Some spoilers for "Elephant's memory".

OOO

"I'm having the roasted chicken" Rossi said to everyone sitting at the table at the moment. That included himself, Hotch, JJ and Prentiss. Morgan had gone get Reid some minutes ago.

"I think I'll have the…euh… beef with mushroom sauce." JJ said, with some doubt in her voice.

"I'll have lasagna, too" Prentiss finished, just when Morgan returned and sat down next to JJ. The team of profilers rapidly noticed something was bothering him, as he had a frown on his face and said nothing after he sat down.

"Hey, Morgan, you okay?" JJ asked him with a slightly worried look on her face, as she touched his shoulder to get his attention. Morgan looked at her startled, since he had been pretty deep in his thoughts.

"Hmm?" he asked, still keeping his frown.

"Are you okay?" JJ repeated.

"Umm, yeah, why?" he answered as he opened a menu and started turning its pages without actually reading its content.

"Because," JJ said "you look…worried."

Morgan looked up and realized the rest of the team was looking at him worriedly as well. Since it wasn't really him they should be worrying about, Morgan decided to tell them.

"Umm, yeah, it's just…Reid." He finished there, a moment the team assumed to be the middle of a sentence, not the end.

"What about Reid?" Rossi asked curiously.

"Oh, yeah." Morgan said, remembering he hadn't actually explained anything yet. "Reid told me he had a nightmare. He seemed pretty shook up by it."

"Did he tell you what it was about?" asked Prentiss.

"No, I was about to ask him when you walked in."

"Oh." Prentiss said a little disappointed. Hotch intervened:

"Wait, so, this is what you were so worried about? A nightmare?" Morgan sighed.

"I just…have a bad feeling about this."

OOOXOOOXOOO

Reid closed the door in Morgan's face and hurried to the bathroom to comb his very disarrayed hair.

"How did I fall asleep? I said nap! Not sleep!" he said while combing his hair and he proceeded by pouring some water on his face to freshen up. He sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair and over his face, and then leaned on the sink with his hand as he looked at himself in the mirror.

"Shit!" he said almost yelling as he turned around and leaned on the sink, with his back this time. "Why can't I remember? Damn it! It's on the tip on my tongue!" he thought. He sighed again and remembered he told Morgan he would be down in no time, so he rushed out. He was so unfocused he forgot to use the elevator.

OOOXOOOXOOO

A few minutes after Morgan had told the team about his worries, Reid hopped in the restaurant in such way he got most of the people's attention. Realizing this, he stopped running and nervously put his hair behind his ear as he walked to the table where the team was located.

Reid sat down and directly took the remaining menu, which was lying on the table.

"You guys order already?" he asked, trying to avoid the conversation he feared was coming.

"No, not yet." Hotch answered dismissing Reid's question easily.

"But you've all chosen?" Reid tried again.

"Yes." Morgan answered this time. Reid was growing nervous.

"So, what are you all having?" he asked, not looking anyone in the eyes.

"Reid, that's not important." Hotch snapped a little bit. Reid stared at him and swallowed hard. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." He said, taking his eyes off Hotch and back to the menu he was holding. They all stared at him. The use of that specific word made it even more obvious he wasn't. Reid noticed the worried looks on the team's faces and said:

"Look, I'm fine, okay? I just had a nightmare, that's all. What's the big deal about that?" there was a hint of anger and irritation in his voice, and they all caught it. Despite that, they decided to shut up about it and finally eat their lunch.

OOOXOOOXOOO

"Garcia, girl, what did you find on Veronica Evans?" Morgan asked Garcia through the monitor. After finishing their food, the team had gotten on the jet to go to California.

"Not much. Umm…her daughter's twenty-one, currently studying to be a pharmacist. Her husband retired after she died, and moved in with a friend." Garcia said, a little disappointed in herself on how few relevant things she had found.

"Umm, okay, that's all right." Hotch said, as Garcia hung up and disappeared from the screen.

OOOXOOOXOOO

By the time they were in their hotel in California, it was already six o'clock in the afternoon. Hotch decided he would let the team rest, and they would Veronica's house/crime scene the next day in the morning.

"Hi, we have a reservation under the name 'BAU'" Hotch said to the man at the counter of their hotel. The man checked his computer for a couple of seconds and looked up:

"Sorry, you don't." he said, looking like he was genuinely sorry for the exhausted-looking agents.

"Excuse me?" Hotch asked.

"We don't have any reservations under the name 'BAU'." The young man repeated. Hotch sighed.

"Okay, do you have any rooms left?" The man checked his computer again, then looked at Hotch with a smile and said:

"Yes, we have four rooms left."

"With two beds?"

"Two of them have two beds."

"Perfect. We'll take them all."

Hotch turned to the rest of the team:

"Morgan, you share a room with Reid and JJ, you share one with Prentiss, okay?"

All four nodded, and Rossi turned to Hotch and added:

"So I guess you and I will have our own independent rooms?"

Hotch nodded as he received four keys from the young man at the counter and gave three of them to Rossi, Morgan and JJ.

OOOXOOOXOOO

JJ put down her bags at the same time as Prentiss, and they both lay down on their beds.

"Wow, a lot of jet travel on this case, right?" asked Prentiss.

"Yeah." JJ sighed loudly "Guess that's why we're all so tired."

They both stayed quiet after that for some minutes. Obviously they were both thinking about how maybe Reid wasn't so tired because of the jet, but because of the nightmares.

"I hope he'll be all right." JJ exhaled.

OOOXOOOXOOO

Rossi arrived in his room quietly. Of all the BAU members, there was no doubt he was the least worried about Reid. In his mind, the rest was exaggerating a little bit. I mean, the kid was right: it was just a nightmare. It was not like he was the only one who had had them. In fact, they all had. It was a given that their job was more disturbing than many other jobs. They were prone to get like Reid was every once in a while.

OOOXOOOXOOO

Once in his room, Hotch put his hands over his face and grunted loudly. How many more times exactly were they going to have to worry about Reid? Had they not done that enough? Kidnapped. Drugged. Tortured. Taken hostage. Poisoned. Shot. Reid had definitely done it all. I mean, what else could possibly overcome him? Hotch didn't even have the imagination to come up with something the kid hadn't already suffered. He sat down on his bed. Then lay down. And hoped. Hoped this was indeed just a nightmare. Nothing else.

OOOXOOOXOOO

On the way to their room, which was right next to Hotch's, Morgan and Reid exchanged nothing but silent glances. Morgan had received the key from Hotch, so he was the one to open the door when they arrived at their room. Reid walked in and chose his bed without asking Morgan. It wasn't like any of the two beds was obviously better, or more comfortable, so Morgan just dismissed it and sat down on the remaining bed. Reid put his bag on his bed and pulled out a pajama. It was grey with yellow butterflies and bugs; it looked like it was made for a twelve-year-old. Morgan had to hold himself in from making a comment. Reid took unbuttoned and took off his shirt. Morgan had to stop himself from commenting again, but this time on how incredibly skinny the kid was. Then Reid put on his pajama shirt and took off his pants. He didn't seem to mind that Morgan was watching. Finally he put on his pajama pants, took his bag again, opened a smaller compartment, took out his toothbrush and toothpaste and went to brush his teeth in the bathroom. That reminded Morgan to do the same.

After they were both done brushing their teeth, Reid got under his bedcovers and Morgan just sat down on his bed. Morgan was still fully dressed –except for his shoes, socks and belt- and intended to sleep that way. Reid was obviously tired. Very tired, exhausted, even, because after getting under his bedcovers, he immediately said:

"Good night."

"Good night." Morgan replied sadly. Then he got underneath his covers, too, and turned off the light. It wasn't long before they were both fast asleep.

OOOXOOOXOOO

It was around two in the morning when Morgan was woken up roughly. He didn't realize what it was that had woken him up at first, but quickly did when he saw Reid lying on the floor next to his bed kicking, punching and almost screaming from time to time. Morgan jumped out of his bed and rushed to Reid's side.

"What the hell?" he thought "Reid?" he said as he shook the kid to wake him up.

"No!" Reid screamed and cried. Morgan shook him a little harder and said, a little harder, too, but not too hard so that he wouldn't wake up everyone else, if they hadn't already been woken up by Reid:

"Reid! Hey, Reid, wake up!"Morgan grabbed both of Reid's hands to stop him from moving them.

"No!" Reid said again. He had calmed down and this time his 'No' wasn't as much a scream as it was a cry. Never had Morgan seen Reid cry like this. Not even when he had told him about the time he was stripped naked and tied to a pole.

"No…" Reid said again as he opened his eyes and was, thus, just crying now. Morgan let go of his hands, but the kid kept them in the same position. Reid cried. And kept crying. And Morgan sat next to him, waiting. It lasted about ten minutes before Reid had calmed down. The he was just sobbing. And his sobbing lessened by the minute. Morgan sighed. He hated seeing the kid like that. Then Reid stopped completely. Morgan caressed Reid's forehead a couple of times before asking:

"Are you all right now?" with the most gentle voice Reid had ever heard. Reid nodded slightly:

"Yeah…" he waited a couple of seconds and then added "I don't know why."

Morgan looked at him questioningly.

"I don't know why. I don't remember my dream, I don't know why I cried…But I couldn't stop." Reid said as his voice began to break again. Morgan listened as he stared at him sympathetically.

"I can't remember it!" Reid said as he slammed his head against the floor, and quietly cried again. Morgan sighed and reassuringly told the genius-boy:

"Shh…shh…It'll be all right, kid."

Morgan caressed Reid's forehead once more until the kid fell asleep again. When he was finally asleep, Morgan picked him up from the ground, put him back on his bed and covered him. Then Morgan went back to his own bed, and fell asleep as well.

OOOXOOOXOOO

The next morning, Hotch went from door to door knocking to wake his team up. He knocked on Reid and Morgan's door as last and waited there. No one opened it, so he knocked again. Some minutes later Morgan opened the door.

"Yeah, Hotch we're coming."

"Okay." Hotch said, and just when Morgan was about to close the door, he said:

"Hey, Morgan?" Morgan looked at Hotch "Is…is Reid all right? I heard him scream this morning."

Morgan exhaled noisily, turned around to look at Reid getting out of his bed, then looked back at Hotch and answered:

"I don't know." Hotch had a really worried look on his face which begged for more information.

"He had a nightmare," Morgan continued "evidently." Hotch nodded "First he was kicking and punching, but then he just…" Morgan sighed, gazed away for a second, and then proceeded. "Then he just cried." Hotch looked surprised. He had clearly not heard Reid cry that morning. "Hotch, he cried for like an hour." Morgan looked at Reid again, who was now getting dressed, so he closed the door a bit.

"He tell you why he cried? What he dreamed?" Hotch asked curiously.

"He told me he didn't remember his nightmare…again. And he told me he didn't know why he was crying." Morgan answered honestly.

"Okay." Hotch said cheerlessly before he looked at his watch "Breakfast's from seven to nine. It's seven thirty."

Morgan nodded and closed the door.