Title: The Right Motivation
Author: wildwordwomyn
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: Morgan/Reid & Reid/Austin
Word Count: 733
Rating: G (no cussing, no violence, no sex)
Author’s Notes: This idea just came to me, made me wonder what if Reid had gone on a date with a woman Morgan pushed him toward and Morgan had to live with not asking him out himself.
Disclaimers/Warnings: Spoilers for the "52 Pick Up" episode. Angst. And a hint of more than friendship. Also, not real. If it was I doubt the show would last too long.
Summary: Reid's date with the pretty bartender leads to more than Morgan bargained for.

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It's early at the BAU. 8am. And Derek Morgan needs coffee. Badly. He didn't sleep well the night before. Their last case got to him. Not because of the killings per se. Those always bother him. But seeing Reid in that club, watching him talk to the bartender, watching him flirt with said bartender, now that was just wrong. Though he'd asked for it. Hell, he'd pushed Reid her way. She was cute and she seemed interested. Why wouldn't she be anyway? Reid is brilliant and sweet and funny and beautiful and...Coffee. Morgan definitely needs coffee to wake up. Or else he'll be half-sleepy all morning and defenseless against the images that plagued his dreams last night of Reid and that woman together. Naked. Kissing. Touching...

"Morning," Reid calls, walking into the mini kitchen, heading toward Morgan and the coffee maker. His smile is adorably crooked and self-conscious. Not that Morgan notices.

"Good morning. And how was your night?" Morgan grins in spite of knowing that Reid had gone on a date last night. With the bartender. And he doesn't look any worse for the wear.

"Interesting."

It's all Reid says for a moment. He watches the coffee maker percolate in silence. Morgan wonders if he should bring it up. Since Garcia had let it slip, most likely on purpose, that the woman had called and invited Reid to dinner, he's been jealous and scared. Jealous of her for spending that time with him. Scared of him now that the feelings have been intensifying. For the first time in his life Morgan needs someone, who happens to be another man. He keeps going slow in the hopes that it'll ease the fear but it doesn't. And now he's thinking maybe he's been going too slow. Maybe Reid has found someone else. Someone not him.

"Austin's very nice," Reid starts when the coffee finally drips into his mug. He methodically pours creamer and sugar into the mug. "And funny." Morgan's eyes narrow. "She called me 'cute'."

Morgan blinks before going for it. "You are cute, Pretty Boy...I'm sure she had a great time." Reid looks over at him, frowning.

"I didn't," Reid blurts, then glances at his mug again. He takes a deep breath while Morgan looks at the way his thin chest rises and falls. Morgan fights the urge to suddenly put his hand there on his breastbone, to feel his heart beating. "She wasn't...I just..." Reid puts his hands on the counter on each side of his mug and closes his eyes.

Morgan considers that she might've hurt him somehow. If she did he'll track her down and hack all her hair off or something, anything, whatever it takes to show that Spencer Reid is not to be messed with. He realizes this makes him sound like an obsessive girlfriend. Or Garcia. But he doesn't care-.

"She wasn't you," Reid finishes, opening his eyes to see his reaction. Morgan's jaw drops a little in shock. They've been dancing around their feelings for each other a long time. "I kept wanting her to be you."

Time stops as Morgan tries to figure out what gets to him more. How large and soft and hungry Reid's hazel orbs are or how high his own hopes get at those words. He finds himself weaving toward Reid, closer and closer until they're almost breathing the same air. Then, just as their foreheads are about to touch and their lips become aligned someone opens the kitchen door. They jump apart like guilty little kids when Garcia swoops in with a wide smile on her cherry red lips.

"Good morning, my lovelies!" she sing-songs. Morgan's pretty sure she saw them but she doesn't say a word thankfully.

He smiles at Reid, briefly, tenderly, before slipping out onto the unit floor. This conversation isn't finished. Not by a long shot. Reid, he's positive, is well aware of that. But it's not the place or the time. Besides, he'd like to set the mood first and pictures of an Un-Sub and his victims certainly isn't conducive to romance. At his desk Morgan fires off a quick email telling Reid to be at his apartment tomorrow night after work. The 'please', though not explicit, is obvious in the way he signs the email with his first name. It's simple, significant, hinting at where their relationship could go given the right motivation...

The End.....for now...

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