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Originally published on April 18/11 on fanfiction.net. This is a direct sequel to Candy Experiment.

A/N: Hello. This is a little one-shot I wrote as a sequel to my story, Candy Experiment. I really suggest reading that one before giving this one a go because it is referenced. Again this is a Reid/Garcia 'friendship' centered story with appearances by JJ, Will, and this time around Hotch, too. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, or Milky Way or Butterfinger.

The Great Easter Blow-out:


"I don't know about this…" JJ stated hesitantly, as she looked from one of her son's god-parents to the other. She looked to her partner for his opinion. "What do you think, Will?"

He cocked his head to one side considering Garcia and Reid carefully. "I don't know either," he said, his accent thick. "I mean the last holiday we left you in charge of, we came home to find you chocolate eating zombies…"

JJ shuddered at the memory of the state she'd found her two best friends in on Halloween.

"Come on, you guys," Garcia lamented. "You wouldn't let us near Thanksgiving or Christmas! Let us make it up to you with Easter. Pretty please… We can do this, right Reid?"

She gave the silent genius at her side a bump with her hip. "Right Reid?" she emphasized.

"Oh yeah… uh sure," Reid answered on cue, not very convincingly.

"Ugh," Garcia groaned at her friend's lack of enthusiasm, dropping her head into her hand before looking hopefully at her little pumpkin's parents.

JJ shared a look with Will, and then looked at her wannabe Easter party planners. They just looked too innocent, nothing like the way she'd found them on Halloween.

"Arg… I can't believe I'm saying this, but… ok."

"Yay!" Garcia jumped up in excitement. She gave each a hug in turn and then reassured, "This will be the best Easter party ever. You won't regret this!"

"I hope not," Will mumbled, amused.

Garcia chose to ignore his show of lack of faith as she continued to cheer excitedly.

"Just," JJ said, halting her friend's cheer-fest, "make sure there's enough candy for the kids this time…"

JJ eyed each one of them urging them to remember the last time she had left them alone with the candy. Garcia and Reid both blushed at their moments of weakness.

"We will," they murmured together solemnly.

"Great!" JJ exclaimed. "I'm sure Henry and the other children will love whatever you plan."


Garcia was walking out of the house with a bowl full of blue dye for the egg decorating station she and Reid had set up. As she approached the said station she saw that JJ was standing there with Hotch. Both of their backs were to her, so they didn't see her coming.

"Thanks for inviting Jack, JJ," Hotch stated gratefully. "He's having a lot of fun."

Garcia glimpsed her junior G-man playing on the swing set JJ and Will had set up in the backyard. He was laughing and playing happily with the other children.

"It was no problem, Henry loves having Jack around," JJ said truthfully.

"Everything looks great," Hotch commented.

Garcia stopped in her tracks to bask in the praise. She looked around her friend's spacious backyard. She and Reid had done a good job, if she said so herself.

Earlier, before the fifteen or so kids had arrived, she and Reid had set up a number of activities for the children to participate in, from egg decorating to face painting and more. The kids seemed pretty happy and entertained. And all the excitement would culminate in a big Easter egg hunt.

"Yeah, well, let's hope it lasts," JJ said wryly. "Remember how I told you about the Halloween incident…"

Hotch laughed, actually laughed. Garcia's mouth dropped open.

"Yeah," he paused. "I can't look at a Butterfinger without laughing."

"JJ!" Garcia exclaimed. "You told people!"

Both JJ and Hotch turned to look at her in surprise. She stood there gaping at the pair. Suddenly, both started chuckling.

"I'm sorry Garcia," JJ said, not sounding very apologetic. "It was too good of a story to pass up telling."

"Everyone knows?"

The pair continued to laugh.

"Ugh," Garcia groaned. "It wasn't that funny."

Both of her friends stopped laughing abruptly, but looked ready to start again at any moment.

"Sorry," JJ added, still amused. "Thanks for doing this again."

"You're welcome," Garcia said filling her voice with annoyance.

Luckily, Will was approaching the group, holding her most favourite person in the world. "Are we ready for the Easter egg hunt, yet?"

"Aww…" Garcia gushed, putting the dye down on the table to grab her godson out of his father's arms. "Who's my little cutie pie?"

Henry's face was painted to look like a bunny's and he had a pair of ears on top of his head to add to the adorableness.

"Auntie Pen!" Henry exclaimed, giving her a hug.

"Are you ready to go Easter egg hunting?" Garcia asked him, holding him tight.

Henry gave one firm nod of his head.

"Ok then," she said, handing him back over to an amused Will. "I'll go see if our special guest is ready."

She started back for the house, but not before she heard JJ say to Hotch in a conspiratorial voice, "Garcia forced Reid to dress up as the Easter bunny to lead the hunt."

"Now this I've got to see," Hotch stated, amused.

She was happy to see Hotch in the best mood ever, but did it have to be at her and Reid's expense?

"I'll be right back," she called over her shoulder.

She stepped up the back stairs to enter the kitchen door. Going into the kitchen she saw the remnants of her frantic boiling of eggs, and baking of festive cupcakes, no sign of Reid, though.

In fact, she hadn't seen him since before she'd begun to boil the eggs. She had sent him to hide the chocolate eggs in the backyard before he changed into costume.

Uh oh, the thought popped into her head.

Reid plus chocolate equalled disaster. Why hadn't she thought of that before? Because her and chocolate was also an equally disastrous situation.

"Reid!" she called out as she began her search of the house.

Exiting the kitchen, she entered the living room. There she got a good picture of what she was up against. Bags of chocolate were strewn here and there, all over the living room. The very same bags of chocolate that Garcia had given to Reid to hide outside. The very same chocolates that the kids were supposed to be hunting for any minute now.

"Crap!" Garcia yelled. "Reid!"

There were some particular bags of chocolate conspicuously missing.

"Reid, where are you?" she continued to yell.

He wasn't anywhere on the main floor. So she climbed the stairs to search the upper level.

"I'm so going to kill you," she mumbled under her breath. "Reid!"

She checked the bedrooms, thinking he may have gone to change in there, but still no sign of him. She thought she'd surely find him in the den. Perpetrators can't help going back to the scene of the crime. And that's where she'd be if she were Reid; it was the most comfortable room in JJ and Will's house. But no, he wasn't there either.

Then she heard some rustling coming from down the hall.

"The bathroom!" she exclaimed.

She stomped towards the bathroom. The door was slightly ajar so she didn't feel weird about pushing it open. What she found inside though, she felt completely weird about, and it had her jaw instantly dropping to the ground.

"Reid!" she exclaimed.

Startled, the young doctor jumped, dropping the handful of chocolate eggs he'd just peeled the wrappers off of. He looked around him, frowning at the several chocolate eggs scattered on the floor. He seemed to be seriously considering picking them up and eating them anyways.

"Reid," she said again to get his attention.

"Oh, hey Garcia," he greeted; he fished inside an open package on the floor. Pulling out an egg, he held it out to her. "Butterfinger Easter egg?"

She looked from his innocent face to his outstretched, white paw—yes, he was dressed top to bottom in the costume, only the head missing—with the egg sitting there.

"Reid, tell me you hid the eggs outside!" Garcia exclaimed.

He gave her a sheepish look. "Oops…"

"Oops?" Garcia said aggravated. "What happened? I sent you out there two hours ago."

"I did go outside, but then I was thinking… I wanted to know how much chocolate is sold during Easter, see if it compares to Halloween…" he paused, giving her his statistics look, "Did you know—"

"No, Reid," she cut him off. "All I want to know is how much chocolate did you manage to hide before you went AWOL?"

He cringed. "One… bag…"

"One bag!"

Garcia felt like she was about to have a nervous breakdown. JJ and Will would never let them live this down.

"Reid, why didn't you go back outside after you found out whatever you wanted to find out?"

He held up a bag of chocolate. "I discovered these." The label on the bag was for Butterfinger Easter Egg chocolates.

"Uh…" she groaned, slapping a hand to her forehead. "Your arch-nemesis…"

"Yeah," Reid agreed casually.

She watched him pop another egg inside his mouth. The chocolate must have mellowed him out because he didn't seem to realize what he'd just done.

"Ok, come on," Garcia urged. "We can take the rest of the bags and toss them around the yard when no ones looking."

She pulled on his fur covered shoulder, urging him to get off the floor. But he didn't budge.

"Garcia," he said in a sing-song voice. "Look what I found."

She didn't care what he found. Their friends were about to kill them. Not to mention she was about to get fired for ruining Jack's Easter…

But all those thoughts rushed away when she saw what he was holding, a bag of luscious Milky Way Easter Eggs. Her mouth instantly watered.

"Gimme!"


"They sure are taking a long time…" Hotch commented to his hosts.

JJ looked at her watch; a half hour had passed since Garcia had gone inside to find Reid. The other parents seemed restless. It was almost time to get going and they hadn't had the hunt yet.

"I'll go check on them…" she said tentatively.

"I'll come with you," Hotch suggested.

"Will, can you—" JJ started.

"No way, chere," he cut her off. "I'm not missing out on this…"

JJ nodded. She signalled to one of the parents that they'd be right back and then made their way to the back door.

They searched the bottom floor first, finding the full and still sealed bags of Easter chocolate in the living room. JJ let out a sigh at the sight.

"At least they're not eating it…" Will commented.

They climbed the stairs, JJ and Will in the lead, Hotch following behind, clearly amused. They didn't have to search hard because they instantly heard voices coming from the bathroom. The three shared a look, wondering what exactly they'd find the pair doing in the bathroom together.

"Maybe we shouldn't…" Hotch whispered, not really wanting to catch two of his employees in a compromising situation.

"Shh Reid," Garcia's voice could be clearly heard coming from inside. "Someone's coming… quick, put the head on!"

"But Garcia," Reid's voice was also clear, "How am I supposed to eat?"

"Shh… I won't have my little godson seeing the Easter Bunny headless! I'll feed you, now put it on!" she urged.

The three shared a strange look at the irregular conversation. A moment passed before they decided to push the slightly ajar bathroom door fully open.

"Happy…" both Garcia and Reid started loudly, the latter all dressed up in a white, now chocolate stained, bunny outfit. "… Eas-ter…" The last bit faltered when they saw it wasn't, in fact, Henry, but Henry's parents and their boss.

JJ, Will, and Hotch stared at the pair, face's expressionless.

"Uh… oh," Garcia murmured at having been caught.

Chocolate was sprawled everywhere, and once again they were covered in it. JJ marvelled at their lack of ability of keeping clean when the dark treat was involved.

"This isn't what it looks like," came Reid's voice from inside the bunny head, completely deadpan.

The three looked from Garcia to Reid, who was holding out his dirty paws in a plaintive gesture. They couldn't help it, they burst out laughing.

"Oh no, not again!" Garcia grumbled.

Head suddenly feeling itchy, she gave it a scratch; a piece of shiny blue tinfoil wrapper fell out, causing them all to double over in new fits of laughter.

"Come on, it's not that funny," Garcia protested.

But it seemed the more they spoke the harder they'd laughed. So, Garcia crossed her arms over her chest, completely chagrined, waiting for them to stop.

Once they did Reid tried to speak up.

"I can explain," he said voice muffled.

"Can you… please explain without that bunny head on," JJ said, giggling, "I can't look at you… with a straight face."

The two men snickered from behind her.

Reid nodded his bunny head and then pulled it off. When wrappers poured out around his neck, the trio burst into more laughter. Reid frowned as he looked down around him, wondering how the wrappers had gotten inside.

"Come on guys…" Reid tried again.

JJ shook her head while laughing. "Come on Will, Hotch let's leave these two to clean up and compose themselves."

They weren't going to be able to hear any explanations when Reid and Garcia were in such a hilarious state. Hotch and Will followed along obediently.

"But what about the hunt?" Garcia called to their retreating backs.

"It's ok," JJ said, turning around. "I had some eggs hidden this morning before you two got here. We're good."

"Hey!" Garcia protested.

"We learned our lesson on Halloween," Will added. "You, plus Reid, plus chocolate, equals hilarity."

"Definitely," Hotch agreed. "Wait until Dave hears about this…"

"That's not a real equation!" Reid shouted at them.

They laughed before starting down the stairs.

"Oh and Garcia," they heard JJ's voice coming from the stairway. "Consider us even!"

Garcia's mouth dropped open.

"I knew we shouldn't have offered to do this…" Reid murmured as he started to use his paws to grab at the wrappers.

"Shut up," Garcia told him. "This is all your fault, you know…"


Well that's it. I hope you enjoyed this as much as the first one!

Let me know what you think! Thanks!

 

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