Disclaimer: See my profile

The rain had slowed to a light sprinkle by Monday morning. He woke up to quiet, instead of the pounding of the rain on the roof of his rental home. The windows were splattered, instead of weeping like they had for the entire weekend.

He hit the snooze button on his alarm and considered calling in sick. Going in and getting to work on cases that had probably been piling up on his desk since their last case, was more than he could handle. He pulled the covers up over his head and closed his eyes. If he could just forget about Katie… but it was no use, she'd been dominating his thoughts ever since he first saw her. There was just something about her.

He turned over when the alarm went off again and threw off the blanket. He could stay in the bed and wallow in misery, or he could get up and face the music of another day. With Hotch's face in front of him and the disapproval he knew would be there if he didn't show up, Reid got out of bed and headed for coffee and a shower.

--

The bullpen was buzzing as it always was on a Monday. Emily and Morgan were already hard at work on some consults JJ had brought them, just minutes before the elevator had brought Reid to the sixth floor. He went straight to the break room for a cup of coffee. Maybe if he stayed in the break room long enough, he'd be able to fool Morgan into thinking that nothing was wrong.

"Hey man… How come you're hiding in here?"

Well, it had been a good try.

"I'm not hiding. I'm getting a cup of coffee. See this, it's a coffee mug, and this is the sugar and -"

"I know all that - you've been in here for fifteen minutes. How long does it take to make a cup of lousy coffee?

"That's the point… The coffee is lousy, so I have to add the right amount of sugar to get it down."

He snuck a look at Morgan, who was leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were dancing with mirth or sparkling with suppressed laughter. He had that concerned look that Reid had learned to be wary of during his drug clouded days.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"There's nothing to tell." He sipped at his coffee hoping that the cup would hide his face from his friend's knowing eyes.

"Is it the nightmares again?"

"No…" He said just a little too loudly.

"Then what is it?"

Somehow, the way that Morgan was looking at him, and the fact that his friend wasn't teasing him or demanding to be told, made him spill his guts about Katie and what happened.

Morgan said, "Hey… Don't beat yourself up about it. You took a chance and it didn't work out. There are lots of other women out there."

"I know Morgan, I just - well I, geez… I don't know what I mean. I just have a feeling that something isn't right with her. I don't know how to explain it."

"I think you're obsessed. I have a couple of friends that would love to meet you. They are some fine looking women and I know that at least one of them would hit it off great with you."

"Morgan…" Reid's voice had taken on a warning tone.

"I'm serious. You need to get your mind off this woman."

"I don't want to go on a blind date Morgan."

JJ breezed into the room and said, "There you are, I have a couple of really pressing requests for you." She pushed a couple of files into his arms and nearly knocked the coffee out of his hands, but he was too happy to see her to be mad.

"Thanks," He said, but he was looking at Morgan.

"This isn't over Reid."

"I know," Reid picked up his coffee cup "Thanks," He said again, this time looking right at JJ. He fled to his desk.

--

Garcia un-wrapped her newest pen from the novelty store bag. It was bright pink with a clear middle and silver stars floating inside that moved every time she tilted it. It went next to the pad of paper that sat next to her precious keyboard.

Someone tapped on her door while she admired it, and she said, "Come on in," while swiveling around in her chair to see who needed her help.

"Hi Garcia," Reid said, standing there in her doorway and looking utterly miserable.

"Hey sweet cheeks… What's the matter?"

He edged into the room and shut the door behind him. He just stood there fidgeting with one sleeve of his white dress shirt. She observed him for several minutes, and finally he took a seat in the chair next to hers and began to speak.

"Do you believe in love at first sight?"

She was a bit taken aback at this question. Reid was the most logical and linear thinking person she'd ever met, so this question was very weird coming from him.

"Sure, I fell in love with Esther the minute I saw her." She quipped.

He shot her a withering look. "I'm not talking about cars."

"I know that, I'm just trying to get you to loosen up. You got storm clouds following you around like that kid in the Peanuts comic strip."

"Actually, it's a cloud of dust and dirt that follow Pig-Pen wherever he goes."

"I'm not going to call you Mr. Know-it-all because you look so sad." Garcia said.

She picked up the new pen and began to twist it around in her hands. "Are you going to tell me what's bothering you, or do I have to go ask Morgan?"

"I met a girl about a week ago."

Garcia's eyebrows went into her bangs. JJ was going to be pissed that she'd lost the pot the three of them had going over guessing what Reid was so unhappy about. After her friends paid up, she'd have enough money for a new pair of shoes.

"So tell me about her." Garcia said, keeping the glee out of her voice by sheer will.

He told her all about meeting Katie in the library, and how Morgan had convinced him to go back and try to see her again.

"So I took his advice and she's already seeing someone. I should have known she would be - a pretty girl like her probably has guys falling all over her all the time."

Garcia clucked her teeth and shook her head. "Don't sell yourself short Reid. I'm sure there are lots of girls that would love to go out with you. You're a handsome thing and you're sweet, and kind, and gentle."

"Morgan said there were lots of other girls out there too. I know that's true, but like I told him, there is just something about her that I have to know more about. Something is wrong in her life I think."

Garcia watched her friend closely and saw that he was serious. "Okay… so what do you need me to do?"

"I don't know… I guess I just wanted to talk to someone. I think I must be obsessed like Morgan said."

"My chocolate God is very perceptive, but he doesn't know everything."

"I don't know what to do."

"Do you want me to find her for you?'

He looked completely floored by the question and a bit taken off guard. "No, I don't want to look for her. She has her own life and I need to get back to mine."

He got up and left the room before Garcia could respond. She put the tip of the pen in her mouth and thought for a long time before turning to her babies.

"You may not want to find her sweet cheeks, but I do. No one hurts my baby and gets away with it."

--

Reid and the others met at the bar after work, and when the rain began to fall again, Garcia dropped him off at his home. He was stone cold sober despite Morgan trying to get him drunk. Garcia left him at his doorstep and he fumbled the key to his door out of his pocket.

The rain had begun to sing off the roof again, and everything around him was black and filled with shadows. The lights on the street threw more shadows to mingle with the rain. He pushed the key into the lock and turned it. The click couldn't be heard over the rain, but even so, he felt like he was being watched. He looked around in the dark and the light from the street, but no one was there. He waited as the rain fell onto the over hang of the porch. There was someone there, but he couldn't see them. He reached for his Glock, but nothing moved in the blackness of the shadows.

He tried again to see into the shadows, but there was nothing there. "You're getting paranoid Reid." He mumbled to the darkness and went into his house.

--

She stood in the rain watching the light come on in his house. She had seen him look around as though he knew that she watched him. She wasn't worried - he couldn't see her in the rain and the darkness. She belonged to them the way he couldn't and they hid her well.

She stayed in the shadow of the trees on the street across from his home till the lights went out and she knew that he slept. She didn't know why she was here. What had compelled her to come here? He couldn't help her. No one could help her. She was doomed and it was time to accept it.

She didn't want to accept it. He was a kind and good man. She was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Would he be her savior, or would he be her ultimate destruction. She turned and left the street. She wouldn't come back here again.