thirty-seven days

i

IT had to be some kind of miracle the fact that all members of the BAU team happened to have almost two whole days free of traveling and crimes to enjoy the comfort of their homes and families. But by Monday morning, they were back to sitting around the familiar black circular table, sipping from their coffee cups, waiting for Penelope present their new case. The sound of one pair of heels betrayed the beautiful blonde's discrete entrance to the room. Giving each member a designated folder filled with information, details  and the not-so-pleasant pictures of the case to go through.

"Today, my furry little friends, you all will be visiting Bridgeport, Connecticut," Penelope spoke confidently as she grabbed the remote, turning the TV on behind her, "Now, that'd be because over the past three weeks, the bodies of three young women have been found next to main different highways. Two out of the three girls had their abdom-"

Before Penelope could finished her sentence, she was abruptly interrupted by Anderson entering the room. Penelope was the only offended instead of surprised, she really hated being interrupted or being talked over. As everyone starred at Anderson, 

"I am really sorry to intrude like this, but Stiles is here and wants to see you immediately," Anderson said ashamed, looking at Spencer

"You have to be kidding me. Oh, this little bastard better have a good excuse," Reid muttered to himself furiously

He excused himself with Hotchner's approval, of course, telling the team not to worry and to keep going, that he would debrief the case on the plane. He left and room and rushed to his desk where he could see his little brother looking through his stuff.

"Fourth time you've come to my job in exactly three days, nineteen hours, fifty-six minutes and... twelve seconds! What the hell are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"Um, yes, I should, indeed, be on my way to school and I may be a little late already, but I just wanted to stop by and say hi," Stiles explained, each of his hands placed on his backpack's shoulders straps

"No, no you didn't. What do you really want?"

"Okay fine, look, I forgot a book on the bus the other day, and I really need it for a test today,"

"You mean you lost it," reassured Spencer leaning on his desk with his arms crossed

"Same thing, dude,"

"And what role am I supposed to be playing here?"

"I'm nearly one hundred percent sure I can find a copy in the BAU Library," Stiles confessed, knowing his brother would figure out the rest of his plan

"Oh, no. I'm not going to give you my credentials so you can check out a book,"

"Why not?" he implored with sad eyes

"Because they don't know I made a copy out of it just for you to use!" Spencer argued back in a squeaky voice

"And why don't you tell them?" said Stiles in the same tone as his brother

"Um, I don't know maybe because it's against all kinds of protocol and I could end up suspended or even fired!"

"Come on, I'm begging you..." he insisted sadly, "I need to pass this exam,"

Reid looked into his brother's eyes, noticing he was truly anxious this time. He knew how important school was for Stiles, he wanted to meet everybody's expectations, and prove he was at least half as good as his genius older brother. Spencer sighed and turned around to face his desk, opening a drawer with a key he pulled out of his pants' front pocket, he reached for a black enveloped and held it out for Stiles to take and put it inside his backpack.

"Thank you so much. I owe you a big one this time,"

"Just don't lose it, please,"

"Yes, got it, Spence," Stiles spoke happily

"Reid. Wheels up in 30," said Hotchner grabbing both brothers' attention and making his way to his office

"Where are you going today?" Stiles interrogated, glancing through the windows of the meeting room and seeing the rest of the team picking up their beige folders from the table, "Oh, who is the new girl? Is that JJ's replacement? What's her name?"

"Enough questions! That's none of your business," Spencer answered quickly "Now get out of here before I regret what I just did,"

"I promise I'll give it back tomorrow,"

With a smile on his face, Stiles jogged to the elevators and shortly after, he left the sixth floor to go to the building's library. Spencer starred at the glass doors his brother had just crossed, he had a weird feeling, but honestly, when did he not. He shook his head and started gathering his things including his go-bag, then he joined the rest of his team on their way to the cars.

"Hotch, I apologize for that inconvenience, I don't know what has gone up to his head recently," Spencer said, walking beside Aaron

"It's fine. Next time make sure he calls before coming in," he spoke looking at Reid from the corner of his eye

Spencer nodded and stayed quiet all the way to the plane. He knew it wasn't only the book thing, something else was not alright with his little brother, but he couldn't be his psychologist nor his babysitter anymore. Stiles had just turned nineteenth roughly a month ago. Maybe it was the fact of leaving Las Vegas and their mom to go to college in Washington, D.C., with his best friends, Scott and Lydia. Or perhaps, knowing that he was now in more danger than ever before by simply being this geographically close to his brother. Stiles knew about all the kidnappings, the torture, and the deaths the BAU and their families had gone through merely because of the job they had.

"Is everything okay with Stiles?" Emily asked walking up to Spencer on the plane's bar

"Yeah, he just wanted to say hi before going to school," he replied, not looking at her

"Oh my god, that's true! How's college treating him?" Prentiss questioned again, this time showing her smile

"He seems to be doing pretty great. He has this, uhm, 'study club' with Scott and Lydia,"

"Good for them! Hm, now remind me, how high is his IQ?"

Reid exhaled and said with a little smile across his pink but a bit chapped lips, "172,"

"Ah... he clearly got that same genes,"

They both went back to their seats with a cup of coffee on their hands, joining the others and proceeding to make their analyses on their new case.