(no subject)
If anyone had told Dr. Spencer Reid that he would willingly participate in the debauchery otherwise known as Truth of Dare with drinks, and Garcia any time more than five minutes ago, he’d have concluded it was a poorly assembled lie.
Likewise, if anyone had told Dr. Spencer Reid that one recently retired Agent Katie Cole would lose it like one ex Agent Elle Greenaway, storm HQ and demand them to do this at knife-point? He’d have had his doubts, until about five minutes ago, again, and then suddenly these rules seemed to change.
Rossi had been the one to quickly spot the frantic woman, the team had heard what happened to her unit, and it had been tragic. Stings were normally orchestrated perfectly well, and while everything in life was a gamble, they had dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s for this one. It didn’t matter though, because the ring they tried to disrupt had made up an alphabet all their own, and who would have thought to triple loop an A?
It had turned bad pretty quickly, and what had once been a quiet rumor among the BAU team about just how close Agent Cole was with Agent Gilroy were now scattered bits of ash, as per the young woman’s request, over a bed of laurels in a garden her mother owned.
There had been five fatalities during the raid, two agents, one child, and two syndicate members. By night-fall, with three other agents injured, one severely, and two with minor injuries, the focus had not been as pure as it should have been. Perfect planning had fallen apart at execution, and that led the the self-execution of the remaining four syndicate members, each hanging themselves in their individual jail cells before they could ever be brought up on charges.
Katie, long revered as the Queen of the hive in her division, had opted to fall on her sword, seeing it as her failings and not just a hand better-played by their adversaries. She wouldn’t let any other agent’s career be tarnished, and so she withdrew and retired- taking the blame and the scandals with her. Amanda’s career deserved to be memorialized, not hushed with some sense of taboo.
It wasn’t enough, apparently. Katie’s blood hadn’t been fresh enough, and a month later, here she stood in the BAU with a knife, trying to make sense of why the rest of her team had been disbanded and the good work that they did replaced with mediocre work of upstarts at the cost of children’s innocence until they could catch up.
Rossi poured out a few glasses of scotch, one for each member in the room. Garcia with her laptop perched nervously at the round table, Reid wondering what the hell he had gotten roped into in pursuit of his coffee mug he had left behind, Katie wielding the knife and Rossi just pouring scotch as if that would fix something.
“What’s this about Katie?” Rossi had started. He gestured to the knife then the glass of booze.
“This isn’t 20-questions, I don’t have that many. I do want answers though, and I know the BAU can get them for me. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve put that hat on and I can’t do it by myself anymore. I’m tired, I miss Amanda… I miss the smiles of those children we could have saved but can’t anymore. Could you live with that?!”
“I did, and then I came out of retirement. You were always a control-freak, Katie. That’s what got you invited to the boy’s club back in the day.”
“And I believe you thought I was the biggest bitch of them all.”
Rossi smiled, “Have you met any of my ex-wives? I meant that as a compliment.”
“You always were a charmer, Dave.” She gave Garcia a look. “I’m sorry about this, I really am.”
“Katie, put the knife down. We all know you’re not going to use it.” Rossi explained, putting the scotch in front of the hand holding the knife. “Take a drink, we can work through this.”
She nodded before looking at the drink, “Better idea.” She slides the glass toward Reid. “We play a game of truth or dare. I pick who gets asked what. Dr. Reid, dare- I dare you to drink that down.”
Reid’s eyebrows flexed Dave had given her a perfectly reasonable out, why wouldn’t she take it? He looked at the erratic movements of the knife punctuating her point of behavior. He shakily reached for the glass and in so doing got a cut hand.
He retracted his hand with a wince. “Drink it.” She stated, Rossi gave Reid a measured look telling him he all but had to try again.
Reid nodded and with closed eyes reached for the glass again, this time getting it. He drank the too-old scotch, heavy with alcohol and a musky scent that Dave was wont to expose to the team after a bad or good case, depending on his mood.
Reid slammed the glass down and looked back at Katie then the red dribbling onto the round table. He doubted he’d tell his mother about that, it would probably taint her Arthurian lure toward the imagery.
“Christ, kid, stop the bleeding with your tie at least…” Rossi adds, taking his own off to tighten it around Reid’s hand.
“Rossi, truth.” Katie said with a fierceness that cut through the room. “Why didn’t any of your three marriages or that affair of yours really work?”
“Don’t start this Katie, I know your pain, I do- but I still have to work with them when this is all over.”
“Answer me.”
Rossi gave Garcia a strong look, then Reid a hard one, Eyes trailing the younger man as he clutched his bleeding hand, he announced, “Because the Catholic wives didn’t take too kindly to my preferring to sleep with men. The affair was fun, but it wasn’t who I was meant to be with. We understood each other’s taboo. It was a connecting of bodies.”
“Thank you for your honesty. Garcia, your truth is also a bit of a dare. Who ordered my team to be broken up? If you try to contact help with that, this one will be the one to get it.” She waved her knife at Reid.
He knew what this was, he would be easiest to use against the others, also he supposed the rumors about Amanda and Katie were true- and that she probably viewed him to be a parallel to her. Katie was so much like Rossi she wouldn’t be able to hurt him more directly, but pain to his Amanda would cut even deeper. Yet she gave him liquor, she was trying to be merciful in her fractured way.
He filed that under interesting.
“It was Director Lou.” Garcia said after three key strokes. You don’t have to threaten us, we’ll help you, just put the knife down Katie!”
“I don’t think I can. If you are doing this under threat, under duress, you’re not culpable. You understand that, don’t you?” She looked at Reid. “Dr. Reid, dare again.”
She set up another tumbler of scotch and handed it to him. “Drink.”
Reid raked his eyes up and down, “You didn’t take your turn, Katie. Why don’t you tell us a truth, what’s your end game?”
She smacked him across the face, “Drink the god damned scotch or so help me I’ll cut you again.”
Reid flinched, downed the scotch, “Now why don’t you answer? Don’t you think we have a right to know?”
“Fine, I’ll go, I choose truth. Did I love Amanda? I do, with all my heart and soul. It’s not past tense because I can’t accept that she’s gone. She shouldn’t be, it should’ve been me. Rossi, truth. How long have you liked Dr. Reid here?”
Rossi closed his eyes, “What can I say, I’m partial to youthful indiscretions when carried out discretely.”
Reid looked at him in confusion, “What indiscretions?”
“You didn’t answer your question, Dave. I can’t have you try to talk circles on me.” Katie said, suddenly yanking Reid’s head back with a fistful of hair. She touched the blade to his forearm before putting pressure on it sinking it through the skin and flesh eliciting a choked groan.
“Katie stop this madness!” Rossi attempted, the blade went in further.
“Let’s do a rethink, shall we? Rossi- dare. I dare you to kiss Reid better.” She pulled the knife out of the wound giving a gush of crimson. “If not, I’m going to have to start really hurting him. You do care that I’m hurting him instead of you, don’t you?”
“Not particularly…” Rossi said, trying to dissuade her from this train, it could only lead to escalation. He didn’t need to ask what Katie’s end-game was, unlike Reid. That’s because unlike Reid, Rossi had the life experience to tell you what the endgame would be, usually it would be a .22 slug to the teeth, but Katie was awful partial to that knife right now, so maybe it would be that instead.
“Oh really? Better him than you?”
“Something like that.” Rossi gestured to his suit, “This is a bitch to dry-clean blood stains out, you know.”
“Shame.” She slid the knife through Reid’s arm again, this time halting at the bone. Rossi made a grab for the knife, that had been a mistake. “Ah-ah! I don’t think so, Dr. Reid, what major artery am I currently close to?”
“…Medial Interosseous Artery,” He let out through clenched teeth. “I won’t bleed to death from that, you know.” He swallowed thickly.
“Really want to try that?” She raised her brow at Rossi, flicking it, damn! He let his hand settle and exhaled.
“Sorry about this, kid.” He mentioned, leaning in and kissing Reid. Reid’s mouth, from surprise, shot open, and wouldn’t you know it Dave had escalated it himself.
Katie stepped back to give them a moment, knife still at the ready but retracted from Reid’s arm.
“Garcia, truth. When did Lou file the motion to disband the team?”
Garcia kept watching Reid and Rossi for clues, Rossi still hadn’t stopped kissing Reid, and it was strange the look of placated calm over Reid’s face during the situation. She shook her head and returned to her computer screen. This time it was dozens of clacking keys before she pulled the answer. “It was set in motion the day before you retired from your position. In his supposition it refers to the team having been under too much to be able to recoup from the tragedy.” Garcia waited for recognition to come to Katie’s eyes. When it did not, she pressed on, wondering how the hell Reid would be breathing as Rossi gave him more tongue.
It was slightly unnerving, and if the circumstances had been any different, something she’d blog about.
“He’s disbanded teams before, you know. You’re not the first. His recourse followed a standard pattern, this is the third time he’s done such a move. This is the fourth major incident he’s overseen, too. The first one he didn’t disband, and later that team fell apart. Two of the team members killed themselves. He wasn’t trying to hurt you, Katie, he was trying to help you.”
“And what about the children in the process? He didn’t leave ANYONE there to pull that team together.”
“He didn’t have an option… no one passed the psych evals necessary to go back into the field once you left. And, according to this, he tried to make you rescind your resignation… Katie, he wanted you to stay until the team could be rebuilt. It was unfair of him to ask so much from you with all you lost that’s true, but he did try!”
“Are you saying this is my fault?” Her voice had lilted at that. She looked at Reid, Rossi was still kissing him, hands rifling through his pockets and clothes. She missed that, that much passion being in love could bring.
“What happened was no one’s fault, Katie… well, okay, so the bad guys were completely in the wrong… but your people didn’t do anything to deserve what happened to them, but it was the hand they were dealt.”
“I want Lou’s records.”
“I can’t do that.” Garcia stated, her tone firm but packed with emotion.
Katie’s face darkened. “Can’t or won’t?” She grabbed Reid by the hair, disrupting Rossi’s impassioned kiss. The knife came to his throat. He took in a sharp breath.
“I won’t.” Garcia said, this time nothing showed in her voice besides determination. “I won’t let you threaten us and I won’t let you force our hands, put the knife down Katie before you get hurt.”
“I’m not the one in danger of that.” She pressed the tip against Reid’s neck breaking skin.
“Wrong move.” Reid managed before drawing Rossi’s gun from his pocket, training it on her head. “Drop the knife, mutual destruction isn’t the way I want to die.”
She pressed the blade closer, Reid’s thumb slid the hammer back, cocking the gun with that motion, and with that her hand, and knife retracted from his neck.
She dropped into the chair, sobbing into her hands, the knife near her face. “Amanda… Amanda I should be with you…” She let out a shaky sob, found the bottle of scotch and the tumbler glass. She loaded it up, ignoring the gun on her.
“Drop the knife, Katie. All the good you did, all of it, don’t cheapen it for the families you helped heal. Please don’t make me hurt you.”
She smiled, downing the scotch, “Why, Dr. Reid, I wouldn’t even think of it. It’s my turn. Dare.” With a gusto, she jammed the knife into the side of her throat, the arterial spray of blood gushed forward, temporarily blinding Reid with her fluids as they hit his eyes, as he blinked the fluid clear he could see the life drain out of her own eyes, slumping forward. She had a smile on her face, a sad, tired smile, his mouth gaped.
“Kid, your arm…?” Rossi was putting pressure on it suddenly, and it hurt, Reid noticed for the first time in several minutes.
He looked down at it, Dave’s tie was quite the bit redder than he had recalled it being this morning.
“I am never playing Truth or Dare again, so help me God the both of you will never make me do this again.” Reid mentioned, Rossi ruffled his hair.
“Et tu, huh? Garcia I don’t need the tabloids getting hold of this, so do me a favor and neglect names when you no-doubt blog about this. Manage that and I’ll get you those stiletto leopard platforms you’ve been hinting about to Kevin.”
“David Rossi your names have been sealed.” She smiled at the aspect.
“As for you, what do I have to do to keep out of a sexual harassment seminar on the matter? Clover espresso machine?”
Reid glowered, “Don’t try to bribe me.” He pulled his own arm back, the hurt a bit more than he could stand for. “You honestly think I’d just let you kiss me if it meant nothing? News flash, those actually mean something to me Casanova.”
“…Don’t tell me that was his first?”
“Oh lord no, he’s kissed a supermodel in the pool before. You’re his first man kiss though.” Garcia smiled toothily, “And what a man kiss.”
Reid blushed as he exited the room. That’s right, this is never going to happen again, he would never ever play truth or dare, he would never ever kiss Dave with that much whisky in his stomach, and he would never ever let the man live that down. No, he’d just have to convince him to do it sober next time.
End.