CM Fic: Monday (part 2)
See Monday, Part 1 for summary, pairings, warnings, disclaimers, etc.
Monday, Part 1
Jennifer Jareau - 2:22 p.m.
“Spence!” called out JJ quickly when she spotted the young man walking past her office. Reid stopped in his tracks and stuck his head in the door. “Do you…do you have a minute?”
“Sure,” Reid told her. He walked in and stood before her desk. His fingers drummed lightly against the folder he was clutching, but JJ knew him well enough to know that was just an involuntary tic rather than a sign of impatience or nervousness. “What’s up?”
“Uh, could you shut that?” she requested, gesturing awkwardly at the door. “And maybe sit down? This - this is kind of personal.”
JJ fidgeted with her pen as he complied. She’d resolved to talk to him about this during lunch, but now he was looking at her with those wide, guileless eyes and a part of her was screaming for her to just leave it alone because it was none of her business. But another part reminded her that someone needed to have this conversation with him and that she might very well be the only person to think to do it.
“I, uh, I know about you and Hotch,” she said, giving him the same nonjudgmental smile she used with victims, witnesses, and law enforcement officers who were feeling threatened by FBI presence.
Reid’s eyebrows shot up. “What? How did you…” his voice trailed off and he shook his head. “I didn’t think this many people would find out so soon.”
“It’s happy news,” JJ assured him. “We don’t get a lot of that around here, so we all gobble it up when it comes along.” She swallowed hard and forced herself to go on: “Listen, Spence, what I’m about to say isn’t going to be easy and I need you to be completely honest with me - and yourself. I’m - I’m worried.”
“Worried?” echoed Reid. He quirked his lips and let out a nervous laugh that signaled he didn’t quite understand what was going on. “Why - why are you worried?”
“You and Hotch have been pining for each other for years,” explained JJ gently, “and being together now must feel like a dream come true for both of you. But this isn’t - how do I say this? Dreaming of being with someone is different than actually being with him.”
“You…you don’t think we make a good couple?” asked Reid. She watched him swallow hard as he began to blink rapidly.
“It’s not that - I think you two have a very good chance of making each other happy for the rest of your lives,” asserted JJ. “But I also think…Hotch has been through a lot in this past year, and he has a child who’s lost more than anyone his age should even know they could lose. You have a lot to offer, Spence - you’re loving, loyal, and you’re really good with Henry; just…just please be sure you’re ready to take on the realities of being in a relationship with Hotch, especially since it’s also going to get you involved in Jack’s life. I know he puts on a brave face, but Hotch isn’t emotionally invulnerable - he really loves you and to have all of this fall apart on top of everything else that happened…I’m afraid it would break him.”
Reid stared at her, stricken and somber. “I wouldn’t - I couldn’t,” he choked out. “It feels like a fantasy right now, JJ, it really does; but I…I’ve seen Aaron at his bad points and he’s seen me at mine. Neither of us are blind to each other’s faults. As for Jack - I could never do to a child who depends on me what my father did to me. I will not let that happen, no matter what.”
“And that’s another reason I want you to be sure,” JJ told him. “I don’t want you to end up trapped in a relationship that truly makes you unhappy for Jack’s sake.” She bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to sound like I don’t support you guys because I swear I do. I just - I just want to….”
“I - I know,” said Reid. He sucked in a noisy breath and looked down at his hands for a moment before looking her straight in the eye. “I love him, JJ. I love him. I know he has some difficult traits and dark moments - I’ve seen many of them -but I love all of him, even the not-so-easy parts. And Jack’s a great kid; the three of us had a good time together yesterday. I’m not saying I know exactly how everything’s going to work out, but we’re off to a good start and I’m ready to put in the work. My future is going to include them, JJ - I’m sure of it.”
She smiled at him, her vision blurred by unshed tears. “And I’m happy for you,” she told him warmly, reaching out to give his hands a maternal, affectionate squeeze. “I’m happy for all three of you.”
Penelope Garcia - 2:48 p.m.
Anyone who might have glanced into Garcia’s office/technical haven would have seen her staring at the monitor in front of her and assumed she was intensely concentrating on her work. In actuality, however, she was contemplating how difficult it would be, really, to install cameras in Reid and Hotch’s bedrooms without them noticing. Because a girl needed visuals, damn it, and no one could seriously expect her to refrain from finding out what sorts of hot, sexy happenings went on when Mr. Handsome, Intense, Brooding Boss Man and her sweet, shy, gorgeous baby genius with the doe eyes and the to-die-for lips dropped their defenses and got all naked and sweaty together.
‘Whoa,’ she thought as another fantasy starring the new happy couple popped into her head. She fanned herself and grinned. Maybe she could hold off on the stealthy surveillance for now - the idea alone was shaping up to be more than enough to keep her entertained and satisfied on the nights she didn’t spend with Kevin.
Garcia hadn’t stopped grinning since Emily dished the yummy news to her and JJ at lunch. She couldn’t think about anything else, and it didn’t even have to do with all the delectable fantasies she was having involving those two hot men getting it on (well, it did, but only a little). It was all so-so-so romantic! Reid and Hotch had been through so much in their lives: Reid with his parents, those rotten bullies whom she’d ruin but good if she ever found out their names, viruses, gunshot wounds, unsubs who liked to take him hostage, and that big heart of his that made him feel compassion even for those who didn’t deserve it (like that monster from Georgia whose name was not to be spoken in her presence); Hotch with an abusive father they weren’t supposed to know about, a marriage that fell apart and an ex-wife that practically made him beg her to see his son (she hated to think ill of the dead, but facts were facts), being stalked by a horrible sociopath, Haley’s vicious murder and having to rebuild his life with his traumatized son, and having to deal with whatever that evil bitch Strauss threw his way in order to keep their little family together. And they’d loved each other for years, but had tragically been kept apart - first because of Hotch’s marriage to a woman who could never really appreciate him and then by their own guilt and self-doubt.
But something glorious had happened and now they were together. Garcia knew everything happened for a reason, and she firmly believed that all the horrible stuff Reid and Hotch had gone through in the past happened just to make their happiness now even more blissfully wonderful. She sighed contentedly- she loved it when the universe revealed its plans in such a beautiful way.
A knock at her door jolted her out of her revelry in time to register a voice saying: “Garcia, I need you to -”
And that’s as far he got, because the second Penelope Garcia realized that Aaron Hotchner was in her office she let out a squeal and leapt up to engulf him in a joyful hug.
He stiffened in her arms. “Garcia!” he said in a tight, alarmed voice, his own arms frozen at his sides. “Garcia, you’re hugging me.”
Okay, so she couldn’t blame him for being a little…flabbergasted. She loved him like she loved all her BAU babies, but his position as her boss and his general reserved demeanor usually stopped her from being so - so demonstrative. Still, how could he expect her to hold back today of all days?
“Of course I’m hugging you, you silly man,” she retorted merrily. “You and Reid just made the universe make sense.”
She could practically feel him hesitate. “And how did we do that?” he asked her carefully.
“By doing what I’ve been hoping and praying you’d do for the past few years!” cheered Garcia. “You two are together and it’s fabulous. It’s magnificent. It’s something so utterly fantastic there’s not even a word that can really describe just how utterly fantastic it is!”
“Garcia,” Hotch started, trying to wriggle as politely but firmly as possible out of her embrace. “I really think -”
She wasn’t letting him go that easy. “See, sometimes the universe makes two people just for each other, like two pieces of a puzzle,” she explained as she tightened her hold just enough that he couldn’t get away without giving her a hard push, which she was confident he’d never do. “They just fit, you know? That’s you and Reid - you fit. You’re going to be together for the rest of your lives, I know it. There’s too much love there, the kind of love that gets you through the tough times; and those tough times will make the happy times all that much more wonderful. Oh, there are some days I feel lucky just to see all of you come home in one piece and today I get to know that two of my babies are finally together like they should be -like they deserve to be and always should have been.”
“I,” he paused, and then uncertainly said, “really?”
“Yes, really, my silly boss man,” she scolded him. “So I’m going to hug the stuffing out of you and you’re going to let me.”
And Hotch did something he’d never done before: he very slowly lifted his arms and hugged Garcia back.
Derek Morgan - 5:15 p.m.
Derek Morgan’s stomach growled as the elevator doors opened, letting him out into the parking garage. It would normally be too early for dinner for him, but he really wanted a burger. With onion rings. And a milkshake. And maybe a slice of pie too. He’d skipped lunch and he was starving.
He hadn’t meant to skip lunch; in fact, he’d been planning on cajoling Reid away from his desk for a little one-on-one time, which was why he’d turned down Prentiss’ rather abrupt lunch invitation in the first place. However, he’d gotten on a roll with some written consults and lost track of time, and when he’d finally taken a break Reid wasn’t anywhere to be found. Morgan had ended up just grabbing a few snacks from the vending machine and heading back to his office, where he immediately got back into his work groove (so much so that he’d actually blown off Garcia, answering her cryptic text of ‘Did you hear?’ with a ‘yes’ so she wouldn’t be tempted to interrupt him with some juicy but irrelevant bit of office gossip).
Now he was mentally exhausted and ready to reward himself for a good day’s work with a great meal at his favorite diner before heading home to spend some quality time with his dog Clooney. He breathed in a tired but satisfied sigh and turned the corner -
And instantly froze in his tracks. He stared, blinking several times, trying to make the scene in front of him transform into something that made sense. Because what he was seeing couldn’t be what he was seeing.
Reid and Hotch. Reid with his back against Hotch’s SUV and Hotch pressing himself against Reid’s body, effectively trapping the younger man. Reid’s face was turned away so Morgan couldn’t see his expression, but Hotch…Hotch was nuzzling the part of his jaw that was halfway between his ear and his neck, caressing the skin with his lips and - God, and his tongue - and Reid couldn’t move. The kid couldn’t stop Hotch…
Morgan barely registered the enraged, almost inhuman roar that echoed through the parking garage or the startled looks on Reid and Hotch’s faces when they whipped around to gape at him. He couldn’t recall how he’d suddenly ended up next to them, and only hardly heard the high shriek in the background as he tackled Hotch onto the filthy concrete. He knew he was yelling something furious and bitter that was drowning out that frightened voice in the distance; and he could feel pain in his knuckles when his fist connected with Hotch’s jaw. All he could think about, however, was Carl Buford and how monsters sometimes hid in plain sight, making you believe in them and depend on them and maybe even love them even as they touched you and made you feel dirty.
Hotch was blocking his punches now but that only made him angrier, made him bring his fists down harder and harder because he knew he couldn’t let what happened to him happen to Reid…
But then hands with long, graceful fingers grabbed at his arm and the pleas spoken by the frightened voice started to become clear: “Morgan, stop it - oh God, please stop, Morgan - don’t hurt him - it isn’t - he wasn’t - we’re together -”
Very slowly, Morgan turned to face Reid. “Aaron and I - we’re together,” the kid practically sobbed. “We’re together, Morgan - he’s - he’s my boyfriend now. I swear he is. What he was doing - it was okay, I wanted him to - I wanted it, so please stop.”
Morgan’s body went slack as he processed those words and what had just happened. He watched numbly as Reid let go of his arm and practically flew to Hotch’s side. “Oh God, Aaron, are you all right?” Reid choked out anxiously, carefully touching the older man’s face. “Should I - do you need to go to the hospital?”
“I’m all right, Spencer,” Hotch promised him as he allowed the kid to help him into a sitting position. He pressed their foreheads together and smiled. “It’s not that bad - just a little bruising, nothing I can’t handle.”
It was like an episode of The Twilight Zone, where nothing was as it should be. Reid and Hotch weren’t supposed to be together, not without Morgan knowing and giving his blessing. Hotch was supposed to be furious and ready to fire him for what he’d just done, not looking at him with that strange, careful pity on his face. And there should never be a reason for Reid to stare at him with that scared, worried look in his eyes. Morgan’s body started to shake. It was too much to take in and if he didn’t get out of there soon…
He leapt to his feet and took off, retreating back to the solitude of his office.
CMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCM
About ten minutes passed before Morgan’s brooding was interrupted by a tentative knock on the door. “Come in,” he barked moodily, not bothering to get up from his chair or even uncross his arms.
He wasn’t surprised when Reid entered, looking all timid and contrite as he closed the door behind him. After all, he’d been expecting the kid to come, and much sooner than this - but, he guessed with a combination of guilt and bitterness, he’d probably been too busy tending to Hotch’s wounds to explain himself to someone as unimportant to him as he clearly was. “What do you want?” demanded Morgan sullenly.
Reid swallowed visibly. “Morgan, I’m sorry -”
“Sorry?” repeated Morgan with a bitter laugh. “What are you sorry for, kid? Are you sorry you hid this from me? Or are you just sorry I caught you letting Hotch feel you up in a public place? Or maybe the only thing you’re sorry for is that I inflicted one or two bruises on your poor lover.”
He said that final word with a nasty, dirty undertone that made Reid wince. “I’m sorry all of that happened,” Reid said in a wavering voice. Morgan had never been this angry at him, never spoken to him with such overt rudeness and he plainly didn’t know how to handle it.
“Why didn’t you tell me about you and Hotch?” Morgan pressed on unrelentingly.
“I assumed you knew!” cried Reid desperately. “Everyone else knew. I didn’t tell anyone but everyone else just - just knew.”
The reasonable side of Morgan remembered Garcia’s text message - ‘Did you hear?’; the side of him that was still hurt and angry viciously shoved that aside. “Well, maybe my friend should have filled me in,” he snapped. His voice was still spiteful, but now there was just a hint of vulnerability sneaking through and he hated himself for it. “Just how long have you two been sneaking around, Reid?”
Reid’s face crumpled. “We haven’t been sneaking around,” he protested, his voice beginning to crack. “I swear it wasn’t like that, Morgan - we’ve been together for less than 48 hours. And one of the first things we did was decide to tell the team because we didn’t want to hide this from any of you. It’s just - I don’t know - it was nice with it being just the two of us, so we put off making, you know, an official announcement. We didn’t do it to hurt anyone!”
Tears started to spill down Reid’s face; he swiped at them in frustration. “Damn it! Why do I keep doing this? I don’t usually cry like this.” He let out a self-deprecating laugh. “I don’t usually make out in coffee shops or parking garages either, but there you go. I don’t know what’s wrong with me….”
Morgan remembered what it was like to be in love. He also remembered how it felt to be in that first stage of a new relationship with someone you were seriously crazy about. He could begin to imagine what those first giddy days would feel like if that new relationship was with someone he’d been in love with for years. And he could appreciate why someone might want to take a little while to get all those emotions under control before all-but-inviting five well-meaning but meddlesome people to butt into his romantic life.
Jesus, he’d been acting like a spoiled jerk. “No, I’m sorry,” said Morgan sincerely, finally getting up and going to his obviously distressed friend. He grasped Reid’s shoulders with either hand. “I’m so sorry, pretty boy. You have every right to choose when you do and don’t tell people about your personal life, and I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. It was just - God, I thought -”
“I know what you thought,” Reid interrupted him gently, giving him a tentative and sympathetic smile. “What you said while you…Morgan, I know. You…you were just watching out for me.”
“Always. Are we okay?” Morgan smiled, relieved, when Reid nodded. He drew the slighter man into a hug. “You know you’re my little brother, right?”
“Yeah, I do,” Reid told him, pulling back enough to give him a playful thump on the arm. “Walk me out, okay?”
Morgan slung a friendly arm around Reid’s shoulders and together the two of them walked out to the elevator, where Hotch was pacing anxiously. He stopped when he saw the pair approaching, studying each of them carefully and relaxing visibly at what he saw there. Morgan gave him a nod and squeezed Reid’s shoulder before saying in his calmest voice: “Good night, then. I’ll see you both tomorrow.”
He saw Hotch nod back at him but only heard Reid’s kind “good night” as he turned and headed not to his office but to his old desk in the bullpen. From there Morgan watched through the glass doors as the new couple looked in each other’s eyes and smiled, communicating silently in the way that people who really loved each other could. Then Hotch said something, something that clouded Reid’s expression with concern; but the kid nodded, apparently in acceptance because he ended up getting on the elevator alone while Hotch decisively made his way back into the bullpen.
Neither of them said a word until Hotch was at Morgan’s desk, half-leaning and half-sitting on it. “I’m sorry,” Morgan said in a quiet voice. He looked at the bruise beginning to form on his boss’ jaw and flinched. “I was out of line.”
“Nobody knows better than the members of this team how the people we trust can sometimes betray us in the most horrific ways possible,” said Hotch with a deep understanding that reminded Morgan how the older man had believed for years that Foyet had simply been a victim of the Boston Reaper. “You did what you did because you thought you were protecting Spencer. I won’t fault you for that.”
“Thanks,” said Morgan. He sat there for a minute, silently thumbing the edge of the desk. “So, no one’s claimed my old workspace, I see.”
“No,” Hotch replied, eying him as he noted the change of topic. “It’s still vacant.”
“Good,” said Morgan definitively, “because I want it back.”
Hotch frowned at him. “Morgan…”
“The promotion was only temporary,” Morgan reminded him. “It stands to reason that everything that came along with it was also temporary. There’s no reason why I should still be in that office.”
“Except that you earned it,” argued Hotch. “Don’t give it up just because of this.”
“I’m not,” insisted Morgan. “Hotch, I…I was going to take Reid out to lunch, but I ended up staying holed up in my office until it was too late and I couldn’t find him. I don’t even know if he ate anything today.”
“Dave pestered him into going with him,” Hotch tried to reassure him.
Morgan did his best to ignore the irrational surge of jealousy he felt toward Rossi, who seemed to be trying to usurp his role as Reid’s protector. “But I was going to take him out and I blew that off for something I could have easily put off for an hour,” he explained. “I blew off Garcia today too. Hotch, every day we’re here I go to that office and close the door and…cut myself off from everyone else. I hardly ever pop in to say hi to Garcia anymore; I can’t even remember the last time I went to lunch with Reid and Prentiss. I do appreciate having an office, but I don’t want it if it’s going to cost me my closeness with my friends.”
Hotch blew out a breath. “I won’t stop you if you want to move back in here,” he said. “But do me a favor and think about it for a day or two. I don’t want you to make a decision you’ll regret.”
“I can do that,” promised Morgan with a wry smile, “if you can get out of here - I think my pretty boy’s waiting for you.”
“I think you mean my pretty boy,” bantered Hotch gamely. He got up and gave Morgan a tired smile. “Good night.”
“Good night,” echoed Morgan, watching as his boss walked out of the bullpen and vanished onto the elevator. He ran a hand over the empty surface of the desk and knew he wouldn’t need the extra day to decide what to do. Tomorrow he’d talk to JJ about what needed to be done to get him back into the bullpen, ask Garcia to keep a little time open for him later on in the week to help him with the move, and finally see if he could take Reid out for that lunch.
He nodded to himself- yes, this felt right. Smiling, he murmured, “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home….”
Aaron Hotchner and Spencer Reid - 6:01 p.m.
Aaron pulled into his driveway, cut the ignition, and fell back against his seat with a huge sigh. “Interesting day,” he commented casually.
“That’s putting it mildly,” said Spencer emphatically. His fingertips feathered over the purple bruise on his boyfriend’s jaw. “Oh, Aaron…”
“It’s not that bad,” Aaron assured him. And it wasn’t - he’d had the same hand-to-hand training as Morgan and, unlike the other man, his mind had been clear enough to use it properly. “That’s not even what I meant. I was just thinking about the coffee shop this morning and how we weren’t going to tell everyone right away. Now Dave knows; Morgan knows -”
“Emily and JJ know too,” interrupted Spencer, shooting Aaron an apologetic look. “I’m sorry - I didn’t tell them, but they knew anyway.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Aaron. “Garcia figured it out too, and I have the bruised ribs to prove it. I guess that’s everybody. Are you okay with that?”
Spencer gave the question serious thought. “I wouldn’t have minded keeping our relationship to ourselves for a little while,” he admitted. “But I guess it’s nice to be able to share how happy we are with them. What about you - are you okay with it?”
“I suppose it was probably inevitable,” Aaron told him. “Some things are - like me loving you.”
“Like me loving you,” Spencer said warmly. He unbuckled and slid across the seat bench. “And me kissing you.”
Aaron fumbled with his seat belt, all but throwing it aside so he could take Spencer into his arms. “Like me holding you,” he added, giving him a deep kiss that didn’t break as he lowered him down onto the bench. “And me lying with you here like this.”
“Don’t we have to get inside?” protested Spencer, though he made no move to wiggle out from under the older man or even unwrap his arms from around him. “You know, dinner….”
Aaron glanced over at the clock and grinned down at the supine young man. “We have twelve more minutes,” he said. He kissed Spencer again, pouring his heart and soul into it. It was overwhelming, magical, and terrifying how much he loved him, how their relationship made him feel alive again, and how easily - one bullet, one cruel unsub, one drunk driver, one senseless accident - could make it all go away. “And we have all the time in the world if you stay with me. Don’t leave me, sweetheart. I love you; please stay with me…”
Spencer laid a finger against Aaron’s lips and his heart swelled at the openness, love, and vulnerability in those chocolate brown eyes. “Me staying with you for the rest of our lives,” he murmured, their faces so close their lips brushed together as he spoke. “Yet another thing that’s inevitable.”
The End