Retribution, A Spencer Reid/Criminal Minds Fanfic

Chapter 18. Off to See the Wizard

By now, making travel arrangements to the nameless settlement in upstate New York was old hat for Garcia.

It no longer bothered her that the place didn’t exist on any of her maps. It didn’t make her blink when she sent her babies off into the wilderness where an equally undocumented physician waited. But this time, she did sigh with envy when it was announced that Prentiss would be making the trip.

Garcia dearly loved all things that dared to rise above and beyond average expectations. She herself strove daily to reflect her conviction that, for better or worse, separating oneself from the herd was a lonely, but laudable, path to travel. Even if it wasn’t a conscious choice. She hadn’t quite managed to find her own tribe yet, but she rather thought it was waiting for her someplace hidden. Someplace like the town where her friends were headed. Without exploring her motivation, she had turned herself, with glitter and rhinestones, color and hope, into a beacon, calling for that elusive tribe to claim her as one of their own.

In the meantime, there was work.

Sometimes she wondered about being employed by a place like the FBI, not that she’d had much choice in the matter. She’d hacked her way into the position. When she’d been apprehended for cyber-trespassing thanks to exercising a combination of curiosity and technical genius bordering on savant, she’d been faced with severe legal penalties on the one hand, or a safely proscribed and monitored government job on the other. She’d been granted the further choice of applying to several different branches of the Bureau.

Resigned to her fate, she’d still managed a mini-rebellion. She’d sent her resume to the BAU on luridly pink, scented paper. Nonetheless, she’d been called in to interview for one of the teams. Since she had no choice about accepting a position, which meant someone had to hire her, she assumed someone had lost the coin toss and been forced to meet her.

Penelope’s heart had plummeted when she saw her interviewer; a grim, suited man with piercing eyes that said he was FBI from his chromosomes outward. She knew the type. Slavish adherence to rules, someone who hid his own lack behind the claim that ‘this is the way it’s supposed to be…if you don’t agree, you’re wrong…and I’ll try to change you by burying you in my own hell of slavish adherence to rules and regulations.’ People who led such lackluster lives, whose chains and shackles began in their own minds and ended by strangling every spark of creativity or freedom in others as well as themselves, chilled her soul.

But what awaited her beyond the fierce façade was a gentle, almost shy, spirit with a considerate, loving heart. And gathered behind the deceptively stern leader was the family she’d missed for so long.

Every day Garcia was grateful for the perceptive skills that had made Hotch hire her. But she still thought her tribe was waiting. Somewhere. Maybe just over the meadow and through the woods…

She finished finalizing the travel arrangements and sighed.

Well...Prentiss this time…J.J. the next. Maybe it’ll be my turn after that. Someday. Or maybe I’ll just go on my own. Someday.

xxxxxxx

“You sure you guys are up for this?”

Morgan had warmed and chilled and stretched and kneaded Hotch’s muscles into the best shape he could hope to attain without the benefit of a few days of good, solid healing time. He’d bullied some food into him and helped him pack. He’d returned the lavender unicorn to Hotch’s office, wondering why the guy held onto it at all, if he loathed it as much as he seemed to.

“You sure you don’t want me to get rid of this for you? Take it down to Toys for Tots, or Goodwill, or something?”

The Unit Chief had given him a sidelong look.