A/N: Hey all. Sorry for the wait. Had a bit of an issue with Carpal Tunnel, which kept me from getting any writing done and then I was in San Diego for a bit, so didn't have much time. Anyways, I've got the next chapter all ready to go, so I hope you enjoy. And if you've got a spare moment, let me know what you think. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
Chapter 7:
Maizy continued to sit there, in her desk chair. She'd not moved a muscle since Aaron had departed minutes ago. She stared blankly at the open door.
Her feelings were so muddled at the moment that she didn't think driving home right now would be the best idea. She'd done something she hadn't really done in years. She'd tried; she'd put herself out there and she'd gotten hurt. The hurt feeling was overwhelming every other thing she felt at the moment, immobilizing her.
Bree suddenly appeared in the doorway, startling her out of her thoughts. Maizy wondered what her friend was still doing at the school. Educational assistants weren't required to stay past three o'clock.
Before she could voice her question, though, Bree spoke up, "Who was that with Jack's dad?"
"Oh," Maizy answered in surprise, and then continued on rather shyly, "That was Dr. Spencer Reid. He's a co-worker of Aaron's and he's going to be tutoring Jack in math."
"He was sure pretty to look at. He's an agent?" Bree wondered skeptically. Apparently, Jack hadn't made his father's occupation a secret.
Maizy's mind flashed her an image of the young doctor. She could see where Bree's incredulity at Dr. Reid being an agent came from. First, he really didn't look like he was out of college yet, or, at least, not by much. And second, compared to Aaron, he was much less built. But Maizy knew neither of those reasons really mattered. She, herself, was a frequent victim of ageism. That thought instantly took her back to her first meeting with Aaron and she couldn't contain her smile.
"You like him!" her friend suddenly exclaimed, bringing her back to the present.
"Who, Aaron?" she said with a prominent blush on her face.
Bree frowned abruptly and Maizy knew that she'd made an error. "No, I meant the Doctor, but now that you mention it—"
"Drop it, Bree," she demanded uncomfortably.
She got up and started to gather her work, wanting to quickly escape for home.
"Why? That's a good thing… he seems like a nice guy. I mean, look what he did for you at the bar. And he sure seems to like you," Bree rambled on, totally oblivious to Maizy's discomfort. "What could it hurt? Why not ask him out?"
Maizy, irritated beyond belief, slammed her briefcase down on top of her desk, startling her good friend. "I did ask him!" she exclaimed. "And he doesn't… Like me, I mean…"
Her friend wore a shocked, but pleased look on her face. Maizy didn't quite understand it. She'd just told Bree she'd been shot down.
"That's great!" the blonde stated exuberantly.
She let out a huge sigh, exhausted by today's—actually, just the evening's—roller coaster events, and plopped back into her chair. "It's great that I put myself out there, made a fool of myself, and got rejected?"
Bree gave her a sympathetic look as she, too, took a seat. "No, hun, that's not the good part. The fact that you tried is. Honestly, Maizy, I've been worried about you. I mean, in the three years I've known you I think you've went on a grand total of three dates—"
Maizy made to pipe up wanting to defend herself, to tell her it was actually more, which would have been a lie. But, Bree wasn't having it, anyway.
"No, it's not right… and I know something happened to you to make you this way," Bree stopped abruptly, seeing the sudden tears in Maizy's eyes. "I wish you'd talk to me about it," she practically whispered.
She looked down into her lap through blurry eyes, surprised to see her hands clenched together in knots. "I can't," she said hoarsely.
Another sigh from Bree could be heard, followed by a tense pause. Maizy could tell that her closest friend was not pleased by her answer. She couldn't tell her, though, no matter how well-meaning she thought she was being. Saying it out loud would be akin to re-living it. And once was more than enough.
"Ok," Bree stated tentatively, pausing. "Ok… well, I meant what I said; trying is a good thing… Do you uh… maybe want to tell me about it? It might make you feel better…"
Her hesitant tone reminded Maizy that Bree just wanted her to be happy, no matter how hard she pushed her or how many dreaded bar outings she forced Maizy on, she really believed she was helping a friend out.
She smiled embarrassedly at her friend. "All… all right…"
Maizy proceeded to give her the almost word for word details of her earlier conversation with Aaron. And Bree listened without interrupting.
"Oh man," she groaned when Maizy finished her short tale. "He's got it bad for you."
"What? He said no," she pointed out.
"Yeah, after thinking about it," Bree told her in a matter of fact tone. "It's his first answer that counts. He so has a thing for you."
Just like when her Aunt had suggested that Aaron had looked at her adoringly, she felt warmth seep into her pores. But she denied it nonetheless. "You're crazy, Bree."
She gave her a smile to let her know that she was kidding and that she really appreciated her as a friend.
"The jury's still out on that one," Bree joked back, chuckling. She started moving towards the door. "I should get going; this is way too late for either of us to be here."
Maizy glanced at her wall clock. It was only five o'clock; she'd had days where she'd been there till almost nine. Five was nothing, but for Bree, the day ended at three, which reminded her…
"Hey," Maizy stopped her. "You were waiting for me?"
Bree turned backed around, looking slightly nervous. "Uh yeah… I was going to ask you something…"
Confused, she replied, "So ask."
"Oh… uh… you remember on Saturday," Maizy contained her groan, "the friend with Mr. Hotchner, David Rossi…"
Vaguely, she hadn't really been able to focus on much other than the feel of Aaron's hand surrounding hers as he led her back to safety. She nodded, nevertheless.
"Well, I uh… saw him again on Sunday," Bree continued, blushing profusely. "And he's having a thing this weekend… sort of like a barbeque. He invited me and thought that I should invite you, too."
"He mentioned me?" she said incredulously. She could barely conjure up an image of this David Rossi, so why did he want her there.
"Yeah… but… never mind…"
"Bree," she started, warningly. What was going on?
"Ugh. Ok, he thought that Aaron liked you, too. I wasn't going to say anything, now," she finished churlishly.
"Oh," she replied lamely.
"Yeah."
A barbeque was just like one of those things she avoided, like the staffroom at lunchtime. But this would be even worse; this would be with complete strangers. Well, not all strangers, she was pretty sure Aaron would be there, too, but that would be a whole other level of awkwardness…
But for some reason, her mouth suddenly opened and she blurted out, "I'll go…"
Bree opened her mouth in surprise; no sound came out, though, for a good minute. "O… ok…"
Yeah, there'd be strangers there, and yeah, Aaron would be there—which her heart still saw as a plus—but she'd told Bree that she'd try. So, this was her trying. What could it hurt?
"Yeah…"
"Hey," Bree piped up in an attempt to lighten the moment. "That Doctor will probably be there, too…"
Oh yeah… Spencer…
Reid saw Hotch exit the school about fifteen minutes after he'd left. He'd waited next to Hotch's SUV just in case there was anything else he needed to know. He wanted to do this right. Jack was important to him, like him, he'd suffered a great deal at an early age. He felt a kinship to the young boy because of that.
"Hotch," he called out, probably unnecessarily, considering he was in plain view.
He watched Hotch's face take on a look of surprise as he took him in and then he was frowning. Reid wondered if what he'd stayed to speak with Maizy Tibbs about had not been pleasant for some reason.
"Reid," Hotch said coming into speaking distance. "What are you still doing here?"
"Everything all right?" he asked instead, catching the tense look on Hotch's face.
"Yes, why wouldn't they be?"
"Not sure, you just seem… did Maizy have anything else to say?" he wondered out loud.
"No," Hotch replied firmly. "Nothing."
"Ok…" He could clearly see that something had transpired between his boss and the school teacher, but Hotch didn't want to say and Reid wasn't comfortable with pushing further.
Hotch let out a sigh. "Look… I've got to head over to pick up Jack. Can we talk later about setting up a session with Jack?"
Reid shrugged. "Sure."
He gave Reid a quick nod and then was opening his door, getting inside his car. Reid gave him a bewildered look. It was like he was running. From what, Reid did not know.
He stood there a moment longer as Hotch drove out of the parking lot. Then, once he was out of sight, he began to make his way to his own parked car at the far end of the school's visitor parking.
Just as he was about to get into his own car he spotted two figures making the trek into the lot. One was short and blonde and the other was Maizy Tibbs.
She saw him a second later, catching his eye. He gave her a wave of his hand, hoping she'd come over to speak to him. Maybe he'd get some clues as to Hotch's sudden mood.
Maizy seemed to hesitate mid-step, it wasn't until she got a not so subtle nudge in the side from her companion that her direction changed and she began walking towards him.
Despite her hesitation, when she approached him she had a genuine smile on her face and said warmly, "Spencer, you're still here?"
He smiled back, liking that she remembered to call him by his first name, not doctor or Reid. As he looked at her he realized that she was very pretty, not that he hadn't noticed before. He'd definitely noticed. But he had been trying to concentrate on his duties as Jack's tutor. Here, now, outside of the school setting, he could consider other things like her beauty or how she'd become irritated by his suggestions earlier, but had been too polite to say anything. Contrary to popular belief, he noticed both of those things. A lot of people he knew would call him out on his inadvertent know-it-all habit, but she'd listened.
"Yeah, I wanted to talk to Hotch before he left, make sure everything's all right…" he assured.
She nodded. "Right…" she trailed off; her features took on another hesitant look. She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again, deciding not to.
Reid knew how tough it was to make idle conversation with virtual strangers. He sensed it was hard for her, too. "You want to ask me something…" he prompted.
Maizy blew out what sounded like a relieved breath. "Umm… yeah…"
He gave her what he hoped was an encouraging look and said, "Go ahead."
"Why do you call Aaron Hotch?" she said speedily.
For some reason, he felt slightly disappointed by her question; probably because Hotch was long gone and she was still thinking about him, whereas he was right in front of her. But he gave his brain a mental shake, it was a legitimate question.
"I don't know… I guess a lot of the agents at the Bureau go by their last names. Hotchner can be quite a mouthful… someone along the way shortened it to Hotch… and it's stuck," he answered.
"What do they call you?" Maizy pondered, shifting on the balls of her feet.
"Reid, mostly. JJ calls me Spence sometimes," he offered.
"Is JJ your girlfriend?" Maizy inquired curiously.
He couldn't help but chuckle at that. At one very brief moment in his life he'd had a crush on JJ and even had acted on it. But nothing came of it. Now, JJ was his closest friend. "No," he said quickly, when Maizy frowned. He realized laughing may have been a bit rude. "No, sorry… JJ's just a friend. Best friend, actually…"
"Oh…" she replied, considering.
The frown vanished off her face to be replaced with what he would call a dreamy look. He had no idea what she was thinking about, but, suddenly he felt a surge of loneliness wave off of her. It wasn't right, he thought to himself. Someone as pretty as her should never be lonely.
What he said next surprised him as much as it did her.
"Would you like to go get a coffee?"
"S…sure," she replied tentatively, but a smile spread across her face, radiating outwards to warm him, too.
Well that's it for this one. I hope you enjoyed. More Hotch and Maizy stuff to come. Plus Dave's barbeque, too. I'll try to have that up a lot sooner than I had this one up.
Anyways, I just wanted to thank those who are reading this and those who are reviewing as well: Phoenix; nebula2 (oh yeah, I'd definitely take either one of them too, lol. Thanks so much for the awesome review!); and FairyT (Thank so much!)
