Chapter 33

Twice more Spencer had to stop and encourage Laura to keep moving. By the time they got on the plane the tears were running down her cheeks. They got the couch, of course, and before everyone was even settled Spencer's eyes were starting to close. He murmured something, she responded with a positive sound, and they closed the doors he was already drifting off, using her lap as a pillow. By the time they took off he was snoring lightly. "I never thought I'd enjoy that sound." JJ said.

As they had boarded Rossi had shooed everyone down to the far end. Once they could take their seat belts off, he went over and sat across from Laura. "Here," he said, offering his handkerchief. "Let your sleeves dry out."

She accepted with a small smile. "Thanks." She sniffed.

"We haven't formally met yet. I'm Dave Rossi. And you're Laura. It's nice to finally meet you."

She nodded. "I liked your books." She said. "They're really good. I guess we're…staying at your house, at least tonight."

"You two can stay as long as you need. Do you like Italian food?" Laura nodded. "Good. I'm going to make something light when we get there, something my Nonna used to make. What have you two been eating for breakfast?"

Laura sighed, as if even this question ached, "Scrambled eggs, sausage, English muffins with real butter, orange juice and whole milk. A lot of it was from the farm."

"If I ate that much cholesterol my heart would stage a rebellion."

"I'm supposed to."

"Oh." Dave tried to probe gently, "Part of the experiment?" She nodded. "You don't have to anymore; you're free of that now."

"Yes, I do. We can go out…"

"No, no. I can make eggs, for a few days they won't kill me. We'll have to pick some up though."

"Hey Rossi," Morgan spoke up. "Do you have more than one spare bed?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I've got my go-bag, how about if I come give you guys a hand? I'll stop at the store on the way."

"Sounds like a plan." Dave turned back to Laura. "Do you prefer coffee or tea in the morning?"

"Either." She said. Then, "Coffee. Decaf. For both of us."

A hush fell over the plane. "He decaffeinated Reid?" Dave said, shocked. "Maybe we should re-profile for torture."

"Between that and not sleeping well he wasn't the best company for the first week."

"Why wasn't he sleeping well?" Dave asked.

"Because he insisted on sleeping on the couch."

"Good morning sleepyhead." Laura said. "Shower's free."

Spencer opened bleary eyes as she headed for the coffee pot. "Why do you bother?" He asked, wincing at the surly note in his voice.

She dropped a pod in the hopper and put her mug on the tray. They didn't even have to add water, it was a commercial model wired into the plumbing. "It's psychological. I think it's important to try to maintain some sense of normalcy. Coffee means its morning, tea means its afternoon, cocoa means it's nighttime."

He grunted and rolled off the couch. It was really a loveseat, cozy for two people to sit. Not nearly long enough for one tall person to stretch out. "I apologize. Starting the day with a headache does not put me at my best."

She sighed. "Why don't you sleep in the bed tonight, let me take the couch? I'll fit on the thing."

By now he was on his feet. He looked at her and sighed. "That would be…less than chivalrous. Thank you though. I'm going to…" He gestured in the direction of the bathroom and gym on the other side of the cellar.

"Okay." The Unsub, as Spencer called him, had not given a sturdy fig for privacy. If you stood in the kitchen you could see every inch of the bathroom clearly. They had tied the tablecloth up with some yarn to at least make a bit of a privacy screen for the toilet but polite behavior dictated that when someone was using the bath you ought to go sit at an angle where you wouldn't see, or turn your back. Thankfully their desks were placed to allow for this. She took her mug and went and sat and looked over her notes and tried not to think of the days when her schedule was impossibly full.

"What changed?" Dave asked. He could practically see her gears grinding to a halt as she considered all of the ramifications to that question. It's never a straight line for them, Dr. Cargill had said, their brains make more connections faster than the rest of us. Think of it like a computer network, they have more and faster connection between servers, so they can process data faster. But emotions are like a movie, clogging up the bandwidth, slowing everything down. Every other process slows down while you download and sometimes things lock up. As Dave watched Laura locked up. "Later. There's no rush. Let's get you home and get some dinner, we can talk another day."