Chapter 7
AN: Thanks so much for the reviews and sorry about the delay...
Emily looked as if she could've been knocked over by a feather. She stared at him like he'd spoken some foreign language she hadn't mastered, like Tamil or Urdu, and couldn't compute what he'd said.
He realized then he'd been wrong. He wasn't used to being wrong; being a genius leaned a person to being correct a great majority of the time. Flustered, he began, "Uh...umm...Emily, I think I was wrong—"
"Wait a minute there," she interrupted, obviously over her shock. She was staring at him now, her hands on her delicately curved hips—Lord, she had a bottom half that was killing him! She waited for him to bring his eyes back to her face, before she said, "You have a crush on me?"
He frowned slightly. What was so odd about that? Hadn't the woman looked in the mirror for the past five years? "Yes."
He watched as she slowly smiled. "That's almost funny."
The frown he was wearing intensified to a glower. "I'm glad you think so!"
"It's funny, genius," she said, not backing down at all, "because I have had a crush on you forever."
That surprised him. He blinked a few times, and then began to smile himself. "Really?"
Rolling her eyes, she sheathed her dagger, and then took a seat next to him on a hay bale. "Yes. Reid, haven't you guessed you're exactly my type?"
He chuckled, and then the chuckle turned into a laugh. "No...haha...if...haha...how was I supposed to know that?"
She was still smiling, too—a radiant, beautiful smile that lit up her face, like someone had just given her a million dollars and a pony. "Reid, I can't believe I have to say this word to you, but think."
He knew he was still looking blankly at her.
Prentiss rolled her eyes. "Darren, in accounting?"
Reid remembered Darren had been one of her first boyfriends during her tenure with the BAU. He'd been brainy, funny, and Reid had actually liked him. "Okay..."
"Andy Cartwright."
Andy had been a brainy, thinner, friendly guy from Internal Affairs. Another one of the men she'd dated. Reid liked him, too. A chess master, too. He kind of reminded Reid of himself, and...
"Oh," Reid said, as he mentally tallied all of Prentiss's recent beaus and came up with the right conclusion.
It seemed he wasn't such a genius after all.
"Yeah, oh," she said, nudging him rather hard with her elbow. As he rubbed the spot, she said softly, "Why didn't you tell me you liked me?"
"I thought you knew," he answered honestly. He hadn't been hiding his feelings for Emily from anyone. He didn't have a good poker face for those kinds of things.
"Well, if I did, I would've acted on it," she answered.
"Really?"
She reached for his hand and squeezed it. "Really."
For a moment, they sat there, not saying anything. Reid could feel the warmth from her clasped hand, and his heart beat even faster in his chest.
"Emily?"
"Hmm?"
He grinned at her again. "Am I still your prisoner to command?"
"Yarr, laddie!" she guttered, jumping to her feet again and pointing her dagger at him. "Me thinks I need to cuff ye to keep ye in line."
Reid groaned. "Emily...if you want to be the only one brandishing a sword, please do not talk about cuffing me while wearing those tights..."
"They're hosen!" she added automatically, and then as she digested his meaning, she did something he'd never seen Prentiss do before: she blushed. "You have a dirty mind, Spencer Reid."
It was about time he acted on this relationship, too. He stood, pushing her little toy sword out of the way, and reached for her, tugging her into his arms. "A brilliantly dirty mind."
"How dirty?" she asked, giving him a suggestive grin of encouragement...that he truly did not need.
"Positively filthy," he murmured, lowering his head toward hers.
Once he got over the shock of what had just happened, the wind back in his lungs, and the dust and hay out of his nose and mouth, Derek quickly began to rise to his feet. "Penelope!" he called out, but she was completely out of sight, swallowed by the crowds of faire-going revelers.
"Oh, that was brilliantly played," Robert said, giving a mocking glare to Derek. He began to clap, slowly. "Bra-vo."
That did it. He already felt like a fool; he didn't need this smug bastard rubbing it in. He began to push up his dusty sleeves. "You sonofa—"
"Why don't you take your anger and put it into something more constructive?" Marian interrupted. "Like winning back the girl?"
Derek growled to himself and sat back on the hay bale. "Like that is going to happen."
"Not dressed like that, it isn't," Robert agreed, and at that moment, Derek couldn't have agreed more. He looked filthy, he felt like crap, and he realized he'd been a fool for a very long time. There was no real positives at the moment.
Marian sat next to him...a safe distance away so she wouldn't be sullied by his clothes. "Derek, you do care for the girl, correct?"
"I love her," he answered honestly. "She's everything to me—my best friend in the world."
Robert barked a short laugh. "Some friendship!"
Derek stood and glared at him."Hey, I didn't see you getting the girl until today, either, you pansy assed—"
"Gentlemen!" Marian snapped, tugging Derek to sit again. "What were you doing today? I thank you for offering to help me get Robert, but there had to be another reason you asked to help...or even offered to be here. I mean—" she gestured around her at the costumed people "—this doesn't exactly seem to be your style of thing!"
Derek chuckled sadly, knowing he was far more transparent than he wanted to be. "It isn't. I heard that she was alone and on the outs with her boyfriend. I'd hoped to win her over today, but she didn't seem interested in me. She already had someone, and I was too late...like always." Derek sighed heavily, recounting the horrible day in his head. "So I ended up doing what I always do. I played the part of the best friend and tried to get at least part of her attention."
"Why didn't you tell her when I went over to Robert?" Marian asked.
"She looked sad, like she was disappointed that Robert had left," he replied, feeling his heart aching in her chest. He rubbed his hands over his eyes in frustration. "I just don't get it. Why doesn't she see it in me? I thought showing her that I could do the same things for her that pompous ass was doing would work. Hell, I even tried to make her jealous."
Marian scoffed. "That worked. She was watching you like a hawk, while you were watching her."
"I realize that now," he said.
"Then go get her, man!" Robert said.
Derek shook his head. "I made it worse."
"How?" Marian asked.
"I was so frustrated and angry at myself when she was still pining after Robert, I was mocking myself," he began. "I told her Robert was a fool for not seeing what was in front of him until it was too late..."
"Oh, that is stupid," Marian said, shaking her head. "You are doomed."
"No, he's not," Robert said. "For heaven's sake, he just said the girl wants him, too. He just needs to win her back."
"How?"
"You, my friend, need to impart a grand gesture," Robert said, taking a seat on the other hay bale. "One that will make her sit up and take notice and forget your stupidity."
Derek frowned. "What is that?"
Robert smiled and clapped Derek's dusty shoulder. "That is for you to figure out."
