For disclaimer; See Chapter One

Q: How long does it take for an internet provider to replace a broken internet router?

A: 4 WEEKS APPARENTLY! Ok, I'm over it now (Not really. Not even slightly!) My apologies for the delay, we can now continue.

The Consultant

Chapter Nine

For a moment Emily lost her balance. She steadied herself, placing the flat of her palm on his chest, her other hand settling on his shoulder as she leaned up to meet him. It felt odd to her at first. He held her in place with a single hand tangled in the back of her hair and it was so different to any other kiss she'd experienced.

All the men she had known had taken her over when they kissed, arms wrapping her shoulders and waist possessively, guardedly, as if they expected her to go so weak at the knees that they might have to support her at any moment, trapping her until they were ready to end it. The irony was that not one of those alpha males had ever made her feel as enervated by a single kiss as Reid did right now.

His hand, the strength he had in his long fingers, the control he was exerting just by cradling her head made Emily feel as though she were supported by a single thread. If he stopped, if he let go now, she was sure she would fall flat on her ass in the middle of the parking lot.

It took Emily a moment to realise that he had stopped. His hand was still in her hair but he had moved back a little, his lips still close to hers but no longer touching. Emily looked up, confused when she saw the look of anger on his face. His hand slipped from her hair as she stepped back.

'I'm sorry.' She said.

The look of anger vanished and was replaced by a look of satisfaction. 'You were upset. It didn't mean anything. You don't need to apologise.' Reid said as he turned back to his car, slamming the passenger door closed.

Emily felt her irritation return. 'I didn't say I was sorry for kissing you. I said I was sorry because you didn't look as though you liked it.' She said.

Reid stopped and turned to look at her, his brow furrowed.

'What do you want?' He said.

'Excuse me?' Emily said.

'What do you want, from me? Why did you just kiss me?' Reid said. 'And why would you think I didn't like it?'

'Because you looked angry!' Emily said.

'I'm not angry, I'm confused. Kisses don't come without a price tag, Emily. I just want to know what the price is.' Reid said.

Emily stared at Reid and blinked. 'Alright. I don't even know where to begin with that statement ... seriously, a woman kisses you and your reaction is to get more suspicious than the NSA?'

Reid leaned against his car and scuffed his cane across the floor.

Emily sighed and scrubbed at her tear stained face. 'No price tag, Dr Reid, unless you count the huge cost to my ego.'

Emily turned and got into her car. She was peeling out of the lot before Spencer had time to blink.


Emily spent the first morning of the weekend slouching around in her PJ's, grateful for the rare free time. She was restless, but having made no plans she was unsure of what to do with herself.

One of the problems with the BAU was that the work took her away from home so frequently at the weekend that she had stopped making plans with people, fed up of having to cancel at the last minute.

She was about to ring JJ to see if she was free for a shopping trip when she heard a knock at the door. Dropping her phone on the couch she stepped into the hall, glancing at her reflection in the mirror. She hadn't been up long and had pulled her hair into a messy knot at the back of her neck. She hadn't even washed her face, let alone applied make up.

'You'd better be at the wrong apartment buddy, whoever you are.' She grumbled to herself as she reached the door.

She squinted through the peephole and groaned when she recognised her visitor. Why was Spencer Reid at her apartment door on a Saturday morning and why the hell did it have to be one of those rare Saturdays when she hadn't washed her hair and got dressed for a morning meeting JJ at a coffee shop or shopping with Garcia? Why did he have to show up on a slob out morning?

The knock sounded again, a little louder than before. Emily held her breath. She debated ignoring it and was about to creep away from the door when she heard his muffled voice.

'Did you know that the position of the lighting in your apartment causes a narrow shadow from your feet to be cast underneath your apartment door when you stand directly in front of it?' He said.

Begrudgingly Emily threw the bolt and unlocked the door.

'Dr Reid.' She said.

Reid stood before her, his hair impossibly messy and his navy sweater vest buttoned unevenly. He fidgeted with the tops of his canes, screwing the tips into the hallway flooring. He cleared his throat and looked away from her.

Emily raised her brows and waited. On seeing his face she had the urge to forgive him his behaviour the night before but the stronger part of her refused. She still felt hurt by his reaction to the kiss and more than a little angry with herself for allowing her emotions to get the better of her.

When she'd arrived home she had gone to bed with a glass of whiskey and laid in the dark thinking of all the things she should have said to him if only she hadn't felt so out of control with her feelings. It was the case, she told herself stubbornly. It was nothing to do with him in particular. If it had been Hotch in the garage at that moment, or Morgan, it would have been one of them that she'd have kissed.

Unfortunately one glass of whiskey would never be enough to make her really believe that.

Rolling her eyes Emily drummed her finger tips on the door frame. 'Can I help you Dr Reid?' She asked.

After a moment of fidgeting he looked her in the eye. 'Jenny Carmichael.' He said.

'Jenny Carmichael?' She repeated.

'Yes. I was using a yellow crayon, to colour a picture of the sun. She wanted it to colour her drawing of a lake. I tried to tell her that I needed yellow to accurately represent the interpretation of the collection of radiation that is the sun, as it hits the human retina and is then processed by our visual cortex and that she did not need it for a body of water, as the appearance of colour in water is a reflection of its surroundings and therefore mostly blue from the sky or a darker green from the aquatic flora on the lake bed, but she wouldn't be convinced. Finally she told me that if I gave her the crayon she would give me a kiss. We were four years old.' Reid's face was flushed when he finished.

Emily stared at Reid's tense expression and successfully suppressed a smile. 'Did you take the deal?' She asked seriously, her anger with him mellowing a little.

'I did. Evidently at the age of four I was easily bought.' The corner of his mouth twitched in a small smile for a second before a frown appeared on his face. 'There are three other, similar instances throughout my life, which aren't so nice.' He swallowed and looked down at the floor.

Emily moved back from the door and waved him in. As he moved past her she could smell his cologne again. The sense memory of it brought back the feel of his hand in her hair and she had to fight the urge to inhale deeply.

'You have a wonderful view.' He said as he gazed out of the picture window.

Emily shrugged. 'I suppose it is. I think I've become complacent about it. I kind of assume everyone has the same luxury.'

'I know I don't. I have a small, family park in front of my building and I'm on the ground floor anyway so...' He trailed off, his gaze darting anywhere but Emily's face.

'Shouldn't you get dressed?' He asked eventually.

'Oh! Sorry, I... wait, what? I wasn't expecting company, I normally don't entertain people in my pyjamas.' Emily said, flushing and fiddling with her messy hair.

'No.. I didn't mean... I just thought, if you want to make it to the Smithsonian we should leave shortly.' He said.

'The Smithsonian?' Emily said, confused.

'You wanted me to ask you if you wanted to go.' Reid said.

Emily scrunched her face up in confusion. 'So this is you asking me?'

'Yes?' He said.

Emily raised her eyebrows at him.

'Sorry, I... right, would you like to go to the Smithsonian with me today, Agent Prentiss... Emily.' He said.

Finally Emily gave in to the urge to laugh. 'Yes. I would love to go to the Smithsonian with you today Dr Reid. Grab yourself a coffee from the kitchen, the pot's still warm, and I'll go get dressed.'

Reid flashed a small smile.

'So, it's close to eleven, will we fit it all in today?' Emily called as she reached her bedroom. She heard a muffled squeak from the vicinity of her kitchen.

'The Smithsonian is comprised of nineteen museums and galleries and the National Zoological Park Emily! We'll fit one gallery in today if we're lucky. How can you not know this?' He said.

As he stood in the hallway Reid heard Emily laughing. Nodding to himself he turned back to the kitchen. 'Very funny, Emily.' He said.

'Just because I haven't been, doesn't mean I don't know anything about it.' Emily called back. 'In fact I did read up on the Air and Space Museum. I'd love to go to the Einstein Planetarium.'

Reid leaned against the kitchen counter and smiled as he listened to Emily. 'That's my favourite exhibition.' He said to himself.


'Dr Reid, I haven't seen you in a while.' The museum docent greeted Reid warmly and nodded hello to Emily.

'Adele, it's good to see you again. How did the fund raiser go?' Reid said.

'Oh, amazing, absolutely amazing. We reached our total.' Adele said. 'So, are you doing the full tour today or just the planetarium?'

'Pretty much everything we can cram in I think.' Reid said.

'Great, we have a new addition since you were last here. I think you'll enjoy seeing it.' She said. 'It's Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E. It looks perfect suspended next to "Old Bessie".

'Old Bessie?' Emily said.

'The aircraft Amelia Earhart favoured.' Reid explained.

'I didn't realise you were interested in Amelia Earhart.' Emily said.

The docent laughed. 'I don't think he is, he's just kind enough to listen to me expound on the subject! Anyway, you should get started. If you give me a moment I'll have a wheelchair for you.' She said, starting to move back toward her office.

'That's not necessary, thank you.' Reid said hurriedly. Turning to Emily he ushered her through the doors to the first exhibition, leaving Adele looking surprised in his wake.


'That was amazing.' Emily breathed excitedly as they headed toward the food court.

'It is a good show, isn't it?' Reid agreed.

They had toured half of the Air and Space exhibitions and then headed for the Einstein Planetarium. Reid had sat through the lecture and show many times and never failed to find it interesting, but this time it became more so as he found himself pointing out items of interest to Emily, whispering below the audio, much to the irritation of a man sat in front of them.

'It was beautiful, and to contemplate the notion that every molecule in our bodies started out as a swirling speck of the atmosphere, it's almost too big a thought to have.' Emily laughed.

Reid smiled. 'It certainly does put our lives into perspective.' He said.

'It does.' Emily agreed.

They walked toward the tables in a comfortable silence. They had been in the museum for a couple of hours and had spent most of it on their feet, save for the time in the reclining chairs in the planetarium, and Emily had noticed that Reid was walking more and more slowly as the time wore on. She was relieved when he mentioned food, more for the opportunity for him to rest than for her to eat, although she was starving.

'Ok. So what's good in here, Dr Reid.' Emily said as they chose a table.

'The pizza is pretty safe.' He replied as he sank into one of the plastic chairs and leaned his canes against another.

'Pizza it is then. You drove us here so it's only fair that lunch is on me.' Emily grabbed her purse and started for the concession stand. 'Marguerita?' She asked, pointing at Reid.

'Did you just profile me?' Reid asked frowning a little.

'Absolutely.' She laughed back at him.


The pizza was good and Emily felt uncomfortably full by the time they had finished. She had polished off her own twelve inch spicy Italian before she noticed that Reid had only eaten half of his.

'Not hungry?' She asked.

Reid glanced at the half eaten pie. 'Pizza always makes me feel full rather quickly.' He lied.

He had felt hungry but the hard plastic chair he was seated in, coupled with too much time on his feet, was resulting in tiny spirals of pain chasing through his lower back and the accompanying nausea in his stomach had successfully dissolved his hunger. Pushing his plate away, Reid reached for his coffee and stole a quick glance at Emily. She was already pulling a slice of his abandoned pizza from his plate.

'So, what was it like to be the daughter of an Ambassador?' He asked.

Emily stopped dead with the pizza slice dangling from her fingers. 'Well, it got me into three different exclusive finishing schools but I guess you wouldn't notice, huh?' She said, blushing as she bit into the slice.

'You might as well finish it. It's better than it going to waste.' Reid said, smiling.

Emily smiled back and pulled a long string of mozzarella from the slice of pie.

'OK, where to start. I got to meet a lot of very interesting people and learn a lot of languages. I learned that it's not easy to give an embassy bodyguard the slip but it can be done. I discovered that all Italian boys are friendly and that my mother and father shouldn't really have had children.' Emily groaned as she finished.

'Just listen to me! How is it that it doesn't matter how old I get every time I start to talk about my childhood I mention my parents and get all emo?' She laughed.

'Emo? I don't understand.' Reid said.

'You know, emo. Overly emotional, and not in a good way.' Emily laughed. 'You've never heard that before?'

'No. No I haven't.' He looked puzzled and Emily felt a sudden surge of affection for him and reached for his hand.

'You were a college lecturer, surrounded by kids all day and you never heard the word emo?' She joked. 'Did you just not notice the bunch of kids all dressed in black and lacking a sense of humor?'

Reid looked thoughtful for a moment. 'You pretty much just described all of my Psychology to Death and Dying class.' He said.

'Seriously?' She laughed.

'It's a valid study topic. It focuses on the psychological aspects of death and dying and teaches the meaning of death and ways of handling its personal and social implications. I also included psychological, sociological, cultural, and religious views of death.' He shrugged. 'I did wonder why they never laughed at any of my jokes.' He said.

Emily laughed again and Reid felt a warm rush of pleasure at the sound of her voice. His stomach still felt queasy, his back hurt and he was tired but there was nowhere else he'd rather be.

'So, my turn. Tell me what had you drinking coffee at nine years old.' Emily said.

Reid tensed and pulled his hand back from Emily's. Tucking his hair behind his ears he cleared his throat a couple of times.

'I read that caffeine aided wakefulness. I didn't have money to buy coke or any of those high energy drinks and we always had coffee in the house so, I just started drinking it.' He said.

'And what does a nine year old Spencer Reid need to stay awake for?' Emily questioned.

'I had a lot of school work and um... well, I was a carer for my mom, she was sick...a lot, and at that point my dad was away most of the time, so, I needed to stay awake.' He said.

'Oh.' Emily sat back in her chair, unsure of what to say. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ...'

Reid shrugged. 'It's not uncommon for minors to care for sick parents. An informal study in 2001 showed nine hundred young carers under the age of sixteen in Las Vegas alone. Statistics suggest that there are three hundred and seventy five thousand child carers in the United States but this figure is most likely a massive underestimate.'

'You had some help though, right?' Emily said.

'No.' Reid said. 'My family consisted of my parents, there was no one else.'

'What about the state. Surely they have programs in place to help families like yours?' Emily said.

'My mom and I never told anyone that my father wasn't around.' Reid said.

'Why?' Emily said.

'I suppose at first I was expecting him to come back. It wasn't like he'd packed a bag and made a show of leaving and by the time he did pack a bag and leave for good I had been my mom's sole source of support for over a year and I got used to it. A couple of years later, when I had my accident,' Reid gestured toward his canes, 'I had home help for my own needs for a while but my mom's health was a little better at that time and it didn't seem relevant for me to highlight issues that weren't at the fore at that precise moment. ' Reid said.

Emily hesitated for a moment, staring at the man in front of her, unable to get a read on his expression. 'I still think it might have been better to get some help, from somewhere.'

'You think I'd have had a better childhood in a foster home?' Reid said.

'No! I just ... I don't know, I just hate to think of any kid struggling like that.' Emily fiddled with the empty sugar packets strewn over the table top. 'So, I guess I'll feel a little less hard done by the next time someone asks me about my experiences growing up.' She smiled, nervously.

'Everyone's experiences are unique, Emily. Just because yours are different to mine and you perceive mine to be worse, it doesn't mean that your assumption is true.' Reid said. 'My mother never abandoned me, Emily. Sometimes she couldn't be who I needed her to be, but she was always there and she was and is a wonderful mother.'

'Did you just profile me?' Emily asked, smiling as she fought back a swell of hurt thinking about her own mother. Whilst she loved her, she could never imagine speaking about her with the tenderness and regard Reid had just spoken about his mother.

'Absolutely.' Reid smiled back.


Another two hours in the museum and Emily had seen what felt like every inch of Air and Space. Her feet ached and she felt pleasantly tired as Reid drove her back to her apartment. As they reached their destination Emily felt her stomach sink.

'I had a great time today Reid, really. Thank you for taking me.' Emily said as she unbuckled her seat belt.

'I enjoyed it also. There is something about going to a favourite place with someone else that makes the experience more, somehow.' He said.

Emily shifted in her seat, her hand on the door handle. She looked across at Reid. In the half light she caught a small frown on his face.

'What's the frown for?' She asked.

He looked up at her. She noticed how tired he looked. His hair fell into his eyes briefly before he swiped it away. 'I feel that I should do something now, but I have no idea what.' He said, his voice hitching.

Emily's mouth felt dry suddenly and she could feel her skin warming on her face.

'I have a suggestion.' She said carefully. 'I know past experience in this vein has proven negative for you, however I would like to propose a trade, one which I hope might be mutually beneficial.'

Reid stared at her. 'A trade?'

'A trade. I'll give you one kiss if you agree to take me to one of the other eighteen museums sometime.' She said.

Without waiting for him to answer Emily leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. She felt him tense at first, but after a moment he leaned into her body and pressed his lips back into hers. Inhaling, deeply Emily closed her eyes. Reaching up she tangled her hand into his hair, curling her fingers as she suddenly felt his hand on her waist. She could feel the warmth of his fingers through the thin fabric of her shirt. After a moment she heard him draw a sharp breath. He moved back a little.

'Are you ok?' She asked.

'Yes, yes...I...um, I'm just a little tired. About your deal? May I suggest the Portrait Gallery?' He said, his voice squeaking a little.

'Deal.' Emily said, smiling.