Getting To The Point (criminal Minds, Female)

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

I put this plot bunny up for adoption, but nobody wanted it, and I quite wanted to read it myself, so I wrote it. Not too pleased with the result though, so if anyone wants to play with it, I’d love to rehome it to another owner. I’m not doing too well with colds and I’m not sure why I didn’t really get the text to flow, but… it’s done and I figured I’d post it. Yeah, that’s about it. Hope you guys like it.

***

The snowfall was picking up, and the wind was howling around the SUV that was firmly stuck in the snow. Reid hung up his cell phone and turned to his colleague, who was leaning against the window on the driver’s side, pinching the bridge of her nose and keeping her eyes closed as if she was struggling with a headache.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “Just wanting to get out of here, is all. What did Hotch say?”

“It’ll be another three hours before they can send anyone. It’s chaos back at the local station.”

“HemptSCHh!”

Blake barely had time to duck her face into the sleeve of her coat and muffle the sneeze. She had been wanting to sneeze all day, but until now she had managed to hold them back until she could have some privacy. Unfortunately, since the two agents were stuck in the snow in the middle of nowhere, there was no possibility of privacy at the moment, and her sinuses were getting more and more uncooperative. She rubbed her itchy nose against the rough fabric of her coat before she lowered her arm again.

“Bless you,” Reid said and frowned. She writhed under his gaze and averted her eyes.

“Sorry, it’s just a tickle,” she said quickly, although what had felt like a slight tickle earlier in the day was now progressing into a deeply seated, intense irritation. She was also getting quite stuffed up, and one side of her throat felt sore. She was pretty certain this was the start of a horrible head cold, but she wasn’t going to admit it to Reid. She knew he was something of a germaphobic and didn’t want to unsettle him. She put a hand in her pocket to make sure she had a Kleenex, in case things got completely out of hand. There were two, which would be enough if she didn’t sneeze more from now on. Unfortunately, her nose was already twitching with the urge to let out another irritated sneeze, and she held her breath, hoping it would help.

“You know, I…” Reid began, looking out of the window and therefore not noticing the look of building desperation on her face. She blinked a couple of times as her breath hitched, almost succeeding in fighting it off, but eventually she pressed her wrist against her nose and stifled another. “HehNNKTT! Excuse me… NnTSChho! Oh my God!”

“Bless you again. Are you sure you‘re okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she lied and rubbed her nose, hoping it would keep calm now that it had gotten its way. “You were saying?”

Reid looked at her, closely, and she knew she would have to use up all her willpower and acting skills to keep the truth from him. She put a mask of complete innocence and indifference on top of her facial features, although the tickle was already creeping back into her slowly filling sinuses.

No more sneezing, she told herself harshly. No more sneezing, whatever you do.

“I was just thinking… can I ask you something, Alex?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Right now she was desperate to be stuck with any other team member than Spencer Reid. Not because she didn’t like him, but quite the contrary. She did like him, she cared about him, and she didn’t want him to be repulsed by her, but she was rapidly approaching the borders of her personal control. This cold had been teasing her for almost two days now, but it was finally breaking through every last defense she had, and there was no stopping it.

“I’ve started to, um…”

He fell silent and looked out at the falling snow again, allowing Blake to unnoticed run her hand underneath her nose to push back another sneeze, but her attempts failed, and she put her arm back up in front of her face and sneezed again.

”HegtSSHH! Hah-KSSHtth!-sniff… Oh God,” she mumbled under her breath, slowly lowered her arm and pinched her damp nostrils between her fingers instead. The ticklish, prickling, sneezy sensation was not quelled at all, but she simply could not allow herself to sneeze any more. Reid startled at the sudden outburst and gave her a concerned glance.

”Bless you, Alex. You sound like you’re coming down with something.”

”It’s nothing, I’m fide.”

Oh damnit, there was the audible congestion coming into play. There was no getting out of this now. She could only keep denying it, but even if she did, she was seriously screwed. Also, she needed that tissue now. She fished it out of her pocket and wiped her nose, hoping against hope that the irritation wasn’t manifesting itself in a rosy blush around her nostrils. But she knew it would. It always did.

”If you say so,” he said, but he didn’t sound at all convinced, more like he was just respecting a custom he didn’t fully agree with. Blake forced a smile and pressed a knuckle against the most bothersome nostril.

No… no, I’m not gonna sneeze again, I’m not!

”I've thought about starting, uh… online dating,” Reid admitted, and Blake was so surprised the impending sneeze shied away just as she inhaled sharply to give it the fuel it needed. It sounded like she gasped in shock, and Reid gave her a shy but obviously amused glance.

”Thanks for your confidence in me,” he remarked with as much sarcasm as Spencer Reid was able to muster. Blake chuckled in spite of herself and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand.

”Sorry.”

”It’s okay. Well, what I wanted to ask was… do you think people can fall in love over the Internet?”

”Uh, well… I don’t see how that would be any different from falling in love over the telephone, or old-fashioned mail?” Blake said. ”Of course you’d have to be careful, but it’s not like th-they’re… ah, all… ahh…

Talking was a mistake, she learned as she once more needed to sneeze. She fought to hold it back, but it was burning so badly, she simply had to let it out. In a way, at least; she pinched her nose shut and swallowed the sneeze with a high-pitched, girly squeak that was so far from the sound of her normal sneezes that it almost made her laugh. Even Reid looked a bit amused, though he didn’t say anything.

”S’cuse me, what I was trying to say was that it’s not like they’re all predators and impostors. Most people are probably sincere most of the time. But why do you ask me? Wouldn’t Garcia be a more logical choice to turn to?”

”Maybe…” he fidgeted like an awkward boy and she wanted to reach out and touch his hand to offer some comfort, but if she was right about this being a cold she didn’t want to risk passing it on. Particularly not to him. ”But, I don’t really want her to know. Garcia is sweet, but if she knows, Morgan knows, and…” he made a face to illustrate how he felt about that. Blake could sympathise. Morgan was a good guy, Blake liked him, and had no problem putting her life into his hands on the field, but sometimes he forgot that Reid was a grown man and not a high school geek. Sometimes they all did, actually. Blake had to admit to having the occasional bout of maternal feelings towards Reid - sometimes to the point where she felt he should have been her baby boy - but she had the ability to balance those feelings against what she saw; a young but very obviously adult man. Perhaps because she hadn’t been around from the start and seen the ”kid genius” when he really could be referred to as a kid. Whatever the reason, she understood what he was getting at, and it was flattering that he chose to confide in her. The current situation would have been easier to handle if she wasn’t constantly on the verge of sneezing and didn’t want him to notice, however.

”I see,” she reassured him and once more had to put a leash on herself to refrain from touching him. Hadn’t he just last week held an entire lecture on the plane about how cold and flu viruses mainly transferred through touch? He would be so disgusted and anxious if he found out she was getting ill, and to be honest, she even felt like she was starting to drip with contagion. ”I’d advice you to not rush head over heels into anything, though. Talk online, talk over the phone for a while, get to know each other before ahhh… sniff… before you decide to meet.”

”Meet,” he said in a listless voice, and Blake knew he thought about Maeve. It had been almost two years, but the poor guy was still hurting.

”Well, if you aim for a relationship, ev-eventhhh-heh! HahhngtSh! Eventually you’ll have to meet.”

She pressed the tissue against her nose and felt the wetness seeping through the paper. Great, so now it was starting to run as well. She sniffled, praying she wouldn’t have to blow her nose, but the odds were not in her favour.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said. “You are catching a cold, aren’t you? You never sneeze this much unless it’s allergy season, and…” he gestured to the frigid environment outside the car, “there’s not exactly a lot of pollen in the air right now. Although global warming does prolong the pollen season and there can still be lots of pollen in the air even if it’s snowing, but not the kinds you seem to be sensitive to…”

She raised one hand and shook her head a little.

“I don’t suppose I should ask how you know what kinds of pollen I’m allergic to?”

His mouth closed so quickly he almost bit his tongue, and he looked terribly embarrassed. She regretted her words and her tone alike, but what she regretted the most was the dejected look they brought to his appearance.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I just don’t particularly like to talk about that, is all.”

“Why? It’s not like you can help being allergic, there’s no shame in it?”

“Yeah, well, it makes me feel inferior. Some kind of social stigmata thing.”

“Social stigmata about having pollen allergies? Wow. You know around 20 % have some form of seasonal allergy, and in industrial countries it’s still on the rise, amounting to almost 25 % over the past few years. One of the reasons could be the global warming I already mentioned, and the increased pollen seasons, but also the…”

“Spencer,” she said, and that was enough to halt him.

“Sorry.”

“That’s kind of the point. I don’t like it when people feel the need to discuss it. I’d prefer to just suffer in s-sih… oh damn it, not again… AISSCHHEW! HahngtSCHHew! AmnTSCHHoo! Ugh… in silence,” she finished before finally surrendering to the need to blow her nose.

“I see. So you’d prefer it if I pretended you’re not having a cold right now?” Reid asked. Blake stopped mid-blow and glared at him over the tissue.

“I do not have a cold.”

Reid raised his eyebrows, then lowered them again as if saying alright, if that’s how you want to play it.

“I just get an itchy nose in the dry winter air,” she said, hearing herself how feeble and ridiculous her words sounded. Not to mention how congested her voice sounded when she said them.

“You’ve displayed cold symptoms since we left DC, and they’ve gotten progressively worse,” Reid said. “I’ve never seen you with a cold before so I wasn’t sure at first, but unless you have allergies, you never sneeze more than twice in a row, and you’re not a very frequent sneezer anyway.”

“Sneezer,” she commented and let out a quiet cough. Now her throat was tickling as well. “You make it sound like it’s a… hobby, or something.”

“Not my intention. But really Alex, you’re getting sick and there’s no need to hide it. Do you have a fever?”

He reached out a hand - awkwardly, but with conviction - to feel her forehead, but she backed away from his touch. He withdrew his hand, looking a little hurt.

“Just… don’t touch me. If I am, then I don’t want to get you sick too,” she said.

“The most infectious phase is when the symptoms first start to show, so I’m already subjected to it.”

“Well, we can still reduce the risk to a minimum,” she argued, but her voice was getting scratchy and weak, and she honestly didn’t want to keep up the façade any longer. She felt miserable and sneezy and just wanted to curl up in blessed solitude and be as cold-ridden as she felt underneath her stoic mask.

Reid’s face took on the most unusual image of sheer frustration as he clenched his teeth and threw his head back, growling.

“Knock it off, Alex,” he snapped and she blinked in surprise. “You were there for me after, you know, after Maeve died, I sat on your couch crying like a child and you were holding me in a way my mother never knew to how do, offering comfort I never knew how to ask for in the first place, and now you won’t even allow me to care about you when you have a cold! You know one thing I’ve learned over the past years, it’s that you can’t really give if you don’t let anyone get close, so just knock it off and at least admit that you’re getting sick!”

His voice raised to a quivering teenage boy’s towards the end of his little speech, and his face flushed, and Blake stared at him for several seconds, with the tissue up against her drippy nose, busy fighting what felt like a whole armada of sneezes attacking.

“I don’t want to disgust you,” she persisted.

“You’re not disgusting me, Alex. Really. You can’t help it, and if I catch it, I’ll catch it. But you’ll be amazed at how tough my immune defense is.”

She sniffled, and was grateful to feel the most intense urge to sneeze calm down a little, only temporarily, but still.

“Yeah, that’s what I use to say,” she shot back.

“Tell you what, if I do catch it, you buy me dinner when we get back.”

“Okay. Where do you want to eat?”

“We don’t know yet if I will catch it.”

“Spencer, we have several more hours left to spend caught together in this confined space… hehh…”

Reid watched as she scrunched up her nose, fighting the oncoming sneeze, knowing she’d fail all over again. Sooner or later you’d just have to give in to viruses and let them have their way, and Blake had just reached her breaking point. She waved a hand vaguely in front of her face as if trying to chase the sneeze away, but then had to get the tissue up to her nose and mouth and capture the next tickly explosion before continuing what she was saying.

“HahgtXchho! NnntSCHHo! Of course you’ll catch it.”

“So if I had been the one getting ill you would have just ignored it?”

That struck a cord, and she shook her head.

“Of course I wouldn’t. I care about you.”

“And I care about you, so how about letting me?" Before she could reply, he continued; "Do you have the chills?”

Blake surrendered. She felt shitty enough as it was without having to keep up appearances.

“Yeah. But it’s not that bad, I’ll be… eIISCHHu!”

“Fine, yes I know. Here you go,” he said and shrugged out of his own coat and tucked her into it like a blanket. “Just rest now, okay?”

“Ugh,” Blake groaned, leaning her head back and tried to sniffle through her stuffed, itchy nose. “I apologise. Oh, I’m so gross, I’m sorry,” she said.

“Remember that time when we were just starting to work together, when you said how much time we’d save if everyone would just get to the point?”

She looked at him. Even her eyes was starting to get watery and glassy.

“Yes?”

“I’m getting to the point now. You have a cold. I don’t mind you having a cold. There, we could have saved…” he looked at the clock… “thirty-four minutes and fifty seconds of pointless talking if we had just established that in so many words.”

Blake smiled and rolled her eyes.

“You’re right, Reid. You are always right.”

“I know,” he said in a very matter-of-fact voice. “You know, it’s kind of incredible that human beings don’t catch more colds than we do, given the amount of different cold viruses…”

“Reid! Don’t start.”

“Sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

He smiled and leaned back in his seat, pleased to at least have cracked through her defensive walls.

“No, I’m not.”

 

 

Edited February 14, 2016 by Chanel_no5

[ValkyriePleasant]

And why on Earth aren't you happy with this? It's amazing, as usual.

[Chanel_no5]

And why on Earth aren't you happy with this? It's amazing, as usual.

Aaaahhh, I feel they both sound too OOC! But thank you.

[ValkyriePleasant]

And why on Earth aren't you happy with this? It's amazing, as usual.

Aaaahhh, I feel they both sound too OOC! But thank you.

Hey, you did 5000x better than I ever could. I was tempted to write your plot bunny, but I'm horrendous when it comes to in-character stuff. I haven't seen much of Blake, but you nailed Reid!

[Snapdragon]

I don't know the characters, but this is super cute and I love how Blake's stoicism is just completely overwhelmed by her cold symptoms and Reid's perceptiveness. (Stoic, tough characters suffering from colds or allergies are one of my favourite things, especially when they're gorgeous ladies. Yes please!)

[AnteatersOnParade]

This is amazing! Can Reid catch it next...?

[darkness-is-the-light]

You should definitely have more confidence in your writing, because it is absolutely amazing. You have literally mastered Blake, a character I would never dare to write. The knowledge you have about the characters is unbelievable. Put a wonderful story/story telling on top of that and there you have a wonderful story.

[Chanel_no5]

And why on Earth aren't you happy with this? It's amazing, as usual.

Aaaahhh, I feel they both sound too OOC! But thank you.

Hey, you did 5000x better than I ever could. I was tempted to write your plot bunny, but I'm horrendous when it comes to in-character stuff. I haven't seen much of Blake, but you nailed Reid!

Thank you. I'm not sure I deserve that praise, but thank you anyway.

I don't know the characters, but this is super cute and I love how Blake's stoicism is just completely overwhelmed by her cold symptoms and Reid's perceptiveness. (Stoic, tough characters suffering from colds or allergies are one of my favourite things, especially when they're gorgeous ladies. Yes please!)

Thank you! Oooooh I think you and I shall get along well; gorgeous, stoic ladies suffering from (in my case preferably) allergies is my favourite thing ever.

This is amazing! Can Reid catch it next...?

Thank you! I didn't plan on continuing this, and the combination of male/cold is something I only write for trades since it gives me no personal enjoyment at all to write. Sorry.

You should definitely have more confidence in your writing, because it is absolutely amazing. You have literally mastered Blake, a character I would never dare to write. The knowledge you have about the characters is unbelievable. Put a wonderful story/story telling on top of that and there you have a wonderful story.

Thank you so much! I guess I'll never be confident enough since the text never turns out the way it reads in my head. It's always better before it's written. But sometimes I get it out almost right. Haha, you know, it actually took me a long time of fangirling before I dared to start writing Blake, because I couldn't get a grip on her, she was too much of an enigma and too difficicult to get to reveal things. But once I did get beneath that cool facade, damn, she's the most challenging and fun character I've ever written; you can do SO MUCH with her (and... to her... ). I seriously wish she was my OC. *quivering sigh*

[ID2006]

Not normally into females, but this is wonderful, even more so because it has Reid and I am a sucker for anything Reid related.

[Snapdragon]

I don't know the characters, but this is super cute and I love how Blake's stoicism is just completely overwhelmed by her cold symptoms and Reid's perceptiveness. (Stoic, tough characters suffering from colds or allergies are one of my favourite things, especially when they're gorgeous ladies. Yes please!)

Thank you! Oooooh I think you and I shall get along well; gorgeous, stoic ladies suffering from (in my case preferably) allergies is my favourite thing ever.

The BEST. And you write them so well!