READ IT HERE: http:// ansera. livejournal. com/19660. html#cutid1 except without the spaces. Leave the reviews there too, as well please, for me to answer to. I allow anonymous posting, but you can leave your username if you want to. (:

except without the spaces. Leave the reviews there too, as well please, for me to answer to. I allow anonymous posting, but you can leave your username if you want to. (:

-|-except without the spaces. Leave the reviews there too, as well please, for me to answer to. I allow anonymous posting, but you can leave your username if you want to. (:

-|-

The air in the room wasn't particularly tense, but Morgan didn't think it fit the term 'relaxed' either.

Des was chatting away about something her students had done –it involved too much paint on the walls and a pony with one of the boys singing "Oops, I Did It Again"—that Morgan didn't even try to understand. Sarah was smirking at them infuriatingly, looking far too smug for someone who hadn't done anything throughout the day except smirk. His mother was knitting –something about promoting the image of a 'genteel' mother that Morgan thought would be gone the moment one of them did something that had her screaming.

Reid was sitting next to him.

Extremely closely.

Morgan could practically feel the seam of his pants imprinted on the length of his leg. He was probably imagining it, or exaggerating it in his head, but it was what it felt like. And Morgan was distinctly uncomfortable because of it. His family had something do with that as well.

"So, Reid, or can I call you Spencer?" Des asked, smiling cheerfully.

"Spencer's fine," Reid said, and Morgan looked at him with some surprise, since he couldn't remember the last time he had called Reid Spencer, usually he was just Reid. Or kid. Or genius. Or Pretty Boy if the moment asked for it.

Des grinned, "Wonderful, and you can call me Des."

"Lovely," Reid said awkwardly.

Morgan hid his smile. Reid- no, Spencer, was definitely effective with not thinking about the arrest. He was making Morgan think about something that had very little to do with the arrest, and he forced his mind off that particular something. His Mama was in the room. With his sisters, one of which was his baby sister. Reid sneaked a look at him, as if he knew what Morgan was thinking, and he looked away quickly.

"How long have you known Derek?" his Mama asked sweetly, just a hint of steel in her voice.

"Since I started," Reid said, "At the BAU, I mean. He was one of the first people I met there."

"I remember," Morgan smiled, leaning back in his seat comfortably. "You came in wearing some oldies outfit, carrying a cup of coffee. Then you spilt it all over me."

Reid frowned. "I did not spill it, Morg-," he stopped, looking at the others in the room, and then corrected himself, "Derek, you made me spill it."

Morgan scoffed. "I did not."

"You did," Reid said firmly. "You were talking to Mark and then Macy from the other department walked by and you turned to look at her and I was walking up and you spilled it on me." It was too accurate for Morgan to deny, so he didn't bother.

"Macy?" he frowned, he didn't remember which one that was.

Reid let out a sigh, "Reddish blond hair, likes to wear grey suits with colorful stripes," he prompted.

Morgan shrugged. "Don't know."

"She started dating Bob and poured coffee down his pants," he said.

Morgan grinned, "I remember that. Garcia was going on about it for ages, said it was a feminist stand."

Reid smiled again. "Actually, it wasn't so much a feminist stand as Macy not knowing that Bob was seeing someone else. Feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural and economic movement aimed at establishing more rights and legal protection for women or an academic discourse. That doesn't come under the definition of-"

"Reid," Morgan said, and Reid kept quiet.

Des snorted, "He's got you trained."

"Des," Mama warned.

"Sorry." She didn't sound too apologetic.

Reid blinked. "It's okay, Derek just," he shrugged, "tells me when to-"

"Stop yapping?" Morgan asked.

Reid gave him a look, "That wasn't exactly what I was going for, but the general idea is there." He turned back to Mama. "The whole team does it when I talk too much."

"Happens a lot," Morgan said, and he was at the receiving end at another one of Reid's looks.

An awkward silence stretched for a few moments, and Reid looked down uncomfortably.

"So, Des, how's school been?" Morgan asked to fill the moment.

"Oh, there was this one kid, she's seven, I gave her Sleeping Beauty the other day because, honestly, can you believe that the kid's never read it? So, I loaned her the CD because we have it with us almost permanently because all the other kids have watched it except for this one, and as soon as I gave it to her, you won't believe what she said," she looked at them expectantly.

"That Sleeping Beauty took almost an entire decade of the 1950s to produce, with story work beginning in 1951, voices recorded in 1952 and animation production from 1953 to 1957, holding a position in Disney animation as the last Disney feature to use hand-inked cells since after that they used xerography. Before animation production, all the shots of the film were done in a live-action reference version, with live actors in costume serving as models for the animators."

Des stopped. "Well, no, she said that she didn't like it because the Prince knew nothing about the Princess when he kissed her."

Reid nodded slowly, "Actually, the role of Sleeping Beauty in feminism is interesting, Sleeping Beauty of course is the image of the perfect female form of that century-"

"Spencer," Morgan cut in, using his first name to get his attention, "It's Sleeping Beauty. Don't psycho-analyze it."

"But Sleeping Beauty is one of the classics. The number of lessons one can learn is amazing, like how Maleficent the Dark Fairy represents the forgotten secret and the carrying on of this shameful secret –which in modern terms can translate to anything from alcoholism to mental illnesses"

"Spencer," Morgan said again, and Reid kept silent, blushing lightly.

"Sleeping Beauty is," Sarah smiled gently, "Nice."

Reid blushed even harder. "My mother was fond of it, although she preferred Emily Dickinson, William Blake, and so on. She used to read to me," he said, and Morgan looked over curiously. Reid didn't usually talk about his family –his mother—and Morgan knew almost nothing about him besides what he was like now, nothing about his childhood or what he acted like as a child.

"You like Emily Dickinson?" Sarah's head perked up. Morgan knew that she was in a poem phase, but she breezed through phases like Des breezed through men, so he didn't bother taking note of them too often.

Reid brightened visibly. "A spider sewed at night, without a light, upon an arc of light."

"If ruff it was dame or shroud of gnome, himself, himself inform," Sarah continued.

"Of immortality his strategy was physiognomy," Reid ended.

"I preferred Afraid? Of Whom Am I Afraid," Sarah said, straightening as she folded a leg behind her.

"Me?" Mama said teasingly.

"Of course," Sarah agreed, because no one would deny it. "How about T.S. Elliot?" Sarah asked eagerly.

"The Wasteland is one of the classics," Reid nodded, and Morgan let out a soft groan.

"Please don't start," he said, letting his head fall onto the couch.

Sarah glared at him, "I finally have an intellectual," she looked at Mama quickly, "Besides you, 'course, Mama," she turned back to Morgan, "And you want me to stop talking?"

"I'm an intellectual," Des piped up.

"Des, you know about kids, that's it, nothing else," Sarah said matter-of-factly. "Nothing," she repeated.

Des frowned, "I know about things besides kids-"

"TV shows don't count," Morgan added.

"I still do-"

"Neither to those freaky magazines you read," Sarah said.

"Why aren't those counted-"

"And anything that the geniuses you know tell you don't either, it's cheating," Morgan said.

"That's not fair," Des said, lower lip sticking out slightly. "I mean, it counts when you learn stuff from Spencer," she pointed out.

"Spence's a real genius, not a weirdo who watches too much Star Trek," Morgan rolled his eyes. Then he paused. "Wait, you do watch too much Star Trek," he said, grinning at Spencer.

"Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam," Reid quoted.

Des' eyes widened. "You know it too?"

"Yeah," Reid shrugged, eyes glinting, "It's the Klingon language used by the Klingons in the Star Trek universe."

"Shit, I thought the boy was a goner," Des shook her head.

Reid frowned, taking offense, and Morgan laid a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back. "Relax, she isn't insulting your dear Trekkies."

Reid's lips still twisted slightly, almost a pout, and Morgan didn't hide his grin.

"You're a teacher then?" Reid asked, switching the topic.

Des nodded, "Yeah, loads of kids too. I do substitute teaching a lot; take over when the other teachers decide to skip school." She grinned slightly at the fact, "They do it a lot too." Reid lost the pout to smile at her. "But the kids are nice to be around, not boring, never boring, actually."

"Of course, children are," Reid paused, "Interesting."

"You aren't a big fan of kids, are you?" Sarah guessed.

Mama looked up from knitting. "You don't like kids?" Her eyes narrowed, and Morgan felt the distinct impression of being in an interrogation room. Of course, they couldn't have children anyways, so Morgan wasn't sure what the problem was.

"Well, I don't know," Reid shrugged, "I've only ever babysat Henry."

"And look how that turned out," Morgan said, shaking his head at the memory.

Reid threw an annoyed glare at him, "It was fine until you turned up with that ridiculous toy." He rolled his eyes, "Honestly, what are the chances of a boy turning into ten aliens? It's not natural."

"It's not supposed to be, he's an alien boy," Morgan pointed out.

"But there's not the slightest thread of reality-"

"Kids don't want reality."

"Surely they would appreciate some amount of it so as not to flounder later in life-"

"They're kids."

"Excuses," Reid waved a hand lazily. "When I was a child-"

Morgan snorted. "You were not the average kid, Spencer."

Reid frowned, "The idea of an average-"

"See? Not average."

"You can't determine-"

"Shut up while you're behind," he grinned to show he didn't mean offense, because Reid was the sort of person who would have taken offense. Reid looked unsettled by it for a moment, and then settled into a loose smile. "Anyway, Sarah," Morgan turned pointedly away from his younger sister. "What's going on?" Mama tactfully left the room at the moment, leaving them to talk amongst themselves.

"Oh," her eyes brightened with the sort of twisted glee that could only come from nothing he wanted to hear, "You know Mark, he moved to S-Offices from R-Offices, and guess who he's been with?"

The name sounded familiar, and Morgan opened his mouth to speak when Des let out a sound eerily reminiscent of a squeal. "The guy from the Indian place?"

Sarah looked faintly disappointed that her gossip hadn't panned out, but she shrugged it off easily, "How did you know?"

Des smirked, "He came into the school with a hickey."

Sarah's eyes widened. "Seriously? In front of the kids and everything?"

"Yeah, and we had to get him out by the back door so that they wouldn't see, I swear," Des shook her head, "How could a guy be that stupid?"

"Wait," Morgan started, "Aren't the kids used to-"

"The kids know he's gay, of course. I mean, pink skinnies are pretty glaring evidence," Des said, lips twisting slightly. "I preferred the blue ones myself, we've a bet going on in the school on what color he's going to be wearing next-"

"Wait, the blue ones with the flowers?" Sarah cut in.

Des shook her head. "No, the one with the sparkly stripes on the sides."

"Why do you rememb-"

"His clothes are always so cool," Sarah was close to gushing. Too close.

"Yeah, especially his shirts." Des's gaze flickered over to Reid speculatively. "Always so tight, the guy works out in that gay club place. Those guys there are so hot, all made out and everything."

Sarah's eyes followed hers, and the corner of her mouth turned up in a smirk, but she didn't say anything. "I know, you know David, the one who keeps messing up the documents in the R-Offices?"

"Is that where the-" Morgan wasn't allowed to continue.

"Yeah," Des blithely ignored his interruption. "I heard that he was caught with that other guy, you know the one who keeps walking around with those huge shoes and he keeps slipping out of them." Des rolled her eyes, "And have you seen his pants? Totally don't hug his ass."

Morgan made a face at that.

Reid inched towards him. "Are they always like this?"

Morgan leaned back on the chair. "Yep."

Reid smiled. "Now I understand how you can stand Garcia."

"You insulting my Baby Girl?" Morgan asked, flickering his eyes towards Reid, who shook his head fervently. "Good," he grinned.

"Kids," Mama yelled. Morgan straightened, eyes alight.

He grinned at Reid's confused expression when Des and Sarah became quiet and half-ran towards the other room. "Food."

Morgan grinned at Reid, nudging his shoulder. "Told you the food was awesome."

"You do realize we ate it hours ago and, honestly, you shouldn't be thinking about it still."

"But it was awesome."

Reid opened his mouth, and then shrugged, "That's true."

"I mean, you liked it right? I don't think I've ever seen you take seconds before, you don't eat much," Morgan commented, realizing that Reid didn't.

Reid shrugged. "I eat enough, according to-" he stopped at Morgan's stare. "Never mind, but I do eat enough. I'm just glad it wasn't Chinese or anything. That would have been quite… embarrassing. Humiliating, really," Reid shook his head. "I don't want to make a fool of myself in front of your family, or people in general, but especially your family." Morgan wondered if Reid even realized the implication behind his words, but the man seemed blissfully clueless.

"You wouldn't, they totally like you," Morgan assured him. "See how Des is trying to listen in to this conversation from the couch and Sarah hasn't flipped a page of that book since we started talking," he paused and after a split second of silence Des stared intently at the television screen and a page was dutifully turned in the book Sarah was reading, "It shows that they care. They just have a weird way of showing it, you know."

"That's nice to know," Reid grinned. "You've never talked to anyone without them listening, have you?"

"Not for the last thirty years, I think, for the first five Sarah was learning how to read and Des wasn't born."

"Ah," Reid said. "I was wondering." He glanced at his watch. "I should be going now. I've been taking up too much of your time as it is."

Morgan stood up, "You're going to be the talk of this house for a week, so I don't think you should be thanking us."

"You're leaving Spencer?" Sarah put down the book and Des turned off the television. "Come again, okay?"

"Yeah, it was really nice to have you here," Des added, smiling widely.

He walked Reid to the door, sending a stern look behind him to his sisters, Des already moving nearer to them to listen in to whatever conversation they decided to hold. Sarah was more subtle, attempting to look innocent at her position a foot away from Des, and only when Morgan sent her a pointed stare did she take one pathetic step back in an attempt to pretend that she wasn't also trying to listen in.

Des sat down reluctantly after moving into the living room, and Sarah paused but followed her. Morgan still closed the door before he spoke to Reid, though. "Sorry about the family, man." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck with some embarrassment. As much he loved his family, they tended to be slightly overbearing on the best of days.

Reid laughed. "It was fine. They're nice people," he said sincerely.

Morgan smiled. They were. "You going to the hotel now?"

"Yes, I think I'll be going back to Quantico tomorrow," he shrugged unsurely. "No reason to stay."

"Come back with me," Morgan said suddenly. "It's a pretty long drive."

"We can take shifts?"

Morgan grinned. "I am not letting you drive, I like myself alive."

Reid looked mock offended. "Fine," he smiled then. "Thanks for having me, by the way, you didn't have to and I didn't even call ahead or anything, so… thanks."

Morgan grinned. "No problem." Reid started to turn away and he called back on a hunch, "Hey, Genius, it's been two hours since we last ate, you realize?"

Reid turned around to meet his gaze. "The average human being-"

"Should be eating every two hours," Morgan ended. "Want to grab a bite?"

Reid looked slightly startled but then nodded slightly, "Oh- okay."

"Wait a second," he said, opening the door and grabbing his coat quickly, closing the door again before Sarah or Des could comment on his leaving. "There's this great place with steak a couple of blocks away, you up for that?" Reid blushed slightly and nodded again, not speaking.

Morgan smiled, and Reid smiled back. Morgan couldn't stop the curl of pleasure in his belly at that.

Morgan crept into his house, closing the door softly behind him. While this wasn't the ideal purpose of the training he learned while in the FBI but he couldn't deny that it was undoubtedly necessary in this case. The house was quiet, his feet not making any noise on the wooden floor –Morgan had learned at 8 which boards squeaked when he stepped on them, knowledge that came in handy now, and learned later how to sneak in at ungodly hours—and moved.

His hand landed on the railing of the stairs and he almost took a sigh of relief at not being caught.

"How was it?"

Almost.

Years of training kept him from jumping at the voice. "Des," he kept his voice a harsh whisper. "What're you doing up?" He turned around sharply, keeping his hands on the railing so that he didn't fall over or something.

"Could ask you the same question," Des retorted.

Morgan walked into the living room to see both his sisters comfortably seated on the couch, both in their pajamas, both with equally gleeful expressions on their faces. Morgan scowled at them, which only had the reaction of widening their smirks. Sarah made herself more comfortable in her seat, waggling her brows. "You came home late," she commented.

"It's not that late," Morgan said, sitting down next to Sarah because he didn't think he could get out of this situation that easily.

"Derek, it's one in the morning, where have you been?" Sarah asked, a hint of concern in her tone, ever the old sister.

"That steak place, Charlie's," Derek shrugged.

Sarah's expression cleared. Then she dissolved into a fit of giggles, with Des joining her after a moment. Morgan glared at both of them with more than a little confusion in his glance. "What's so funny?" he asked, and Sarah took one look at him before laughing even louder. "Shush or Mama will hear you," he said, and that made them become more quiet.

"Gods, you are so unimaginative," Des rolled her eyes.

"What?" He blinked dumbly.

Sarah laughed a little more, shaking her head. "I mean, honestly Derek, you do realize that since the third grade you've been taking all your dates to Charlie's? I mean, it's where you snogged that girl, you know, the one with the frizzy hair, kind of pouty-"

"Monique," Des said, and Sarah nodded. "Yeah, your first kiss," she made kissy noises and Morgan leaned over to slap the back of her head with some force. "And then after the homecoming dance you brought Ashley Balkan-"

"Bimbo that one."

Des nodded, "That blond hair was so fake, and have you seen her highlights these days?" Des rolled her eyes. "Anyways, it's where you took her after that dance and you made out at that nice corner in the back where no one can see you except the guys behind the bar and they tell everyone about it anyway so it's really a moot point to go back there, you know."

"Yeah, and then later when you dated Relly or Betty or whatever her name was-"

"Lenny," Morgan said, "Remember? People kept comparing her to that guy on that show with yellow people-"

"The Simpsons," Des said.

Morgan nodded. "Never liked that show."

"Really?" Sarah grinned. "I remember you staying up till eleven to watch it even though Mama said you had to be in bed by ten."

"Shut up," Morgan said, his grin taking the offense out of his words.

"Anyway," Des said, "It's where you take all your first dates. So on your second date, you have to take Spencer to Rob's place, for dinner, and you'll sit in the corner near the window so that you're looking out at the garden. You'll flirt over the table and maybe kiss-"

"Have you kissed him yet?" Sarah asked suddenly.

"What?" It came out as an embarrassing squawk of sorts. "Of course I haven't."

"But you want to," Des said pointedly.

"If I did, and I didn't say that I do, I wouldn't be telling you people," Morgan said.

"Aw, Derek, I'm hurt," Sarah said with a grin.

"Derek?"

All three of them straightened at the sound. Morgan gave Sarah and Des looks and a silent understanding was reached that they would all shut up and say nothing about the dat- the dinner he and Reid had had. It was the same understanding they had had since children, and only effective in front of Mama. "Mama," Sarah said in a polite tone, and Morgan scooted closer to Sarah, putting up a united front against the common enemy. Not enemy, Morgan amended, but terror.

"Where you been, boy?" Mama asked, the nightie she was wearing not reducing the fear they felt.

"Out, Mama, eating with Reid."

Mama looked like she was trying not to smile. "Oh? He's a nice boy."

"Yes he is, Mama," Morgan agreed, blushing slightly.

"Good," Mama said, and then sent them all glares and everyone stood up, beginning to move. "Good night," she said, and Sarah and Des murmured something before half running up the stairs to their room. Morgan moved slower, and Mama called him back. "Derek," she said, and Morgan turned to her with a raised brow. "Don't mess this up, he deserves better than that."

Morgan nodded, "I'll try not to."

That was enough.