"Friendship Math"
November 2007
Reid sighed happily as he strolled into his favorite family-run bookstore, conveniently just a few blocks from his apartment. When things weren't right in his world, he sought solace in the shelves of his lifelong friends. Sometimes books were his only friends. Thankfully, he was now at a point in his life where he has more than just his books, but sometimes he just needed be surrounded with the distinct smell of printed-paper and dust.
Now was one of those times. He was still working though everything with Gideon leaving. He was better, his talk with Charlie helped, but he still had things to process. He still has some chess game permutations to run as well, trying to be prepared for a game if Gideon returned. Now, he had to figure out the legend that was David Rossi. So far, things were awkward to say the least.
So he sought some refuge tonight. One of his first stops was always to the new books, although he rarely chose anything that was trending. Often times he hardly registered the titles into his memory if it wasn't a topic of interest. There was a rare occasion, however, when something would catch his attention. As he glanced at the titles, his eyes stopped at one in particular. Hmm. He shifted his gaze to the bottom of the book and his eyes widened. Quickly grabbing the book off the shelf, he turned it over to see his friend's photo on he back. His phone was ringing before he realized he had dialed.
"Professor Eppes."
"Why did I just find a book written by you under the self-help section of the New Releases? And why am I finding this out instead of you telling me? Or are you getting too famous for us mere mortals?" Reid teased.
Charlie laughed. "You came across my book, huh? For the record, I told my publicist that I wanted it under the Sciences section, but I've been told it will get more attention there."
Reid quickly read the inside dust jacket. "So a mathematical way to make friends? Where has this been all my life?" It came out as a joke, but both knew that there was some truth in that question.
"Ha, I hear you, Spencer. So you said you were at the bookstore? Don't buy a copy; let me send you a personalized one."
"You don't need to do that, let me help boost your sales," Reid smiled. Maybe he should get copies for the team; it might be the only math book that they'd ever read.
"Please, I really don't care about that. Besides, how often do you get to personally know a best selling author?" Charlie joked.
"Well actually, I work with one now. Dave Rossi replaced…" Reid trailed off, that subject still sensitive.
Charlie paused, knowing what his friend was referring too. That was a conversation he wouldn't forget. Larry may have gone off into space and taken some time to get readjusted back to his life, but he hadn't just left. But now wasn't the time to be focusing on that conversation from a few months ago. "Really? I know that name, he was one of the founders of your unit right?"
Reid nodded, starting to walk around the store again. "Yeah, Gideon and him formed the BAU. It's been interesting so far…"
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A few weeks later…
Reid took a long sip from his coffee as he pushed through the recently repaired glass doors into the bullpen. God how he loved his coffee.
"Morning Reid," Prentiss stated from her desk. Reid flipped his messenger bag strap over his head as he set it down by his desk.
"Morning." He looked over at his friend, noticing she was reading a magazine. "What are you reading?"
"Vanity Fair. Oh, you know, I just finished an article that you might actually be interested in. There is a bio piece about this author; he's actually a mathematician. He wrote this new book about relationships and it's climbing the charts. Sounds like something you might like." She looked up from the magazine to see a smirk on her friend's face. "What?"
Reid reached down for his messenger bag and flipped it open, pulling out a book. "You mean The Attraction Equation by Dr. Charles Eppes?" He shows her the book in his hands, offering it to her.
Emily laughed. "I should have known you would have already picked it up." She took the book, inspecting the cover.
Reid smiled again. "Actually it was personally sent to me." He nodded, gesturing for her to open the book. Emily raised an eyebrow and opened the cover. Inside she read: To someone that loves to solve crime with math just as much as me! Hope to see you the next time your in LA, Spencer! Charlie.
Emily looked up at Reid, back at the note, flipped the book over to see the photo of the author again, and then back up to Reid. "You know him?"
"Didn't his bio say where he taught at?"
Emily wrinkled her brow at his response. "Um, yeah. It was…CalSci, I think." Reid took a sip of his coffee, waiting. "Wait a minute…"
"Hmm?"
Emily shook her head and laughed. "He was one of your professors, wasn't he?" Reid nodded with a smile. "Although he seems too young really. But then again, you were too at the time, I suppose."
"Were young?" Reid teased. Emily rolled her eyes and offered his book back to him. "Actually, I finished it on the subway in this morning. It's great. It offers very interesting insight with mathematical principles. You're welcome to borrow it, if you'd like."
Emily smiled and set the book back down on her desk. "Thanks, I think I will."
"You will what?" asked Morgan as he walked by the pair.
"I'm borrowing a book from Reid that someone he knows wrote. It's on the best sellers list."
"Come on, princess, I'm sure Rossi would just give you a copy if you asked," Morgan teased, biting on his coffee stirrer as he sat down as his desk. Emily and Reid shared a glance and both rolled their eyes. Reid finally sat down at his desk, taking in the last sip of his coffee and grabbing a file off his stack of consults.
"Funny, but it's not Rossi. Reid just happens to know one more famous author than the rest of us."
"Oh really, Pretty Boy? You've holding out on us with all your fun connections?" Morgan turned in his chair, flashing his signature, teasing smile at his friends.
"Sorry to get your hopes up, Morgan, but it's not a book about sports so I can't score you some tickets to a game." Reid turned to look at his friend. "Although I could probably get you into the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics annual Conference. It's in San Diego next year."
Morgan just starred at him and then shook his head. "I think I'll pass." Emily laughed as she looked down at her first file for the day. It felt good to joke around after the past month since Garcia's shooting.
"BAU, conference room in 5 minutes." The group in the bullpen looked up at Hotch on the walkway and nodded.
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A few weeks later…
Reid headed down the aisle of the plane, stirring the sugar he had just poured into his coffee. He could finally enjoy his favorite hot beverage without being surrounded by the Miami heat as they made their way back home. Sliding into his chair, he noticed Emily closing her book.
"Finished?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink.
Emily smiled at her friend, "Yeah. It was really interesting; thanks for letting me borrow it. I've never thought about math being applied to something like this before. It's certainly not how I was taught the subject."
Reid smiled. "True, most of the methods used to teach math, at least when it's high school and basic college level, can be a little dry. That's one of the reasons that Charlie is so successful as a teacher, he's great at finding ways to explain mathematic principles into real life scenarios."
"And applying them too. It sounded like he helps his brother's FBI team in LA quite a bit in the article. You know, if I wasn't already working with a mathematical genius, I would have questioned how in the world that math could be so useful to solving crimes like arson, kidnapping, murder. But since I see it in action on a almost daily basis now, it wasn't as shocking to read that in the magazine."
Reid felt himself blush slightly. It wasn't often the team truly complemented him on his abilities. "Thanks. You'd be surprised, though. Math really is all around us, some of us are just able to see it a little clearer than others."
Emily's smile grew. "Well I, for one, am grateful that you are one of those that can see it better." She stood to get herself a drink, giving his shoulder a light squeeze as she walked by.
Reid softly sighed, surprised at the conversation that had just taken place. He reached across the table, sliding the book back to his side so he could put it back into his bag. Although, maybe he should see if one of the others would want to read it first, it seemed to work well with his first case study. He turned to look out the window, silently sending thanks to his friend for unknowingly improving one of his relationships by allowing her to understand him better.
Maybe there really was something to this friendship math after all.
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A/N: Thank you for the continued great reviews!
A little less Charlie in this one. I thought the show did a good job of handling how Charlie coped with his rise to fame, but I wanted to show how it would impact Reid. Granted in a much smaller way. :)
You may have noticed that I skipped "Limelight." The timing didn't make much since on the Numb3rs side so I decided not to merge the teams right now. I've decided that will come around chapter 17 - season 5 of Numb3rs/season 4 of Criminal Minds.
