Tara Lewis; 2018
“You know, Quantico on average gets 15 inches less snowfall per annum than the rest of the continental United States. And while January is by far the coldest month in Quantico, with night-time temperatures averaging just 25.8 degrees Fahrenheit, it is significantly warmer than other major cities in Virginia. This is due to-“
“Spence, that doesn’t make me feel any better about being snowed-in at work overnight.”
Tara couldn’t help but grin at JJ and Spencer’s interactions. They were still chatting softly, even though everyone else had taken over the main conversation on the storm that had forced them all into an impromptu overnight stay at the Bureau. JJ may play the part of an irritated older sister most of the time, but if anyone outside the BAU tried to cut across Reid, or undermine him and his words in any way, she would be the first one to defend him. It was sweet, and reminded Tara so much of her and her brother when they were younger, before everything got so unbearably complicated.
Evidently deciding that if they were to be forced to stay overnight, they may as well make the most of it, Rossi quickly slid into his office for a ‘surprise’. Absolutely no one was shocked when he arrived back a few minutes later, brandishing what looked like a bottle of very expensive wine in one hand and some ginger ale in the other.
Tara, along with Emily, Penelope and Luke, made quick work of pouring themselves a not-so-insignificant amount of wine, perfectly content to take advantage of Rossi’s obscene wealth whenever possible in whatever way available. Matt and JJ, knowing that they would have kids to go home to tomorrow when the snow eased up, started in on the ginger ale, alongside Spencer, who Tara noticed tries to avoid drinking whenever possible. Rossi himself pulled out a bottle of scotch from his bag, claiming it as his and his alone.
“Okay! This is a perfect time for some team bonding!” Penelope began, when everyone was settled down at the table with their drinks in hand.
“I think we probably spend more time around each other than is healthy already.” Rossi teased, but motioned for Penelope to continue anyway.
“In my office I have an as-yet-unused game of Monopoly that I bought in London when me and Morgan went to visit Emily a few years ago. Before her spectacular return, of course.”
Tara thought back to the past couple weeks, where they faced cases involving child abductions, multiple rapists, and a serial arsonist. Relaxing with her team and a good old-fashioned board game sounded like heaven.
“Monopoly sounds great!”
Oh, how wrong she was.
An hour and a half later, Luke and Matt were teaming up against Rossi because each of them landed on his property with 3 houses twice in a row. Emily had bought nearly the entire left hand side of the board and was discreetly making deals with JJ in an attempt to buy out the whole edge in exchange for a Get Out of Jail Free Card and several dollars of her own, real money. Penelope was complaining because the rules don’t allow for people to work in teams or bribe with real money, but had no problem lying to Spencer (who had never played before) and telling him that if you landed on a property belonging to the person sitting to your left (as Penelope was), you had to pay double rent.
As for Tara, she was simply watching the trouble and tension build with a smirk on her face, wine in hand, and the most expensive properties in her possession, preparing to rain holy hell down upon anyone who lands on her spaces.
In retrospect, playing this game with some of the most competitive people on the planet probably wasn’t the smartest idea, especially considering that Emily and Penelope were very quickly tipping the scales from ‘pleasantly tipsy’ to ‘absolutely drunk’.
Luke’s most recent double roll landed him on a train station that Penelope owned –
”Suck it, newbie!”
and then another double, and the Super Tax space –
”Why all this tax? Fuck the government.” “Luke, you work for the government.”
and then, finally, on one of the dark blue spaces with a big red hotel that belonged to Tara, and resulted in him owing her…
“$2000? Lewis, you’re killing me here. I’m poor as shit right now.”
“Suck it up, Alvez, your money’s mine.”
“You’re awful, you know that?”
“That’s not what your daddy said in bed last night.”
“TARA.”
And then the rest of the team were doubled over in laughter, apart from Luke, who was desperately trying to convince Matt to lend him some money, to no avail. Utterly bankrupt, Luke became the first one to drop out of the game, declaring that he was now on Spencer’s team, much to Penelope’s chagrin, as he immediately revealed that the BAU’s resident tech expert had been hustling him for the entire game. Spencer, feigning utter betrayal, stole Penelope’s bag of gummy bears in retaliation, and spent the next forty-five minutes throwing the green ones (the ones he absolutely hated) at her head.
Soon JJ was out of the game as well, having given all of her properties and money to Emily in exchange for a promise of babysitting duties on both her and Will’s birthday. Matt was next out, his early partnership with Luke meaning that he lost a substantial amount when Luke was viciously murdered by Tara.
There was a slightly awkward silence when Spencer landed on the Go to Jail space, but he quickly recovered, claiming that he should be let out early on time already served and good behaviour.
“When we came to get you out you were in sol- solitary confinement! Good behaviour my ass.” Tara knew that Penelope wouldn’t have been so blasé about Spencer’s prison time if she wasn’t as earth-shatteringly drunk as she was right now with green gummy bears in her hair.
“Yeah, but I stabbed myself, not anyone else. I’m gonna move to Just Visiting.”
Despite circumventing the game’s criminal justice system, Spencer was made bankrupt not four rounds later, with a cackling Rossi demanding $1600 in Monopoly dollars and the rest in US dollars but seemed content enough when Spencer offered him the rest of the gummy bears in exchange.
That left Tara, Emily, Rossi and Penelope; none of whom were exactly sober, and all of whom were vying for the win. When it looked like Penelope might be inching ahead, owning 3 hotels and 9 houses over 16 properties, Emily stood up to make an announcement.
“As Unit Chief, I say that Penelope should be disqualified ‘cause she complained about me cheating even though she played Spence like a fiddle.”
“EMILY. You are the absolute light of my life and I adore every inch of you, and you’re also my boss now so please don’t fire me for saying this but, that’s some MEGA-GRADE bullsh-“
“Careful, Red Riding Hood, I don’t wanna report you for threatening a superior.”
“Firstly, I haven’t had red hair in about 8 years, so that nickname is redundant. Secondly, pulling rank? I expected better. I’m not mad, Em, I’m just disappointed.”
“I don’t know, you look pretty mad.”
“OF COURSE I’M PRETTY MAD-“
“OKAY!” Rossi cut in, waving his near-empty scotch bottle like a flag. “I vote we just count how much money we have left, and whoever has the most wins, because its nearly 3 in the morning, and I’m not as young as I used to be. The couch in my office is begging to be slept on.”
Tara once again smirked into her wine glass, having spent the last few minutes while Emily and Penelope were fighting subtly stealing some of their $100 notes. Spencer and Matt both noticed, but very wisely, simply smiled and didn’t snitch on her.
By the end, Tara and Rossi had exactly $5800 each, and for a moment, it looked like it might be a draw, before Rossi proudly stood up, and declared himself the winner.
“What? How? We both have the exact same!”
“Lewis, you’re drinking very expensive wine that I gave you, you’ve been in my debt since this game began. Now, who’s the winner?”
Since Tara was a mature adult, she didn’t flip the board. She did, however, pour her remaining wine into his remaining scotch, ruining the rest of his drink and causing Penelope to laugh uproariously.
Despite the fact that Rossi claimed to want to retire to sleep, he didn’t do so for the next several hours, all the members of the BAU content to trade stories and fond memories as the snow fell outside the window and a Monopoly board lay abandoned in front of them.
Tara smiled as Matt started showing home videos of his million or so kids. There was something so simple and pure about this evening, despite the chaos of their earlier game.
Tara smiled again as JJ rushed to show videos of her children.
By the time the sun rose, and the snows melted, Tara’s entire face hurt from smiling, but she didn’t mind one bit.