Thank you all for being so amazingly patient with me between updates. I promise I am working really hard to bring you all the best story that I can, and that I'm not neglecting this story when the updates or slow. Hospital visits will do that to a girl. This chapter starts to set up something that's going to become apparent as the story goes on, and also bring it together at the end. I have a rough outline of where I'm going with this, but it's still a little sketchy, so bear with me while I figure it all out, and speak up if you don't like something. I promise this is leading up to something big, but with a little bit of a more personal twist. Thank you for reading, and you all own my heart.
lolyncut – Thanks for the review! I shall continue indeed :)! Thank you for requesting that I do.
Noskilz – Thank you for the review! Thank you very much for your kind words! They are appreciated. I quite enjoy your username, by the way.
Danicalif80 – Thanks for the review! I really love how you explained the role reversal. It made my day. Plus, I immediately pictured Reid wearing one of those tall, pointy princess hats with the long, flowing silk on the back of them. It was pink, in case you were wondering. I am totally going into this story thinking about princesses and fairy tale endings, and even with the proposed ending I have in mind, I still imagine Reid being the one wearing the princess hat. I think Melinda would refuse it and grab a beer instead. Seriously, you made my day.
Chapter 6
Troubling Behavior
By the time the plane landed, Reid was already trying to act as if he wasn't as tired as he actually was, but JJ couldn't waste the energy. She was half asleep, between the pregnancy hormones and the hour of night they were coming up on. The change in time zones hardly helped the situation, adding a few more hours to her already stressed day. She didn't know how much longer she could keep going, but she had done it before, and she would continue to do it for Reid. She didn't want to let him down again. She already felt as if she had done that enough, and she didn't want another incident on her hands, only for the case to be focused on.
The circumstances being as they were, the royal FBI treatment was not available. Although the FBI had approved the case because of a loophole and the situation, it truly was not a team effort when it came down to it. It was constricted only to the interpersonal workings of the BAU and their extended family in JJ. Enter the commercial plane and the lack of a government vehicle waiting for them when they got arrived, but Reid knew the second had been true the first time as well, having only transportation awaiting to take them to and from the airport. All of that being as it may, it was just Reid and JJ, and even in their exhaustion, they were well aware of that.
JJ fell asleep in the car not long after departing from the airport, making a rarity out of letting Reid drive, and being comfortable with it on top of it. She couldn't help herself in every literal sense. Her condition wouldn't allow for it.
She woke up just inside the town limits of their destination, groggy, reaching her for water in the center console. She noticed that Reid hadn't flinched long enough to notice she had awoken, his eyes intent on the road, and she almost thought she caught a glimpse of sadness in them, but she couldn't be sure.
"Spence." She reached her hand out, gently touching his shoulder. At first he didn't hear her, so it took her another time of calling his name to shake him out of whatever trance he was in. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I was just wondering if you had made us any hotel reservations."
"Ah, no, I haven't. I didn't even think about it. I'm sorry." Reid was still trying to focus on his own issues when he answered her, his voice becoming a little desperate as he apologized, realizing all the things JJ had to do before, and all the things he didn't know how to do, or didn't think of.
"It's okay. I'll make some phone calls...as soon as I can get some cell service out here." JJ held the phone up to the roof of the car, and she even thought about opening the window and holding it out there to see if she got service, but then she realized there was no way she could hold it out there and also talk on it, so it was useless.
"It's a little spotty out here. It will work fine in town. We'll almost there. It's just around this..." JJ looked up from trying to spot service on her phone, as Reid stopped talking.
"Spence?" He began to pull the car to the right, not saying anything, almost fixated. When JJ looked up and saw what was in front of her, she became more worried. "Spence? Spence, what is it?"
"This is Melinda's bar...was Melinda's bar." In front of them sat carnage of the likes JJ had not seen before, not even on the arson cases they had investigated. This was something much worse, nothing but uncleaned ash and stone parking lot as far as the eye could see.
"Wow." JJ wished she had something better to say than that, something helpful, but she regretted to inform herself that she didn't. She felt like she wasn't helping, but it was what came out, and by the time she caught herself, Reid was already making his exit from the car.
JJ got out of the car after him, and looked over at Reid. He stood there at the hood of the car, looking out into the darkness, a somber look across his face. He seemed almost vacant and mannequin like, so still, so quiet. JJ walked over to him, putting her hand on his shoulder again, seeing first hand the emotional toll this was taking on him.
"Spence, are you okay?" He turned his head, looking down at her and trying to pull himself together, but mostly he was just faking it, and to someone who was as familiar with him as JJ, it was obvious.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Even he knew he was lying to himself, and he did a lousy job, but he wasn't in the mood to be corrected. With his defenses up again, it was to be expected.
"What are you looking for?" JJ could tell by the look on his face that he was studying the scene for something specific, possibly because he had been there before. She hadn't, and was unfamiliar with the place, wanting to learn more.
"I don't know yet." He then looked up, past the bar and a little to the right, and then began walking. JJ followed behind him, holding her stomach as she walked, almost as if she was shielding her baby from seeing the useless destruction amongst them.
JJ wanted to ask him where they were going, and why they were passing up the crime scene in front of them, but she knew better. Reid knew what he was doing, what he was looking for, subconsciously, if nothing else. Even though the fire had taken place over a month ago, you could still feel the air of loss, and sense the smell of smoke, even just faintly. It was clear nothing good happened here, and JJ hoped, for Reid's sake, that the person he had truly talked to post the fire was his friend, and not someone pretending to be her.
As soon as they were past the ashes, he drifted through a few trees and exited at a clearing that sat a mere fifty feet from the crime scene. Once there, he stopped and stood, reflecting the same way he had back at the car while looking at what was left of the bar. JJ caught up quickly, and was tempted to interrupt, but considering she felt she had done that enough, she knew he'd explain his temporary silence when he was ready. All she had to do was stand around and wait.
"Jolene's house was here." Reid pointed to the ground, a place that seemed far more cleaned up from the scene of the bar. It was clear that pointing to it was his way of literally pointing that out, both of them finding it odd that the ashes were cleaned up back here, but not at the bar. But that wasn't the only thing that was odd.
"Jolene? The original owner of the bar?" JJ was trying to keep up. He had finally caught her up on the situation while on plane, and she had a chance to read through the original file, but being as she wasn't actually here, there were still parts that were blank for her.
"Yes. Her house was here." He pointed again, as if to drive the point home, but more likely because he couldn't believe a house just up and left with no trace whatsoever. He'd seen a lot of things, but this was a new one.
"Are you sure? You did say that Melinda lived in the apartment connected to the bar, right?" JJ was a little confused in her tiredness, trying to recall everything Reid had said to her on the plane. Unlike him, she didn't have a total recall kind of memory.
"I did. She stayed there because she found Jolene shot on her couch in her house. She was unable to set foot back inside of the house, but I'm sure it was here because she allowed us to stay in it, instead of making us cross town to get to our hotel the night after I was kidnapped." Reid clarified for her, and then started to walk around the outline of where the house was, the only place where the grass hadn't grown nearly a foot high. Now that he was here and saw the damage, his adrenaline was running, and he found himself more awake.
"How does a house just disappear? There's no ashes, so they were either cleaned up, or..." Reid broke in, having come to the same conclusion as JJ.
"The house didn't catch on fire. We've both been all over the police report, and there was no mention of the house burning down, too." His voice wasn't skeptical, but instead confusingly thoughtful. He liked things that were logical, things that made sense, but this just confused him. Houses didn't have legs. Of this he was sure.
"Would Melinda have had it torn down since Jolene had died in it?" This was JJ's way of piecing a few things together. If Reid had explained this to her on the plane, she had forgotten. But Reid had an awful habit of sometimes assuming others knew the facts when they didn't, and this would certainly be one of those times.
"No. In fact, she would have done the opposite. Although she couldn't set foot in that house, she made sure the crime scene team cleaned it, and she had someone come in and keep it clean every few months, and the neighbor kid mowed the lawn. She preserved it as if she were preserving Jolene's memory. This isn't something she would have done. There was also a '57 Impala that Jolene owned. Melinda used to talk about it. She said Jolene would take it into the nearest city when she needed to stock up on supplies for the bar, and it was worth a lot of money. She didn't want to sell it because it was Jolene's baby, but I find it odd that an expensive classic car has also disappeared." Reid bent down to the ground, wiping his fingers across it and looking for any sign of residue that could be left behind after a fire. There didn't seem to be any as far as he could tell, just dirt and bugs.
"Maybe Melinda took it." Reid shook his head, now going to stand in the driveway, like it would help him feel the energy of where the car went or something. Now he had two large objects without legs that seemingly got up and wandered off with no police report given whatsoever.
"No. Like I mentioned on the plane, she can't drive. No one ever taught her, and after everything she's been through, she's not dumb enough to go driving on the roads without a license, and risk being made an example of in the system. In fact, she never even switched the car's registration to her name after Jolene's death. Besides that, the keys to the car were in Jolene's house. She wouldn't have gone in there to get them, and I'm fairly certain she has no idea how to hot wire a car." Reid paused for a second, running back a few things he knew about Melinda in his head, confirming to himself the last sentence he had said.
"Just fairly?" He nodded, looking up at her.
"Yes." As soon as he said that, he looked away, as if it were the most normal thing, and went back to trying to survey the scene in the dark.
"Okay. That's not disturbing whatsoever." JJ turned from him, talking to herself and feeling the baby kick just after she finished, almost as she found her mom's sarcastic humor funny. This baby wasn't even born yet, and she was already bound to give Reid a hard time. JJ could live with that.
"What did you say?" JJ shook her head, smiling to herself. Of course Reid would hear that, when he was often oblivious to everything else around him. Her face changed to one of slight panic when she realized he was staring at her, waiting for her to answer with something.
"Maybe we can solve this together." It was stupid, but the best she had. She hadn't, however, counted on Reid's reaction.
"Are you okay?" Because what she said seemed to make nearly zero sense considering they were there to solve a case together, Reid worried that she was not feeling well. Maybe the flight had been too long. Maybe she was just tired. She was usually much quicker with her words than that, though, rarely stating the obvious.
"Yeah, I'm just tired, you know, with the baby and all." She put her hand on her stomach again, this time finding no reason to make anything up. Although it wasn't what made her say what she had, it was the truth and it worked here.
"Oh, right. I'm sorry. I should be taking better care of you. We can do this in the morning. We'll be able to see better, anyway. I just got sidetracked." He instantly felt bad dragging JJ around at this hour of the night in her condition. He hadn't meant to, but once he caught site of the bar, the damage far worse than he thought, unbelieving that there was nothing left but ashes, he had to stop. There was something within him that controlled him, that made him pull over before his sensibility kicked in.
"It's fine. You're doing what we came here to do, and you don't have to take care of me. I'm a big girl and I'm fine, but thank you." JJ's words meant no ill will and were soft. Reid knew that, but he still felt bad about the situation, coming up beside her and placing his hand on her back.
"Come on. Let's go find ourselves somewhere to stay so the two of you can get some rest." Reid would forever be somewhat protective of JJ. He had lost his head for a few minutes, but looking at her and the way she held onto her stomach put things into perspective for him.
"Will and I have been thinking about names for her. I'd really like your opinion on a few, if you'd be okay with that." JJ knew Reid was bothered, it was evident in his eyes. Knowing she was the one taking him away from a crime scene he'd otherwise spend all night staring at, nothing making more sense until daylight approached, she tried to change the subject, making him feel needed in another way.
"Of course." They continued through the lone trees, until their feet met the parking lot again. As they walked, JJ could tell she was leading them, as his eyes were right back on the wreckage. He was wondering what kind of accidental fire would burn hot enough to melt everything in its path, including the appliances.
"What do you think about..." Reid's eyes shifted forward as he heard something in the distance, near where they had parked their rental. Something didn't feel right, so he cut JJ off mid sentence.
"Just hold on one minute. JJ, stay here. Here's my gun, just in case. You're a better shot than I am. If something looks off, don't hesitate, just shoot." Reid removed his gun from the holster and handed it to her. He knew he was walking up to the stranger in the car alone, unarmed, but he knew how JJ had shot James Baylor after he tried to murder Penelope, and that she had it handled. He knew most likely he was being over pretentious, but he didn't want to go in unarmed, not in this town; not after what had happened to him.
JJ was left behind him to stand in the shoes of confusion, wondering why he was so upset over a car pulling in next to theirs. Sure, it was suspicious, but that's when it hit her. Nothing about this crime scene wasn't, leading Reid to believe they had stepped into something much worse than they thought, and someone was here to control that. In all of that, and all of his excuses, he also knew JJ no longer carried a weapon around on a regular basis now that she was with the Pentagon, and although she did have the best shot, he also gave her his gun to assure that she could protect her baby and herself.
"Excuse me, this is private property. You can't be here. I'm going to have to escort you off of the property." A voice rang out through the night, but it was one Reid immediately recognized, although the car was unfamiliar to him at first, and in the dark. Once he got closer to the man, he saw he was in civilian clothing, and most likely driving his civilian car as well, being off duty.
"Sheriff Cauruthers? It's Dr. Reid from the FBI. I'm sure you remember me. I was the one who got kidnapped while working the serial killer case a year and a half ago. The woman back there is with me. Her name is Jennifer Jureau. She's on loan to the FBI from the Pentagon. You should have received a call from our Section Chief Director Erin Strauss about our coming. We just got into town and were checking out the crime scene." Reid moved closer to the man, taking out his badge to show him, stopping about five feet from him.
"I remember you." The man motioned for Reid to put his badge away, but didn't retreat with his gun, playing into Reid's sense that something was severely off about this. What he said next didn't help. "What makes you think this is a crime scene?"
"When someone is missing, the last place they were seen alive is a crime scene. This also applies to their place of residence or employment, if either had been tampered with, like Melinda's was. Since the bar qualifies as all three, this is where we have to start." Reid threw his defenses back up, going head to head with someone who was formally one of his allies. Having worked with him before, he could tell the difference in the way he was being addressed by Sheriff Cauruthers. He knew he wasn't welcomed here like he had been the first time.
"As I told your superior on the phone, this isn't a missing persons case. Melinda is flighty at best, and bad company at worst. I'm sorry that you've wasted your time." This did nothing but anger Reid. All of the things Melinda had said regarding how the town felt about her were true. Reid never thought she was lying when she said it, but it was another thing to see it first hand.
"Actually, Melinda is a missing person by definition. She is someone who disappeared for no known reason. And in case you forgot, she saved my life that night, while your team got cold and went home." Reid was downright angry now. At the time, he had known the team of police had done all they could for him, but now, thinking back, he became more and more angry about how his team was alone when they found him. Suddenly, just that fast, he wasn't so willing to cooperate with this man.
"We do know the reason she disappeared. Her bar, her home, it burned down. We can't even be sure she didn't perish in the fire." Reid shook his head. It was obvious now more than ever that the police had done nothing to try to find Melinda. They shrugged off the bar burning down, didn't care that she wasn't seen after, and moved on with their day. It was shoddy police work, because regardless of if they like Melinda or not, finding her was still their job.
"Yes, we can, because I spoke with her a few days after the fire. The problem is, our office was unable to locate her past that. This may not be an official case, but we do have bureau permission to investigate it, which is exactly what we're going to do." By this point in the conversation, JJ had made her way to Reid's side. She could see she didn't need to shoot anyone, that Reid was familiar with the person, but that things were getting heated. The feeling of discomfort could be felt in the air all through town, she was sure.
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Dr. Reid. I really am." His whole voice changed, and his actions, too. He seemed to lay down his guard for a moment, meaning in his words, but just as quickly he shifted. This wasn't normal behavior for someone who didn't have something to hide. "I also think you and your friend should come to the station so we can talk."
"With all due respect, she's pregnant and I'd like to get her to a hotel to lie down." Reid deflected this, knowing he would have to come back and they'd have to have a face to face talk eventually, but it wasn't going to be tonight. The sheriff was clearly angry they were there stepping on his toes, and he knew the situation needed to cool before trouble brewed. If things went wayward, it was very possible the police force could take the beanstalk and the pregnant woman without much force, so he chose his battles.
"If you just got in, you can't be staying in town. We're all booked up with tourist season and all." Skeptical, Reid turned to JJ, putting his hand on her back again, as she handed him back his gun to holster, while her hands went back to her stomach. It was obvious to both of them that, no matter the excuse they were given, or if it was true, they weren't wanted there. It was safer and better for them to find accommodations elsewhere.
"That's fine. If you could just point us in the direction of the nearest hotel, we'll meet back up with you at the station at eight am. I'd like to know what happened to Jolene's house and car." The sheriff nodded, agreeing to Reid's terms, which he was thankful for. He was concerned the Sheriff was still going to attempt to drag the two back to the station.
"Go back the way you came about seventy miles. You'll see some of those chain hotels start to pop up along the route the closer you get to the airport. There's nothing closer." Reid stared down the sheriff for a moment, angry, knowing there was no way they were going to be able to make the nearly two hour trek on back roads, many with a speed limit never exceeding thirty five miles per hour, each day, just to investigate that case. Small towns plagued these back roads, and there had to be somewhere else to stay. But Reid didn't argue. He could tell when they weren't wanted.
"Fine. Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow." Reid's voice was cold, anything friendly about it having escaped into the night air. With his hand still on JJ's back, he started to pull her toward him. "Come on, JJ."
JJ was still trying to figure out what was going on and what she had missed, but she doubted she'd find the answers in any file. She got into the car quietly, and cringed as Reid slammed the door. He put his seatbelt on, and watched as she struggled to get hers over her tummy. He reached over, pulling it around her gently and latching it for her. He knew the sheriff wasn't leaving until they did, so he quickly pulled out of the parking lot and began to go back the way they came. No one said anything until Reid pulled the car to the side of the road just outside of the town limits.
"Are you all right? You went from almost catatonic at the scene, to very upset with that sheriff. What...was that all about? I thought you had a good rapport with the police department, what with catching their serial killer and all." Reid shut the car off, sitting back in his seat and calming himself for a second before answering. He was feeling the pressure as everything fell on his shoulders one heavy cement block at a time.
"Oh, they like me just fine. It's Melinda they have something against. She has a sorted past of living on the streets and grifting just to stay alive, and Jolene understood that and took her in. When Jolene died, she left everything to Melinda. Jolene was well loved in town. They thought Melinda had something to do with her death, until the serial killer cropped up that brought us into the case. I wouldn't doubt if one of them didn't set fire to that place." Reid clenched his fists, a reaction that startled JJ. She knew he would never hurt anyone, so she wanted to clarify things, while letting him verbally release the tension that had built up inside of him.
"Wasn't the fire ruled accidental?" JJ turned on the overhead light and began to grab for Reid's bag in the back of the car, wanting to flip through the files one more time to check her facts. Reid turned the light off right away, realizing what JJ was doing, and that there was no way she was going to be able to turn to grab his bag in her position, and that he could answer that question.
"It's a small town, JJ. No one would tell if the fire chief altered those documents. In fact, they were probably all in on it. Did you see Sheriff Cauruthers' face when I told him I had spoken to Melinda post the fire? He was genuinely shocked, as if he had assumed her dead. Why else would he assume that if no one had tried to kill her?" Reid was being irrational, although he'd never see it that way. All he could see was how right he was about all of this, and that the house and the car being gone proved that.
"Whoa, Spence, before you get started on any conspiracy theories, let's just get somewhere so that you can get some sleep and clear your head. We'll come back tomorrow and talk face to face with the sheriff. You're a profiler, so you'll know if he's lying after you ask him everything you want to ask him. Right now, until you can do that, it's not worth getting yourself worked up over." JJ reached her hand over and put it on Reid's arm, rubbing it gently. She felt bad for him. He didn't handle personal situations very well, and she was becoming more and more glad that she was the one there to comfort him through this, since he had always had that special bond with her.
"Thanks, Mom." His voice stayed sarcastic, but his body relaxed a little, knowing JJ was only trying to help. And, as much as he hated to admit it, she probably was right, at least about thinking this over with a clear head. He doubted he'd change his mind, though.
"Anytime. Besides, if you go in there tomorrow with an accusatory tone like that, you know the sheriff is going to be unwilling to work with us. That's the last thing we need. Even if you are suspicious, we have to go in as a friend, not a foe. I'm here to help you, and my speciality just happens to be working as a liaison between the FBI and the police departments, so feel free to use me to your advantage." She nodded her head, trying to get Reid to understand, as he turned to look at her. He nodded back, his silent way of saying he understood. "Good, because we need to focus on finding somewhere to stay. Someone is becoming awfully cranky right now."
JJ put her hand on her stomach, indicating the baby's dislike for her forcing herself to stay awake, stressing out her body and her baby in one.
"What? I'm not that cranky, am I?" JJ laughed, shook her head, and then brought her arm up, balancing it on the door and laying her head into it.
"I meant the baby, Spence, but it could probably apply to you, too." She smiled to herself, knowing Reid would never pick up that she was partially joking, but it amused her.
She lifted her head from her hand, moaning a little to herself in her exhaustion, and tried to reach for her phone that was clipped to her pants with no avail, because of her stomach. She thrashed from side to side, looking much like she would imagine a beached whale to look like. She may have had more luck if she removed her seatbelt, but then she would need Reid to help her get back into it, and that was another feat in itself. Next time she would have to remember to remove her phone from her pants first.
"What are you doing?" Reid hadn't meant it to come out so sharp, only to ask her what he could help her with. He couldn't help if he couldn't figure out if she needed it first. Because of this, he was completely hesitant to ask the next question, fearful about the possible answer, at best. "Are you going into labor?"
"What?" The question threw JJ enough that it took her a minute to even find his naivety funny. When she did, her response came out in partial laughter, and a little bemusement at his expense."No, Spence, I'm trying to get my phone. It's clipped on my pants. Could you give me a hand?"
"Where is it?" His voice was met with sheer resistance. He wasn't good around babies and pregnant people. He learned because of Henry, but kept his distance if he could.
Babies kicking inside of bellies were another story altogether. He remembered how strange it felt when JJ made him touch her stomach the first time she was pregnant. Quite frankly, it grossed him out a little, and that was a feeling he wasn't eager to recreate, although he lived through it when she did eventually manage to coerce his hand onto her stomach on the plane.
"Relax, Spence. It's on the right side of me. You can just get out of the car, walk around, open the door and grab it that way. You don't even have to touch the baby." The pit of his stomach sank when she said this.
Although it was said in normal with JJ playfulness that she had with him, he didn't want her to think that he had anything against her being pregnant, or the baby growing inside of her. Being as that was all she could see in this situation, he found himself making a not so wise decision. Call it one of the perils of a genius, yet one track mind.
"It's okay. I've got it." In a stroke of lunacy, Reid lifted himself out of the seat and reached himself over a very pregnant JJ, wedging himself between her pregnant tummy and the dashboard. He then proceeded to feel around her pants line for the phone.
"Spence, I think it would be best if you just got out..." Reid, in his overzealous state of trying to prove he had this handled, interrupted her, his voice high pitched, determined to finish the half baked plan he had already set in motion.
"I got it! I got it!" He was slightly too excited as he yanked the phone off of her pants. All the situation really did for JJ was cause her consternation.
When Reid got an idea in his head, no matter how poor, it usually didn't end well. She knew nothing sexual was meant by it, but she also felt the baby kick like crazy as his lanky body grazed her stomach, and he struggled to hold himself up in a contortionistic pose that he should probably lead with bragging about when approaching a girl about going steady. A few times she was worried he was going to lose his balance, not being a graceful one to begin with, but when he retrieved the phone, struggled his way back onto his tush, and she realized in what position he was just in, she found herself a little impressed, although she still thought the whole thing was just a little dimwitted.
"That was something. I don't know what, but it sure excited the baby." JJ grabbed Reid's hand quickly, before he could think, and put it on her stomach. "Feel."
She wanted to pretend like this wasn't revenge for scaring the heebie-jeebies out of her, and causing her a little bit of discomfort, but that would just be a lie. She wanted him to feel the baby kick and get just a little grossed out. Maybe she even wanted him to get used to it a little, subconsciously convincing him to want some little geniuses of his own one day. The kind of girl he found himself needing was a sweet, nurturing woman, who understood that he took a bit more care and compassion than other guys, and a whole lot of gentility. Women with that much maternal instinct were the kind that wanted kids. JJ just wanted what was best for Reid, and she was afraid that if he continued to be squeamish and unsure, he would chase the right girl away.
"I don't understand why you always have to do that to me! All I wanted to do was help you get your phone! I don't even know why you need it!" Reid got himself worked up and decided to have a hissy fit mixed with a pity party. JJ decided to chalk it up to him being tired, but she knew better.
"Well, the friendly neighborhood sheriff didn't seem to want to us staying in town, so now we have to find somewhere else to stay." JJ retrieved her phone from Reid's hand by reaching across him and physically taking it from him. He was still a few steps behind after she threw him off with the baby belly.
"No, I got that. It still doesn't explain why you needed your phone." JJ rolled her eyes. Sometimes it was too late at night, and one was just too tired to indulge Reid's lagging deduction skills.
"I am calling Garcia and having her find us somewhere to stay, because we went through enough small towns between here and the airport, that I refuse to accept we have to go the whole way back from where we came from just to find lodging. If anyone could find lodging in the most remote places on the map in the quickest time possible, it would be her." JJ began scrolling through her contacts, looking for Garcia's number. Although it was late and she was on a case in Seattle, she knew she would still answer for her girl, JJ.
"But the sheriff said we had to go back. He said there was nothing closer." Reid was being defiant about this entire thing, taking one word at a time and not using his own judgment. He must have really cared about this girl to develop a skull this thick. He had always been dense, but he seemed to be exceptionally so tonight.
"He was also quick to say their accommodations were all booked up for tourist season. Whether that's true or not, I doubt he would know that off of the top of his head. He made it clear he didn't want us staying in town, and he was obviously trying to dissuade us from looking into this further. He would have told us anything to get us to go home. It's probably for the best anyway, because if one of your crazy conspiracy theories turns out to be true, I don't think it would be safe for us or our case files if we stayed in town. It's better this way." JJ found Garcia's number and was about to hit talk, but Reid had to interrupt her again, not letting her do what she had to do so that the three of them could get some sleep; JJ, baby and Reid.
"You got all of that from what he said? And my theory wasn't that crazy." JJ sighed, exhausted from going round and round with him.
"Okay, Mr. 'evil twin and eviler twin.' And in case you forgot, it is...was my job to call the local departments on their bluff. Aren't you supposed to be the profiler?" She lifted her one hand from her phone, pointing to Reid with a false look of confusion on her face.
"Ha-ha. Just find us somewhere to stay." She mentally threw up her hands, finally getting him to concede, and allow her to do what she had been trying to do before his motormouth tried to catch up with his brain.
"Okay. I thought you said you weren't cranky." JJ used her best "oh gees" voice on Reid, picking on him and his constant contradiction he had been juggling ever since she had reunited with him. He either really liked this girl, or he had lost his marbles and everyone was too kind to tell him.
"I'm not. Just call Garcia." JJ had already initiated the call by the time he had said this, and was now listening to Garcia's ever changing antidote of cheery-happy music of which she much enjoyed.
While JJ waited for Garcia to pick up, and even through her conversation with her, JJ would glance at Reid out of the corner of her eye, trying to figure him out. In the time since she had made her call, Reid had snatched the case files out of his bag from the back, running his fingers down the lines of the page, before turning to the next one too quickly for JJ to keep up. When he finished going through all of them, he started over, adding notes here and there. She had never seen him unnecessarily obsess over something she knew he for sure had memorized, and it was a little troubling.
Even as Garcia put her on hold for a few minutes to work her wonders, just like the one and only wonder girl does, JJ still didn't speak. She pretended to be in the midst of a conversation with Garcia, letting Reid be and seeing what became of it. It was times like now that she wished she would have taken Hotch up on the suggestion to profile, because maybe then she could figure out what it was that was making him so different. Feelings she understood, and maybe this was Reid's way of expressing them, but she didn't like seeing him such a wreck. For tonight, and tonight only, she would tell herself he was just tired, because she couldn't think anymore tonight.
When JJ did finally get off the phone, she was apprehensive to interrupt Reid, but she knew she'd have to if she ever wanted to get any sleep tonight. She went in gently, careful not to startle the thinking creature.
"Spence? Sorry." He was so involved in his own world of paperwork that he jumped. When JJ apologized, and only then, he put down the paperwork and looked at her, a puppy dog look in his eyes. "Garcia found us a room at a privately owned bed and breakfast about five miles from here. There's only one room available, so we're going to have to share, but it should get us far enough out of town to not have to worry about the police there watching our every move, but close enough that we can make the trip back and forth easily."
"Right. Uh, fine. How do we get there?" His brain was scattered, focusing on anything but what she said. If he had, he would have realized he was going to share a room with the woman who once filled a fantasy or two for him, but only in his mind.
"She sent me the coordinates to the bed and breakfast. We'll just program it into the car's GPS and it will tell you where to go." When Reid didn't turn the car back on or put his seatbelt back on, she did what she had been doing all evening, and questioned him. "Spence, are you all right?"
"Yeah. No, I'm fine. I'm...would you mind driving? It's just that I've probably tortured you enough between the treatment I gave you on the plane and my driving. I think it would be better if you drove." JJ didn't want to drive. She wanted to hold her hand on her stomach, rub it, talk to her baby girl, and fall asleep, if only for the few sweet minutes until she got to the bed and breakfast, but something was eating Reid and she had a fierce want to protect the innocence in him, so instead of fighting, she agreed.
"Of course." JJ started to reach her arm over to hold the seat belt with while unclipping it, only it wasn't going so well, and her arms weren't cooperating with her stomach in the way. Reid saw this and realized how selfish he was being.
"I'm sorry, that was rude of me. You're pregnant and tired, and I'm already over here. You would have to unhook your seatbelt, get out, waddle around..." JJ didn't waste a minute cutting in.
"Excuse me, waddle?" She was between being amused and offended. It was late, she was tired, and Reid had just made her into a penguin. It wasn't one of her best days.
"Yeah. It's what pregnant women do, they waddle. Isn't it?" Although JJ barely liked the tone or the way he had taken with her, she tried to understand that whatever Reid was showing on the surface was only a fraction of something that ran far deeper. Some of this may have been about her, but he had some of his own demons that maybe he wasn't even aware of yet, but they were beginning to make themselves known.
"If you're going to drive, Spence, just drive. You don't have the time or the strength to drag yourself out of the hole you're digging." His body language became indignant, like he felt as if he were being told what to do against his will. Even though, he buckled his seatbelt and started the car. "And until you're ready to tell me what else is going on here, I can't help you."
"It's nothing, JJ. My friend is missing. Isn't that enough?" JJ finished programming the GPS, hoping that, as it told Reid where to go, it might inadvertently drown out some of this conversation.
"One would think, but I know you, and there's more to it." He wasn't himself. He hadn't been since they got on the plane.
She was quick to blame herself, but now that they had smoothed out the bump in their road, there was no reason for him to still sporadically present himself this way. It wasn't like him to throw moods like this in the first place, being one person at one minute, and another the next. She didn't want to jump to conclusions, mostly because there were too many to jump to and none that made sense when it came to Reid. He seemed of sound mind, that much was obvious, so she disregarded any thought of him inheriting his mom's disease. What struck her was his worry and concern from his friend that he had expressed over her missing a phone call.
Reid wasn't the type to become attached to people outside of the team, but even then he didn't dwell. It seemed off character for him to become attached to a girl who, although saved his life, he really didn't know whatsoever, and then not only keep up talking to her, but get on a somewhat consistent schedule, enough to notice the moment she didn't call that something was wrong. He kept to himself far too much for this to feel normal to her. Even with his mom, he rarely called and stuck to writing letters, even though part of that was due to his guilt for putting her in the sanitarium. But she was still his mother. If he couldn't spare a few hours on the phone with her every few months, even after she made it known to him that he had nothing to feel guilty about, as he did the right thing, then it's unlikely he'd be socially able to figure out how to canoodle with a woman he didn't truly know.
"There's not." His answer was swift and finite. She didn't argue.
"Fine." JJ threw her hands up non aggressively in a sign of defeat. She was done prodding at him.
Sometimes she had to sit back and remember that he was a grown man, and he had a very strong mind of his own. He was going to follow the path he felt best, and even if she was worried, all she would do was drive him away if she continued to come at him the way she did. She'd let it go for now, for tonight, but maybe over breakfast, or possibly lunch, when he was happily eating and his guard was down, she would have found another way to get to the root of his unusual behavior.