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“This is completely unnecessary. I’m perfectly fine”, Spencer Reid protested as Dr. Mallory carefully checked his breathing pattern.
She took her ear from her stethoscope for a second, one meticulously plucked eyebrow pulled up nearly to her hairline.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve heard this from FBI agents who later turned out to have basal skull fractures, punctured lungs, visceral bleeding,…”
“I’ve spent three hours on a plane since that building exploded” Reid interrupted her. “Don’t you think the symptoms for the smoke poisoning you apparently presume I suffer from would have shown a little earlier?” he said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Dr. Mallory achieved the improbable and raised her eyebrow even higher.
“Don’t get clever with me, Dr. Reid. You might be a genius with three doctoral degrees, but you’re not an MD. I’m obliged to check on any of you that have come closer to biting it than they should. Now stop drawing this out and breathe in.”
Reid sighed and did as he was told. Dr. Mallory could be extremely stubborn about doing her job properly and he knew that he was indeed only prolonging his time in the medical department by discussing with her. He waited for her to finish the examination without losing another word, and when she finally did (with a frown and a brusque “You’re done.”) he buttoned his shirt up, thanked her (which she acknowledged with a brief nod, already buried in her records again) and made his way to the office to collect his bag.
The FBI-building was silent and dark around this time of night, except for Hotch’s office, but since the man seemed to live here, that was hardly a surprise. Reid just about grabbed his stuff, when a hand landed heavily on his shoulder.
“Hey, kid”, Morgan’s voice greeted him, and Reid felt a wave of warmth flood his stomach. He reflected, once more, on how grateful he was for having Morgan around on these kinds of days, before he turned his head to smile at him.
Morgan looked tired, but there was a satisfied expression on his face; the kind of expression he reserved for a job well done.
“You okay?”, he asked, and Reid nodded.
“Dr. Mallory was very adamant about making sure that I am not, in fact, suffering from any kind of possibly fatal injuries.”
Something dark and worried flashed over Morgan’s face at that, but it was so fleeting that Reid wasn’t sure whether it had been only a figment of his imagination.
“She’s just doing her job, kiddo”, Morgan finally said. “Can’t risk anything.”
The slightly guilty tone of voice made Reid’s instinct click in all at once, and he narrowed his eyes warily. “Has she examined you and Prentiss, too?”
Morgan averted his gaze.
“She hasn’t, has she?”
“We’ve both been checked over before we climbed on the plane-”, Morgan started, but Reid cut him off.
“So did you just skip the examination? Or did she only want to see me?”
“Reid, she…” Morgan broke off when Reid started to glare at him.
“Okay, so, maybe” he finally admitted, “maybe we told the med-dep to double-check on you.”
Reid snorted. “What, do you think I’m more breakable than you are?”
“Listen, Reid, you’ve been through a lot lately and…“
“And?”, Reid interrupted, again, more annoyed than the reasonable part of his mind told him he should be. “We’ve all been through a lot. What makes me the special case?”
“Hey, hey, Reid”, Morgan said, and stretched his hands out to touch Reid’s upper arms in a calming gesture.
The expression in his eyes was soft and honest.
“Nobody’s implying that you’re a special case. You belong to this team, you’re part of it, and you’re in no way more breakable than any of us. You’ve proven that on more occasions than I’d like to recount. We – we worry about you. Believe me, I would’ve loved to send Prentiss for another check-up as well, but, phew, you know her. She wouldn’t have any of it. Nearly punched me for even mentioning it.”
Reid’s anger subsided as fast as it had surged up, and he suspected Morgan’s big, warm hands on his arms, together with his terribly earnest eyes, to be at least partially responsible for that.
“What about you, then?”, he finally asked. “Why didn’t you go for the back-check?”
Morgan smiled softly. “I’m fine, kid. I’m always fine.”
He took his right hand away from Reid’s upper arm and patted him on the shoulder, before letting go entirely.
“D’you want me to take you home?”
Reid came very close to saying no, like he would have done on any other occasion, but the prospect of climbing into a car instead of walking to the bus stop suddenly seemed incredibly tempting to him.
“Yeah”, he decided. “That would be great.”
***
Morgan didn’t say much during the drive to Reid’s flat, but Reid caught him a few times staring. The look on his face wasn’t exactly worried, more like – deeply caring; and Reid felt himself grow uncomfortable at having so much attention directed at him, even though he knew that this was Morgan, his colleague slash friend Morgan, and that he was only getting that attention because they’d had a hell of a day and more carbon monoxide in their systems than could be healthy.
When they finally arrived at Reid’s apartment building, Morgan parked the car on the side of the road and shut down the engine. Reid knew that this was his cue to open the door, thank him for the ride and get himself out of the car and up into his bed. But sitting there, next to Morgan, in companionable silence, something felt – unfinished. Like a song played only halfway through. A song that Reid couldn’t for the life of him recall the lyrics to, even though he had the feeling that he should.
He spared Morgan a glance; and there he was, staring at him again, with this soft expression on his face that Reid didn’t know how to interpret.
“Are you still worried?”, he dared ask, and Morgan blinked at him.
“Not if you don’t want me to be” he retorted, and the way he said it made Reid feel weirdly vulnerable.
“What if I do?”, he gave back, without thinking about it too much.
Reid didn’t see it coming when Morgan reached out to touch his cheek, lightly, but with intent, and started stroking his thumb along his cheekbone. As soon as he did, though, it all made sense, suddenly, like a puzzle piece falling into place, and Reid wanted to slap himself for not noticing it sooner, how Morgan had always been a little more hands-on with him than with the rest of the team, how he himself had been stupidly offended by the prospect of looking breakable in Morgan’s eyes mere minutes ago, how they had been dancing around each other right from the beginning, right from I’m Dr. Spencer Reid. - I’m Agent Derek Morgan. Welcome to the FBI.
“Is this okay?”, Morgan asked, and Reid noticed belatedly that his whole body had stiffened during his little self-enlightenment-session.
“Yeah”, he managed, the single syllable a bit more shaky than he’d hoped for. “I’ve just had a revelatory moment.”
“Revelatory?”, Morgan inquired, not letting up on stroking Reid’s cheek for one second.
Reid blinked at him.
“We’re in love with each other”, he stated, and Morgan chuckled, of all things.
“For a genius you can be pretty oblivious sometimes”, he replied.
“You knew?!”, Reid gave back, slightly scandalised.
“Not for long”, Morgan stated. “But I thought it was about time to let you in on it.”
His hand glided from Reid’s cheek to his neck, and suddenly he was way up in Reid’s personal space. He smelled good, Reid decided.
Really, really good.
“You still okay, genius?”, Morgan said, and now it was Reid’s turn to chuckle.
“You don’t have to ask every time, you know.”
“If you say so.”
One moment later Morgan’s lips were pressed to Reid’s.
He kissed like he held a gun, sure and practiced and careful; and Reid found it somewhat hard to breathe at the thought of Derek Morgan, Derek Morgan, in love with him.
When the agent let go of him, Reid could hardly get air into his lungs and his whole body felt like it was made of jelly. Maybe I’ve got smoke poisoning after all, he thought, but then he caught Morgan’s gaze, took in his dilated pupils and the hungry expression in his eyes, and No, it’s definitely not smoke poisoning.
“Are you okay?”, Reid asked, stupidly, and Morgan snorted.
“You don’t have to ask every time, you know.”
“Shut up.”
“Only if you kiss me again, pretty boy.”
And, at loss for a better answer, or any answer at all, Reid did.