Fic: Come Daylight 16
Title: Come Daylight [16/?]
Author: wanderingjasper
Rating: FRT
Characters: Morgan/Reid, ensemble
Word Count:
Themes: Fluff, romance, life!angst, mpreg.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, but I do take liberties with them for no financial gain.
Warnings: Non-sexual intimate nudity.
Notes: AU, unrelated to other fics, features Mpreg. A gift fic for my wifey Evo. Previous chapters: here.
Summary: Reid and Morgan make final preparations for the impending birth.
“All things are ready, if our mind be so.” - William Shakespeare
Reid woke up alone, and could hear the sound of Morgan moving around downstairs. He groaned at the immediate throb in his hand, less after a week since it was stitched, but still enough to be uncomfortable. He took a moment to stretch his legs out, and then curled in on himself again, and wrapped his arm around his stomach. He was huge, but in the last few days as the fetus had ‘dropped’ into position in preparation for birth, the pressure on his lungs and stomach had eased. It was replaced with increased pressure on his bladder and pelvis, however, and he knew he’d have to get up soon to use the bathroom.
The fetus was moving, not enough to be uncomfortable, but Reid rubbed his stomach all the same. In five weeks or less, he wouldn’t be pregnant anymore. He’d have a child, he’d be a parent. He was a parent now, really; at this point if the worst should happen he couldn’t see himself referring to it as a failed pregnancy instead of a lost child.
Reid forced the thought out of his head; he’d gone thirty five weeks without any complications, it didn’t make sense to worry now. Every day he felt less and less worried; he’d read so many books and resources, taken classes, they’d prepared their home. In a matter of weeks, their baby would be in their lives, and he was excited.
The sound of Morgan coming into the bedroom caught his attention, and he let his eyes follow Morgan around as he put a mug of tea on the bedside table.
“What do you think our child is going to look like?” Reid asked. Morgan smiled, apparently not expecting that as a good morning greeting.
“Hmm,” Morgan sounded, climbing onto the bed and snuggling down behind Reid. “Pretty.” He kissed the back of the man’s head. “If we’re going off our baby photos, they’re gonna have hair when they’re born. A great mop of it, judging by yours. They’ll probably be small like we were, but once they hit their teens, they’ll grow up tall. If they get your eyes they’ll need glasses sooner, if they get mine they’ll need them later. Brown eyes like us, most likely. Some shade of brown between me and you. They’re gonna be beautiful.”
“We have to make sure we tell them every day,” Reid muttered, still clinging to the last moments of sleep.
“What?”
“Our child. Tell them they’re beautiful all the time.”
“Of course we will. Why’d you say that?”
“Your mom calls you beautiful all the time,” Reid mused. “Every time we see her, or she calls you, you’re her beautiful boy. My mom didn’t. I know my mom loves me absolutely, but I’ve always been her special child, clever, smart, amazing. She was never in the habit of calling me beautiful. I’m not saying it gave me issues,” he said evenly, “but at school I had long hair, thick glasses and what my schizophrenic mother considered ideal dress sense. My self-image was pretty damaged until the later years of college. Nobody actually called me beautiful until you.”
“That’s a crime, baby,” Morgan murmured. “You should hear it every day. I promise our kid is going to hear.”
“Good.”
Morgan got up and began dressing for work. Reid pushed himself up and stretched, taking time to savour his tea before he did the same.
“Did the blood come out of my paternity slacks?” he asked. “I like them better than the blue ones.”
Morgan paused and turned, pulling his t-shirt down. “You’re not going back to work,” he said.
“I am.”
“Spencer.” There was something scared in Morgan’s voice, something Reid hadn’t heard for a long time. “Please don’t. Please, Spencer, let me be the overprotective husband for once. I have deferred to you for everything in this pregnancy, please let me call this.”
“Derek-”
“I could have lost you, Spencer,” Morgan went on. “If it wasn’t for Seaver, he’d have gutted you there on the road, he’d have killed our kid. You’d have been alive still, Spencer, when he pulled our baby out and killed them. You would have seen it all, and I-”
Morgan gave a distressed sound and dropped on the bed, cradling his head in his hands. Reid suddenly realised why Morgan hadn’t been sleeping well since it had happened; his nightmares had become the hellish vision of what would have happened if Ashley hadn’t been able to protect Spencer from the unsub. Reid had thought about it too, but endeavoured not to let his mind linger.
He crawled across the bed and sat down next to Morgan, took one of his husband’s hands and dragged it down to his belly. He held it there until Morgan met his eyes again, then his lover relaxed a fraction and rubbed in small circles of his own accord.
“I don’t want you to go back,” Morgan said. “I want you to leave now.”
“I know,” Reid nodded. “I guess I thought my time at the BAU could end on a high, not with one of our friends almost dying. But there’s no way Hotch will let me anywhere near the field, I’ll be in Garcia’s office. I hated that when I blew out my knee. I mean I liked being with Garcia-” he added quickly, “but being stuck there and not really involved with the case was boring.”
“So you’ll leave now?” Morgan asked hopefully.
“Yeah. I guess it’s time.”
“Thank you,” Morgan breathed, swooping in to cup Reid’s face and kiss him. “I promise I’m only going to be there a few more weeks. Three, tops. If you give birth before that, I’m done. I’ve told Hotch, if the baby comes, I’m gone. I’d leave too right now, but with Ashley down, the team is going to be stretched thin.”
“I know, it’s okay,” Reid said, and it was. The way the tension eased out of Morgan was satisfying, and he was angry at himself for not realising how effected his husband had been earlier. He had been so wrapped up in coping, in talking himself into going back despite the fear and the flashbacks to that empty road and the cloying smell of Seaver’s blood, that he hadn’t noticed Morgan struggling too.
“But I’ve got to go in to hand in my gun and badge.”
Morgan hummed his agreement, reluctant to pull away.
“And give Garcia a chance to reorganise the leaving party.”
“How’d you know?” Morgan chuckled.
“Profiler.”
---
At thirty-eight weeks pregnant, Reid had spent the few weeks since officially leaving the BAU at home, with Clooney and - after she was out of hospital - Seaver for company. With two profilers down, only one of which was planned, it had made sense for Reid to look after Seaver while she recovered. She was under doctor’s orders to rest, and she wasn’t impressed by Reid’s vast collection of sci-fi DVDs, but she was a good conversationalist as Reid tried to stave off sedentary.
He’d hit the nesting phase, and suddenly been taken with the urge to clean. When Morgan had left the house, with Prentiss who had driven Seaver over, he’d promised to take it easy. He didn’t, though, for the first few days of not working; he cleaned, dusted, vacuumed, and polished, with Seaver helping even though she couldn’t move by convincing him to hand her things to dust and polish. Morgan had to know, but he didn’t say anything when he got home.
Seaver could technically have managed on her own two weeks after the fact; she was healing well and able to move around for extended periods of time, but neither of them felt much like being alone. Reid had no issue with solitude, but he hadn’t realised just how much time he spent with Morgan until he wasn’t with him all day. He missed him, and couldn’t wait for him to finish up his time with the BAU too.
“What’s that?” Seaver asked, nodding towards the paper he was holding as he came through from the kitchen.
“The birth plan.”
“Is that what it sounds like?”
“Basically.” She didn’t ask to see it, and he didn’t offer, but he did continue. “It outlines certain things. My practitioner and the hospital have copies. It’s quite detailed; it was therapeutic to plan for various circumstances. What drugs I don’t want to be given, who I’d like in surgery with me if Derek can’t be there, that I want the surgical screen low enough to see the baby delivered, where I’d like the baby to sleep when I’m recovering after the caesarean. A stipulation that Derek gets to cut the umbilical cord.”
“That was important to him?” Seaver smiled.
“Yeah,” Reid said as he sat down heavily on the couch. Clooney was being a well-behaved dog and sitting with his head on Seaver’s knee, letting her stroke him and scratch behind his ears. “It was a tradition that arose once non-birthing males were allowed into the delivery rooms, to make them feel like they’d contributed to the birth of their offspring.”
In the quiet, the television murmured quietly, a daytime cooking show on for background noise mostly as they talked.
“Do you miss it yet?” Seaver asked, and she didn’t have to clarify.
“I miss the team,” Reid said. “But when I think about the thrill I used to get, I just feel tired.” He gave a little laugh, stroking the huge swell of his stomach. “I’m tired so much of the time these days, the thought of the effort it takes to work a profile is daunting. And I don’t miss the risk. We almost died twenty days ago, Ashley. I’ve been shot, infected with anthrax, drugged... so I don’t miss the risk. Not when I can’t justify it any more. It’s not just me, and not just me and Derek doing the same job and running the same risks. We were okay with that when it was just us.” He sighed, and shrugged his shoulders.
They faded into quiet, and Reid knew he’d already thanked Ashley for defending him and saving him from a worse fate on their last case. “I don’t know how many times I can say thank you before it feels like enough,” he said. “Do you-” he shrugged, floundering for something to suggest, “want us to name you as God-parent?”
“Neither of us believe in God,” Ashley chuckled.
“I know. But without you it’s likely he would have killed the child.”
“Just,” Ashley shifted, putting her head on her hand thoughtfully, “tell them about me, about what I did I mean. When they’re older, tell them what happened. Seeing them get into this world safe is going to be enough reward, but it might be nice to be remembered.”
“We’ll tell them,” Reid nodded. “Of course we will.”
---
“I got you a present,” Morgan said, handing over a small parcel wrapped in tissue paper with a blue ribbon. “Well, it’s for the baby, so it’s not really a present for you. I guess you’re going to get loads of gifts like that now.”
Reid smiled as he looked the package, judged the weight of it. It was light, and definitely material. He rested it on his belly, while he untied the ribbon, Morgan’s excitement clear in his peripheral vision. Under the tissue paper was a navy blue snapsuit with white writing and a picture of an angle on it.
“I’m acute baby,” Reid read, smiling. “Derek,” he added with affection.
“It’s 5-6 months, so it’s one we’ll have to save for later, but I couldn’t resist,” Morgan explained. “I almost walked out of the baby store as soon as I went in. It was all segregated; a rainbow of colour on one side, and then a wall of pink. There were these special twin sets of clothes, and they had one for opposite sex twins; ‘smart like daddy’ in blue, and ‘pretty like mommy’ in pink. If we have a girl she’d going to be smart, and if we have a boy he’s going to be pretty. But,” he sighed, letting the annoyance drain from his voice, “then I saw this one in the boy’s section. I think it’ll just fine whatever we have.”
“It’s perfect,” Reid said, gladly accepting the kiss Morgan moved in to initiate. “Between you and Garcia, our child is going to be impeccably dressed.”
They kissed slowly, lips moving against each other, one of Morgan’s hands straying downward over Reid’s belly.
“I’ve felt bad leaving you on all these late nights getting stuff finished,” Morgan said. “This is the last one, I promise. I’m done. We’re both ex-profilers now. What do you want to do tonight?”
“Can we take a bath?” It didn’t seem like much of a request, but even in their large tub it could be a bit of hassle getting his pregnant self in and out, so they took even fewer baths than they had pre-pregnancy.
“Sure, baby.”
They went upstairs and Reid began to undress as Morgan prepped the bath. He tied his hair up out of the way, he’d washed it that morning and he knew he’d be uncomfortable in the night if he got it wet again this late in the evening. It was thicker and shiner than ever in pregnancy, which Morgan had definitely appreciated.
Reid had never hated his body; despite years of his peers trying to tell him he should, for being beaten up and harassed for how he looked and how small he was, he couldn’t bring himself to hate his body when it functioned perfectly fine for the most part and could do some pretty amazing things. But he had never truly loved his body and been able to fully appreciate it until Morgan.
Morgan loved every inch of him, from the faded track marks on the inside of his arms to his knobbly elbows that got dry if he forgot to moisturise them, as he had always forgotten to do in the early stages of their relationship. By loving and appreciated and adoring his body, Morgan had taught him to love and appreciate it himself; his big hands with spindly but strong fingers, his fingernails that looked elegant when he let them grow just a few millimetres; big feet with dexterous toes he could turn the bath taps on and off with, sharp hips and ribs that stuck out when he stretched.
It was different now, with a massive pregnant belly changing the same of his body. He had more flesh all around, from weight gain and water retention alike, his ankles were swollen, his face was full, and his chest was sore and leaking small amounts of clear colostrum; not enough to show through the paternity vests he wore, but enough that he’d been self conscious when he noticed it. Morgan’s love for his body hadn’t diminished or greatly increased if the latter was even possibly, but changed as his body changed. He was enjoying it too, despite the pain and discomfort it brought on with it. Morgan’s enthusiasm for his form was infectious.
Morgan looked at him with such reverence as he padded into the bathroom he couldn’t help the smile that pulled at his mouth.
“You always look so good with your hair tied back,” he said as he slipped out of his clothes.
“You put bubbles in,” Reid smiled as he peered into the tub, steam rising from the water.
“And some of that bath oil you like.”
“Lovely.”
“You are,” Morgan said, a hand slipping down Reid’s back to cup his rear.
“Smooth,” Reid chuckled, leaning back against Morgan briefly. He let Morgan take his hands and help to balance him as he stepped into the water, grateful for the large tub he’d considered rather lavish when he’d first seen it. He suspected when Morgan had installed it he’d imagined one or even two naked women in it with him and not a heavily pregnant man, but neither of them had ever expected to end up together, let alone happy and having a child.
Reid lowered himself down slowly and let the water take his weight, immediately relieving the pressure on his pelvis and drawing out a groan from him.
“Good?” Morgan asked as he settled down behind Reid.
“Yes,” Reid said. “I’ll be glad when this pregnancy is over.”
“Not long now, baby. Eighteen days until they cut you open.”
“I can’t wait,” Reid murmured as Morgan pulled him close. Reid leaned his head back on Morgan’s shoulder and let himself voice the sounds of his body relaxing. Morgan picked up a washcloth and dunked it under the water, and then brought it up to wash Reid’s collarbones and the top of his chest.
“You sore?” he asked as he moved lower, washing the small swell of breast tissue that had formed in the months previous as his body prepared to be able to feed their impending infant. Reid was glad he avoided his nipple with the cloth; the vests he wore stopped his clothing rubbing against them, but after a whole day in confinement he was still sore.
“Yes,” he said.
Morgan cupped his hand and lifted water up to douse Reid’s chest, and then gently cupped his hand on his chest instead, and rubbed his thumb gently over Reid’s nipple. The thumb was callous but Morgan was so gentle it didn’t hurt, and he turned his face into Morgan’s neck and kissed the skin there. With the washcloth forgotten Morgan did the same with the other hand on the other breast, large thumbs carefully helping to sooth and cleanse his flesh.
“Remember when you weren’t confident you’d have enough growth to breast feed?” Morgan mused.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Reid admitted. “JJ said her breasts hurt less once she got Henry to latch properly.”
“You’ve been talking about boobs with JJ?”
“It’s not as exciting as it sounds,” Reid laughed breathily. “She saw I was uncomfortable and we got talking.”
Morgan’s hands were now on his belly, where he was able to be a bit more robust as he washed his lover, teasing his extended navel with the washcloth. Reid made a half-hearted attempt at washing Morgan in return, running his hands over his knees and legs, but the warm water and his lover’s attentions had sapped his remaining energy.
“Does it ever just stop you in shock that you’ve got a small human being in you?” Morgan mused.
Reid laughed into the man’s neck. “There’s a dirty joke in there somewhere.”
“Seriously, Spencer. In a matter of weeks they’ll be born. You will have successfully grown a human being.”
“The one and only time I will ever,” Reid said. “I am never doing this again.”
“And if we want another kid one day?”
“You’re not already thinking of more, are you?” Reid lifted his head to look at Morgan’s face.
“No,” he shrugged, “but not ruling it out.”
“Fine,” Spencer settled down again with a smile, “you can be the pregnant one next time.”
“You haven’t made it sound like the most fun time.”
“We’ll adopt, like we planned.”
“Yeah,” Morgan hummed. “Don’t worry, I promise I’m not planning more yet. I’m happy with one, our little one. Our little family of four.”
Reid was confused for only a second. “You’re including the dog, aren’t you?”
“Of course!” Morgan feigned offence. “You can’t leave him out, especially when he’s been a more attentive mate to you than I have during your pregnancy.”
“You’ve been great,” Reid said. He lifted his arms to wrap them around Morgan’s neck, humming contentedly. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“We only have babies when we're young enough not to know how grim life turns out.” - Gregory Maguire