The Element of Surprise

Lucky - Part 5

I wake up on the jet after dozing off after takeoff. I'm surprised to find I'm curled up on the sofa opposite of the one Spence always sleeps on, a pillow tucked underneath my head and a blanket covering my form. At first, the question remains; whose pillow and blanket are these? Since there wasn't time to grab mine, they must belong to the team. One quick look at the pillow answers one of my questions: tiny smudges of mascara, slight scent of cherry lip balm; Emily. The blanket on the other hand...

Bringing it up to my face, I inhale its scent which nearly sends my eyes rolling back into my skull. Expensive cologne, Old Spice... David Rossi.

Huh. I never pinned him for the type of person who brings an extra blanket with them on trips.

'Sweetie, you hardly pinned him to anything at all,' subconscious retorts rather sassy.

Pushing the little voice aside, I grab my phone to check the time - 9:37 PM. Twenty minutes until we land, which means I've slept through the entire flight. Funny, since I can't even remember falling asleep. And speaking of funny, there are about a thousand text messages from Penelope waiting to be read. Preparing myself for both the best and the worst, I start opening them one by one and scanning through her chats. Most of them are about the guy she met this morning, which feels extremely long ago after this case. And then there are four that explains in vivid detail how she finally woman-ed up and called the guy, Colby, back and accepted his dinner proposal - I nearly squealed at that. And the rest of the texts are just Penny telling me what she plans on wearing, what perfume she put on, how her glasses match her outfit, what to do with her hair, what shade of lipstick to wear, and so forth.

Calculating the time that passed between now and when she sent the last message, I conclude she's probably on her way home by now, most likely with her date. If he's as much of a gentleman as she claimed in text message number... forty-six? Then I have no doubt he offered to drive her to her apartment. I inwardly cross my fingers that her date went well and, hopefully, he asks her out again. If there's any person in the world who deserves to be happy and loved, it's Penelope.

Thinking I'd text her later to ask how it was, I sit upright and comb my fingers through my bedhead, somehow managing to twist the tresses in a somewhat decent messy bun. After that, I fluff Em's pillow and carefully fold Rossi blanket to return them. Shuffling through the jet, I notice Spence is still fast asleep on his sofa with his legs sprawled over Derek, who's head is leaned back while he dozes off to his music. In the kitchen area, JJ is on the phone, probably speaking to that New Orleans detective she's been secretly dating for a few months now - she doesn't know we know. Emily is nowhere to be seen and I assume she's in the bathroom touching up her mascara - I place her pillow on her usual seat and continue towards where Hotch and Rossi are having a quiet conversation.

Clearing my throat, I successfully get their attention, "Am I interrupting something?"

"Estella," Hotch says with a hint of a smile, "Not at all. How are you feeling?"

"Jaw's a bit stiff," I refer back to when Father Marks accidentally elbowed me in the face, "Other than that, I'm peachy. Oh, and thank you for this, Rossi," I hold the blanket towards him and have the privilege to watch him take in mild surprise.

"How did you figure out it's mine?" He asks, those dark brows knitting together.

'Damn, he should frown more. It makes him like 97.999999% handsomer. And he's already a 110!'

I tune out my subconscious and shrug, "Smells like Old Spice and expensive cologne." My eyes pop when I realize I said that out loud. Rossi looks at me as if saying 'you can identify me by scent?' while Hotch frowns at nothing as if wondering 'she can identify him by scent?' Blinking rapidly, I correct myself, "I mean, I'm super at one with my senses... sometimes I can smell when someone's been using my phone, like, when it smells like Cheetos it's usually JJ, and vanilla when it's Garcia and... I'll stop rambling now."