Fic: Visitor, Chapter 4 (Criminal Minds, Reid / Morgan, Hotch / Chad, Elle, Garcia)
Title: Visitor, Chapter 4
Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan,
Aaron Hotchner / Chad Christensen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc
Criminal Minds Main List
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
“We’re home. And we brought half the park with us.” Morgan yelled and tried to Clooney from running to the kitchen with his muddy paws. “Don’t even try to give me that innocent look.” He grabbed the dog by the collar and guided him to the bathroom. After a quick paw-wash they walked into the kitchen in search of lunch.
“Coffee?” Morgan sniffed the air and waited, but Reid didn’t budge from his position at the kitchen counter. The genius was leaning against it and gazing at something only he could see.
“Thanks, I wouldn’t mind a cup.” Morgan pulled a mug from the cupboard and filled it with coffee. “Anything to go with it?”
“Mmmhhh?” Reid looked at him like he had just realised he was there. “Yeah.” He pulled a bowl from the counter and handed it over to Morgan.
“Baby boy?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re still thinking about Elle.”
“How did you know?”
“You just gave me a bowl of doggie kibble.” Morgan placed the bowl on the floor next to Clooney, who looked very unhappy with the delay.
“Sorry, my mind’s…” Reid took a plate of sandwiches and offered it to Morgan like a peace offer.
“All over the place?”
“Yeah.”
“How bout I call her?”
“You?”
“She was my friend too. I could try to fish out what she wants.”
“Or…”
“Or what?”
“I was thinking… Have you heard about Garcia after we left the office yesterday?”
“No.”
“She always calls at least once a day, I think…”
“…you think Elle went to meet her.”
“An abrupt surprise return, followed by a sudden change in a fixed behavioural pattern.” Reid stated and grabbed Morgan’s coffee to take a quick sip.
-------------------------------
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Elle buried her shaky hands into her coat pockets. “Couldn’t we at least wait for a while?”
“Saturday morning and the team’s off for the weekend, you won’t get a better chance than this.” Garcia assured. “First you’ll talk to Hotch and then we’ll go see our little brainiac. Are you finally gonna ring the bell?”
“Yeah, yeah, I just need a minute.”
The door was pulled open and the same man she had met the day before gave them an amused look.
“Hello again.”
“Hey, judo bunny.” Garcia greeted. “How did you know we were here?”
“Miss Lee called.” He pointed at the house across the street. “She said there was two suspicious looking winos camping at our front door.”
“Just hung over… Nothing a little bit of make-up can’t cover up.”
“When are you gonna put it on?” Chad grinned and gestured them to come inside.
“If you were a straight guy saying stuff like that, I would so kick your ass.” Garcia giggled. “Is Hotchie-Pochie home?”
“Yeah, he’s in the backyard with Jackie. Are you going to introduce us?”
“Chad, this is Elle Greenaway. Elle, Chad Christensen. You’ve already met so this feels kinda pointless.”
Chad’s smile froze for a second. He picked it up, but the reaction was obvious to both women. He offered Elle his hand and gave her a firm handshake.
“Nice to meet you.”
“You too, I’ve heard a lot about you from Penny.”
“And I’ve heard a lot about you from Reid and Aaron.” His tone was still friendly and calm, but the chilly undercurrent was coming through in every word. “Garcia, will you take her to the living room? I’ll go and get Aaron.”
He turned around and walked out of the foyer. Elle let out a sigh of relief.
“He doesn’t like me much, does he?”
“It was pretty heavy thing for Spencie when you left. And Hotchie… well, he probably hasn’t talked much about it, but I think Chad’s heard enough about it to draw some conclusions.”
“And it wasn’t in my favour.” Elle followed Garcia into the living room and eyed the room. “At least he was dressed this time. Yesterday I had to focus to keep eyes above the shoulders.”
“I know the reaction.”
“This place looks just the same it did before. Not that I came here that often.”
“Our fearsome leader is creature of habit. Just like that old cow in the achieves, who fought everyone till her last breath when they started to move everything to the databases. There was a lot of stuff that they had to keep anyway in paper form, but she didn’t listen. It was like a bad toothed senior citizen having her very own turf war. Of course she lost.”
“If she didn’t like progress, why couldn’t she just take an early retirement?”
“It wouldn’t have been early, it would have been about ten years late. Some people just refuse to leave, even when they have nothing left to do anymore.”
“What happened to her?”
“It was long before my time, but I heard she barricaded herself into the storage room with some ancient case files and refused to come out unless they give her the old achieve back.” Garcia sat down on the couch and lifted her feet on the coffee table. “That was her last mistake.”
“They fired her?”
“No. She was an old woman moving filing cabinets in front of the door, her heart gave up.”
“Sad ending.”
“Sadder for the paramedics who had to get a fire axe to get in.” Garcia rested her aching head against the couch cushions. “By the way… If Jack wants to show you some of his martial art moves, say no. I made that mistake once and I’ll never do that again.”
“What kind of martial arts?”
“How would I know? To me they’re all same, judo, karate, thai-won-bow, krav whatever… Chad`s been coaching him, and that kid could probably have me screaming for mercy in two minutes.”
“He’ll be here in a minute.” Chad reported and walked into the living room. “He was scrubbing the grill, he’ll go wash up first.”
“We can wait.” Garcia said and got up from the couch. “Now that you’re here, do what a good host is supposed to do.”
“Offer you coffee?”
“Offer me some aspiring, this headache is killing me.”
“There’s a fresh pot of coffee and some aspiring in the cupboard above the microwave.”
“Thanks.” Garcia groaned and walked out. Chad crossed his arms across his chest and shot Elle a sharp glance.
She cleared her throat. “I don’t know how much Hotch has told you-”
“Enough. And Reid too.”
“Listen…” Elle rubbed her temples. “This is none of your business.”
“It involves two people I care about. That makes it my business. Aaron and Reid are both the type of people, who doesn’t show it when something hurts them, but it doesn’t mean they don’t get hurt. If you’re here to make amends, that’s good. But you can be sure I’ll keep an eye on you.”
“I made some mistakes, but I paid for them too.”
“I have a lot of understanding for mistakes, and mistakes are not unforgivable.”
“Exactly.”
“Mistakes are one thing, but excuses are another and so is blaming other people for your own mistakes. There’s never excuses for excuses.”
Chapter 5