December 13th - Hats Off to You

Garcia groaned, she was already bored out of her mind and it wasn't even noon yet... She never thought she'd wish that the team would get a case; at least then, she'd have something to do. But, seeing as there had been a major snowfall the previous day, the flight authority wasn't letting any planes take off, so they were stuck in Quantico for another day or two at least.

Which was nice, having her friends around for a few days, but it made for major boredom...

As she stood outside the break room, waiting for her tea to steep, she realized something. Everyone on the team had worn a Santa hat that day. Even Hotch. Which she suspected was due wholly to the coercion of others, but still...

She smiled. That gave her an idea... Something that might make this day at least a little less boring.

She quickly found a piece of paper and wrote down instructions. Then, she very casually dropped the piece of paper onto Emily's desk as she passed. She watched as Emily read the instructions, then looked up to give her a questioning look.

Do NOT be the last one still wearing your hat...
You must keep yours on until I take mine off.
When mine is gone, so should yours be.
Loser buys coffee.
Pass this on until everyone knows.

Game on.

Garcia just gave her a slight nod, looking deadly serious. Emily nodded back, mirroring her expression. Then, adjusting her hat, she passed the note on to Morgan who looked confused until Emily said something and they both turned around to look at Garcia. Then, it must have clicked.

Quite pleased with herself, she returned to her office to wait until everyone forgot they were playing the game.

******

JJ knocked on Hotch's office door, smiling to herself as she reread the note in her hands. Garcia sure knew how to make a day interesting.

"Come in," Hotch called.

Entering the office, she found that he was currently in the midst of a conversation with a rather displeased Strauss. "Oh, you're busy, I'll come back later..."

He shot her a 'please, save me' glance and said, "No, it's fine." Strauss though, it seemed, begged to differ; but she remained silent. "What is it?"

"Important memo," she replied, passing him the note.

She struggled not to burst into laughter as she watched him read it, his expression changing from curiosity to questioning to confusion. He finished reading and looked up at her, clearly asking for an explanation.

"Garcia, Sir," she answered his unasked question.

His expression immediately became one of total understanding and again she fought the urge to laugh.

As she left his office, she turned at the door and said, "Good luck..." But left it hanging as to whether she meant in the game or with Strauss, who was left confused at the whole exchange.

******

Garcia knew that the others had finally stopped paying attention to the game when they no longer dropped by her office every few minutes, making up some excuse as to why there were there, despite the fact that she knew that they were trying to get a head-start on the game.

Now though, there had been a good forty-five minute gap since the last time anyone had 'dropped by', so she was pretty certain that they had all forgotten.

But, just to be certain, she decided to test the waters. Returning to the bullpen to get another cup of tea, she watched closely to see if anyone would even take notice of her presence at first. It seemed though that they were absorbed in their work and she received no more than a scant precursory glance.

She smiled happily. Game on, indeed.

******

They all were eating a late lunch in the conference room, of course discussing various consults. Having nothing better to do, Garcia had joined them. And, realizing they were satisfactorily preoccupied, she surreptitiously pulled off her Santa hat and smoothed down what she was sure to be a bad case of hat-hair.

She almost gave herself away by laughing as a good fifteen minutes or so passed before anyone even seemed to notice.

Then, Hotch glanced up at her, but made no move to remove his own hat. She wondered if he was even playing. But sure enough, a minute or two later, his own hat came off as he scrawled notes in his file.

He quickly looked up to meet her eyes and fought a smile. She shook her head; he was a sneaky son of a...

Emily and JJ were next to realize, though they were considerably less subtle about it than Hotch had been. Emily then elbowed Morgan in the ribs, seeing as he was deeply absorbed in his notes. He looked up, seeming annoyed, until he realized what was going on.

That left only Reid and Rossi. And nearly a half hour passed and it seemed that neither was about to notice. It might have gone on for several more hours except for the fact that the others began snickering to themselves at their cluelessness.

Finally, Rossi looked up to take a bite of his meal. Hearing all the quiet giggles, he was about to ask what was so funny, when it hit him.

At the same moment, Reid looked up and began what was sure to be a rather long-winded monologue.

Not wanting to be the loser, Rossi quickly pulled off his hat, throwing himself off balance slightly, nearly sending himself toppling to the floor from where he was leaning back in his chair.

That sent them all into full-blown gales of laughter as he coughed, having choked on his food a little when he almost fell over.

Reid stopped his rambling. "What? What's so funny?" Looking at each of the others in turn, quizzical, it took him several more moments before he understood. "Oh..."

"Again, again!" JJ clapped happily, "Let's play again!"

"This time I get to start!" Reid quickly cut in, not wanting to lose again.

"Starting now!" Garcia said as they all quickly pulled their hats back on again. They all wore broad grins, but their gazes were challenging and determined not to be the loser this time around.

It was funny how the smallest gestures seemed to make the biggest difference, the best memories.

A/N: I know... This one was kinda (really) lame. But trust me, you have no idea how stressful it is trying to come up with 25 GOOD ideas... I was kinda grasping at straws by the time I got through the standard Christmas activities. So, a big thank you to everyone who made suggestions, believe me, they really were helpful!