“Watch it JJ that shade of red he’s turning doesn’t look to
healthy.” Joining JJ’s laughter, Garcia couldn’t resist.

Maura watched and smiled at them, they were all so close,
like a family.  It was nice to see after
so much ugliness.  Jane squeezed her hand
and whispered to her “save him…”

Understanding what she meant, Maura couldn’t resist, “now
leave him alone you too, he’s been nothing but helpful and supportive, even if
this was all his idea.” Joining in the teasing, Reid just wanted to crawl under
the bed.  He wasn’t used to this much
female attention, ever and it made him nervous.

“Well…well actually it was Jane’s idea…so…” looking
earnestly at her Jane shook her head from side to side.

“Dr Reid did you just throw me under the bus?”  Her voice was raspy but stronger than it had
been.  The joking and lightheartedness of
the moment was doing more for her than the meds.

“I…damn…you’re teasing too aren’t you.” He said

“Yep.” Jane’s reply held some of her old snarkiness.

Laughing at his own misfortune he took them all in.  It was up to him to brief them about what was
going on.  He had no idea who was
relieving him but was hoping it would be Emily.
He could see the walls going up with every discussion and mention of
Rodriguez.  He could feel her distancing
herself and it worried him.  JJ kept her
grounded and he really thought that Emily needed that right now.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Frost was getting antsy, he wanted to go look for this guy
but he knew someone needed to stay.
Maybe when Frankie got there.  He
had checked his voicemail and Frankie had called to let him know that he would
be back shortly, having taken his mother home for the night.

Morgan and Prentiss had come by about ten minutes ago and
were due to check in again shortly.
Hearing the door open behind him he watched Reid come out to touch base.

“Hey,”

“Hey yourself,” Frost said, “How are they?”

“They’re as good as they can be. Are we still waiting on
Prentiss and Morgan?” Reid asked.
Looking at his watch, he was surprised they weren’t back yet.

“Yeah we are, so, how’d they take it?” Frost said, referring
to Jane and JJ. Reid had been tasked to let them know what was going on, including
the issue with the power.