Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: Big thank you to my beta and thanks for everyone's words and support.
Reid understood that people, like Cooper, who grew up in abusive environments had a higher chance of developing anger management issues than the rest of the population. Yet, during the three months of dating, not once had he seen Cooper angry or violent (physically or verbally) toward anyone.
Until that incident in the nightclub, Reid would have sworn that his boyfriend was the coolest tempered guy he had ever met.
There had been times in Reid's life when he had wished that he could beat up his bullies so he understood Cooper being upset that night but he hated knowing that his boyfriend had this level of rage inside him.
To find out if that was to be a one-time event, or something deeper, Reid decided to find out more about Cooper's past.
He didn't like the fact that he was secretly going to profile his boyfriend but anyway, he planned a romantic dinner at Cooper's favorite restaurant, with the hope that good food and wine would make Cooper extremely talkative about his past.
Unfortunately for him, the evening was a total fiasco because as soon as he began asking questions about family matters, Cooper completely shut down and remained silent during the rest of the dinner.
As soon as they got back to Reid's apartment, Cooper went straight to the bedroom and started pulling out his running gear.
"What are you doing?" Reid asked, as he watched Cooper changing.
"I run when I'm upset, and guess what? I'm upset!" Cooper stated while pulling up his sweat pants, "Add that to your profile."
Reid felt stunned by Cooper's harsh tone voice and cold glare. Reid knew that he had messed up badly. To his great regret, during dinner he had acted more as a profiler than a boyfriend. Nonetheless, he defended the rightness of his actions, "I didn't profile you. I only asked you questions about your family. I'm your boyfriend, so I think I deserve to know."
Cooper looked up from tying his running shoes and sneered, "You mean like I deserve to know what happened between you and Morgan? Or, why you have needle marks on your arm?" Cooper stood up and stated, "See, that's the difference between me and you. I understand and accept that you want to keep your painful memories to yourself. Obviously, I don't merit the same courtesy."
"That's not true!" Reid exclaimed, "Can't you at least talk to me instead of running away?"
"No! I can't, because I'm too upset to have a calm conversation with you. Don't wait for me. Goodnight!" Cooper said, as he walked out the bedroom and the apartment without once looking back.
A couple of days passed, and Reid hadn't seen or heard from Cooper. He realized that he would have had the same reaction if their roles had been reversed. Deciding to make the first move, Reid grabbed his phone and sent a short text to Cooper: "Hi, are you free for lunch today?"
Five minutes later, he received the following reply: "Noon. FBI cafeteria?"
Smiling, Reid texted back: "Ok, see you then."
A few minutes before noon, Reid walked toward the cafeteria and spotted Cooper leaning against a wall, as he waited for Reid. Reid gave a small wave, and received a very short smile and nod.
Silently, they entered the cafeteria, grabbed their meals, and found a quiet booth. Breaking the awkward silence, Reid tried to look into Cooper's eyes and said, "I'm really sorry for the way I acted. You're right. Just because we're dating doesn't mean that we don't have the right to privacy."
Cooper finally met Reid's eyes and said, "Look! I understand how you feel, but you need to get this. There are things that I don't want to talk about, so you have to choose: Take me as I am with my secrets, or break up with me. All I can promise you is that if you stay with me, then I'll always be honest about my feelings for you."
Reid was shocked at the sudden ultimatum. It wasn't how he had imagined their reconciliation would go. Swallowing hard to strengthen his voice, he asked, "Do you need an answer right now?"
"No, take your time," Cooper replied, as he stared down at his meal and ate in silence.
On the other side of the cafeteria, Morgan, Garcia, Prentiss, Seaver, and Kevin were eating their lunch and watching the stiff conversation between Reid and Cooper.
"You think they're going to break up?" Seaver asked.
"No way! They're so good together," Garcia declared.
"Yes, but sometimes that's not enough," Prentiss stated.
Morgan sat quietly as the conversation went on a little longer. He didn't say a word, because he expected Reid and Cooper's relationship to end soon; and he didn't want to share that opinion with his colleagues.
After a while, Prentiss, Seaver, and Kevin excused themselves and headed back to work. Now that Morgan was alone with Garcia, he took his chance to ask her for a personal favor.
"Baby Girl, if I ask you to do something without asking any questions, will you do it?"
"It depends on what you want, Hot Stuff," Garcia giggled.
Morgan leaned closer and whispered, "Will you do a background check on O'Neill?"
Surprised, Garcia almost shouted, "What?" Lowering her voice, she asked, "You mean O'Neill, as in Reid's boyfriend?"
"Come on, Baby Girl. You don't found it weird that O'Neill is Strauss' Assistant?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Garcia had previously wondered why Strauss had hired Cooper. In the past, the Section Chief's former assistants were all women of a certain age; or, freshly graduated Political Science Majors who used their parents' connections to boost their careers. None of that criteria fitted Cooper, but that alone didn't mean that he had something to hide. "Sorry, but I can't do that," she replied.
Even though Garcia hadn't known Cooper for a long time, she considered him as a friend and refused to hack into his personal life. It was one thing to use her skills to catch UnSubs, or to protect sensitive items about her team, but it was a completely different thing to spy on ordinary people's lives. Seeing that Morgan looked upset by her refusal to do as he had asked, Garcia took a deep breath and said, "I know you don't like Cooper very much, but you should give him a chance. He makes Reid happy, and he's a nice guy."
Morgan couldn't believe his ears. Penelope Garcia, his best friend, was taking some random newbie's side over his. Full of anger and without pausing to think, Morgan sneered, "A nice guy like Battle ? Don't take this the wrong way, Sugar, but you're not such a good judge of character!" Of course, he regretted those words as soon as they came out of his mouth. Quickly, he tried to apologize, but it was too late.
Garcia's eyes filled with tears. She jumped up and shouted, "Go to hell, Morgan!" then rushed out the cafeteria without looking back. Some agents turned and stared, but Morgan refused to look at his audience.
Once she was safely behind her office door, Garcia cried freely. She damned Morgan for talking about that guy who tried to kill her. She knew that Morgan was having a hard time accepting a new man in Reid's life, but that didn't explain why he'd been so cruel to her. Wanting to prove to Morgan that he was wrong (and against her better judgment), Garcia hacked into Cooper's FBI file:
Cooper O'Neill, age 28, was born and raised in Nebraska. After he graduated high school, Cooper moved to California and worked in restaurants and nightclubs in, and around, San Francisco. Years later, he enrolled in SFSU, where he earned his Master's Degree in Public Administration. There were dozens of recommendation letters from his former college professors, various organizations, and the San Francisco Mayor's Human Resource Office. All the letters complimented Cooper's personality and his professionalism.
There was nothing incriminating at all. There weren't any arrests or any other type of trouble with the law. Satisfied with her background check, Garcia had pulled herself together and got down to business doing her real job.
She ignored every message, phone call, and e-mail that she received from Morgan. Garcia knew that she'd eventually forgive her best friend, but she was going to make him beg for that forgiveness.
Hours later, as Garcia was about to pack up and head home, she received a phone call from Erin Strauss. Garcia almost never received direct calls from Strauss, or a summons to her office. As she entered the antechamber to Chief Strauss' office, Garcia noticed that Cooper wasn't there. Taking a few deep breaths, Garcia knocked on Strauss's door and flinched when she heard a loud "Come In."
Seated behind her desk, Strauss coldly pointed to one of the chairs in front of her desk. Pulling out two files from her desk drawer, Strauss glared at Garcia and asked, "Miss Garcia, do you think that the FBI's resources exist to serve you personally?"
"No … of course not," Garcia floundered. She hated feeling like a child in the Principal's office.
"Are you sure of that? Because looking through these files, it would appear that you do!" Strauss pushed one of the file folders towards Garcia and continued, "These files detail all of your past infractions. They range from tapping into the FBI Network computers and playing online games with a person who ending up hacking into our database, to misappropriation of federal funding in order to buy unauthorized and expensive tablets for your team, as well as various other infractions of your position. I had looked the other way because you're excellent at your job, but now you've gone too far."
Strauss laid open the second file folder and pushed it towards Garcia, "You know what this is, don't you?"
Garcia felt ready to feint when she recognized an old legal document with her signature at the bottom. Several years ago, she got caught and arrested by the FBI, Garcia signed a deal with the District Attorney and the FBI in lieu of imprisonment.
"When you signed that document, did you (or did you not) fully understand and accept that in exchange for your freedom, you would only use your hacking skills to serve our federal government ?" Strauss demanded.
Garcia's throat felt too dry to speak, so she rapidly nodded her head.
Strauss glared even harder and continued, "So why, earlier this afternoon, did you hacked into The FBI database to read Mr O'Neill's personnel file?"
Garcia's first thought was, Oh, my god! I thought I cleared all traces of that. How the hell did she find out? Then it dawned on her that it was the FBI, who had originally caught her in the first place! She could barely pull herself together because the thought of prison horrified her. Her voice trembled badly as she rattled off, "Spencer ... I mean Dr. Reid ... he's dating Mr O'Neill ... and I wanted to be sure he was okay ... I shouldn't have done it … I'm so sorry …"
Using her full voice, Strauss almost shouted, "That does NOT excuse your actions! You are a Technical Analyst for the FBI, NOT a Private Investigator."
Fully aware of the power of the pregnant pause, the Section Chief silently glared at Garcia before continuing, "For everyone else's sake, I suggest that you keep the details of this conversation to yourself. I'm not going to act on today's incident; but this is your FIRST and ONLY official warning. Believe me, the next time you cross that line, I will NOT let it slide. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Garcia replied, as tears rolled freely.
"You're dismissed." Strauss commanded, while staring straight into Garcia's eyes.
"Thank you, Ma'am," Garcia choked out and quickly scrambled out of there without looking back.
Due to the nature of his job, as well as his own peculiarities, Reid had never been able to make real friends of his own. The friendship and closeness between his teammates was a result of having an extremely dangerous and stressful job. They had some fun together but deep down; he knew that his co-workers didn't chosen him.
Though he trusted them and cared about them, Reid had never been able to be himself around them but these past three months of dating Cooper had truly changed his life.
He had never felt so comfortable and sure in the fact that he was loved; not just for what he could do (professionally or sexually), but for whom he was as a person. Cooper had become much more than just a lover. He was his friend and his confidant. Whenever Reid felt downhearted about his mom, or a tough case, his boyfriend was always there to comfort and to listen to him.
Reid was confident that Cooper's childhood abuse had made him more prone to violence when confronted with trouble and he had thought long and hard about breaking up with Cooper, but he didn't want to be like his own father who divorced his mom because of her illness.
Cooper deserved better than that; he was just a good person who been through a lot of pain in his life and Reid wasn't going to break up because his boyfriend maybe had some anger issues.
Fully aware that it might be a little difficult, Reid decided to accept Cooper and his secrets anyway. This was his chance at happiness, and he was taking it.