Voices were what woke Morgan from his sleep. The sounds of voices and footsteps out in the hallway. For one groggy instant he wasn’t quite sure where he was or who he was hearing. All it took was opening his eyes for him to remember. One look at the rustic styled room and his brain clicked back into place. I’m at Rossi’s house. That’s right. Huh. Who would have pegged Dave to have a room decorated this way? Then again, it was a guest room. The rest of the house was pretty classic, pretty Italian. Definitely toward the man’s roots. Not a house. A mansion. Sheesh—this guy lives big. Must be nice, having that kind of money.
A couple of doors opened and closed and then there were more footsteps, this time coming closer. Morgan shifted just a little, adjusting the blankets they must have pulled up in their sleep. He checked to make sure Spencer was entirely covered; he was. That also brought to light the realization that Spencer was still naked and wrapped tightly against Morgan’s side, one arm flung over him and his head resting on Morgan’s shoulder. One of Spencer’s legs was even lifted over Morgan’s, resting between them. All in all, he was completely twined around Morgan.
He brought his hand up from under the blankets, pulling them up just a little higher, and he curled his arm so that his hand was running through Spencer’s hair. He really did love his hair. So soft to the touch.
A quiet knock brought him out of his thoughts. Eyes flashing to Spencer—good, he’s still asleep—Morgan called out “Yeah?”
“Everyone’s here and we’ve got food.” Dave called back through the door. “You need to bring him down. We need to talk.”
Something in his tone told Morgan that whatever they had to talk about wasn’t going to be good. Great, just great. If it isn’t one damn thing, it’s another. When the hell is this going to just stop? When is the kid going to catch a fucking break already? Out loud, he called “You better have coffee waiting.”
He ignored the chuckling outside the door when he felt Spencer shift and try to burrow his head down underneath the covers. “’S too loud.” He grumbled. “Shut up.”
Amusement had Morgan’s lips curving. “Ah, ah. Time to get up, baby boy. Rossi’s home and the others are downstairs with food. And coffee.”
“Don’t care.”
Now that had Morgan raising an eyebrow. “Since when does Spencer Reid not care about coffee?”
“Since now.” The younger man mumbled. He tightened his grip over Morgan, pressing them just a little closer together. “Coffee or cuddling? Easy choice.” One of his hands moved against Morgan’s shirt, snaking underneath to rest on his skin. “You got too many clothes on.”
Looking down at the messy hair, the only part of Spencer’s head that was really visible above the blankets, Morgan couldn’t help but feel amazed. He’s got to be one of the most resilient people I’ve ever met. Before he fell asleep, he was just shy of breaking into little shards. Now he’s snuggled up and flirting with me—no, not flirting. He’s too sleepy for flirting. He’s being semi-serious and semi-playful. I don’t know how he does it. He never fails to amaze me. Mussing Spencer’s hair, he bent and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Hate to break it to you, Spencer, but my clothes are staying on and you’re going to put yours on. Rossi said he wanted us downstairs.” And hopefully Dave wasn’t still standing outside the door. Oh well, if he is, it’s his own fault what he hears Morgan thought, resisting the urge to chuckle.
The little whiny sound Spencer was beyond cute and not something one would think an adult would make. Then, before Morgan could blink, Spencer was rolling on top of him, a knee on either side of his hips, bracing on his elbows so that their faces were only inches apart. Spencer bent those last few inches, nipping Morgan’s bottom lip, his hair falling on either side like a screen. “Do we have to?” he murmured, punctuating the question with a small roll of his hips that had Morgan fighting back a moan. “I’m quite happy right here.”
“Trust me; I’d love to stay here with you.” Morgan had to cut off when Spencer rolled his hips again and he trailed his lips over Morgan’s jaw, stopping to nip at his ear. Gone was the sexually shy kid when they’d first started this. Spencer was coming in to his own, sexually. I’ve created a monster. The thought was a pleasant one. He shuddered, unable to stop himself from bringing his hands up and threading them in Spencer’s hair. “You’re killing me, baby boy. God. If we don’t downstairs, someone’s going to end up coming in here and getting quite a show if you don’t stop that.”
Spencer pulled back with a deep sigh. Bracing one hand on Morgan’s chest, he sat up and shook his hair back from his face. Just looking up at him had Morgan groaning. When Spencer bit his lip, looking down at him with those wide, bedroom eyes, he couldn’t hold back anymore. He grabbed Spencer’s hips and flipped them over, pinning the younger man underneath him in bed. “You little porn star. I keep telling you, you’ll be the death of me one of these days.”
“Does that mean you’d like me to stop?” Spencer gave a little smirk.
“Hell no.” Just as Morgan bent his head, ready to crush their lips together and forget entirely about the people downstairs, Aaron’s voice echoed up the hall and into their room. “Spencer Reid and Derek Morgan! If you’re not downstairs in five minutes, I’m sending Garcia to come up there and drag you out!”
A look of horror replaced any signs of arousal on Spencer’s face. His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. Then, quick as a flash, he was scrambling out from underneath Morgan and toward the edge of the bed, snatching up his clothes. What else could Morgan do but sit back and start to laugh? And when Spencer glared at him, Morgan only laughed harder.
“You laugh all you want.” Spencer told him while he shimmied into his boxers. “But I’m not sitting here and letting Garcia barge in while I’m naked.” Pausing in the act of pulling on his shirt, Spencer gave a little shudder, and then shook his head. “No, no. definitely not. I’d never, ever hear the end of it. That woman’s seen too much already.”
Watching Spencer try to work his buttons, Morgan cut off his laughter and sat up. He brushed Spencer’s hands out of the way before doing up his buttons for him. Then, before the kid could protest, Morgan pulled him to sit down. “You’re one handed and I can see it’s hurting you, baby boy.” He said, cutting off Spencer’s protests. He moved off the bed and grabbed Spencer’s socks while ignoring the younger man’s stuttered protests. As if it was perfect normal, Morgan slid Spencer’s mismatched socks onto his feet, not even looking up, though he knew the blush that would be in those cheeks would look extremely attractive.
With the two of them working together, they got Spencer’s pants on, Morgan doing the button for him. Finally the two were both dressed and making their way from the room. Morgan slid an arm around Spencer’s waist, stealing one last kiss at the top of the stairs. “Quit pouting, baby boy.”
“I’ll pout all I want.” Spencer grumbled at him. His eyes held a slightly mischievous light, though. Together, the two moved down the staircase, following the sounds of conversation. “I think I have ever right. I was quite…comfortable.”
Morgan squeezed his waist. “There’s always later.” He promised in a husky, low voice.
The look Spencer slanted him shot straight to Morgan’s loins. “That being the only reason I didn’t bar the door and ignore the world.”
They stepped into the dining room, which seemed to be where all the voices were centered, and the two men were instantly assaulted. Just a step in the door and a little voice cried out “Untle Penner!” Then Spencer was shifting, dropping down into a crouch to catch the little body that flew at him. Morgan watched with a smile as Spencer scooped up his Godson and cradled him close, the little boy flinging his arms around Spencer’s neck. There was a slight wince from Henry’s grip on the bruises that were still fading over Spencer’s neck but Spencer said nothing about it, just hugging Henry with one arm.
Garcia sidled up to Morgan, slipping an arm around his waist, hugging him sideways. “You two just had to ruin my fun, didn’t you?” She teased him, eyes twinkling. “I was just about to head up there, too!”
He looked down at her and chuckled. “I know how to get pretty boy moving now. Just threaten him with you. I’ve never seen him fly into his clothes so fast.”
Laughter filled the dining room, growing when Spencer shot Morgan a glare. Emily pretended to shudder even as she chuckled. “Thanks, Morgan.” She called out to him from where she sat at the large table. “That’s just what I needed. Confirmation of what you two were doing up there.”
“Hey, we weren’t doing anything!” Morgan cried out. His grin told a whole other story, though. That grin grew when he heard Spencer murmur “Not for lack of trying.”
He probably hadn’t intended for anyone else to hear that. But the room had been just quiet enough that everyone heard it. All eyes turned toward him with surprise. Instantly Spencer blushed bright red and buried his face against Henry to hide, bringing back the laughter. Even Aaron was sitting back in his chair and laughing. Looking around at his friends, Morgan couldn’t keep the smile off his lips. Neither could Spencer. No matter what was going on, this right here was good. This was family. This group right here was bonded in ways no one else would ever be able to understand. They were connected beyond even that of a normal family.
With surprise, Morgan saw Jack walk from where he’d apparently been hiding by Will, over toward his dad. Aaron scooped him up, bringing the little boy into his lap. Food was spread out over the table, plates set up for people to dig in. It looked like they’d already started. A plate sat by Will, obviously made up for Henry, just as one was now sitting by Aaron that Jack was picking off of. It looked like they’d hit up take-out. KFC. Buckets of chicken were sitting open, as well as containers of mac and cheese, beans, coleslaw, and two big boxes of biscuits.
Morgan and Spencer took the two open chairs, right next to one another. Henry settled onto Spencer’s lap. The boy obviously had no intentions of moving. From her spot next to Spencer, JJ smiled and pulled over Henry’s plate so the little boy could go back to picking at his food, babbling all the while to ‘Untle Penner’.
Though Jack could speak perfectly fine, he too called Spencer ‘Penner’. It was a nickname the two boys had coined for the young doctor. Spencer never bothered to correct them. At one point in time Jack had called him ‘Mr. Reid’, but when Henry had started talking and had moved to calling him Penner, so had Jack.
Garcia took the seat next to Morgan, drawing him in to the conversation with the others about the size of Dave’s house and the style in it. Soon enough Morgan found his plate full of food and himself caught up in a good conversation with the best friends a guy could ever ask for. The tension he’d felt earlier was slowly evaporating. This was what family was. He dropped a hand down under the table, resting it on Spencer’s thigh while he got into an animated discussion with Dave about the structural elements of the house.
CMCM
Dinner was a noisy affair. It was almost the perfect end to the shitty day that he’d had. Spencer couldn’t seem to stop smiling as he looked around the room at everyone. There were stories and laughter and jokes and just a general feeling of love amongst them all. Feeling Henry in his lap, Spencer let himself focus on that feeling of family, pushing down the stress of everything else.
When the food was gone and the plates cleared away, the kid had been set up in the living room with the TV on cartoons. Will had offered to go sit with them and keep his eye on them so that the others could talk. He smiled at everyone and kissed JJ before shepherding the two kids out of the dining room. Almost the instant the door closed behind him, the mood in the room shifted perceptibly.
Spencer lifted his chin when he looked at his friends. The earlier fear and pain were still there, but he knew right now that he couldn’t afford to break apart. Something had happened. Something that was serious. Though he wanted to hide from it, he wasn’t going to. He was going to be strong enough to get through this. That determination showed in his cool tone when he asked them “What did he do?”
There was no need for him to explain his question. Everyone knew what he meant. JJ was the one to reach over, laying her hand gently over his splinted one on the table. Her eyes were both angry and sad, a combination he’d seen so many times in their line of work. Only this time it was stronger; more poignant. She was protective of those she loved and she loved Spencer Reid like a brother. “Spence, when the cops went to the apartment to talk to Michael, he wasn’t there. But your door was open and they went in. The place was ransacked. He tore things up, took some of his stuff, and it looks like he skipped town.”
Spencer felt a pang for some of this things; he knew Michael wouldn’t have treated them nicely. He would have gone for the things he knew mattered to Spencer. Thank God his most personal, important possessions were in storage at the moment. Some of the stuff in the apartment was important, yes, but slowly over the past six months, Spencer had taken things that he knew he couldn’t stand to lose and had put them in storage, always afraid of what Michael might do to them.
He could see on their faces that there was more. Shifting his good hand, he dropped it down to where Morgan’s still sat on his thigh. Their fingers lacing together reassured him enough to continue. “What else? I know there’s more.”
With a soft sigh, Aaron nodded. “There is. He left a note on the table.”
From her bag, Garcia pulled out her laptop, opening it and loading something on it. A moment later she turned it to Spencer. He found himself looking at his table, thinking to himself that his tablecloth had been ruined. It was torn and not sitting right on the table. Such a random, inane thing to think of. Yet he couldn’t help it. His brain didn’t want to focus on the note sitting there. Yet it did. His eyes were drawn to the words that jumped out at him, burned now into his brain, never to be forgotten. ‘I told you what would happen if you messed with me. You were warned. You brought this on yourself. Remember that. Can you live with the consequences? By the time I find you, you’ll be begging for me to finish this.’
“Everyone’s secure, Reid.” Emily said into the silence. “All of us, our families, your family. Your mom’s being protected, even your dad. He can’t get to us.”
“We can’t all hide forever.” Spencer said in a dull voice. You brought this on yourself. “Maybe he’ll be patient enough to wait, maybe he won’t. In that sense, he’s very hard to predict. Meticulous when need be, he can also randomly be served by solely emotion. He’s not stable. Though it is not frequent, his mood swings can be deadly. He’ll try to build a plan and he has enough intelligence to do just that, if he can keep his rage from overpowering him like he did this morning. Like he apparently did in my apartment as well.” You were warned. “Though hurting others will hurt me and that’s the goal he seeks, I’ll still be his main target. If he sees a way to take me, he will, and he won’t be afraid to take out whoever is in his way. To him, nothing matters but the final goal. The end result.”
“I’m keeping tabs on all his information, sweetheart.” Garcia said while she turned her screen back towards her. “If he uses his ATM, his credit card, anything like that, I’ll know the instant he does.”
Spencer nodded and looked over to her. “Did you flag my information as well?”
“What?” She looked up in surprise.
He was almost as surprised as her. How did they not think of this? “If he wants to run, he probably would have taken my cards. He has his own copy of my credit cards as well as a debit card to my account. Most likely he’ll use my money instead of his own.”
For a single minute Garcia was gaping at him. Then her fingers were flying over the keys. Then her eyes grew wide. “Holy shit!” She exclaimed. Lifting her head, she stared at Spencer with a trace of embarrassment and plenty of sadness. “Oh, honey, I’m sorry we didn’t think about it. I’m sorry we didn’t look earlier. Three hours ago someone went into the bank and withdrew almost all the money in your account. Checking and savings.”
That sparked a reaction in Spencer. He closed his eyes and tried to fight back the waves of anger and pain. “All of it?” he whispered through numb lips.
“There’s a grand left in the savings and a hundred in the checking.”
That son of a bitch. That God damn son of a bitch! “I don’t care about the checking account. The savings…that pays for Mom.” Pays for her care, so she can stay there at Bennington. Pays for all of it so that she’s taken care of and safe and ok. “That bastard knew that. He knew it and he did it intentionally.”
“We’ll cover your mom’s care, Reid.” Dave spoke up. His eyes were steady when Spencer looked over to him, ready to protest. The older man shook his head and gestured to his house. “Does it look like it would hurt me to cover her care for a month or two? We’re not letting Michael mess this up too. She’ll be taken care of.”
Swallowing his pride, Spencer nodded. He brought his hand up, running it over his face as he sat back in his chair. So many things were crashing down on him today. So much, all at once. It seemed like everything that could possibly go wrong today, was.
In the sudden silence of the room, the ringing of the cellphone in his pocket almost made him jump. He hadn’t even realized he was carrying his phone. Eyebrows drawn down, Spencer reached into his pocket, the sick feeling in his stomach telling him before he even looked who it was going to be. Sure enough, there on the screen was the name he’d expected to see. Looking to Garcia, Spencer said “Trace it.” Then he gathered as much of his strength as he could.
With the support of his family around him, the touch of the man he loved now on his thigh again, JJ’s hand still on his other hand, Spencer took a deep breath, stilled his trembling, and flipped his phone open.