Playing Games by JuliaBC
A/N: These are the rules for War, taken from pagat . com: (spaces removed)
In the basic game there are two players and you use a standard 52 card pack. Cards rank as usual from high to low: 2. Suits are ignored in this game.
Deal out all the cards, so that each player has 26. Players do not look at their cards, but keep them in a packet face down. The object of the game is to win all the cards.
Both players now turn their top card face up and put them on the table. Whoever turned the higher card takes both cards and adds them (face down) to the bottom of their packet. Then both players turn up their next card and so on.
If the turned up cards are equal there is a war. The tied cards stay on the table and both players play the next card of their pile face down and then another card face-up. Whoever has the higher of the new face-up cards wins the war and adds all six cards face-down to the bottom of their packet. If the new face-up cards are equal as well, the war continues: each player puts another card face-down and one face-up. The war goes on like this as long as the face-up cards continue to be equal. As soon as they are different the player of the higher card wins all the cards in the war.
The game continues until one player has all the cards and wins. This can take a long time.
Her whole body ached as she stepped out of the SUV to enter their hotel, but she barely noticed.
She was outside. She was free.
They were out of prison, out of the nightmare she'd been trapped in. For a moment there, she'd really expected to not make it out.
"I can take that," Reid offered, when she got around to the back of the car and reached for her bags.
"Thank you," she said. "I wasn't looking forward to that."
He smiled, and slung it over his shoulder. Ahead of them, they saw JJ forcibly taking Morgan's bags from him.
"You're injured," she was insisting. "Let me take them."
"I'm fine," Morgan said, but when Rossi came up and clapped him on the shoulder, he visibly winced.
"No, you aren't, my friend," Rossi said. "Give my his duffel."
JJ handed it over, and Rossi hurried ahead as Morgan rolled his eyes and tried to take it back.
"You'll have to catch me first," he taunted, and slipped inside the hotel lobby.
Morgan, who was moving slower than usual, gave up trying, and turned to wait for Kate and Reid.
"You feeling okay, Shorty?" He asked, his eyes darkening with concern.
"I'll live," she said. "Right now, I just want a shower. And new clothes. And to never return to that blasted place."
"I think none of us would ever go back there willingly," Morgan said. "Nice moves."
She groaned. "Just don't talk about it. I'd like to exit that headspace."
As they reached the elevators, Morgan moved aside.
"Oh, don't play tough guy," JJ said. "Just get in."
"I want to take the stairs," he said. "Otherwise I'm afraid I won't be able to."
She rolled her eyes, but followed him to the stairwell. "I'm going with him, so don't hold the elevator."
Reid and Kate stepped in, and Reid stuck his head out to signal Hotch. "We're going up, Hotch."
"Go ahead," Hotch said. "I'm getting some coffee."
Reid nodded, and, as Rossi had taken an earlier one, they were alone.
"Are you feeling okay?" Reid asked.
"I...think so," she replied.
"Any plans for the rest of the night?" He asked. "I don't think we're going to make it out to restaurant."
Kate just barely put a smile on her face, before turning her head to gauge Reid's reaction to her next words. "Actually...I was thinking of going to the hospital."
Reid startled. "Why? Didn't they check you out at the prison?"
"There were medics, but they couldn't give me the answers I want," she said. "I need to get something else checked out. I'm pregnant, Reid."
Reid's mouth fell open, then he gave a strangled laugh. "I knew it. I suspected, but you weren't saying anything."
"I was keeping it under wraps until I was certain," she said. "And, admittedly, I took of a lot of time before finding out. I was nervous."
"Why?" Reid said, his face lighting up with smiles. "That's awesome. You're going to be a mom. What could be more amazing than that knowledge?"
"What could be more frightening?" She said, quietly. "Yes, it is amazing, but I haven't actually done this before. Meg was over a year when Chris and I took her in. It's completely different to be on this side of expecting."
Reid's face suddenly grew more serious. "Wait. The fight. Do you think...?"
"Nothing feels abnormal," she said. "But feelings can be false. Could you drive me after I have a quick shower?"
"Yes," he said, dead serious. "Just knock on my door when you're ready to go."
She nodded, but he could see the tears just beginning to fill her eyes. "Thank you."
Half an hour later, Reid sat on his bed cross legged, his hand skating over a book's page as he read.
A knock sounded at his door, and he hurried to open it. Kate stood there, her hair still wet.
"Hey. Ready to go?" She asked, a bag slung over her shoulder.
"I already got the keys from Hotch," Reid said. "And I told him we were going to a convenience store."
"You didn't have to lie," she said. "But thank you. I'd just like to wait before announcing this."
"I know," Reid said, as they walked to the elevator.
The waiting room at the ER was as expected: crowded but almost dead silent, but for the panicked relatives that came running in every few minutes.
Kate was sitting in a hard, plastic chair, flipping through a People magazine when Reid approached her.
"Tea," he said, handing her a steaming styrofoam cup.
"Thanks," she said. "They said it might be a while. Since I'm not actively dying, and all. And I would rather not go to the ER but the nurse said this would be the best place." She shook her head wearily. "I hate hospitals. What good things ever happens inside?"
"Lives are saved, lives are welcomed into the world," Reid said. "Isn't that good?"
"You are a ray of sunshine, Dr. Reid," she said, and leaned down to pick her bag up. "Luckily, I came prepared."
"Oh?"
She winced slightly, and he moved to take the bag from her. "Can you find the deck of cards inside?" She asked. "My side aches."
"Did you get your ribs checked out?" Reid asked, carefully opening the flowered hobo bag.
"The medic at the prison said my ribs were fine," she said. "Just bruised."
He sifted through the contents, coming across the usual things you'd find in a woman's bag: lipstick, paperback, mascara, keys, her FBI tags, a small picture frame, a wallet, and, finally, a deck of cards.
"You have Picasso playing cards?" Reid asked disbelievingly, taking them out of the box.
"I do," she said. "I love Picasso. Hence, I gave you a Picasso jigsaw puzzle for Christmas."
Reid shook his head, grinning, as he shuffled. His hands moved swiftly through the deck, and she watched.
"You really know how the shuffle cards," she said. "I'm barely beyond 52 card pickup."
"That is not shuffling," Reid said, sounding almost insulted at the suggestion it was.
"It gets the job done," she teased. "Wait a minute. Are you a card shark?"
"Yes," Reid said, not bothering to deny it.
"Okay," she said, raising her eyebrows. "In that case, let's not play Poker. Deal out the whole deck."
"What?"
"Deal the whole deck, twenty-six to you, twenty-six to me." They were playing on their laps, and she turned in her chair so that their knees met. "This, my friend, is War."
"I don't think I know that one," Reid said, his hands flying as he dealt them.
"It's easy enough," she said. "First of all, don't look at your cards. Second, each player turns over a card. The higher card wins; the one to play it gets to keep both. The goal is to have the most cards."
"What if you tie?" Reid said, dealing out the twenty-fifth card.
"That's where the war part comes in," she said, straightening her cards into a neat stack. "You continue turning over cards until one beats. Winner takes all."
"But it's all just the luck of the draw," Reid complained. "No skill involved."
"We can poker next," she said. "Seven Card No Peek."
"That's your idea of poker?" Reid asked, amazed.
"That's what I play with Meg," she said, and turned over her top card. "Queen of Clubs."
"Jack of Spades," Reid said, and she swept the cards away.
"Ace of Spades," she said.
"Three of Spades," he returned, and she took them again.
"King of Hearts," she said.
"Queen of Hearts," Reid said, giving her his card before she had to reach for it.
She couldn't resist a small laugh, and he didn't resist a small cackle when, next turn, he won, Jack of Hearts over Seven of Hearts.
"Ten of Hearts," she said.
"Six of Hearts," he said.
Another turn, then Reid won again with the Ace of Diamonds.
Kate took three more sets, and Reid sighed. "We haven't even had a war yet," he said. "This is not a very well thought out card game."
She took another set, before Reid triumphed with the Eight of Spades over her Two of Hearts.
They played through, Kate taking the majority of the cards, and Reid was despairing of ever having a war, when, on their fourth to last card, they both drew Fours.
"War!" Kate said, they drew again, and Reid took the set with the King of Diamonds.
"Yes!" He crowed.
At the end of the game, it was more than obvious who had won. Reid took Kate's stack of cards to reintegrate it into the deck, and started shuffling.
"Kate Callahan?" A nurse asked, and Kate jumped up.
"Dr. Nicole Zane can see you now," the nurse said, her name tag reading Violet.
"Thank you," she said, moving to follow her, but paused when Reid hung back.
"Don't worry, your boyfriend can come with us," Violet reassured her.
It wasn't his place to correct the nurse, but he found the answer jumping to his lips. "I'm just a friend."
"You can still come with, if Kate's okay with it," Violet said. "Are you?"
"Yeah," Kate said. "I am."
"I'm dressed," Kate called, and Reid slipped back into the room. "I'm just waiting on some test results," she said, sitting in the middle of the hospital bed with her feet up. "But Dr. Zane said the baby and I are looking just fine."
"That's good," Reid said, and hesitantly took the deck of cards from his pocket.
"Good idea," she said. "Deal them out."
"What are we playing?" Reid asked. "Please don't say War or Seven Card No Peek."
"You can decide," she said. "Actually, do you know any card tricks?"
"Do I know any card tricks?" Reid said, pulling a chair up to the bed. "I know...more than a thousand. Here's one," he said, and his hands once again flew.
He dealt three columns of seven cards, face up. "Pick a card, but don't tell me what it is," he said, and watched her gaze skate over them.
"I've got one," she said. "Now what?"
"What column is it in, A, B, or C?" He asked.
"C," she said. "Wait, I think I know this one."
He redealt, and she picked her card out again. "B."
Ditto. "B."
"Hocus Pocus," Reid said, discarding a card for every letter. The eleventh card was the Three of Diamonds, and Kate clapped her hands.
"It never gets old," she said, taking the card. "But I suppose it's all just math?"
"Yes, and I can explain the trick to you," Reid said. "It has to do with—"
"Spencer." Kate said, and lay a finger on his lip. "Remember, a magician never reveals his secrets,"
"I suppose he doesn't," Reid said, moving back from her finger and she looked away from him.
"Okay," Reid said. "Blackjack."
"Oh, no," she said. "What's wrong with Seven Card No Peek?"
"It's stupid," Reid said, his voice deceptively patient.
Kate just rolled her eyes. "Blackjack it is, then."
A/N: You can buy the deck of cards mentioned on Amazon, using the keywords Piatnik Picasso Playing Cards by Gibson.
I am not necessarily a fan of modern art, but I am a fan of Picasso. I think Kate would be too.
This is the second chapter of the week. I wrote it so quickly because I loved the episode so much.
What did you think? Did you like the return to just Kate and Reid? Did it 'gel' well with how the episode ended? (Lockdown)
Any thoughts are much appreciated, and I'll gladly take game requests. It just might be awhile before I get to them."
Edited to include: a big THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed, but especially those who reviewed last time, with answers and opinions regarding JLH's pregnancy. You guys are awesome :D