Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville or NCIS or Criminal Minds

Written for my Paranormal25 150 Prompt Table. Prompt #137: Circle of 13 Skulls

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Having slipped off her shoes to better connect with the earth, Chloe entered the circle with wariness and anxiety as she positioned herself in the middle, facing Coyote and Reid. She took in a deep breath and waited for whatever was going to happen to happen, but after a couple minutes of nothing she began to feel more than a little silly.

"You're not trying." Coyote complained.

"Not trying what?" Chloe snapped, hands going to her hips. "I'm here, standing in the middle of the stupid circle just like you told me to. You never told me that I had to do anything else."

"Women." Coyote murmured to Reid before sighing and turning to Chloe. "Try and connect with the skulls. Open up the channel of information, get it flowing."

"Connect with skulls, right." Chloe grumbled, taking another deep breath and closing her eyes as she outstretched her arms, palms facing upwards. She tried clearing her mind, but it was near impossible as her brain was going over all the information it knew about the crystal skulls and what was within them.

Her brain was seriously geeking out, and trying to reign it in was proving to be near impossible.

Reid tilted his head to the side, watching her curiously.

"Oh just start already!" Chloe snapped, stomping her foot.

Suddenly the skulls started light up in a clockwise formation, and by the time the last skull, which was the one in front of her, lit up, the lights merged together and beamed into her like a blast of pure energy. Chloe gasped as suddenly what she could only describe as 'downloading' began, the information seeping out of the skulls and entering her own.

The pain was unbearable, and forced her down on her knees.

Chloe brought her outstretched hands to her head and screamed as her brain throbbed in agony.

"No!" Coyote held Reid back when the thin man made to go into the circle. "You disrupt it and you could kill the Adept."

"It's killing her now!" Reid struggled.

Numbers, symbols, words, chants, equations...so many things were crammed into her skull, all random.

She couldn't even see clearly anymore, those symbols crossing in front of her eyes, more and more overlapping each other until she couldn't see anything but them.

And that was her world.

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Ziva didn't know what exactly to do.

Chloe was missing, and apparently, so was a member of the Behavior Analyst Unit, which meant that Gibbs and Agent Hotchner (the BAU unit's chief) were in bad moods. Not only were Chloe and FBI Agent Dr. Spencer Reid missing, but Hotchner and his team realized that Gibbs' team knew something they weren't telling them about the case...and Tony's being an ass as usual wasn't helping. Whenever Tony wasn't trying to hit on Agent Prentiss, he was enjoying lording the 'that's need to know information-and you don't need to know!' in the faces of the ever-growing furious FBI team. They had a point when they stated that one of their own was involved so it was 'need to know', but Gibbs always preferred to keep Chloe and her supernatural cases as secret as possible (as did President Obama). Gibbs only revealed anything if there was no other alternative-or if Vance (or the President) ordered him to.

Hotcher was obviously losing his patience with Gibbs and Gibbs had lost his patience a long time ago.

And what was when they heard it.

A male's voice in the woods.

Calling for help.

Ziva reacted first, pulling her gun and racing into the woods, flashlight shining in front of her. She could hear others crashing behind her, some of the FBI calling their colleague's name, obviously recognizing this voice as his.

But it was Ziva who reached them first, eyes widening when she saw the bruised and cut couple stumbling through the woods in the dark.

Dr. Reid had an ugly gash on his forehead but otherwise he seemed fine.

It was Chloe who was hardly hanging onto consciousness.

Dr. Reid had his arm around her and was shouldering most of her weight.

"What happened?" Ziva asked, pointing her gun around them in case whatever was responsible was still out there.

FBI agents and NCIS agents converged on them, Gibbs hurried to his daughter and taking her from Dr. Reid.

"Chloe?" Gibbs pulled her into his arms just as her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she fainted. "Chloe?"

"Reid!" Agent Prentiss hugged Dr. Reid, the other agents doing so other than Hotchner, who just nodded to Reid with a relieved expression.

"What happened?" Tony turned to Dr. Reid, the same time Agent Hotchner asked: "Who took you?"

The younger, lanky man looked at his chief, nervous. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try us." McGee narrowed his eyes.

Ziva instead kept her attention all around them.

Whatever had kidnapped Dr. Reid and Chloe could still be out there.

"How did you escape?" Agent Hotchner asked, looking around him, alert as well.

"He-it-he-," Dr. Reid shook his head. "After Chloe did what our kidnapper wanted, we were let go."

"What did she do?" Gibbs snapped, still holding the limp body of his unconscious, eighteen year old daughter.

"It?" Agent Morgan frowned, catching that little slip up.

Dr. Reid looked around, looking conflicted. "You'll think I'm insane."

Ziva noticed the looks the BAU team shared.

Gibbs turned to Tony. "DiNozzo, take Dr. Reid into custody for questioning."

"Now wait a minute Special Agent Gibbs!" Agent Hotchner snarled. "You have no authorization to-."

Gibbs nodded to McGee, who pulled out a paper and handed it to the BAU unit chief. "As soon as we realized your agent had been taken along with her, our Director petitioned for this."

It'd actually only arrived a couple of minutes before Dr. Reid had been heard.

"This..." Agent Hotchner looked up from the paper. "Is a direct order from the President."

"Of the United States?" Agent Prentiss gasped.

Agent Hotchner nodded, and though it was obvious that he had so many questions, he held them back and obviously reluctantly let them take Dr. Reid with them.

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Chloe groaned as she awoke.

"Easy, can you sit up?"

Recognizing the gruff yet worried voice of her father, Chloe fought the heaviness of her eyes and opened them, her vision foggy before slowly clearing to show his face. "Hey dad."

"You did a stupid thing, Chloe." He glared at her, his voice rough but his hands tender as he helped her sit up, fluffing the pillows behind her for back support. "You didn't know what would happen when you stepped into that circle. Didn't you tell me that legends of Coyote stated that he was a Trickster and that you couldn't trust him?"

She took in a deep breath, mouth dry and with a bad taste under her tongue. "Reid filled you in I see."

Gibbs nodded, leaning back against his seat heavily. "I think he was worried that he was insane."

"His mom's a schizophrenic." She reached for the water by the bedside and drank a sip, the water cooling her throat. "It's genetic."

Gibbs nodded once more, understanding. "He's been debriefed and knows that what happened has to be kept in the strictest confidence possible-that the President wants as little amount of people knowing about the supernatural existing and of your paranormal investigative duties as possible."

"Does the President know what happened?" Chloe asked, bringing her hand to her throbbing head.

Her father took in a deep breath. "Once you are cleared you are to report to him. According to Dr. Reid, Coyote said something about the future being in danger, and Mister President wants to be informed what this new threat is."

"I don't know what it is." Chloe frowned, taking another, longer sip. "Or at least I don't think I do." She sighed. "Coyote said that when I absorbed what was gathered in the skulls that I'd download the 'software' I'd need to access and control the contents of my brain easier...but so far...other than a headache, I don't feel anything different."

Gibbs reached over and brushed some strands out of her face tenderly. "You took a big risk, kid."

"It paid off." Chloe leaned into the touch, giving him a reassuring smile. "Reid and I are back safe and sound."

"Talking about the good doctor," Gibbs straightened, business once more. "He said something that makes sense. You will need someone you can talk to professionally about this. It's only human to need to get things off of your chest, and due to the extreme secrecy your division has-apparently the kid's got a degree in psychology or psychiatry-and he already knows about your job and what you handle."

Chloe tilted her head to the side. "Is he offering to be my shrink?"

Gibbs went on the defense, straightening and clearing his throat. "I know that you are touchy when it comes to psychiatric help due to your mother's mental condition, but Chloe, you are mature enough to understand that just because you see a shrink doesn't mean that you are crazy or-."

"No-I know that." Chloe interrupted, a small smile tilting her lips. "I actually-I actually would like that a lot."

Gibbs blinked, obviously shocked at her reaction and not sure exactly what to do since the battle he'd been expecting wasn't going to happen. "You would...?"

"Yeah, I would." Chloe smiled. "Is Reid still here?"

Gibbs nodded. "He should be."

"I think I'll go thank him myself." Standing from the bed, Chloe didn't bother putting on her shoes.

Pressing a kiss to her father's cheek, Chloe went to hunt for Dr. Spencer Reid.

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Tony, standing next to Ziva and McGee, watched as Chloe emerged from the back room she'd been resting in and smiled once she saw Dr. Reid, making a beeline towards the gangly guy. Tony raised an eyebrow, amused when the moment Dr. Reid noticed Chloe heading towards him, he stood rapidly, almost jolting to his feet. Tony couldn't hear what the two were saying, but Chloe was smiling and clasping her hands behind her back, head tilted as she looked at him. Dr. Reid for his part was mildly blushing and obviously stuttering as he scratched the back of his head and didn't seem able to look her in the face as he spoke.

This was interesting.

It looked-it looked a lot like Chloe was flirting with the kid-doctor, and the gangly guy was stumbling through the conversation not realizing it, yet eagerly contributing his own awkwardness.

"I still can't believe he actually carried her." McGee was telling Ziva. "He doesn't look like he could have the strength."

"Adrenaline." Ziva mumbled back to him. "I've seen men lift cars off of their fallen comrades because of it."

Tony rolled his eyes at them.

They were focusing on that and missing the obvious basic boy x girl scenario going on right in front of their eyes.

Had this been a romantic, teen comedy, Chloe would be a cheerleader in full outfit and the kid would be a nerd who'd somehow won her heart and was pushing glasses up his nose.

There would have been a kiss too.

But this wasn't a romantic, teen comedy.

And unfortunately, Chloe wasn't dressed up as a cheerleader.

Sighing at an opportunity lost, Tony nevertheless was entertained with the two in front of him.

This kid wasn't the type he'd imagine Chloe with.

Now that Agent Booth she'd saved from the Mummy that'd terrorized the Jeffersonian last summer?

Now he was someone Tony imagined the blonde with, especially since she was now legal.

And, Booth was good with a gun...and looked fearless...which were two things any man who set his eyes on Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs' DAUGHTER had to be.

Chloe leaned over and pressed a kiss on Dr. Reid's cheek, thanking him.

Now that Chloe was legal, there were only three men she'd ever shown an inch of interest for.

John Winchester, Agent Seeley Booth, and now Dr. Spencer Reid.

Considering John was old enough to be her father and Gibbs would never let that happen, Tony counted him out.

So it really, in Tony's books at least, rested between Dr. Reid and Agent Booth.

"Do you think she's attracted to him?" McGee finally asked.

"It appears to be so." Ziva made a face. "I always imagined her more with Agent Booth though."

McGee frowned. "I think Chloe and Dr. Reid could share a mental bond she couldn't with Agent Booth."

"They fought like a perfect team against the Mummy. That speaks a lot about her chemistry with Agent Booth." Ziva countered.

Tony grinned. "How about a bet if you two are so sure?"

"Don't be so immature." Ziva frowned.

"What are we, in kindergarten?" McGee snorted.

"Ah, so you two aren't sure at all, huh?" Tony taunted. "All mouth, no play."

"Oh, I've got play." Ziva glared. "Put me down for fifty bucks, Agent Booth."

"Put me down for fifty too! Dr. Reid." McGee replied.

Tony grinned.

This was going to be fun.

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