Fic: Copycats, Chapter 6 (Criminal Minds, Reid / Morgan)
Title: Copycats, Chapter 6
Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan,
Aaron Hotchner / Chad Christensen,
Sean Hotchner / Cain Christensen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Criminal Minds Main List
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Saturday 10:43
When Morgan came back, Reid was sitting in the kitchen tapping the keyboard of his laptop in a maniacal pace. He noticed Morgan and stopped his typing.
“Hey, I was just letting out some steam. My article is almost done so I…. I mean…. How did it go?”
Morgan rummaged thought the top cabinet till he found a bottle of whisky. He opened it and took a long swig.
“I thought you were saving that for Superbowl.”
“I don’t wanna think that far ahead right now.” Morgan swallowed another mouthful and sat down on the other side of the table. “I’m not a daddy.”
“So what did she want?”
“You’re gonna hate me for this.”
“For what?”
“When I spent that night with her, she had just broken up with her boyfriend. She said he had cheated on her with one of her friends.”
“Sounds awful, but what does that have to do with you?”
“Apparently the guy had cheated on her before, several times, but she didn’t know about it until he told her. Last year.”
“Where are you going with this?”
“When she went to bed with me she didn’t know that….” Morgan breathed heavily. “How the hell should I say this.... She didn’t know that one of his affairs… The ex contacted her when he found out he was HIV positive.”
Reid reached closer and pulled the bottle away from him.
“She was infected?”
“Yeah. She got tested and….. She knew about it for about a year, before she decided to look me up. She said she didn’t wanna admit it to anyone.”
“She didn’t want to admit it to anyone?” Reid repeated with an unusually merciless tone. “Denial is a strong survival tool, but this is serious. How could she stay quiet for a whole goddamn year?”
“Baby….” Morgan looked like he had to pull every word out of himself by force. “If I was infected…. It means I infected you too.”
Reid stood up and went to place the bottle on the counter. He didn’t say a word.
“Think about it. We haven’t used protection for a long time. You can dodge the bullet once or twice but we’ve been going at it every chance we had. If I got it, it means I’ve given it to you.” Morgan slouched against the table, his hand leaning into is hands. “And that thought is hell of a lot harder to bear than the thought of being sick.”
Reid was still quiet.
“Say something.”
“I would, but I don’t know what to say. I know what the rational part of me thinks I should say, but the other part….”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For the whole thing.”
“You didn’t know about it. Even she didn’t know about it.”
“But I didn’t get tested. We got together few months later and after that I didn`t see any reason to get tested.”
“And it wouldn’t come up in the bureau’s normal medical checks. I know that.”
“I could have been more careful. I was hanging out with the whole team and I left with a nice pair of boobs. If I had kept it in my pants, we wouldn’t be here now.”
“Morgan.” The genius had picked up the bottle from the counter and clutched it against his chest like a security blanket.
“Yeah?”
“This is hard enough to understand without your monologues.”
“Baby boy, I’m-”
“Just shut up!” Reid smashed the bottle against the counter. “Shut up and let me think for a minute!”
Morgan stared at him. He had seen Reid angry and scared, but he couldn`t figure out what this was. The content of the bottle was now dripping down to the floor and little pieces of glass had flown all over the floor. Finally Reid leaned against the sink and cleared his throat.
“Three years. It takes at least two weeks after the initial infection till the level of antibodies reaches the detectable level.” He went to the foyer and came back with their coats. “I got a friend in the hospital lab, she can do the test.”
“Okay.” Morgan took his coat and followed Reid meekly to the foyer. “How long will it take? To get the results?”
“In RA testing you get the results in about twenty minutes. The test reacts to the HIV antibodies on the blood. Like I said, it takes two to six weeks or even longer till the level of antibodies is high enough to be detected, so if you got infected three years ago the test will detect it.”
“So we’ll-”
“Morgan.” Reid gave him an unreadable expression, and Morgan snapped his mouth shut. He followed Reid out the door.
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Saturday 12:38
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Hospital cafeteria
“Are you gonna talk to me?” Morgan asked carefully. Reid hadn’t said anything during the test except explaining the process. The genius was currently taking small sips from his coffee mug, glancing over an old ladies magazine.
“About what?”
“Anything.”
“That’s too broad.”
“Okay, I’ll narrow it down. What if it comes back positive?”
“Then we’ll have to do the longer test. That will take about two weeks.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“What if I have it?”
“Morgan, as uncharacteristic as it sounds, I don’t want to talk about it now.”
“You’re angry.”
“Yes, I’m angry.” Reid slapped his magazine shut. “It happened before we were together and you didn’t know and it was an accident, but I am angry.” He clicked his ringing cell phone open. “What?”
“It’s me, BrainyBunny-”
“Garcia, this is really not a good time-”
“Trust me, you’ll wanna hear this. You’ll never guess what we-”
“Garcia, I don’t want to hear how you dressed up as Snow White and Kevin dressed up as all the seven dwarfs one by one. I don’t want to hear what weird place you two did the deed in. I don’t want to hear how Kevin almost choked on his ball gag. Whatever you want to say, I don’t want to hear it.”
He hung up and shoved the phone back to his pocket.
“Spencer?” A woman in white coat approached them. She looked around in the empty cafeteria. “You boys want to do this here or in my office?”
“Just say it.” Morgan exclaimed. “Positive or negative?”
She handed a print over to Reid and he scanned the text quickly.
“One of you, yes or no?”
“It’s negative.” Reid pressed his eyes shut for a moment. “You don’t have it.”
“Are you sure?”
“I did the test twice just in case.” The nurse interrupted. “Sometimes the RA test can give a false positive so I wanted to be sure.”
“So I don’t have it.”
“You don’t have it.”
Morgan’s feet seemed to give in and he slumped back into a plastic chair. His eyes were wide open. He stared at Reid, who seemed to be equally lost.
“I’ll leave you boys alone, my baby-sitter’s leaving in an hour.” The nurse explained. “It was nice to tell good news for a change.”
“Thanks, Sarah.” Reid gave her a shaky smile and she left.
“I’m healthy.” Morgan stated. “If I don’t have it, I didn’t give it to you. We’re both fine.”
“Yeah.” Reid sat down next to him. “You should call that woman and tell her she didn’t infect you. Maybe it would make her feel a bit better.”
“Yeah, I should…. That whole thing was just….”
“Overwhelming?”
“Scary. Really scary.”
“Jell-O?”
“What?”
“Jell-O. You want Jell-O?”
“Now? You’re asking me if I want Jell-O right after that?”
“We always eat Jell-O when we’re in the hospital.” Reid shrugged. “It just seemed appropriate.”
“Is that your way of saying you’re not mad at me anymore?”
“No, I’m still mad at the situation and that woman for keeping it a secret for a year. But I’ll get over it.”
“You can be mad. At me. It would have been my fault if you-”
“It didn’t really sink in until now.”
“What?”
“That both of us could have had it. I mean, I knew that if you had it I probably would too, but…. “ Reid let out a deep sigh. “After thinking you may have it my thinking kinda blocked right there.”
“So…. Jell-O?”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know, you asked me first.”
“Green.” Reid stated but he didn’t make a move to get up from his chair.
“Pretty Boy?”
A full body shudder went through him and he grasped the hand rests.
“Baby, you okay?”
“Yeah.” Reid leaned over the armrest and crawled closer till he was practically in Morgan’s lap. He buried his face into Morgan’s neck and the shivers came again. Morgan wrapped his arms around the thin body, rubbing the tense muscles on his back.
Chapter 7