Author Mentions: I want to state that I am not a religious person. This was just an idea. Also, thank you for your outstanding support. Each review, favorite or alert warms my heart completely.

Rating: K - T

Pairing: Morgan/Reid

Disclaimer: I own Atonement on DVD, brown batter mix, and a pair of argyle socks. No Criminal Minds, though.

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I love you. I'll wait for you. Come back. Come back to me. - Atonement

It seems he is in the middle of his apartment, though it is oddly lit, like he had dimmed the all the lighting fixtures except for one area. Looking closer, he blinks, and then suddenly realizes Spencer Reid is climbing through the window. He looks exactly how Derek remembers him, tall, and spindly, rumpled clothes, long, curly hair. Derek could feel his insides curve - did he had insides now? - a cautious hopeful feeling becoming him.

"I could have come through the door," Spencer said, beaming. His tone mentioned something light in it, as if he were talking about favorable weather. "But I thought the window would be cool."

"You're here." Morgan whispered.

"Of course I am! You're dead, aren't you?" Reid said, taking a step around the apartment with ease. "I had to be the one to see you. I mean, I would let, you know, your mom or your sisters, but everyone is still alive. It had to be me. I've waited so long for you." He seemed to blush, or maybe it was just a trick of the light. There seemed to be an bewildering glow about him. Spencer passed around small village kitchen, his narrow hips leaning against one of the counters.

"Nothing has changed! I mean, I haven't lived here, for, how long has it been?" He asks, looking to Derek.

"Twenty years?" Derek fumbled, thinking back to when Reid had died in the line of duty. It seemed to be so long again, and the memory, though aged, brought him back to the clarity of painful feelings. Derek waited for the ache to set into his abdominal, to race up to his heart and beat at his arms, legs, neck. But nothing. There was no feeling. It was the most scary and freeing feeling Derek had felt in a long time.

"It's a different schedule where I am, really." Reid said, opening cabinets and examining dishes. There was an oddly delighted look set on his face, though his eyes seemed to be in torment.

"I'm dead." Morgan said, stating it clearly.

"Very much so," Reid answered, looking up. Both seemed not able to keep their eyes off each other for very long.

This seemed to be less and less like a long, and drawn out tortuous dream. Though he had dreamed many nights of seeing Spencer again, none of them had involved conversation. They were just of Reid dying, over and over again. His warm fingers, covered in his own blood, slack and in Morgan's. His eyes, pleading and loving, suddenly blank. Morgan now found that he could not feel the accompany of emotions he was used to feeling when he remembered that day.

The Spencer in front of him seemed so real. "Yes. You're definitely dead," he said again, picking up a frame of him and Morgan dated twenty years back. He turned to Derek, his eyes filled with a raw state of sadness.

"You never found another." It wasn't a question. "After all this time?"

He seemed to want to sob, but his eyes would not swell and release any type of tear. He sat down on the brown leather couch, and stared at the frame. Derek looked down at this hands, and reminded himself to feel shock at the look that he had no wrinkles on his hands. He touched his face, gently, and there were no papery thin skin, no gray beard on his chin. He was Derek Morgan, twenty years ago.

Derek swallowed thickly and nodded. The idea alone, to replace Reid, was absurd. He had thrown himself into work, yes, but not found any will to find another after Reid had died. He truly had only thought of bring Reid back, of seeing him again, but that, honestly, was outrageous....

"I thought ghosts couldn't pick things up?" he asked, mainly to change the subject. Spencer shot him a look, a small smile on his lips.

"One, I'm not a ghost. Two, we're in a parallel universe. Let me explain. When one dies, they wake up in a place - this is my theory - in a place of somewhere with a certain sentimental value to it, that meant something to that person at some point. And one of us," He points to his chest, "gets to greet you. Bring you over," he explained.

"How did I die?" Morgan asked. It seemed to be a lot, but it was very easy to understand.

"In your sleep," Reid answered. Then he smiled a wry smile. "Not very exciting, considering I was shot in the line of duty," Reid said, then winced. "I am sorry. I forget what that must have done to you."

"It did seem to be excruciatingly painful. This is the first time, I haven't cringed like I used to." Morgan agrees thoughtfully, his body absent of mental torment. He thought he was very lighthearted, because he was with Spencer, at long last. "But that was a long time ago. You died twenty years ago."

Reid nodded, looking solemn. "Even where I was, I couldn't help but feel human sadness. When you die, you don't feel - we don't feel - human emotions accurately anymore. A lot of others felt very awful for me. As you age there, the longer ago you died, the more human emotions you start to feel. Right now, I'm sure, you are feeling particularly nothing. You thoughts are reminding you that you should, but you aren't truly feeling them, are you? Yes, well, you'll start to feel again, soon." Reid explained knowingly.

Morgan nodded.

"But I couldn't believe how unfair it was. Leaving you. I didn't want to have to, you have to believe that. I didn't want to leave you there. I love you." Reid looked abruptly very pained. Morgan moved closer to him, for the first time moving himself. He reached out and held Spencer's hand, and was mildly surprised it felt cold rather than warm. It was a comfortable feeling.

They sat in the apartment for several long minutes. Was there time anymore? Derek didn't know.

"Tell me about everyone else. The team," Spencer asked, lying against the sofa back, his hand touching gently Derek's knee. He looked positively beautiful.

"I thought you could see everyone, up where you're from."

But Reid shook his head. "No, I could only see you, and that was seldom. I rarely got glimpses." he answered serenely. "I could feel you, though. The beats of your heart, the rhythm of your steps."

Derek tried not to be put off by this. "JJ had two more children. A daughter, Matilda, and another son, named after you, Spencer. Garcia married Kevin, and they had three Yorkshire terriers, but no children. "Oh. Rossi married again - this one stayed, though. He retired a couple years back. Emily is now the Unit Chief officer. Hotch died around eight years after you. Cancer. But you knew that, didn't you?" Derek paused.

Reid shook his head. "I believe Hayley went to greet him."

"Who greeted you?" Morgan asked.

"Gideon." He seemed not to want to say much else about it. He looked around. "Jeez, Morgan, you still have all my technical books." He muttered, rolling his eyes.

"I have everything of yours." Morgan answered easily.

"Even my socks?"

"Even your socks."

"We can be together, now." Reid answered, placing his cold hand on Morgan's cheek. "No interruptions. Not even death." He smiled a tiny smile.

"I've waited for you this long, haven't I?" Morgan breathed. "I hope the others won't miss me."

"They'll join us someday, too." Reid muttered, grabbing Derek's hand and heading to the front door. The apartment seemed to fade a little bit as they walked towards the door. It had a soft glow to it, looking immaculately white against the dark blue walls. "They always do."

"Are we leaving?" Morgan asked, feeling suddenly like a child. "Does it hurt?"

"Not at all," Reid laughed, gripping his hand tighter. "Not at all."

They stepped through the door, and then disappeared.

But what sense of hope or satisfaction could a reader derive from an ending like that? - Atonement

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I hope you like it enough to review.