A/n this is for my beta REIDFANATIC because she asked nicely.
Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is the property of CBS. I just play around in the universe.
Another sunny day, another confrontation with a un-sub, it was becoming a pattern. Only this time, it was Emily that had stood in front of a psycho with a gun.
"Okay… Okay… We'll put these away. I just want to talk to you…" She was lowering her gun. It was a show of trust.
It was crazy… She stood there and reasoned with that man. She told him that they didn't want to take Carrie away from him.
In the end… it was Carrie that had done their jobs for them. Morgan had cuffed the man, and all Reid could do was come out from cover, and hand Emily an invoice with what he thought was a remarkably steady hand. "We found this in his van, along with about a hundred photos of Carrie. February 21st 2006, a month later he sent his first letter."
Emily had looked up at him with an unreadable expression. "He thought it was their anniversary…"
"Hey Reid…"
Morgan had clapped him on the shoulder. He looked up and realized that he was in his chair at his desk at the BAU and it was over. Well… it was over for the rest of the team. There was a burning anger in his chest that wouldn't go away so easily. How could she offer to put her gun down?
"We're all going out for a drink. You want to come."
Reid glanced at the desk in front of him. Emily was fiddling with her bag and didn't see him trying to catch her eye. Fine… He could use a drink…
"Yeah…"
Morgan looked surprised for a minute, and then slapped him on the shoulder again. "Well… Has the professor learned to loosen up a bit?"
"Yeah… I guess so…"
"Good… Where's JJ?"
"I'll go get her." Emily said. She escaped from Reid's eyes, and the hurt, and accusation she knew was there.
--
Emily returned a minute later to tell them that JJ wasn't going to join them. Morgan raised his eyebrows, but he didn't say anything. She continued to avoid Reid's angry eyes.
"Whose turn is it to be the designated driver?"
"I'll do it. If you all don't mind my tagging along," Rossi said.
"Sure thing boss," Morgan agreed.
They headed out to Rossi's SUV and piled in. Morgan sat up front and forced Reid to sit in the back next to Emily. She reached over and tried to take his hand. He pulled away and stared out the window.
"So… where to this time?" Rossi asked.
"Charlie's…" Morgan spoke right up. "The game is on and they have three big screens in the bar."
"Fine with me… how about you two."
"Whatever…" Reid said flatly.
"Um… yeah sure," Emily didn't have the energy to argue.
"Hey Reid… You look a little pale. You okay…" Rossi asked.
He was looking at them in the mirror. Emily avoided his eyes, and Reid was still looking out the window at the night around them.
"I'm just tired."
Emily felt her throat constricting. She blinked back hard on tears. It was time to put those famous compartmentalizing skills into play or it was going to get ugly. If Reid didn't want to talk, that was his problem.The silence in the SUV was a living thing by the time they got to the sports bar Morgan had picked out. The bar was new, having opened its doors just a month ago. The owner was a former baseball player in the minor leagues. He came out of Boston and had designed the bar himself. It was all mahogany tables and chairs. There were booths running around the walls of the building and they were all full. The bar was about half full and it formed a three cornered square with the far end open to the grill. The bar was also done in mahogany and highly polished. The large screen televisions were on to three different stations including the game that Morgan wanted to see. They got a table on the north side of the bar. It was the last empty one.
Rossi ordered coffee. The other three started with beer. Reid sat next to Morgan on purpose, forcing Emily to sit on the other side of the table next to Rossi. Several women approached the table to flirt with Morgan. Rossi nursed his cup of coffee, and kept a running conversation with Morgan between lovely ladies.
"Hey there tiger…" A very tall, African American woman leaned over the table to Morgan.
He grinned up at the sixth woman to talk to him in the space of half an hour. "Hey Gina… It's been way too long Mama."
"I missed you baby… You want to dance?"
"Sure…"
Morgan let the woman, who wore black leather and stiletto heels, lead him off the one corner where a group of people were dancing to some smoky and seductive music.
"So…" Emily said.
Rossi lifted an eyebrow. "Is everything okay with you two?" He asked bluntly. "No trouble in paradise, I hope?"
The waitress appeared at his elbow just as he finished the question. Reid asked her for tequila, and Emily dropped her beer bottle on the table splashing half the bottle on the table. It splashed on her sleeve and on the front of Rossi's shirt.
"Damn…" She shouted above the noise.
Reid acted like he hadn't seen or heard anything. His eyes were trained on the big screen in front of them.
"Excuse me…" Emily left the table and headed toward the ladies room.
"Reid… Don't you think you should give her a break?"
The young agent shifted his eyes toward Rossi and there was real hurt in the depths of them. "Sir… I don't intend to be disrespectful, but please stay out of this."
The waitress came back with Reid's shot of tequila and he downed it without hesitating. Then he began choking and spluttering. His face went beet red and he looked like he swallowed the lemon he'd forgotten to suck.
"Have you ever had tequila before," Rossi asked trying not to laugh.
"No… It sounded good." He told the waitress to bring him another. "I liked it." He lied.
"Sure you did… That's why you look like you swallowed a spider."
"It's not that bad…" He protested in that same flat tone.
"You and Emily have to work out whatever is bothering you. I haven't said anything to Hotch about your relationship because I know how hard it is to have a normal life in this job. No one can accuse me of success in my personal life. I don't want…"
"There's nothing bothering me about Emily. If she wants to just put herself in danger everyday, it's no business of mine."
"Would you listen to yourself? Not two weeks ago, you put yourself in front of an unstable young man with a gun and no vest. Emily at least had a vest on today. She did what she thought was best. It ended well. You have to let it go."
The waitress came back with another shot, and Reid drank it down without the salt or lime he'd always seen done on television. It went down easier this time and made a nice little fire in his stomach.
"Where is she anyway?" Reid asked looking irritated again.
"She went to the ladies room, I think. Why don't you…"
Reid ignored him and left the table. Rossi watched him head off through the crowd and sighed. "Hey Rossi… Having fun," Morgan said. He'd come back to the table with Gina hanging off him and giggling.
"Oh yeah… I can't think of anything I'd rather do." Rossi said.
"Well I'm leaving. Gina's going to show me her new place." He wrapped both his arms around her waist and she laughed shrilly.
"You're an adult; you don't have to report to me." Rossi said.
"Where's Reid and Emily? " Morgan asked as Gina swayed in his arms.
"I don't know…" Rossi answered truthfully.
"Hm… those two running off together… Stranger things have happened. Maybe my man might get some tonight."
"I suppose," Rossi sighed.
"See ya tomorrow." Morgan left with his "girlfriend."
"I'm starting to think this was a bad idea." Rossi said to no one in particular.
--
Reid pushed out of the doors to Charlie's. He'd stood by the door to the ladies room till one woman threatened to call the police. Emily hadn't come out and he thought she probably wasn't in there in the first place. Maybe she'd come outside. There were several couples on the street holding hands and walking, or waiting for a table inside. There was one couple that kissed each other, and he wished that he and Emily hadn't decided to try and hide their relationship.
He walked down the sidewalk to one corner of the building. The darkness that inhabited the alleyway pushed back at him when he stopped and looked down it. There was something pulling at him. He faced the alley and a voice said.
"Are you going to stand there staring all night."
"What are you doing in there? Someone could…"
A hand reached out and yanked him into the shadows by his tie. "There's no one in here but the rats and smelly garbage."
"Yeah… it's a great place to chat."
"Don't be sarcastic. You've been ignoring me since we got back from Baltimore. I want to know what I did to piss you off."
Her voice was right in his ear and her breath was hot on his skin. "I'm not mad. Why would I be mad? After all you just offer to put your gun down in the face of a psycho. There's nothing to be mad about that at all!"
"I told you… Sarcasm doesn't suit you."
"Stop trying to be funny. "
"I'm not trying to be funny… I did what I had to do. Everything is okay. No one was hurt. At least I had a vest on."
He pulled back from her and tried to see her face, but it was too dark. "I don't want to talk about this here."
"There's nothing to talk about. You put yourself in a lot more danger than I did. You almost got yourself killed."
He pulled her to him and spoke roughly in her ear. "But I didn't get myself killed. I'm alright."
"So am I," She wouldn't back down.
He kissed her roughly, pushing his tongue against her lips till she opened her mouth and let him in. He pushed her up against the wall, and the cold brick permeated her blouse and made her shiver.
"Stop it…" She pushed back at him. "I'm not…"
He tugged on her hand, and they stumbled farther down the alley in the low light that seeped in from the street. He led her around a dumpster and pushed her up against a stack of wooden boxes.
"Spencer this isn't funny. You need to get hold of yourself."
"Why should I… I thought that was your job…" He grabbed one of her hands and smashed into his groin.
"Spencer…"
"Walk away… You don't have to stay here."
"I can walk away. I'm not in the least attracted to you right now. You smell like tequila and you're acting like a…"
"A horny bastard…" He suggested.
He kissed her gently. It was a sweet, closed mouth kiss. The kind of kiss you might get from a friend. It was more arousing than anything else he'd done in the last ten minutes.
"I can walk away anytime I want." She breathed.
He was so close, and his scent was so sweet and familiar despite the undertone of tequila that was so alien and unfamiliar.
He was nuzzling her neck and licking the spot on her neck that always made her knees go weak. "How long have we been together?"
Her brain was getting fuzzy. It was hard to think why she had protested against this in the first place. "Six months." She said weakly.
"Yeah… it's been six incredible months. I think I know when you want me baby."
She realized that his fingers had opened all the buttons on her blouse. He pulled her shirt out of her pants, and opened the front clasp of her pink lace bra. One long fingered hand brushed over a nipple which hardened under his hand.
"It feels like someone, who is not me, is horny tonight."
"It's cold…" She shivered deliberately.
"It's not that cold… It's the middle of May."
"The breeze is cold!"
"Okay… I suppose you're right. There are other ways."
She tried to slip past him, but he held her still. He was a lot stronger than he looked, as she had discovered soon after they had started dating. "Oh no you don't… You decided a week ago that it was time for me to join the Mile High Club. I want to do it in an alley."
"You're drunk?"
"I'm not drunk. I'm pleasantly buzzed."
"Spencer…" His name died on her lips when she noticed that he'd unzipped her slacks and pushed them to the ground. One warm hand slipped into her panties and found the wetness he was sure was there.
"Hm… You're wet. Is that because it's cold?"
"No…"
"What do you want?"
"You… I want you Spencer," She breathed
She ground her hips into him and began licking one earlobe while her hands went to work getting rid of his pants and boxers.
His heart was pounding and he couldn't wait to get into her. It was like a poison in his blood. She was there and alive. They were both alive. She loved him and no one had ever loved him except for his mother.
"Take me Spencer." Emily said. "Take me now… I need you."
He lifted one of her legs, and she wrapped it around his waist letting him in where no one else could go. Not while he was hers.
"I don't want to go slow." He gasped.
"Then don't" She moaned and then inhaled sharply when he thrust into her.
"Harder Spencer… faster baby," She wailed.
He slammed into her as hard as he could, not caring if he was hurting her. She slipped her hands under his dress shirt and her nails dug and bit into his chest. He hissed and bit down on her bottom lip. Their tongues battled and slid over each other till Emily came and it was like a thousand fireworks going off at the same time, sound, smoke and sight, all blurred together in one heady rush. He kept pounding into her after she had gone limp in his arms and growled like wild animal when finally he emptied himself into her.
Emily would have fallen to the ground if he hadn't held onto her. Her knees were jelly and her legs were trembling like she walked five miles on the treadmill. She started to laugh hysterically and Reid said.
'What's so funny?"
"You always surprise me… I didn't think you were strong enough to pull off vertical sex in an alley with me."
"I'm always up for the challenge, when properly motivated." He wheezed.
She pulled away, and began to try and get herself together. Reid did the same and soon they were sitting on the crates that were next to the dumpster.
"So… Why are you so adventurous all of the sudden?" Emily asked him.
"I'm not… You scared me today."
"Oh… so this is your way of making sure I'm still alive."
"Sure… people celebrate life with sex all the time. It's perfectly natural and healthy.
"I only did what I thought was best today."
"I know that… I'm sorry if I overreacted."
"It's okay… I love you enough to forgive you anything."
She saw him smile in the low light from the street. His tie was askew, and his hair was messed from where her hands had scrabbled through it during their little encounter.
"Can we go home now? It really is cold out and this isn't very comfortable."
"Sure… lets go find Rossi."
"What do you think he'll say this time?"
Reid put an arm around her waist and they went back to the street. "Oh… I'm sure he'll find some scathing remark to make."