How Dare You [ReidxReader] - 2nd Edition

(3) Symptoms

Someone is grabbing your shoulder Your head shoots up and you turn your upper body. Before your eyes are fully open, you bring your elbow up and smash it into the offender's forearm. They immediately let got.

You jump to your feet ready to pounce at the person.

"Fuck, Byrne. It's Morgan."

You barely understand what he's saying but some part of your brain registers the message. You have adrenaline rushing through veins and you have to blink repeatedly for your view to clear. Your eyes dart around the room. It's dimly lit and somewhat familiar. The desks and the clocks on the wall...

You're in the bullpen. You're at the BAU. Shit.

Letting out a loud breath, you sit back in your chair. Morgan probably just wanted to wake you up and you made an ass out of yourself. You run your hands through your hair and mumble: "Sorry."

He comes closer again and leans against your desk. "You alright?" He looks concerned.

You nod: "Yeah. You just surprised me."

Morgan lets out a laugh: "I gathered that."

Looking at your watch, you curse. It's 10 p.m. You must have fallen asleep at your desk. "What are you doing here?"

"Worked out at the gym downstairs, came up to get my bag."

You sigh and gather your belongings. You remember getting tired but being too stubborn to stop working on the file.

Morgan shakes his head: "You should sleep at home more often. You're starting to outdo Hotch." You walk with him to the elevator without commenting his statement.

"Are you sure, you're okay?" He repeats his question. "I'm fine."

Waving at Morgan, you get in your car. You drive off to a restaurant near your apartment to get some take out. You used to frequent it with your former partner. Getting food there is comforting because it's familiar and reminds you of the fun evenings you spent there after cases before...With salat in one and warm bread in the other hand, you climb up the stairs to your apartment. It still feels cold. You couldn't be bothered to put up pictures or anything that would make it feel like a friendly place. You just didn't have that in you after you moved in.

With a groan, you sit down at your table and start to devour your food. It's late and your body is confused that you already slept. Which doesn't make you any less hungry though. You eat the food straight out the container, using the plastic fork that came with it, so you don't have to do any dishes.

Against your will, your mind starts to wander to Reid. He frustrates you because you cannot figure him out. One moment he actually is nice to you and a few hours later he snaps back when you say something. Like when you went undercover. Before that, he was caring, helping you when you managed to almost bleed to death by scratching your forehead. Sure, when you said he should do the undercover job with you he seemed maybe uncomfortable; but from what he said to you, he appears to just not do it that often. He also was kind about the dress thing, even a little shy? And holding your hand...Reid seemed somewhat excited.

But then, maybe five minutes later, it was like a switch flicked. He started to tense and then got angry with you for no apparent reason.

You put your fork down. Oh no.

ɤɤɤɤ ɤɤɤɤ ɤɤɤɤ

You get your laptop and open the FBI data bank. Sitting on your sofa, you pull up Reid's file. He worked an endless number of cases since he joined the BAU, which was at a ridiculously young age. The constant stress must have taken a toll on him, especially since Prentiss was not the only friend he lost.