Making Sense of It All
The spirits of the team were solemn as the plane cut through the clouds in the night sky over Texas. Each of the team members seemed to be lost in their own thoughts after what had happened to Sheriff Ruiz. "Poor Sheriff Ruiz," JJ said, "she was such a good cop, left New York for quiet and look what she got?"
"We all know when we put on the shield that it could someday be us," Emily sighed from the seat across from JJ.
"You're right," JJ said as she looked out the window once again. There but for the grace of God go I. I've got to get this off my mind before I get back to Quantico she told herself. She couldn't take thoughts like that home to Henry. "How's your ear?" she asked Emily, trying to think of anything but their fallen sister in arms, while Reid maneuvered down the aisle carefully, lest he spill a drop of his precious coffee.
Prentiss turned from the window and her study of the clouds. "It feels a little better but it still hurts."
"That's because the auditory pain threshold is 130 decibels. An automatic weapon being fired, especially in the confines of a vehicle would be much more than that," Reid explained as he sat down in the seat across the aisle from them.
"Thank you Mr. Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Senses but Were Afraid to Ask. JJ," Emily said sarcastically, "did you know that smell is the weakest sense and if you just calmly breathe in the odor of decomposing flesh and blood it'll all disappear. I swear, I could taste it!"
"It's because the sense of smell affects the sense of taste. Taste is 75% smell. The brain interprets signals from the nose and tongue," their resident genius replied while blowing on his coffee. "That's the reason things don't taste as good when you've got a cold and your nose is blocked. It probably affected you more than Morgan and me because women generally have more taste buds than men."
"Aargh, I give up," Emily said and turned her head back towards the window.
JJ saw Reid open the book he'd brought with him. The title had made absolutely no sense to her; she could only imagine about the contents, probably something for his philosophy degree she supposed. She gave Emily a small kick under the table. Her teammate looked up. "Do you think," JJ whispered, "that he ever read," she flicked her thumb at Reid, "you know, the original Everything You Always Wanted to…?"
"Oh, I'm sure he did," Emily replied. "I'm sure he's quite educated in that regard, I mean bookwise." She paused for a moment. "After all he knew about the pear of anguish."
"The pear…what?" JJ looked confused.
Emily closed her eyes and shivered. "Never mind, I still have nightmares."
"I was just thinking," JJ leaned forward conspiratorially. "You said Reid told you that smell was the weakest sense. I think I know a way to test that theory."
Prentiss raised her eyebrows.
"I'll get Reid over for dinner. You're invited too if you want. It's about time Reid had some quality time to bond with his godson… and over what better than a loaded diaper."