A/N I do not own Criminal Minds. Sorry I forgot to include that in my first chapter. I will try to remember in future.
Special thanks to mablereid for all her help and encouragement.
Brookdale is a fictional town.
Hopefully a bit of comic relief here! Enjoy!
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Reid couldn't believe what he was staring at. There, in the middle of the road stood a very large cow. It was black and white and looked just like something off a milk carton, and it was completely blocking the road. Reid honked his horn, sure that that would make the animal move, but she just stayed glued to where she was. Reid thought that if he drove a little closer, it would scare her and she'd move, so he slowly eased his SUV forward a little. Nothing. He decided maybe if he got out of his vehicle and tried to coax the cow, he could get her to move, but that too was to no avail. All the animal did was look at him as if he had lost his mind. Considering he was standing in the middle of a Kentucky road trying to reason with a bovine roadblock, he wasn't sure that that wasn't the case. Since this road was about half the size of the highway and had ditches on both sides, he was not able to get around the animal either. Suddenly all that had happened to him in the last few months and the sheer insanity of his present predicament all came crashing down on him and in total frustration, he stood in the middle of that road, lifted his arms to his side, looked skyward and in a pleading voice yelled, " Beam me up Scotty."
Having gotten that out of his system, he decided if he could not go forward, he would go back. He had seen a gravel road, a little ways back and he thought if he went down there, he could hook up with a road that would take him past his present point. He went back to the gravel road and turned onto it, traveling down it until he came to a dilapidated farmhouse. He stopped the SUV and started to get out, thinking that maybe this is where the cow belonged and maybe these people could move it off the road. He was soon accosted, however, by a large, rather fierce looking coonhound that was growling and bearing its sharp teeth at Reid. The dog was soon followed by a woman: Reid thought to be in her sixties, wearing a black dress covered with a white bib apron, her gray hair pulled back in a tight bun. "Down Jasper," she said loudly to the dog, who thankfully quit growling and bearing his teeth at Reid and went back to his post on the porch. Behind her came an elderly man dressed in very tattered pants, shirt and jacket. The sight of these two made Reid feel that he had been plopped down in the middle of a Grant Wood painting but instead of holding a pitchfork, the man was holding a sawed off shotgun and it was pointed right at Reid.
"Ya know yer trespassin don't ya sonny." The old man said in a raspy voice, keeping his hands steady on the shotgun and giving Reid a toothless grin.
Reid raised his hands, wishing that his sidearm wasn't in his glove compartment. "Uh, sorry, I was just driving on the road up there and had to change direction because there's a cow blocking the road and I couldn't get her to move."
"Did you say a cow?" the woman replied. "What did it look like?"
"Well," Reid said, "It was black and white."
"Oh for God's sake Errol, how many times have we told those boys to fix that break in the fence? Merril, Daryl, get out here now." the woman yelled.
Two men in their thirties, who were obviously twins, appeared from the barn area, and ran up to the couple. "It seems one of them cows got loose cuz ya never fixed the fence. Git up to the road and bring 'er back now," the woman demanded.
"Yes Mama," they both responded in unison, and took off down the gravel road in a rusty old pick-up truck.
"Now Carol, don't always be so hard on them boys,"
Reid was still standing with his hands raised although Errol had now lowered the gun perceiving that Reid was not a threat. "Ya can put yer hands down sonny, I ain't gonna shoot ya." Reid lowered his hands and the man carried on, "It'll take them boys a while and it's almost suppertime, ya may as well come in and have some supper."
"Oh no, really, I should be getting on my way but thank you for the offer." Reid replied.
"Nope, yer here, ya might as well have supper, I got a big pot of stew cookin and honey, you look like ya could use a good meal," the woman insisted.
Reid entered the farmhouse with the couple and he was met with the most wonderful smells, he'd ever experienced. The house was very old as were all the furnishings. The delightfully smelling stew was cooking on a very old stove and the aroma of freshly baking buns was wafting from the oven. On the warming oven were three pies that looked positively delicious. Reid noted that although the furnishings were old and threadbare, the house was spotless and well cared for. Whatever he had been expecting, this was not it. Carol removed the buns from the oven and set them to cool. Reid's mouth was watering at the sight of them. She began to set the table and refused Reid's offer of help. One of the sons, Reid couldn't say which one, arrived back with the truck while the other was leading the wayward bovine home. The family decided not to wait for Merril, so Errol said grace, thanking the Lord for their meal, each other and the new friend that was at their table. He also asked that the Lord watch out for Reid on his journey. The meal was as delicious as the aromas had predicted and Reid ate more than he had in a long time. When he left, they asked him to stop in on his way back and he said he would try. Carol gave him some buns to eat on his journey and he got back on the road with a smile on his face.
Reid continued driving until darkness fell over the Kentucky landscape, and he watched the sun set in the west with a beautiful display of varying shades of yellow red and purple. When he drove into the little town of Brookdale, he decided to rest for the night. He thought he'd stop at a diner for his much loved coffee, before he went looking for a room. There was only one other person in the diner when he entered. He sat at the counter and ordered a cup of coffee from the waitress. She was about twenty, Reid guessed, with long brown hair cascading down her back, warm brown eyes and a wide mouth with full lips that opened into a welcoming smile. All in all a very pretty girl Reid noticed. An older woman came from the back of the diner and appeared to be the girl's mother. Since they were not busy they started talking to Reid.
"So, you're not from around here, where do you hail from? "The older woman inquired.
"Oh Mom, do you have to know everything about everyone who walks in here?" The young woman replied although to tell the truth, she was rather interested herself in the handsome guy with that cute smile and chocolate brown eyes that was sitting in front of her. Nothing that fine had walked in here in a while. She was thinking this as she started to pour his coffee and ended up overfilling the cup and had coffee all over the counter. "I'm so sorry. I didn't get any on you did I?" She quickly started wiping the counter thinking "Oh great, now he thinks I'm a complete klutz."
"Oh that's okay," Reid responded "Do you mean where I came from right now or originally?"
The mother said, "Start with right now and we'll move on to originally."
Reid chuckled at that, "Right now I hail from Quantico, Virginia. I am an FBI agent and work with the BAU. The Behavior Analysis Unit," he added at their puzzled looks. "We analyze a criminal's behavior to find out why he does things and where he is likely to strike next. I'm more commonly known as a profiler."
"You mean like on TV and in the movies," the daughter said excitedly.
"Yes, exactly like that."
"Wow, you have got to be the most exciting person I've ever met. My name is Colleen Rutherford, by the way and this is my mom, Miriam."
"It's very nice to meet you both. I'm Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid."
"That's quite a mouthful," Miriam noted.
"Yeah," Spencer laughed, "Most people just call me Reid."
"Well, it's nice to meet you Reid, so let's move on to where you hail from originally," added Miriam.
"I was born and raised in Las Vegas." He smiled because he knew the response this was going to elicit and he wasn't disappointed.
"Las Vegas, I never knew anyone who came from Las Vegas; the same Las Vegas with the casinos and everything," Colleen asked disbelieving?
"Yes, the same," Reid nodded, "LasVegas has a whole thriving residential community that most people think nothing about. We have schools, community centers, and churches, not quickie wedding chapels but where people actually go to worship the Lord. There's even a university there. It was very nice meeting you ladies. Thanks for the coffee and the conversation." He stood leaving a bill on the counter. "Is there a hotel or motel around here where I could get a room for the night?"
"Yeah," Miriam replied, "There's the Brookdale Motel, a couple of blocks down and turn to your left. You can't miss it."
"Thanks, goodnight ladies."
A few minutes after Reid left a man walked into the diner wearing a sheriff's uniform. "Well, how are my two best girls," he wondered, in his southern drawl?
"Oh hi honey, we're great. We just met the most interesting young fellow. He's an FBI agent from Quantico and Colleen was quite taken with the fact that he hails from Las Vegas. How was your day? Are you ready to go home?"
"You bet, let's blow this pop stand," Sheriff Kyle Rutherford replied.
A few hours later the phone at the Rutherford home woke them all from a deep sleep. Kyle's deputy said, "Kyle, it's Roy, we have a big problem!"