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"Here you go." Erin spoke as she ducked back into the room, passing her guest his coffee and sitting behind her desk, as she took a sip of her own.
Spencer immediately stopped what he was doing; pouncing on the coffee he leaned in close. He inhaled the aromas coming from the mug deeply before taking a large gulp of the brown liquid. Sighing contently he leaded back, head resting on the top of the sofa. After a moment of silence he spoke.
"How did you know how I like my coffee?" Reid asked, baffled.
"Let's just say a little birdy told me." she laughed. "How you can drink that though I have no idea, you'll have no teeth by the time you're thirty."
Reid only shrugged at this, it was evident to Erin that he must get these comments a lot and had given up on arguing about it, so she did not press him on the point.
Strauss reached into one of her desk drawers, pulling out her tinfoil wrapped sandwiches and a box of cookies before moving to sit next to Reid on the sofa. Spencer happily moved his folders out of the way to make room for her to join him. He tucked his gangly legs in so that he was sat now crossed legged in his seat.
Once Strauss had taken her seat and offered half her sandwich and the box of cookies to the young man she remembered David's words from earlier.
"So tell me all about this last case you had, in Maine if I'm not mistaken?" With only a little coaxing Reid was retelling the tale in more modest terms than Rossi had previously used.
Sandwich and half a pack of cookies later and the story long since completed, the two FBI agents were cheerfully chatting about everything from the best places to by coffee in the city to weather predictions for the next day. Erin was amazed at Spencer's encyclopaedic knowledge on every subject and found herself laughing at the mathematical jokes he would slip in between statistics. Spencer for his part was growing in confidence. The image of the tyrannical BAU leader had been replaced in his mind by a caring, nurturing figure, who unlike most of his team found his jokes funny and didn't cut off his rambling statistics. With the appearance of cookies and coffee he would dare to say he was actually enjoying himself. After another few tales and with the packet of cookies empty Erin begrudgingly called an end to their extended coffee break.
"Now I really must get us back on track, we're at risk of talking away the entire day and I do have a fearsome reputation to uphold." Both parties shared a smirk at that, knowing the truth. "How about this." She continued, standing up and slowly walking back to her desk "We get back to work and aim to finish our piles by the end of the day, if we make it I'll order Chinese from the place you mentioned you like. Sound like a good deal?"
"You bet it does." Reid responded. Filled with a new-found motivation to get his work done he busied himself with his report.
By the time five thirty swung by both agents had completed their workload. Spencer finding the job easier than Erin; who in the end accepted the doctors help in finishing off some of her reports. between the two of them they had managed what Erin first thought impossible, and the backlog of work was no more. With the files gone she could now see the surface of her desk for the first time in many months, and as if a weight had been lifted her body relaxed into her chair, no longer feeling the guilt of being surrounded by unfinished work.
"Well a deals a deal, let me pull up the menu on my computer." Erin gestured as Reid fidgeted in his seat, unable to keep in his excitement. After ten minutes of deliberation they were ready to place their order. While Erin was calling the takeaway Spencer had planned to take advantage of the late hour to nip out of the office to the toilet, stopping by to drop his finished work off in Hotch's office before getting back.
Luckily for Reid today seemed to be one of the rare days when the team weren't working to the dead of night. With the bull pen empty he lazily made his way to Hotch's office, noticing from the lack of lights on that he too must have called it a night and headed home. He placed the completed files on Hotch's desk, writing a short note to explain what was what before striding back out the room and down the walk way to Strauss' office.
"The Chinese will be here in forty five minutes." She greeted Spencer, her voice betraying her own excitement, the lad was definitely a good influence on her. The thought of ordering take out to the building would never even of crossed her mind and yet with a little nudge from a special young agent there she was counting down the minutes until it arrived. Finally letting herself be spontaneous.
They filled the time waiting for their food to arrive by popping up to the roof to take a look at the night sky. They fell into an easy pattern with Spencer pointing up at the stars picking out constellations and relaying facts to Erin, who stood next to him nodding along fascinated. A buzz of a phone alerted the pair that the Chinese had arrived. Strauss nipped down to the lobby to pick up the food while Reid headed back to the office to make room on the coffee table for the meal.
The smell of food wafted into the room as Erin entered, both hands carrying two carrier bags full of food. Spencer abruptly stopped on seeing them. Eyes flicked between the multiple food bags and the small coffee table knowing there was nowhere near the room they would need to spread out the meal. Once the shock had worn off he found his voice.
"It looks like you've ordered half the menu." Spencer exclaimed "It must have cost you a fortune, let me give you some money towards it."
"I won't hear of it." She stated, shaking her head. "This is my treat and I have the funds to live a more lavish lifestyle, it's about time I did." She smiled "And you made it all sound so good I couldn't choose, so I went with…well everything. Anyway, we're celebrating, we've both successfully survived April Fools day."
After a moment and Spencer's best wide-eyed goldfish impression he pulled himself together.
"You're amazing." He laughed.
"Tell me something I don't know." She joked, setting them both off on another round of laughter.
"So, do you want to try and fit it all on the coffee table?" She questioned.
"I have a better idea" Spencer called taking two of the bags from her hand and leading the way out of the room.
Guest: Thanks for your kind words.
ahowell1993: Don't worry Strauss would never let Spencer miss meals.
SenzaTempo: I'm glad you like the story so far I spent a lot of time trying to get the characters believable but also show a new side to them. I know DavRin had a few stories you may like but at the moment Reid/Strauss stories of any kind are few and far between.