counting stars | criminal minds [discontinued]

4 | K E V I N

"What do we do?" Prentiss asked.

"You got any idea what Rossi was working on?" Derek asked.

JJ was hesitant to answer. "I think Garcia might know. He stopped by her place last night."

"Why?" Florence asked. She was pretty sure she wouldn't enjoy a house visit from her boss.

"I'm not supposed to say," Garcia said, appearing behind them. Florence looked at her and noticed how conflicted she looked. "He said he wanted to keep it between us."

"Penelope," Prentiss said gently. "Rossi is a guy who color codes his handwritten notes in his notebooks. Blue pen for evidentiary items, red pen for supposition and theory. The guy is a fussy, anal, retentive neat freak who never leaves anything out of its place. I would say this is a scream for help."

"He's in Indianapolis," she told them, "on a twenty-year-old double homicide. He said it's time someone pays for it."

"Indianapolis? "Morgan asked, frowning.

"Yeah. He took a commercial flight this morning. He picked up a Bureau SUV half an hour ago."

"Jet's available," JJ told them.

Morgan nodded. "Let's go."

The three of them went off, leaving Garcia and Florence alone, the latter of which loudly groaned. 

"That was somewhat exciting but I'm still bored," she grumbled. "And if I digitize one more file today, I'm gonna scoop my eyeballs out."

Garcia playfully rolled her eyes at her. "How many cases did you manage to get in the system since you started two days ago?"

"Every case from 1933 to 1941," Florence stated, pouting.

Garcia's mouth opened slightly. She had assumed that Florence had barely made a dent the last few days — it was a fair assumption. Every time she had looked over at Florence at her station, she had been singing songs from Mamma Mia and shoving junk food in her mouth. Garcia had no idea how she managed to make her way through almost ten years of BAU cases.

"Okay, I think it's fair to say that you have earned a break," Garcia admitted. "Stay in the office in case I need you for Rossi, but you're free to do whatever you want on your laptop or your phone."

"Can I play on my DS?" she asked, brightening up.

"You brought your DS to work?" Garcia asked, chuckling.

"I bring my DS everywhere."

|||

Florence was in the middle of making Squid Tempura on Cooking Mama when a man quietly entered their office. She glanced at Garcia, who hadn't noticed his entry as she was too focused on her computer. The man nodded awkwardly at Florence before holding a finger up to his lips, asking her to stay quiet. Florence shrugged and went back to her game.

The man looked over Garcia's shoulder at her screen. "Beautiful."

"Oh my—!" Garcia exclaimed. She whipped her head around quickly, which then frightened the man, making him scream.

"I'm s - sorry," he stuttered out nervously. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just, uh, you just look so beautiful multitasking."

Garcia glanced at Florence, who was glaring at her game — which probably meant she had messed up — before looking back at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here too."

"Yeah, in your own office. Two floors down."

"I can't come over and visit?"