Dopamine || Reid

CHAPTER NINTEEN

THERE IS GUM ON MY SEAT. Two hours into the plane ride and I've just noticed the green sticky substance that is now smashed into the corduroy leg of my pants. And that has been the highlight of my journey back to Washington.

After nearly five months of traveling with the BAU in their jet, it's sobering to be on a commercial airplane crammed in a tiny coach seat, stationed directly between an old pervert and an obnoxious child with a whistle and an impressive lung capacity. Even after pulling on my noise canceling headphones my head still began to pulse, so I grabbed my carry on bag and folded myself into one of the tiny washroom compartments in the back of the plane to kill the time away from my seat mates.

After washing down the three pills to help the oncoming migraine with sink water I tried in vain to remove the gum from the black fabric.

Being at the bureau such a short time, I was surprised when Erin Strauss agreed to let me go for three days. Not without m hitting the pause button on my contract, leaving it frozen until I enter the FBI building again.

But he had taken care of everything for me, including Erin Strauss. She seemed to be expecting me.

While I had planned on keeping this rendezvous a secret, Strauss on the other hand had told Hotch know about my trip. Which I should have anticipated. He's one of my bosses. He would need to know if I'm coming to work or not.

Aaron then insisted on driving me to the nearest airport which I wasn't thrilled about but it did give me an opportunity to voice my decision of not letting anyone else on the team know.

"Ah. You don't want this to be made to be a big deal."
"Well, seeing as how they handled the surprise party can you really blame me?"

His reasoning was sound, and made perfect for me to blame the secretiveness on. It's true. I don't want the fuss of certain eccentric members of the team.

But in fairness, I more so don't want the questions of the observant ones.

I could hardly keep myself together as I sat in the passenger seat of Aaron's car. Fingers laced together and ankles crossed to keep from trembling, the inside of my cheek bitten raw and bloodied.

Aaron was distracted by the road. Imagine if six profilers watched me get on that plane.

This would be over.

The good part? My alibi.

Carlota Quinn's.

Every good mission needs a cover. Especially with profilers. And I'm not great at lying, at least people seem to see right through me. So he made the lie real. Directed the recipient to travel to Portland Oregon where I would be staying under the pretense of visiting my dear friend Professor Quinn's.

I had surprised her. Walking into her university classroom, unannounced and observing along the sidelines while she taught her seminar waiting and watching for her to noticed me. After about an hour of her brilliant ramblings her eyes found me and she stops mid sentence to point me out to her students. And with a bit of persistence she managed to get me to the front of the class, her students all to eager to hear all about my life.

They asked me questions, some I answered, some I didn't.

I don't know how it happened but the next thing I knew, it was four hours later and I was answering questions about the different dialects in Ancient Greece.

"Can you pleeease come back next week?"

One of the students voices plays back in my mind as I stare blankly into the smudged mirror of the airplane.