Fic: Too Close, Chapter 5 (Criminal Minds, Reid / Morgan, Hotch / Chad, Sean / Cain)
Title: Too Close, Chapter 5
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan,
Aaron Hotchner / Chad Christensen,
Sean Hotchner / Cain Christensen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Criminal Minds Main List
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
-Albert Einstein
“Pretty bad, but good enough for one night.” Chad said grimly. He dropped the large gym bag to the floor to free one hand and closed the door behind him. “Was this the only one available?”
“Yeah, and I don’t even want to know what’s going on there.” Reid gestured awkwardly at the wall behind the headboard, hardly even looking away from the couple performing very loud acts on the other side of the was. “They’ve been at it ever since I came in.”
“Maybe it was their bedtime, and speaking of beds-” Chad placed the shopping bag on the counter and started going through it’s content. “-did you ask if they’d had a cot or something like that? Road tripping with your ex is one thing, but sharing the one and only bed would be kinda hard to explain.”
“I asked, but they said this is all they got. You want to flip a coin?”
“Nah, you can take the bed.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Chad pulled two toothbrushes and a tube of toothpaste out of the paper bag. “I got some disposable razors too.”
“Thanks.” Reid noticed the gym bag, that was still laying on the floor. “Where did you get that?”
“From the trunk. I always keep some spare clothes handy, you never know when you’ll need them.”
“I know…” Reid grunted, feeling vaguely guilty about not thinking forward. “Quite ironic, the team`s always ready to leave on a moments notice, but I didn’t have the foresight to pack a change of clothes.”
Chad took another look at the genius’s dress shirt and jacket. “Just hang that well for the night, it’ll be fine. Do you need something to sleep in?”
“What do you have?”
Chad opened the bag and turned it upside down, ditching the clothes onto the bed. “Couple of T-shirts, some boxer shorts, socks, gym stuff-”
“I’ll take the T-shirt.”
“You’ll be swimming in it, but it’s better than a dress shirt.” Chad picket up one, lifting it up to show off the Cleveland Cavaliers logo printed on the front.
“Would that go under the heading of territorial pride?” Reid suggested.
“Maybe they’ll never win a championship-" Chad grinned. "-but all good Cleveland boys still gotta root for the home team.”
“Can I just borrow the shirt and stay neutral?” Reid offered and grabbed the shirt. His phone started ringing in his pocket and he pulled it out, checking the caller ID. “It’s Morgan.”
“I think I’ll take the first turn in the shower.” Chad suggested, grabbing a pair of boxers from the pile of clothes. “Take your time.”
Reid nodded his thanks and waited till he was alone before he clicked the call on.
“Morgan?”
“Baby? Remember that trip to Vegas-" Morgan started unceremoniously. "-when I almost went bankrupt on the slot machines?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m so tempted right now to just keep driving and skip work. Could I plea temporary insanity?”
“Where are you driving?”
“Garcia found two similar killings in Nevada.”
“Before or after the ones in California?”
“After. We were there waiting for him to find another vic, and the son of a bitch decides to switch states. He didn’t even bother to go to Vegas, he just scattered the vics along the highway.”
“Think about the positive: If the murders are so new, there’s a better chance of finding new leads.”
“How are we gonna find them if we can’t even keep our eyes open?”
“You could try-”
“Don’t suggest coffee, we can’t a pass a gas station without Prentiss moaning for a bathroom break.”
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
“Hello?” Sean wrapped his arms around himself, shivering as the cool wind breezed across the lake. The darkness had turned the surface of the water black and shiny under the moonlight. “I don’t know if you’re listening, but I’m starting to freak out here! This is just like that movie where they had that dinosaur thing trapped in a small lake and then it grew lungs and started doing synchronized swimming with that chick and… No, that was that other movie, but it’s the same thing! Come back or I’ll call the… Where do you call when someone’s drowning…” He scratched the back of his head, and groaned. “Whatever, I’ll call them anyway if you don’t come back right now!”
The darkness of the lake didn’t provide any response.
“I don’t wanna have to tell people you went in there and got caught by a killer-halibut! Come on, I’m not joking!”
Finally the surface of the lake rippled and a stream of ripples moved rapidly to the shore. Once it got closer, a head appeared onto the surface, followed by a neck and wide shoulders. Cain swam to the shore and walked out of the water.
“Where the hell did you go?!” Sean erupted. His voice echoed across the water and he lowered his voice. “I thought you drowned or got eaten by a shark or-”
“There’s no sharks here.”
“Well dolphins then and don’t say there’s no dolphins either!” Sean’s voice shot up again. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do and you’re getting really scary! I’m the reckless one here, not you! Me!”
Cain picked up his towel from the ground and rubbed himself dry without a word. After a few moments of loaded silence he sat down on the sand and turned to look at the small waves a gush of wind was causing across the water.
“I wanted to clear my head.”
“Well did you scrub it clean too, because if you do that stunt again-”
“Sit.”
“I’m not a dog, you can` just tell me to-”
“Sit.” This time the command was given with a sharp glare, and Sean sat down next to him.
“So…” Sean dug his toes into the coarse, waiting for Cain to take the lead. “I’m sitting, now what?”
“Did you read the papers when I was away?”
“What kinda question’s that? Of course I read the papers.”
“I mean the news, not the comics. The foreign section.”
“Sometimes. It wasn’t that funny.” Sean didn’t bother to play dumb. He knew what foreign news Cain had meant. “I read there was some riots, but then things got calmer.”
“That’s half the truth. The military broke up the riots.” Cain pulled his knees to his chest. His half-wet skin was becoming colder, even thought the night wasn’t too harsh. “By force.”
“But you’re okay, right?”
“I wasn’t hurt, just a couple of scrapes and bruises. But a lot of people got hurt. And killed.”
“There wasn’t anything about that in the news.”
“Crowd was controlled using reasonable amount of force. No casualties.” Cain recited from memory. “That was the government’s official statement.”
“Is that what your article’s about?”
“You know what happened when they started to break up the crowd?” He nailed his eyes to the other side of the lake, using it as a focal point. “Total chaos. People panicking and trying to escape, just stomping each other to the ground. Whole families and their kids. People, who weren`t even really involved in it.”
“Whose blood was it?” Sean asked. He didn’t now what else to ask, and the words were out before he even realized. “On your shirt.”
“I wasn’t right there in the centre of it when it started, but when people were escaping… It was from a little boy.”
“Boy?”
“Little bundle, wrapped up. His mom was injured and laying on the ground and she just grabbed my leg and begged me to take him with me. Those who could escape got away as well as they could and those who couldn’t… They were left behind.”
“By "left behind" you mean…?”
“Yeah. Left to die.” Cain wrapped his arms tightly around his knees, pulling them closer for warmth. “I held him against me and got away from there while I still could.”
“Did you see her again?”
“No. I didn’t even realize… neither did she.”
“Realize what?”
“She gave him to me thinking at least the kid could stay alive. When I got away from the worst area and looked down… It was worse than anything I saw in Iraq. Soldiers know what they’re going into, but little babies… I couldn’t do anything.”
“What…” Sean swallowed down the question, but Cain tilted his head to look at him.
“I left him to this little church, where some survivors were keeping vigils. All of them lost somebody.” Cain shook himself, mentally keeping himself in check. “I had a contact, who helped me to the border, paid off some people to get me across and once I got out of there I headed back to the States.”
“Okay, okay…” Sean rubbed his hands together to warm them up. “You’re not… you know, planning anything stupid?”
“No.” Cain gave him a tired little smile. “I’ll leave that to you.”
“Good, because you really scared me. I was gonna call the police or ambulance or whatever they call-”
“I know the waters here, it was safe.”
“I mean if you wanna get it off your mind, can’t you just stick to that sulking and sexing tactic? It’s worked before: First you sulk at the porch and then we have sex, then the same thing all over again and then some food, but just don’t do that nighttime swim thing again, I was seriously freaking out here, and I’ll have you know my knees haven’t been this scraped since I was a kid and I got my first bicycle, but otherwise I’m ready to go again if you wanna, but we should go back to the cabin, because if I get sand on my knees it will hurt like hell-”
“Sean, stop babbling.”
“I’m not babbling!” Sean burst out and punched Cain in the shoulder. Cain grabbed his hand by the wrist, but Sean continued his tirade. “What the hell were you thinking?! You scared me!”
“Sorry.” Cain tightened his grip on Sean wrist. “I’m sorry.”
“You should be!” Sean whimpered. His eyes were becoming teary and all strength to try to wriggle out of the hold drained out of him. ”You really scared me.”
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Reid stepped carefully into the room. After the warm fogginess of the bathroom the floor felt even colder on his bare feet and he quickly crossed the room and buried himself under the covers. The stream of wetness from his damp hair was running down his neck and left a spot of the back of his T-shirt.
He had prepared himself a cozy little nest on the bed, lined with blankets and everything he could need within his reach, minimizing all need to move.
After a moment of wiggling his toes to warm them up, he glanced at the makeshift bed Chad had built by pushing two ratty armchairs together. His feet were prodded on the backrest of the other chair, and he was chatting on the phone.
Reid listened in for a minute, comparing the normally sharp tones to the softer one that had taken over. Chad’s voice sounded slightly foggy with sleepiness and a sappy grin was ghosting on his lips.
“Yeah, I know. Miss you, babe.” He closed the phone and turned to look at Reid. “You wanna watch TV?”
“No, I had a paperback with me.” Reid picked up the book from his messenger bag. “I’ve read it before, but it’s better than nothing. Was that Hotch?”
“Yeah, half the team’s gone to Nevada, but you probably already heard all about it from Morgan.”
“I did.“ Reid opened the book to start reading, but after brief consideration closed it again. “Can I ask you a question?”
“About what?”
“You and Hotch. You’re… doing well, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. Was that your question?”
“No, I was just thinking… How does it work when he’s traveling with the team? Morgan and I are normally going everywhere together so-”
“You wanna know why my thing with him works, when our thing didn’t.”
“I wouldn’t have put it like that, but… basically, yes.”
“For starters, I’m staying in one place now. That’s one plus.”
“And you don’t… Have a problem with it?”
“Why would I have a problem with it? It’s work.”
“I was just wondering…”
“Why I haven’t gone nuts like his ex?” Chad suggested with a mischievous grin. “Did you hear about the shrink-thing?”
“The what thing?”
“She started seeing a new shrink after she and her fiancé postponed their wedding plans. That’s nothing, she needs some professional help, but you won’t believe what she wanted from Aaron.”
“Hmmm…” Reid considered the alternatives, but decided to offer the most obvious one. “Sense of closure?”
“No, a scapegoat. She claims her commitment issues with the new guy came from her first marriage, so she wanted him to attend their sessions.”
“What did he say to that?”
“Something about how therapy is a personal thing and he didn’t want to interrupt the process. I got no idea how he said all that crap with a straight face.”
“I didn’t know you had something against therapy.”
“I don’t, but what’s the point if all she does there is blaming others? I think she’s blamed everyone else about her marriage except herself and Santa Claus.” He tilted his head back against the lumpy padding of the armchair. “It takes two to make a thing work, and two to mess it up.”
“Well…” Reid pushed a few loose strands of hair behind his ear. “Everyone deals with break-ups differently.”
“Yeah, and we’re civil. Sometimes she just really gets on my nerves.”
“But they had a bitter break-up, at least from her point of view. If her new relationship isn’t what she thought it would be, it would make sense to hang on to what might have been and to the thought that the fault was the break-up, not something in herself. Without analyzing anyone, I’d say she thought she would have a life she wanted by leaving Hotch and finding a man, who shared her visions of their life. Now Hotch has moved on, but Hailey is wondering if she missed out on something she felt she had deserved.”
“Are you saying she thinks I got something she should have had?”
“I’m saying that Hotch seems to have his life in balance. I don’t think Hailey thought it would go that way, she believed she would get her happily ever after by taking a new man. It didn’t work out that way.”
“Don’t say stuff like that after you start it by saying you’re not gonna analyze her.”
“Sorry, I just meant that after the initial shock wore off, Hotch continued his life, Hailey is stuck until she figures out why she keeps circling the same pattern.” Reid stumbled over his words. “Sorry, I’m doing it again. Garcia once called it Reid-ing.”
“So you mean she expected him to stay alone while she got remarried?”
“Without overanalyzing, that would be my guess. Of course all individuals react differently when a relationship ends.” The genius realized his hands were once again flailing around to emphasize his point and he pressed them down again. “If you compare that to the way we broke up, we didn’t really have factors like that to hold onto so we could be bitter about the end result. At least I never felt bitter about it, just a little disappointed it didn’t work.”
“Me neither. It was just bad timing.” Chad gave him a long sleepy look and yawned widely. “Coat pocket.”
Reid was almost sure he had misheard the words, but Chad gestured at the leather jacket hanging on the rack near the bed.
“Check my wallet.”
Reid reached closer, almost falling off the bed, but managed to snatch the jacket without laying a foot on the cold floor. He found the wallet and looked up again.
“What am I looking for?”
Chad made another groggy gesture, forcing himself to stay more awake than asleep.
Reid flipped the wallet open. He ignored the cards and cash, and focused on items
that could be explain why he was looking at them, finally focusing on the photo pockets.
First one had a snapshot of Hotch sitting behind his desk, looking up and giving some unfortunate soul his deadliest Glare of Doom. In the pocket next to him was a photo of Jack sitting in front of a TV, engrossed in whatever was happening on the screen.
Reid moved on to the next pocket where all three Christensen siblings were posing side by side. Chad and Cain were dressed in tuxedos while Maris, in a white wedding dress, beamed at the camera between the two men. Next to them was a picture of Maris’s children, wearing red elf hats and posing rigidly, clearly hoping they were anywhere else.
“Great kids, but they never stay still long enough to get a good picture.” Chad commented groggily. “Maris had to bribe them to get that shot for their Christmas cards.”
Reid looked up to see if he was getting anywhere near what he was supposed to find.
“Keep going.”
In the next pocket was a newspaper clipping. Reid carefully pulled it out and unfolded it. The small picture showed Cain shaking hands with and elderly man while holding something in his hand.
“He got that award for his articles from Iraq.” Chad muttered with a clear tone of pride. “Ugliest piece of glass I’ve ever seen.”
Reid flipped out the last plastic pocket and he had to grin at the picture. A younger version of himself was wolfing down a chocolate bar with a cup of coffee in his other hand, horn-rimmed glasses pushed up to the top of his messy hair. It had been taken just after his final exams at the academy, and he had been too nervous to eat anything in he morning, leading to an impromptu lunch of whatever he could find from the vending machines.
“You said you got rid of this!” He protested halfheartedly. “I look like a caffeine addicted chipmunk.”
“That was too cute to get rid of.” Chad grinned and yawned again. His expressions were softened by approaching sleep, making his words slurry.
“I looked like a little kid.”
“I really liked that kid. Tweeds and glasses and everything else.”
Reid swallowed down the little lump in his throat. “I can’t believe you still have that picture.” He closed the wallet and tossed it over to Chad. “But I got full points from my written exams, so it was a good day.”
“Yeah.” Chad wrapped his fingers around the leather wallet and let his hand fall down, landing on his chest. “You wanna know something?”
“What?”
“You’re all right here.” Chad opened his palm and pressed it down, fingers reaching over the edges of the wallet and down to his skin, lingering over his heart. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Reid tried to think of a response, but it hadn’t sound like Chad had been expecting one. One look at Chad confirmed there was no need to say anything. Between one breath and the next the impending sleep had claimed him.
Reid decided to follow his example, and put the paperback on the nightstand. He pulled the covers up to his chin and closed his eyes.
Chapter 6