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A/n my thoughts in writing this are that it takes place around the third season of the show.

Legs

Reid held the icebag to his face and tried not to think about the last six hours. The cold made his eye sting. He wondered how men who fought in boxing rings for a living ever got used to punches to the face.

No one punched you in the face. You were clumsy. If you hadn't been staring –

Morgan sat down and grinned at him. "You're going to have a nice shiner, kid."

"Don't call me, kid."

"Hey," Morgan held up his hands. "I'm teasing you."

"I'm not in the mood."

"I can see that."

Reid studied the morning sky outside the jet with his uninjured eye, then decided that it hurt too much to look at the sunny skies. "Ow," he groaned and put his head back on the seat's headrest.

"I made some hot chocolate," JJ said as she approached the men.

"Hey, that smells great," Morgan reached for one of the steaming cups.

"You want one," JJ asked Reid.

He forced his right eye to look at JJ and his mouth to say, "Yeah, thanks."

He took the cup with his free hand and lifted it to his lips after blowing on it for several seconds. He sipped, recoiled, and said. "Still too hot, but it's good."

JJ smiled and returned to the back of the plane. Reid nodded to her when she passed him again with another steaming mug. She sat down across from him and said. "How's your eye?"

Reid shrugged. "It hurts, but the ice is starting to help."

"I'm glad. What happened, anyway. I wasn't there to see it."

Reid was thrilled that he managed not to blush. "Um, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and I tripped over a chair then hit the edge of a table. I'm lucky I didn't do worse damage."

"Reid! It would help if you stopped trying to look at files and walk at the same time," JJ scolded.

"I'm perfectly capable of multi-tasking. What happened today was an anomaly."

"Well, I think you need to pay more attention to your surroundings."

Reid sipped his cooling chocolate and was grateful when he fell asleep for the rest of the flight home half an hour later.

CMCMCMCMCMCM

Reid dropped his bag on the living room floor and flopped down on his sofa. His eye throbbed, but he was too wiped out to think about putting together another icepack or look for a pain killer. He was sitting there, staring morosely at his ceiling, when his phone rang. He yanked it out of his pocket and answered with a curt. "What?"

"Hey, it's just me. Why so, grouchy?"

"Hi Garcia, I'm sorry, I shouted."

"It's okay. Morgan told me what happened. Are you alright?"

"Yes. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"It's just a black eye. I feel stupid for not watching where I was going."

"We all make that mistake."

"I guess."

"You want me to come over. We can watch a video."

"No, I'm fine. I want to get some sleep."

"Alright. You call me if you need anything."

"I will. Thanks, Garcia."

"Hey, I'm the Goddess of the BAU. It's my job to take care of my babies."

Reid finally smiled as he ended the call, then he frowned again. Thank God, no one on the team had seen the truth about his accident.

He slowly rose to his feet and went to his bedroom. He stripped out of his work clothes and into a pair of sweats and a tee-shirt. It was the middle of the afternoon, but he decided to curl up with a good book if he could read with an injured eye. If not, he'd take a well-deserved nap.

He found that he couldn't read or sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he replayed his injury over in his head. Finally, he sighed, stood up, and went to the bathroom. After using the toilet, he stood staring in the mirror over the sink as he washed his hands.

His eye was beginning to swell again. "It's your fault," he said sternly. "You're the one that was staring at Detective Allred's legs instead of watching where you were walking."

He dried his hands, took another long look at his injured eye, and went to the kitchen for an icepack. The next time he found a woman's legs attractive, he'd keep one eye on his surroundings.