9
Disclaimer: The usual; I don't know them, I don't own them, I only own the plot and characters I have created.
Spoiler for the episode 'The Performer' (Season Five).
/\/\/\/\
'A Force of Nature'
Chapter Five
/\/\/\/\
Rossi sat down in a chair opposite Hotch's desk. "Any progress on the murder case?"
Hotch shook his head. "A couple of the others thought they recognized Daniel's picture, but we don't know for certain if that's because they actually saw him there or because they may have seen him on television."
"That does complicate things a little. Nothing more on the murders themselves?"
"The three murders were all committed with the same caliber weapon; but not the same weapon."
"That's it?" Rossi sighed. "How about the stalking case?"
"Our DNA analysts have found saliva on the envelopes. It's being analyzed. The stamps were self-sticking, so no DNA there. No fingerprints have been found on the letters or the envelopes. How did things go the first day over Daniel Meier's house?"
Rossi shrugged. "Not much happened. He went to the rink, stopped at the grocery store, and then went home. At the house he talked on the phone a lot and spent a couple hours on the Internet. Frankly I think he's too scared to do much else right now."
Hotch sighed. "I don't doubt it."
/\
"Garcia," JJ said, poking her head into Garcia's office. "Is that Daniel Meier's picture taped up on your monitor there?"
"Yes, it is. What's your point?"
JJ laughed. "Oh, just asking! And I also heard you were practically drooling over him at the rink."
"Who talked to you? Who told you? Derek?"
JJ laughed. "Oh, maybe. Might have been him, might have been Emily. Bye, bye!"
"Great," Garcia grumbled. "Now I have JJ giving me a hard time." She smiled at the picture. "It was worth it, though. And I'm going to have to talk to those two traitors!"
/\
"What are we doing to keep ourselves amused this evening?" Morgan asked.
"Well, it's not like I don't have anything else to do; but we have no shortage of DVDs to watch. And we did promise Spencer he could pick the next one."
"Great."
"Come on, Derek! How bad could it be?"
Morgan mumbled something in response. "I heard that," Reid said, coming out of the bathroom.
"What you heard was nothing, wise guy."
There was a knock at the door. "That must be JJ. She said she would stop by on her way home and bring us some dinner."
"I do know how to cook, you know," Daniel commented.
"So do I," Reid added.
"I've been known to whip up a meal myself. However, I say if a pretty lady is willing to bring me dinner, who am I to disagree?"
"Us, Morgan. She's bringing us dinner, not just you." Reid added as he looked through the peephole. "It's dinner, but it's not JJ."
"Who is it, then?"
"Garcia," Reid answered as he opened the door to his friend.
"Good evening, gentlemen," Garcia said as she breezed into the house carrying several bags from a nearby Boston Market restaurant.
"Boston Market? Did you bring me macaroni and cheese and cornbread?" Daniel asked, taking the bags from her and sitting down at the kitchen table.
"Great. Now she knows where you live," Morgan commented with a grin.
"Quiet," Garcia said, smacking him on the arm. She smiled at Daniel, and then rushed over to sit next to him. "You don't mind if I sit here, do you?"
"No, of course not."
Garcia smacked Morgan's hand when he reached for one of the bags. "Hey! What gives?"
"I'll be passing out the food, thank you." She turned to Daniel and smiled again. "You first."
"Thank you, Penelope."
Garcia smiled and began handing out plastic covered dishes as Reid passed around some silverware from Daniel's kitchen. Morgan looked at Garcia strangely when she politely put down Reid and Daniel's food in front of them but practically threw his at him. 'Okay, what did I do?' he thought to himself.
Daniel reached over and placed his right arm around Garcia's shoulder. A fork she had been holding clattered on to the table and she blushed and looked down at his right hand resting on her shoulder. "You don't mind do you?" he smiled.
"Uh, no…" she stammered.
"Thank you for bringing the food, Penelope." He smiled directly at her. "Now how did you know I liked their meatloaf?"
"Just a guess," she squeaked.
"Well, thank you. And you brought me macaroni and cheese and cornbread. I think you can read my mind, Penelope." He smiled once more before removing his arm from her shoulder.
"Don't forget to eat your green beans," Reid commented with a smirk.
"So," Morgan began. "How did you happen to bring us dinner instead of JJ?"
"She wanted to get home to Will and Henry, so I volunteered to come in her place. Do you have a problem with that?"
Morgan looked at Reid who looked back at him with a puzzled expression on his face. "Uh, no."
It took Garcia twice as long as it would normally take her to finish her food due to Daniel alternately leaning on her shoulder, smiling at her and leaning on his elbow to watch her eat. Reid had never seen her so flustered, and Morgan could hardly contain his amusement. Once the meal was finished Daniel excused himself from the table and headed for the bathroom.
"What's the big idea?" Morgan snapped once Daniel had left the room.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, let's take a look… You practically threw my food at me, you smacked my hand, and you snapped at me, you've generally been grumpy toward me since you got here. What the heck is your problem, Garcia?"
Garcia leaned forward. "You want to know what my problem is, Morgan? I'll tell you! How dare you run to JJ and tell her I was drooling over Daniel at the ice rink yesterday!"
"Uh, you were practically drooling over him…" Reid began.
"You keep out of this!" Garcia told him.
"Baby girl, I didn't say anything to JJ about it. I didn't even see JJ yesterday."
"You didn't?"
"No."
"Seriously?"
"He's telling the truth, Penelope. Neither of us saw JJ yesterday."
"You could have called her."
"I could have, but I didn't."
"Who did tell her then? I don't think Rossi would." She thought for a moment. "Emily? JJ did say it might have been her. Why would she do that?"
"Uh, Penelope, you were being a little obvious yesterday. I'm sure Emily didn't mean anything by it," Reid said.
"She should talk anyway! She didn't act much better! She and I are going to have a talk!"
Just then Daniel walked back into the room. "Are you staying to watch a movie with us, Penelope?"
"Uh, no. I actually have to go. Sorry. Maybe some other time?" she said hopefully.
"Sure, why not?"
Morgan grinned. "Come on, I'll walk you to your car."
Daniel walked over to Garcia and enveloped her in a hug, and then kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you for coming by and bringing us dinner. That was very nice of you."
"You're welcome, Daniel," she said in a small voice.
As Garcia and Morgan reached the door Daniel added, "I love you, Penelope." Reid looked over at him and shook his head.
Penelope smiled at Daniel and then went out the door with Morgan. Once outside she looked at him and said, "Sugar, I'm leaving you."
"For Daniel? You're breaking my heart, Baby Girl!"
Garcia sighed. "You'll just have to deal with it, honey!" Morgan couldn't help smiling as she got into her car, backed down the driveway and drove away.
Once back inside the house, Morgan locked and dead bolted the front door behind him. He saw Reid and Daniel kneeling on the floor looking through a bookcase full of DVDs. He sighed and said, "Okay, kid. What do I have to watch tonight?"
"We're thinking about 'Dave'. You know, with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.?"
Morgan sat down on the couch. "Gee, I thought I was going to have to suffer tonight. I actually like that one."
"That's my pick," Daniel said. "Spencer wants to watch 'Dr. Zhivago'. You know, I skated to music from that movie once. I'm just not sure where I put the DVD. That's why I got 'Dave' out to watch in case we can't find it."
"Great," Morgan commented, hoping the DVD would not be found.
A couple hours later Morgan jerked awake to see the television was turned off. He heard voices behind him. "You've never been to Disneyland?" Daniel was saying.
"No, never."
"You really have to go sometime, Spencer."
"Are you kidding? I'm twenty eight years old!"
"So? You're never too old for Disneyland or Disneyworld. You could take your godson Henry. That would be a good excuse for going."
"Yeah, kids are also a good excuse for watching cartoons," Morgan commented.
"Hey, you're awake," Reid commented.
"Yeah… How long was I asleep?"
"Forty-five minutes, maybe. We decided to do something besides watching movies. We've just been sitting here talking."
"Oh, yeah? About what?"
"Lots of things. We're finding out we have some similar interests."
"You're kidding. Like what?"
"Like books, for example." Daniel interjected.
"Seriously?"
"Don't act so surprised, Morgan. Some people do enjoy similar interests to mine and actually want to talk about books with me." Reid snapped.
Morgan looked at him, surprised at the irritation in his voice. "Okay, sorry. Gave up on 'Dr. Zhivago', then?"
"Yes," Daniel answered. "It's still early. You can watch something else if you want. Tomorrow Spencer wants to watch 'Schindler's List' instead of finishing 'Dr. Zhivago'. "
"Great movie. Depressing as hell, but still a great movie."
Morgan knelt on the floor in front of the bookcase to look at the DVDs. Just as he was reaching for 'The Warriors', his cell phone rang. "Morgan… Hey, Hotch. You're not still at the office are you?... I see… Maybe it will turn into something… Okay… Yes, I'll let them know. Say hello to Jack for me and Reid."
"What's up?" Reid asked.
Morgan pulled the DVD off the shelf and stood up. "Well, first off, Hotch was actually calling me from home and not his office. Second, they found DNA on the envelope flaps of a couple of those letters and it's being analyzed right now. And tomorrow he's going to have Rossi and Prentiss come over like they have been; but tomorrow night it's just you. Then next day me and Prentiss."
"How come?" Daniel asked.
Morgan shrugged. "Don't know. I guess he feels during the day because you're leaving the house you need two of us. But at night with the police still driving by every half hour you only need one person inside the house with you. Rossi is being pulled off to help with the murder investigation."
"Okay, I guess." Daniel looked to see what DVD Morgan was putting in. "Good choice, Derek."
Two hours later Morgan was rubbing his temples as though he had a headache. It wasn't because he hadn't enjoyed the move; he had. 'The Warriors' was one of his all-time favorite films. He'd gotten his headache from listening to Reid and Daniel talk incessantly the entire time. Actually, listening to Reid and Daniel argue was a more apt description of what he had been doing for the last 120 minutes. It had begun as a discussion of the merits of a Russian author named Vladimir Roskolsky. Daniel owned and had read a couple of the author's novels as they had been published in Russian, and Reid had only read the English translations. The argument had begun because Daniel disagreed with Reid's interpretation of a passage of text from the novel 'A Dream of Warriors'.
"Spencer, you're interpreting it as though the words as you read them were a literal translation. You should know you can't do that."
"Just because you read and speak Russian, and own a couple shelves of books published in Russian doesn't mean I'm wrong and you're right."
"I didn't say it did. Don't you think Shakespeare would come across differently translated into Russian as opposed to being read in the original English?"
"I suppose it probably loses something in the translation."
"Of course it loses something, Spencer. It's Shakespeare! The beauty of how the words are written is almost as important as the meaning of the words."
"Okay. I understand what you're saying."
"So why can't you accept that Roskolsky could lose something in translation the same as Shakespeare?"
"Because Roskolsky was just a novelist. He was a good writer, but he wasn't one of the greatest writers of all time!"
"What? What difference does that make, Spencer? The point is still the same!"
"No, it isn't, Daniel! Some authors are more known for their beautiful prose or command of language than others. Therefore a literal translation of an author's work is less viable with some writers than others because the effect of that command of the language is then lost."
"Spencer…"
"All right, I've had it!" Morgan practically shouted, standing up. "Enough, already! You two clowns are giving me a headache! Reid, one more word out of your mouth and I will strangle you." He looked at Daniel. "I don't want to hear anything else from you either!"
Daniel looked up at him. "Fine," he said, standing up himself. He walked over to the bookcase in his living room. 'A Dream of Warriors' is on this shelf. I'm going to find that passage and prove my point to Spencer." He pulled the book off the shelf. "I would have done that already if I'd thought of it sooner."
"And how will I know you're telling me what's really there?"
"Learn to read Russian as well as I can before I find it, genius." Daniel stomped toward his bedroom.
Spencer opened his mouth as if to respond, but shut it quickly when he saw the look on Morgan's face.
Forty-five minutes later when Daniel came back out into the living room holding the book Morgan was sitting on the couch watching ESPN, and Reid was sitting at the kitchen table reading Daniel's copy of 'Twilight'. He had found the book on the shelf while looking for something to read; and since JJ had teased him about not reading anything other than technical books after she realized he didn't know what 'Twilight' was, he had pulled the novel out to read. He had 'New Moon', 'Eclipse', and 'Breaking Dawn' sitting on the table next to him waiting for his attention.
"Uh, Spencer, I have something to tell you," Daniel said quietly.
"Please tell me it's not the damn book again," Morgan grumbled.
"Well, it sort of is the book…"
"Oh, God!" Morgan groaned, rubbing his temples again.
"What?" Reid asked.
"Okay. Well. It's been a while since I actually read this book."
"And?"
"And, I may have misread the original passage the last time I looked at the book. And, if I misread the original passage that means the translation you read in the English version may not have been off like I originally thought it was."
"So you're saying what, exactly?" Reid said, clearly enjoying the moment.
Daniel sighed. "What I'm saying is that, in this particular case, with this particular book, at this particular time, you may have been right and I may have been wrong. There, happy now?"
"Wait, you were wrong?"
"Did I not just say that, Spencer?"
"Hmm… Let me see if I have this right…"
"You know, Spencer, I didn't have to tell you about this in the first place. I could have just let you go on letting you think you might be wrong. But I didn't. I was honest about it, especially since you couldn't really have proved me wrong, could you?" Daniel turned and headed for his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
"Good night!" Reid called after him. He looked over at Morgan, who was glaring at him. "What? I was just having a little fun with him." He closed the book he had been reading and stood up. "Can you please get off my bed Morgan? I'm getting tired."
/\/\/\/\
A/N: Ah, Boston Market meatloaf, cornbread and spiral macaroni and cheese! Yummy!