TR: Thanks to all of my readers and reviewers! You've inspired me to work on this when I should have been doing homework. I promise to try and get three done ASAP but between jury duty coming up and all the homework due before midterms, don't hold it against me if it's a bit slow please! Now on with the story!
Derek Morgan had been prepared to see Reid show up on the jet with a box or three of books. He wouldn't have even been surprised to see the genius appear with every episode of Star Trek on DVD instead. But what no one on the jet was expecting to see is what they actually got. Spencer Reid ducked through the door with a lightly packed messenger bag, a box full of sheet music for currently popular songs, and two soft guitar cases strapped together and slung over one shoulder. JJ, who had arrived just before Reid, stared at the lanky man with a look of incredulity and just a hint of lust. If his possessions weren't surprising enough, Reid's clothing certainly was. Once again he wore his favorite pair of Converse, but to the shock of all he wore a pair of faded jeans with a hole over his right knee. The typical sweater and tie were gone, and the dress shirt Spencer wore was left unbuttoned over a simple white tee.
Garcia was the last to board, and when she got a good look at the youngest member of the team, she couldn't help but to gasp in awe at his appearance. "Holy hand grenades! Reid, when did you become a model and why was I not informed? You might need to take Derek along just to fend off the girls who are gonna want to jump you!"
Feeling suddenly very embarrassed, Reid scrambled for a new subject. Grasping at straws mentally, he noticed something hiding under JJ's seat. From what he could tell, it was a rather old bag of some kind. Based on what little Reid could see of it, the bag was brown leather and she was trying very hard to deflect attention away from it. Stowing his guitars gently and plopping down on the couch across from her, Reid launched his counter attack. "So JJ, I've never seen that bag before. What's in it?"
Jumping slightly at the question, JJ cursed inwardly. Reid's plot to divert everyone's attention away from himself had worked flawlessly. Seven sets of eyes swiveled to focus on the petite blonde as she scrambled to come up with an answer. 'I'd rather be in a room full of pissed off reporters than a plane with six profilers.' "Oh it's nothing, just a few things to take with me. There's really nothing special." 'Damn, damn, damn. There is no way that they're going to leave this alone.' JJ was mentally berating herself. What was it that Penelope had said to Morgan before her disastrous date with Battle? Ah yes, she had said that she hated profilers. Now that was something JJ could agree with wholeheartedly.
"JJ, it's ok. Whatever you have in there is fine, we aren't going to laugh or tease you. But we do need to see it to make sure it can't compromise your cover. If it makes you feel any better, we'll be checking what Reid brought along too."
If JJ wasn't so completely straight, she would have kissed Emily right then. With a small sigh, JJ grabbed the bag from under her seat and set it on her lap. Gently pulling out four jewelry boxes, she opened each one and set them so her team could see the contents. One box held a simple gold cross on a chain, while another had a pink quartz heart that was also set in gold. The third had a pair of pearl earrings, and the fourth held glittering diamond studs inside. Taking a deep breath, JJ reached into the bag one more time to pull out what could be considered her most prized possession in the entire world. With great care she extracted the final item and placed it on the small table with the jewelry boxes. She had just revealed her biggest weakness to the people that she considered family.
"Aw sweetie, he's adorable! Where did you get him?" Garcia squealed with glee. JJ couldn't help but to blush daintily. The stuffed monkey on the table had been with her through the best and worst points in her life.
"I got Ling-Ling when I was five for Christmas. Since my uncle got him while on a business trip in China, I figured I should give him a Chinese sounding name. He's been with me through everything since then." By now JJ could feel her cheeks burning as she ducked her head, hiding behind a blonde curtain. Here she was almost thirty years old and she was bringing a children's toy along on a case. To her surprise it wasn't Emily or Penelope that spoke up to reassure her, it was Derek.
"JJ, you've got nothing to be embarrassed about. Hell, if I didn't have a little sister I'd probably still have the bear I got when I was a baby. But God knows Desiree just couldn't be satisfied with her own toys so she took mine."
Emily chuckled lightly at that. "At least you know where yours is. The bear I used to have got lost during a move when I was younger."
It seemed that JJ's revelation was leading to a group revelation, and she was completely ok with that. Now that JJ, Emily, and Derek had all shared their stories, all eyes shifter to the tech goddess of the team.
"What? You've all seen my office; does it really surprise you that I have a shelf of toys from my childhood at home? Honestly guys, you should have expected that. What about you boss man?" One thing that was certain, Garcia had balls. No one else had the guts to turn this topic onto the workaholic. To their surprise however, Hotch actually smiled a bit before responding.
"I had a stuffed dinosaur that I passed on to Jack when he was born. Toys are meant to be played with, and now he has something of me with him all the time." Everyone on the team smiled at that logic. They all knew how much Hotch missed his son, so the fact that he gave the little boy such a prized possession warmed their hearts.
Out of the corner of his eye, Morgan saw Reid fidget on the couch. "What about you kid? You must have had some sort of toys that you played with growing up."
Reid bit his lip for a moment before answering his best friend. "I did once. My father gave me a stuffed horse when I was very little, and I kept him close for the longest time."
"What happened to it?" Emily sounded quite curious.
Reid sat up and looked down at his shoes, shoulders drooping with the weight of a soul weary sigh. "My senior year of high school I came home to find my mom burning a bonfire in the back yard. She was burning all the porcelain dolls she had from when she was a little girl and she had thrown my horse on the fire too. Mom had been in the middle of one of her episodes, and the voices convinced her that the dolls and my horse were demons that were going to kill us in our sleep."
Reid knew no one would know what to say after that, so he pulled the box of sheet music over and opened it. Nudging the box toward the rest of the team, Reid stood and pulled his guitars out from their storage place. Setting the conjoined cases on the floor and detaching them from each other, he couldn't hide his smirk at the sound of his teammates shock at the boxes contents. He knew they thought he listened to nothing but classical music, so it was nice to prove them wrong. Reid's smirk grew to a grin as he looked up and saw Morgan and Garcia huddled over the box as they flipped through the folders inside.
"Reid, man, where did you get all these? I didn't even know you listened to Fall Out Boy or Blink 182. What other secrets are you hiding?"
"Morgan, having an IQ of 187 does not preclude good taste in music. Besides, how do you expect me to play guitar without songs?" Reid leaned back down to unzip the guitar cases, exasperation heavy in his voice. Flipping the lids off of each case, he picked up his electric guitar. Carefully tuning the purple fender, Reid pushed the empty case toward Rossi as Gideon reached for the acoustic.
"Reid?" Garcia inquired, "Do you have a group that you play with? Because all of these songs have the lyrics included, and there are some in here that I pretty sure you'd need someone else to sing."
With a chuckle, Reid responded. "You're right, I can't sing a few of those songs. I'm hoping to use these as a way to blend in with the other student, and maybe I'll find a singer who can do those ones. I do love those songs though."
Not having seen what Garcia had been taking about, Hotch asked the youngest member of the team why he couldn't sing those pieces that had been mentioned. The genius's reply was quite succinct. "My reproductive organs dangle. Without getting kicked hard enough to induce vomiting, I can't hit some of those notes. I might have great range, but there is still a big difference between the highest note a tenor can hit and how high a soprano can go."
Setting his precious fender back into its case, Reid didn't even bother trying to restrain the massive grin on his face as he heard the two eldest profilers choke on their coffees at his response. Closing the guitar cases and reattaching them to each other, he stowed the instruments and sheet music out of the way and grabbed the stack of case files that had been left unattended on one of the empty seats. Sitting back down on the couch after passing the files out, Reid looked to Gideon and spoke. "Maybe we should go over the case file before we land. After all, it's going to be a busy two weeks in Vegas, isn't it 'Dad'?"
Woohoo! I love writing Reid and Garcia, they are so much fun. Next time we really will get into the heart of the case, I promise.