Reid's Miracle Chapter 11: Sleeping Beauty, a criminal minds fanfic

Author's Note: I used a few pieces of information from last week's episode, "Fear and Loathing." If you didn't watch the episode, don't worry, I don't really reveal anything to critical from it. However, I do omit some of it to make it work in the story.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reid's Miracle

Chapter Eleven: Sleeping Beauty

By Ann Parker

"We are healed of a suffering only by expressing it to the full." – Marcel Proust

The tour was short lived. Reid's back had begun to ache slightly and he felt a little weak so Sarah ordered him back to the conference room to rest until these withdrawal symptoms subsided. She grabbed some popcorn and bottled water from the break room since both were starving and they settled back into the leather chairs. They were eating their dinner, if you wanted to call it that, when Gideon called again to get Reid's help on developing a profile of their unsub. Sarah elected to simply listen this time, not wanting to say something wrong when time was of the essence. After the team hung up, the pair returned to idle conversation. Both of them had had enough deep conversation for one night so they stuck to easy topics of books and movies. That was until his help was needed once more, this time to assist Garcia in finding the location the unsub was taking the victims. Sarah decided to stay in the conference room, her sleep deprivation catching up with her.

Reid helped Morgan and Garcia narrow down what they needed until the location of a belly-up recording studio was found. "Wow, I haven't watched you work from this angle in a long time," he commented to Garcia.

"You don't have to remind me that I'm brilliant," teased Garcia. Reid smiled at his friend; she was quite the character. "Speaking of brilliant," she continued, "where's your girlfriend?"

Reid blushed slightly, "she's not my girlfriend, Garcia, and she's in the conference room."

"That's not what my dear Morgan said on the phone," she continued. "I hear she's sleeping at your place now?"

Damn Morgan. Reid tried to find a way out of this topic, highly embarrassed. "That's only because she didn't want to stay at Gideon's and couldn't find a hotel."

"Uh huh, right," she countered. Shaking his head, Reid elected to leave to make this conversation stop.

"Bye Garcia."

"Go get 'em, Tiger!" Garcia laughed as Reid shut the door. He let out slight sigh as he headed back to the conference room. Could everyone see what he was feeling? When he entered the room, he froze at the sight before him. Sarah had wondered next to the far wall and was lying on the floor, her coat draped over top of her body. She was asleep. And she was absolutely stunning; it almost took his breath away. Not wanting to disturb her, he quietly went back to the table and put all the paperwork back into the file. He didn't want to leave until he knew the case was over so he elected to join her. He sat down next to her and gently set her head in his lap to give her a cushion. Pushing her hair out of her face, he smiled at the sleeping form next to him. It was amazing to him the feelings he had already developed for her after such a short time. He was no expert on love, but he would have thought it would have taken longer. Oh well, he had never been one to do things the normal way. Closing his eyes, he let that thought drift him off to sleep.

About two hours later…

The team arrived back at headquarters and were all heading inside to drop off their things before going home. When they got off the elevator they saw Garcia leaning against the railing on the second floor and looking into the conference room.

"Mama, I thought I told you to go home?" asked Morgan, speaking for everyone.

"Shh!! Just come up here you guys," she replied, not taking her eyes off of the object of her attention. Worry would have come over the rest, if they hadn't seen the large smile on her face. Instead they were just curious. "When you called to say you caught the guy, I went to find Reid to tell him that they could go home and this is what I found." By this point the whole team saw what she was starring at – Reid's sleeping form leaning against the wall with his arm resting on Sarah's shoulder, who was asleep next to him with her head in his lap. The sight brought smiles to everyone. "I didn't want to wake them, but I didn't want to just leave them here either so I decided to wait for you guys to get back," Garcia finished.

"That has got to be one of the sweetest things I've ever seen," commented Emily. The others chuckled slightly.

"What this part of your plan, Gideon?" asked Hotch. Gideon simply smiled.

Reid heard the soft murmurs of voices and opened his eyes. Glancing to the window of the room, he saw his team standing and staring at him with smiles on their faces. He looked down and shook his head slightly, "I'm never going to live this down." He slide out from under Sarah's still sleeping form and walked over to them. "Hey guys, did you catch the unsub?" he asked, attempting to keep the conversation off of him.

"Oh no you don't, your not getting out of this that easily," teased Morgan.

"Why are you guys still even here?" asked JJ, trying to let Reid off the hook from Morgan's line of questioning. He looked behind him at the sleeping figure and quietly shut the door to let her be.

"When I came back from Garcia's office, she was already asleep and I didn't have the heart to wake her. I figured I'd just wait until I knew you had solved the case before I'd bother her. I must have just fallen sleep. Why didn't you wake me when they called to say they were on their way?" he asked their computer wizard.

"You looked so peaceful and I figured you both could use some rest," she replied. "Besides, you two looked so cute, I couldn't disturb you." The others chuckled at Garcia's response as Reid rolled his eyes.

"Well, now that you know the case is wrapped up, why don't you go wake her up and head home?" Hotch asked. He could tell Reid was uncomfortable with this line of questioning.

"Of course," he replied and the group began to disperse. They all needed to head home and get some rest. But first, Reid took this opportunity to talk to JJ. "Hey, JJ, can I talk to you for a minute?" The blond turned back to him.

"Sure." The two walked a little ways from the rest. "What's up, Spence?"

"I know we haven't talk much since that night," he started. JJ looked down at the floor. "But I want you to know that I don't blame you for what happened, okay? I was the one that suggested we split up. Tobias did the rest. You did nothing wrong," he finished. JJ looked back up and him and smiled slightly, a few tears in her eyes. She pulled him into a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered. That was all she needed to hear. She pulled away, still smiling. "Good night Spence."

"Good night." Reid watched her walked away and noticed Morgan looking up at them from the first floor. He nodded slightly at the younger man, acknowledging what had just happened. Reid nodded in return and headed back to the conference room. He found Gideon studying Sarah through the window with a smile on his face.

"She's something isn't she?" he asked Reid. Reid looked at her and back at Gideon.

"Thank you for setting me up," he said sincerely, causing Gideon to look him the eyes. "She told me," he added.

Gideon smiled; he should have guessed that secret wouldn't have lasted long. He placed a hand on Reid's shoulder. "You're welcome son. I didn't want to deceive you, but I…"

"I know," Reid cut him off. "And you were probably right. I'm not sure I could've…can really talk to you guys about what happened. But I can with her." Gideon pulled Reid into a hug.

"That's all I need to hear," he whispered into Reid's ear. Pulling away, he added, "now, let's go wake up Sleeping Beauty in there." Reid smiled and nodded. They walked into the conference room together and went to wake up the women that had changed both of their lives.