"Reid, what is with you?"

"Hu?" Reid looked up at Emily. "Excuse me?"

She gave him a sideways glance and rolled her eyes. "You are here, but you are so not here. You haven't gone off on a tangent about anything, and I've set you up several times for a statistical overload and I've got nothing from you, and it's eerie."

"Sorry, I didn't sleep the best last night." He looked over to her the look he received was not one of being impressed.

"When you haven't slept well you ramble, you have been silent, absent even."

"Are you profiling me?"

"Observation," She put her hand up in the air playing defensive with a small smile on her lips, "Alright, I'll leave it at sleep deprivation."

Reid leaned back against his seat and stared out the window. Thankfully Hotch had asked him to go with Prentiss instead of Morgan which lifted a great weight off his shoulders. He needed time to think, about the night before, about the morning, about the almost…almost something. And he knew that when they got back to the hotel he would have to face him. He would have to talk to him and give him a reason as to why he tried to kiss him, and it tied his stomach in knots to the point where he couldn't concentrate on making a profile, when they met with newfound victim number nines family he barely talked to them, leaving Prentiss to do it. Morgan needed an explanation, and he didn't know how to give him one.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Reid stood outside the door room key in hand staring at the knob. They'd been back for ten minutes and he just didn't want to go in.

"Reid?" He turned around as Morgan came walking down the hall. "What are you doing?"

"I uh, well, I'm standing here. I thought you got back before we did."

Morgan lifted up the coffee cup in his hand. "Ran out for a second." He slowed to a stop in front of him. "You gonna open the door or are we going to have to stand in the hall all night?"

"Oh, oh sorry." Reid brought the key up missing the lock completely the first time his hand was shaking and he hadn't noticed before. With purpose he jammed the key through the slide and the door the light turning green and he flicked the handle open nearly running into the room. He took off his jacket laying it on the bed with his gloves and immediately picked up a file, ignoring the shaking of his hands and the feeling of Morgan staring at him. "Did uh, did you and Jj have any luck?"

"No, we just worked with local pd trying to figure out what kind of smoke was ingested, see if it held any kind of signature. It looks like just regular wood smoke. How about you?"

"Spent most of the day talking with the family, nothing from it; we keep talking to family and nothing is coming of it. They are not helping and we are wasting our time. Problem is we have no other way to focus our time. It's already the 22nd and we have only found nine bodies, we are running out of time and fast. I hate to say it but unless something major happens then we might not be able close this one." It was silent for a bit before Reid heard a snort, or a chuckle, maybe a mixture of both. He turned slightly to look at Morgan. "What?"

"I know that you are not reading that." He spoke quietly.

Reid knew what he was getting at and he felt the knot in his stomach come back. He set the file on the bed and moved past Morgan. "I have to use the restroom." He mumbled, his hand reached the door and he froze. "I'm sorry." He said quietly. "About this morning, I didn't…my intention was not to…" His hand dropped from the knob to the hem of his shirt nervously tugging on it.

"Your intentions, Reid what are you talking about?"

He sighed. "I've never moved them from more than friendship, I know your preference, and I think that in the spark of the moment I simply forgot to keep myself in check. My behavior this morning was inappropriate and you were just trying to be of some comfort to me. I was out of line, and I, well….I mean…" Reid pulled tighter on his shirt beginning to ramble. "It's, I'm just sorry, to have made you uncomfortable, I never wanted to…." He heard Morgan set down his cup and move towards him. He wasn't sure what to expect, at the least he expected a verbal reprimand, and he wouldn't blame him for it. He felt very small and insignificant in the moment.

"Reid." Morgan said and he turned slightly, but wouldn't bring up his gaze. Instead he watched as Morgan's hands reached out and gently pulled Reid's hands away from his shirt, holding them gently. "Reid, look at me." Reid heard him speak closely to his ear and he slowly shifted his eyes from their hands to Morgans face, which was very close to his own.

"I'll let you take the blame for that one." He spoke his voice low and quiet. "But this one, this is all on me."

Reid felt his hands drop and Morgan's hands came up gently around the back of his neck, pulling him close until their lips met. His hands moved of their own accord grabbing Morgans shirt tightly in his fists pulling him closer. He felt Morgan smirk at him and it pulled Reid back to earth he opened his eyes and found himself looking into Morgans, he gasped and Morgan found that a great opportunity to pull Reid closer deepening the kiss.

His head, his heart, his…well his everything was pounding, the noise resounding loudly in his ears. One of Morgans hands was tangled in his hair, the other on the small of his back pulling him closer; he couldn't tell where his body ended and Morgans began; and it was hot, so hot all of a sudden he felt dizzy.

He wasn't sure if he pulled back for air or Morgan, but he kept his eyes closed and breathed the cool air in deeply, shuddering as he exhaled.

"Hey." Morgan said quietly and Reid opened his eyes looking at him, he had a silly smile on his lips. He leaned in and kissed him again, deeper; less sweet and more urgent. Reid felt himself moving back words until he was pushed up against the wall, Morgan's leg moved between his pining him in place. Lips parted and Reid let out a strangled noise that was foreign to him when Morgan attached himself to his neck.

"Derek…" the name escaped his mouth without thinking his head moving back unconsciously giving him a better range of his neck. He felt his one leg up wrapping it around Morgan's calf, pulling him closer, wanting to feel every bit of him. And just like that his lips came off and Reid much to his dismay let out a whimper of disapproval.

Morgan leaned his head against Reid cheek. "I gotta slow down pretty boy," He spoke quietly, his breath ragged, "That was about five second shy of becoming something other than pg rated." He pulled back and gave him a soft kiss before resting their foreheads together letting their breathing even out.

"I," Reid swallow finding his mouth dry all of a sudden, "I was not aware that you,"

Morgan chuckled. "Neither was I, pretty boy. Neither was I."

Slowly they untangled their limbs finding themselves; Reid pushed his hands through his hair trying to give it some semblance of order as his mind started to catalog what had just happened in rapid succession. He looked up when he heard Morgan laugh.

"You're processing." He stated with a small smile on his lips.

"Well," Reid said furrowing his brow a bit, "I feel it only reasonable to do so, given the current state of things."

"This is true." He laughed. "I'll tell you what though; I've wanted to do that for a long time, and I'm glad I did."

Reid couldn't hold back the smile that formed boldly on his lips, making him feel like a silly school girl. "I am too."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alrighty, they have now macked out. WOOHOO! One chapter left! Will they solve the case, what will happen with Morgan and Reid, why the smoke related deaths! Stay tuned for the next and final installment of Twelve Days of Christmas!