The Case Of The Mystery Allergy (criminal Minds)

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

This was meant to be a drabble, or at least an outgrown drabble, but it outgrew the outgrowing and yeah, well. I don’t even know if anyone other than myself wants to read this but I’m sharing it anyway just in case. Because the idea of unknown allergies are fun to explore.

 

Gee, I need to get a life. Wait, no, I’m pretty content with this.

 

***

 

Oh my God, NO! I cannot possibly have to sneeze again, Alex Blake thought as she jerked forward with yet another set of stifled sneezes. Her nose had been itching like crazy since they left the hotel and she had sneezed again and again since they boarded the plane. She tried to keep as quiet as possible since most part of her team were fast asleep, but although she could keep the noise down to a minimum, the bottled up stifles did absolutely nothing to relieve the itch.

 

JJ opened her eyes and looked across the small table at her red-nosed, watery-eyed colleague.

 

“Are you okay, Blake?” she said in a low voice. Blake nodded.

 

“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

 

“Because so far you’ve sneezed, what, thirty times since we left Seattle?”

 

“Actually, she has sneezed 48 times, and there were three false starts as well,” Reid enlightened them from his seat next to Blake. She gave him a weird glance before she had to turn away and sneeze again.

 

“I’m really sorry,” she mumbled. “I try to be quiet.”

 

“It‘s not like you can help it” JJ said, “Don’t worry. I just wondered if you’re okay, but clearly, you’re not.”

 

“It doesn’t seem likely that it’s a cold though,” Reid went on. “You’ve caught two colds while on the team, and both started with a sore throat and a cough, so statistically…”

 

Blake interrupted him;

 

“Surely you’re not telling me you keep tabs on my colds?”

 

“He keeps tabs on everyone about everything, it’s just his nature,” JJ said.

 

“Yes, well, take JJ for example, her colds always begins with sneezing. By the way Blake, did you use to be a smoker?”

 

“What does that have to do with anything?”

 

“It’s not scientifically proven, but I’ve come up with this theory that smokers and former smokers usually gets colds that begins with coughing. And you do have this raspy, chesty smoker’s cough, so I figured you‘ve been a smoker. You‘ve obviously quit, though, but still.”

 

Blake shook her head. “You are insane. Why do you even notice these things?”

 

“Am I right?”

 

She sighed and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand.

 

“For the sake of argument, let’s say you are. Where does this lead?”

 

“That was just conversation.”

 

Blake blinked in disbelief.

 

“Can we please at least talk about something else?”

 

JJ took pity on her, and made a gesture towards her clothes.

 

“I love your sweater. That’s the one you bought yesterday, isn’t it?”

 

“Yes, that’s the…” she trailed off, cupped both hands in front of her face and stifled two sneezes. “Oooh my God,” she muttered and sniffled. “Yes, that’s the one. I’m usually not very much into fashion, but every once in a while I see something I just have to have.”

 

“It looks really soft.”

 

“It is. It’s cashmere. I love that material.”

 

“It’s blue,” Reid said.

 

“Petrol,” both women corrected him in unison.

 

“Huh?”

 

“The shade is called petrol,” JJ explained, clearly amused, before turning back to Blake; “It really suits you, it goes beautifully with your dark eyes and hair.”

 

“Aw, thank you.”

 

Reid ignored their trivial exchange and steered back to more important subjects.

 

“Did you wash it before you put it on?”

 

Blake gave him an utterly confused look. “No, why?”

 

“Ah. You see, the fabric colouring contains a lot of toxins, and some people are allergic to them.”

 

“So, now you’re telling me I’m allergic to my sweater?”

 

“Not to the sweater per say, to the toxins in the colour.”

 

She was about to tell him why that couldn’t be the case, when she felt the need to sneeze again. This time she raised her arm up and stifled two sneezes into her elbow. Reid winced.

 

“Not a smart move,” he said. Blake came to the same conclusion only a couple of seconds later, as the itch intensified by a thousand.

 

“You may want to take that off,” Reid said. Blake glared at him, her eyes watery and rimmed with red.

 

“I am not taking… huhh… my clothes off in public,” she managed to say before she rocked forward with a series of painful, congested stifles. The need to sneeze became even stronger the more she sneezed, and she feared she would never be able to stop.

 

She somehow got to her feet and made her way to the bathroom, holding one hand firmly clasped over her nose and mouth as stifle after stifle made her head bob forward. After locking the door behind her, she exploded with three open, loud and wet sneezes that sprayed everywhere;

 

“HEH-ISSCCHHEW! EH-KTSSCHOO! HA-IESSCCHHHYAH!”

 

Oh way to go, why not wake them all up so they can play ‘guess why Alex is sneezing’ with us? She thought as she reprimanded her nose by giving it a blow so violent it hurt throughout her sinuses. The teasing, annoying tingle remained, however, and she abandoned all modesty; she pulled the sweater over her head and threw it in the corner. If she had to walk back to her seat with nothing on her upper body but a bra, then so be it. At this point, she would do anything to stop this infernal sneezing and sniffling.

 

There was a knock on the door.

 

“Hey, it’s only me,” JJ said. “I brought one of your blouses from your overnight bag. I thought you might need it.”

 

“Hang on,” Blake replied and blew her nose again before opening the door just enough to accept the blouse. “Thank you.”

 

“Hand me that sweater, and I’ll bag it up and put it away for you,” JJ said. Blake did as she was asked, and then closed the door again, put the blouse on and began to button it, sneezing three times in the process. When she was almost finished she heard JJ sneeze from the other side of the door.

 

“KtSChhew! IiSCHew!”

 

She rolled her eyes. Allergic to a sweater, really? Well, at least it seemed she wasn’t the only one.

 

 

 

ETA: (oh, and the prompts for it was toxic + sweater... quite logic, huh? )

Edited February 14, 2016 by Chanel_no5

[SneezeloveronGirls]

Thanks for writing another great story.

[Chanel_no5]

Thanks for writing another great story.

Thanks for commenting. I'm really glad you liked it!

[ValkyriePleasant]

Oh, so you're not just brilliant at Maleficent? You're brilliant at anything?

I kind of hate-you, love-you for your talent right now.

(that is a compliment, I promise. I loved it)

[doglover111]

Loved it. I would love to see it continue, maybe they could keep sneezing and have to find out why

[HideAndGoSneeze]

HAHA I love Reid and his quirky facts!! This was very well done!!!