Disclaimer: Usual disclaimers, I do not own any CM characters, I'm just borrowing them and will return them in the same condition as I found them.

Storyline Rules: There will be het smut, there may be violence, mention of drugs and sex crimes -- this is Criminal Minds. There may be mild sideline slash, but it will not involve any CM characters. All CM characters will remain true to character as I see them. All pairings will be introduced as they could naturally occur. This may be fantasy, but I will try my best to make sure anything presented as fact is accurate.

PLAYING & PAYING

Reid woke slowly; it was a luxury he was rarely allowed. No alarm clock, no "we're landing" announcement, no unsubs to catch, no puzzles to solve, just warmth; an unfamiliar, but very pleasant weight on his chest; and the faint scent of JJ's perfume, roses, her shampoo, berries, and the lingering aroma of sex.

He tilted his head backwards until he could see the clock, nine-thirty. Check-out wasn't until eleven, he could get another hour's sleep and still be ready, but JJ would have to do her hair, her make-up, check two rooms to make sure she didn't leave anything behind. He gently stroked her back, her head stirred on his chest, her lips moving softly against him. "JJ, I'm gonna take my shower." He kissed her hair and slid out from under her.

He gave more thought than usual to what to wear, usually it was whatever was next in the drawer or ready bag, when you were trying to catch a rapist did it really matter if your tie matched your shirt and your shirt matched your sweater? Today he wanted to look good for JJ. He checked his ready bag, finding exactly what he'd expected; he'd worn everything in it. He pulled a button-down shirt from the neatly-folded dirty pile and shook it out, five years on the road had taught him that barring spills or getting tackled, you could wear just about everything twice, except underwear that was just plain wrong. He always carried plenty of clean underwear. He grabbed the jeans from the floor and headed into the bathroom.

As he stepped into the shower he marveled at the events of this weekend. He chuckled, and to think he had been uneasy when Morgan had invited himself along. He needed to find some way to thank him.

&&&&&&

Reid sat at the Blackjack table, his pile of chips steadily growing. He checked his watch, JJ should be down soon. He'd gotten her up before he'd left the room arranging for her to meet him down here when she was ready. He tapped the table next to his cards, silently asking for another, nineteen, stay. The dealer added more chips and dealt again.

Blackjack was simple, track the numbers, do the statistics, what was the probability that the next card was going to be what he needed. He preferred poker, it was much more challenging, profile your opponents, watch for the tells, the twitch of an eye, the tightening of fingers around the cards, make sure you don't give anything away yourself.

It was funny, he was the best on the team at seeing the physical tells because of his experience playing poker, and his experience and training with the team had made him a much better poker player.

He smiled as he raked in more chips, stacking them neatly on the table in front of him. Much as he like order, it wasn't OCD, it was simple security, having chips spread out around the table made a lot of new players feel like they were 'raking 'em in', but it made it easy for the player next to you to snitch a few chips out of your pile while you were distracted. Similar to pickpockets, some people did it all the time, others saw an opportunity and found themselves unable to resist. It was also poor etiquette.

He caught the faint scent of roses and berries and smiled, "Hi, JJ."

"How'd you know I was there?"

Let's see, should he tell her he'd memorized her scent years ago? Can you say stalker? "A magician never reveals his secrets. Have you seen Morgan or Emily?"

"Emily's on her way down, I haven't seen Morgan yet."

Reid patted the seat beside him and said, "Play with me awhile."

"Reid, I'm tapped out. I'm gonna have to put my half of the room on plastic."

"JJ, I've got the rooms."

"Reid, I'm not some -- you can't -- I'm paying for my own --."

"Calm down, JJ. This isn't some kind of pay for play thing. This had nothing to do with you having sex with me, I've got all the rooms covered, Morgan and Emily's too. Well, I will in another half hour or so."

As Reid spoke he continued communicating with the dealer through hand signals. This was a shoe game, the player didn't actually touch the cards, all cards were played face up and hand signals were required so everything would be recorded by the video surveillance, cheating was virtually impossible and no arguments could be made that the dealer had stayed when the player said hit or vice versa. It was the only way to go for a card-counter.

"Reid, you can't afford --."

"JJ --."

"I --."

"Just listen; okay?"

"All right, I'm listening."

"If you invited Morgan, Emily and I to Pennsylvania to see your mom where would we all stay?"

"With my mom."

"See, you didn't even have to think about that. If we all went home with Morgan, we'd stay with his mom. The same with Emily - kind of - I'm not sure I'd want to stay in an embassy, too many bugs."

JJ laughed at his joke.

"Now, if we were staying at your mom's would she charge us for food and the rooms?"

"Of course not, but --."

"I'm betting you'd take us to a high school game, maybe the movies; right? Under a hundred bucks."

"Exactly, this isn't --."

"JJ, you came with me, while I came home to visit my family. We can't stay at my mom's because I sold the house when I moved to D.C."

"But you can't afford --."

"We both know how much I make in D.C., you saw how much I make when I'm in Vegas. Let me do this. Please? We already discussed that; here I get to be high roller for a weekend, but I promise you, once we're back home, it's right back to McDonald's, subways and the public library."

"All right, you pay for the rooms, but I'm paying for the tickets last night."

Reid actually burst out laughing at this, He already had chips for the tickets tucked to the side, "JJ, you can't afford the tickets." She just looked at him in confusion for a moment. "JJ, cheap Copperfield tickets run a couple hundred bucks." He paused, not sure whether to continue, "Each."

"We had good seats?"

"We had excellent seats, in a great venue, for a Saturday evening show."

Suddenly Morgan spoke from behind him, "Man, how much were those tickets?"

Reid jumped; unfortunately he didn't have an early-warning system for Morgan. "Hey, how long you been there?"

"Long enough. How much were the tickets?"

Reid held his hand up to the dealer, signaling he wanted to sit out a hand. Since he was the only player at the table the dealer just waited. "Morgan, like I said, you're my guests here. I'll take care of it."

"How much?"

Reid turned back to the table, picked up a stack of chips. He took five hundred-dollar chips and stacked them on the table, "You," five more, "Emily," two more stacks, "JJ, me." He picked up his next stack of chips, laid out two, "Dinner Friday," two more, "Last night." He placed the last three chips stacked in front of him down, "Room one, night one."

He glared at Morgan, not that he'd ever been any good at glaring, he pointed at two hundred-dollar chips in the betting box, "Twenty minutes, and I'll have the rest of the room fees taken care of, give me another fifteen after that and I'll take care of the plane tickets home."

Morgan looked at the array of chips in front of partner, when he'd invited himself along he had fully intended to pay his fair share, but hadn't given any thought to how much it would actually cost. He could do it, but it would hurt, on the other hand, could he really let Reid take on an expense like that?

Reid watched the thoughts play across Morgan's face, one more nudge should do it, "Look, you can buy me lunch next week - not McDonald's."

He watched the tension leave Morgan's face; sometimes you had to give in gracefully. Reid winked at JJ, "But I'm not putting out."

Morgan shoved Reid's shoulder, "Yuck. Turn around and make some money."

"Hey, speed this up for me." Reid handed Morgan a chip, "Sit down and put that in the betting box. You, too, JJ. No arguments." Morgan sat, put the chip in the box. JJ just held hers.

"Come on, JJ. They're little pieces of plastic, they mean nothing. Just trust me and put the chip in the box." JJ leaned forward and placed the chip. Reid nodded to the dealer to continue play.

Emily found them twenty minutes later to find the three of them sitting with several piles of small plastic disks rapidly growing in front of them, while Reid played three hands simultaneously. She stood quietly behind them and marveled at seeing a genius at work.

She was surprised when she heard Reid announce, "Last hand." She watched the deal, watched as Reid instructed JJ to hit three times for a five-card Charlie, a stay on nineteen for himself and hold on fifteen for Morgan. The dealer had fourteen, under seventeen he had to take another card, anything seven or under would beat Morgan, and over five would beat Reid, he drew a nine.

The dealer paid out, and Reid walked JJ and Morgan through trading their chips in, then cashed out. Morgan snorted as Reid arranged to have the money wired to his bank account, a number he gave the clerk from memory.

"Reid, where did you learn to play like that?"

"Later, Morgan, when we're not on Candid Camera."