Hello again. So Morgan is still putting Reid up, as well as putting "up" with him. Here's more on how that's going!
Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine. This plot bunny is, though...
"What the hell is that?!"
"Nothing…" He tried to look really, really innocent. It wasn't working.
"No, that'ssomething, my friend. A four-footed, beady eyed littlesomething."
"It was lonely…?"
Morgan looked at his friend. The young man was sitting on the couch, letting the little fuzzy…thing…run all over his shoulders and his hair.
"Where did it come from?"
"Oh, the little girl next door had them."
"Them?!"
"Yeah—apparently she woke up one morning a couple weeks ago and found a whole nest of them in the tank. She said the proud parents were Harvey and Steve."
"Sounds to me like she couldn't tell that Steve was really Stephanie."
"Well, she is eight…" Reid shrugged as Clooney came in for a closer look at the new tenant. "I think I'm gonna call him Darwin."
"In about a minute my dog is gonna call him 'dinner.'"
Reid moved away from the curious canine, hoping to save his newfound friend. "It's okay if I keep him, right?"
Now there's a first, Morgan thought. He's already decided to keep the little rodent and now he decides to ask if it's okay?
Morgan looked at the young man, still letting the 'rodent' in question run through his shirt and across his lap. Personally, Morgan hated gerbils-- and all their little cousins, too.
But then there was the whole "fire" thing. And the "car" thing. And the fact that half of his place was either full of Reid's new housewares or being systematically destroyed by the perpetually clumsy agent.
Not to mention there was that look he had when he really, really wanted something, like a kid looking in a store window. Morgan wondered if Reid had actually ever gotten to use it as a kid; he seemed to use it quite a bit now…
He threw up his hands. "All right. Just keep it away from me, all right?"
The smile that burst over Reid's face matched the shine that lit up his eyes.
"Just…how many of these things did Lisa say she ended up with?" Morgan asked.
"Oh, only about ten or twelve…"
Morgan started looking around the floor. Great, he thought. I don't get mice—I get gerbils…
"Oh," Reid added, almost as an afterthought. "I put the dishes through the dishwasher, but there's something not right about them…"
Oh, no, Morgan thought. "Not right how?"
"There's this…I dunno, waxy?...stuff all over the dishes."
Morgan looked at the dishes in the cupboard, all shiny and put away. He picked up a plate and saw immediately what Reid was talking about—there was a waxy residue on the surface of the plate.
"Reid, what did you put in the soap dispenser?"
"That stuff in the blue bottle…" His voice trailed as he continued to play with his new pet.
Blue bottle? Morgan thought. But the dishwashing stuff's in a green…oh, crap, thefabric softener's in a blue bottle!
And right then, Morgan began seriously wondering how much it would cost to send his friend and co-worker over to a small country halfway around the world at parcel post rate.