Fic: Zeroes and Ones 16/? (Criminal Minds, Morgan/Reid, NC17)
Title: Zeroes and Ones 16/?
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid
Rating: NC17
Summary: AU. This diverges from canon directly after 4x01. When Derek's offered the job heading up the NYC field office, he takes it for the good of his career. He expects to leave the BAU and everyone he knew in Virginia behind, but some people are easier to let go of than others.
A/N: Part sixteen, you guys. This is the slowest burn I've written...ever, maybe. Even I'm starting to get annoyed.
It was past six when Derek walked back into the office, bone-tired and nursing a pulled muscle in his calf from unlocking a door the hard way. He shouldn't have been out in the field in the first place, but his team was already spread pretty thin across the city when they got the call that the computer guys had locked down a location on the hacker. So Derek hadn't even hesitated before he holstered his gun and rushed out of the office with Sanchez and another agent in tow.
They got to the address first, an apartment in the kind of building where the neighbors wouldn't ask a lot of questions. Derek drew his gun and knocked hard on the door, shouted, "FBI" and "open up!" and when he didn't get an answer, he kicked the door in. Maybe it wasn't the way he should have handled it, but he was used to dealing with life or death situations, and he'd just gone with his instincts.
Which was probably going to get him in some hot water, he knew. Derek blew out a frustrated breath and headed for his office, stopping in the doorway and blinking a couple times when he realized it wasn't empty. Spencer was sitting in a chair opposite his desk, glasses on and his coat thrown across the chair next to him and reading the contents of a folder. He didn't even look up when Derek stopped in the doorway, which meant he was pretty engrossed in whatever it was he was reading.
Derek grinned and crossed the room, craning his neck to try to get a look in the folder before Spencer caught him. All he saw was the Columbia logo at the top of what looked like a letter, then the folder snapped shut and when Derek looked up, Spencer was frowning at him.
"Hey, Pretty Boy. Must be pretty interesting."
"It's nothing," Spencer lied, cheeks flushing as he leaned over to shove the folder in his bag. Then he straightened up and tucked his hair behind his ear, leaning back in his chair to watch Derek move behind his desk and check his messages. "Where were you?"
"In Queens, chasing ghosts." Derek sighed and looked over at Spencer. "We had a tip about a possible terrorist attack on the city's traffic control system. Turns out it was a group of dumb college kids with giant brains and zero common sense. They generated all this chatter on the network and hacked into the traffic control computers all for some art project, can you believe that? You'd think people in this city would know better."
"Art project?" Spencer repeated, frowning again and Derek smiled for the first time in hours.
"That's what they said. Could be the world's lamest cover story, I guess, but I have a hard time buying that anybody's that dumb. The one I talked to said they were trying to make some kind of statement by hacking into traffic control and resetting the lights into a specific pattern. Said they were planning to do it in the middle of the night when traffic was lightest so they wouldn't shut down the city during rush hour."
"Thoughtful."
Derek grinned at the hint of sarcasm in Spencer's voice. Anybody who didn't know him would think he was just being gullible, but Derek had been speaking Spencer long enough to hear his dry sense of humor leak into the single word. "Yeah, well, I don't think that's going to help much with the charges they're facing."
"So that's why you wanted me to come here? In case of a traffic jam?"
Derek shook his head and decided he didn't have any messages that couldn't wait until morning. He slid his coat back on and pulled open a drawer to grab his keys. "In case the traffic jam was just a diversion from something bigger. The subway's usually the first target on the list. Anyway, you didn't have a key to my place and I didn't want you freezing your ass off waiting for me to show up."
He waited while Spencer slid his coat back on and shouldered his bag, then Derek led him out of the office and toward the bank of elevators in the hall. They rode down to the street in silence, Derek leaning heavily against the elevator wall and Spencer standing next to him, close enough to let Derek feel his body heat and his ever-present nervous energy, but not quite close enough that they were touching. When the elevator dinged and the doors slid open Derek reached out and gripped Spencer's arm, guiding him out of the car even though he didn't need the assist.
Maybe it was Derek that needed it this time, he thought as they stepped outside, Derek's hand still on Spencer's bicep and Spencer looking over at him like he knew exactly why Derek was touching and he wasn't going to ask him to stop any time soon.
When Derek put up his hand to hail a cab Spencer didn't argue; he just let Derek open the door when a cab pulled up to the curb and ease him onto the back seat. Derek slid in after him, wincing as his pulled muscle reminded him of just how young he wasn't these days.
"What's the matter?" Spencer asked, frowning again but Derek ignored him and leaned forward to give the driver his address.
"Nothing," Derek answered when he leaned back, stretching out his leg as much as he could in the cramped seat. "Just pulled something when I was out in the field earlier. The dumb college students didn't want to let us in, so I had to persuade them."
He grinned as he said it, but Spencer didn't laugh and shake his head and complain about how they didn't have anyone to kick in doors for them at the BAU anymore. Instead he turned to look at Derek, the movement bringing him a little closer and it was a struggle not to reach out and touch again.
"I thought your cushy desk job was supposed to keep you from getting yourself injured."
"I'm fine, Spencer," he said, because he was. It was just a pulled muscle; nothing a little heat and some rest wouldn't fix. "Anyway, just because I'm in charge now doesn't mean I'm never going to get injured again. I can't expect my agents to take all the heat."
"Yes, you can. That's their job."
Spencer's voice went a little higher on the end of the sentence, and Derek frowned and wished they weren't in the back of a dark cab so he could look in those eyes and see what Spencer wasn't saying. Maybe he was just worried about Derek getting himself hurt, or maybe he was wondering just like Hotch if Derek could handle this job. Derek wondered that himself often enough, but somehow it bothered him a little more that Spencer would think it than it did coming from himself or even Hotch.
"You never complained when I was kicking in doors for the BAU."
They were crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, and Spencer looked away from him to stare out the window at the traffic rushing by and the water below them. It was dark already and the whole city was lit up, and Derek had always loved this view, but he liked it a little more when he was watching Spencer's profile while Spencer stared out at it.
"I never said anything because it was your job. That doesn't mean I didn't hate it."
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid
Rating: NC17
Summary: AU. This diverges from canon directly after 4x01. When Derek's offered the job heading up the NYC field office, he takes it for the good of his career. He expects to leave the BAU and everyone he knew in Virginia behind, but some people are easier to let go of than others.
A/N: Part sixteen, you guys. This is the slowest burn I've written...ever, maybe. Even I'm starting to get annoyed.
It was past six when Derek walked back into the office, bone-tired and nursing a pulled muscle in his calf from unlocking a door the hard way. He shouldn't have been out in the field in the first place, but his team was already spread pretty thin across the city when they got the call that the computer guys had locked down a location on the hacker. So Derek hadn't even hesitated before he holstered his gun and rushed out of the office with Sanchez and another agent in tow.
They got to the address first, an apartment in the kind of building where the neighbors wouldn't ask a lot of questions. Derek drew his gun and knocked hard on the door, shouted, "FBI" and "open up!" and when he didn't get an answer, he kicked the door in. Maybe it wasn't the way he should have handled it, but he was used to dealing with life or death situations, and he'd just gone with his instincts.
Which was probably going to get him in some hot water, he knew. Derek blew out a frustrated breath and headed for his office, stopping in the doorway and blinking a couple times when he realized it wasn't empty. Spencer was sitting in a chair opposite his desk, glasses on and his coat thrown across the chair next to him and reading the contents of a folder. He didn't even look up when Derek stopped in the doorway, which meant he was pretty engrossed in whatever it was he was reading.
Derek grinned and crossed the room, craning his neck to try to get a look in the folder before Spencer caught him. All he saw was the Columbia logo at the top of what looked like a letter, then the folder snapped shut and when Derek looked up, Spencer was frowning at him.
"Hey, Pretty Boy. Must be pretty interesting."
"It's nothing," Spencer lied, cheeks flushing as he leaned over to shove the folder in his bag. Then he straightened up and tucked his hair behind his ear, leaning back in his chair to watch Derek move behind his desk and check his messages. "Where were you?"
"In Queens, chasing ghosts." Derek sighed and looked over at Spencer. "We had a tip about a possible terrorist attack on the city's traffic control system. Turns out it was a group of dumb college kids with giant brains and zero common sense. They generated all this chatter on the network and hacked into the traffic control computers all for some art project, can you believe that? You'd think people in this city would know better."
"Art project?" Spencer repeated, frowning again and Derek smiled for the first time in hours.
"That's what they said. Could be the world's lamest cover story, I guess, but I have a hard time buying that anybody's that dumb. The one I talked to said they were trying to make some kind of statement by hacking into traffic control and resetting the lights into a specific pattern. Said they were planning to do it in the middle of the night when traffic was lightest so they wouldn't shut down the city during rush hour."
"Thoughtful."
Derek grinned at the hint of sarcasm in Spencer's voice. Anybody who didn't know him would think he was just being gullible, but Derek had been speaking Spencer long enough to hear his dry sense of humor leak into the single word. "Yeah, well, I don't think that's going to help much with the charges they're facing."
"So that's why you wanted me to come here? In case of a traffic jam?"
Derek shook his head and decided he didn't have any messages that couldn't wait until morning. He slid his coat back on and pulled open a drawer to grab his keys. "In case the traffic jam was just a diversion from something bigger. The subway's usually the first target on the list. Anyway, you didn't have a key to my place and I didn't want you freezing your ass off waiting for me to show up."
He waited while Spencer slid his coat back on and shouldered his bag, then Derek led him out of the office and toward the bank of elevators in the hall. They rode down to the street in silence, Derek leaning heavily against the elevator wall and Spencer standing next to him, close enough to let Derek feel his body heat and his ever-present nervous energy, but not quite close enough that they were touching. When the elevator dinged and the doors slid open Derek reached out and gripped Spencer's arm, guiding him out of the car even though he didn't need the assist.
Maybe it was Derek that needed it this time, he thought as they stepped outside, Derek's hand still on Spencer's bicep and Spencer looking over at him like he knew exactly why Derek was touching and he wasn't going to ask him to stop any time soon.
When Derek put up his hand to hail a cab Spencer didn't argue; he just let Derek open the door when a cab pulled up to the curb and ease him onto the back seat. Derek slid in after him, wincing as his pulled muscle reminded him of just how young he wasn't these days.
"What's the matter?" Spencer asked, frowning again but Derek ignored him and leaned forward to give the driver his address.
"Nothing," Derek answered when he leaned back, stretching out his leg as much as he could in the cramped seat. "Just pulled something when I was out in the field earlier. The dumb college students didn't want to let us in, so I had to persuade them."
He grinned as he said it, but Spencer didn't laugh and shake his head and complain about how they didn't have anyone to kick in doors for them at the BAU anymore. Instead he turned to look at Derek, the movement bringing him a little closer and it was a struggle not to reach out and touch again.
"I thought your cushy desk job was supposed to keep you from getting yourself injured."
"I'm fine, Spencer," he said, because he was. It was just a pulled muscle; nothing a little heat and some rest wouldn't fix. "Anyway, just because I'm in charge now doesn't mean I'm never going to get injured again. I can't expect my agents to take all the heat."
"Yes, you can. That's their job."
Spencer's voice went a little higher on the end of the sentence, and Derek frowned and wished they weren't in the back of a dark cab so he could look in those eyes and see what Spencer wasn't saying. Maybe he was just worried about Derek getting himself hurt, or maybe he was wondering just like Hotch if Derek could handle this job. Derek wondered that himself often enough, but somehow it bothered him a little more that Spencer would think it than it did coming from himself or even Hotch.
"You never complained when I was kicking in doors for the BAU."
They were crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, and Spencer looked away from him to stare out the window at the traffic rushing by and the water below them. It was dark already and the whole city was lit up, and Derek had always loved this view, but he liked it a little more when he was watching Spencer's profile while Spencer stared out at it.
"I never said anything because it was your job. That doesn't mean I didn't hate it."