Once again the jet carrying the profilers of the BAU took to skies. It was almost five o'clock before the doctor had released Reid, despite the young man's continuous attempts to leave all day. The team of profilers had gone straight from the hospital to the airport, Nichols having packed Reid's things at the hotel. Though they had arrived in Alabama separately, they were leaving together. ~Maybe more together than we were before coming down here,~ Gideon thought, as he watched most of his agents engage in a game of poker from where he sat, opposite of Hotch. The paperwork in front of him was all but forgotten as he watched the four of them interact.
At the big table, Nichols and Morgan had taken the seats near the window. Next to Nichols, in the seats facing where Gideon was seated, was Reid, his sprained ankle propped up in the seat across the table from him. The crutches were on the floor next to the seat. At the end of the bench seat, Hudson sat on the edge as he participated in the game with the others.
"I call," Hudson said, pushing three blue chips into the pile. He was the only one to meet the last raise that the young genius has made.
The betting done, Reid put down his hand. "Full House - Aces over fives."
"Dammit!" Hudson said, as he put down his own hand that consisted of five diamonds.
"I told you he was good," Morgan said, as Reid pulled the pile of chips toward him, being the only one that had played the game against the young genius.
"I think he's stacking the deck," Hudson said jokingly as he gathered up the cards to shuffle them for the next hand, getting smiles from both Nichols and Morgan.
"I didn't even deal the last hand," Reid said, defensively. The fact that he hadn't picked up on the joke, caused Nichols and Morgan's smiles to change to laughter.
Reid looked at his teammates, his expression one of confusion. "What did I miss?" he asked, innocently.
"Don't worry about it, Junior," Nichols said, as he placed his chips for the ante in the middle of the table.
Reid looked at each of his teammates in turn. It was clear to him that he hadn't picked up on something, but he had no clue as to what. Along with Hudson and Morgan, he added chips to the pot, contemplating whether or not he should press for an answer. Deciding not to risk seeming more clueless than he already did, Reid decided to let it go for now as Nichols had suggested. Perhaps he could get the computer specialist to explain later in the privacy of his office back in Quantico.
Looking at the cards he was dealt, Reid debated on what to do. Deciding that he had something to work with, he placed a bet. The other three all called.
"How many?" Hudson said, placing his hand face down on the table and picking up the deck.
"Two," Reid said, selecting two cards from his hand and discarding them.
"I'll take three," Nichols said, tossing three cards face down on the table.
"I'm good," Morgan replied calmly.
"Trying to make us think you have a good hand over there, huh?" Hudson accused, as he picked up his own hand and chose the cards he planned on discarding.
Morgan shrugged his shoulders, his face remaining passive.
"Dealer is going to take two," Hudson said, discarding two cards onto the table and drawing tow cards from the pile.
Starting the second round of betting, Reid put chips into the pile. On his turn, Nichols folded. Morgan raised the bet. After a brief pause, Hudson called. Reid didn't hesitate in raising Morgan again.
"I raise," Morgan said, pushing the appropriate amount of chips toward the pot.
Hudson glanced over at Nichols who simply shrugged his shoulders. "I'm going to let the two of you duke it out," Hudson replied, pushing his cards together and dropping the cards face down on the table.
Reid calmly raised the bet again, and all eyes at the table fell to Morgan. The dark-skinned agent glanced down at his cards and then calmly looked back across the table at Reid.
"Somebody glance at his cards for me," Morgan said.
Nichols was busy with something on his cell phone and made no comment to the playful request. Playing along, Hudson shifted in his seat as if to take a peak at the younger man's cards.
"Hey," Reid said, pulling his hand in closer against his body.
"Sorry, man, I tried. However, I'm not going to be responsible for putting more bruises on him."
Morgan smiled at his friend's comment, playing with one stack of chips as he contemplated what to do. In his seat, Reid kept his hand protectively close to him, casting wary glances at Hudson despite the last remark he had made.
"I call," Morgan finally said, placing enough chips in the pot to meet Reid's last raise. "What do you have?"
"Three kings," Reid replied laying his hand down on the table.
"Dammit," Morgan exclaimed, dropping his own hand on the table, which consisted of three queens.
"We need to take this guy to Atlantic City with us. Bet we could clean up at the card tables," Hudson commented as he put the cards together into one pile as Reid gathered the chips.
"As long as we can convince everyone that he's older than twenty-one," Morgan kidded.
Reid felt the color rise in his cheeks as he took the deck of cards from Hudson. He began shuffling as Morgan glanced over at Nichols.
"What's so interesting over there, Nichols?" Morgan asked.
"A video file, Vanessa sent me. Evan is planning on being a magician in a talent show his class is doing. I bought him some easy magic tricks for Christmas and he's been working on them ever since. Vanessa recorded one of the practice attempts," Nichols said, turning the volume up on his phone and holding it so that his co-workers could watch the video.
On the screen, Nichols' seven-year-old son held a pair of inter-locking rings in his hands. Quite seriously, the boy explained the trick, said the magic words, and then attempted to move the rings apart. Unfortunately, the rings remained interlocked, despite several more attempts.
"Looks like he needs some more practice there," Morgan commented.
"Yeah," Nichols said, turning the phone to face him again and closing out of the video. "Evan's also having issues with the trick where you have three cups, hide a ball under one and then the magician mixes them up, and has someone pick the cup with the ball under it. Evan hasn't mastered the trick of mixing the cups without the ball getting away. He does seem to be enjoying the wand that does five tricks though. Of course, his old man isn't much help to him. Magic never was my forte."
"I could help him," Reid offered as he shuffled the deck of cards.
"You can do magic?" Hudson asked.
"You're surprised?" Morgan asked, before Reid had a chance to answer. "He's probably got a Ph.D. in that, too. He's Google in a sweater vest."
Reid glanced down at his clothes and then around the table at his teammates. Nichols had his hand in front of his face, politely trying to hide his amusement. Morgan was wearing a huge smile at his joke. Hudson, despite the smile, still looked skeptical.
"Let's see something then," Hudson told him.
"Okay," Reid said, shuffling the cards one more time, and then fanning them out. He held the deck face down to Hudson. "Pick a card and don't let me see it," he instructed.
Hudson chose a card. It was the queen of clubs. Being careful to not let Reid see what card it was, he showed the card to Morgan and Nichols.
Reid shifted the rest of the cards to one hand and then let them spread out. "Go ahead and place the card somewhere in the deck," the young genius instructed. He waited for Hudson to do as instructed and then shuffled the deck. He then placed the cards face down onto the table. "Split the deck in half."
Hudson did as instructed. Reid then moved the lower half of the deck off to the side. Reid had the other profiler cut the deck twice more.
"Now how many cards are left?"
Hudson picked up the remaining cards and quickly counted them. "Twelve," he replied, placing the cards in a neat pile on the table once again.
"Now pick five." Reid instructed.
Hudson picked five cards out and then looked at Reid. Reid reached out and removed the rest of the cards.
"Now from those five, pick two." He waited for Hudson to comply. "Throw them away. Of the remaining three, pick one."
Hudson picked another card from the three he had left.
"Discard it," Reid instructing, pausing as the other agent did so. "Pick another one."
Hudson picked up one of the two remaining cards. Reid reached out and flipped the remaining card over on the table. "There's your card," Reid said as the queen of clubs appeared.
"How did you do that?" Hudson asked, sounding impressed.
"A magician never reveals his secrets."
"Okay, wise-guy, let's see you do it a second time."
Reid shrugged his shoulders slightly as he gathered up the cards. "Someone else want to pick this time?" he asked, as he started to fan out the cards.
"Sure, I'm game," Morgan said, and the card trick started again.
BAU, Four days later . . .
Morgan and Nichols walked onto the sixth floor, having just returned from helping the D.C. police out with profiling a crime scene. The detective in charge had asked for the BAU's input on the case and then had insisted they could handle it from there. Morgan had told him to contact them if the needed any more help.
As he headed for his desk, Morgan took notice of who had found their way into Gideon's office. Section Chief Erin Strauss sat across the desk from Gideon. Hotch had also joined the two. From the looks that all three of them wore, Morgan knew it wasn't a simple social call taking place within the office.
"Ahh, here is comes. One suspension coming up," Morgan commented, as the two of them walked toward Morgan's desk.
Nichols followed Morgan's gaze to the office. "Guess she's finished looking over all the reports. I'm sure you're overreacting though. No one is going to get suspended."
"Suspended for what?" Hudson asked, looking up from his computer as Morgan reached his desk.
"Because of what happened down in Alabama," Nichols supplied.
"Nichols is right. You're not going to get suspended," Hudson told his friend, as Morgan sat down at his desk.
"Why not? I'd suspend me. I was told to keep an eye on Reid, and not only didn't I do that, but the UnSub captured him because of that, and he got injured in the process."
"You couldn't have known Reid was in any danger at the vehicle. As for the injuries, they were all minor. He's not even on the crutches anymore," Hudson said, with a wave in Reid's direction, who was at his desk working.
The sprained ankle had healed and the bruises were starting to heal, though the right side of the young doctor's face was still a myriad of colors. At the sound of his name, the genius had looked up.
"If I had done my job, he wouldn't have been on crutches at all."
"It wasn't your fault, Morgan" Reid told his co-worker.
"They don't need to discipline you. You're doing a bang up job at beating yourself up over this all by yourself," Hudson commented.
"How long have they been in there?" Morgan asked.
"About a half hour now," Reid supplied, a worried expression on his face. "I sure hope they don't get into too much trouble on account of me. Any of you," he added, his gaze drifting to Morgan.
"The two of you are exactly alike," Hudson said, looking from Reid to Morgan as he spoke. "You're blaming yourself for things that you had no control over. Now granted, leaving you," he shifted his gaze back to Reid, "wasn't exactly the best thing we could have done but there was no indication that you were in danger there. There was no way any of us could have known the UnSub was in the area. Nor did you exactly go willingly with the UnSub, so quit blaming yourself for that. What happened down in Alabama was unfortunate. I think all three of us have learned that we need to be more careful while out on a case, but no one is to blame for what happened."
"Are you done with the lecture?" Morgan asked.
"For now," Hudson replied. "However, if I hear one more word about whose fault everything was, I can't promise not to go back into lecture mode."
"Yes, Mom," Morgan quipped from his desk, resulting in Hudson ripping a blank piece of paper from a legal pad on his desk, balling it up, and tossing it at his teammate.
Laughing, Morgan leaned down to pick of the paper from the floor. As he straightened up he found himself looking right at the unsmiling face of Section Chief Erin Strauss. The smile on his face melted away. He could see the disapproval in the elder agent's face and Morgan had a feeling that it was from more than just the goofing around she had probably just seen. Strauss' eyes seemed to bore into him, as she walked around the bull pen and headed for the elevators. The feeling that he was going to be suspended came back ten-fold.
"Morgan, Hudson, I'd like to see the both of you," Gideon said.
Morgan let his gaze change from Strauss to his unit chief. Gideon was standing in the doorway of his office, his face unreadable. Hotch had left the unit chief's office and was walking the short distance to his own.
"Looks like it's time for both of us to face the music," Hudson commented, as he and Morgan got to their feet. As he hadn't heard anything from Gideon concerning the events of the last night in Alabama yet, Hudson wasn't surprised to be included. He had known a lecture and, possibly, some kind of write-up was in his future.
The two agents made their way into the office where they found Gideon waiting for them. The senior agent had sat back down behind his desk. As Morgan followed Hudson into the office, Gideon motioned for the dark-skinned agent to close the door.
"Have a seat," Gideon said, motioning to the chairs opposite of him that Strauss and Hotch had occupied not long ago.
The click of the door closing seemed to echo in the two younger agents' minds as Morgan followed Hudson across the office. The two sat silently down across from their superior and waited for him to speak first.
Gideon leveled his gaze at Hudson first. "I thought you should know that Morgan went to bat for you out in Alabama. He claims that what happened was his responsibility and that you were backing him up," the unit chief said calmly, watching his subordinate as he did so. He didn't miss the look that Hudson cast in Morgan's direction. "Somehow, you don't strike me as the type to go along blindly, even when the other agent outranks you. Care to give me your version of events?"
Hudson met Gideon's gaze steadily as he replied to the question. "While I appreciate Morgan sticking up for me, what happened that night wasn't all on him. I realized we broke protocol going into the woods alone instead of waiting until the organized search to begin. While I made a few attempts at persuading him against the action, I probably could have tried harder and if I were to be honest with myself, I probably didn't because deep down I wanted to be out there looking for Reid, instead of standing around doing nothing."
"Despite the fact that you knew it was against protocol?"
"Yes, sir."
"Why?"
"Excuse me?"
"Hudson, everything in your file indicates that you are a stickler for the rules. Everything I've seen since you joined this team, despite your tendency to ruffle feathers while out in the field, has indicated that. Yes, you might bend them a bit to fit your needs at times, we all do, but to flat out go against procedure and put yourself and other agents in danger, that's not like you. So I ask you again, what compelled you to go into the woods in search of Reid and the UnSub without back-up?"
"Because it was my suggestion to leave Reid at the vehicle in the first place," Hudson admitted. From Morgan's groan beside him, he knew that his teammate hadn't provided Gideon with that piece of information yet.
"Somehow, that piece of information doesn't surprise me," Gideon said, as he let his gaze drift from Hudson over to Morgan. "I think that all three of us in this room will agree that your actions in Alabama, while admittedly giving us the best possible outcome to the situation, were reckless and would have been uncalled for if better judgement had been used in the first place."
"Yes, sir," Morgan and Hudson replied in unison.
"I think we can also agree that there has been some unprofessional attitudes and actions, which I have tolerated quite well. I was hoping it would resolve itself without there needing to be any official action taken. Do you both agree with that assessment?" Gideon asked. He received only nods in reply this time. "I still hope it can be resolved without any official action," he continued. Morgan and Hudson exchanged relieved looks. "Consider this your last warning, I will no longer tolerate any intentionally demeaning remarks or actions toward Dr. Reid. I'm not saying you have to like him, or spend free time with him if you don't want to, but treat him with the same courtesy and respect that you show any other member of the bureau. I want to see you both act like the professionals that I know you to be. From this point on, I will handle any transgressions in an official manner. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir," both of them replied once more. Morgan didn't leave it at that, though.
"What about the investigation that was conducted by the department?"
"It's been completed. The two of you were never factors into the investigation because Hotch and I chose to keep you out of it. We didn't feel the need to put everyone's actions under the department's microscope. Ultimately, it was decisions that Hotch and I made that put Reid in the position to be in harm's way. This is a team. A team looks out for its members which is something that I think the two of you need a little more time to learn, but you're getting there."
"Thank-you, sir," Morgan said, followed by Hudson's echo of those words.
"Unless the two of you have anything else you would like to add, that's all for now," Gideon said.
Morgan and Hudson both shook their heads as they got to their feet. Trying not to look too desperate to get out of their boss' office, they left.
"Man do I feel like I dodged a bullet there," Morgan commented quietly as the two headed for the stairs.
"You and me both. Thanks for trying to keep me out of trouble even though it was my suggestion that started the whole mess."
"You would have done the same for me," Morgan said. "Want to grab something to eat tonight? Celebrate not getting suspended."
"Sure," Hudson agreed, following Morgan down the steps and into the bullpen.
The two crossed to their desks. As Hudson sat down at his desk facing Reid, he addressed the younger agent. "Hey Reid, do you have any plans for tonight?"
"No," came the younger man's tentative reply.
"Good. Then you can join Morgan and me for dinner. Maybe we can even convince Nichols to join us."
"Umm . . . I . . ."
"You just said you didn't have any plans, Kid, so there is no reason you can't join us. Just do us a favor and leave the statistics here for the night."
Seeing that there was no way he was going to talk his way out of the arrangement, Reid nodded, feeling a bit trepidatious about the whole arrangement.
Following the meeting with Strauss, Hotch retreated to his own office to allow Gideon to deal with the inter-team discipline. He had no regrets of protecting the two younger members of the team, after all he and Gideon had been responsible for putting them in the position they had found themselves in. He had a feeling that was Gideon's way of thinking too, given that he had taken on the brunt of the responsibility of what had happened to Reid.
~The decision to bring Agent Reid on the case with the team was made by both Agent Hotchner and myself. We felt that it would have been detrimental to his training to leave him behind and felt that he could contribute to the case, which he did. Once that decision was made, all responsibility for Agent Reid was mine and not Agent Hotchner's.~
Those were the words that Gideon had written in his report for the investigation as well as had repeated to Strauss and the other members of the investigation panel. Though Hotch didn't agree completely with that assessment, he hadn't argued with the unit chief. It was important that they presented a united front to the panel.
~I could have insisted that Gideon kept him with him. In fact, I probably should have insisted on that,~ Hotch thought as he settled into his chair.
The verbal warning he had received for his decision to allow Reid to travel with the team, despite his required presence in Seattle, didn't bother him. Hotch felt it was deserved and actually was surprised they hadn't issued a more severe disciplinary action. ~From Strauss' attitude, if it was up to her, it would have been,~ Hotch thought, thinking about the meeting with the section chief. The verbal warning was nothing compared to the Failure to Supervise censure that Gideon had received, something that Hotch knew his friend and boss had anticipated.
Nor was he bothered by Strauss' instructions that Reid not travel with the team unless Hotch was with them for the duration of the young agent's probationary period. That anything Reid was involved in was to be supervised by either him or Gideon. Hotch had no intention of letting Reid out of his sight anytime soon with or without those instructions.
What was bothering him most was the feeling that he had let Reid down. As his probationary agent, it was his responsibility to make sure that Reid finished learning the nuances of this job and that he did so without anyone getting hurt. Mistakes were inevitable. They came with being human. However, making a mistake that resulted in someone getting hurt was unacceptable in Hotch's mind. He intended to do his best to make sure that didn't happen again.