Chapter Text
Something everyone at the BAU always complained about was the coffee, so when Prentiss arrived at the office, she was very surprised to find a big, damping cup sitting on her table. She sniffed it cautiously. It smelled good, and it was definitely not from the coffee-machine in the office. She dropped her bag on the floor and took a sip; it was still hot, but just cooled down enough to drink. She took another sip. It tasted even better than it smelled and she closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the substance warm her body that was stiff from the cold outside.
“It’s good, right?” she heard from behind, “Hotch should bring these along more often.” She turned around and saw Morgan raising an identical cup to her.
“Did Hotch bring these?” Prentiss found that very hard to believe. Agent Hotchner did not seem like a man who would give himself, much less the whole team, a treat, without a very good reason to be celebrating. Then again, she never quite knew what was going on in his mind, since his face was an unreadable mask. Morgan shrugged. “I suppose so... Reid says it wasn’t him, Rossi and JJ aren’t at the office yet and Hotch has been in his office all morning.”
“Couldn’t it have been Garcia then?”
Morgan grinned. “Nah, just plain cups of coffee? No note or anything? Not her style. Trust me, if Garcia had bought you coffee, you’d know.”
Reid appeared next to Morgan, holding a cup similar to the others and joined the conversation. “It’s really good coffee, though.” He held up the cup so Prentiss could see the logo printed on the paper cup-sleeve. She recognised it to be from a pretty fancy coffee shop a few blocks away. “Did you know,” Reid said with a little chuckle, in a tone of voice that warned Prentiss and Morgan to end the conversation. “The reason this coffee tastes so good is probably because-”
“Please, Reid, no fun facts or statistics this early in the morning,” Prentiss interrupted him, holding up her hand “I just want to enjoy this coffee and start making my way through this huge pile of paperwork,” she said and turned away towards her desk.
“Yeah, right, sorry,” Reid said, his mouth pulling into his characteristic awkward smile. Morgan chuckled and gave him a friendly tap on the back before sitting down at his own desk. Prentiss already felt sorry for cutting Reid’s story off like that, so she smiled at him warmly. Sometimes she felt like she was too harsh on the kid - especially considered she was the new member of team - but she’d learned very soon that he could talk for an absurd amount of time about the most boring things. Compared to Hotchner, Reid was an open book, but still she couldn’t begin to imagine what went on in his mind. She turned her thoughts towards the big pile of work in front of her. Gloomily she looked into her almost-empty coffee cup. She sighed. They were gonna need a lot more of that coffee today.
They had been working in silence for almost an hour, when an agitated-looking Hotchner came sweeping into the office. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, a little out of breath and mumbled something about traffic before he disappeared into his office. Prentiss, Reid and Morgan looked at each other.
“I thought you said-” “I thought Hotch was-” Morgan and Prentiss started at once. Prentiss pointed towards the door through which Hotch had disappeared, puzzled, then pointed towards the paper cup on her table, looking at it as if it might explode. “If not Hotch.... who bought this coffee?”
Morgan shrugged and Reid pulled a face that indicated he didn’t have the slightest idea and went back to work. Prentiss threw one more suspicious look at the paper cup, then shrugged it off. She already had enough problems to solve.
As it turned out, the mystery of the coffee would not be solved that day, or in any of the following weeks. At first, it was one of the hot topics in the bau when the conversations were not about work, because every three days or so, there would appear new cups on the desks of everyone in the bau. Once they’d ruled everyone inside the bau out as suspects, they kind of hit a dead end. They knew it was someone who worked in the office, someone who often came early to work, but with the size of the quantico office and the amount of people working in the early hours it was like looking for the metaphorical needle.
The coffee itself was not much of a clue either, as it was bought in a shop closely to the office. One time, the coffee-angel -as Prentiss had come to call their anonymous benefactor- had left a small note, explaining the reason for the anonymous gifts. “As an appreciation of all your good work. You never know how the day’s gonna end, hope this at least gives you a good start.” was all it said. Reid enthusiastically started to analyse the handwriting, but Prentiss laughed and took the note from him, crumpling it. “Come on, Reid. This person is clearly a secret admirer, who likes to stay anonymous. Just enjoy the coffee and let it be.” She sat down and threw the crumpled note in the trashbin.
Reid pouted a little, but continued to work, mindlessly sipping from his coffee. After what only felt like minutes - but had probably been hours - he took up his cup again, only to find it empty. He tore his gaze away from his work and suddenly noticed how much his eyes and shoulders were burning. He yawned and cracked his neck. How was it possible his eyes were already feeling so heavy, when it hadn’t even been midday yet? Maybe it was the nightmares that kept him up at night. He shook his head as if to clear it from the images that had come with the thought of his nightmares. He stood abruptly and announced he was going to get more coffee. Once he was in the little kitchen, he leaned against the sink, his eyes closed, as he waited for the coffee machine to produce its water-like product. When the rattling noise of the ancient machine finally died out, he eagerly took a swig from the coffee. The taste was terrible and the hot liquid burned his throat, but immediately he felt the caffeïne clearing up his mind. He sighed with relief and blinked a few times, both to push back tears that were welling up because of the pain in his throat and to get rid of his last bit of sleepiness. He knew he couldn’t live on a caffeïne-high forever, but he didn’t want to sleep. Yet. At least he had to hold it up until he got home.
He turned to go back to his desk and suddenly bumped into someone. “Oh, shit..” he managed to say just before the coffee gulped over the side of his cup. The girl shrieked, jumping back in an effort not to get the coffee all over her clothes. “Oh noooo, no no no” Reid moaned, frantically looking around the kitchen for something to clean the mess up with. “It’s okay,” she said. “It’s only on my hands, don’t worry. Although you might wanna get something to clean up this carpet.” He eyed her suspiciously. She looked slightly shaken and scowled as she shook the hot coffee off her hands, but at least she didn’t seem mad at him.
“Are you sure you’re okay? That coffee was pretty hot... oh god, you should hold your hands under cold water, or you’ll get burns or.. oh my god, I’m so sorry, are you sure you’re not hurt?” The girl walked up to the sink and calmly held her hands in the stream of water. “Yes, I’m sure I’m okay,” she said over her shoulder, smiling at him reassuringly. He cautiously glared at her hands, checking for red burns, not knowing what to do. She started to open the cabinets with one hand, the other one still in the water, searching for a towel or something. Reid immediately rushed to her aid.
“I think there’s a towel here somewhere... here it is. I’ll clean up the floor, you just... you just keep your hands under that cold water okay?” His cheeks were burning red with shame and he was pretty sure his voice sounded much more high-pitched than usual. The girl was actually laughing now and he relaxed a little. She really didn’t seem to be hurt. The girl found another towel in one of the cabinets while he cleaned up and dried her hands with it. When he was done, she took the dirty towel from his hands and replaced it with his now half-empty coffeecup. “I don’t know how you can even drink that stuff, but here you go.” she said with a warm smile he definitely didn’t feel he deserved right now. “Thank you,” he said, a little awkwardly.
For the first time, he really looked at the girl. She was about 8 inches shorter than him, with a pretty face and plain but cute-looking clothes. He didn’t recall ever having seen her before, and was painfully aware that throwing boiling hot coffee over a girl does not exactly make a good first impression. “You’re right, this stuff tastes terrible, but it keeps you awake.” He looked in his cup again and decided he could do with a refill. He was not going to make it through the day on only what little coffee there was left in his cup. The girl snorted at his comment. “Yeah, sure. So does sleep.”
He shrugged and turned to the sink, restarting the coffee machine. “Can I make you something?” he offered her, still a little awkward. “No, it’s okay. You just go back to your work, with your disgusting coffee. I’ll make myself a cup of tea.” She said ‘disgusting coffee’ with a playful, lopsided smile, to let him know she was joking. Reid smiled back and raised his eyebrows. “Oh, so you do drink tea? Like, what exactly is the difference in that? It’s both hot drinks made out of a combination of water and plants. Are you british?”
“No, I’m not british! I just don’t really like the taste of coffee. It’s so bitter. Although I do like coffee when it’s, you know, really good coffee.The coffee from this machine tastes like it’s been flushed through the toilet first.” Reid made a face. “Okay, yeah, thank you. I really needed that to make my imagination flow.” She laughed. Reid noticed he found it hard to resist laughing with her. Her laugh was a very pleasant sound. “Sorry. But it’s not the only coffee you get here, right? I’ve heard some things about a secret benefactor who buys you guys coffee?” There was something odd about the way she asked it, almost too casual, but Reid thought he was surely imagining it. Reid pulled his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, that’s true. That’s, um, really good coffee, actually. Have you been getting them too?” She shook her head. “No, I work for administration, so I’m not often in this part of the office. I was only here to take a break.” She didn’t look at him; she was too busy finding herself a cup and some teabags. “ I’d really like to know who is giving us those...” Reid said as he stared off in the distance. The coffee machine and water cooker both stopped. Before Reid could even move the girl poured herself a steaming cup of tea and handed him his coffee. “So, here’s your coffee.”
Was it just him, or did it look like she was blushing? “I guess I’ll see you around, then.” She smiled at him, and before he could say anything she walked away. “Wait..” he started weakly, confused. He wanted to call after her, but suddenly realized he didn’t even know her name. She turned around the corner and was gone, out of sight. Slightly dazed with this strange encounter he went back to his desk. “You okay?” Prentiss asked him, when she saw his pondering look. “Yeah.. yeah, I’m fine.” Reid answered. For a split second he thought about telling the story to the rest of the team, asking Morgan if he might now the girl’s name, but decided against it. They’d probably only tease him with it forever. Not that he liked the girl or anything, but it was somehow nagging at him that he didn’t know her name. He sighed and sat down at his desk, rubbing his eyes, and shook the thought of the girl out of his head.