Another day, another successful case. The team clambered onto the jet, one behind the other, go-bags in hand. With just one missing girl, who has been successfully recovered and returned to her parents, and a predator safely in custody, the outcome couldn't have been more favourable. Coming out and flying home all in the same day was relatively unheard of, so they were all in good spirits as they climbed onto the jet.
The sun was just setting, and Emily and Morgan headed straight for the bar, taking orders as they went, as everyone packed their bags into the overheads and chose seats. Reid, Hotch and Rossi piled around the table and, bringing back drinks, Emily took the last seat in the booth as Morgan took up a seat on the sofa.
"Thanks," Hotch said, taking the scotch from Emily, he held it in place as she lifted her own, to clink the glasses together. "To a job well done."
"Indeed," Rossi agreed, lifting his glass in toast to them all. "Another day, another case."
"Pilot says we'll be back in Quantico in five hours," JJ said, returning from the cockpit and sitting herself beside Morgan.
"Not long enough to sleep," Emily sighed, raking a hand through her hair.
"Did anybody ever play the States game?" Reid piped up, from the seat beside Hotch. A collective groan went around the group.
"From that one Friends episode?" JJ said, Reid nodded, enthusiastically. "Let's do it," The blonde said, smiling around. The others looked like they might complain, but she shrugged, "Five hours. It'll pass a bit of time."
"Yeah, but it's so easy," Morgan said, confidently.
"What is it?" Rossi asked.
"You've never seen the Friends Thanksgiving episode?" JJ asked, shocked. Rossi gave her a look like she was crazy.
"I've never seen a single Friends episode, and I plan for it to stay that way."
"The States game," Reid was saying, "Is exactly what it sounds like. You list as many states as you can, usually with a time constraint, obviously aiming to get all of them. I hear that, for most people, it's harder than it sounds."
"Come on, here you have a group of adults, FBI agents. I mean, if you don't know the states, you should just quit, right?" Emily shrugged, nonchalantly.
"Big talk, little girl," Morgan teased, and she scowled, playfully, at him.
"Alright, kid," Rossi said, "Let's see if these two can put their pens where their mouths are. Do you have paper?"
Reid produced a notebook from his satchel, ripped them all off a piece and handed them round. Just as he was about to put his own pen to paper, Hotch held up his hand, shaking his head.
"Reid, you can't play." He told the younger agent, who looked affronted and confused.
"You have an eidetic memory," Emily reminded him, and, although he looked like he might argue for a moment, Reid shoved the lid back onto his pen with a quiet, "fine."
"You can be the proctor, how about that?" JJ suggested, already chewing at her pen lid, "You can check our answers."
"I don't need my answers checked," Morgan said, grinning, "I got this. I'm gonna smoke all of your asses."
"How about we make it interesting?" Rossi suggested, lifting an eyebrow at Morgan's confidence. Emily, already going through the first few states in her mind, glanced around the group. JJ was already frowning in concentration, Hotch looked practically bored.
"What did you have in mind?" She asked him.
"Last one finished does everyone's paperwork for this case." He suggested.
"So, no time constraint, just the last one done?" Hotch clarified.
There was a collective agreement "I'm in," that went around the table and Reid, who didn't even have to play, looked rather gleeful that, regardless of the outcome, he wouldn't be doing any paperwork that evening. He waited for them to all fall quiet, and they looked at him, expectantly. Checking his watch, he waited for the seconds hand to tick around to the one minute mark, then nodded.
The silence was, in the beginning, blissful. He watched them, amused. Hotch was taking his time, confident. He, Reid could see, had started with Alabama and was continuing in alphabetical order. Emily had begun by writing out the first letter of each state; clearly she knew there were four Cs and 8 Ms, and was coming back to fill them all in later. Her method itched Reid's brain, and not in a good way. Rossi was approaching it in much the same was as Hotch was, but Reid saw that he had already missed Arizona, which Reid found ironic, considering that was where their previous case had been only a few days prior.
While Emily, Hotch and Rossi were all going about their lists alphabetically, glancing across to JJ and Morgan, Reid saw that neither of them had adopted any such order. JJ had started, predictably, with Pennsylvania (where she was from) followed by Virginia (where she currently lived). From then on, Reid could see that JJ's approach had become whatever popped into her head, first. She'd gone for some of the obvious ones, New York, California, Texas. Reid watched her write down Chicago, ponder it a moment, cross it out and replace it with Illinois, and was internally relieved. Morgan, unsurprisingly, was using sports teams to help him in his list. It looked something like this:
cowboys - Texas
packers - Wisconsin
49ers - Cali
And so on, so forth. Reid frowned, thinking that method could easily trip him up.
"Shit," Emily muttered under her breath, and Reid glanced over to her, noting that she had written down Maine, Michigan, Montana, Missouri, Massachusets, Mississippi, and was pondering over the two reamaining Ms she had written down, her pen sliding back and forth between them, tracing each M, as though that would help.
Not long into the game, Penelope called, just to check they were in the air. Morgan answered the phone, grinning. "Hey, babygirl. You are talking to the soon-to-be champion of Reid's dumb states game."
"She's not allowed to play, either!" Emily said, "She has screens!"
Ten minutes later, Morgan having hung up the phone, Hotch announced that he was, in fact, done. The others glanced at his sheet of paper, as he handed it across to Reid, who skimmed down the list, counting in his head while simultaneously checking the names.
"No paperwork for Hotch," Reid announced, handing the paper back to Hotch, who smirked. Emily scowled at him as he flipped over his paper, so nobody could read what was written on it.
"Oh, like I'd cheat," She muttered, and he just continued to smirk at her annoyance.
"How did you do that?" JJ was frowning at her own page, chewing the end of her pen.
"We travel all around the country for work," Hotch said, flatly, though he sat back in his seat, and Reid thought that, nonchalant as he was trying to look, Hotch was pretty happy with himself. "You field cases from so many cities and states, everyday, JJ. I'm surprised at you."
"Sh," JJ evidently forgot who she was talking to in the moment, as she shushed the unit chief, but Hotch just met Reid's eyes, both of them sharing a smile of amusement.
Next to claim he had finished was Rossi, but Reid didn't even have to take the paper from his hand, he could see that he was still missing Arizona, and shook his head. "Sorry, Rossi."
The italian frowned, flicking his wrist back aggressively, the paper flapping in the air. He scanned it, glaring at it, as though it were the papers fault. He scanned his list, counting, then hmphed, and began reciting his list.
"Alabama-"
"SHUSH!" The other three remaining players, Emily, JJ and Morgan, all yelled, openly glaring at him. He looked affronted, but turned back to his list, lips moving as he recited it, almost silently. Emily, who could hear him muttering under his breath, sighed heavily.
"Oh, my god," She said, picking up her page and moving to a seat further away from him, humming loudly so as to not hear what he was saying. Hotch folded his hands across his lap, leaning his head back and closing his eyes, enjoying the silence that was only broken by the occasional confused noise from JJ, and the scratch of pens on paper, until Emily angryily announced that,
"There are no more Ms!" She said, splaying her hands, looking at Reid, her eyes wide with frustration. "There are seven Ms, and that's it. There aren't eight." She paused, brow furrowing in confusion, "Are there?"
Reid pressed his lips together, nodding, "'Fraid so." And Emily went, frustrated, back to her page, as JJ looked at Hotch, panicked, and muttered, "Eight?"
Another ten minutes passed before Rossi discovered his mistake just as Emily announced she was, "Maryland! Done!"
"What?!" JJ demanded, infuriated, "How?"
"What do you mean, how?" Emily asked, as she handed her paper to Reid for inspection. They waited, and he nodded, handing it back to her. "Yes."
"You didn't even live here for most of your life!" JJ accused, angrily turning back to her own paper, hiking up her leg to rest her foot on the sofa and lean her page on her knee. Her brows were furrowed deep as she studied her page, and Reid was relieved when she began her list again, for the third time, this time alphabetically.
"How many do you have, Jayje?" Emily asked. The blonde mutterd something under her breath, and Emily shook her head, "Can't hear you."
"Thirty-nine!" JJ said, louder, and more annoyed. Emily, smirking, held up her hands in surrender and took up her seat back on Hotch and Rossi's table, just as Reid handed Rossi back his list.
"You've got Nevada twice," He said.
"Nevada, thank you!" Morgan said, scribbling it down, quickly, "Wolf pack-"
"Morgan, you know the game isn't football teams, right?" Hotch said, but was ignored by the younger agent, who stared, confused, at his list.
"Hey, Jayje," Emily said, leaning across.
"Emily, do not help me, I swear to god." JJ said, her tone flat, warning. The brunette grinned, teasing.
"Alright, alright. Hey, Morgan, is that a...New Jersey you're wearing?" She bit her tongue between her teeth as the blonde lashed out a hand to slap her arm.
"Emily!"
As she grinned at JJ, Emily caught Hotch's eye, and he nodded towards Rossi. "Hey, Dave," Hotch said, a slight note of teasing in his voice, "You know how many states there are, right? I mean, you're the only one here who was born before there were fifty."
Dave paused, then turned to glare at Hotch. "Yes, I'm well aware there are 50 states, thank you, Aaron." But, as he went back to his list, he began counting again.
"How about some music, guys?" Emily said, standing up to walk to the entertainment center. She pulled out her phone, linking up the bluetooth. "While you play, hm?"
"Yeah, whatever," Morgan muttered, JJ barely paying any attention to her as she concentrated, hard.
"Oh, I love this song," Emily said, as the upbeat drums started, and JJ glared at her.
"I hate you," She said, as Emily bent in two, laughing at the sheer anger on JJ's face, the Hannah Montana theme song playing out of the speakers. Morgan just looked confused.
"Here," Rossi said, handing his list to Reid, looking like the thought of this game was much more enjoyable than actually playing it. Reid skimmed the list, then handed it back to Rossi, smiling and nodding. "Finally," The Italian rolled his eyes. Then perked up, as he remembered the terms of the bet. "Just you two, now, then."
"Come on, Mr 'I don't need my answers checking'," Emily taunted Morgan, "Where's that energy, now?"
"Shut up, Prentiss." Morgan said.
"That's not a state," Hotch said, reaching over to point to one of Morgan's answers.
"What?" What do you mean New England's not a state?" He demanded, angrily, "They have a football team!"
"Not a state," Emily shook her head, agreeing with Hotch. Morgan, affronted, looked to Reid, who also shook his head, lips pressed together. Morgan's eyebrows dropped, from angry to dissappointed, and his expression when he looked down at his page, so lost and slightly surprised by his own incompetence. Emily looked at Hotch, lips pressed together in an effort to keep from laughing aloud.
"I could really go for some chicken right now," Emily said, and Hotch rolled his eyes, immediately seeing where she was going.
"Emily, please, I'm trying to concentrate." JJ said.
"Some...Kentucky fried chicken."
"I swear to god," Morgan muttered, under his breath, "I'm gonna shove a wing up your ass."
"Okay," JJ announced, excited, lifting her paper, doing a last scan of it with her eyes. Reid reached for it, and JJ held it just out of his reach, as her eyes went down the list a couple of times, counting.
"No, no, no," Morgan was muttering, scribbling away quickly, though what he was scribbling, Emily didn't know, likely more football teams that were, in fact, not states.
Reid took the list from JJ, scanning it. They could all tell, by his face, who had lost their challenge, and they each turned to look at him. Morgan looked from each face to the next, his eyes a mixture between shock and sadness.
"Oh, Derek," JJ said, softly, with a laugh. Then she slapped him on the back, "Enjoy the paperwork, my guy."
Hotch leaned over, to check what Morgan had been scribbling, Morgan trying to cover it, embarassed, but Hotch still saw, raising his eyebrows, amused.
"West Dakota, really?"