Chapter 13: Not Tonight

It was late afternoon at the BAU.

"She's clean, huh?" Morgan stood next to JJ and watched as Reid said his goodbyes to Michael and Maya.

JJ cleared her throat and turned her back to the threesome they were looking at. "She was shopping when the last murder happened. She has receipts from the department stores to prove it. Shy of actually checking the security cameras, I'd say it's a fair bet she didn't have anything to do with it." JJ shrugged a little when Morgan's mouth tightened into a hard line. "She's seems super nice. She has one of those personalities that people gravitate to."

Morgan suddenly chuckled and shook his head. "What, you gonna fall for her now?"

"That's a little presumptuous; I said she was nice. I didn't say I wanted to have her babies."

Morgan sighed and rubbed at his scalp; he could feel the stress of the day begin to weigh on him and it was making him tired. He bowed his head as he leaned his butt up against the desk behind him and rubbed his eyes. "Maybe… I guess… I don't know. Maybe I made a mistake. There were just so many red flags…"

JJ was sympathetic to Morgan's worry, but she still wanted to point out what she'd noticed. "Reid trusts them, Morgan."

"Reid is naïve," he replied quickly.

"Say that to his face," JJ challenged him. Morgan ignored her. "Look, Michael seems genuine. He passed a lie detector test, offered his DNA up and he has rock solid alibis. They're both clean. We need to keep looking."

"Correction: You need to keep looking. Reid and I are off the case. Hotch's orders. Remember?" he scratched himself behind the ear, attempting to hinder the embarrassment of it all.

JJ sighed. "You pulled that one off all by yourself, Derek. You didn't need to-"

"Spare me." He cut her off and sighed again. He didn't need her to lecture him. "Tell me how often you ignore your gut feelings."

She couldn't even verbalize a response. She understood why he did what he did.

Finally, Reid was on his way back to them. Morgan glanced beyond him and saw that Michael and Maya were gone. "Michael refuses any sort of police protection. He doesn't think anyone is after him."

"You don't believe that, do you?" Morgan asked Reid as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Someone is definitely sending a message… I just don't know what that message is. Even the notes the unsub has left behind have just been non-specific warnings and 'I told you so' types of communication. I don't understand what they're trying to say if this actually has anything to do with Michael. Either way, I'm sure he's not the one doing this; he hasn't murdered anyone."

Morgan rolled his eyes just the tiniest bit and shook his head as Reid spoke until he saw Michael coming back. Maya was behind him, but walking at a slower pace than her brother. Morgan nodded once and Reid turned around as the twins approached them.

Everyone looked to Morgan when Michael singled him out with direct eye contact. Morgan tried to ready himself though he had no idea what was about to happen.

"Agent Morgan," Michael started as he held out his hand. "I needed to come back and tell you no hard feelings. I know you were just doing your job and I can't help but appreciate that."

Is this guy for real? Morgan didn't want to admit it, but his level of respect for Michael had just gone up a notch. Only a tiny notch, but still… He didn't really know what to do with his conflicting feelings except to remain cautious. He hesitated, but took hold of Michael's hand and shook it. Reid smiled at the two men and Maya then smiled at Reid, only to carry her smile over to JJ, who smiled back at her. "How about you just keep your head down and stay outta trouble?"

"That's a deal!" Maya replied for her brother.

Morgan's eyes shot to the beautiful woman. He was about as confused by her as he was by Michael. "That goes for you too," he told her.

After holding eye contact with the handsome man, Maya shyly moved her hair behind her ear and looked toward the floor, trying to hold in her smile.

Morgan kept watching her until she looked at him again. Sparks. But Morgan forced himself to look away. He knew he could get into some trouble with that woman.

Reid noticed Morgan and Maya eyeing each other as Michael pulled him aside for a second. He had to lean down just a little as Michael spoke quietly into his ear. "No, not yet," Reid answered him loud enough that Morgan heard and he and Reid made eye contact. Michael then winked at Morgan and Morgan's brow shot upward and he turned away, acting distracted, pretending he did not just get winked at, for the second time today, by Reid's wanna be boyfriend. Michael then nodded once at JJ before he and his sister turned around to leave.

After the duo left, JJ spoke up. "I guess I'm going back to the gym. I'll see you guys later."

Once it was just he and Reid, Morgan realized how dead the room felt. The twins had quite an interesting energy. He had no clue what to make of it, but it felt intense. It was something he could feel in his chest, like that anxious moment right before he kissed a pretty girl. "Hey, what were you and pipsqueak whispering about?"

Reid bit his lip and looked around. "It's nothing."

"C'mon, you can't whisper in front of me and not tell me."

Reid looked around again to make sure there were no ears to hear him except for Morgan. He leaned into him and looked around one more time. "Michael and I think we should have a threesome."

Morgan's brow rose in surprise again, but then he laughed a little. "No, really. What were you talking about? Did he ask something about the case?"

Reid raised an eyebrow and began to organizing a loose stack of files he was taking back to his desk. "I think we should. I'd like to, but it can't happen unless we're all in."

It took a second for Morgan to even begin to fathom the thought. "You're serious?"

"Think about it." And with that, Reid dismissed himself and headed to his desk.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," Morgan followed and caught up to him. Once Reid sat down, Morgan leaned into his space using his palms on the desk to brace himself, their bodies side by side. "You and him invite me?"

"Well, not in those words..." he watched Morgan's expression, knowing what he was getting at. "It's not him and I all bundled together inviting you into our bed. It's you, it's me and it's him. It's all of us. There'd be no third wheel and even if there was, trust me, it wouldn't be you." Reid shook his head, smiling a bit. He knew without anything having happened yet that Morgan and Michael would have each other's head during sex and make a good time of it. It would be an honor to even be there just to witness it.

"Watch yourself, Pretty Boy," Morgan half-assed teased. "And the answer is and will always be 'hell, no'."

"I know," Reid informed him. "At least that's what you say now…" He peaked upward after a short moment of silence to find Morgan glaring at him. He wasn't truly angry, but Reid knew he was pushing buttons that he'd best not push. "Hey, are you going to be home later? Tonight, I mean."

Morgan hesitated. "Why do you wanna know?"

"No reason." He flashed Morgan an overly innocent smile. "So, I saw you and Maya…"

"Saw what?"

"That the two of you are attracted to each other."

"Huh?" he played stupid. Damn profilers.

"It was hard not to notice."

"Whatever point you're trying to make, you can stop."

"I'm not trying to make a point… I'm really just looking for a way to tell you something."

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"Maya kissed me Saturday night."

Morgan stood up straight and stared at Reid with his mouth drawn open a little. "What?" He wondered how far things had carried along, if it was just a kiss or what. "And?"

"And nothing, really. " He didn't want to spill all the details; Morgan didn't need to know. "I told her I couldn't and she was okay with that."

"Huh." He didn't know what to make of that. It was hard to ignore the images his imagination was conjuring up of Reid and Maya. He was so distracted that he couldn't even get outwardly upset about it.

"Michael found out within minutes of coming home with the pizza. The sparkles her lip gloss left on my mouth gave it away, I guess." Reid was kind of smiling, obviously still pleasingly bewildered.

"How did he take it? He didn't look too mad just now."

"I could tell he was upset, but… he let it go."

"So… I guess I don't understand?"

"I just wanted to tell you. I didn't want to keep it from you." He paused and chewed on his lower lip as he stared off into the distance. "Ya know, he's such a peace keeper. When he got in your face today - that really surprised me."

"I'm surprised he's taking what happened today so well, not holding it against me or whatever. Her too."

"They're nice people." Reid kept rubbing index finger along his chin slipping deeper and deeper into thought. "He was scared, but I know he realized how it must have looked. I think I'm going to try to find out more about his past, if he'll let me. Hotch won't tell me anything about what they discussed in the interrogation room."

Morgan rolled his eyes, annoyed with the entire day by this point. "Why don't you just let everyone else do their job?"

"You would do the exact same thing," Reid told him as he continued to stare off into nothingness. "I just wish I understood the unsub's logic here. We need to find out if there are any female victims and… look at any and all…" Reid stopped speaking out loud as he thought about how far back this could possibly go.

Morgan would have stayed silent, but he really wanted to know what Reid had up his sleeve. "Why did you wanna know if I'm gonna be home tonight?"

Reid smirked and then an alarm went off in his head reminding him he needed to get back to work. He quickly picked up his phone to make a phone call.

Morgan sighed at being blatantly unanswered. "I'm onto you," he said as he pointed at his partner.

While Reid dialed, he told Morgan, "I don't know what you're talking about. Besides, I'm having dinner with Michael tonight."

Morgan laughed at Reid's gall. "I can't believe the nerve you have."

"It's just dinner," he informed quickly before speaking into the phone as he held up his index finger to keep Morgan from interrupting him. "Yeah, hey Barbara, this is SSA Dr. Spencer Reid up at the BAU. I need to make a request on serial killer Chester Hardwick… Yeah, everything you have. Uhh, yeah… The reference number is 59S9-SE-314… Yeah… How many boxes will that be? …Okay. Great, thanks." He hung up the phone and waited for Morgan to continue.

"You're pretty sure of yourself, aren't you? That I'm gonna take you back?"

Reid smirked a little bit. "You already have."

Morgan tilted his head wanting so badly to ask how the hell Reid came up with that, but didn't want to give that little shit any satisfaction.

At the end of the day, Reid was eager to leave and Morgan was a little surprised he didn't even get a goodbye from the kid before he was gone. So he said 'fuck it' and opened up the next case file for review. What's another hour?

When Reid parked at Michael's he tried not to block in the Honda. Maya must not have left for work yet. As he made his way to the front door, he could hear the music getting louder and louder as he approached. He could just make out the playful screaming and laughing above the music. He knocked and of course, no one heard him. He banged on the door as politely as he could and thought he heard Maya yell at him to come in.

When Reid walked inside, he saw Michael and Maya having a ball, dancing in the center of the living room. There was a video playing on the TV mounted to the wall and Reid squinted to read the info at the bottom left. It was song by Bruno Mars called Treasure. He'd never heard it, but that obviously wasn't the case for the beautiful twins. Michael danced and sang along to the video, perfectly, Reid noticed and Maya giggled and sang, trying to keep up.

Michael waved and his smile lit up the room. "Dr. Reid!"

Reid gave a goofy grin back and waved. Then he sat down on the couch to watch the show. Michael tried to wave him in, but Reid kindly refused. And Maya grabbed her brother's hand and got him dancing again, but soon enough the song was over. Michael turned the TV off and sat down next to Reid quickly. His body was radiating heat and he was breathing hard and Reid could smell him; it was enough to make Reid want to lay him down right then and there.

"Oh my, that was fun! Today was horrible! We really needed to blow off some steam," Maya breathlessly stated as she fixed her hair into a ponytail. "Okay, you boys don't have too much fun without me." She leaned down and kissed Reid on the cheek. Then she put her hand on Michael's cheek before she tried to do the same to him, but he pulled back and pushed her hand away and he wasn't joking.

The energy in the room instantly shifted and the vibe Reid was picking up on made him very uncomfortable. He knew it must be about him and Maya. He felt like shit about that. He should have controlled himself. He must still be angry and her kissing me now didn't help. What was I thinking? Reid watched as Michael and Maya had a bit of a stare off before she backed up and turned a smile at Reid as if nothing awkward was happening.

"Have a good night, fellas," she told them as she reached for her car keys and purse from the end table. And she was gone.

"Michael, I can't apologize enough. I won't let her kiss me again for any rea –"

"Dr. Reid, are you hungry?"

"What?" Reid frowned.

"I'm ready to cook dinner for you."

Reid was confused. He followed Michael into the kitchen. "Michael, why won't you talk to me?"

"About what?"

"About what happened with Maya?"

"Tell me, Spencer… How often do you talk about the things that bother you?"

"As often as necessary."

"Well, it's not necessary."

And that was it. After Reid stared at Michael in silence for another moment, he nodded and then frog faced. "Okay…" he swallowed. It didn't feel good to get so completely shut out, but maybe he deserved it. He wasn't sure. "If you change your mind," Reid offered.

"Maybe one day…" Michael conceded as he pulled some packaged meat from the refrigerator. "Now, can we please stop talking about her?"

"Yeah…" Reid was still a little stunned.

"After all, tonight is the one night we might get to ourselves." He smiled, but Reid could still feel the animosity weighing on his words. "But forgive me if you notice that I'm not holding my breath." And there it was.

"Hey." Michael was clearly bothered by today's events. He'd never been so short with Reid. As Michael began to unwrap the meat, Reid took hold of his hands and then he gently pulled Michael toward him to face him, but Michael wouldn't raise his eyes to meet Reid's. "Look at me."

Michael sighed and forced himself to look Reid in the eye. "I'm sorry," he told Reid. "I have not had a good day."

"We're going to figure this out, Michael. I promise. Whoever is doing this – we're going to find them." He pulled Michael into a hug and the two men squeezed each other tightly.

"I think you guys are right after all. I mean, I've been thinking about it all day. Maybe someone is after me. Maybe I've upset someone or something, I just don't know. It could be anyone, but I don't know who." Reid could hear that he was trying not to cry. "I just don't know how I could have been so stupid. I'm an officer. Why didn't I see what was happening?"

"Hey, hey…" he rubbed the back of Michael's head and neck.

"My father is going to be so disappointed…"

"Sshhh… No he won't," he rubbed his hand up and down Michael's back for a good minute just to help him decompress. When Michael pulled away, Reid saw his eyes were wet. He swallowed hard as he and Michael stared at each other; Reid couldn't believe how beautiful he was. He used his thumb to wipe at the fresh tear that had just started to fall.

"What if I've put you in danger?" The fear in Michael's eyes was real.

Reid shook his head. "Don't worry about that. You have the best of the best at your back, okay? The same goes for me. We're going to be fine, okay? No one can hurt us. But, just in case, will you let me call in police protection for you now?"

Michael suddenly backed away and began unwrapping the meat again. "No, no. That's not necessary, Dr. Reid." He tried to smile. "I can protect myself just fine. My sister too. I will protect her."

Reid sighed and pulled up one of the stools to sit on. "Can I force you to accept police protection?"

"No…" Michael almost laughed.

Reid waited a second, then grinned. "What about now?"

"Nope," Michael smiled wide.

"Can I change your mind?"

"Ask me again in ten minutes," Michael teased.

Reid watched in silence as Michael washed up and got everything he needed ready. He heated up a skillet added and some vegetable oil, got the breading ready, and warmed up a deep fryer… He seemed very 'at home' in the kitchen. Reid continued to watch Michael's hands as he began to cut fillets of meat into six inch long strips only glancing up every now and again to look at Reid's face. After he was finished cutting the meat, he placed the strips into a pan with an egg wash and then into a pan with the seasoned breading.

It didn't take long for Reid to start feeling guilty for just sitting there and enjoying the view. "Can I help with something?" He lifted off the stool and stood by Michael who of course refused his help. "Is that beef?" Michael only nodded. Whatever this was that he was fixing up, it wasn't traditional Mexican cuisine. Reid glanced at the sauce that was on the stove. It smelled strong of vinegar. It made his mouth water.

"It's a sweet hot mustard. Try it!"

Reid wanted to. He pulled a spoon from the drawer and dipped it into the thickening yellow mixture. He timidly tasted it and thought it was good. It was tangy and sweet with a little bit heat. He didn't know how well it would go with the beef strips he was making. "It's good, I like it."

"Can you keep stirring?"

"Yeah," Reid told him, grinning to himself. He grabbed a new spoon and began swirling it around in the sauce pan. Before he knew it, Michael was invading the oven. He dropped several strips into the hot skillet and covered it. Reid turned his head to watch Michael get a bowl full of potatoes from the fridge that were immersed in water, already cut into wedges for French fries. He drained them and Reid turned back around to check his mustard. He saw Michael removing what left over moisture he could from the potatoes with a paper towel out of the corner of his eye. Next Michael brought the wedges over to the deep fryer and dropped them into the basket and lowered it down.

As Michael continued to work around him, Reid got lost in thought while he stirred the mustard. He didn't think tonight was the right night. Today had just been too taxing on everyone. Maybe tomorrow? He'd have to see how things were by the end of the evening. Before he knew it, several minutes had passed.

Reid took his first strip of beef and dipped it into the mustard as Michael had instructed and was very surprised at how good it was. The sweet tanginess of the mustard went very well with the saltiness of the meat and it was delicious. The heat came as he chewed. "Wow, Michael. This is very good. Your recipe?" He took a drink of his water and then grabbed a fry.

"Actually," he began shaking his head, "I can't take any credit. It's written on a piece of paper that's stuck to the side of the fridge and we found that piece of paper under the original cabinets when we replaced them after moving in."

"Oh… mystery. I like it," he smiled sweetly.

Michael nodded and smirked. "It's a little greasy, but you know, we only live once." His lips were glistening with oil from the meat. Reid thought he looked sexy and leaned in for a kiss. Michael was pleasantly surprised and pressed his lips into Reid's. It was just a peck, really. The two boys giggled and kept eating, finishing off all of the meat and most of the mustard. They had barely touched the fries.

When Reid got up with his plate, Michael stopped him. "Leave it. It'll give me something to do after you leave."

Reid sat back down and Michael got off his stool, immediately taking Reid into a lip lock. Reid was startled for a split second but then found himself moaning into Michael's mouth. No, I can't do this… not anymore. He begged himself to pull back, but Michael's hands running through his hair stalled him. They opened their mouths wide against one another, breathing noisily as they kissed. "Make love to me, Spencer," Michael managed between kisses.

That pulled Reid right back into reality. "Wait, wait," he took Michael by the shoulders, gently pushing him away. "I think, uhh… I think we should slow down."

"Why?" Michael had genuine concern over Reid's statement, but tried so hard to mask it with a smile.

"With everything that's going on? I just think it's going to over-complicate things."

Michael took a deep breath and exhaled loudly as he sat down. That wasn't what he wanted to hear. He just rubbed his face and groaned.

"I'm sorry," Reid told him. He knew Michael didn't take that well, but changed the subject anyway. "Why don't we focus on finding out who this unsub is?"

Michael was just shy of yelling. "I've got no idea. I told you that and that's what I told your people."

"I know, but… Do you have your yearbooks? Maybe we can jog your memory."

"I do," he lifted off the stool and headed toward is room.

Reid stayed put in the dining room area until he remembered the refrigerator having some photos and ambled over to it to take another look. They were the photos of his family. There were several photos of Michael with different guys, but there was that one photo… of Michael and a bunch of guys and one of those guys was a victim. His memory was serving him very well. He'd only glanced at it that first time he saw it. Reid pulled it out from the magnet and looked at it. When he heard Michael coming back, he had to ask, "Who are the men in this photo? This one looks like one of the victims. Jason?"

Michael sighed and then clearly became emotional. He took the picture from Reid and tucked his lips into his mouth as his eyes watered. "Yeah… That's Jason."

"So… he was your boyfriend?"

"Yes, and so far, the love of my life."

Reid could see this was delicate subject. "Can you think of a reason that anyone would want to…" he felt horrible for even saying the words out loud, "harm him?"

"Other than being associated with me? No…" Michael placed the yearbooks on the counter next to Reid's plate and turned around still holding the photograph. "We were together for seven years and then when I started making noise about following in my father's footsteps, he decided he couldn't handle it. He didn't want to be constantly worried if I was going to make it home at night or if I got shot and killed over a traffic stop, you know? We were so in love, but he left me anyway." He shook his head. "Agent Hotchner said that he's been dead for two years now. I can't believe it."

"Yeah," Reid confirmed sadly, carefully watching how upset Michael was getting. He didn't know if Michael knew any of the details of Jason's death by now. He hoped he didn't because his killing had been especially brutal. The unsub didn't rush with Jason and he suffered greatly. In fact, of all the victims discovered so far, Jason was the only one to have been tortured and it was ongoing for several days, according the coroner's report. Reid wondered what made Jason so special to have the unsub treat him so differently. "You didn't see him again after two broke up?"

"Same circle of friends, same gym, same clubs, same town… It was hard, I'm not gonna lie. Worst break up I've ever experienced, but in the end, we managed." He went silent, obviously reliving some difficult times. Reid stayed quiet and waited for him to continue. "I… I did some unbelievably stupid shit right after that, Spencer. I drank, I got so fuckin' high, I slept around. Made some horrible, bad decisions… Nothing I'm proud of. I didn't even make it to the academy for almost two years after that cuz I was so messed up."

"A lot of people will engage in risky behavior after a bad break up. It's completely normal to begin reshaping boundaries to see what you're capable of withstanding when one of the things you felt helped to define you is no longer there... It's a coping mechanism." He paused, "And so you didn't stay in touch with him at all?" Reid's tone followed the assumption of Michael's explanation that he didn't keep in touch with exes.

Michael looked up at Reid with a questioning expression. He was just about done with getting questioned by his newest love interest. "No, and it still took me a long time just to begin to get over him."

"How long? Can you say?" Reid's wheels were turning.

"Actually, I guess around the time he died? That's when I joined the academy, coincidentally. Why?"

"I'm not sure," Reid leaned closer to Michael and casually pointed at the picture. "Can you identify these other men and I will have Garcia check on them? And I'll have someone give Jason's associates a study and we'll see if we can connect any dots."

"You're not supposed to be involved. I already provided a list of all the people I could think of." With his level of frustration getting nearly pegged every other minute, this questioning was beginning to feel invasive.

"Men and women?" Reid wanted to confirm.

"Yeah, all my friends, anyone I don't get along with and even fellow officers, which made me feel like a traitor. So please… I'm sure someone from your team is handling it. Don't get into any trouble over me. I would never forgive myself."

"I'm sorry; I'm just trying to help."

"Don't apologize; you haven't done anything wrong," Michael nearly whined, not wanting to be so irritated with Reid as he was. "Just let your people do their job."

Reid had to stop himself from apologizing again and then there was an awkward moment between the two of them. "Uhh…" He made a move for the yearbooks.

"Spencer! Don't…" Michael placed his hand on the stack, not allowing Reid to lift it from the counter. "Just… I'll look through them later."

Silence.

Reid was sensing Michael wanted his space. "Okay, um, well, as long as you're okay…I guess… I'm gonna go.

"I'll be fine."

Reid tried to give Michael a smirky smile not being able to stand it if he left things as they were. "Once again, thanks for dinner."

"You're very welcome," Michael said and tried to smile back.

Reid swallowed nervously and walked toward the door with Michael. When they stopped, they looked into each other's eyes. "Everything's going to be okay, you'll see." Reid leaned into Michael and the two kissed each other, closed mouthed, but very much with feeling.

Michael nodded his head just before Reid pulled him into a tight hug. When he pulled back Michael looked Reid in the eye and told him, "I'm afraid I am falling for you, Dr. Reid." It felt like Michael thought it wasn't something that should be allowed.

Reid didn't say anything back at first, instead staring deeply into Michael's eyes for a good fifteen seconds. There was zero doubt that Reid felt so very attracted to Michael on multiple levels, but this wasn't going to work. He didn't belong with Michael and he knew that now. But he adored the man and truly valued his company and wanted to remain friends. Maybe I should just do this now… He braced himself by clearing his throat softly, letting out a deep breath and letting his eyes look around before meeting Michael's eyes again. "Michael… this has been—"

"Shhh… Please…" Michael nearly whispered as his eyes glossed over, begging of Reid. "Not tonight… Please?"

As he searched Michael's eyes, Reid became so saddened. He knows… How does he already know? He took Michael's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze and quietly repeated back to Michael, "Not tonight…"

In just another minute, Reid found himself sitting in his car as it warmed up. He wasn't sure if the fact that Michael knows it's coming made it better or worse, but breaking it off with him was going to be so hard to do either way. But at least this time, he didn't need reminding why he needed to do it.

It's Morgan. It was always Morgan. It has never not been Morgan. And it was always going to forever be Morgan.

I will have the next chapter up asap! I'm still in the middle of writing it, BUT after that, I have the next 10,000+ already written. ;) Leave me some love!