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The golden lights of the airport disappear behind a veil of clouds as the jet hits cruising altitude. Everything gets a little bit darker. It’ll be another hour and a half before you’re back in Quantico. You’re not sure what time it is. Not sure when you last slept. The case had been a long one; you’d bent the rules and pulled an all-nighter at the station to make sure the field team would arrive on scene in time. The quiet of the plane sends your body a message loud and clear: sleep.
You decide to try not to. Reid’s in the seat next to yours, and even though exhaustion is making the edges of your vision blurry, you find yourself gazing out the window instead. You quickly get bored; it’s a cloudy night. Not much to see out there.
Spencer clears his throat. “Are you okay?”
You nod, trying and failing to suppress a small yawn. “Just. ..tired.”
A few minutes pass. You pull out a book in the hopes of keeping yourself awake, but barely make it a page before your head starts drifting to the side. Reid’s shoulder bumps your temple, and if you were a fraction more awake you’d be scrambling away from him uttering three separate apologies - but as it is, you just wait to see if you hear an objection.
You don’t. Your eyes slide shut before you can think to stop them, and you’re gone.
There are muffled voices talking nearby.
“-out cold-”
“-you-getting-Morgan?”
“Photo-”
You’re still so tired. You vaguely remember resting against Spencer’s shoulder, but you must’ve shifted since then, because it feels like you have your arms around someone.
“Be quiet-”
You feel him talking more than you hear him. Your head must be resting in the crook of his shoulder. He shifts, and mindlessly, without thinking, you follow him, making sure your arms are still loosely around him.
“Hey, hey-” a hand cards through your hair, coming to rest on your shoulder before squeezing and letting go. A sigh escapes you.
And then you come to your senses a little bit.
“Oh.” You mutter into his jumper. “Sorry, sorry-” You start to pull away a little bit, voice still laced with sleep.
Spencer interrupts before you can make it to your normal three apologies. “It’s okay, go back to sleep.” His hand comes back up to rub your shoulder.
“How long till-”
“-53 minutes.”
“Mhm-okay.”
“Alright?”
“Yea.” You shift your head against him and drift back to sleep, trying to ignore the hushed voices of the rest of the team.
Somebody’s saying your name. There’s a hand patting your back.
“Hey, we’re landing soon.” Spencer. Right.
You pull away a bit to rub your eyes with a small sigh. Reid’s looking down at you with a small smile.
“You alright?”
“Uh- yea, yea.” You blink, and sit up a bit.
“Hey, sleepyhead.” Derek’s sitting across from you. When did he move there?
“Hey. Sorry Spencer, I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s okay. You clearly needed it.”
“Thanks,” You hope they chalk up the thinness in your voice to sleepiness, and glance at your phone.
Emily’s texted a photo of you sleeping to the group chat. You’re curled against Reid, who’s got his arm around your shoulders, smiling but still reading his book. There are several messages teasing the both of you. The word cute is used. You give a small tut, and try to look for your book, which slipped onto the floor during the flight.
“Was the photo really necessary?”
“Oh, absolutely. It was adorable.” Emily chimes in, looking to J.J. so they can nod sagely to each other.
“Can’t even sleep around you guys, huh?”
“Nope.”
“Despicable, aren’t they Reid?”
“Could’ve warned me you’re cuddly when you’re tired.” The tone in his voice tells you he’s joking.
“You could’ve shoved me off.”
“True.”
“You were on page 54, by the way.” Spencer supplies as the plane hits the ground.
“Huh?”
“When you dropped your book. You were on page 54.”
“Oh.” You feel the plane come to a halt on the runway, and shoulder your bag. “Thanks.”
He smiles. “Anytime.”
“Right,” Hotch starts, rising from his seat. “Who needs a coffee?”
It doesn’t take a profiler to know you’re first on that list.