Chapter 53
Spencer Reid sat in front of Morgan on the jet reflecting on the last 2 cases. The team had been so busy, he hadn't had time to ask anyone about his stomach twinges. On the Monday after the play, they had been called to a case of murder/kidnapping, which ended up being a decades long tradition amongst gypsy families. Although the 2 kidnapped girls had survived, they were both now orphans, and apparently, the family that was caught was not the only one in America doing this. The whole team had come away depressed with the outcome. They had then had to immediately fly to their next case, which had involved a man kidnapping then murdering young girls, trying to relive a fantasy about his deceased nanny. This too had been a very depressing case. Now they were on their way back to Quantico, and Reid decided he had better ask Morgan now, before they landed and got swamped with paperwork. Reid tapped Morgan on the knee to get his attention, and Morgan removed his earphones. "Um, Morgan, can I ask you a question?" "Sure kid, what's up" "Uh, well, I have this thing going on with my stomach that I wondered if you might know something about." Morgan started to feel a bit worried; if Reid was talking about something physical going on it must be serious, Reid was usually a pretty private guy. "What's the matter Reid, is it something serious?" Morgan leaned a little closer in so he could keep his voice low. "That's just it, I don't know what it is, and it's driving me crazy trying to figure it out." "Have you been to the doctor?" Morgan was really getting worried now; Reid sick? His 'baby brother?' Morgan felt his own stomach start to churn. "The doctor said he doesn't think it's medical, he said maybe nerves." Morgan calmed down immediately, nerves was okay; and if anyone was going to get stomach trouble from nerves Spencer would definitely be the prime candidate. "What do you want to ask me about then, if you know its nerves?" "It's not nerves. Definitely not nerves. Or hunger." Morgan wondered why Reid had brought up hunger, and decided to try and start the conversation again. "Reid, what you are telling me is, you have pain in your stomach which is not medical, nerves or hunger, right?" "It's not pain, its twinges." "Twinges? What do you mean twinges?" "Like, you know, twinges. Have you ever had them? What causes them?" "Man I have no idea what you're talking about. Twinges? Stomach stuff can be caused by lots of things. What were you doing when you first had one." "Eating cheese sticks." "And the second time?" "Lying in bed", Reid decided not to divulge what had happened next during that twinge. "Well, I don't know kid. Could be like the doctor said, maybe you were nervous. Lots of people have issues with their stomachs when they're nervous." Morgan put his headphones back on and closed his eyes, effectively ending the conversation.
Reid sat back, totally unsatisfied. He knew it wasn't nerves. Reid hadn't had the chance to tell Morgan about the other times, about the last time while he and Rossi were hugging. Reid's brain kicked into gear, and he started to ponder it out, like solving a case. What if the twinges were not caused by just nerves, but by emotions? Every time it had happened he had been happy. He had been remembering a good time, or experiencing something nice when the stomach twinges occurred. Maybe, this was a new physical reaction to positive emotions. So, that would mean he had been looking at them the wrong way, they were a good thing; the more he had, meant the happier he was. Spencer decided to accept this explanation, for now, to relieve his anxiety about them. In the future, he may discover a different reason for his stomach twinges, but he was content to put them down to positive emotions for now. The only thing that still puzzled him was, if they were caused by positive emotions, then why did they only seem to occur because of situations involving David Rossi?
