A/n here's the next chapter for you. Once again I must thank my wonderful beta for all of her help on the medical end of this and checking my chapters for grammer and spelling mistakes. She's the best!

Disclaimer: see my profile

Warnings: see my profile and the first chapter.

The park had benches scattered around the grass that was turning yellow. There were picnic benches in the interior of the layout with separate grilling stations around them. She turned away from Reid and headed toward one of the picnic areas.

"Emily…"

He was walking next to her, so close that she could feel the warmth of his body radiating out toward her. It reminded her that he was a living human being with feelings. It was time to tread carefully.

How do you say to him, "Hi there… I want to have a baby. Will you let me have some of your sperm?

Yeah, that would go over really well. You'll be lucky if he doesn't run screaming into the beautiful yellow sunshine.

"Emily…"

She glanced over at him as they walked across the grass, and over leaves, that crunched under their feet with popping noises. It was a noise that reminded her of living in DC as a child on a large estate and playing in the leaves the gardeners gathered to burn.

He was staring at her with those big brown eyes that had no trouble reading her soul and knowing the truth of what was behind the mask she wore. How could anyone look at the atrocities we see everyday and still retain that expression of 'little boy innocence,' and naiveté?

She remembered every time he'd been kidnapped, or tortured or held hostage, and how that hurt her to watch. And there were the times he put himself in danger deliberately as a means to an end in a case. How did he stay so kind, and gentle, when so many terrible things happened to him on a regular basis.

"Emily…" He sounded put out and she stopped when he put a hand on her arm.

"What?" She said inanely.

"You wanted to talk to me." He prodded.

"Oh yeah, um… here's your coffee. Can we sit over there?"

She indicated the picnic table that was painted green. It was a dark forest green that looked new. It was bright against the brown leaves and the dead grass. It looked like it belonged to springtime, not fall.

"Sure…"

He sat down and put his cooling coffee on the table. She sat down across from him, putting the table between them as a shield.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong," She kept her eyes on the dark green paint of the table instead of on his eyes. "You remember that I promised you I would tell you what was bothering me when we were in Arizona last week?"

"Yes."

"Well, there is something that I have been thinking about doing for a long time and I suddenly made the decision to go forward. I wanted to get everything settled before I talked to you."

He choked on the coffee she'd brought him. "What did I do?"

"Nothing… It's just that I had to see the doctor and -"

He snapped up straight on the bench. "What's wrong Emily? Are you sick?" His voice had gone down a couple of octaves instead of up to a squeak.

"No! I'm not sick." She snapped it out and then smiled at him. "I'm sorry… This is just very hard for me."

"It's okay… You can tell me." He played with the edge of the paper cup while the wind blew his hair over his glasses and into his face.

"I know. Everyone confides in you. It must be a real burden on you."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Stop stalling…"

"I agree with Garcia, I hate profilers."

"You don't hate yourself."

"What?"

He took another sip from his coffee. "You don't hate yourself. You said you hate profilers and you're a profiler."

"You're so literal Reid. Of course I don't hate myself. "

"Then why don't you tell me what you called me here ask," He asked.

"How do you know I want to ask you anything?"

He pulled off his sunglasses and pinned her with his eyes. "People confide in me and then they ask -"

"Okay, I want to have a baby." She interrupted.

Reid went white and dropped the coffee cup on the ground, where it spilled out the rest of the coffee onto the concrete slab under the table. Coffee ran down to the grass and disappeared into the golden sod.

"What," He choked out in a squeak so high it would have set dogs howling if there had been any in the park.

"Calm down Reid, I'm not proposing marriage or anything indecent."

"But -"

"I'm looking at getting artificially inseminated. I need a donor."

His face went crimson and he slipped his sunglasses back on this face. He reached for the cup that was on the ground. His hand was no where near the target though, so his fingers brushed over the empty space as if seeking something to grasp and hold against her words.

"You're going to have stroke if you don't calm down." She said.

"I can't believe you just said that. You spring something like this on me and then make a joke." He was still squeaking.

"I'm sorry Reid. I didn't mean to make fun. You don't know how hard this was for me to do."

The color had drained out of his face again. He was looking down at his hands as he spoke, "Why me?"

He sounded so perplexed that Emily almost laughed, but choked it back. "Are you kidding me?"

"No, I don't understand why you're asking me."

"I made a pros and cons list of all the guys at work and a couple of guys I know outside of work. You were the best choice. Do you want to see the list?"

"You made a list?"

The surprise in his voice and his face irritated her just a little. "Yeah, I made a list! Is that so hard for you to believe?"

"Don't get mad at me. You're the one that just asked me to be a sperm donor." He whispered loudly.

"I'm sorry… I'm very nervous. I didn't want to go with an anonymous donor. I wanted to know that the father of my child was a good man. I wanted someone smart, and kind and gentle. Good looks, which you have in spades, are a plus."

"Don't tease me." He demanded.

"I'm not teasing you."

"I don't understand."

"Look… this was a mistake. I'm going to go now."

She stood up and left him sitting there at the picnic table, staring after her. Tears were running down her face and she began to run, not stopping till she got to her car. She unlocked the door, got inside and slammed the door.

"Damn it!" She shouted and banged her hands on the steering wheel. The horn honked under her fists with an indignant bleat.

"Shit," She started the engine despite the tears that blinded her eyes. "Stupid…" She said between clenched teeth. "What were you thinking?"

A hand hitting her window made her jump. Reid was standing there and he looked scared to death. "Emily, please wait…"

"What?"

He made a 'roll down,' motion with his hand. She hesitated so long that he hung his head and began to turn away.

"Wait," She opened the door. "I'm sorry Reid. I didn't plan for this conversation to go this way."

"I'm sorry too. I was surprised."

She got back out of the car and shut the door. The wind had begun to pick up again. Her thin jacket wasn't doing a lot to block it. She shivered slightly and Reid put a long fingered hand on her arm.

"It's cold… "

"Yeah…"

She watched his cheeks go pink, whether is was from the wind sliding around them like spirits gliding past in a haunted house, or the subject they were thinking about she couldn't tell.

"I need time to think about this Emily. I'm sorry that I can't give you an answer right away."

Her heart sunk down into her shoes… Disappointment clawed its way into her gut and made her feel sick and like crying.

He didn't say no!

Yeah, but that might mean he's stalling for a way to let me down easy. God, what if he tells Morgan!

"I understand!" She said, looking him straight in the eye. "I have to ask you not to tell anyone on the team. I don't want them to treat me or you differently. You know how Morgan is. He'll never let you live it down."

"But-"

"I mean it Reid. You're going to have to make this decision on your own."

He opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. "I understand."

He'd taken off his sunglasses again and the eyes that seemed to show every emotion understood. She sighed in relief and then stepped forward to hug him briefly. His body tensed the same way it had on that night the religious compound in Colorado had blown up and she feared that he and Morgan were dead.

He relaxed after a few seconds just as he'd down on that night and hugged her back. She pulled away and made sure that her face was wearing a genuine smile.

"Thank you for thinking about it."

"Sure…" He said softly. "Um… I'll see you at work on Monday."

"Yeah…"

Then he was gone into the late morning air and she was back in her car, wondering if she'd just ended a wonderful friendship with an extraordinary man.