Chemical [1/1]
Pairing: Reid/Prentiss
Rating: PG
Summary: Curious, she picked the box up and flipped it over in her hands.
Prompt: This picture, combined with people egging me on over at tumblr.
Notes: This is shameless established relationship fluff. The "peas and chocolate" scene in "No Way Out" is referenced, so there's spoilers for that. Also, I heavily referenced the wikipedia articles for the corresponding technical stuff in here, so yeah.
With Spencer gone on a custodial with Rossi, Emily's morning routine had been thrown off, leaving her feeling stressed out and off-balance. She'd gotten to work almost twenty minutes earlier than usual because she'd forgone the typical process of luring Spencer out from under the covers with a mix of seduction and coffee. But as far as work went, it wasn't that different of a day until Emily went to swing her purse down on her desk and realized something was already there. It was a small, discreet cardboard box. Her hand lingered above it. It was too early for the mail cart to have dropped it off, and it hadn't been there when she'd left...
But Morgan had been. And, now that she wasn't operating on an hour of sleep, she realized that he'd been a lot slower with his work than he normally was. He'd been waiting for her to leave. Curious, she picked the box up and flipped it over in her hands. 'This is not anthrax' was written in Spencer's slanted cursive. She smiled, glancing up at his empty desk. She pulled the tab out and shook two smaller rectangles into her hand. The first was a bar of Hershey's dark chocolate, no almonds-her favorite.
The second rectangle was a small, flat, grey box. When she opened it, there was a folded, cream sheet of paper that had obviously come out of Reid's ever-present Moleskine lying on top of a silver-chained necklace. There were three charms on the necklace-the drawn out versions of three different chemicals, though she couldn't name them off the top of her head.
Her attention moved to the elegant handwriting that filled the paper.
Emily, it read. This necklace is composed of three chemicals (well, three physical representations of the structural formulas of three chemicals-the actual necklace is made out of several other elements).
The first is serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that is biochemically derived from tryptophan. Serotonin is often called the "happiness hormone", despite not actually being a hormone. The second chemical is dopamine, another neurotransmitter. This is responsible for pleasure-it is what causes your heart rate and blood pressure to increase. The third is acetylcholine, which has been connected to memory. Damage to the acetylcholine-producing system of the brain is (plausibly) connected with memory impairment in Alzheimer's patients.
Your chocolate bar also contains serotonin and dopamine, as you pointed out to me once. Along with peas, of course, which are actually in the freezer at home waiting for you, but would not have lasted over night at the office.
I'm sorry I can't give these to you in person, but hopefully Morgan got these to you. He seemed very eager to know what I was giving you, so don't tell him. Actually, if you're reading this before he comes in, you should pretend you never got a box on your desk when he does. And possibly turn your webcam on before you do so.
Happy anniversary, Emily. - S
Rating: PG
Summary: Curious, she picked the box up and flipped it over in her hands.
Prompt: This picture, combined with people egging me on over at tumblr.
Notes: This is shameless established relationship fluff. The "peas and chocolate" scene in "No Way Out" is referenced, so there's spoilers for that. Also, I heavily referenced the wikipedia articles for the corresponding technical stuff in here, so yeah.
With Spencer gone on a custodial with Rossi, Emily's morning routine had been thrown off, leaving her feeling stressed out and off-balance. She'd gotten to work almost twenty minutes earlier than usual because she'd forgone the typical process of luring Spencer out from under the covers with a mix of seduction and coffee. But as far as work went, it wasn't that different of a day until Emily went to swing her purse down on her desk and realized something was already there. It was a small, discreet cardboard box. Her hand lingered above it. It was too early for the mail cart to have dropped it off, and it hadn't been there when she'd left...
But Morgan had been. And, now that she wasn't operating on an hour of sleep, she realized that he'd been a lot slower with his work than he normally was. He'd been waiting for her to leave. Curious, she picked the box up and flipped it over in her hands. 'This is not anthrax' was written in Spencer's slanted cursive. She smiled, glancing up at his empty desk. She pulled the tab out and shook two smaller rectangles into her hand. The first was a bar of Hershey's dark chocolate, no almonds-her favorite.
The second rectangle was a small, flat, grey box. When she opened it, there was a folded, cream sheet of paper that had obviously come out of Reid's ever-present Moleskine lying on top of a silver-chained necklace. There were three charms on the necklace-the drawn out versions of three different chemicals, though she couldn't name them off the top of her head.
Her attention moved to the elegant handwriting that filled the paper.
Emily, it read. This necklace is composed of three chemicals (well, three physical representations of the structural formulas of three chemicals-the actual necklace is made out of several other elements).
The first is serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that is biochemically derived from tryptophan. Serotonin is often called the "happiness hormone", despite not actually being a hormone. The second chemical is dopamine, another neurotransmitter. This is responsible for pleasure-it is what causes your heart rate and blood pressure to increase. The third is acetylcholine, which has been connected to memory. Damage to the acetylcholine-producing system of the brain is (plausibly) connected with memory impairment in Alzheimer's patients.
Your chocolate bar also contains serotonin and dopamine, as you pointed out to me once. Along with peas, of course, which are actually in the freezer at home waiting for you, but would not have lasted over night at the office.
I'm sorry I can't give these to you in person, but hopefully Morgan got these to you. He seemed very eager to know what I was giving you, so don't tell him. Actually, if you're reading this before he comes in, you should pretend you never got a box on your desk when he does. And possibly turn your webcam on before you do so.
Happy anniversary, Emily. - S