Idle

Reid has seen Rex at least two more times before he's swept up in a difficult case that keeps him from home and that small comfort he gets from talking to her about daily struggles that bother him. It's something oddly familiar to him the idea that he wants to talk with someone who he knows so little but feels knows more about him than he's shared with any of the people he counts in his circle of trust; friends and coworkers a like.

As such he decides to use the number that she gave him when he's alone for one brief moment. He locks himself away in an old file closet that doesn't appear to have seen the light of day and he almost cringes at the idea that this is a pattern that is clearly reminiscent of his time with Maeve.

He looks down at the piece of paper and nearly stops himself. Odds are it is what his friends are thinking anyways with him disappearing and not being around to do non-work related things.

He lets out a sigh but dials the number anyway and feels more surprise when he hears a voice nearly two rings after the call connects. "Zoe, who might you want to talk to?"

It's awkward for him to have to figure out how to explain how or why he's talking to an absolute stranger that is not his friend who frequents a park bench and draws much of the time that she's in his company. "Uh, is Rex around...I don't have a last name..." Before he can begin to apologize for making this that much harder for the woman who is on the line she seems to perk up a little, "One second."

This is when it gets a little odd. Normally when you call someplace you'd expect there to be noise of some kind in between the time when the phone is passed over but when Reid's put on hold there's nothing. No music, no chatter nothing. It bothers him so much that he has to look at his phone for a split second to make sure that the call is still connected.

"Hello." Rex is greeting when he places the phone back on his ear.

"Rex, hey."

"Reid, everything okay?" He feels bad for setting some sort of expectation that something has to be horribly wrong for him to contact her.

"Yeah, I'm great. I'm on a case but I wanted to call for a moment."

There is the sound of typing and papers being shuffled in the background but Rex seems to be very much there. "Oh. How's that going?"

She goes along with things, he notes quietly. "It could be better. Hit a snag."

"Need help?"

He hesitates for a moment unsure of how she could help. "No, it's fine. It'll work itself out."

"Sure?" He feels like this would probably be a good time for him to gnaw at that feeling he has about her knowing more than she lets on.

"Yeah."

"Well okay then, I'll see you soon. Take care, Reid." That's the last thing she tells him before he's met with dial tone.

It goes about as well as he expected to. He pockets his phone and opens the door where JJ stands on the other side waiting for him.

"What were you doing in there, Spence?"

He's a really bad liar. They all know that but like then he doesn't want to share too early or too late for that paper so he settles with an answer that will work for the moment. "I need a moment on my own so I called a friend of mines."

"A friend, huh? Well, we found something so I guess we can talk about this later."

He rather they didn't but he nodded while following JJ back into the room where they were setup.

--

When Rex ended the short lived call with Reid she had Zoe staring at her. "What?" She mumbled as she got off the chair that she had swapped with her coworker and sometimes friend.

"Whose the guy? He sounded adorable." Rex pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed, "You don't need to worry about him."

Zoe has purple hair that is cut short and a set of alarming green eyes that almost don't fit with her pale skin but it works for her. She fronts the entrance of the museum with Rex since she picked up the job.

"But I do. You never bring anyone by, unless we count that jerk who brought a knife and tried to threaten me that time when you were on lunch?"

Rex sighs, shaking her head. "We never count him. Besides, you did show him that day." Both ladies are grinning at each other for a moment before Rex continues on what she was trying to say. "Reid is just someone I talk to sometimes when I'm not here. I gave him the number since I don't do phones."

"I still don't get it." She grumbled. "Oh! By the way your program thingy started beeping while you were on the phone. Seems important."

Rex wasted no time in gingerly moving Zoe from her side of the desk so that she could see what she was working with. "Shit."

"What? What's going on now?"

Zoe was used to Rex messing around with that little flash drive she always had on her, she watched her close out of all the windows before taking the little gadget out.

"I need to leave early. I'm okay, I'll be back in a few days if I'm lucky."

Before Rex left she printed off the address to the Quantico FBI building. She needed to go see someone who probably would be interested to know who she was. Unlike what Reid had said, she was about to help him. He just didn't know it, yet.

Dammit Reid, why did you have to be in the law enforcement business?