Title:
Power
Play
Rating:
R
Fandom:
Criminal
Minds
Universe:
Creatures
of the Night (Part 1)
Pairing:
Morgan/Prentiss;
JJ/Hotch
Genre:
Supernatural/Drama
Summary:
Tensions
are running high when a vampire joins the BAU, but all differences
must be put aside as the team investigate a series of suspicious
werewolf murders. AU.
Author's
Notes: Betaed
by Windy City Dreamer. Some guest beta work from Yellow Smurf.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
An hour later, it's almost midnight, and they're driving back to FBI headquarters. Hotch can't help but feel that the whole evening had been something of a wash. Though they'd gained a little bit of insight into vampire politics, they're no closer to discovering who had murdered their victims, and why this unsub had chosen to frame the Prentiss clan.
'He was a droid,' JJ says abruptly, bringing Hotch's thought process to a halt.
'Who was a droid?'
'Bruno,' she tells him. 'The guard. I couldn't hear a thing he was thinking.' She pauses. 'It was kind of…comforting.'
'Is that normal?' he frowns, slightly jealous at the fact that she feels more comfortable around a droid than she does around him.
'I don't know. Spence – Reid – is the only one I've spent a significant amount of time around, and I can read his thoughts if he's thinking a little too hard. Which is most of the time.'
There's a hint of sadness in her voice, and Hotch doesn't need psychic powers to know why. 'I was told that if he knew, he wouldn't be able to function. That knowing he's a machine would be too overwhelming for his mind to accept.'
'I guess whoever told you that was wrong,' she says softly, but it isn't an accusation. She adds, with some pride, 'He's special.'
Hotch doesn't dispute the claim – he knows it's true. But he still wonders if maybe they've lost a friend through their deceit. He won't be surprised in the least if Spencer Reid goes AWOL as soon as this case is solved. In fact, he's expecting it.
But they have to solve the case first.
***
Emily tosses in her sleep.
She dreams.
She dreams of the past; of family, of defection, of exile. She dreams of every single moment that has brought her to this point, a slideshow of millisecond flashes. Flashes of blood, of death.
She wakes in a cold sweat, breathing heavily, but she doesn't scream. She's far too used to the nightmares to scream.
Even still, her companion raises his head and looks at her, giving a slight whimper. It seems wrong to see him so docile; as a human, even in a calm state, he gives off that undeniable air of strength. Now, there's a weakness that she knows is killing him inside.
She'd left the room when he shifted, determined to give him some small amount of control that is otherwise absent. The sounds had been enough to keep her from wanting to watch at any point in the future. She's seen it before, but it's different when the wolf in question isn't an enemy. Very different when the wolf in question is someone she's been intimate with.
Even though it had still been early, they'd both gone to sleep then, the events of the past two days having culminated in an undeniable exhaustion.
She feels a little uncomfortable sleeping in his bed with him in this form, but he had given her puppy-dog eyes (she can really find no other way to describe them) when she'd made to sleep on the couch. And that's where she is now.
The full moon shines in through the open window, reflecting off Morgan's dark, silken fur. It looks so soft, and she almost wants to run her fingers through it, but she knows that doing so would probably be pretty insulting.
'I'm okay,' she tells him, 'Just a nightmare.'
He makes another small sound, and she realizes that she has no idea whether or not he can actually understand her in this form. His mind is in there somewhere, but whether his brain has retained its cognitive capacity, she is unsure. It's something that she's never bothered to find out.
He nuzzles up against her, his wet nose tickling a small patch of exposed skin. She takes a moment to look over his wolf form, and imagines what he'd usually be doing on a full moon night. Imagines the freedom of it. Freeing, but, at the same time, incapacitating. All species have their advantages and their disadvantages.
'Thank-you,' she whispers, only she's not entirely sure what she's saying thank-you for. Thank-you for lying here with me? Thank-you for trusting me? Thank-you for letting down your boundaries? Thank-you for helping me bring down mine?
On some level, it's all of those things. In spite of recent events, this is the most human she's felt in a long time.
And with that thought, she drifts slowly back to sleep.