Summary: Prompt asked for the old school team, so this scene takes place during L.D.S.K. Spencer fails his firearms qualifications and Morgan’s teasing makes him sour. Hotch thinks it would be better for all of them if Reid was in a better mood, and he wanted an excuse to tickle their resident genius.
Notes: Day Six of my 31 days of fics!
The BAU has not been around for a very long time, and yet, they were starting to know each other like family already.
Garcia knew what kind of tea Morgan liked to drink after a case. Rossi knew how Hotch liked to take his coffee. Elle knew that Gideon used to roller skate. Most of all, Morgan knew exactly the right thing to say in order to annoy Spencer to his core.
This morning, after practicing during all of his spare time for weeks, Reid failed his firearm certification. He came back to the office, upset and miserable, but mostly embarrassed. He’s only 24 and he already has three PhDs and three BAs. He works for the federal government, he’s been solving cases for months already, so why couldn’t he just pass his certification?
All it took was one stupid comment from Morgan, just one. It was a comment that ended with a whistle on Spencer’s desk and him packing up his files and moving to the conference room to look through them.
Hotch has walked into the bullpen when Reid has rushed out, and he raised an eyebrow in Morgan’s direction. “What, not my fault that the kid can’t take a joke.”
“Perhaps your joke was in poor taste.” Hotch shook his head, walking towards the conference room, motioning for Gideon to follow him.
When the two older men entered the room, they both sat on either side of their youngest teammate, who was deeply engrossed in whatever he was looking for in his files. He didn’t even completely notice that Hotch and Gideon had entered the room until he heard Gideon clear his voice.
Startled, Reid flinched away from the sound, looking towards its source. When Gideon made eye contact with Spencer, he noticed that his mentee had a childish pout on his face. When Reid caught himself, he tried to school his feature right away, but he knew that Gideon had already seen it.
“Hey kid, upset, are we?” Gideon asked, putting a hand on Reid’s shoulder.
Reid shook his head, looking back down at his stack of files, “No, why would you think that?”
This time, it was Hotch’s turn to clear his throat. “I saw you rush out of the bullpen just now. You shouldn’t be embarrassed about not receiving your-“
“I’m not embarrassed.” Reid interrupted, fidgeting with the edge of the top page in front of him.
“If you’re upset, it’s okay to admit it, Reid. It’s okay to be upset when things don’t turn out the way that you expected them to.” Gideon reasoned, squeezing Spencer’s shoulder as he spoke.
Reid just shrugged in response, misplacing Gideon’s hand on his shoulder and sliding it closer to his neck. Reid scrunched up, trying to pry Gideon’s fingers off of him.
“Just calm down, kid. We’re not here to attack you, we just want to help.” Gideon explained, once again squeezing Reid’s shoulder. This time, Reid let out a little giggle, moving quickly to hide his face in his hands.
Both Hotch and Gideon’s faces lit up, as they both turned to look at each other. Hotch wasn’t usually the most playful person, but their youngest team member definitely brought that out in him. Reid’s only 24 and the team rarely sees him laugh, he still has a little bit of time to be goofy and immature.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Hotch had a shit-eating grin on his face, one that Spencer still had yet to notice. “Should we compile a profile?”
Gideon laughed, nodding eagerly. “I do believe we should. Our unsub is an agent with the bureau, or a doctor, I should say. He is young, the youngest on his team, and he hasn’t passed his firearms certification.”
The last point caught Reid’s attention, and momentarily, the pout was back. Hotch played off of what Gideon started, “Even though he hasn’t passed his firearms certification, he definitely will eventually. He probably has a very high IQ and multiple degrees.”
It was Gideon’s turn to smirk, “and it seems like our unsub is ticklish.”
Reid tried to push out the chair so he could leave, but Hotch positioned his chair so that Reid would be stuck in place.
The poor kid looked like a deer caught in headlines, and he tried to splutter out some protests. “Hey, we have better things to do right now. Is that Garcia I hear? Do we have a new case?”
“Nope, you’re not getting out of this one, kid.”
Gideon wormed his fingers over Reid’s tummy, awkward giggles immediately piercing the previous silence. Hotch started squeezing at the doctor’s knees, and Reid kicked up quickly, his knee hitting the underside of the table.
“Thihihihis is sihihilly!” Reid giggled, his head thrown back and hit adam’s apple bobbing in tempo with his laughter. “Yohohohu’re beheheheheing mehehehean!”
“Aww, can the big, bad profiler not handle a little bit of tickling? We better not let any of the bad guys find out about this.” Gideon teases his protege, enjoying the shade of red that Spencer’s face turned.
Gideon scurried his fingers up under Reid’s arms, and the younger man’s laughter rose in pitch.
“I believe our profile says that he’s pretty ticklish there,” Hotch jokes. He decided to move spots too, moving his fingers up to Reid’s ribs, and he received the best reaction so far.
Spencer practically screamed with laughter when Hotch’s fingers touched down, and he attempted to double over in his seat. His brain knew exactly why the touches tickled so much, and in theory, he should be able to control his reactions, but that couldn’t translate to practice. He couldn’t even muster up the strength to block their hands, his long arms just flailing wildly.
They were interrupted when Garcia opened the door, a smile instantly coming to her face. “As adorable as that was to witness, and believe me, it sure was adorable, we do have a case.”
Gideon and Hotch both backed off, Hotch ruffling Reid’s hair in a rare show of affection as the rest of the team poured in.
When Morgan came in, he ruffled Reid’s hair too, “Sorry kid, didn’t mean to get in your head like that.”
Reid accepted his apology, trying his best to fix his hair again. Morgan did get on his nerves, but it felt like their team was becoming something more than just co-workers.
The team was becoming a family.
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