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Blind Date

"Will you two stop arguing?" Hotch stepped between Morgan and Emily. "We only have a few hours until Reid needs to be ready."

Emily and Morgan stared each other down despite Hotch, who sighed and ordered Emily to go with Reid to shop for his date. "Morgan," Hotch cut off the inevitable protest. "I need you here. Docks and the officers accompanying us need more briefing on the profile."

"Hotch… They know what to look for. I think -"

"Emily's perfectly capable of helping Reid." Rossi interjected. "She's a woman."

"I know that Rossi. I have eyes." Morgan argued, but his dark eyes twinkled. "I'm not blind."

"You shut up and get to work." Emily snapped at Morgan.

She took Reid's arm and began pulling him toward the door. He planted his feet and yanked his arm away from her. "I look fine Hotch. I don't need -"

"Emily…" Hotch interrupted.

Emily walked around Reid looking him up and down thoroughly as Reid went crimson. She shook her head. "Nope… He needs something besides the cords and sweater vest."

"He's in the room if you don't mind." Reid squeaked indignantly.

"Go with Emily." Hotch ordered.

"Fine," he stalked out of the room leaving behind the rest of his highly amused team.

"Don't worry Hotch… He'll be perfect when we get back." Emily promised their boss.

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"Reid, hurry up already. We're short on time."

"I look ridiculous." He called from the men's changing room.

"Don't make me come in there and get you."

Another man, just leaving the changing room with a new suit over his arm smirked at her. She smiled back sweetly at him and remarked. "He's a little shy."

"Emily!" Reid poked his head around the corner.

"I'm going to need to see all of you, to know if you're presentable."

Barney, the sales clerk, motioned him forward as well. Reid stepped out into the main area of the shop full of men's clothes ranging from suits to jeans. The young agent wore a black wool jacket with a button over zip front closure, which he had left open covering a white shirt with black swirl printing on the right shoulder and chest area, which resembled the Old English text font on her computer. A pair of black jeans completed the look.

"Wow…" She said aloud, and then snapped her mouth closed as he just stared at her. "You look like a total geek chic."

"Thanks," he said. "I think."

"The young lady is right. The outfit is tres chic." The tall, skinny and blond haired sales clerk agreed.

"Why don't you try on the sweater too?" Emily said as she tried to keep her tongue in her mouth and her eyes in her head.

"Why?"

"We might need to send you out of more than one date." She said as though it were obvious.

"Fine," he rolled his eyes and returned to the changing room.

He returned much faster this time wearing the same pair of black jeans and a charcoal sweater with an argyle front in black, red, and white diamond pattern. He wore it over a charcoal tee shirt of the same color. The zipper in the front of the sweater opened halfway, but Reid had zipped it to his neck to resemble a turtleneck.

Emily approached and pulled the zipper down slowly as Barney watched them like a man dying of thirst in the desert.

She stepped back, coughed into one hand, and said in a slightly out of breath tone. "Reid, turn around please."

"Why?" He squeaked again.

"Just do it."

He turned around and her palms began to sweat. Since he'd spent months on crutches and in physical therapy, his backside had improved immensely. "Um, I think we'll take both outfits." She advised Barney.

"We will?" Reid said.

"Yeah… make up your mind which one you want to wear tonight." She ordered.

Reid dashed back into the changing room. Emily glanced over at the Barney who looked like someone had punched him in the stomach.

"You are a lucky woman." He suddenly said to Emily. "Your boyfriend is very attractive."

Emily smirked. "Yeah… He's hot." She agreed.

The sales clerk frowned and returned to the checkout area. Emily waited until Reid returned wearing the sweater and jeans, and carrying his work clothes and the second outfit. She whipped out her corporate card, wondering how to explain this on an expense voucher. She decided if Strauss made a fuss, she would pay for the clothes herself. It was worth just looking at Reid. She tried not to laugh, as Reid remained oblivious to the admiration of the sales clerk.

"What are you smirking at?" Reid asked as they left and hurried to the SUV. "I look stupid don't I?"

She climbed behind the wheel and slammed the door as he got into the passenger side. "Reid… You look smoking hot. The clerk thought so too."

Reid went crimson and picked at the end of his sweater arm. "No he didn't," he argued.

"You really are innocent Reid. Don't worry, I told him I was your girlfriend."

"You what?" He nearly shouted.

"He was about to hit on you." She informed him. "I thought having to go out on a blind date and get new clothes was as much as you could handle at the moment."

He sighed. "I'm going to mess this up."

Emily glanced over, looked him up and down again and smiled. "You won't have to say a word Reid, not looking like that."

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The inside of Bixby's was crowded with young people, especially young woman of all shapes, sizes and ages. In fact, Reid nearly bowled over two gray haired women who were headed to a booth with glasses of white wine.

He looked around the crowded room, which boasted a black and white tile floor, and a u-shaped glass and metal bar. Several blond and beautiful women staffed the bar, their backs toward the cash register and shelves of liquor and glasses.

"I don't see her." Reid murmured as a crowd of men milled around him, ignoring him.

"You're going to have to step further into the room." Morgan's voice sounded in his ear.

"I've got her." Emily said from her position at the bar several feet away from Hotch. "She's to your left at ten o'clock."

Reid looked to his left to see Megan sitting at a small round table. She looked up through the crowds at the same time and smiled. Reid took in a deep breath and headed through the crowd to the table.

"H-hi…" He squeaked, cleared his throat and started again. "I'm Sp- I mean Jason Spencer." He corrected just in time.

"Sit down Dr. Spencer." She said, her green eyes looking him up and down. "It's nice to meet you."

Her voice reminded him of melted butter. She had a slight southern accent that appealed to him. She wore a red dress with spaghetti straps. He supposed it went with her hair. He really didn't know, but he knew that girls took a lot of time with their appearance for first dates.

"You - um, you look nice." He squeaked and cursed his voice. She'd run away for sure.

"So do you," she indicated for him to sit. "I'm surprised you'd need a web site to get a date. By the way, I'm Megan Sheridan, like the hotel chain."

"Are you from around here?"

He kicked himself again for such a dumb question. Everyone was witnessing his humiliation. Morgan was never going to let him hear the end of it.

She swirled the red swizzle stick around in her drink. "No, I just moved here from Savannah Georgia."

"Greensboro's a larger city than Savannah with a population of 257,997 as of July 2009. Savannah only has a population of 131,510 as of the 2000 census." Reid supplied helpfully.

"Do you memorize maps in your spare time?" Megan asked with a smile.

"Yes… Um, I mean I like facts and statistics."

He thought he heard Morgan chuckle in his ear, but he ignored it. The state of the art microphone in his ear had seemed like a good idea, but maybe they'd been wrong. He wanted to yank it out of his ear so he didn't feel like they all laughed. Of course, he knew he couldn't do that because she could be this killer.

"Jason," she said. "Hello…"

"Oh sorry… I was thinking about work. We've been busy and I can't seem to turn it off."

Instead of getting angry, she smiled kindly. "I think I know what you mean. I'm studying to be a nurse and that's why I went on the site. I don't have time for dating the old fashioned way."

"I think you're very nice and pretty." He blurted out.

"Thank you, you're very sweet. Would you like a drink?" She asked.

"Um… Yeah, I can get it." He said standing up.

"Don't be gone long."

"Yeah lover boy, you got her eating out of your hand." Morgan said in his ear.

"Shut up!" Reid said through gritted teeth.

He ordered a beer and hurried back through the crowd. He stepped up to the table only to see another man sitting there having a very loud conversation with Megan. "I told you, we're done when I say we're done."

He tried to yank her to her feet. "Stop it Donald." She shouted back.

"Excuse me," Reid began to say.

"Who the hell are you?" The man shouted.

He stood up, towering over Reid by about four inches. He had the same kind of build as Morgan and he swayed like the profoundly drunk. "Why don't you go about your business, little man?"

"He's my date. Leave him alone, Don!" Megan shouted over the noise.

The man shoved Reid back into the crowd. "Hey…" Morgan appeared and grabbed Don. He pulled the man away from the pair. "Get lost or I'll call the cops."

"Stay out of this." The other man tried to pull his arm from Morgan's grasp.

"You're drunk," Megan shouted. "Get out of here."

Morgan pulled Donald from the bar. "Sorry if he's bothering you miss." He told Megan without acknowledging Reid.

"I'm sorry," Megan told Reid. "He's my ex boyfriend. He won't leave me alone."

"It's not your fault. Do you want to call the police?" Reid asked.

"No… I'm sorry Jason, but I think I'm going to cut this short. I'm very sorry, you're a really nice guy." She said again, and then she stood on tiptoe and pecked him on the cheek. As she left the bar, he stood there in the middle of the crowds of people that weren't paying attention, wondering what went wrong.