High and Drowning

Chapter 5

terrify [terəˌfī]

a verb

to cause extreme fear

_________

It was a Monday.

Two months. One week. Three days. 

Every morning was the same. Every morning, he grabbed his coffee, threw up, and take an unholy amount of Naproxen to try and take the edge off his falling high.  

Every morning he took the subway, the only place where his tremors would go unnoticed. 

Every morning he walked into the bullpen, and threw himself into his work, determined to make it through, without any interruptions. 

Every morning, except this morning, it would seem. 

He had just walked through the glass doors, a bit rushed, he was slightly late,(not his fault, the subway had broken down and the overwhelming darkness and press of bodies that surrounded him had nearly sent him spiraling into a panic attack). He stopped in his tracks, and let out a tiny groan. Morgan sat on his desk. Obviously he hadn't done a good enough job last night, and he wanted to pursue the matter with him. 

He sat down, ignoring him, and hung his bag up delicately. It would really suck if Morgan heard the vials clink together. Morgan coughed, and he looked up. 

"Yes?" The lights were so bright this morning. Really didn't help with the headaches that had become, unfortunately, commonplace. 

"Hey, pretty boy. We're good, right?" His voice was filled with concern. 

He cracks a smile, a real smile. "Yeah, Morgan, we're good. I was just out of it last night, and you know, sleep deprivation makes people act all sorts of weird, so I understand if-"

Morgan cuts him off. "No, yeah, man I get it." He scans his face, before pushing off his desk and walking away. He comes back, in five minutes however. "Hey, we're going out tonight. You wanna come?"

Reid senses the invitation is a courtesy, he would be going whether he wanted to or not. "Sure." 

Morgan slaps him on the back, "Alright." 

He groans internally. From the way he felt, he would have to get high before then. 

_________

Emily watches Reid over the divider. He was so twitchy, and really hard to get to know. God knows she tried. Clearing her throat she tried again. 

"You going out to get drinks tonight?" 

He jerked his head up and she was surprised to see that he was actually sweating. He fixes his sweater nervously and pulls down his sleeves, his hand hovering over his arm, protectively. 

"What?" 

"Drinks? Tonight?" She watched him closely, something was definitely wrong. 

"Oh, right," he shrugged, and looked back down at his case file. "Yeah." 

She frowns, does no one else see this? Does no one else see that something is very very wrong with this picture? 

She pushed her chair back and made eye contact with Morgan. Motioning for him to follow her, she walks to the kitchenette. 

Morgan walks after her, confused. 

She turns on him, suddenly. "Ok, I know I'm not the only one whose noticed that Dr. Reid" she hissed his name with an unusual amount of scorn. "is right now, high?"