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A/n hello all... Here's the next chapter. Thanks once again to all my wonderful readers. You guys are the best.

Force of Nature

Reid stretched his legs out on his couch and crossed them at the ankles. He had a new book to read from the library and an afternoon off to enjoy it.

A meow pulled his attention from the book to the floor beside the couch and in front of his old wooden coffee table. Sergio sat there looking up at him with his tail swishing back and forth.

"Hey Sergio…" He greeted the cat.

Sergio leaped up on Reid's outstretched legs and walked up his body to his chest.

"No treats for you," Reid scolded. "I already gave you one this morning. It's very important that you get the right amount of calories for your breed, size, and level of exercise."

Sergio batted a paw at Reid's right hand and softly hissed.

"You don't scare me. I know for a fact that cats are the only domestic animal that domesticated themselves." He told the cat smugly. "That means that you came to us, not the other way around."

Sergio just stared at him with his cat green eyes.

"Garcia always tells me that my puppy eyes won't get me anything. I say the same thing about your cat eyes."

Sergio closed said cat eyes under the influence of Reid's scratching fingers. "See… I know exactly how to get in your good graces."

Sergio began to purr as Reid stroked down his back to the base of his tail. "I read an article that said cats like to be stroked near the tail."

Sergio opened his eyes and resumed staring at Reid. "If you think that's going to freak me out, you've got another thought coming."

The cat stretched out his legs and his claws.

"I told you… Showing your claws doesn't scare me."

Sergio stayed still, didn't look at Reid and after awhile fell asleep. Reid resumed reading his book as a pleasant and rare hour of rest passed in blessed silence and without the pain of a headache. In fact, since taking possession of Sergio, his headaches had decreased in frequency.

His cell phone rang just as he began another book. Sergio jerked awake at the buzzing of the phone and leaped down off his chest.

"Yeah Hotch… Alright, I'm on my way."

"Well Sergio," he sighed as he reached for his shoes. "It's off to visit with Garcia for you. I have a case at work."

He tied his Converse shoes and stood up. His go bag was already repacked and waiting near the door with his messenger bag. He just had to grab Sergio's toys and they were off.


Garcia unlocked the door to her apartment with one hand while balancing a couple of shopping bags on her arm. Reid followed her inside with two other bags in his arms. He followed her to the kitchen and gratefully relinquished his burden.

"I don't understand why we had to get so much food." Reid complained.

Sergio ran up to them meowing in a distinctly put out way.

"Okay… Hold your horses." Garcia said as she put down her purse and her shopping bags. "You're impatient today."

She gave the cat some food, which the hungry feline fell on as if it was the last time he'd ever eat in his nine lives.

"That cat is such a drama queen."

Garcia turned to take a loaf of bread from her shopping bag and stopped in her tracks. "What the hell did you do Serge?"

Her tone surprised Reid, as he'd never heard her talk to anyone, much less the cat that way. "What's wrong?"

"Look?"

She pointed at the counter top that he knew was supposed to hold a line of dancing hula girls. They were gone. He noticed that some of them had been knocked onto the tile floor of the kitchen. Garcia plucked one out of the sink.

"I'm sorry Garcia. Are they damaged?"

He crouched down to retrieve the knick-knacks, including one that seemed out of place with the rest of the colorful accessories in his best friend's apartment. It was a china figurine of woman in an old-fashioned floor length gown with petticoats peeking from beneath her skirts. She wore a bonnet and had blond ringlets hanging down from under the pink and white bonnet.

"Oh…" Garcia snatched the figurine out of Reid's hands. "Is she okay? Bad kitty!"

She took the figurine to the living area, sat down on the couch and began carefully to inspect it.

"Um... Garcia." Reid squeaked. "I'm sorry… Is it okay?"

Garcia looked up to see him looking like she might scream at him at any second. "I'm sorry baby cakes. My mother gave this to me six months before she died. It belonged to my grandmother. My grandfather gave it to her for a wedding gift. It belonged to his mother before that when she lived in England before she and my great grandfather emigrated here.

Reid joined her on the couch, forgetting about all the food they brought and the fact that Garcia still hadn't told him why. "May I see it?"

"Of course."

She watched him turn it over in his long fingers. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah… I loved it when I was a kid. It always sat up on the hearth over the fireplace. Once, when I was a teenager I was dusting and knocked it off the hearth."

She showed him a tiny chip in one of the pink china ribbons that adorned the dress. "Mom didn't get angry at me for being careless. She just sat me down and told me the story of how my great grandmother brought it safely to America on a journey by boat. I felt so bad after hearing the story, that I wouldn't go anywhere near it for two years. My mother finally gave it to me as a gift and well… Here I go freaking out about it getting knocked over again."

She got up and put the china figurine and the hula dancers back on the ledge of the counter near the sink.

"I really am sorry. I try to keep him from jumping up on counters, but he doesn't listen to me."

Garcia began unloading food again. "Don't worry about it sweet cheeks. I'm just tired and irritable."

"I know what you mean. The case was…" He trailed off and decided to help her unpack instead of just sitting there.

"Yes it was," Garcia agreed. "I hope I never have to see anything like that again."

"Unfortunately, there's a seven hundred and twenty nine percent chance we'll see that type of crime at least once more."

She hit him in the arm with a bag full of celery. "Thanks for the happy statistics Reid."

"Sorry…"

"Don't apologize for being you Dr Reid. I just wish that you were wrong once in awhile."

"So do I," he admitted as Sergio ran between his legs and into the living area.

The cat jumped up onto one of the arms of the couch then up on top of the back to lay there and stare at them as they worked.

"Well at least Sergio is happy." Garcia said.

"I found him sitting staring at the door again, the other morning." Reid said.

"It's going to take time for him to get used to his new home. You said he was warming up to you."

"He is… but there's times he acts like he's just humoring me until Emily comes back. I know that logically that can't be right, but it feels like it."

Garcia put away her shopping bags and turned to look him hard in the eyes. "I think you're right and logic has nothing to do with it. Cats know things."

"So you think that he knows something we don't know." Reid said with much disbelief she could see. "What do you think he knows, that Emily's still alive, living under another name and getting ready for a final show down with Doyle?"

"No… That's crazy." Garcia said. "Even if I wanted it to be true so bad it hurts - how would she pull that off?"

"I'm trying to be sarcastic." Reid said. "You all think I'm too literal."

"You are too literal, but thanks for making the effort."

"Are you going to tell me why you bought enough food for the army?" Reid asked after a long silence that wasn't very comfortable.

"I told you that you'd have to wait and see."

"Please tell me." He pleaded.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're trying to get something with those puppy eyes again and it won't work this time."

"Please!"

Sergio jumped down and crawled into Garcia's lap when they sat down. He meowed up at her. "Getting your cat to gang up on me won't help."

"He's not ganging up on you with me. That's silly."

She observed him carefully as the cat batted at her hand. "I don't know… I think anything is possible when it comes to his eyes and your eyes together."

Reid stared open mouthed at her until she began to laugh. "I'm kidding."

He pouted as Sergio climbed off Garcia's lap and into his lap instead.

"Are you going to tell me?" He persisted.

"I told you all in good time. Just keep this Saturday open."

"Why?"

She narrowed here eyes at him as he petted the cat near the base of his tail so that the cat began to purr.

"If I tell you why, it'll give away the surprise."

"Fine… I give up. I'm going now." He began to rise from his seat with Sergio in his arms."

"Don't go away mad sweet cheeks." She patted the couch. "I know you're hungry. Let me make you my famous three cheese lasagna."

"No!" He squeaked. "It's too much work."

"Sit down and relax." She ordered. "I promise you won't be sorry."

He sat down with the cat firmly in his arms because arguing with Garcia wouldn't do him any good. "She's a force of nature." He whispered to the cat.

"I heard that!"