Attention please! everything written about the codes etc. is completley humbugs it's not true. I have no idea how to crack codes or make ones,
so just take it as fiction and don't get hung up on it, thanks! :)

Chapter 5

A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool. /Robert Bulwer-Lytton
(Don't Play With a Genius, If You Want to Win – Derek Morgan)

Friday. He was going home, Derek could not wait to get back to Quantico and Spencer and forget all about serial killers and rapists and other scumbags.
There was not much left of the flight but never had the return flight felt so long. The minutes dragged past in an awfully slow manner.

Glancing around in the jet, Derek watched his teammates. Hotch was asleep, quite the unusual sight but not completely surprising, it was a lot of work being the team leader. Rossi and Prentiss were playing cards, softly talking about the case. Neither of the agents noticed that they were being watched.
Derek tried not to think too hard on his Pretty Boy, he had spoken with Garcia and she had said that Spencer was doing fine. A bit annoyed at Strauss and the evaluation, especially one of the doctors, and Garcia had even hinted that those doctors maybe had chewed off a bit more than they could handle.

The BAU was usually a very calm place, with no shouting or fights but when the team stepped in through the door they were met with a most unusual sight. Strauss was standing in front of Dr Spencer Reid, fury written all over her face, shouting at him. But this was not the most surprising thing of it wall, not it was the fact that Reid did not seem to mind at all, instead he seemed more amused by it.

"… THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! You think this is funny, do you?" screamed Strauss.

"I don't really see your point Ma'm," said Spencer. "They were not happy with my question answers and now when I, once again may I add, followed their instructions they get angry, Dr Hartwin reassured me she was very capable so I just wrote it on a fitting level."

It was a wonder that Strauss had not burst a blood vessel. Derek had to admit that Spencer had gut to do what he just did and on top of it all, actually looking completely innocent.

"Dr Reid you are from this day onwards suspended from work until we have translated what you have written, with only half salary," said Strauss.

"Fine, I could do with a vacation," said Spencer, a defiant look in his eyes. Derek could not believe his eyes when Spencer stood up and was on his way to leave when Hotch interfered.

"What is going on here?"

"Nothing which concerns you, agent Hotchner," said Strauss.

"I think it does concern me, Ma'm. You just suspended one of my agents," said Hotch, his voice taking on that unpleasant icy tone.

It looked as if Strauss debated if she would ignore Hotch or answer his questions, and in the end even she was not immune to the icy tone. Turning around she handed Hotch a few papers.

Derek watched all this with avid concentration.

"What is this?" asked Hotch after a moment of silence.

"That, agent Hotchner was the last part of Dr Reid's evaluation, which cannot be evaluated because we can't decode it, and Dr Reid flat out refused to tell us what he has written," said Strauss, her voice rising to a higher pitch at the end.

"It's not my problem that they're idiots," said Spencer. "Dr Hartwin wanted a challenge I gave her one."

With that Spencer stood up, took his ever present messenger bag, and walked out from the office, leaving behind him an angry Strauss a stunned Hotch and an amused team.

"Well if it's coded, then why not just send for someone who can crack it?" said Rossi, from where he stood beside Prentiss.

"We have, agent Rossi. She is flying in from Yale," said Strauss before she snatched the papers from Hotch's hands, and marched all the way the way to her office, almost slamming the door shut.

Hotch did not waste a minute.

"Morgan, go home, talk with Reid I want to know what this was all about," said Hotch, before he turned to Prentiss and Rossi. "You two do what you want, go home, finish your paperwork, tomorrow we'll continue."

Derek's first thought was to immediately go home, but decided against it. Instead he went to find Garcia; maybe she could tell him what had been going on since the case. This also meant that Spencer would have the time to get home and maybe cool down a bit.

Talking with Garcia did not shed much light over what had happened these past few days but it did give him a laugh. Derek had always known Spencer had an evil side but for the genius to use it like he had done… Saying goodbye to Garcia, Derek went searching for his car, driving home as fast as possible.

Parking the car, Derek headed for the house. It was so dark and quiet that, he started to wonder if Spencer had come home or if he had gone somewhere else.

"Spence?" there was no answer.

A bit further inside the house, Derek found Spencer sitting on the sofa, a book in front of him and a big mug with coffee on the table.

Derek sat down beside Spencer on the sofa, he was not sure what to say, and so he waited for Spencer to say something. He knew that the young genius was not really reading, because he had not flipped the page in over a minute.

"Shouldn't you still be at the office?" asked Spencer, still not looking up from his book.

"No, Hotch told us all to go home."

"Oh," said Spencer, slowly raising his head to look at Derek.

"Don't you worry, Pretty Boy, Hotch isn't angry, probably more surprised than anything else," said Derek. "You really did rile Strauss up pretty badly, didn't you?"

"Not my problem," muttered Spencer, pouting slightly.

Derek could not stop himself from smiling just a bit, at how cute Spencer looked when he pouted. Taking the book, Derek removed it from Spencer's hands, placing it on the table. Spencer had once again got back to staring down in his lap.

"Come on, stop sulking," said Derek, pulling a surprised Spencer into his lap, softly whispering in his ear, "I'm really proud of you, you know. "

BAU

Strauss was fuming hours after Dr Reid had left the building. She was fuming a week later. Now standing in her office she was praying to God, that the Professor they had gotten in touch with would have cracked the code on Dr Reid's essays. They would meet in SSA Hotchner's office, the man had been adamant that he would be present at the meeting.

BAU

A month had passed. Strauss sat stiff in her chair; Professor Leona Hindley had finally cracked the code and was on her way with Agent Hotchner, with an translated copy of the essays.

In through the door came Professor Hindley dancing, her eyes were shining and she had a most psychotic glint in her eyes, as if she had slept too little and drunk too much coffee.

"Madame Strauss, this… this," professor Hindley stammered, "this is the most fabulous and… and amazing thing I have ever read. It is ingenious!"

Both Strauss and Hotch watched the woman, too stunned to say anything.

"E-excuse me?"

"Really, the codes he used were all really basic ones, but the things was that he did not use English as his starting language, but he used a very old and ancient language which has been dead for more than 2000 years. Not only that, the dialect he used was one of the first Arabic alphabets which is not in use anymore," said Doctor Hindley her eyes were shining and she was talking very fast. "Well, when I figured that out it seemed a bit weird, it did not seem right. But I was right, he had used the language but he had then taken another old language, an old Gaelic language, and used the word structure and sentence of that language, that was why it was so hard to crack. Then he switched it all backwards, and then he coded it and then he coded the code!"

At the end of her tirade she was panting and puffing, smiling brightly. She was very proud of herself.

"Then again, if Dr Reid had not been kind enough to…"

"Doctor Reid, you were in contact with him?" asked Strauss angrily.

"Oh yes, how else do you think I would have solved the code?"

Strauss was boiling with anger and Hotch was desperately trying to keep his face blank.

"I tell you, Madame, this man is a genius!"

"Yes, yes, but what was the essays about?"

"Oh, quite boring I tell you, he explained step for step how one could high jack the American bank system in one, and then he explained in the second one about the down side of the American law system and then the third one was about all the good sides of the American law system, and the fourth one was about… oh let me think it was about how you could win a lot of money on poker and the fifth and last one was a small theological piece about Christendom, sixth was an long description on a mathematic formula and the seventh one was about the wonderful world of numbers," said Professor Hindley, "most interesting to read. Oh yes, here are the English versions."

With that, professor Hindley excused herself. She had a flight to catch, and she had done what they asked of her.

Strauss was if possible even angrier than she had been before; he fists were white from squeezing the chair she was sitting on.

"So, Reid may come back to work tomorrow?"

""We'll see, Agent Hotchner, we'll see."

BAU

"Congratulations, Pretty Boy."

"Derek!"

"What?"

Reid and Morgan were sitting in Morgan's living-room, eating cake and drinking coffee.

"Don't tickle!" whined Spencer.

Morgan grinned, putting down his cake and almost jumping on Spencer, tickling the younger male until he was laughing hysterically.

"S-stop! Derek," spluttered Spencer, trying to wriggle away from the other male. Not that it worked, Derek only tightened his hold, and pulled Spencer closer to himself.

"Well I'm glad you're coming back to work, I've missed you."

"Yeah, me too," said Spencer, finally stopping struggling and snuggling closer to Derek.

"Then again, what did they expect, you know what they say after all," said Morgan.

"What?"

"Don't play with a genius if you want to win."

Spencer giggled and shook his head.

"No one has said that."

"Hey! I said it," said Derek, "and I think it's very fitting."

Spencer was just about to say something when Morgan kissed him hard on the lips, stopping any sentence quite abruptly. Instead Spencer moaned softly when he felt Morgan's hand travel under his shirt.

-END-