What Happens Next

XI. 'Camping'

Alone in the car, Reid could not help but consider the thought of leaving the girls in the hands of after school care, and driving into town to get drugs. There were no road blocks. JJ had to set him up as a second caregiver at the school to allow him to pick them up anyway so he knew he could just call and say he was running late. He thought about how it wouldn't take a profiler that long to scout a dealer, and he believed he would be back within the hour. He could take the girls out to the park afterwards and when he returned late to the house he could simply tell their mother that he had taken them to the park and that was it. Nobody would have to know. There was no reason to stay sober if his wife wasn't going to call him back anyway, so why wait?

He picked up his phone, he wasn't sure if it was to call the school or to call JJ or if it was just to see that picture of his family and remind himself what he was in it for, but he got a text from JJ that grounded him immediately.

"Grace needs to remember her permission slip. Due Monday."

He shook the thoughts of sneaking off and drove straight to the school, upset at his desires, and at his failure to execute them. In the carpool line, he watched as they stood chatting excitedly with their respective friends. They were released from their clusters of kids and stampeded over to the car. Grace crawled in first, scooting across the seat and plopping herself into her booster seat. Emily slid in next, and helped her sister buckle her seat belt before she buckled her own.

"Hey guys!" he greeted enthusiastically.

"Hi Uncle Spence!" the girls cheered. 

"Look!" Grace yelled, digging her permission slip out of her backpack. She slipped it between the headrest and Spencers seat and cried "I get to go to the zoo!"

"Wow!" Reid enthused, digging singlehandedly behind his back. He pulled the paper from behind his back and scanned it, confirming that it was the permission slip due the next week

He returned the girls to their mother in a timely fashion and beat Henry home in the process. 

"You know, I was just thinking about how inconvenient 5:00 practice times are," Reid started as soon as he entered the kitchen, "Most American families eat dinner between 5:30 and 6:30, putting dinner time in the middle of practice. With school lunch periods being anywhere between 10 A.M to 12:00 in the afternoon, there is no way to ensure that athletes are eating proper amounts of food, as students who eat exactly at noon, or a little later may not even be hungry for their 4:00 dinner, that is, if they eat at all before practice. Michael, I saw him he only ate a granola bar and an apple, which means he is going to be starving by the time he gets home at 8:30, which means that he won't be able to start his homework until about 9:30. When are these kids supposed to sleep?"

"Why hello Dr. Reid. I haven't heard from you in a while," JJ smiled, happy to see her friend back to spouting statistics and rambling on long unprompted tangents.

Reid smiled, his face turning slightly red, "I uh, have Grace's permission slip."

He handed the crinkled piece of paper to his friend who he finally noticed was preparing dinner for the children who would be home to eat. She had changed out of her standard navy blue police uniform into a Penn State football t-shirt which she believed represented both of her sons, although Henry's engineering brain did not enjoy football in the slightest.

Reid dropped JJ's keys into her purse and slipped behind the counter to help her cook. They chatted with each other and the girls who remained seated at the table, and by the time Henry had returned, the only thing left to do was plate their dish.

The family ate happily, talking cheerfully about nothing, but JJ worried about her mom, stashed away in that dark room, refusing to eat but the tiniest amount of food. She knew something was going to have to be done.