They all slept late the next morning and awoke at roughly the same time. After everybody was showered and dressed Rossi made them all a fried breakfast with Hotch assisting him. They ate around the dining table and the kitchen was buzzing with the sound of several separate conversations. It reminded Morgan of big family celebrations at home, his aunts, uncles and numerous cousins all helping with the dinner and the chores.
He felt warm and happy and at ease for the first time in a long while. Reid was sat next to him, and was being a little quiet, but he was often quiet when in the midst of a large group. Morgan knew by now that it wasn't that he was unhappy or uncomfortable, it was just that he enjoyed watching and listening to other people having a good time so much that it didn't really occur to him to jump in. It was something Morgan had grown to love about him. He never talked for the sake of talking, or to fill a silence like some people did, he waited until he had a thought that he felt was worthy of sharing with them.
Reid looked pretty happy and well-rested, and he was tucking into his food. That was enough for Morgan right now. It had been a horrendous few days for them, and although they hadn't openly discussed it, there seemed to have been a collective decision made that they were going to make the most of their unexpected few days of freedom and luxury.
...
The good mood improved when Hotch phoned the hospital and was told that Young's scan had shown no bleeding or damage to his brain and that he could leave that afternoon when the observation period ended.
Prentiss and JJ went to the hotel's spa for a 'girly pampering session', while Rossi, Reid and Morgan went and played on the children's indoor crazy-golf course all afternoon, a huge white glass building with fake grass and rocks and water features with bridges and waterfalls, which also had themed holes which involved hitting the ball under a car, through the blades of a fan, into the mouth of a clown which kept shutting at random times or down a tube where it would reappear somewhere else, that kind of stuff. Hotch played one round with them but then had to go get Young from hospital.
Reid won their little golf tournament of course. Every single round, wielding the mythical power of 'physics.'
"'Just a matter of physics' my ass." Morgan muttered as Reid effortlessly sank another perfect shot, on an impossible slope, dangerously near a sand bunker.
"I could give you some tips if you'd like?" Reid grinned.
"No thank you." Morgan set his jaw and stepped up to take his turn. His pride as a man would not allow it.
He swung his club…and missed the hole by about a metre. At least it didn't roll back into the bunker. He went to take his second shot and misjudged the angle slightly so the ball rolled around the hole and stopped about two metres the other side.
Rossi slapped him on the back.
"Know when you're beaten son." He said.
Morgan walked over to the ball again and tapped it gently. It skidded over the hole and into the bunker. He let out a frustrated howl.
"Ahh this game is stupid anyway." He said sulkily.
"Looks like Young and Hotch are back anyway." Rossi said. Young waved at them from across the green. He had changed out of his hospital clothes, but he still had a large bandage dressing around his head to cover the twelve stitches in his scalp, which gave him the amusingly forlorn appearance of a puppy forced to wear a cone on its head. His messy fringe poked over the top of the bandage, and the tufts which normally flicked out over his ears were splayed out from underneath like fluffy sideburns.
They started a new game, Young, Hotch, Morgan and Reid, while Rossi went and sat by the bar, grateful for the excuse to sit down with a scotch and watch the young ones tire themselves out.
Young was shockingly bad at it, as he seemed to be at every sport, which made Morgan feel slightly better. He blamed it on the head injury of course. Hotch was pretty good, but Morgan managed to stay ahead of him for most of the game. Reid, it seemed, never got tired of beating everyone.
On the third hole, out of the corner of his eye, Morgan caught Young reaching into his coat pocket and sneaking a drink from a small bottle of vodka when he thought nobody was looking.
Well that partly explained why he sucked so bad.
"Young!" he hissed. "What do you think you're doing? You literally just came out of hospital with a potential brain injury!"
Young grinned mischievously. "They gave me the all clear."
"Yeah but still..." he said doubtfully.
Young handed him the bottle. "C'mon, live a little! You're not on duty anymore."
Morgan checked over his shoulder that Hotch and Reid were still distracted.
"Okay, just a little." He grinned and took a drink.
They stealthily passed the bottle back and forth between them like naughty schoolboys, getting quietly shitfaced as they moved around the course.
"Come on, you're the only one who can end his tyrannical reign!" Young muttered to Morgan as they waited for Reid to take his turn.
"How!? Look at him! He uses angles and calculations and shit. Nobody can beat that kind of witchcraft!" Morgan hissed back.
"So think outside the box! Use all the weapons available to you. Together we must claim back this noble sport for averagely intelligent men everywhere!" Young slurred, holding his golf club aloft as if it were a spear or a sword. "Find his weakness and do whatever it takes to bring him down, you hear me? Destroy him!"
In hindsight perhaps that should have acted as a warning that they were taking the match a little too seriously and should maybe calm down and sober up.
Instead, Morgan held up his own club and clunked it against Young's, with a battle cry of "For the averagely intelligent!"
Reid and Hotch exchanged glances. Both had noticed Morgan and Young's increasing rowdiness, and the fact that Young was having difficulty keeping upright.
"Should he be drinking after a head injury?" Reid murmured to Hotch.
"He's had a rough few days, I think he's just letting off steam. Just let him be for now." Hotch suggested.
Reid nodded and stepped up to take his turn. He lined up the shot in his head, took a couple of practise swings, got in the zone. He had just raised his club and started to bring it down when Young seemed to lose balance and stumbled into Reid with a 'whoops' and a muttered apology. The ball when skidding off straight into the bunker.
"Out! No points." Young shouted.
"That's not fair!" Reid protested. "You knocked into me on purpose!"
"I'M INJURED." Young said indignantly, pointing to the bandage. "That's discrimination!"
They all automatically looked to Hotch.
"Play nicely children." He said sternly. "Reid you may take another shot."
Reid put his second ball down and raised his club, about to take the shot.
Suddenly Morgan leaned in and said innocently;
"Hey Reid, your balls look a little dirty, want me to lick them for you?"
Reid tried to stop the swing but it was too late. His club clipped the side of ball so it rolled slowly off to the side.
Young and Morgan collapsed onto each other, screeching with laughter.
"Oh real mature guys! Thanks a lot!" Reid snapped. They just laughed harder.
"Okay okay. I'm sorry Reid." Morgan said, his voice squeaking a little with trying not to giggle. He reached out to take Reid's golf club. "Here, why don't you let me hold onto your shaft while you go for your balls?"
The noise Young made was not human. His legs gave way and he fell backwards onto the astro-grass, crying and convulsing with laughter.
Reid looked to Hotch for help but Hotch held his hands up, blatantly trying his hardest not to laugh. "Sorry, there's nothing against making innuendos in the rules of golf. You'll just have to not let them distract you."
Reid went over to the ball, determined not to let them sabotage him again. He spent a long time mentally preparing, feigning that he was about to take the shot in case they were planning to do it again. He gave them a suspicious glance. They smiled at him innocently.
Reid was about to tap it in for real when Young blurted out; "Careful Reid! You gotta be gentle with a hole this small!"
Fortunately Reid just caught it in time.
"Stop it!" he said, starting to giggle himself. He took a deep breath and lined up the shot again.
They didn't interrupt this time, but he was so wound up that he missed again anyway.
"Oh dear." Morgan chuckled evilly. "Looks like you're having a little trouble there Reid. Shall I give you some pointers?"
"No thank you." Reid glared at him.
Morgan pretended not to hear him.
"That's right, spread your legs…get a good grip on your shaft…now stroke it smoothly." He said grinning.
"Shut up!" Reid hissed, doubling up with laughter. He'd lost his focus completely now, so he just swung the club and hoped for the best.
"Oh my God Reid, you can't just whack one off without preparing yourself!"
"That's how injuries happen!"
"I hate you both." Reid yelled, when he missed again.
They continued in this fashion all the way round, though the game became more about making Reid laugh than getting him to mess up his shots.
At hole number 11 where the ground sloped so that unless you got it in on the first go you were forced to stand under the waterfall, Morgan went with; "Wow Reid, you haven't even put it in the hole yet and you're so wet already!"
At hole number 15 where they passed a hot dog stand and Young bought a hotdog; "Hey Reid, do you want a taste of my hotdog? There's nothing like getting a big, hot, meaty sausage inside you on a cold afternoon!"
"Oh…my…God Hotch…please get him to stop!" Reid gasped between giggles.
"You two should be ashamed of yourselves!" Hotch hooted, wiping the tears away from his eyes.
"I didn't even want the hotdog!" Young admitted, clutching his stomach.
"That is real dedication to your craft!" Morgan wheezed, clapping him on the back and cheerfully taking the hotdog off his hands.
In the end Morgan only tied with Reid, but it still felt like a victory. After they counted up the scores he and Young did a manly chest-bump/high five/fist pump kind of deal and then sandwiched Reid into a hug between them, giving him kisses all over his face when he looked terrified and tried to wriggle out of their grasp.
Hotch went and collapsed into a chair beside Rossi while this was happening.
"You realise two of these people are legally allowed to carry weapons." Hotch said, watching their antics in disbelief.
Rossi pushed a glass towards him and poured him a scotch. "God help us all." He laughed.
"'I'll hold your shaft while you go for your balls.'" Hotch chuckled. "I have to admit that was a good one."
"Do I want to know what you're talking about?" Rossi asked.
"God no."
Reid, Morgan and Young walked (staggered in Young's case) over to their table.
"Hey agent Rossi, you should have seen Reid out there!" Young said loudly, so that most of the people in the bar turned to look at them. "That kid really knows how to shoot one off into a hole!"
Reid went bright red and covered his face with his hands, and all three of them started laughing again.
And Rossi just calmly looked at them and said;
"Wow Reid, after 18 holes I'm surprised you can still walk."
And they almost gave themselves a hernia.
...
After golf they went to meet Prentiss and JJ for dinner in the hotel bar/restaurant.
The bar was holding a kind of party to memorialise the victims, but since nobody had really known the victims there wasn't much remembering going on. It seemed like there was more drinking until they forgot going on among the guests. Part of Morgan felt it was inappropriate to be partying when seven innocent people were dead, but he figured that remembrances were for the living, not the dead. These people had spent the weekend wondering if they or their loved ones would be the next to die, and now all they wanted was to put the nightmare behind them. Fourteen years in the FBI and Morgan still hadn't found a better way to do it than to get wasted, so he could hardly judge them for it.
None of the teachers or students from the school trip were there, he guessed they'd gone back to their homes in the nearby town. It felt very strange to hear John Wotton's name called out on the list of the dead, read out by the manager Daniel Orwell during his speech.
Morgan was expecting the speech to be full of endless hypocritical rambling about how sad he was left by their deaths, when if he'd shut down his hotel straight away the guests might not have been trapped there in the first place, and even now his bar was making money out of them. But his attitude changed when the Orwell actually broke down into tears halfway through and couldn't finish. He seemed genuinely distraught and wracked with guilt. He also said he planned to donate the takings for that night to the families of the victims to help with funeral costs and such. It was hard to hate him after that.
Everybody raised a glass to toast the dead and then went back to their food (and drink).
Reid sighed contentedly, slumped back in his chair having just finished pudding. He felt happy and well-rested and almost normal. Except for one small dark smudge on the horizon that nagged at him. Young and Morgan were getting along like a (very loud) house on fire, laughing and clowning around and acting like they'd known each other for years. Reid was horribly jealous. It made him feel boring, like they wouldn't notice if he left. He wanted Morgan to look at him like he was looking at Young, wanted him to put his arm around Reid like he had it around Young. So he made a decision.
"Uh excuse me, could you get me a drink?" he asked a waiter.
"Sure, no problem. What can I get you?"
"A Vodka and lemonade please."
"Reid are you sure that's a good idea?" JJ asked him. She was trying to be discreet but everybody looked at him anyway. He felt his face redden and he was about to say something snappish and irritable but Young got their first.
"Oh come on let the boy have a drink! He's a young man in his prime, and being a young man is far more liberating when you're drunk!" Young slapped him on the back. "We'll look after him won't we Morgan?" he looked at Morgan with a mischievous glint in his eye which gave Reid the impression he was up to something.
Morgan was obviously thinking along the same lines but he nodded and smiled at Reid.
"Yeah he's a grown man JJ, let him breathe." Morgan said quietly. She nodded, her face expressionless. An awkward silence fell over the table.
"Here's your drink sir." The friendly waiter said, placing it down in front of him.
"Thank you." Reid drank it as fast as he could without drawing attention to himself, and ordered another.
Hotch, Rossi and JJ drifted away to bed, as did most of the guests. Only the dedicated partiers remained in the bar and on the dance floor, Reid being one of them. The thought made him smile. He'd never been part of the 'cool crowd' before.
All his misgivings towards Young melted away with his inhibitions, and he fell about ten times more in love with Morgan after his third vodka-and-something, couldn't take his eyes off his…off him. Trying to figure out whether that touch to his shoulder was deliberate or an accident, whether his eyes were on him as much as it seemed they were. Wondering how he could put his exceptional IQ towards the worthwhile cause of getting this delicious man to take him to bed.
Then Viva la Vida by Coldplay came on the sound system, and it turned out that that was Morgan's favourite Coldplay song too, and that Young was a closeted fan himself.
Reid had never danced in public. Ever. The thought was one of great discomfort to him as he had no idea how one danced, and it wasn't the kind of thing which could be studied beforehand from a book.
But now he wondered why it had seemed so hard. Dancing to this music and these feeling was more natural than breathing. He didn't even have to be convinced to take to the dance floor, he was buzzing so much with this strange chemically-induced confidence that he and Young were the ones dragging Morgan out of his seat.
They joined the small crowd and sang along with Chris Martin, along with melodramatic hand gestures and with their arms around each other. Then the song finished and Prentiss waved them over and berated them for their music taste and demanded that they do tequila shots to make up for the assault on her ears. She and Young got into a heated debate in between the salt-shot-lemon routine and they decided (for some extremely logical reason) that the way to solve their differences was through an arm wrestling contest. Prentiss beat the crap out of Young and he tried to act like he let her win but nobody believed him. Morgan stepped up and wrestled with her and she put up a brave fight but lasted around ten seconds.
The game became 'arm wrestling and loser does a shot' so Prentiss did hers, and then Reid and Prentiss arm wrestled and they were pretty evenly matched to Reid's surprise, as she was incredibly fit and he did zero exercise. But then she started really trying and he felt his arm being steadily eased backwards. He was happy to accept defeat and take his shot, but then it occurred to Reid that by the rules of the contest were he to win this his next opponent would be Morgan. The thought of getting to hold his hand was enough to force her hand back, back…
"I WIN! WOOO!" he yelled. Prentiss made a noise of disgust and picked up her shot with a slightly nauseous expression.
He and Morgan took up their positions across the table and Morgan grabbed his hand with an evil grin.
"Oh God, it's like watching a Chihuahua take on a grizzly bear." Young laughed. "Don't break him Derek, his mind is a valuable resource."
Reid held Morgan's hand tighter, avoiding his eyes and feeling strangely nervous, praying that his palm wasn't sweaty. Come on muscles, we can do this. He told his biceps sternly.
"Three, two…one!" Prentiss said.
Reid held on for dear life, but the best he could do was stop his arm going all the way down. He waited for Morgan to show his real power and slam his arm onto the table, but it never came. His muscles were screaming but he ignored the pain. He looked up and saw that Morgan wasn't even concentrating on the match, he was just watching Reid. Reid gathered up a surge of energy and managed to get their arms upright before Morgan noticed and stopped him.
"Wow, looks like the Chihuahua's got some kind of bionic limb I didn't know about." Young said after a minute.
Their arms were shaking and Reid was panting with the effort, but he refused to let Morgan end it. A few more minutes went by, and Young and Prentiss started to get bored.
"Okay now you're just holding hands guys." Prentiss laughed eventually.
They both laughed but that comment seemed to bother Morgan, as Reid felt a subtle increase in force and his arm was quickly pushed down onto the table. Prentiss and Young cheered his brave effort, while Morgan looked mildly uncomfortable. Young sprinkled some salt on Reid's palm and handed him a shot. Reid looked at it doubtfully, but licked his hand and threw back the shot. He screwed up his face at the taste and everybody laughed, and he screwed up his face even more after the lemon, and Morgan slapped him on the back. Reid smiled at him, happily intoxicated.
"I WANNA DANCE." He shouted over the thumping, repetitive music which his ears greeted more happily than the finest classical symphony.
"Do you?" Morgan laughed.
"YEAH WANNA…YOU…TOoo…DANCE WITH ME!" Reid slurred, giggling at Morgan's bemused expression. He knew it must be weird for Morgan to see him like this when normally he was so shy and inhibited. It was weird for him too, like being possessed and just watching himself doing things he had no control over. But in a good way. He felt free and rebellious and alive for the first time in his life, and he was so happy to share that feeling with Morgan. He felt like he could do absolutely anything.
Morgan got up and they danced, and not like how Morgan danced with friends, it was like the way Reid had seen Morgan dance with girls when they were all out. Reid moved his hips in the way those girls did (kind of in a joking silly 'I'm so drunk LOL' way...but kind of not) and Morgan kept looking down at Reid's body and swallowing and every time Reid 'accidentally' fell on him or bumped into him or even caught his eyes Morgan seemed to forget for a second that he was meant to be dancing, just stopped and looked disoriented. It made Reid laugh because suddenly it became so clear to him that his instincts had been spot on. Who knew alcohol made profiling so much easier?
He pretended he didn't know the effect he was having, acted like he was just enjoying the music, like he was totally oblivious to the fact that Morgan was dying to touch him and grind against him and dance in that way he ended up dancing with those girls at the end of the night just before he went home with them. Reid wanted that too, so badly it hurt. But he didn't expect Morgan to make a move on him in public.
That would have to wait until they were alone. But phase one of his seduction plan was going even better than he'd hoped.
...
Meanwhile Young was out on the sheltered veranda at the rear of the hotel building, facing the mountains, drinking a cocktail. Prentiss came out to find him, having been to the ladies to retouch her makeup.
"Hey." He smiled.
"Hey yourself." She said, sipping her Cosmopolitan. "You okay?"
He looked at her and laughed and looked up at the night sky.
"Why are you laughing?" Prentiss found herself laughing with him, though she had no idea why.
He looked like he was about to say something, but then thought better of it.
He shrugged. "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh since there is much less cleaning up to do afterwards."
Prentiss frowned. "Is that a quote? It sounds familiar."
"Yeah it is. Kurt Vonnegut. You should look him up, the man is a God." Young said.
"YES!" Prentiss exclaimed. "I should have known that, I love Kurt Vonnegut! I can't believe…" she narrowed her eyes. "Wait…Morgan didn't tell you to say that did he?"
Young looked genuinely perplexed. "Why would Morgan want me to quote Vonnegut?"
She calmly, deliberately placed her drink on the stone wall bordering the veranda, looked up at him with her big dark eyes, and pulled him by his tie into a passionate kiss.
...
Reid and Morgan were sitting at the bar to cool down from the dancing.
"I had no idea you could dance like that pretty boy." Morgan laughed, shaking his head. "You are full of surprises tonight. We need to get you drunk more often."
"Agreed." Reid held up his drink and they clinked their glasses together.
Morgan looked at his phone. "Wow it's nearly one o'clock. That went fast. No wonder the bar's looking so empty."
"Pshhh lightweights." Reid said scornfully.
"You can talk." Morgan laughed. "You only had a few and you turned into Mr Shakira Snake-hips."
Reid burst out laughing. "Oh God." He wheezed. "I am so going to regret this tomorrow."
"Damn, I should have filmed it and blackmailed you."
"Blackmail me for what?" Reid asked innocently.
Morgan looked taken aback. He shook his head and looked away with an embarrassed smile.
"I'd think of something." He said, more suggestively than he'd intended.
Reid smiled.
...
Young put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her backwards gently, turning his face away.
"Umm…" he said desperately. "I can't. I'm really flattered but I can't, I'm so sorry."
She looked at him, unsure whether or not he was playing a game. Then she realised he wasn't, and she was suddenly furious.
"What the hell!?" she spat. "You fucking…! How could you lead me on like that?"
"Because I thought you didn't like me that way." Young clutched the top of his hair between his fingers. "I'm really, really sorry, I'm an idiot. I should have realised. It's not you, you're great, you're perfect, I just can't do this."
She raised her hand to slap him but stopped. She picked up her drink instead, looked at him like he was dirt on her shoes and turned around and walked away.
...
"Hey Prentiss, where's Young? He's not passed out or something is he?" Morgan asked her as she stalked past the bar. She stopped and looked surprised that they were still there. Then she walked up to Morgan.
"You fucking prick Derek Morgan." She hissed and picked up his drink, tipping the contents over his head. "You stay out of my love life from now on…no wait, you stay out of my personal life, d'you hear me?"
Morgan leapt to his feet in shock at the cold, wet sensation, "What the hell!?" he yelped frantically trying to retrieve an ice cube from inside his shirt. She didn't answer him, just turned around and left.
"What did I do?" Morgan asked bewilderedly.
Seconds later Young ran past and stopped when he saw them.
"Have you two seen Emily?" he asked urgently.
"No," Morgan said sarcastically. "I just felt a little warm and decided to wear my Bacardi Breezer."
"Oh right. Where did she go?" the sarcasm didn't seem to register
"I think maybe you should give her some time to cool off first." Reid said, trying not to laugh at the fact that Morgan hadn't realised yet that there was a slice of lemon stuck decoratively to his head.
Young clutched his hair anxiously. "You think so?"
They both nodded.
"She still has her own drink." Morgan warned. "I'd at least wait for her to finish it if I were you." The helpful bartender passed him some paper napkins and he wiped the worst off his face. "Thanks." Morgan said.
"No problem. The bar shuts in ten though guys." she replied. "My manager asked me to tell you that we are recommending that guests who have drunk a lot stay in the hotel tonight since the weather's gotten worse and it's dangerous to be wandering about in the snow. Just go to the front desk and ask for a key."
"That sounds like a good idea." Morgan nodded, looking at Reid who was concentrating very hard on making his third wobbly attempt at climbing off the barstool. He lost his balance halfway through the manoeuvre and clutched the edge of the bar like he was caught in an earthquake. "I think I need to go upstairs and take these clothes off anyway." Morgan said, looking down at his soaked shirt and chuckling drunkenly.
Reid's heart started thumping hard.
"Yeah I think I'm gonna go to bed too." Young said.
"You okay with that pretty boy?"
Reid finally managed to slide off the stool and helpfully picked the lemon slice off Morgan's head.
"Mmhm. Wead the lay." He announced grandly, and then frowned as if he had a vague feeling that the sentence hadn't come out as he'd intended. "Wait…" Young and Morgan laughed and Morgan ruffled his hair. Reid giggled and swatted his hands away and then put his hands on his head suspiciously as if to check Morgan hadn't stolen his hair.
"Man he is out of it." Young laughed.
"Nuum not." Reid protested, letting go of his head. He counted on his fingers. "Only had three…four…five single measures of spirits, which actually makes only five units. The average adult male drunk can drink eight units without the blood alcohol level severely impairing motor and sensory function."
"Yeah, well the average adult male isn't taking 5mgs of Temazepam every night." Young pointed out.
"Oh…" Reid said. "Oops."
"C'mon genius, let's get you into bed." Morgan said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Reid giggled and then clapped a hand over his mouth. It took a second even for Young to realise what he was laughing about.
"Oh my God you really are wasted aren't you?" Morgan laughed.
...
Hello, hello my fabulous readers. Sorry for the delay, I had an inconvenient psychology exam to cram-revise for last weekend so I didn't get any writing done.
The sexual tension between the two couples has finally reached breaking point. Will Reid be successful in his mission to have sexy time with Morgan? Will Prentiss kill Young while he sleeps? All will be revealed...in the next chapter which I have also posted because I know you will hate me if I leave this at a cliffhanger xD
Also it's a little sad how much I made myself laugh with the golf innuendos xD
*Prepare yourself for a shit-ton of reviews*~
Firstly Becca - I felt really bad I couldn't reply to you sooner cos you don't have an account so I couldn't PM you. I want to say thanks for your apology and that all is forgiven! I myself have written reviews which I later realised would have made me feel shitty to receive, I think you need to actually publish something before you realise how vulnerable authors feel about their writing. It doesn't mean you should never comment on somebody's story or give your opinion if something could be improved, it just means you have to be super-tactful about it and suck up to them a bit first so they don't get defensive, like 'oh this and this are AMAZING but maybe you could tweak this little itty bitty unimportant thing here?' xD anyway, I feel really bad for you because some of my other wonderful supportive readers, bless them, kind of jumped to my defense which was very sweet of them and made me feel very loved, but must have felt a bit angry-mob-with-pitchforks for you, and I don't want you to feel like you're not welcome to read anymore. Anyway, I hope you're still there, and thank you again for saying nice things in your apology.
epiccakex3 - Oopsie it seems we confused everyone with the Reid being gay in canon thing '^^HE IS NOT GAY PEOPLE I'M SO SORRY IF I GOT YOU EXCITED. That was just me misunderstanding. Also when I said I had season 8 on DVD I meant season 7 xD *derp* sorry. I think you're right about Morgan though...I hadn't noticed that, I now think maybe I do write him a little chattier than he is in the show, but I think that's okay as long as most of the talking about his feelings is generally in his internal monologue rather than to other people. Also just to clarify when you said Reid finds a female victim naked and stares at her you do mean an alive victim right? xD You're welcome for Young ;D he is flirtatiously waving at you from inside my imagination. Also you don't have to apologise for long reviews! I thrive on them, literally, like I hoard my favourite ones and reread them in times of emotional crisis.
xX-Yuna-Zoey-Xx - Oh no I'm so sorry for getting your hopes up! I feel so silly. Thank you for reviewing though, I'm glad you enjoyed the Morgan/Reid moments. I wish I had a magic wand so I could turn them gay for you in real life!
(I love that I count Criminal Minds as real life.) xD
M3lly - the bible thing did confuse me a little xD hehe.I'm glad you're enjoying the story! You mentioned that you were only looking for the beginning? I think most people were freaked out by the first chapter so I'm glad somebody liked it! (I liked it too '^^ *slaps own wrist* I'm a bad person. It's not like I'd enjoy it in real life though...)
SmcdsShipper19 - thank you (: I'm glad you like the realism. As the author I'm just as impatient for them to get it on, but yeaah, they have lots of troublesome emotions and stuff I need to sort out for them first. *sigh*
People Person I'm Not - Haha thanks xD I'm glad you liked those.
Ava Duran - Your comment was so lovely! Thank you :D I'm really pleased that I managed to maintain your interest all the way through, I hate it when I get really interested in a story and then it stops being good and I'm like whyyyy. And I really appreciated your support about the above-mentioned critical review.
goddessofdawn369 - I noticed that too! I mean the thing about how Reid is always presented as the needy feminine one and Morgan is the stoic dominant one and it makes me sad because Reid is such a BAMF and the whole point of gay pairings is that THEY ARE BOTH MEN. So yeah. I try to avoid that stereotype. Thanks for noticing ;D
LaRieNGuBleR - Yeah Young plus narcotics produce very strange...very musical results. xD As for whether Reid will make the first move or whether it'll be Derek... *innocent shrug* you'll have to see :3
Medeia456 - Haha that sounds like my true calling xD to be the gay slash messiah and get the mainstream media to start catering for the needs of fangirls and fanboys! Maybe if I ever do write a film I'll put subtle references in it to this fanfiction so you'll know it's me! xD xD
Undertaker Lau - You are exactly right my friend, they both need each other so badly but are afraid of being hurt again. I would like to say Young will handle this with subtlety and professionalism but he's about to prove me wrong xD so I will say 90% of the time he will handle it with subtlety and professionalism. When he's not extremely drunk.
marcallie - I am very grateful to you for pointing out that embarrassing mistake, I changed it as soon as I read your review! And thank you for complimenting my grammar! :) I'm glad you like the cases. They were fun, but a total nightmare to write! So long and complicated and I have to do a ton of research to make sure I'm not using the profiley terms wrong, but at least I get to indulge my sadistic streak. :3
NatNazzy - Thank you (: I'm glad you enjoyed it. I love writing about Morgan from Reid's perspective for some reason, just because he's totally got the wrong end of the stick and he's getting so stressed out and it's adorable.
WheresReenie - *salutes* YUS SIR. Will continue as planned. Also don't be mad at the poor reviewer, I don't think they meant that Reid was gay in canon, it was my fault for misunderstanding.
Lissa - aww thank you :) I'm glad you agree with my take on Morgan and Reid. :) Not sure I'm a fan of him having a girlfriend *raises eyebrow* but I'm glad his friendship with Morgan is developing. I can't wait to watch season 8! Oh no, I haven't watched the Outsiders yet, I meant to put it on my christmas list but I forgot. Hopefully I'll get around to it soon. :S
Guest - You were up until 6am!? D: gosh. I hope you weren't too cranky after! If I go to bed any later than like 10 I become Satan the next day. I am very flattered and pleased though that you were enjoying it enough to stay up all night :) I'm glad also that you think their relationship is realistic and detailed :) it's probably because I think about them like all the time, a ridiculous amount. It's beginning to feel like they're real people who live in my head.
aand we'll leave it there before I make any more awkwardly personal confessions xD I did as many replies as I could and I think I got most of you. I want to reply to everyone but my word there are a lot of you now! Xxx