Beautiful Things

I didn't want to go back to the station. I really didn't. I liked the safety of it all, but I hated how useless I felt hanging around there. I couldn't sit and watch while others tried to save lives. I couldn't do nothing.

So I occupied myself. Reid was easily persuaded into doing what I wanted him to. No matter how much he protested, I wouldn't listen. Though my ignorance didn't seem to get him to stop.

"Megan, this is a really bad idea."

"We're not robbing a bank," I reminded him, "We're just going for a walk. A harmless walk."

"You're unbelievably calm about this whole situation."

I strolled down the sidewalk casually. We were headed away from the coffee shop, and away from the station. I wasn't sure where we were going to end up, but I kept walking anyway. And Reid continued to follow.

I shrugged. "I guess I'm just tired of being scared."

"Well could you at least try to care a little more?" Reid asked.

"Why? If I care too much, he wins."

"But if you care too little, I'm going to worry about you too much."

There was a pleasant silence. I was smiling, and when I looked up at Reid, he was too. It was the kind of silence where it didn't feel like I had to reply, like the silence was acceptable.

We continued walking. I was walking pretty slow, forcing Reid to maintain the same speed. I noticed his eyes darted around at our surroundings. Even though I had told him not to worry, he couldn't help but. It was comforting, but frustrating at the same time. I just wanted this to be normal.

"Let's go into this store," I suggested, pointing at a dress boutique.

"You're taking advantage of the fact that I have to keep an eye on you," Reid stated as he held open the door.

"Are you complaining?" I asked as I entered.

Reid was close behind me. I looked around as the inner little girl in me emerged. I could hardly contain my excitement, which was probably very unprofessional, but the station didn't want my help, so I was going to act how I pleased. Somewhere behind the cop facade, I was a fun and slightly immature person.

"I didn't mind it until you brought me here."

"You get to check me out in dresses," I said, "Are you saying work is better than that?"

I looked back at him, but he avoided eye contact. He was smiling as his cheeks turned soft pink. I nudged his stomach, which made him accidentally look at me. He was a few inches taller than me, so I had to look almost straight up. Our eyes locked, and it must've looked really cute from the outside.

"Can I help you with anything?" a clerk asked as she walked over.

Reid and I looked at her. I stepped back, creating distance between him and me. The clerk was smiling suspiciously, and I wasn't sure if she was thinking something was going on or if she was just overly happy with her job.

"Yes please," I replied, "What could you see me in?"

"Hmmm..." she mumbled, "Follow me."

She took us to a rack of short dresses with frills and bows and all sorts of add ons. The clerk pulled out two of very different colours; one light blue, the other dark red. She held them both up.

"What do you think?" she asked.

I was going to answer, but when I looked up from the dresses, I noticed she was staring at Reid. The question hadn't been for me, which I found strange. Why would Reid care what colour dress I wore? And how would he know what colour looked best on me?

And then I knew what she was thinking. Instead of correcting her, I went along.

"Yeah honey, which one do you think I should try on?"

Reid directed his confused look from the clerk to me. I smiled like nothing was wrong. Messing with Reid was quite possibly one of my new hobbies. I thought I was getting pretty good at it, too.

"I uh..." he stammered, not sure where to take this.

"What's it for? If you don't mind me asking," the clerk turned to me.

"Oh our engagement party," I gushed.

"Oh la la," the clerk went on, eating it all up. "I personally would go with the red one."

"Alright, I'll try it on," I said, taking the dress from her hands.

The clerk put the other one away and then hurried off to another waiting customer. She left me with a very unimpressed Reid to deal with. I hopped into the changing room.

"What goes on in your head?" he asked me, ignoring the door between us.

"Shouldn't you be able to figure that out?"

"I thought I would be able to," he replied, "but you continuously surprise me with the words that come out of your mouth."

"I need something to keep me entertained," I giggled as I opened the door. "What do you think? Is it me?"

Reid looked me over. I stood with one hand on my hip and the other dangled by my side. I tried to smile pretty-like, but whenever I tried it never turned out how I wanted it to. I knew I probably looked uncomfortable.

"You look beautiful," he assured me with a smile.

And then it was my turn to blush. I could tell he noticed, so I closed the change room door to prevent him from noticing any further. He only saw for a quick second, I convinced myself, and he could easily have mistaken it for the lighting.



Night fell upon us. That made Reid very uneasy, I could tell. The streetlights, like I had mentioned to Hotch before, were mostly broken. For the teenagers around here, it was something they did for fun. Our crime rate wasn't high at all.

Until this.

"We should probably go to the station first," Reid suggested.

I noticed he was getting impatient with my calm attitude and leisure walking. For some reason, I had gone somewhat numb to the whole thing. I had gone numb to my job and almost felt completely detached from it. Is it weird that I actually enjoyed it?

"You scared? Need your team to back you up?" I teased.

Reid shook his head and stifled a laugh. "I'm thinking about you, it'd be safer for you."

"Or we can just go straight to my apartment," I ignored his plea, "I really don't see the problem here."

"The problem--" Reid began, but quickly turned his voice into a loud whisper, "--the problem is that your apartment is farther than the station, and he knows where you live, Megan."

I knew he was trying to scare me back to the station, but it wasn't going to work. I wanted to go home and go to sleep, that was all. I wasn't needed at the station, and as my babysitter, he wasn't either.

"Please relax," I asked as I stopped to face him, "I'm begging you. We're almost there."

I continued walking again. It wasn't a lie, we were almost there. I could see the apartment building, and since it didn't stand that high, we were clearly close. Reid picked up the speed a little bit, thinking I might naturally follow, but I didn't. He lost again.

We arrived at the main doors. Reid and Morgan both had the only two copies of the key to my place, which was so I didn't leave the station and go home alone. I watched as Reid took out the keys and he almost had them in the lock, then they fell to the ground.

"Come on, Reid," I groaned as I reached down to pick them up, "You clumsy--"

"Megan," he said calmly.

When I looked up, the barrel end of a gun was in my face. The holder was short and petite. If they didn't have a gun, I could most definitely take them. A black ski mask covered their face. I glanced over at Reid.

Another masked person held a gun to his head. We never thought about the idea of there being two of them, and yet here they were, clear as day. The one holding Reid hostage was much taller and I wasn't sure I'd be able to take them.

This was a small town. That meant the only gun I had ever had pointed at me was an empty one at the academy. Reid could tell I was starting to panic, and I cursed myself for being so obvious.

Reid opened his mouth, as if he was getting ready to speak. He took too long though. A gun shot went off, I felt a pinch in my upper arm, and then everything went black.