The Zero Hour

Reid and Prentiss

February 2011

Note- Last nights eppy made me fall in love with this pairing ten times more. That was fab and oh so bittersweet.

Chapter Ten

As soon as Emily and Reid got back to his place, in the morning after they had worked all night trying to put together clues to lead them to Doyle's whereabouts, Reid went into the kitchen and made himself a sandwich, which he wolfed down as if he was famished.

Emily was too stressed to eat. She leaned against the counter, just watching him, until he told her "I have some reading to do before I head to bed but feel free to make yourself comfortable in the guest room."

"Too wound up to sleep, huh? Me too. I think I'll go try a bath to relax."

He nodded. His eyes stayed on her as she started to leave the kitchen. "I could make you some herbal tea when you're done. Did you know tea is used in China to treat a host of different ailments and maladies? The practice dates back to-"

"You don't need to wait on me hand and foot." She stopped at the door and looked back. "Its bad enough that I invited myself to stay here-"

"Hotch invited you."

That wasn't true but she didn't plan to tell Spencer.

She looked at him as if he wasn't getting it and then went on "Um, yeah, well, my point is, I don't want to be a bother. Thank you for letting me crash in your guest room."

"It's has a memory foam mattress."

"Right," Emily said, in a confused way, while shaking her head. "Right, okay. That will be fine for me." She walked away.

As she soaked in the bath she was tormented with memories of the case involving Doyle, the colleagues of hers that Doyle had killed around, and the moments when she received the letters from him.

She also mulled over the fact that she had been the one to never ask to spend a full night with Reid and now he acted as if he didn't like the idea of just sleeping next to her. The only thing they could do in a bed was screw and that's it, apparently. That didn't bode well for their future and she wondered if she was just foolish to have hoped they would keep this thing going, moving beyond just hooking up.

Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes and tried to relax. Her mind slipped into a sensual fantasy. In it she didn't give the man a face. She was laying on her stomach, nude, on a four poster bed that had white sheets. The man was giving her a sensual massage, using oils, that turned sexual. First his fingers slipped between her legs and then he was thrusting into her. Not until the end of the fantasy, when the man bent and sucked on her throat, as she exploded with her release did she cry out Reid's name.

When she left the bathroom she found Reid in the living room, now stripped of his sweater vest but still wearing a violet business shirt. He was reading what looked like an academic book.

She said "Thanks, seriously, for letting me crash here. This building is pretty secure and you have an alarm so I think the risk is minimal. But I would have been fine on my own at my place. Hotch wasn't going for it though."

"Yeah, I might have stressed to Hotch how we shouldn't take any chances with your safety, after all we've seen and been through, you know."

"What? Reid, tell me you didn't."

He just stared at her.

She shook her head at him. "I didn't want more people put in danger because of me. I probably shouldn't even be here right now. Not if there's a chance it will get you hurt."

"Did you know I qualified at my last test to shoot a machine gun? Morgan dared me that I couldn't but I managed."

She chuckled and smiled. "Well, then, we're covered." She turned to head toward the guest room. "I'm beat so good night, Reid. Don't stay up too late reading. Your eyes could surely use a break by now, don't you think?"

She had almost made it to the bedroom when his voice stopped her.

"You know you are welcome to share my bed, don't you?"

She turned around and arched an eyebrow, staying silent.

Reid nibbled the inside of his cheek before saying "You haven't previously wanted that so I figure you like having your own space, which is understandable. Studies show that some people can't sleep well sharing a bed."

"Are you one of those people?"

He thought about it. "If I'm sharing with Morgan, yeah."

She laughed.

Reid added "Rossi isn't that bad, though."

Emily laughed harder. "I can't wait to tell him that you said that." She turned and walked into his bedroom, and he followed her.

"Don't do that."

"Oh, I'm so doing that. Rossi isn't that bad in bed. Hmmmm. What do you men do when you have to bunk up? That is the question."

"That sounds like something Morgan's perverted mind would come up with," he teased her, following her into the bedroom.

She started to undress him, with Reid helping to speed it along.

Emily asked "What's so bad about being perverted? Sometimes perverted is fun. Don't you like fun, Dr. Reid?"

"Depends."

"On what? If magic is involved? Because, I assure you, I know some tricks you'd lik-"

He was down to just his boxers when he picked her up, so her legs went around his waist, and moved quickly back toward the bed. "Depends on who is making me an offer to have fun and what kind of fun they have in mind."

Her back hit the bed. She gasped, as she felt him rubbing his hardness against her panties.

Reid started to kiss her neck. "Prentiss?"

She moaned softly, while he sucked on her skin, "Hmmm?"

"No comeback?"

"Shut up," she joked, and then they got down to business, pushing away the dark images that filled their minds and focusing solely on much needed pleasure.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Reid lay there on his back. Prentiss had just turned on her side, so now she faced away from him. Her skin glistened. He continually found himself thinking, with each passing day, she was more beautiful than the one before.

Since he was unsure how she felt about sharing a bed he didn't try to cuddle close to her. He wanted to respect her boundaries. It hurt some that she turned away from him but he was used to living on his own, fending for himself, and he didn't want to ask her for too much, be too needy.

He figured they would get along best if he gave her what she needed, respected the fact that she wouldn't always do every little thing just the way he wanted or expected and that was fine, and that he didn't jump ahead in his mind. He was not assuming anything- that this would last or not last.

It would only make him feel sick if he let his mind go down that twisty, turning, dark path full of worst case scenarios. So he focused on the here and now- her alabaster skin, sweaty dark hair, the smell of sex in the air.

Emily was trying to get comfortable. She wiggled around before flipping over again. Reid was shocked when she climbed over his body, depositing herself on the other side of him on the large bed.

He looked at her. "Better?"

She wiggled again, fixing the covers on her. "I need to sleep on my left side. I don't know why but I can't fall asleep otherwise. Weird, huh?"

"No weirder than anything else about you."

She smirked and slapped his chest. "Idiot!"

"Actually, it would take three idiots combined to make my IQ."

She rolled her eyes then scooted a little closer to him, slipped her leg over his, and pressed against his side before letting out a happy sigh. "Okay, now, that's better. Are you good?"

He thought about it. "It's a little more comfortable with Rossi."

Emily through her head back and laughed at his joke.

He feigned cluessness. "What? Too honest? I don't know much about relationships. Should I not say stuff like that?"

"That's it. I'm out of here," she joked, pretending she was going to get out of bed.

Reid caught her and they both laughed, before snuggling together and falling asleep. A few hours later she heard a noise, the window rattling, bolted from her sleep, grabbed the gun she had placed on the night stand and pointed it at the window.

Reid jerked awake.

They stared at the window and saw it was just a cat outside on the fire escape. Emily panted, coming down from the adrenaline rush.

Reid eased the gun out of her hand and set it down. She cried "I can't stand this!"

He took her into his arms and murmured "I know."

She clung to him, her body shivering, and didn't let go for long minutes. He eased her back down onto the mattress, pulled the cover over them and they laid there, holding each other tight with her heart beating a mile a minute.