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'A Force of Nature'
Chapter Ten
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The elevator doors opened and Reid rushed into the BAU. "Reid! Hey, Reid!" he heard Garcia call.
"Hey, Garcia," he said, slightly out of breath due to his sprint from the parking garage. Spotting Daniel with her he added, "Hey Daniel."
"What happened to you?" Garcia asked, looking Reid up and down.
"I had a blowout way out on US 50, and I had to change a tire." He sighed. "Hotch is so going to ream me. I was already in hot water with him."
"I'm sorry about that…"
"Daniel, it wasn't your fault. Hotch was right to do what he did. It was the latest in a long line of my screw ups." He looked toward the conference room. "I've got to get in there." He handed Daniel one of the bags he was carrying. "Your mom wanted me to give you this. What are you two up to, anyway?"
"Daniel got dragged here to answer some questions and look at the video because we were all together at the rink. After he was done they started doing their profiling thing and he got stuck hanging out with me."
"Penelope, you know I don't mind getting stuck with you."
"Ah, thank you! What's in the bag?"
"Oh, it's one of my mom's care packages," he laughed. "I keep telling her I can't eat all this stuff."
"She doesn't like your training regimen," Reid grinned.
"I know."
"She gave me the same stuff she gave you. Your dad said if it had been later in the day she would probably have been trying to feed me dinner." Daniel laughed. "I have to go," Reid insisted.
"Wait!" Garcia said.
"Penelope, I don't have time right now."
"I need to ask you something. I'll be quick! Daniel took me skating today. Prentiss shot some video of it."
"That's great. I'll have to look at it later."
"Reid! I fell on my butt twice! I can deal with us seeing it, but Prentiss and Morgan will have it all over the Bureau and maybe even on YouTube and goodness knows where."
"What do you want me to do?"
Garcia held up an SD disk. "I want you to use your magic fingers to switch this blank disk for the one in Prentiss's video camera."
Reid looked at her. "Suppose they've already uploaded the video?"
"They might have," Daniel said. "But they've been working since we got back here. They probably haven't had a chance yet."
Reid nodded. "Okay, I'll try it."
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"I don't understand it," Rossi was saying. "Carriol obviously had the means to find out who all these people were, as well as where they lived. He already took out three of them. Why not just take out all fifteen? Why risk being found out? Why expend the energy, the effort and the money to play this elaborate game?"
"For fun," Reid remarked as he walked into the room and sat down at the table.
"Oh, look who's here," Prentiss commented.
"Where have you been?" Hotch asked.
"I had a blowout way back on US 50. I had to change a tire."
Morgan chuckled. "That explains the grease marks. Why didn't you just call the auto club?"
"I did. They said it would be at least two hours. I didn't want to wait that long, so I changed the tire myself."
"Reid, the auto club has power tools that unscrew tires in a matter of seconds. The entire process takes only a few minutes."
"Morgan, if I had waited the two hours I would still be out there. I'm capable of changing my own tire, believe it or not."
"Okay, okay, sorry!"
"What's in the bag?" Rossi asked.
"Some things Caroline, I mean Daniel's mother, gave me. Cookies, brownies, cornbread, soup; all of it homemade."
"Daniel's mother is feeding you?"
"Yes." He looked around the table. "Don't we have a case to talk about here?"
Hotch was trying not to smile at this exchange. "Yes, we do," he answered. "Why did you say 'for fun' when you walked in?"
"Like Rossi said, this is all an elaborate game. This guy's been on the run for over a year. I think he's bored. Playing a game, even one like this, is fun for him. It's breaking the monotony."
"Garcia wasn't able to identify anyone else on the video. Dolby Carriol is the only one of the group around the fire we know."
"Maybe the others aren't involved in this."
Hotch sighed. "It's possible." He rubbed both of his temples.
"You okay, Hotch?" JJ asked.
"Just a little tired."
"Let's wrap this up for now and get some dinner," Rossi said. "And maybe someone ought to consider going home and getting some sleep." He looked pointedly at Hotch as the two men stood up.
"Before you go Prentiss… Garcia said you had some video of her skating with Daniel today? Can I see it?"
Prentiss grinned and passed her camera over to Reid. "You'll love it."
Reid flipped open the viewing screen on the camera and pressed the 'play' button. "Prentiss, where's the video? There's nothing on here. It's playing a blue screen."
"What?" Prentiss said, grabbing the camera away from Reid. "Oh, no!" She looked at Morgan. "He's right! The video is gone!"
"How? What happened?"
"I don't know."
"I don't know either," Reid said, standing up. "Garcia and Daniel ice skating together, and I have to miss it. Now I don't even have a video of it to look at. I miss everything around here!" Hotch smiled and shook his head as he and Rossi followed Reid out the door.
Reid walked into Garcia's office and sat down in a chair. "Here you go," he said, handing Garcia an SD disk.
Garcia hugged him and ruffled his hair. "That's my favorite gorgeous genius magician! Thank you!"
"Gorgeous genius magician?" Daniel laughed. "You?"
"Yes, me. You have a problem with that, Daniel?"
Daniel laughed again. "What are you going to do with that disk, Penelope?"
She smiled and sighed. "Keep it close to my heart and for just me to watch."
"Reid," Hotch said, stopping outside Garcia's door. "Do you have plans for tonight?"
"He has a date, Hotch," Daniel answered.
"With who? Your waitress?" Morgan chuckled as he walked up behind Hotch.
"What if I do?"
"I'm sorry, Reid. But I'm going to have to ask you to break your date. You're back on the security detail starting tonight."
"When are you planning on going home, Hotch?" Reid asked.
"Now," Rossi interjected. "We're all going home. Except you, of course."
Hotch walked away, then stopped and looked at Rossi. "Did Daniel just call me Hotch?"
"You mean as opposed to Agent Hotchner?"
"Yes."
"That's as close as he's gotten to calling you by your first name." Hotch couldn't resist a small grin at that point.
"Guess I have a date with two good looking men tonight," Garcia told Reid. "I was planning on watching movies with Daniel while Rossi did whatever; now I get to watch movies with you both."
"Baby girl, how can you have a date with a good looking man if I'm not around?" Morgan joked.
"I told you honey, you've been replaced," Garcia teased.
Just then Prentiss walked into Garcia's office. "You did this, didn't you, Reid? You did something to my video!"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Emily."
"Oh, don't you give me that innocent puppy dog face," she practically shouted, pointing at him. "I know you did something to my video! And I also know you probably put him up to it," she said, looking at Garcia.
"Hey, don't blame me if you messed up your video!" Garcia said, standing up. "Can you two get out please so Daniel, Reid and I can close up and get going?"
"Oh!" Emily said in frustration as she stomped out of Garcia's office, followed by a chuckling Morgan.
"I had an interesting day today," Daniel commented as he, Reid and Garcia prepared to leave. "I skated with a special lady, and then I got to come to Quantico. Maybe I should start thinking about joining up with you all at the BAU?"
Reid laughed. "You mean instead of studying Russian literature?"
"Oh, God! I need to study vocabulary!" Daniel groaned.
"Tomorrow! Starting tomorrow!" Garcia insisted, pushing Daniel ahead of her out of the office.
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"That was good soup," Reid commented as he sat down on Daniel's couch. "Much better than out of a can," he laughed. He looked at Daniel and sighed. "I can't believe I lost another coin flip over sleeping arrangements. This time to Garcia."
Daniel laughed and tucked his feet up on the couch. "You get the couch, she gets the spare bedroom. At least it's only for one night." He reached for a cookie out of the box his mother had given him. "I am so whacked on my eating habits this last couple of days! Do you know Rossi had pizza here last night? I had to go and eat some. Now I ate all that damn cornbread plus brownies and cookies…"
"And a bowl of popcorn," Garcia commented, handing Daniel a large bowl, before plunking herself down between he and Reid. "Isn't this cozy?" she said, looking from Daniel to Reid. "So, what are we watching tonight?" Daniel reached over and grabbed a stack of DVDs he had picked out earlier. He handed the stack over to her. "Why are we watching kids' movies?" she asked.
"Because Spencer has never seen most of them," Daniel commented.
"Really?" She looked over at Reid. "Oh… I'm sorry! So, what shall we watch first then, sweetie?"
"Daniel said 'Aladdin' is cool. He picked out 'Finding Nemo' also, but I actually watched that with Henry a couple of weeks ago. So I figured we could start with 'Aladdin', then maybe 'Toy Story', or 'Cars'; and Daniel said I should really watch 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', and 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'."
"We can't watch all those unless we stay up all night handsome," Garcia commented. "And Daniel has to skate tomorrow, and we have to work."
"So we'll watch one tomorrow in between practicing vocabulary," Reid shrugged.
"Okay, put in 'Aladdin' then."
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7