Transportation
Rossi stretched his legs out in front of him and into the aisle as he watched Morgan, cup of coffee in hand, saunter towards him, past Hotch, who was dozing on the bench seat. He stopped briefly at the seat where JJ and Prentiss, who sat across from Reid, seemed to have given in to the lure of the sandman while Reid, it appeared from Rossi's vantage point, wasn't asleep, although his eyes were closed. He wore ear buds attached to a discman and appeared to be intent on listening to whatever was being played. Morgan picked up the disc case that lay on the table, interested in what captured the genius mind tonight, and squinted in the dim light of the cabin, the aisle lights providing the only illumination, to see what his friend was listening too. His eyebrows raised, somewhat surprised at what he saw, and he placed the case back on the table before carrying on. "Not tired," he addressed Rossi when he finally arrived at his seat.
"I am," Rossi replied as Morgan set his coffee on the table and sat down. "I just haven't been able to fall asleep. You won't be able to either if you keep drinking that stuff," he inclined his head towards Morgan's steaming brew.
"I know," Morgan looked at the mug in front of him. "But, after some cases you just don't wanna sleep, you know. It's like you'll relive it all over again in your dreams, but it'll somehow be worse, even when you think there's no way it could be."
"Hotch and the girls seem to have found the magic formula," Rossi said. "Reid's still awake. You seemed surprised at what he was listening to."
"I was," Morgan turned his head to look back at his friend, "To Kill a Mockingbird."
"An excellent book," Rossi replied.
"That's just it, it's a book Dave. The kid's probably read it before. He's read just about everything, and if he hasn't, the book would take him, what, five minutes? And it's not like some of us, you know, will reread a book to refresh our memories. Reid's got an eidetic memory so why listen to it on CD?"
Reid sunk a little deeper into his seat, and like this jet that took them from one place to another, he was transported to the intolerant times of depression era Alabama. The soothing voice of Sissy Spacek, as young Scout, told him of her adventures with her brother Jem and their friend Dill through the seasons of their youth, and how they were guided by their strong and wise father, Atticus Finch; how, through those experiences, she had come to understand, as some never do, he thought, that those who were different, weren't always wicked or wrong, and furthermore, that monsters weren't always what we thought they were.
As the reader's voice carried him through the story, it seemed to muddle and mingle in his mind with another voice and he was, yet again, transported to another time. He could hear her read, watch her lips move, and see the pages being turned by beautifully sculptured hands. Those words and those hands had led him through many adventures, lessons and discoveries, about the world, about life, and about himself. He snuggled even deeper into the soft leather as if he somehow felt he was being wrapped in a loving embrace.
Rossi watched him in his seat across from Morgan, "I think he has his reasons," he said.