Playing Games by JuliaBC
A/N: You know, I've already typed up my tag for 11x17: The Sandman, but then I decided that, what with all I set up, I should really do one more in the time skip.
This is maybe a month after the wedding.
Woot! CM has been renewed for season 12! I can't wait to see what new journeys they have for our favorite characters. :) (Probs minus Kate but I've come to terms with JLH probably not returning by now)
Reid opened his eyes and it was quiet. The sunlight was only just beginning to penetrate the heavy curtains in his bedroom, and he could feel Poe curled up next to his legs at the end of his bed. He wondered if he'd regret letting puppy Poe sleep on his legs once puppy Poe had ceased to exist and he had a full grown dog in bed with him.
He sat up, reached down and ruffled Poe's head, scratching the dog's chin until he awoke, yipping as he did so, leaning into Reid's hand.
Reid got out of bed, stretched and quickly pulled on a sweatshirt. Poe would be expecting his morning walk, and Reid was willing and able to oblige. He picked up Poe's lead, hooked it to the dog's collar and left his bedroom, heading down the hallway.
He paused, for a moment, outside of Travis's door, but kept on going until he was outside, heading down the steps, and then, finally, out in the morning sunshine.
The city was quiet. It was Sunday morning. There was no morning rush hour.
Poe sensed the calmness of the morning too, testing the boundaries of the leash and almost pulling Reid into a reluctant jog. He finally let Poe pull him along faster, feeling the oxygen pump into his body, until he got a side stitch and stood in the middle of the sidewalk, clutching his stomach, while Poe ran in circles around him.
He should really try to fit running into a more regular part of his routine.
Poe started going again and Reid followed gamely; his knee finally said that enough was enough and he fell into a much easier pace, coaxing Poe to his side and making the dog keep pace with him.
The cases at the BAU lately had been quiet. Things that Reid no longer counted as catastrophic, though the look on the mother's face in their most recent case would stay with him for a long time. He couldn't afford to dwell on it, though. He knew that now.
He remembered Travis mentioning a job interview today (Sunday was an odd day for it, but his interviewee seemed to have a packed schedule) and wondered if he should pick up breakfast, coax Travis into eating something beyond rice.
The boy...man?...was reluctant to let Reid share with him more than Reid already was. He was still trying to give Reid some sort of compensation in terms of rent and Reid had explained to him more than once that he really didn't need it.
Travis always nodded, and then tried to hand him the money again.
Reid didn't want the money. He didn't need money. And he really didn't need Travis's money, when Travis was finding it hard to get a new job, and when...he wasn't sure where Travis was getting this money in the first place.
Reid again counted off the signs, and shook his head. There was no way that Travis was an addict. But maybe he was dealing it. Maybe he'd gotten desperate.
Reid shook his head, not liking the direction his train of thought was going in. He'd never had a reason to think Travis was an addict before now. He shouldn't now just because Travis was...what? Acting differently?
He remembered his angry words to Emily about 8 years ago and flushed. Maybe it wasn't in his position to judge...though Emily had been right, if he would let himself admit it.
He turned around and started heading back home, Poe dancing on his leash. Breakfast was forgotten; his thoughts turned to books when he passed an old bookstore and found himself remembering a library book he hadn't gotten around to yet, for he'd left it at home and then been called out on a case.
Thinking of that, it was most likely due soon.
He broke into another jog. Poe rejoiced; more than keeping his master's pace.
"How did the interview go?" Reid asked when Travis walked in through the door that afternoon, messenger bag over his shoulder. He was dressed in slacks and a blazer; it was a cold day and he was looking a bit shivered.
"I don't have high hopes," Travis admitted, tugging his tie off. "Though she did pay for a taxi when she noticed that the temperature had dropped."
"That was nice of her," Reid replied, standing up.
Travis shrugged. "I think it was more for appearances," he said honestly.
"What kind of job was it?" Reid asked.
Travis, in the middle of taking off his jacket, paused. "An office job. I'd be doing filing, messenger type work. But she didn't like that I wasn't in college currently. I'm not sure what she was expecting considering my age and the fact that I'm looking for full time work."
His voice was a bit sharp, and he toned it down considerably. "Sorry. I'm just...angry with her."
"Anger can be a healthy emotion, if you let it out correctly," Reid said a bit cautiously.
Travis smiled a crooked smile, and Reid was pleased to see it actually reach his eyes. "I guess so," he said, his voice shy again.
"Are you hungry?" Reid asked. "I was thinking of getting Thai food for dinner."
Travis paused. "That could be nice," he hedged.
"You can pay me back once you're working," Reid said. "And something I'll add to that is I do like to order more than one dish, but it's not practical for me if I'm living alone and travelling so much...it would spoil. So you being here means that I get to have more variety without the surplus going to waste."
"Are you saying it wouldn't be surplus with me around?" Travis asked.
"Exactly," Reid replied.
Travis paused for a moment, about to go down the hallway to his bedroom. "Okay," he said. "But I could pay for delivery. I still have some money."
"Deal," Reid said, conceding the point.
Reid smiled as he looked at his cell phone half an hour later; JJ had just sent a picture of Michael playing with a new toy Reid had sent him. They were alphabet blocks (it was never too early to learn the English language, for then you could start on others that much the faster) and Michael was chewing on the soft corner of the 'K' block.
The buzzer rang and he went to get it, fetching the food from the rather frozen delivery man and paying a hefty tip. He'd always imagined that work for delivery people (especially in Summer and Winter) must be a rather unrewarding job and always tried to tip well. It was the same for haircuts.
He grinned as he set the food down. He was so picky whenever he went to get his hair cut that whatever stylist had the unfortunate fate of serving him deserved a monumental tip. He did like having longer hair. That was the problem. He always went in to the salon with the intention of getting it shorter for convenience's sake (it just made sense in the field) but then just couldn't do it and had the stylist only take off a minimal amount.
And then he slept on it wrong, couldn't figure out what to do for it and ended up going to work looking like he'd stuck his finger into an electrical outlet.
Which he also didn't mind. He actually enjoyed the rare looks of askance that his coworkers gave him; especially the look on Hotch's face whenever he came in looking especially crazy. He didn't mind being the mad scientist of the BAU.
Travis came out of his bedroom as Reid started to pull dishes from the cupboard, intending to move the food into those containers instead of eating out of the paper and Styrofoam boxes.
"Want some help?" Travis asked, sticking his hands into his jean pockets, looking much younger than he had when dressed up in suit and tie.
"Could you transfer the soup into...this bowl?" Reid said, rifling in the cupboard and finding a porcelain bowl that was a gift from Garcia.
"Won't this make unnecessary dishes?" Travis asked.
"I don't like feeling like I'm living in a college dorm room; there's nothing wrong with some aesthetic when there's enough time for it," Reid said. "And if I take a picture and send it to..."
His voice trailed off, considering things.
"Send it to who?" Travis asked, pouring the soup into said porcelain bowl and moving to transfer a chicken dish into another bowl.
"Would you mind if I invited a friend...coworker for dinner?" Reid asked. "She's very friendly and outgoing. I know she'd love to meet you."
"Garcia?" Travis asked, and then froze a little.
"Yes," Reid said. He wanted to ask how Travis knew her name; he hadn't realized before now how much he must talk about work and the people there while at home.
"That would be nice," Travis said. "She's the one with the cat, right?"
Reid really wondered just how much Travis picked up on now. "Yeah. Um. I'm going to text her. She's just ten minutes away from me, so..."
He picked up his cell phone, snapped a picture of the meal and sent it to her with the words, Want to join in? It's Thai. I ordered plenty.
Spencer Reid, are you using a cell phone for purposes other than work? Be still my beating heart! I'll be there ASAP.
He grinned and turned to Travis. "She's coming," he told him.
Travis smiled. "She sounds fun," he commented, moving Panang into a glass bowl. "You're running out of bowls."
"I have some more in the strainer," Reid told him, a bit distracted. Travis is here.
I'll take off my crazy boots and put on my only semi-crazy boots then.
He laughed out loud.
"What?" Travis asked, placing the Panang in the center of Reid's kitchen table.
"Hey, you know what?" Reid said, not purposefully evading the question; he was only distracted. "I have the coffee table in the other room; it's square...We could sit there. Garcia would really get a kick out of my extra atmosphere, and we have a few minutes..."
He hurried into the living room; Poe was napping on the couch and briefly picked up his head to look at Reid before going to sleep again.
There were a few books scattered on and near the table; Reid cleared them off and moved them to a bookshelf. Travis was hovering in the kitchen door, a bowl in each hand.
"Bring them in," Reid said, taking the afghan off of the couch and, a bit guiltily, used it to quickly wipe off any dust that was on the table, making a note to wash the afghan next. "Arrange them on it. Let's try to make it look nice."
"You have a few candles, over here, they look like gifts," Travis began. "I could light a few of these."
"That would be great; I don't have any matches but you could light them on the stove," Reid said. "Let me do it. It's a bit tricky to manage it without burning your fingers."
"You could light a wooden skewer on the stove and then use it to light the candles," Travis suggested, his hands full of Thai dishes again, transferring them onto the coffee table with care. Looking at it critically, he moved one bowl and then walked back to the kitchen as Reid was struggling to do as Travis suggested.
"The skewer is too thick," he finally said, giving up on getting the stick lit.
"What about bowls for eating out of?" Travis asked.
"You could use the cereal bowls...no, wait," Reid said. "Emily sent me a set of English teacups. I..." He walked to the cabinet and pulled them out. "They don't look too fragile. Why don't you put those on for bowls and here..." He swirled around the kitchen to grab them. "Here are some plates that I got for Halloween last year."
"Okay," Travis said, going back to the living room.
Reid finally lit the candles on the stove, his nimble magician's fingers not getting one burn on them.
He walked into the living room, holding them carefully, to find that Travis had utterly transformed the table.
He'd placed cushions at each place for sitting on, and the serving bowls were arranged in a mathematically precise pattern. At each place setting there was an orange and black plate, an English teacup and utensils.
"You found my soup spoons!" Reid exclaimed, placing the candles on the table.
"Yeah, were they lost?" Travis wondered.
"No but I never have time to look for them," Reid said.
His door buzzer rang and he hurried to let Penelope in.
"I brought cupcakes," she told him, dressed in jeans and a flowing floral top, cinched at an empire waistline. "Gluten free."
"They look amazing," he said. "But you have to see what Travis and I managed for in place settings."
She followed him into the kitchen, looking a bit quizzically around her. "We aren't eating in here?" She asked, placing the cupcakes onto the counter.
Travis entered, looking young again. "Hi, I'm Travis," he offered, sticking his hand out.
"I'm Penelope Garcia," Garcia replied. "Call me Penelope." She smiled at him. "You're really good with animals, right?"
"Well, dogs, anyway," Travis said. "We, um, set the table in there."
"In the living room?" Garcia wondered, looking at Reid. "You have a table in there?"
"Come on," Reid said, smiling with anticipation as to what her reaction would be.
When he led her into the room, she clapped her hands to her mouth in surprise and awe. "Oh my god, it looks...amazing. Oh, wow, where did you find all of this?" Her eyes were sparkling. "Did you guys do this for me?"
"We had the extra time, so we figured we'd put it to good use," Reid said.
Garcia was already hurrying forward, pulling out of cell phone to take pictures at all angles. "Oh wow, Em's teacups for soup bowls? I love it! And the plates. The color scheme shouldn't work but it does."
She eagerly sat down on one of the pillows, and Travis and Reid hastened to join her.
The smile on Garcia's face was one of pure joy and, when Reid looked at Travis, the contentment on his face almost matched Garcia's.
"We have to play a game," Garcia said, after she'd insisted on doing the dishes. The meal had gone by in a lovely sequence of conversation and eating. Reid couldn't remember such a happy meal having ever been eaten in his apartment; there were several out with the team, but never on his living room floor.
He'd tried to dissuade Garcia from doing the dishes but she'd overridden all of his protests, already filling the sink and keeping up a steady flow of conversation as she did so. Reid hung around to dry the dishes and Travis lurked in the doorway, listening to the outrageous stories Garcia was telling of things she'd done, a quiet look of happiness in his eyes.
"That's a really good idea," Reid agreed, as Garcia uncovered her cupcakes and carefully brought them into the living room, setting them in the middle of the table. The candles had burnt out; Reid turned the overhead light on higher.
Travis was moving away, going towards his room, and Garcia noticed it, making quick eye contact with Reid. He nodded.
"What do you want to play, Travis?" Garcia wondered.
"Me?" Travis asked.
"I have a few games over here," Reid said, taking Travis to his game cupboard.
Travis stared the selection for a moment. "The only one that I recognize is Risk," he said.
"The world conquest game!" Garcia announced. "Great idea! I haven't played Risk in a long time." She stood up. "Let me go put a kettle on, actually. I'd love some tea and I know that Reid must have a smashing selection since Emily sends it to all of us and he doesn't drink it as much as he should."
She mock glared at him.
"I have to save it for when you're visiting," he deflected, carrying the game over to the coffee table.
They quickly chose their colors and sorted the pieces. "Are we playing the regular rules or do you want secret missions?" Travis asked. "I always played secret mission risk when I was younger. My dad said it was shorter, so..."
By his tone of voice, Reid surmised the remainder of the sentence. "I think Garcia and I would like to duke it out to the bitter end, right?" He asked.
"Definitely," she said, taking a bite of cupcake. "I have my fighting gloves on." She frowned at her bare hands. "Well, whatever."
Travis grinned, and began to sort out his men in deference to what they said.
"Do you want to claim territories or have random draw?" He asked again a few moments later.
"Random draw," Reid said.
"Territory claim," Garcia chimed in at the same time.
"What do you say?" Reid asked Travis, as Poe slipped off the couch.
"Oh, don't make me be the dealbreaker!" Travis protested.
"Random," Garcia conceded. "Then we can place them for you, since it looks like Poe needs a quick walk." The dog had hurried over to sniff Garcia; she was the visitor, after all. After a moment, he let her scratch his chin.
"That's a good idea," Reid said.
"I'll do your pieces, and Travis will deal the cards and make sure that I don't cheat, not that I would," Garcia said as Reid put a coat on and grabbed Poe's leash.
"I'll make it quick," Reid said.
"Take your time. We're all good here."
Reid looked quickly, sharply, back. It hadn't been Garcia to speak. It had been Travis.
A/N: It was really interesting to imagine Reid's apartment. I don't think you see it other than in the Maeve episodes so my vague envisioning for the floorplan would be:
you walk in and there's the kitchen to your right, maybe a closet or bathroom to your left.
You can go through the kitchen to the living room you see in the Maeve episodes, and then there's a hallway off of it leading to two bedrooms and a bathroom.
So yeah. I wanted some Travis/Reid interaction but then I also had requests for Garcia/Reid. And I love writing Garcia interacting with...well, anybody! She's the best and I feel for her so much right now and I was glad to give her some extra joy.
Risk results? Garcia was in a rare battle-thirsty mood and she trounced Travis, but Reid's amazing strategy skills snatched victory from her.
You can find Risk anywhere games are sold. There are many variations. My personal favorite is the Lord of the Rings themed Risk.
This was chapter #50. Thank you for going on this journey with me for so long! And I'm hitting 100,000 words with this chapter, meaning that I have an average of 2k words per chapter (something I didn't think would happen!)