Criminal Minds Sicktember 2024

Cabin Pressure

Prompt: Sick on a Road Trip

Sickie: Reid

Caretaker(s): Hotch ft. Gracia

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Diana Reid was, during her worst days, incredibly suspicious of aeroplanes. She'd always insisted that her precious only son take the train, and he never minded. Trains are interesting and the scenery is nice. He'd read about airports, in books, seen them in movies his friends made him watch, but every piece of media had left one thing out: the sounds.

He'e even been in an airport once before, when he flew from Nevada to Virginia after his acceptance to the F.B.I. Academy, but he'd been with a friend then, or rather one of his mother's friends. An old colleague. He'd had business in Washington, so he'd offered to leave a week early to fly with Spencer. He'd done most of the talking, all of the navigating and let Spencer zone out with his noise cancelling headphones (a graduation gift from when he'd received his first PhD) and a book.

But now, he's on his own, even with a group of four other people.

The lights keep flickering. It makes Spencer wonder how no one has noticed. But of course he knows why. He's just sensitive.

'And Agent Jareau said this is a small airport. If something like this bothers me, can I even do this job? Should I just go home now, before I make a fool of myself?'

Voices overlap like a grating cacophony. Couples arguing over tickets, parents fussing over and at whining teens, crying babies, toddlers and single young adults with game audio playing at inconsiderate volumes, staticy P.A.s, and phone calls, all dip in and out. As soon as one sound quiets, another replaces it at what seems like twice the volume. Not to mention the jets just outside beyond the window. And yet, somehow he can still hear the buzzing of the lights.

And no one else seems to mind.

He'd forgone his headphones, not wanting to risk missing an instruction from his new boss, Supervisory Special Agent Gideon. But now his head pounds and colours dance in his vision.

An announcement for boarding as they pass a gate makes him clap his hands over his ears, a reflex, but he puts them away before his colleagues notice.

'I will not act like a baby.'

He wants to walk faster, to run, and get away from it all, but it would be rude to pass his boss, and he has no idea where they're going anyway.

He'd heard Ms. Jareau complaining as they got into the car, that normally they'd be allowed to drive up to the apron, but couldn't this time due to some reconstruction.

At last, after a walk that can't have taken more than 10 minutes, but felt like a marathon, they reach the door to the private area of the apron.

It's at the same time a reprieve and so much worse.

On one hand, there is less quantity of sounds, but on the other hand the volume blinds Spencer for a moment and he rushes to catch up to his new colleagues.

-

The small jet is an oasis of quiet. Spencer can still hear the noise if he gets too close to a window, and the lights do buzz a bit, but it's negligible compared to the monstrous collage inside the airport and out on the apron.

He sits down quickly, still feeling less than stable.

Hotch is talking to the rest of the team, but he hasn't calmed down enough to clearly understand the words. So, as quietly as he can he starts reciting chemical formulas. They come into the forefront of his mind as easy as breathing, like the ABCs or Twinkle Little Star to most children, familiar and comforting. He focuses on the words one at a time until he stops shaking and the buzzing of the lights is less prominent. Eventually he just lets the formulas run through his mind. It actually helps him focus on SSA Gideon's voice.