Hotch, always diplomatic, interfered before Reid's face became a permanent beet-red color, turning to Prentiss, "Any word from the art gallery?"

Prentiss smiled lightly, "They haven't even made a dent on the content of the first locker. According to the curator I've spoken to, a finding of such a huge number of works of art in a single strike is the equivalent of finding the loot of the Nazi's in the caverns of Bavaria."

"Any idea of the commercial value of it?"

"It's hard to tell," says Reid. "Moni's not known in the artistic circles but every single piece she has ever created could be considered a masterpiece. Her copies of well known painters could also be considered of monetary value but her original work, if slowly introduced to the market could reach astronomic figures."

"How much money are we talking about?" Morgan asked, sitting on the edge of his desk and looking at Hotch and Reid.

"Thousands of dollars," Reid said, just to be contradicted by Prentiss.

"Millions. The curator told me that Carrara marble statue alone could be worth millions if sold to the right person." Prentiss said, just to bring a shy smile to Reid's face as Morgan teased him.

"Lucky Reid, his girlfriend is worth millions. Better take care of her otherwise I'll snatch her from you."

"Ha, she's not your type and…" Reid stuck his hands and rolled on the balls of his feet, frowning as he remembered a snippet of their conversation during their first night together, "… and you're definitely not her type."

"I'm not her type? Come on, I'm every girl's type. I'm every girl's dream." Morgan stood up and gave a little twist, showing off his masculine figure, making Prentiss and Hotch shake their heads laughing as Reid glanced him up and down.

"Believe me, Derek, you're not Moni's."