Read My Lips

Chapter 6

Even though he mentally prepared himself for another eight hours of paperwork and mandatory training seminars, Spencer's workday still seemed like it was taking eons to pass. Several times throughout the day, he found himself staring into space with his phone in his hand and a stack of unread papers on his desk in front of him. And a few of those times, when he snapped back into focus, Spencer caught his coworkers staring at him. He found it slightly annoying that he couldn't even sit quietly at his desk without attracting attention. But being constantly observed came with the territory when you worked on the BAU. Spencer knew the interest came from a place of genuine concern for him. But after he caught JJ staring at him for the third time, he threw his phone down on his desk next to the giant stack of papers he'd yet to make a dent in and began to rub at his temples.

Because he could read ten times faster than the rest of them put together, Spencer generally did the bulk of the paperwork for his team. But today, he found himself having to read the same page several times before he could absorb the material. When JJ approached and lifted an inch of papers off the top of his stack, Spencer offered her a grateful smile that came with a soft sigh of relief.

"Are you having headaches again?," she asked, lingering by his desk long enough to let him know that her real intent was to check in on him. Taking the papers was just an excuse to get close enough to his desk that she could speak to him without the entire office overhearing their conversation. Spencer shook his head. But before he could say anything, he heard Derek's snort of laughter.

"Just call her," Derek suggested. Spencer turned in his seat, glancing back over his shoulder and giving his nosy coworker what he hoped was an irritated glare. Derek shrugged his shoulders and laughed harder. "Reid… you've been staring at your phone all afternoon. Just call her. You obviously want to."

JJ furrowed her brows together in confusion as she glanced back and forth between the two men. "Call her?," she repeated. "Call who? Who are you talking about?"

"Noone!," Spencer huffed, bringing on another round of laughter from Derek. Whenever Spencer got wound up about something, his voice went higher pitched. And this was no exception. "I'm not calling anyone," he insisted.

"Come on man," Derek cajoled, trying his best to stifle his laughter. "If you're gonna call and ask her out, you might as well do it while I'm here, in case you need help on what to say."

"Who's he talking about?," JJ asked. Her tone was getting near as high as Reid's. And now she had one hand hiked up on her hip. Derek wasn't sure if JJ's irritation was because she was jealous that Derek knew something she didn't know about Reid, or jealousy due to Reid possibly taking interest in another woman. But if Derek had to guess, he'd put his money on the latter. JJ was happily married with two kids. She was the only member of the team that had a functional relationship outside the BAU. But apparently that wasn't going to stop her from getting jealous if she found out another woman was putting the moves on her work husband. And god forbid if the poor girl hurt Reid's feelings. The next unsub they'd be assigned to catch would be Jennifer Jareau.

"Are you seeing someone?," JJ asked.

"No," Reid huffed. He turned his attention to Derek, a slight grin forming on his face. Spencer grabbed half the stack of papers off his desk and pushed back hard against the floor with his feet. The wheels under his chair spun. And he flung backwards until his chair collided with Derek's desk. "You want to help me?," he confirmed, slapping the stack of papers down on Derek's pristine desktop. "There you go!"

"Hey!," Derek protested. "Come on Reid! You know I hate paperwork!"

Spencer and JJ looked at each other. And now that Morgan's voice had gone as high and whiny as theirs, it was their turn to laugh. The loud clunk of Spencer's rolling chair against Derek's desk brought Penelope out of her office. And she was quick to rush in and correct the situation. Of course she would do Derek's paperwork for him. He couldn't be bothered with such trivial annoyances. In exchange for her services, Penelope managed to wrangle a dinner invitation out of him. While they were deciding where they wanted to eat, JJ turned her attention back to Reid. He rolled his chair back in front of his own desk and snatched up the paper on the top of his diminished stack, pretending for a moment that he didn't see and feel JJ standing over him. This was harder to do than it sounded, considering she was practically breathing down his neck. JJ always smelled good, like shampoo and the expensive perfume Will bought her for her birthday. This one held the aroma of apples and flowers. But being close enough to smell JJ didn't give Reid the gentle rush it usually did. Maybe because he was making the comparison in his mind and thinking that Elaina smelled better. A lot better.

"Well?," JJ asked, sliding forward and sitting on the edge of his desk so they were facing each other. Reid had an oversharing problem. And it was immediately clear that JJ's current tactic was to sit in silence and wait for him to fill it. When all he did was stare back at her, she raised her eyebrow and asked, "Who was Morgan talking about?"

"You smell good," Ried offered, smiling up at her. "You know the word perfume is derived from the Latin 'perfumare', which means to smoke through. The art of making perfume is called perfumery. And it began in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Ancient China. It was further refined by the Romans and the Muslims. Most modern perfume is produced in France. And Grasse, France is known as the perfume capital of the world."

As Reid continued on, spouting off every fact he could think of about the history of the perfume industry, JJ sat on his desk and patiently waited for him to finish. He was hoping that his endless tirade might send her packing. But after the first two minutes and twenty five seconds, it became obvious to him that she wasn't going anywhere no matter how much he ran his mouth.

"Are you done?," JJ teased, biting back a smile when Reid finally stopped talking long enough to suck in a hard breath of air. He shook his head, then nodded it. Reid glanced back over his shoulder towards Derek's desk with a look of hesitation. And JJ was quick to pick up on the fact that whatever he was about to tell her, he didn't want Derek to hear it. "I need a coffee," she said, though the lie was an obvious one. Everyone in the office knew JJ didn't drink more than two cups a day unless they were on a case. The caffeine made it hard for her to fall asleep.

A few minutes later, Reid and JJ were alone in Prentiss's office. She was still occupied with some sort of management meeting within the bureau, leaving her office free for a behind closed doors conversation. They perched on the edge of her desk, sitting side by side with their cups of coffee in their hands. Reid was drinking his. But JJ's was untouched. She sat the full cup next to her on the desk to keep from spilling the hot liquid on her hands.

"Are you really seeing someone?," she asked. The concern outweighed the curiosity in her tone. In the entire decade they'd known each other, Reid never had so much as a date. JJ was never sure if it was due to lack of interest or lack of opportunity. Either way, Reid was naive to the dating world. And in JJ's opinion, he was a prime candidate to get his feelings hurt by a woman that was looking to take advantage of him.

"I'm not sure about seeing," Reid admitted. "But she invited me to play trivia at her friend's house. They're having a party." It was obvious from his pained facial expression that mingling at a party with a bunch of strangers was not something Reid was looking forward too. He was well aware of his total lack of social skills. Drinking only made it worse. If he wasn't dying to see Eliana again, he wouldn't even be considering the invitation.

"Trivia?," JJ repeated, smiling a little. "That sounds fun." It really didn't sound fun to her. But it sounded like something Reid would enjoy. And even better, it sounded like the woman that invited him to play trivia wasn't expecting Spencer to take her out and spend a bunch of money on her. JJ thought that was a good sign. "Where'd you meet her?"

Reid paused for a moment, unsure of how much he wanted to say. Most of his team knew about his mother and her plethora of mental problems. But they didn't know how bad it had gotten. Or that he brought her home to live with him. And they sure didn't know the reason for that, which was that he was giving her illegal and unapproved experimental medication that he hoped was going to stop her dementia from progressing into full blown Alzheimer's. After considering all that, Reid left out the part about the medication and just told JJ that he brought his mother home to live with him.

"The first nurse I hired, quit. Then the agency sent her over," Reid explained. He pulled out his phone and tapped at it until images from Eliana's instagram were visible on the screen. Then he handed the device over to JJ.

Like the popular saying goes, the pictures of Elaina were worth a thousand words. JJ scrolled through them with more than casual interest before pointing at a photo of Eliana on the beach in her bikini and asking, "This girl invited you to play trivia?" Spencer nodded his head.

"Yeah. And she likes Star Trek too," he practically gushed.

"Really?," JJ asked, her finger sliding upwards along his phone screen. She paused again when she reached a picture of Eliana hugging a handsome man that looked to be at least a decade or two older than her. He had closely cropped dark hair that was going gray at the temples. "Hold on," JJ said, talking almost more to herself than Reid as she stared at the picture. "I know this guy... from when I worked for the department of defense. Aleksander Kaminski. He's a super high ranking army general. This guy is intense. Even the head of my department was scared of him…"

JJ glanced at Reid, her eyes slightly wider than before. From her reaction, it was obvious that she found the man in the photo intimidating. And JJ wasn't easy to intimidate. "Are you dating his ex-wife?," she asked. Her question wasn't exactly rhetorical. But the way she began moving her finger around on his phone screen, JJ seemed determined to find out the information for herself rather than waiting for Reid to answer. Which was good, since the only ex he heard about from Elaina was her ex-fiance. And Riley Anderson was a fellow peace corps volunteer, not a lieutenant general in the army. As far as he knew, she'd never been married.

JJ paused her finger over the screen. She looked up again, her eyes meeting Reid's before she started to laugh. He gave her a questioning look. "Is she his ex?," Reid asked. JJ shook her head. And then she gave him a look that was filled with equal parts concern and amusement before she spoke.

"She's not his ex," JJ announced. "She's his daughter."