Don't own Criminal Minds

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Morgan had gone home and made himself a stiff drink before passing out in his bed alone a few hours later. He had expected a three day weekend filled with hot sex and breakfast in bed but instead found himself completely alone in his dark house.

Even Clooney was giving him some distance, as if able to sense that Morgan was in trouble and deserved no love from him at least until Morgan had hauled himself up to feed him in the morning. He pet Clooney behind the ears as the dog chewed with a vigor at his kibbles and bits.

Clooney munched on as Morgan walked over to start a cup of coffee. He wanted to be fully awake before calling Reid, knowing the younger man could think circles around him if he wasn't careful.

He wanted to apologize to Reid more than anything and even invite his lover to a home cooked meal but he wasn't sure how easily he was going to be forgiven this time.

He took gulps of his coffee rather than the calm sips Reid always took as if the coffee was the only thing that stood between him and the phone. He burned his tongue, cursed loudly and nearly tripped over Clooney as he finished the last few morsels of the dark liquid. Clooney whimpered and Morgan paused as the dog nodded his head towards the front door.

"You want to go for a walk now?" Morgan asked and Clooney repeated the motion, "I…er…"

Puppy dog eyes always did him in and a few minutes later, Morgan and Clooney were out the door with Morgan promising himself that when he got back the first thing he would do was call Reid.

The bookstore didn't open until 9 am that morning and the young stocker didn't go outside until 11 to take out the first set of broken down cardboard boxes. He was in a hurry, a light layer of snow had fallen the night before and all he was wearing was the over sized polo he had been given on his first day of work and some old jeans. He stepped out of the backdoor of the store, into the alley, and moved towards the street.

"Gah!"

He yelled as he foot caught something and nearly fell face forward towards the ground.

"What the…" He trailed off as he twisted violent to his side to see if he could kick the offending item when his jaw dropped.

"M-Mr. Kato!" He scrambled to his feet, kicking up snow as he rushed back to the back door.

"MR. KATO!" He screamed into the store and an older man came to his call hurriedly, looking displeased.

"Christopher, what on earth is the matter with you?"

"There's a body!"

"Are you smoking something out here!" Kato cried as he walked down to where Chris was frantically pointing, "There's nothing...here…" Kato paled and turned back to his employee, "Christopher, get back inside and call the police then close the store."

Chris nodded and took off to do what Kato ordered as the older man sank down onto his knees. He brushed some of the snow off the body and saw the pale face of a young man; he furrowed his brow more when he noticed a small movement from his chest.

He was still alive!

Kato tore off the worn leather jacket he was wearing and desperately brushed more snow off the boy, "Hang on." He then covered the boy and rubbed his back gently. He winced when he saw the snow burns on the boy's hands but continued to talk to him in a quiet voice,

"Just hang on."

The police immediately taped the alleyway off, setting Kato and Chris off to the side as the paramedics pulled Reid's body onto a gurney. The officer in charge knew Kato well; the store owner often called about 'illegal activity' in his alleyway and was now demanding more police presence.

The officer huffed as Kato told him what time he had closed up shop up until the time they reopened that day. It was then he turned to face Chris.

"So what happened?"

Chris's eyes darted from the ambulance back to the spot where he had tripped many times over, "Is he gonna be ok?"

"Kid, I need you to tell me what happened." The officer repeated more firmly.

"Oh…I uh, I came out here like at 11 to throw out some boxes and I tripped over him…that's all…"

The officer took down the time and thanked them both, motioning for another officer to escort them back into the bookstore. A female officer walked up to her comrade and sighed,

"The paramedics say he took one hell of a beating and that's not even counting the damage the cold did to him. What do you think went down, Carter?"

Carter flipped through his notes with another disdainful sniff, "Young guy, late at night, no id…c'mon Sanchez, what do you think happened?"
Sanchez frowned, "We still haven't checked the rest of the alley…it goes down pretty far."

"Nah," Carter shivered, "Some pimp probably kicked the shit outta him."

"You think it's related to those male prostitute beatings? He's well dressed…" Sanchez countered quietly.

"Pft, if it wasn't that, he was probably buying drugs." Carter groaned when Sanchez gave him another stern look, "Fine…MALOY!"

The officer who had escorted the two bookstore workers back inside came hurtling out at break neck speed,

"Sir?"

"Search the alley again, all the way down this time…not that we'll find anything. Sanchez, since you seem so enthralled with this kid, ride with him to the hospital."

Maloy took off as he was ordered while Sanchez sighed and signaled to the paramedics that she was coming with them.

Morgan blinked in confusion when Reid's phone went straight to voice mail. Even though it was the weekend, each BAU agent was still expected to be on call at all times, just in case. He frowned thinking, just for a moment, that Reid had ignored his call until he realized that the phone would have at least ringed once.

"What do you think?" He asked Clooney who was contentedly lying out by his feet after being tired out by his morning walk. Morgan shook his head as Clooney just let his tongue roll out of his mouth and dialed Reid's number one more time.

"You've reached SSA Dr. Spencer Reid, I am unavailable at this time-" Morgan hung up with another silent curse.

Maybe he had just gotten Reid so angry that he had forgotten to charge his phone which was as unlikely as pigs flying because Spencer Reid never forgot anything so basic. He continued to sit in his home office; half tempted to call Garcia until he thought better of it. There was no need to worry her over something that he could just be blowing out of proportion.

Still…

He leaned back in the chair and decided to call Reid again in a few hours and if didn't get a response then he'd go over to his house to apologize, figuring he'd simply walk in on Reid engrossed in a novel or working on a paper. He smiled at the mental image of Reid surrounded by books, wearing his glasses and rattling off statistics faster than anyone he knew and Morgan was certain it was going to be hard to wait to see him.

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