I wrote this one for the prompt 'Your character gets a visitor in the middle of the night'.
Go read, I'll put my random rambling down at the bottom. XD
JJ shot up in bed, gasping and shaking slightly. She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves, trying not to focus on the dream she just had. Henry was safe at home with Will. He hadn't been abducted by an UnSub.
She looked over at the glowing clock on the little nightstand between the two beds that occupied the room, noting that it was almost three in the morning. She sighed and lay back down, trying to erase the images she had dreamt from her mind. It usually wasn't hard; she never was one to remember her dreams. Though she was finding it exceptionally hard to erase the images of a terrified Henry.
She finally decided that she would get up to get a drink of water, throwing the covers off of herself and feeling the rush of cool air hit her bare legs. She shivered slightly as she got up, trying to be quiet so as not to wake Reid, who she was roomed with on this trip. She looked over at him as she made her way to the bathroom, and couldn't help but smile when she saw that he was all tangled up in his blankets.
She grabbed a little paper cup and filled it with water from the faucet, wincing a little bit at the taste. But the cool liquid soothed her throat a bit, and she swallowed it gratefully. She looked in the bathroom mirror and brushed a few stray hairs down before crumpling the cup up and throwing it into the garbage can.
She was just about to exit the bathroom and turn off the light when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She could just see something moving, illuminated by the light from the bathroom. She took a step into the room, looking over at the wall where she thought she saw something.
She nearly screamed. She jumped away from it like it was a wildfire, nearly tripping over the pair of sneakers laid out by the wall. She stared at it for a few seconds, trying to figure out what it was, while disgusted and creeped out at the same time. It was nearly four inches long, and it was a disgusting brownish-yellow color. And it had way too many legs. It suddenly scuttled quickly a few feet across the wall and she jumped back again, near terrified.
Once it stopped moving again she stared at it with wide eyes, breathing heavily again. It moved way too fast to be normal. It freaked her out even more.
"Spence!" she hissed, moving over towards where he was sleeping, not once taking her eyes off of it. She batted at his foot, the closest part of him she could reach. "Spence!"
He mumbled and wriggled around a little bit and she batted at his foot again. Finally, he said, "JJ? What time is it? What's going on?"
"Spence. Get up. I need your help," she said, cursing her voice for shaking a little.
He could obviously tell by her tone that something was wrong, and he jumped out of bed, wrestling with the covers for a few moments before he was able to get up. He finally freed himself and stood next to her, and asked "What? What's wrong?"
She still hadn't taken her eyes off of it yet, and she pointed at the wall where it was sitting. Once she saw him look, she took her eyes off it for the first time to see his reaction. He looked surprised, then slightly repulsed.
She looked back at it, feeling the same. He quickly turned on the room light, throwing it into sharp relief. That didn't help. It just looked worse.
"What is that thing?" she asked him, trusting his expansive knowledge to know.
"I've read about them, but I've never actually seen one in real life before," he said, taking a brave step forward to examine it. It scuttled back to the left a bit, and he jumped back like she had before.
"So, what is it?" JJ asked, keeping an eye on it. She didn't want it to disappear. She would never be able to sleep if she didn't know where it was.
"It's a house centipede. Scutigera coleoptrata," he said in answer. She looked up at him; amazed that he knew the scientific name for a bug he'd never seen in real life before. He didn't notice however, he was too busy examining the creature.
"What else do you know?" she questioned.
"Well, it's got fifteen pairs of legs, can run at about a mile an hour, have unusually developed eyes, and… usually doesn't bite," he said slowly.
"Usually?" she asked him disbelievingly.
"Yeah, its jaws aren't strong enough to penetrate human skin. Usually. And if it does bite, it's usually no worse than a bee sting."
"Great," she said, a little faintly. "Do you want to kill it?"
"Absolutely not," he replied. "That thing is horrifying. I'm not going near it."
"Well we can't just leave it there!" JJ exclaimed. "What are we going to do?"
There was a minute of silence while they just stared at it for a minute, trying to figure out what to do, before Reid said, "Go get Morgan. Tell him it's important."
She paused for a second, not knowing how Morgan would appreciate it. But the creature scuttled upwards again at lightning speed, and she jumped and ran out the door. She found the room number that Morgan and Emily were staying in, and she apprehensively knocked on the door. After a few seconds she heard someone start moving around in the room, and a very ruffled looking Emily answered the door.
"Do you know what time it is?" she asked grumpily, taking in JJ's appearance. She was still wearing a night-shirt.
"Yes, I do! And that's why I'm here! I need Morgan and his… manliness," she said awkwardly, brushing past Emily to get into the room.
Prentiss started laughing, giving her an incredible look. "Why on earth..?"
"Just go back to my room. Spence will show you," JJ said, ripping the covers off of the sleeping Morgan.
Emily shrugged and left, while Morgan groaned and tried to pull the covers back up.
"Morgan! Wake up! We need your help!" JJ exclaimed, shaking his shoulder a little. He opened bleary eyes, looking at her strangely.
"What time is it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.
"It's like three in the morning. Now come on," she said, tugging at his arm. She dragged him all the way back to her room, while he protested. She shoved him in the room first, following behind him timidly.
Reid and Emily were staring at the ceiling, and looking up she saw that it was now clinging to the space above her bed. That just intensified her fear.
Emily looked fairly disgusted, and Reid was still spouting off a few random facts. He was just in the middle of saying that they were poisonous, but not likely to humans.
"Reid. Please stop," she begged, not wanting to think of the possibility of being attacked by the gross little creature.
She looked over to Morgan, who was staring at it in concern. "What is that thing?" he asked.
Before Reid could start talking again, JJ said 'It's a house centipede. And please, just kill it."
"Uh-uh! I ain't going near that thing! I take on UnSubs, not creepy creatures with a million legs," he said, quickly, raising his hands.
"Oh come on!" JJ begged, clutching his arm. "I can't go back to sleep with that thing in here!"
He shook his head and backed away, saying, "Sorry princess! I'm not touching it!" He kept staring at it, and when is started running again he jumped along with the other three.
"Come on Morgan! Be a man!" JJ said desperately.
He just shook his head, Reid and Emily watching, half amused and half exasperated.
JJ looked back up at where the little creature had last occupied the ceiling, seeing nothing but blank white space. "Guys… where did it go?" she asked fearfully, hoping one of the others would have kept an eye on it.
Her heart sank when the other three all started looking around wildly.
Suddenly, Emily let out a shriek and jumped away from the wall. They could see that the critter had crawled up next to where she was leaning. "It- it touched me!" she said loudly. "It was crawling on my arm!" She started to furiously rub her arm, and JJ had to repress a shudder. She saw Reid pull a face as well, staring at it apprehensively.
Suddenly, a there was a knock on the door and it opened, revealing Hotch to be on the other side. He stepped in looking half asleep and confused that the majority of his team was awake. "What's going on?"
JJ silently pointed at the creature on the wall, and Hotch stepped over to get a good look. Once he had seen it, he too backed away from it. "What is that thing?"
JJ sighed in frustration. "A house centipede, and would you kill it?"
"Why haven't any of you?" he asked, looking around amusedly at the four agents. They all stared back guiltily.
"Have you seen that thing move?" JJ asked him finally. "It's the creepiest!"
Hotch laughed a little and bent over to grab one of Reid's sneakers. "Oh, do you really have to use my shoe?" Reid asked, pulling another face.
Hotch sent him a stern look and said, "You can wash it later." Reid fell silent under the glare, and Hotch began to approach the creature again.
It was at about the same height as his head now, so he had to raise his arm up to try and hit it. He stood still for a few seconds, arm raised, and it seemed like he had almost frozen. The four others watched him with bated breath, waiting for him to move.
Suddenly, the little bug ran away from him down towards the floor, and he jumped back as well, dropping the shoe in the process.
They heard someone chuckle from the doorway, and turning they saw Rossi standing there. "Really, Aaron?" he asked.
Hotch looked away sheepishly and crossed his arms.
Rossi chuckled again and moved over to where the little creature was. They all stared at him as he bent down, took his fist, and slammed the side of it against the bug, effectively killing it. He walked over and got a tissue, wiping off his hand and picking up the dead bug from the floor. He threw the tissue into the garbage can in the bathroom.
"Was that really so hard?" he asked, giving them all amused looks. They all looked a little bit awkward, especially the males. He chuckled again and started to walk out.
"Thanks!" JJ called after him.
"Anytime. Except, not at three morning again, please," he said, before leaving the room.
The five remaining agents looked around at one another.
"Let's never talk about this again," Hotch proposed. It was followed with a chorus of "Agreed".
Hotch, Morgan, and Emily all left the room again, going back to their own respective rooms. JJ looked at Reid, who was just climbing back into bed.
"Is it okay if I leave the bathroom light on?" she asked tentatively.
"That's fine with me," he agreed quickly.
She turned off the room light and opened the bathroom door as wide as it would go, allowing a fair amount of light to filter in. "You know Spence. You may just have something with your 'inherent absence of light' theory," she said as she crawled back into her own bed.
"I always thought so," he mumbled into his pillow, already half asleep.
She looked around at the ceiling and walls, making sure the first creature didn't have any 'friends'. She thankfully didn't see anything, and she settled herself down even farther.
It took a while, but she finally managed to fall back into a slightly uneasy sleep, he dreams now plagued with many legged creatures instead of UnSubs.
Aha, so if you've never seen a house centipede before and are curious, I suggest you go look it up. They're nasty. I have been suprised many times when I walked into my room and found one on my ceiling. XD
Oh, and my uncle once did the exact thing that Rossi did in this story. I was amazed.
Anyways, hope you liked it! I'd love a few reviews! Rawr!