Title: Obsession
Rating: Teen-ish
Disclaimer: If only…I don't own them at all.
Author's Note: I knew I'd update eventually, and because it took so long this will be a longer chapter. I've finally settled into college and started classes so this should come faster now. I'm sorry it took so long.
Scratch that. Short chapter, but it's an update.
Chapter Eleven
Garcia was waiting with dark chocolate in hand as the elevator doors opened upon the BAU, and Reid found himself being dragged across the halls as Morgan watched from the elevator. It was Prentiss who walked towards him first with Rossi not far behind. Rossi stayed back as Prentiss tapped her foot against the floor to draw Morgan's eyes away from Reid's retreating back.
"Please tell me that something has happened with this case while I was on damage control duty."
"We know who the unsub is."
"Emily, you have made my day."
"It's Nathan Harris." Morgan stopped.
"Nathan Harris? Locked away a year ago Nathan Harris?"
"The one and only. He was released to his mother when he turned eighteen. It fits-the obsession and anger directed towards Reid."
Morgan followed Prentiss across the bullpen and dropped his keys on top of a stack of files left untouched since the case had started. "What about Addy? Why did he do that?"
It was then that Rossi spoke. "I think it's because Reid turned his attention to her instead of focusing on the case. In Harris's eyes that would've been tantamount to betrayal. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the sources of this-besides the obsession and other men-was knowing that it was Reid who would get this case."
"In Nathan's eyes Reid abandoned him." Morgan glanced from Rossi to Prentiss as the woman spoke. He groaned.
"We're never letting the kid out of the office again-first Elle, then Georgia, Harris, Gideon, Texas, and now this. He gets into more trouble than all of us combined." He sighed. "A lot of it seems to happen in Texas." Prentiss and Rossi shifted uncomfortably at the memories Morgan had that they did not.
"He does seem to be a magnet for trouble," muttered the older agent.
"He was close to Elle?" Prentiss spoke, ever eager for information about the agent she had replaced.
"Yeah, I think Reid thought of her as his older, protective sister. He would've done a lot for her-he did do a lot for her. Reid nearly got his ass shot during a hostage situation Elle was in…"
The three agents stared off at different memories playing across their eyes during the silence that followed Morgan's words.
--
Garcia had one hand around Reid's left hand while she played with the cup of dark hot chocolate in her other hand. Reid stared into his cup.
"Tell me about her."
"What?"
Garcia pulled the cup from his hands, pressed a hand against his cheek, and forced his eyes down towards her own line of sight. "Tell me about Dr. Addy." The first words that left his mouth caught her by surprise, and she nodded slightly to encourage him to talk further.
"I think I could fit my hands all the way around her waist."
From outside the door, Hotchner ducked his head, and his lips tilted upwards.
"Is it weird that when we were in her office and we'd only just met-when we still suspected her of murdering men that looked like me-that I wanted to brush a strand of hair behind her ear? It had fallen from the clip she had used." Garcia shook her head.
"Hey genius, remember what I say-everything happens for a reason." Reid shook his head.
"Not for me." He swirled the chocolate. "Everything just happens."
--
It was Hotchner who pulled the three agents from their memories, and Morgan spoke up before any request came.
"I think he'll be fine if Addy is fine."
Hotchner nodded. "I'm going to make sure that we do not have a repeat of anything that has happened in the past." It was Prentiss that nodded while Morgan's eyes darkened. "I heard that we had Dr. Addy's real name?"
Prentiss bit her bottom lip. "The name really doesn't mean anything. It's rather high profile, but…"
"The name Prentiss?
"Hotch, they weren't here for it. Addy is Lila Archer's sister-Jane Archer." Morgan leaned back against his chair. "This will send Reid into a nose dive."
"Derek, this is Lila Archer we're talking about. She lives in LA doing TV shows. This of all things should be the least aggressive thing on Reid's mind right now."
"It will be. We're not telling him." Three sets of eyes focused on Hotchner. "Morgan, fill Prentiss and Rossi in on the Archer case. I have to be somewhere." They all watched him leave until Rossi spoke up.
"We are talking about the actress, aren't we? What could she have to do with Reid?"
--
Blowing out small spirals of condensation into the air, Aaron Hotchner waited before the doors of the building beneath a hundred feet of concrete in the middle of a no parking zone, and the only other sign of life was three feet away growing from the corner of a parking spot spotted with moisture. The parking spots around him were scattered with black cars and SUVs while one convertible sat idly at the end of a row of Explorers. He glanced at his watch. Somewhere below him the wheels of a car spun against the concrete.
Jason Gideon had barely left the car before he'd pulled Hotchner towards the building with only three words.
"Tell me everything."
-TBC-
So, I wanted to post soon, but I can't get it all down so this is just here to hopefully tide you over (if anyone still reads this since I don't update for millennia). I'm sorry. Review and tell me things?
