Second Ending
When Reid awoke, it was mid-morning and he was alone. The bathroom showed signs of Emma's having been there, but her meager supply of toiletries was gone and, when he walked into the living room, he immediately noticed that her pink suitcase was also missing. He then realized that there was a wicker basket sitting on the coffee table, along with a note. Picking it up, he read –
"Good Morning Spencer! You were sleeping so soundly, I didn't have the heart to wake you up.I have an early morning flight, so I'm leaving these for you. Hope you like them!"
Curious, Reid began examining the contents of the basket. They proved to be an assortment of shoelaces designed to fit his Converse sneakers. Some pairs were bright colors while others were decorated with a variety of patterns. Unconsciously, he counted - There were thirteen of the colorful and decorated pairs, and one plain white pair. With a sinking feeling, Reid opened up a second note, which was tied to the handle of the basket. This message was carefully written in studied calligraphy on a piece of Garcia's hand-made pink stationary.
"The traditional gift for a Thirteenth Wedding Anniversary is Lace," he read. "However, since you aren't a lace-type person, I decided to stretch things a bit and got you an assortment of shoe laces." It was signed, 'Your Wife, Emma'.
Reid suddenly felt as if he had been punched in the stomach. Fighting to catch his breath as he sunk down onto his couch, he pulled out his phone to check the screen. Oh Shit! As he suspected, after turning it off the previous afternoon when they were approaching the suspect's location, he had neglected to turn it back on. There on the screen was the reminder Garcia had helped him set up several weeks ago reading '13th Anniversary'. Next there was a message from Garcia – "Did you remember anniversary?" There was also a short message from Rossi – "Anniversary!" And, even JJ had sent him a message – "Thirteenth wedding anniversary!"
Frantically he pushed a well-used button on his phone.
"This had better be good!" Garcia sounded as though he had woken her up. "Or, Reid, I swear I will – "
"Garcia!" He interrupted her. "I need your help – I really messed up this time and I don't know what to do about it!"
"Reid, what's wrong?" Garcia was instantly awake.
"I shut off my phone and I forgot and now she's gone!" Reid blurted out. "I need to – I don't know what."
"I assume you mean Emma's left?" Garcia clarified. "And, you forgot about your anniversary, right? Do you know when she left?" It sounded like Garcia was out of bed and moving about the room.
"I don't know," Reid burbled. "But, I think she's gone back to Vegas and I need to find her!"
"Okay," he could hear Garcia keyboarding. "Do you know what flight she was on?"
"I have no idea," Reid admitted. "She just told me she was coming into town for The Con and I never questioned what arrangements she had made."
"Alright," Garcia was still keyboarding. "From D.C to Vegas, leaving early this morning. Okay, I think I have her. Oh Boy – You're right, she's already left and while she got a really good price on her ticket, she is definitely taking the long way around to get there. Two plane changes, one in Chicago and a second in San Francisco."
"What am I going to do?" Reid wailed. "I need to make this right!"
He could hear Garcia still keyboarding. "How much are you willing to spend?" was her next question.
"Anything!" was the response.
"Okay, here's what you are going to do."
To Be Continued -