Guarded Hearts and Broken Wings || S.R.

6 - Growing Pains

Monday was full of paperwork for the team in Quantico, and to Reid, it felt like every minute dragged on. The team could not leave the bullpen fast enough so that he could sneak into Garcia's office. She was the only close friend that knew of Mel to any extent, and he desperately needed advice. 

 Whenever they finally started to drift out, he brushed off their protests for him to join their night out, saying he wanted to get ahead on paperwork for tomorrow. JJ gave him a curious glance before they left but decided not to say anything.

He stayed settled in his chair until he was confident the elevator door had closed and descended. Then, he shot out from behind his desk and hurried to Garcia's office. When he reached her door,  he confidently swung it open but proceeded to stand in the doorway awkwardly with his hands in his pockets. 

Garcia was standing in her office packing things into her purse when he busted into her lair. She turned around with giant earrings swinging, heels clicking, and a look of shock on her face to see Reid standing there. "What's up Reid?"

Reid's lips moved around on his face as he tried to decide what he was going to say. Finally, his eyebrows raised dramatically and he refused to make eye contact with Garcia. "I need your advice."

Garcia's heels happily clicked and she gasped. "Is this about the girl?" When his mouth opened then closed, she clapped her hands together. "Oh my god and you're asking me?! Okay, um, I'm kind of scared to mess this up, but very very very happy to help. Hit me up. Oh and I won't tell I promise, give me all the details"

"I think I may have offended her, but I'm not exactly sure how or how to make it up." His eyebrows went up and down like he was in deep thought.

Garcia's eyes darted to the side, and she tossed a hand in the air. "Well, is that it? You've got to give me more information than that. What's her name? What's she like? And what did you say?"

"Her name is Amelia," he licked his lips and started hesitantly, "I honestly have not known her for long but ... she's amazing. She's an artist, and she seems to put beauty in things that you would never have thought twice about. We talk about literature a lot. She doesn't seem to care what the world thinks about her. Oh, she does this thing-- "

"Oh Reid, baby, I'm going to stop you before you say you're in love after a few weeks" A sly grin crawled on her face when he opened his mouth to protest. She spoke faster. "What did you do?"

"I, um, I'm not sure because she wouldn't talk about it. She seemed to shut down in the middle of one of our conversations when we were talking about art careers. I gave statistics about wages and her tone changed drastically and she talked significantly less. Usually, she's so excited to add to the conversation that she nearly interrupts you."

"Give it to me word for word."

Reid repeated the conversation rapid-fire as Garcia nodded for him to continue. "Oh honey. You don't see what you did?"

"I just want to be sure. I'm not good at this. I don't want to ruin anything before it starts."

"Okay, Reid, the first thing you need to understand about us expressive people, if she is as you say, is that we have had our fair share of people telling us we're too much or our dreams are too much. That doesn't mean that it doesn't still hurt, and it's different when it's from a stranger or someone that doesn't matter compared to someone you really really hoped would have your back. Honey, she told you about her dreams and you gave her the statistics of her failure."

He sighed and looked down at his hands.

Garcia continued. "And it is highly likely she thinks about that every day of her life. She does not need to be reminded."