A Genius in a Bowtie Chapter 4

Previously on A Genius in a Bowtie…

Hotch walked out of his office to greet his shock-induced team. "As you may have gathered, Reid will not be joining us on this case, he has asked for a few days off, which I have granted." He held up his hand to halt the onslaught of question that he could see forming over Dave's and Morgan's faces. "Now for the rest of us wheels up in thirty" with that Hotch left and walked back to his office to get ready leaving his even more shocked team just standing there.

"What on earth just happened." Morgan said in disbelief as Hotch walked back into his office to get is go bag ready.

"I concur with that," Rossi said as he looked to the office door, "I would love to ask but we really have to get ready for the plane. We can bombard him with questions there and he can't leave."

"I like the way you think there Rossi, we better go get our things," Emily said as she looked at the rest of her friends.

ON THE PLANE

"So Hotch, where has Reid gone on such short notice?" Rossi starts as the team settles in to the flight ahead. But the team gets no answer just the same old blank expression and Rossi looks over to the rest of the team.

"Yeah Hotch how long is he going to be away?" Morgan tries to get an answer out of his boss, but he is still met with silence. "Dose it have anything to do with his mother?" JJ adds with concern.

Hotch looks up at his team and realizes that they aren't going to stop asking him till they are satisfied, "look guys I know you are all concerned with Reid but we have a case to worry about so read over the information again and tell me what you have got so far." Hotch says trying to deflect their interests elsewhere knowing that it wont work for long, the entire plane ride is going to be filled with their endless questions.

"Fine Hotch, we will tell you what we have got so far but this is by no means is this over, we would really like to know what has Reid acting so out of character," Emily says for the team as they start to go over what the local police sent again, throwing out ideas and possible connections the victims have.

"Argh, why can't Reid be here, this is ridiculous there is way too much stuff for us for read" Morgan groaned. "Hotch man, can't you just
tell us where he has gone and when he will come back, we are worried and we need him!" he said to the air.

"Get over it Morgan. It isn't that bad" JJ retorted. "You just want him so you don't have to read all of the paperwork or do math" Emily added, for which she got a scowl.

"You know what this is it this is it," Morgan said getting up from his seat and retrieving his phone. "If Hotch isn't going to tell us anything I am going to have to resort to other methods, it is killing me not knowing what is going on with Reid," he said to the rest of his team, while Hotch was in the bathroom.

"Hey baby girl, you're on speaker" Morgan said.

"What do you need my chocolate god."

"Well we would really like to find out what on earth has got into Reid and who or what could get him to just drop everything and leave."

"Ah, yes I saw the footage of him just running out, it was so rude of him to just leave without saying goodbye to me. I was going to ask what happened but you were all to busy getting ready. I shall start to look now."

"Make sure you are quick Garcia, we don't want to face the wrath of Hotch when he finds out what we are doing" JJ said

"Don't you ever doubt my skills young padwan. Just hold on my lovelies... Well I'm looking trough his phone records and it looks like he had got some fairly regular phone calls form a number starting from the date of the weird call he got at the office and it looks like it's untraceable sorry guys.

"Anything else mumma?" Morgan buts in.

"Well yes my chocolate thunder if you would let me continue... Oh my gosh"

"What is it?" the team collectively state in response.

"Well his bank statements show that he had just bought tickets to England… I don't even know how he got them that quick." Garcia adds

"WHAT" the whole team exclaimed just as Hotch walked out of the bathroom.

"What is going on in here?" Hotch asked.

"Finding out if Reid is safe and hasn't been abducted. Hotch, man, what on earth is he doing flying out to London on such short notice?" Morgan said but he was just met with silence. "If you aren't going to tell me I will just have to find out by any other means necessary" he continued as he held up his phone, which no doubt had Garcia on the other end of it.

"Fine" Hotch relented knowing that Garcia would tear his youngest member's whole life upside-down if he didn't give his team some information. "All I know is that his friends in England are going through a serious time right now and really needs his support. He asked for a few days off so he could go and help out and that he would be no longer than a week."

"Friend's in England! How did we not know about this?" Garcia added over the phone. "How did I not find them on my search, how did I miss the fact that he has obviously spent time in the UK? He has some serious explaining to do when he gets home. Technophobe my ass."

"Garcia, you should understand that even with your tremendous skill in technology, that people aren't an open book and hide things for a reason. Yes, it maybe a stupid reason and you might say that we are a family and should have no secrets but we need to respect everyone's privacy so PLEASE refrain from searching through Reid's life and the rest of the teams lives unless it is an order from me" Hotch said in almost a fatherly tone. A 'Yes Sir, Garcia out' was clearly heard from the other end of the phone.

"As for the rest of you, we should solely focus on the task ahead and give it our all, the local police and town deserve our full attention."

The team quickly go back to work in their seats till it was time to disembark and meet the locals.

TUESDAY – Late afternoon

"Hey Hotch I have just arrived back in America would you like me to come and meet you for the case?" Reid sends to his boss.

Reid was surprised when he got an almost immediate response of, "No, it is ok Reid. the case is almost finished and we will be back in town late tomorrow, enjoy the rest of today and tomorrow off. See you Thursday, bright, early and on time at work."

Reid just smiled at the last comment. Well that's nice. I guess I will start looking for some clues into where River could be, he thinks as he hops into the cab and gives the driver his address.

He arrives at his quaint second story apartment, well that is what it looks like to everyone else, a boring, run down average apartment but to him he is arriving home, to his TARDIS. As soon as he steps over the threshold of the apartment building he can feel her hum, her excitement for him being home and her reassurances that everything will be alright.

Reid was so glad that the TARDIS was able to produce a perception filter big enough that she was able to blend in exactly with her surroundings. She made herself look exactly like the inside of an apartment so little did his coworkers know that they they are actually stepping onto his ship when they came inside. But thankfully this view was for everyone but him, when he opened the door all he could see was his sexy. The sleek glass floors and cool colours, always managed to cheer him up a little after a grueling case.

He opened the door and strode through to his bedroom to drop off his go bag and then strolled into the console room so he could patch a call through to Garcia.

"Your friendly neighborhood Oracle of all things knowable and unknowable at your service." A bright and chirpy voice answers the phone.

"Hi Garcia" was all Reid could get out before a tirade of questions.

"My Junior G-man, are you ok, where have you been-hash that I know, so why were you there? Why didn't you tell anyone that you had friends in the UK? What was so important that you had to rush off with out even saying goodbye to little old me?"

"GARCIA – please stop with all the questions, I can't and won't answer all of them it is just all too hard to explain. However, if you don't hate me I would really appreciate your technical genius in a very important matter."

"Yes, Yes, I'm sorry, and I could never hate you; worry, definitely just like the rest of the team but hate. NOT POSSIBLE. On another note I would love to help you, how may I be of service."

"Garcia before I tell you all of this, you can't ask questions and you can't do extra research on what I am going to give you to do. It stays private, between you and me. That means no telling the rest of the team it is really important to me that you do that."

"Ok, Junior-G, it will be very hard but I can do that for you, so what would you like me to do"

"Garcia, just know that my friend's in the UK are really distraught and asked me for help in finding someone…. I don't have those particular resources so I would like you set up an alert for anything major or perhaps even minor that happens in the archaeological community. Maybe the minor things you could save up and give to me on a Friday but for all the major things could you please send an alert straight to my phone. I would be forever grateful."

"Sure I can definitely do that for you. When are you coming back to the team, all they are doing is complaining how much they miss you, especially Morgan."

"Yeah just missing me for my speed reading I guess. Well I really appreciate you doing this for me Garcia. I will be seeing you on Thursday. If you could keep that bit of information a secret as well just to mess with their minds" Reid says with a laugh.

"Sure thing Reid, I like the way you think. Garcia out!"

NEXT DAY

I am so glad this case is over, I can't wait to get home. Hey I hope that Reid is back in town cause if we have to do another case without him I opt we restrain Morgan and lock him in Garcia's lair." Emily said to JJ as they get onto the jet."

"That's a great idea Em" JJ said with a laugh as the team now settles down for the flight home.

THURSDAY MORNING

"Hey Rossi do you know if Reid is back yet. I don't think I could cope with Morgan's whining if he is away for another case." Emily says with an exasperated smile.

"Well if defiantly got a bit much near the end there but no I don't; I guess you will have to ask Hotch or something." Rossi says as they walk through the doors to the BAU.

"If Reid doesn't appear for the next case me and JJ have a plane to make Morgan shut up for good…and before you say anything it involves Garcia, her lair and handcuffs/gaffa tape. You in?"

"Absolutely" Rossi replies with a laugh.

"Good morning my lovelies. It is nice to see that you are home safe but Hotch wants you in the briefing room ASAP."

"Really we just came off a case." Rossi says.

"Crime never sleeps Rossi. well we better get I there because I don't particularly want to face the wrath of Hotch or JJ this morning." Emily says with a wink.

Morgan comes in as Rossi and Emily are sitting down. "Well it looks like pretty boy is going to be away for another case. Whatever happened in England must be bad."

Hotch was just about to answer that he should be here but was cut off my a...

"What about me?" from their resident genius.

The team turn around to be met with a smiling Reid. "Reid why on earth did you just up and leave to England like that? What on earth is over there and what the hell are you wearing?" Morgan says as he takes in his friend.

"Ah, well it is nice to see you all this morning. And for the answers you are looking for all you are going to get is that some friends in England had something pretty major happen and they wanted my help. As for what I am wearing, it is a bowtie, Morgan, I though that was pretty obvious. I where a bowtie now, bowties are cool."

And with that Reid just walked into the conference room like nothing had happened and took his seat ready to get on with the briefing.

Weeks passed and the team had dealt with many gruesome and grizzly cases and they were tired. Everyone could tell, yes they weren't meant to profile each other but it is too easy when they are like this. However, it wasn't just the lack of sleep that was ringing alarm bells in the teams head about Reid's behaviour is was the fact that Reid looked stressed more that usually and on more than one occasion a team member had caught a look of absolute devastation in his eyes that just wasn't normal. Morgan tired to bring it up with him on a few occasions but thought better as the last outburst he gave before going to England.

"Hotch man, we have to talk about Reid again, he is acting really different again and I don't like it. He was acting so much better after England I wonder what has happened now" Morgan said as he cornered Hotch in the break room.

"Yes, Morgan I definitely see that, but there isn't much I can do, if it gets any worse I will call him into my office again, but he is trying Morgan, you have to recognise that compared to last time he is going well...he hasn't arrived late at all" Hotch said trying to lighten the mood as he walked out and Reid walked in.

'Well so much for avoiding asking him what on earth is wrong. Here goes nothing' Morgan says to himself.'

"Hey Reid, are you ok, you seem really tired, stress and down...more so than usual. Is there anything I can do?"

"No Morgan, I am ok. I just don't feel too well at the moment, hopefully it will pass soon, I hate feeling like this" Reid said with a smile as his phone went off. "If you would excuse me I have to go and talk to Garcia about my phone and all these alerts, they are rather distracting." and with that Reid walked out the room and down the hall to Garcia's lair.

"Hey Garcia" Reid says with a knock to her door. "I was wondering if you have found anything else in the field of archeology."

"No, I am so sorry my honey bunch, but you are getting what I am getting, If you could be more specific for my search it could help."

"No it's all good Garcia, just keep on alerting me on the news. Thanks. Hey I'm going to head off now and catch up on some much needed sleep, could you please tell the rest of the team that if they come looking."

"Yeah sure hun, enjoy."

'Come on River where on earth are you hiding. Maybe that is it, your not on earth yet, but that is so stupid why wouldn't you just come and see your parents, WHY. I wish I could just tell my team what is going on, I hate hearing all the whispers but I really can't believe how much they care, argh. I can't believe I actually need sleep, this hasn't happened in years but I guess that is what happens when you are too busy saving the humans from themselves and looking of a trained assassin, even if she is your wife. Why can't my life just be simple.' Reid sighs, as he walks out the building to his car. 'I wish that she would just come and find me, she is just way too hard to look for.'

TBC

AN: Sorry for the really long time between updates. I personally hate it when authors do that but this was for a good reason. I have had a lot of trouble lately on this chapter and the next couple and I really wanted to get this chapter and the next done before I posted it so I could be one chapter ahead. Hopefully the next chapter isn't too far away but know this, I will only post a chapter if I am happy on the progress of the next one.