Work Text:
Teams look out for each other. It's an unspoken understanding: if they won't, then nobody will. Nobody else will know what to look for or, by the time they do realize, it'll be too late. The trick is to catch things before the damage settles, before it's actually done; to prevent it before it happens, if possible. Much of it is habit, ingrained and performed without much conscious thought; other times it's deliberately staged interventions. Sensitive is what it always is, in a team of self-reliant personalities who would rather do the caring.
Some, well. Some are worse than others.
Give them enough rope
The only way to avoid giving anything in an exchange is to check out, because even nonverbal cues are telling; and anything someone says, even the tiniest, is already too much. Reid is no exception. The key is to shut up: engage in conversation and it's his show. JJ does that, or Penelope, if distraction is the order of the day. Reid always catches up when Rossi just listens, and Emily doesn't have the restraint for it yet. Morgan is good at pretending to be distracted, not making eye contact, until Reid spills what he's been trying not to say.
Pavlov was right
The calm, cerebral attitude isn't worth much in handling Hotch, because the guy could talk circles around anyone before he had a decade of profiling under his belt. Rossi doesn't even try. He doesn't play to Hotch's strengths either, as Hotch equates virtues and strengths and, ten out of ten, the former are the fucking problem. So Rossi plays dirty, like offering Hotch his gun that night in Boston: Hotch has two of his own but the idea hadn't occurred to him before then. Rossi ensured that if it ever will, Hotch will regard it with entirely too much distaste.
What trouble with tribbles?
Reid is prone to being sent to Garcia's den with everyone else's research. Supposedly it's because he's better at keeping up with her, but that's just an excuse. If Garcia's den is a bubble then it's a bubble of normalcy for people who, as often as not, don't socialize enough with the denizens of the mundane world. Garcia will throw toy tribbles at him, talk his ears off with jargon he can't follow and seat a sparkly stuffed pink cat in his lap until his data is ready, which means until her heart will allow her to let him go.
Bad habits die hard
It used to be Morgan's post. Now it's primarily Emily's, as she doesn't get told that her behaviour is "testifying to a lack of trust." Hotch suffers her presence quietly. He'll suffer JJ's, too, but JJ looks like she's doing what she is, and Hotch already has so much implicit trust in her work-wise that adding this could be too much. So Emily plants herself by Hotch's side, sometimes pretending not to and sometimes defiantly. Sometimes Hotch will eventually talk; mostly he won't, but that's not why she's there. Someone's plain being there, Hotch is still struggling to grasp that.
Emphasize the positive
Empathizing with the UnSubs and the victims is equally bad work-wise, but the former is markedly worse in terms of personal damage. Reid identifies with any socially-rejected-for-no-good-reason or under-twenty-years-of-age UnSub. The insight is precious, but Reid is more. It's hands off while they're on the case but, as soon as they're on the jet, it's blitz time. Running gags; anecdotes that no one who hadn't been there will get; internal vocabulary borne of shared experience; lifting food off of each other's plates. These are the big, dirty guns of socialization. Reid glares at them for it, but it's still working.
…and one that's even sneakier.
Here's how to get Morgan to snap out of a dark mood: Reid drops something, whatever, preferably coffee. Morgan swears at him, but it never fails. Avoiding eye contact, even a little, will freak out either Rossi and Prentiss. Reid uses this sparingly. He lets Garcia solve the crossword, and he cheats at cards to let JJ win. And then there's the one they play together: on the third morning after a bad case someone will ask for physics magic and the guys will gather around. Hotch always catches them, and always tells them off, and he always, always smiles.