A/n thanks very much to everyone who reads these vignettes and reviews them. I appreciate all your kind feedback.
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is intended with this posting.
Garcia to the rescue!
Reid dropped into the big armchair that sat in one corner of his apartment. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with one long-fingered hand and breathed out explosively. This was not happening! He knew who to blame for all of this. It was Morgan's fault. He shouldn't have listened to his new ex-friend!
He looked at the offending objects that sat against one white painted wall of the room. They were black and harmless looking, but he knew what they really were. They were a tool of the devil! It was supposed to be so simple to set up. Morgan had promised him it would be. He'd said very convincingly that Reid would love the new stuff. He said it would work much better than the old unit. Reid had believed him, why, because obviously he was stupid!
Ok… so he thought he could handle this on his own. He'd read the material and memorized it. It should be easy for him to do. He was a genius, for God's sake. He had to be able to do this. If he couldn't do this simple task… well he'd have to admit it to Morgan, and that was not going to happen in this century.
Yeah… this from a man who beat Gideon at chess exactly one time! Ever!
There was no way on earth this could be as complicated as chess. If that were true, no one would get this right. He decided to get up out of the chair and try again. His mother always said in her more lucid moments that if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Yeah right! He'd already tried multiple times and with every combination of wires and plugs imaginable. How did other people do this, how did they figure it out. Who knew that in order to set up this stuff you needed an advanced degree in reading instructions written in five languages. No one told him that when he was in school! He was about to pack everything up and toss it in the trash when his phone rang.
"What," He nearly shouted into the phone!
"Temper… temper… my gorgeous genius." Garcia said very cheerfully in his ear.
Great… just what he needed, his best friend prying his distress out of him like a carpenter ripping bent nails out of a two by four. Morgan's disdain would be nothing compared to Garcia's opinion of him once she found out what stymied him this time.
"Are you there, sweet thing?"
"Yes…"
"Okay… what's with the monosyllabic answers, oh brilliant one!"
"Garcia… can you just let it go. Call me in a couple of hours when I've taken care of something very important."
He was fantasizing about finding a hammer and…
"I don't like that tone mister. Where is my mild mannered behavioral analyst?"
"He moved to Borneo, married a native girl and had ten kids. He's happy and he's never coming back."
"Wow… that's the second time since I've known you that you made a decent joke."
"I'm not joking!"
"Right… ok… what's going on and don't lie to me. I know all and see all, sweet cheeks."
He heaved a very big sigh, and spilled it all as fast as he could. She was right, lying to her would be useless, she always knew. It was so damn annoying and wonderful at the same time.
"Hang on to your grey matter sugar. I'll be right there."
"You don't have to come over here." He protested with his fingers crossed behind his back. She could fix his problem, but what would she want in return. The thought made him shudder.
"Now sweetheart I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." She hung up on him and he slumped back in his chair. He'd just have to suck it up and let her help him. Maybe he had something with chocolate in the apartment to bribe her silence with. Wait… the chocolate was his… why should he give it up?
He went back to the task at hand and was sitting forlornly in front of his project when Garcia walked in without knocking.
"Don't say it!" He warned her when he saw the big smile on her face, and the way she was looking at the problem in front of him.
"I'm not saying anything sugar. I was just thinking you should have called me hours ago honey pie."
"You make it sound like you have no faith in my mechanical abilities." He protested.
She only clucked her tongue, dropped her bag on the couch and cracked her knuckles, before setting to work. He was a little frightened at the look on her face as she confronted the mess he'd made. He decided to get the hell out of the room.
When she called out to him less then ten minutes later and he went back to his living room, his face got hot. This was not possible. She'd put together what he'd been trying to do for hours in less then ten minutes! Oh this was so humiliating! He might as well just change his name and go live in a rain forest somewhere with a head shrinking tribe of natives. They could shrink his big brain down, he obviously didn't need it now that Garcia had proved how useless all that intellect is.
"Don't go all red-faced and puppy dog-eyed on me. It's cute in the office, but really, you should have been able to do this yourself."
"Why… because I'm a genius?"
"Yes… because you're a genius!"
"Well obviously not. How was I supposed to know that putting a new entertainment center together was going to be so difficult?"
"It wasn't that hard sweet thing. I've got it all set up for you, and you have all the cable channels now." She winked at him.
"I don't pay for all the channels, how did you…" He decided it didn't matter." He crossed his arms and stared her down.
"Ok… alright… I'll change it back to your old line-up. You're a real drag Spencer Reid."
"No… I'm a federal agent. How would it look if I were pirating cable?" He left for the kitchen again and didn't see her stick her tongue out at him.
He'd just finished making a pot of coffee when she called him back again. He took two mugs into the living room, and sat down on the ugly beige carpet that could be found in most apartments.
"You're all set with your old channels." She said with a sniff.
"Hey… I have all I need, the Sci-fi channel, the History channel, the Discovery Channel-"
She reached over and covered his mouth with one hand ending in nails painted dark red. "Yeah… I got it ok! Now let's discuss your payment for my services rendered!"
