You’d only been gone five minutes.

Bathroom break. Normal, unremarkable. But somehow in that tiny window of time, you missed everything.

You re-entered the room mid-briefing, file in hand, and noticed how unnaturally quiet it went. Morgan looked like he’d just swallowed a laugh. JJ was blinking too much. Reid was very deliberately avoiding your eyes. And Garcia? She wasn’t even in the room but you could hear her cackling from wherever the tech setup was stashed.

You narrowed your eyes. “What…?”

Gideon didn’t look up from the board. Cool. Calm. Composed.

“You left your badge in the SUV,” he said simply, pinning a case photo to the corkboard. “And your name’s still listed under your maiden name.”

Pause.

Another pin clicked into place.

“I’ll have them fix it. It’s Mrs. Gideon now.”

The silence was instant.

Reid actually choked. Morgan turned his entire chair around like that might hide his reaction. JJ looked like she was witnessing a car crash in slow motion.

Your jaw clicked shut too late.

“I was going to tell them,” you muttered under your breath, moving beside him.

“You were taking too long,” he said mildly, eyes still on the board.

“You told the entire team before me.”

“You weren’t in the room.”

You shot him a look — and he just smirked, just barely. Not a grin. Not a joke. But one of those low, satisfied things he barely let anyone see.

“So…” Morgan finally said, breaking the silence with that dragged-out tone. “Vegas, huh?”

“You got married in Vegas?” JJ echoed.

Reid raised a hand. “Technically I was there.”

“Me too!” Garcia’s voice chimed in from the hallway, impossibly loud. “I took the pictures!”

You sighed, but there was a tug in your mouth you couldn’t stop.

Gideon just turned back to the board like nothing was unusual.

But when he passed by you on the way out — brushing his hand lightly against your lower back — you caught the quiet, satisfied murmur only you were meant to hear:

“Better ring’s on you anyway.”