Work Text:
The BAU jet is one of the safest places in the world for the Bureau’s pride and joy behavioral analysis unit.
It’s the only place in the world where Jennifer Jareau can safely lean her head against Emily Prentiss’s shoulder, the only place where Emily Prentiss can hold JJ’s hand without worry. It’s the only place where Derek Morgan can let down his guard and admit how much his heart hurts, and the others are allowed to comfort him. It’s the only place where Spencer Reid can curl up on the couch beside Derek Morgan, curls spread across the older man’s lap, and relax enough to let him card careful fingers through his hair. It’s the only place where Aaron Hotchner can confide in David Rossi, admit his anxieties, his failures, his pain. It’s the only place he’ll let the team sandwich him between them, pile together, and remind him of how much they care about him, how much they adore him, how grateful they are to him. It’s the only place David Rossi allows himself to truly consider this ragtag team of brilliant minds and damaged psyches his family, the children he never got to raise. It’s the only place he’ll allow himself the honor of looking after each of those chaotic souls, and it’s the only place he’ll admit he’s soft enough on the inside to let Spencer Reid and Aaron Hotchner to curl up beside him because he makes them feel safe.
When they disembark the plane, they are agents again. They slide their well-worn masks and facades into place, fall into habitual roles with a practiced ease unknown to anyone else, and they tuck their emotions, their pain, their anxieties, away in a little box in the corner of their psyche to deal with at a later date.
But, when they plod back, throw themselves into the familiar seats, allow their aches to be felt, they lean on one another.
Derek Morgan will ruffle Spencer Reid’s hair, call him ‘pretty boy,’ and prompt the genius to chatter about something that excites him, a careful arm draped over his shoulder. Emily Prentiss will pull Jennifer Jareau close and whisper prayers she’s not quite sure she believes in into blonde locks, clutching onto each other like they might crumble and fade away. Spencer Reid will offer Derek Morgan an uncommon embrace, rocking the taller man back and forth as he clutches his cardigan for stability. David Rossi will offer a game of poker and, when Spencer Reid inevitably wins, he’ll offer everyone dinner at his house, to which the tired souls will all agree. Before the plane touches down, Rossi will end up being sandwiched between two insomniacs—Aaron Hotchner and Spencer Reid both unconscious as they lean heavily against the old Italian. Rossi will complain light-heartedly about it but will carefully rearrange himself to keep them comfortable and asleep as long as possible, and will be strongly reminded of their similarities, of a young Aaron Hotchner, young and bright-eyed, falling asleep standing straight up in front of a police department, and an even younger Spencer Reid, falling asleep with his face firmly planted in a bowl of chicken tandoori and rice. Penelope Garcia, anxiously awaiting the return of her family in her dimly lit computer ‘cave,’ will receive fond pictures from Emily Prentiss and Jennifer Jareau.
When they board that plane again, they lose the masks, drop the facades, allow themselves to be human beings and, at the end of the day, they’re still just lonely souls summoned together by each’s polarizing gravity.
They’re just family, leaning on one another, and taking comfort in the knowledge that, no matter what, there will always be someone to help you back up when you fall.