Chapter 6

(Flashback part 1 Emily's POV)

Emily had had a God-awful week. Her friend from college had kissed her and then said she had come onto him. That friendship had promptly ended. All she had to do was boring teetering stacks of paperwork. She was freaking out about small things, she was stressed and her mom wanted a dinner together over the long weekend.

Reid was acting weird. He had become quieter; he barely rambled anymore. What superseded her was that no one else noticed. How do you not notice when one of your best friends starts to fade away? She hoped his mom was ok.

At 7:45 her alarm clock went off and her day began.

Emily was not in the mood for work today. She had a hangover and was so tired.

She hurried into the bathroom taking off her clothes and turning on the shower taking care not to look at herself in the mirror.

She rushed out the door at 8:17. Having her house 30 minutes away from work was annoying. She drove to a McDonald's drive-thru to pick up a Hot caramel coffee to go. She arrived in the bullpen on time. She looked at the stack of 17 files. She was certain she'd had more yesterday and looking at the resident genius' pile of about 40 files and she had a feeling where the missing files had gone.

"Morning Reid."

"Good morning Prentiss," they lapsed into silence. They worked on their files going at drastically different speeds. He was fast a file taking him on average 5 minutes her own took her an average of 30 minutes.

What she would do to have a brain like his.

Files are boring. They make eyes glaze over and the mind wanders. How can someone be expected to focus after 2 hours of reading files, her average had gone up to 35 minutes after her 3rd file.

Instead of focusing on her files, she may as well try to figure out what is going on with Reid. Inner team profiling while discouraged was not a rule and she was worried.

He got up to get a coffee after 10 minutes of her faking the paperwork. She saw him start talking with Garcia, a very excited Garcia. He showed a timid smile but a minute later it slid away at something she said. When she turned away his face cracked she could have sworn his eyes were filled with unshed tears but a moment later he came back with the exact same face he had when he left to get the coffee.

What is up with him? What did Garcia say? Is he ok? Is he… no he couldn't be. The coincidences over the last few days didn't have to mean anything. They didn't mean anything. Right?

"You ok?"

He looked startled or maybe shocked? "Oh, yeah. I'm perfectly fine. How about you?"

"Oh, just peachy."

Paperwork. Paperwork. More paperwork. Even more paperwork. Finally lunch.

Hotch ate in his office over paperwork, Rossi liked to go to fancy restaurants.

She arrived in the lunchroom with a sandwich and salad in hand. The others in conversation. Morgan seemed pretty lonely having no one to the club with. The tragedy. Reid was right about the germs clubs being a breeding house for them.

She clubbed occasionally, while he was right there were germs everywhere, you may as well try to have fun.

She slightly tuned out the conversation and began eating her lunch. She looked up as a word caught her attention. Was Reid ok? He was frowning again. What if he was… what if he… no she couldn't think like that, she could just ask him what was wrong. She was just seeing her problems in other people. It didn't mean anything. Right? She'd know.

They finished eating and walked back to their respective desks and offices. Except for Reid, he went to Hotch's office.

What's up with that? Is he ok?

The tan folder in front of her drew her attention back to it. Frowning, she flipped it open and began writing. Insufferable. Why did she have to fill this out?!

Hotch's door opened and out stepped Reid with a stack of files. Of course, he got new files. She was now 100% certain that Reid had taken some of her files.

No one on the team appreciated him anywhere close to enough.

Reid slowly walked back to his desk looking lost in thought. He often had a thoughtful look on his face but this one was different and it almost looked vulnerable.

He sat down working on his new files while she looked at him as discreetly as possible. Completing the occasional file.

He finished all of his new files in just over an hour. "Need any help?"

"What?" She said startled, "Oh, um no I'm on my last 8 files in about 3-4 hours depending on how distracted I get. Although I did notice quite a few of my files were missing this morning. "

He raised his eyebrow "Were they?"

"Thanks."

"Of course," He now held a smile on his face. It was small but it was the most genuine smile he'd had in a while.

They began some small talk. "Have you watched or read anything good lately?

"I've read a few good books, recently I started reading some fantasy books and they were pretty good."

"Really, never thought you would like fantasy books. What books?"

"Ok, don't judge me but I'm pretty far behind on the fantasy genre so I'm mostly reading YA novels to get into it. I read the first book in a series called Delirium. It's a dystopian series. I read Ashes and Embers and it was pretty good. I also started watching some Fantasy tv shows like Galavant and Merlin."

"I love those shows, what parts are you at?"

"Umm, well Richard just traded a gem for a 'dragon' and Merlin just poisoned Morgana in Merlin. I sincerely like Morgana and hope everything turns out ok for her. I mean she and Merlin have chemistry but then again so do she and Gwen. I don't know who to ship. Like I know Gwen is probably going to end up with Arthur but they have no chemistry!"

"Reid, your fangirl is showing." Reid snorted at that.

"Before you know it I'll start writing fanfiction."

"I'll help you with that!" Emily grinned at their own banter as she resumed her files.

Reid sat still for a few minutes before rummaging through his messenger bag that seemed to be always attached to him.

He drew out a… sketchpad? She didn't know he could draw. And judging from the number of artistic utensils he had, he could draw well.

She watched him through the corner of her eye as he worked.

He was diligent and focused. He looked to be carefully considering every stroke of the pencils. It was soothing to watch the steady movements. Every once in a while he would switch out his pencils.

He worked for almost two hours before wiping his brow.

She turned her attention back to the 5 files she had left.

She decided that because of all the distractions she had paid attention to today, causing her to not get her files done she would stay late. Unlike Morgan, she would finish all her files leaving her with none when they came back from their 3-day weekend.

With only about 30 minutes left in the day, she could finish the file she was working on and get home around 7 after finishing the other 4 files.

Reid's face relaxed into content as he placed down his pencil. He looked down at a finished drawing. She wondered what he had drawn?

She saw Morgan leaving the break room headed their way.

Morgan grabbed the sketchpad and began teasing Reid. Emily tried to tune it out, it was their usual banter. At least she assumed it was until Reid's voice broke into her thought space.

"GIVE IT BACK, MORGAN!" Reid was… angry.

"Why are you so protective of your art, pretty boy?"

Reid looked in thought, trying to find a… excuse. He said something about science causing Morgan to hand the notebook back and flee.

Reid sighed in relief, but his face was tense. He sat back down, putting his sketchpad and pencils back into his messenger bag and pulling out an MP3 and earbuds. He put them in his ears and clicked play as if the music he listened to was a lifeline.

He acted as if the music would solve everything. All the problems with his life, every mistake he had made, any mistake anyone in the world made.

It didn't look like it was working and he rushed into the bathroom taking his messenger back with him.

At 5:03 Reid left the building with a goodbye.

4 more files and she would go home.

(A/N. Sorry for not updating, we were traveling and we go back from Virginia a week and a half ago and my mom was having us clean like 9 hours a day because we had to do a deep cleaning. And then I couldn't find my notebook which had the next chapter written in it. I'll try to update once a week it might not always happen but I'll try to. I also noticed some people are asking if I'm ok. Number 1 thank you for asking. Number 2 I'm not great but I'm doing a lot better than I used to. Thank you to everyone who reviews on this story, it really gives me the motivation to keep writing. Sorry this A/N is so long)