Front Lines| Spencer Reid + Anne Grey

seven

"How are you doing, Anne?"

"I'm fuckin' amazing!"

Grey and Reid sat in two barstools, keeping conversation without much effort. They had been at the bar for a couple of hours, and Anne had gotten herself quite inebriated. Morgan was off flirting with some woman, and JJ had run to the restroom with Garcia.

"Is it because you're drunk?" Spencer asks, quite entertained.

"Maybe," she responds, dragging out her reply. "But I also just really love hanging out with you guys." She had a way about being drunk, that the only people who could sense her intoxication were her friends. Instead of slurring her speech or saying dumb things, she was more expressive and lost most of the sarcasm that her sober self had mastered. Essentially, she acted like a normal person, which was foreign to her everyday life.

Reid smiles, inquiring, "You only ever say you're having a nice time when you're intoxicated. What's with that?" He knew why, but it was fun for him to hear Anne respond to questions with complete ardency.

"I don't have to say I'm having a good time to mean it," she says, grinning and rapidly blinking. "I just wanted to tell you this time."

His face lights up as he gives an amused look. "Oh, yeah?"

"You're doing an awful lot of questioning tonight, Spencer," she retorts.

"Am I?"

"See, you're doing it again!" she exclaims, laughing. Anne beckons the bartender, quickly asking, "Hey, can I get another glass of whiskey?"

Raising his eyebrows, Reid lightly asks, "Is that a good idea?"

Grey had already drank quite a bit, and Spencer knew she would regret it tomorrow morning. She held her liquor pretty well, but that wouldn't be the case when a hangover set in.

"Sure it is. Last one, I promise. Then we can go home, a'right?" Grey was completely genuine, as she was growing quite tired anyways. She enjoyed socializing and drinking, but not for much longer than a couple of hours.

Reid agrees to her proposal."I'll hold you to that," he assures, his eyebrows still lifted.

"Please do."

JJ and Garcia return to the table, as the bartender sets a partially filled glass in front of Anne.

Jareau instantly laughs and shakes her head. She seems a little tipsy as well, from the volume of her tone. "You're still letting her drink more?" she asks, aiming the question at Reid. "Her BAC has to be like 0.1 at this point."

"That's not that bad!" Anne returns, though her response is overshadowed by Spencer's.

"We agreed to go home after this one."

Grey starts to nod, taking a sip of her whiskey and beginning to drink it without stopping.

"Good plan," Garcia assures, smiling at Reid. "That should be soon enough, with the way she's chugging it."

He and JJ laugh at the remark, watching Anne finish her drink in a matter of seconds.

"I've gotta pay off the tab before we leave," she says, seeming to recall earlier that night, when she had told the bartender to make one.

"I've got it," Reid replies, standing up.

"There's cash in my purse."

He grabs her bag, repeating, "Got it."

As he walks off to find the bartender again, Anne continues to keep conversation with JJ and Garcia. "How's Morgan doing?"

"Didn't even talk to him. He's very taken up with his new friend." Penelope laughs. She was pretty sober, as alcohol wasn't her taste, and someone had to drive JJ home. She also seemed to enjoy poking fun at her drunk friends more than being hammered.