Music shuffle meme!
Rating: all PG/PG-13/FRT (like the show)
Characters/Pairings: (in order) Morgan+Garcia; Elle; general team; Reid/Prentiss; Morgan+Garcia; Reid/Prentiss; Reid; Hotch+Jack; Diana Reid; J.J.
Genres: some humor, some angst, some romance(ish)
Notes: This was inspired by the music meme passed around by rowena_dawson and coffeebuddha . This was flippin' HARD! I thought my head might explode at one point, and I really hated having to stop when the songs stopped; some of them end abruptly as a result. Now you see how I write without any sort of planning, editing, beta'ing, or other polishing. :D Also, since some of these songs might be a bit obscure, I've included a small quote that helped inspire me.
1800+ songs on my iPod, and I get Bob Schneider twice...and no Better Than Ezra, the group represented by far the most. Go figure.
A key: my songs are listed by "Song Title," Record the Song is On, Artist Name
1. "Pretty the World," Beneath These Fireworks, Matt Nathanson
"Show me how pretty the world is,
Cause I envy the way you move."
Derek Morgan stepped into Penelope Garcia's cubby and marveled. He'd seen the space a hundred times, but it never failed to amaze him. She decorated it with color and glitter and trolls. A screensaver of baby pandas and puppies flickered across her many computer screens. A collection of pens topped with feathers and pompoms and little boingy things rested in a cup beside the keyboard.
He often wondered how someone as sensitive and loving as Garcia managed to do the job she did, but one peek into her sanctum sanctorum gave him his answer. She was Garcia, and she surrounded herself in the beautiful, the sparkly, the just plain cute, and she used it as a balm to the raw wounds the job inflicted upon her.
He wished he knew how to borrow some of her optimism. He came to see her only rarely (she usually sought him out, with some sort of innate sixth sense for knowing when he needed her), but when he did it was for one reason: he wanted to see the world through his baby girl's eyes.
2. "Just as Well," The Green Room Sessions, Ari Hest
"Oh what a waste of time;
Should've known better than to rebel.
I know it's just as well;
I know it's just as well."
Elle Greenaway had wanted the job with the BAU as badly as she'd ever wanted anything in her life. She'd spent her career proving that she was good enough, tough enough, smart enough…she'd proven herself to Gideon and Hotch and the rest of the team…and now?
Now she had nothing.
She wanted with all her heart and soul, and she couldn't bear the wanting. She wanted to be back with the team. She wanted the rush of chasing down an UNSUB, of getting inside his head, and figuring out what made him tick. She was sick inside at the thought she'd never do it again.
She didn't understand how the world could go on turning. Wasn't her ache great enough to stop the stars? Apparently not. She was just one woman, one rash, foolish woman who had been given everything she'd ever wanted…and then thrown it all away.
Just as well, she thought cynically as she watched the rain. Just as well.
3. "Sailing Over the Ocean," Above and Beneath, SWIM
"I'm sailing over the ocean
Just to kill time.
I'm leaving all the commotion and worries
Behind."
"I don't like boats," Reid said before turning an alarming shade of green and retching over the side.
Prentiss ran a comforting hand up the thin line of his back. "It's ok; you'll get used to it. Try to breathe."
He gasped; retched; muttered something very uncharitable about Rossi's mother. Prentiss stifled a giggle. "Didn't you take the Dramamine like Hotch suggested?"
"I don't…get…motion…sickness!" the young doctor gasped.
"Apparently you do," J.J. disagreed. She offered him a cup of something fizzy with a sympathetic smile. "It's Alka-Seltzer. Drink up."
He smiled weakly and tossed it back. "Ugh. I hate that stuff." He moved on legs as shaky as a colt's from his spot by the rail to join Morgan and Hotch at the front of the boat (surprisingly, Reid was completely ignorant of any sort of nautical terms, and after this experience, he thought he'd stay that way) and sat down with a groan.
"Great day, huh?" Hotch said, smiling at him from behind dark glasses.
Reid glared.
"Don't tease him, Hotch," Prentiss said. "He's having a rough time. I mean, the boat is rocking all over and the waves are crashing and the wind is blowing…"
Reid went green again and ran for the rail. Rossi's laughter could be heard floating down from the wheel, and J.J. went below to make another Alka-Seltzer cocktail.
4. "Til Someone Catches a Feeling," Lovely Creatures, Bob Schneider
"I don't wanna be damned.
I wanna be tan.
I wanna be a real man."
Reid tried to watch her surreptitiously. He didn't want her to notice how obsessed he was. He didn't want her to know…everything he wanted.
She was beautiful and smart and funny, and he was…a freak. He talked too much and thought too much and he was completely unworthy of her. He watched quietly as she laughed at one of Morgan's jokes and tossed her midnight hair. His eyes feasted on the lines and planes of her face. She was so beautiful.
He wished things could be easier. He wished he could be normal. He just wanted to talk to her, a real conversation, not a lecture or a lesson, just something casual. He wanted to ask her to dinner and kiss her. He wanted an experience.
5. "Baby's in Black," Real Love, The Beatles
"Baby's in black,
And I'm feelin' blue.
Oh what can I do,
What can I do?"
Garcia hadn't been the same since Alaska. Morgan watched her and worried. She wasn't as bright as he was used to; her smile was slower, and her wit didn't have its usual rapier sharpness. She moped. He didn't know how to help her, and it made him panic.
He was supposed to be her knight in shining armor, and he felt like he was failing her every time he caught that lost, sad look in her usually bright, snapping eyes. He brought her cookies, but since he couldn't bake they were practically inedible. Normally that would've had her laughing and teasing him, but she just smiled, accepted them, and later told him she'd enjoyed them.
He was at a loss, and the unfamiliar feeling didn't please him in the least.
6. "The Way Life is Supposed to Be," I'm Good Now, Bob Schneider
"You'll never be what you'll never be,
But you can always be the one for me, baby."
Prentiss knew he watched her. He tried to be subtle about it, but she was a trained profiler, and subtlety wasn't really his strong suit. He looked like a schoolboy with a crush, she thought, but she sensed there was more to it than that. There was something stronger in his eyes than just unrequited affection.
She thought she saw longing in those deep-set hazel eyes, a mournful, lonely look that came and went like a whisper. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe it was just a crush, and she was completely off base in thinking that Reid having a crush that he couldn't act on was symptomatic of so much more.
She wished she knew how to tell him how overrated "normal" was. He was Reid, geeky and awkward and too damn smart for his own good, and it suited him perfectly. She wished he'd stop thinking so damn much and just do something. He couldn't change the way he was, but he could get what he wanted…if he'd just reach for it.
7. "Babylon," Draw the Line (Deluxe Edition), David Gray
"I've been afraid
To tell you how I really feel,
Admit to some of those bad mistakes that I've made."
He flipped through the channels for the hundredth time. There was nothing on. No Star Trek. No Doctor Who. Nothing. He yawned, bored. Stood, restless. He needed…something. A fix. A nap. His apartment was empty and echoing, and the TV did nothing to fill the silence.
He glanced at the phone. It was late, but not so late. He could call her. What would she say? What would she do? He could invite her over. They could play chess…
Wow. He'd just plumbed new levels of geek.
Reid sighed; ran a hand through his short, tangled cap of hair. The new cut was still unfamiliar, and he sort of missed his old hair. It gave him something to hide behind.
He paced. Stared at the phone. Tried to do a few of the physical therapy exercises the doctor had given him for the leg, but then gave up in disgust. Inside his apartment, time was crawling. Outside the world was rushing by at a million miles a second. While he acted like a crazy shut-in, he was missing everything. Life. A chance.
He shrugged into a jacket and grabbed his keys. He hadn't driven much since the shooting (hadn't driven much before, truth be told), but he didn't have time for the train.
Reid took three steps toward his car, and then stopped. Turned back to the apartment. Shook his head in utter disgust and long-legged it to the small blue car before he could stop again. He was sick of missing out on life.
8. "The Infancy of Us," What's Mine is Yours, Eliot Morris
"I don't mind you thinking;
I just hope you'll think this through.
It's the infancy of us;
Never mind the time we'll live on trust."
Hotch watched his son sleep. He wished he'd made it home sooner, early enough to hear about Jack's day and give him his bath and put him to bed. Unfortunately, his job had come between them again. In slumber the boy looked so peaceful; his mouth relaxed; a small hand thrown out from under the covers, the tiny fingers slightly curled.
He touched the boy's head gently, reverently, the touch so slight that Jack didn't even stir. Hotch wondered what his son dreamed of. He hoped it was only good things. He didn't want his child troubled by nightmares; he didn't want him to worry about the world outside the small, protected life he and Haley had tried to create for him.
Hotch sighed; pulled the quilt to the boy's chin. Dropped a feather-light kiss onto his forehead before backing out of the room, never once taking his eyes off the sleeping child in the bed.
9. "The Winning Side," The Airborne Toxic Event, The Airborne Toxic Event
"Because the only thing I think
When I wake up in my bed,
And my stomach churns
As these pages turn,
Is the world burnin'?
Is it only in my head?"
Diana Reid constantly worried about her son. She hated that he worked for the government; she worried that they had recruited him to get to her, or to use his incredible intelligence for their own dark purposes. Spencer claimed they did no such thing, but she had never trusted the government. Why should she? They just…
Well, never mind that. She was taking her meds, and she understood on one level that all her thoughts and fears about the government were just delusions born of her illness. Another part of her would never accept that, and that's how she knew Spencer had done the right thing when he committed her.
She'd almost hated him for it - almost, because she could never truly hate her beloved boy - but over time she had come to see his wisdom. He couldn't have a life if he had to worry about her. She wanted him to have a life. She wanted him to be happy. She might question his job choice (she also didn't like his sensitive mind being exposed to all those horrors, one after another), but she knew it fulfilled him.
All a mother - any mother, ill or healthy - wanted was happiness for her child. Though Spencer never admitted it, Diana worried that he was lonely. She wished he would come see her more often, but she enjoyed his letters. She read another one, about another case (though he kept the details sketchy), and she smiled at the picture he'd sent her.
At least he'd cut his damn hair.
10. "Leaving All Your Troubles Behind," Honeydew, Shawn Mullins
"Jenny, you are the fightin' kind,
But you're leavin' all your troubles behind today.
You never thought you'd turn that curve;
You never thought you'd have the nerve to walk away."
J.J. stared at the pile of files covering her desk and despaired. How were there still so many? How could they catch one after another, but still cases poured in? Sometimes she felt like a gerbil on a wheel.
The contents of another file took her back. She stared at the pictures of small town America and remembered her own childhood. She was glad to be out of East Alleghany, glad to be away from all the politics and backstabbing of small town life.
Her parents had been astounded that their golden girl, their J.J., had decided to join the FBI. It had seemed irrational to them, a decision made in haste and with lack of forethought. Her friends had questioned her sanity. Her boyfriend had grown impatient with the hours and walked out on her.
J.J. had known this was where she was meant to be, where she could do the most good, and in the end she'd been right.
Characters/Pairings: (in order) Morgan+Garcia; Elle; general team; Reid/Prentiss; Morgan+Garcia; Reid/Prentiss; Reid; Hotch+Jack; Diana Reid; J.J.
Genres: some humor, some angst, some romance(ish)
Notes: This was inspired by the music meme passed around by rowena_dawson and coffeebuddha . This was flippin' HARD! I thought my head might explode at one point, and I really hated having to stop when the songs stopped; some of them end abruptly as a result. Now you see how I write without any sort of planning, editing, beta'ing, or other polishing. :D Also, since some of these songs might be a bit obscure, I've included a small quote that helped inspire me.
1800+ songs on my iPod, and I get Bob Schneider twice...and no Better Than Ezra, the group represented by far the most. Go figure.
A key: my songs are listed by "Song Title," Record the Song is On, Artist Name
1. "Pretty the World," Beneath These Fireworks, Matt Nathanson
"Show me how pretty the world is,
Cause I envy the way you move."
Derek Morgan stepped into Penelope Garcia's cubby and marveled. He'd seen the space a hundred times, but it never failed to amaze him. She decorated it with color and glitter and trolls. A screensaver of baby pandas and puppies flickered across her many computer screens. A collection of pens topped with feathers and pompoms and little boingy things rested in a cup beside the keyboard.
He often wondered how someone as sensitive and loving as Garcia managed to do the job she did, but one peek into her sanctum sanctorum gave him his answer. She was Garcia, and she surrounded herself in the beautiful, the sparkly, the just plain cute, and she used it as a balm to the raw wounds the job inflicted upon her.
He wished he knew how to borrow some of her optimism. He came to see her only rarely (she usually sought him out, with some sort of innate sixth sense for knowing when he needed her), but when he did it was for one reason: he wanted to see the world through his baby girl's eyes.
2. "Just as Well," The Green Room Sessions, Ari Hest
"Oh what a waste of time;
Should've known better than to rebel.
I know it's just as well;
I know it's just as well."
Elle Greenaway had wanted the job with the BAU as badly as she'd ever wanted anything in her life. She'd spent her career proving that she was good enough, tough enough, smart enough…she'd proven herself to Gideon and Hotch and the rest of the team…and now?
Now she had nothing.
She wanted with all her heart and soul, and she couldn't bear the wanting. She wanted to be back with the team. She wanted the rush of chasing down an UNSUB, of getting inside his head, and figuring out what made him tick. She was sick inside at the thought she'd never do it again.
She didn't understand how the world could go on turning. Wasn't her ache great enough to stop the stars? Apparently not. She was just one woman, one rash, foolish woman who had been given everything she'd ever wanted…and then thrown it all away.
Just as well, she thought cynically as she watched the rain. Just as well.
3. "Sailing Over the Ocean," Above and Beneath, SWIM
"I'm sailing over the ocean
Just to kill time.
I'm leaving all the commotion and worries
Behind."
"I don't like boats," Reid said before turning an alarming shade of green and retching over the side.
Prentiss ran a comforting hand up the thin line of his back. "It's ok; you'll get used to it. Try to breathe."
He gasped; retched; muttered something very uncharitable about Rossi's mother. Prentiss stifled a giggle. "Didn't you take the Dramamine like Hotch suggested?"
"I don't…get…motion…sickness!" the young doctor gasped.
"Apparently you do," J.J. disagreed. She offered him a cup of something fizzy with a sympathetic smile. "It's Alka-Seltzer. Drink up."
He smiled weakly and tossed it back. "Ugh. I hate that stuff." He moved on legs as shaky as a colt's from his spot by the rail to join Morgan and Hotch at the front of the boat (surprisingly, Reid was completely ignorant of any sort of nautical terms, and after this experience, he thought he'd stay that way) and sat down with a groan.
"Great day, huh?" Hotch said, smiling at him from behind dark glasses.
Reid glared.
"Don't tease him, Hotch," Prentiss said. "He's having a rough time. I mean, the boat is rocking all over and the waves are crashing and the wind is blowing…"
Reid went green again and ran for the rail. Rossi's laughter could be heard floating down from the wheel, and J.J. went below to make another Alka-Seltzer cocktail.
4. "Til Someone Catches a Feeling," Lovely Creatures, Bob Schneider
"I don't wanna be damned.
I wanna be tan.
I wanna be a real man."
Reid tried to watch her surreptitiously. He didn't want her to notice how obsessed he was. He didn't want her to know…everything he wanted.
She was beautiful and smart and funny, and he was…a freak. He talked too much and thought too much and he was completely unworthy of her. He watched quietly as she laughed at one of Morgan's jokes and tossed her midnight hair. His eyes feasted on the lines and planes of her face. She was so beautiful.
He wished things could be easier. He wished he could be normal. He just wanted to talk to her, a real conversation, not a lecture or a lesson, just something casual. He wanted to ask her to dinner and kiss her. He wanted an experience.
5. "Baby's in Black," Real Love, The Beatles
"Baby's in black,
And I'm feelin' blue.
Oh what can I do,
What can I do?"
Garcia hadn't been the same since Alaska. Morgan watched her and worried. She wasn't as bright as he was used to; her smile was slower, and her wit didn't have its usual rapier sharpness. She moped. He didn't know how to help her, and it made him panic.
He was supposed to be her knight in shining armor, and he felt like he was failing her every time he caught that lost, sad look in her usually bright, snapping eyes. He brought her cookies, but since he couldn't bake they were practically inedible. Normally that would've had her laughing and teasing him, but she just smiled, accepted them, and later told him she'd enjoyed them.
He was at a loss, and the unfamiliar feeling didn't please him in the least.
6. "The Way Life is Supposed to Be," I'm Good Now, Bob Schneider
"You'll never be what you'll never be,
But you can always be the one for me, baby."
Prentiss knew he watched her. He tried to be subtle about it, but she was a trained profiler, and subtlety wasn't really his strong suit. He looked like a schoolboy with a crush, she thought, but she sensed there was more to it than that. There was something stronger in his eyes than just unrequited affection.
She thought she saw longing in those deep-set hazel eyes, a mournful, lonely look that came and went like a whisper. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe it was just a crush, and she was completely off base in thinking that Reid having a crush that he couldn't act on was symptomatic of so much more.
She wished she knew how to tell him how overrated "normal" was. He was Reid, geeky and awkward and too damn smart for his own good, and it suited him perfectly. She wished he'd stop thinking so damn much and just do something. He couldn't change the way he was, but he could get what he wanted…if he'd just reach for it.
7. "Babylon," Draw the Line (Deluxe Edition), David Gray
"I've been afraid
To tell you how I really feel,
Admit to some of those bad mistakes that I've made."
He flipped through the channels for the hundredth time. There was nothing on. No Star Trek. No Doctor Who. Nothing. He yawned, bored. Stood, restless. He needed…something. A fix. A nap. His apartment was empty and echoing, and the TV did nothing to fill the silence.
He glanced at the phone. It was late, but not so late. He could call her. What would she say? What would she do? He could invite her over. They could play chess…
Wow. He'd just plumbed new levels of geek.
Reid sighed; ran a hand through his short, tangled cap of hair. The new cut was still unfamiliar, and he sort of missed his old hair. It gave him something to hide behind.
He paced. Stared at the phone. Tried to do a few of the physical therapy exercises the doctor had given him for the leg, but then gave up in disgust. Inside his apartment, time was crawling. Outside the world was rushing by at a million miles a second. While he acted like a crazy shut-in, he was missing everything. Life. A chance.
He shrugged into a jacket and grabbed his keys. He hadn't driven much since the shooting (hadn't driven much before, truth be told), but he didn't have time for the train.
Reid took three steps toward his car, and then stopped. Turned back to the apartment. Shook his head in utter disgust and long-legged it to the small blue car before he could stop again. He was sick of missing out on life.
8. "The Infancy of Us," What's Mine is Yours, Eliot Morris
"I don't mind you thinking;
I just hope you'll think this through.
It's the infancy of us;
Never mind the time we'll live on trust."
Hotch watched his son sleep. He wished he'd made it home sooner, early enough to hear about Jack's day and give him his bath and put him to bed. Unfortunately, his job had come between them again. In slumber the boy looked so peaceful; his mouth relaxed; a small hand thrown out from under the covers, the tiny fingers slightly curled.
He touched the boy's head gently, reverently, the touch so slight that Jack didn't even stir. Hotch wondered what his son dreamed of. He hoped it was only good things. He didn't want his child troubled by nightmares; he didn't want him to worry about the world outside the small, protected life he and Haley had tried to create for him.
Hotch sighed; pulled the quilt to the boy's chin. Dropped a feather-light kiss onto his forehead before backing out of the room, never once taking his eyes off the sleeping child in the bed.
9. "The Winning Side," The Airborne Toxic Event, The Airborne Toxic Event
"Because the only thing I think
When I wake up in my bed,
And my stomach churns
As these pages turn,
Is the world burnin'?
Is it only in my head?"
Diana Reid constantly worried about her son. She hated that he worked for the government; she worried that they had recruited him to get to her, or to use his incredible intelligence for their own dark purposes. Spencer claimed they did no such thing, but she had never trusted the government. Why should she? They just…
Well, never mind that. She was taking her meds, and she understood on one level that all her thoughts and fears about the government were just delusions born of her illness. Another part of her would never accept that, and that's how she knew Spencer had done the right thing when he committed her.
She'd almost hated him for it - almost, because she could never truly hate her beloved boy - but over time she had come to see his wisdom. He couldn't have a life if he had to worry about her. She wanted him to have a life. She wanted him to be happy. She might question his job choice (she also didn't like his sensitive mind being exposed to all those horrors, one after another), but she knew it fulfilled him.
All a mother - any mother, ill or healthy - wanted was happiness for her child. Though Spencer never admitted it, Diana worried that he was lonely. She wished he would come see her more often, but she enjoyed his letters. She read another one, about another case (though he kept the details sketchy), and she smiled at the picture he'd sent her.
At least he'd cut his damn hair.
10. "Leaving All Your Troubles Behind," Honeydew, Shawn Mullins
"Jenny, you are the fightin' kind,
But you're leavin' all your troubles behind today.
You never thought you'd turn that curve;
You never thought you'd have the nerve to walk away."
J.J. stared at the pile of files covering her desk and despaired. How were there still so many? How could they catch one after another, but still cases poured in? Sometimes she felt like a gerbil on a wheel.
The contents of another file took her back. She stared at the pictures of small town America and remembered her own childhood. She was glad to be out of East Alleghany, glad to be away from all the politics and backstabbing of small town life.
Her parents had been astounded that their golden girl, their J.J., had decided to join the FBI. It had seemed irrational to them, a decision made in haste and with lack of forethought. Her friends had questioned her sanity. Her boyfriend had grown impatient with the hours and walked out on her.
J.J. had known this was where she was meant to be, where she could do the most good, and in the end she'd been right.