Fic: Gamble, Chapter 1 (Criminal Minds, Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan)
Title: Gamle, Chapter 1
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Criminal Minds Main List
Notes: Follows Flight Back
Flight to Las Vegas
Ten minutes after Take Off
“How can you be afraid of flying?” Morgan mused and opened his seatbelt.
“I’m not afraid of flying, we fly with the team all the time. It’s people.”
“People?”
“People everywhere. Hundreds of human beings, stuffed in one airplane…. It just brings out the ugliest features of human nature. Just like after Christmas sales. People forget thousand years worth of evolution and all formations of cultural norms of a civilisation.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You want an example? How bout you last year shopping for discount shirts?”
“I was just defending myself.”
“You tackled that guy when you realised there was just one left in your size.”
“He was asking for it. And what does that have to do with airplanes?”
“Similar reactions. People feel entitled to yell, criticise strangers, scream at the airline hostesses, start fights over blankets, get drunk and pinch peoples rear ends when they walk on the aisle. And they are everywhere.”
“What is everywhere?”
“People!”
“Pretty Boy, calm down. You look like you’re about to start hyperventilating.”
“Sorry.”
“We’re on the nightflight, pretty much everyone is asleep. We are surrounded be five families with small kids and even the kids are well behaving. Nobody is pinching your ass, except me. There’s absolutely no reason for panic.”
“I know, I know….” Reid took a deep breath. “I’ve had some nasty experiences when I’ve flown to Vegas.”
“Or are you just nerving about this whole trip?”
“Well..... maybe that too.”
“I still got one minibottle of whisky.”
“Better not. Remember what I’m like when I loose control?”
“Like when I ended up in the ER with a groin injury?” Morgan asked.
“When I loose control due to alcohol.” Reid specified. “I have good reasons to avoid alcohol.”
“True.” Morgan agreed. “Anyway, did you get us a nice room?”
“No, but Garcia did. She knows some people who know some people in Vegas.”
“You mean that hotel manager?”
“I think so. Why?”
“I’ve heard that story. She doesn’t know people who know people. She knows somebody who sleeps with somebody who blackmails somebody.”
“Well….. She got us a good room in a fully packed hotel, so I’m not complaining.”
“Me neither.” Morgan paused. “How do you wanna do this?”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ll sign in early in the morning and leave on the Sunday nightflight. We got four days. When do you want to go see your mom?”
“We might as well get it done right away. We could get some rest at the hotel, and go to the sanitorium in the afternoon.”
“Okay.” Morgan agreed.
“Are you still sure you want to go there?”
“We’re already in the plane and now you ask me? I told you, I’m coming.”
-------------------------------------------
Hotel room
Five hours later
“So…..” Morgan set his bag on the floor. “You wanna get some sleep?”
“I’m too wound up for that.” Reid kept brushing his hair back. “We could go eat something.”
“You don’t wanna go to poker tables first and win us some spending money?” Morgan teased. “I haven’t been in one of those places since I was in college. You can take the elevator downstairs and gamble your life savings and you grandma in two hours. Gotta love these places….”
Reid considered it for a long time and tried to keep his eyes away from Morgan’s pleading glances.
“Okay, for just a little while.” He agreed. “You don’t sit in the same table.”
“Why not?”
“I can get a little bit…. eager, and…. It can get ugly.”
Morgan tried to imagine it, and started laughing. The mental image was just too funny. “Okay, half an hour, and don’t spend all you pocket money at once. I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
-------------------------------------------
Hotel Lobby
Thirty-four minutes later
Morgan squirmed and shifted from foot to foot. Reid was giving him an unreadable look.
“Would you like to explain to me, how it’s possible to loose over two hundred bucks in half an hour?”
“I just… got into it.” Morgan didn’t raise his eyes to meet Reid’s.
“You were playing on slot machines! They only accept coins!”
“I…. I lost controll, okay? It`s addictive!”
“I know it is, and that`s why you`re not playing any more during this trip.”
“You can`t tell me that!”
“One more game and I`ll call you mom.”
“You wouldn’t….”
“I would.”
Morgan sighed. “Yeah, you would. Okay, no more games for me.” He paused. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Did you loose too?”
Reid grinned and pulled a thick wad of cash from his pocket. “I just cashed my winnings. Over five hundred.”
“In half an hour? Wow…..” Morgan stared at him.
“Come on, let’s get some lunch, I’m hungry.” Reid smirked and pulled Morgan’s arm.
“You’re paying.” Morgan followed him to the hotel restaurant. “Are you gonna tell me your secret?”
“What secret?”
“How you keep winning?”
“Oh that…. Nope.”
TBC