CHAPTER 38

"In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers."
-Fred Rogers

Thump thump. I checked the alarm clock. It was 7:01am.
"FUCK."
"Are you ok?" Emily called. She stood behind my door, waiting for me to come out.
"I didn't hear my alarm. Sorry. Give me 5 minutes." I yelled and ran in the bathroom.
"I'll be waiting in the lobby." She sang with a laugh.
I hastily brushed my teeth, washed my face, put some make up on, stormed back in the room and threw the first clothes on I could find. I stuffed everything that was left in the room in my bag.
"Where are my shoes?" I looked down at the socks on my feet.
Will stuck one hand out under the blankets, blindly searched for something next to the bed and then threw a shoe at me without looking. I caught it.
"Now who's not a morning person?" I reproached him.
"It's the middle of the night." He grunted in his pillow.
I checked the clock. It was already 7 past 7. I was about to leave the room when he called back.
"Hey."
I turned around.
"You better find that guy quickly 'cause I don't think the cleaning lady will be happy if she finds me in here."
"Guess you gotta find another place to hide, then, detective."
"Damn, I seduced my suspect instead of arresting her." He hit his hand on the mattress.
"I'll call you as soon as I know anything." I said casually and opened the door.
"I don't think I can make it out of bed without a kiss." He whined.
I debated it for a second, then walked across the room and leaned down to quickly kiss him. When I wanted to pull away after a second, he placed his hand on the back of my head and made it last a little longer.
"I have to go." I urged. He let go.

"I'm so sorry. They must have forgotten my wake-up-call." I apologized to the team and peeked over to the reception but the woman didn't hear me. I remembered the wake up call, I had picked it up and hung up again in one movement, too tired to think of the possibility that I might actually have to get up.
"No problem, Reid just arrived, too." Emily said.
When the team was complete, we got in the car and drove to the station.

I was of not much use for them; they thought, Garcia typed and I kind of just tried to stay away from their coffee, which smelled terrible to me, yet I really really wanted to drink it. Ugh.
They had a name by late afternoon and were on their way a minute later, leaving me alone at the station, to fill out the paperwork that was left and indirectly to clean up.
'We probably got him. I'm just waiting for them to come back and then I'm free to go.' I texted Will while gathering our stuff.

15 or so minutes later, he stood in the doorway of the office they'd given us. I dropped the files I was holding.
"You have to stop doing that." I said startled.
"I'm sorry, it's just so much fun to surprise you." He kneed down to pick them up again.
"I hate surprises." I reminded him for the thirtieth time.
"I know, but you love them if they're me." He said with a grin.
"Maybe." I muttered, taking the files from him and putting in a box on the table so the police officer wouldn't have to do it. "So what, your badge just gets you in everywhere?" I walked over to where he was standing, keeping a safe distance between us.
"It does, actually. Jealous?"
I checked if nobody was looking but they all stared at us. "Ha ha."
"Aren't you glad that a detective from New Orleans is consulting the FBI?" He said innocently.
"Nice one." I winked at him. "Please, take a seat." I offered him professionally.
"Thank you, agent." He said loudly, sitting down, and everyone immediately kind of lost interest in us. "When do you think they'll be back?" He leaned back in the seat. I sat down on the opposite side of the conference table.
"It's only a couple of blocks away, they should be here any minute if everything went alright."
"And you still have to be here, because...?"
"...We're never 100% certain that it's the right guy and if it's not, we have to rethink the profile."
"Well in that case, fingers crossed!"
"What did the receptionist say when you left this morning?" I changed the topic.
"I kind of turned my head away from her and prayed she wouldn't recognize me and then noticed that it was a different one." He laughed.
"Did she?"
"Nope, or if she did, she didn't say anything. But I had to sneak in the guest bathroom again because my toothbrush had been in the car and the new lady at the desk did not like that."
I imagined it and laughed, maybe a little too loud, cause I saw the people turning away from the monitors again to see where the noise was coming from. I looked down sheepishly.

"Umm..." When I looked up again, Emily stood in the door with her eyebrows raised.
"It's not what it looks like." I got up.
"Really? 'Cause it looks like he drove 8 hours-
"6 and a half" Will and I said at exactly the same moment.
"-to keep you company while waiting for us for like 20 minutes." Emily went on, laughing. "Or-" she said excitedly "-you're very unprofessional and he's the reason you overslept this morning."
"I don't like any of my options." I placed the box in her hands. "Tell Hotch that I'm not coming with you, I'll be at work like usual on my Monday. Say that I'm visiting an aunt or something."
"I will. Have fun, you two." She waved goodbye, so did Will.
"I'm going to hell for this." I sighed.
"For taking a weekend off?"
"Yes." He knew that's not what I meant.
"I'm sure about that." He took my hand. I backed away from his touch.
"You'll never see those people again, does it really matter?"
I looked through the glass wall, the team had already left the lobby, I noticed a cop leading the unsub to an interrogation room.
"Yes." I said but got on my tiptoes to kiss him anyway.
"Now, let's visit the world's largest cowboy boots. Shall we." He said, took my bag and walked to his car.

Texas is hot, even in march. So we just did some sightseeing, enjoyed the sun and went to a nice restaurant for dinner.
"To you." Will raised his glass over spareribs and sweet potatoes.
"To you." I said and clinked my glass with his.
"We are definitely not going to stay at the same hotel as last night." Will laughed.
"If you show your badge, we can sleep anywhere." I joined his laughter.
"And if you show your badge, they'll let us stay there for free." More laughter.

My flight left early the next afternoon. After sleeping through almost the entire night, there was only time for a late breakfast/ early lunch until I had to go.
"Beware." I said when he walked me to the gate. "I might show up at your office this week."
"In opposite to you, I'm not hiding anyone. I'm sure everyone at the station would be delighted to see you." He wrapped his arms around my waist. "Besides, we both know that you won't." He smiled but there was the slightest bit disappointment in his eyes...