It's a Ditch

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.

'Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt' ~Dr Samuel Johnson

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David Rossi looked out of his office window into the bullpen. He was surprised to see Spencer Reid already sitting at his desk working. It was early, even Hotch hadn't arrived yet, although Hotch was never as early as he used to be. He liked to spend a little time with Jack before he took him to school.

The team had just got back from a case the previous night. They had seen a man blow his own head off while the his young daughter stood no more than two feet from Rossi. They had found the woman he had abducted and that was the part that Rossi had to keep reminding himself about. An innocent life had been saved and the little girl had family come forward to care for her.

Rossi turned his attention back to Reid. He had to chuckle to himself. Yesterday he had made the kid climb down a small hill to get to the bottom of a ditch. Reid had been a real candy ass about it and whined that his doctor told him he wasn't supposed to do any climbing. Rossi shook his head at the memory and marvelled at the lack of toughness in the younger generation. Shot knee or not, in his day an agent would have just done it. Still, Reid was just being Reid. Certain allowances had to be made for genius he guessed.

It looked like Reid was working on a consult, his head was bent over a file. He seemed to be in a state of intense concentration when Rossi saw him slowly push himself away from his desk. His hands were braced against the edges and he hung his head down between his arms. Rossi frowned and wondered what was wrong. It was a very unReid like position. Spencer stayed like this for a few minutes and then lifted his head as if it were almost too heavy to hold up anymore. He pulled his messenger bag out from under his desk and began to rummage through it. Finally Rossi saw what Reid had been looking for. It was a prescription pill bottle. Rossi sat up with interest.

Spencer seemed to be studying the bottle, a pained expression on his face. Then very quickly he opened the bottle and poured what looked like to be three pills from the container and popped them in his mouth. Reid closed his eyes and hung his head again as if in defeat.

Rossi watched him stand and walk slowly to the kitchen area. It seemed his limp was a bit more pronounced today. Rossi felt a pang of guilt as he remembered pretending not to hear Reid calling him to help him up the hill. It had seemed funny at the time.

He saw the pill bottle still on Reid's desk. The profiler in him could not resist the oppurtunity to snoop and see what Reid had taken. He quietly left his office and quickly reached the young profilers desk. One quick look at the bottle told him it was indeed a prescription made out to Reid. One hundred and twenty 10 mg tablets of Percocet. He noted the date on the bottle, it was prescribed the same day Reid was shot in the knee. He also noted the bottle was almost completely full. It appeared like this was the first time Reid had taken any of his pain medication and at triple the dose. Rossi wondered why. He knew percocet was an effective pain killer and that one of the drawbacks to taking this particular narcotic was, if taken regularly one could build up a tolerance for it. He couldn't really see that happening to Spencer.

He could hear Reid returning from the break area. Rossi headed back to his office and again he watched the young agent go back to his desk with a large cup of coffee in his hand. He was still limping. Rossi sighed, he didn't think having Reid climb down that little hill would aggravate his knee injury. At least he had the pain medication and probably in a few days he would feel better and no harm would be done. This thought made him feel better and eased his guilt.

Rossi turned his attention back to his paperwork. He glanced down at his new boots and admired the soft Italian leather and fine workmanship.

Maybe he would treat Reid to lunch today if there was time. He smiled, Reid hobbling up that hill was still kinda funny.

What David didn't know was that in the next room a monster had been roused from a long and deep sleep and it was hungry.

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FIN.

AN: I enjoyed the scene between Reid and Rossi in the ditch, but at the same time I was thinking, "Hey Rossi, that's nasty" So please Read and Review.

PS. Also I always thought that Rossi really didn't know anything about Reid and his addiction since he wasn't around at that time and nobody ever speaks of it.

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