DISCLAIMER: I have no legal rights to or ownership interest in Criminal Minds and its characters.

Reid's Transfer Request

It pained Reid to be around Morgan. Pained him to see him, to talk to him, it pained him just to think about him. It had been two weeks since that fateful Saturday. Morgan and Reid were at Morgan's house; Morgan was trying to teach Reid football as they watched the Big Ten match-ups for the week. Watching football, Reid had learned, necessitated beer, lots and lots of beer. At a bar Morgan typically restrained himself, not wanting to lose even an ounce of control in a public setting, but at home, with Reid, he could let go. Morgan required Reid to drink with him because he didn't want to feel as though Reid was his sober babysitter and he wanted him to have fun. He wasn't much of a drinker, and certainly not a beer drinker, but Reid always did whatever it took to make Morgan happy, so he drank. He drank one beer for every two or three his best friend drank, but by the end of the lesson Reid was inebriated and Morgan was drunk. Then it happened. Morgan tripped over Clooney, causing him to fall onto Reid. They both laughed, and Morgan didn't pull away immediately. Full of liquid courage, Reid seized the opportunity to kiss his best friend. Derek pulled back, looking surprised, but it was Spencer's turn to be surprised when he leaned in for another kiss. The kiss quickly deepened, and they made out in Morgan's living room on the couch like a pair of teenagers. Hands were everywhere and both men became aroused. They ended masturbating together and the cuddling on the couch. Reid awoke a few hours later and realized that Morgan was gone, presumably having relocated to his bedroom. He felt this to be a clear message, left Morgan's place, and drove home. The next day when he stepped out of the shower he saw that he had missed a call from Morgan. Listening to the voicemail he sighed. Morgan said that what had happened never should have happened and that they would pretend it never happened when they got to work on Monday.

Reid cried that night, and many nights after because of his situation with Morgan. He loved him and it was killing him to pretend that nothing had happened. Reid had naively thought that because he had been in love with Morgan for so long that any intimate contact with him was good, that he should take what he could get. He could not have been more wrong. Reid was in a desert dying of thirst and Morgan was the oasis. One sip of water did nothing to satiate his thirst; it only made him realize how thirsty he really was. Morgan, meanwhile, easily behaved as though nothing happened. He called Reid the same nicknames, joked the way he always did, behaved as he always did. Reid wished they were just ignoring each other; that would have been easier than trying to ignore what happened.

And that's why Reid was knocking on Hotch's office door two weeks later.

"Come in."

"Hi Hotch, can I um, talk to you for a minute?" Hotch noted the pensive look on Reid's face.

"Of course Reid, please, have a seat." Reid shut the door and sat down in one of the chairs that faced Hotch at his desk. He took a deep breath and played with bottom hem of his vest. "Whatever it is Reid, just spit it out."

"I'd like to request a transfer," he explained as he handed Hotch the paperwork. Hotch was speechless; this certainly was not what he was expecting.

"Can I ask why?"

"It's, um, personal," Reid mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

"Reid, are you absolutely sure? Your talents would be useful in any division of the bureau, but I truly believe they are best utilized here in the behavioral analysis unit."

"Then transfer me to Cooper's team."

"You'd be willing to transfer to another team within the BAU?"

"Yes." Hotch stared at Reid thoughtfully. The genius had seemed a little off the past couple of cases, but if he was willing to go to another team within the BAU, that meant a problem with one of his teammates. He seemed to finally be getting along again with JJ and Emily. Morgan, he was close to Morgan, and the team had always speculated that Reid had a little crush on him. He went over the past couple weeks in his mind, this time considering Morgan's behavior. At first glance, Morgan was behaving as he always did, but as Hotch thought about it further he thought that maybe he was trying a little too hard to maintain the status quo.

"Alright Reid, this is what I'll do. I'm going to hold the paperwork overnight, just so that you can be absolutely certain. It's 3:00 now, why don't you head out, just use the time to reconsider your decision."

"I appreciate that Hotch."

"No problem. I'll call you if we catch a case."

"Thank you," Reid stated as he stood. Hotch stood also and watched Reid collect his things and exit the bullpen. Morgan was sitting next to Emily, probably working in the bullpen in the hopes of slipping Reid some of his paperwork. Certain that Reid was gone, he stepped out to the railing and bellowed "MORGAN!" Everyone in the bullpen turned and looked at Hotch. "My office, NOW!" Emily looked at Morgan.

"What did you do now?" Prentiss teased.

"I have no idea, but he certainly sounds pissed," Morgan replied already out of his chair and walking to Hotch's office. When Morgan arrived, Hotch was already seated looking at some paperwork.

"Shut the door." Morgan did as he was told and sat down across from Hotch. "I don't know what you did, I don't think I want to know, but you're going to fix it, do you understand me?"

"I'm sorry Hotch, but no I don't. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I'm talking about Reid and the transfer request he gave me this afternoon." Morgan's eyes looked ready to pop out of their sockets. "And when I told him I thought his talents were best utilized in the BAU, he told me he would accept an in-house transfer to another team. That says one thing to me: problem with a teammate. You're the teammate."

"Did, did Reid say that?" Morgan asked, incredulously.

"Of course not. He just said he wanted the transfer for personal reasons. But he's been off his game for the past two weeks and in that same time frame you've been trying to behave normally instead of behaving normally. Trust me, I know it's you. So like I said before, I don't know what happened, I just want you to fix it. Actually, I'm ordering you to fix it, tonight, because I'm putting off processing the paperwork until tomorrow."

"But I, I . . ."

"Figure it out. And you can leave early too for the purpose of reconciling with Reid." With that Hotch turned to his paperwork, and Morgan rose and ran a hand over his bald head, then headed back to the bullpen to collect his stuff. Emily noticed but thankfully said nothing. As Morgan headed to the parking garage he wondered what the hell am I supposed to do?

Morgan pulled up to Reid's apartment building a short time later since he left before rush hour. Sighing, he got out of his truck and headed for the front door. Thankfully, he didn't have to buzz Reid to let him in because he piggybacked with a tenant.

He took the elevator to Reid's floor and knocked on his apartment door. Who in the world? Reid wondered when he heard the knocking. He had just arrived a few minutes earlier. He looked through his peephole and saw Morgan. Why is he here? Hotch must have sent him. Answering his own question and knowing that if Hotch had sent him he wouldn't relent until his mission was accomplished, Reid sighed and opened the door.

"Can we talk?" Reid didn't reply, but opened the door enough to allow Morgan to enter. He offered him a drink and then they went to the living room, or as Morgan called it, the library.

"So, Hotch told me you put in a transfer request." Reid just stared at him, his eyes saying 'get to the point.' "And Hotch, he thinks that I'm the reason that you're transferring. Is he right?" Reid sighed again.

"Yes." Morgan was taken aback. Despite what Hotch had said, he hadn't wanted to believe it.

"Look Reid, you don't have to transfer because of what happened a couple of weekends ago. We both had a few too many beers and what happened happened. We don't need to feel embarrassed about it or uncomfortable around one another. Like I told you before, we can just pretend like nothing happened."

Reid shook his head. "You don't understand at all," he sighed. "My problem is pretending like nothing happened when I've been wishing for something to happen for years." Reid's face was flushed, but he felt Morgan ought to know the real reason why he was leaving.

"Wait, what?"

"I have feelings for your Morgan! I would kiss you stone cold sober if I thought there was any chance of you reciprocating the feelings!" Morgan felt dizzy.

"Why, why would you think that I wouldn't reciprocate the feelings?" he asked.

"You've made it abundantly clear, time and again, that you are straighter than a ruler." Morgan hung his head, ashamed of the behavior that had brought Reid to this conclusion. He didn't want to make this confession.

"Look, Reid, maybe I'm not as perfectly straight as you think. There were a few guys in college that I was attracted to, that I fooled around with. But then I got started in law enforcement, and especially within a police force, being gay or bi is not socially acceptable. So I just chased women and buried the rest. And I did the same when I was on the bomb squad. It was just so much easier to be 'straight' that I stopped pursuing men, even if I was attracted to them. It wasn't that hard, I preferred women anyhow. But I wasn't that drunk last weekend; I knew what I was doing. Clearly, I enjoyed it. I just thought that I'd given you too much to drink and that when you sobered up you'd be mortified. That's why I left you by yourself, so that you didn't have to face me or deal with me right away if you didn't want to; if you took it as some form of rejection, I'm so sorry because that's not what I was trying to do." Reid sat quietly, processing the abundance of information.

"Morgan, I want to be with you. I want a relationship with you." Reid averted his eyes and began picked at imaginary lint on his pants. Morgan grabbed his hand in his right and then used the left to gently guide Reid to look at him.

"Reid, I want to be with you too," Morgan replied, squeezing his hand.

"You're not just saying that so that I won't go through with the transfer?"

"Reid!"

"I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding." Reid smiled. Morgan tried to look mad but ended up smiling too.

"But you aren't going to transfer, are you?"

"No, I'm not." Morgan smiled and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Good, because I think Hotch might've killed me if you did."

"Stop being so dramatic."

"No, seriously, Garcia probably heard him screaming my name all the way down in her lair." Reid just smiled as they locked gazes. Both men leaned in and they kissed, stone cold sober.