Not As It Seems

Spencer Reid/Derek Morgan

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds. Any characters or related settings are not mine and belong to CBS and Jeff Davis unless otherwise stated.

"You're pathetic, really. You know that?"

Spencer looked up at Derek's words. From his position chained near the floor, he could only see the older man sitting with his back to the wall, handcuffed wrists in front of him, staring up at the ceiling. He frowned.

"W-What?"

The darker man glanced down at him before looking back up again, not even meeting his eye.

"You're pathetic. I mean, come on; if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't even be here. You'd be stuck at the office and I'd be chasing some hot little skirt around the bar. But no; you just had to insist on coming with us, didn't you? Couldn't stay at the office like you should. And now, because of you, we got snatched from the scene; great observation skills, genius."

Spencer shifted awkwardly.

"But you were fir-"

"I mean, really, Spencer; you couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag, you're useless with anything that can't be found in a textbook, and you're like a walking computer that doesn't have a damn off switch."

Spencer stopped trying to talk and inched further away from the man who was quickly becoming more and more annoyed. He peeked up to see Derek glaring at him.

"That's right, you keep scuttling away. Worm."

He tusked, and looked away in disgust. The door over the room opened, and two men armed with submachine guns stormed in. They pointed the guns at the two bound men and the one in front of Spencer waved the barrel of the gun near the younger agent's face.

"What are you two playing at? We snatched you because you're friends, not because you're prime players in playground bitching."

Morgan laughed darkly.

"Me and him? Friends? You have seen this guy, right? In what possible dimension would we be friends?"

"We have Intel."

"From who? The tooth fairy?"

The two men looked confused. The one holding Derek at gunpoint was looking warily from the two agents to his partner and back again, obviously nervous, and after a moment, they back towards the door.

The first man motioned at them with his gun, pointing at Spencer.

"You. Come here."

Derek smirked.

"What do you want him for?"

Spencer got to his feet shakily, and made his way cautiously over to the men, but as he got closer, the second man swung out his gun and caught Spencer harshly across the temple, knocking him sideways. From behind him, there was no noise from Derek.

"Well, he's no good to us anymore. We wanted him to get you to talk; looks like that's not going to happen."

Spencer tried to look over at his colleague, but was kicked back down. He heard Morgan shift behind him.

"So, what are you going to do with him?"

"Get rid of him. What do you care anyway?"

The sound of rustling fabric.

"Just want to know if I'm ever going to have to see him again. God knows he's irritated me enough since he turned up five years ago. Personally, I'd just turn him out; kid's got no sense of direction. He'll run himself wild going in circles. Won't last long, I shouldn't think."

The two men stared at him.

"You really hate this guy, don't you?"

"Let's just say everyone has a pushing point, and mine's long gone."

They laughed, and Spencer felt the first man seize him by the hair and haul him to his feet before he was dragged through the door, his eyes swimming with barely leashed tears of pain as he was slung out of a door onto the frosty, ice covered gravel of a household drive.

Derek Morgan stared up at the ceiling of the room he had been held in for the last two days. He was thirsty, he was hungry, and he was exhausted. But none of that compared to what he was feeling deep in his chest.

He shook his head to try and dispel the thoughts threatening to tear him down, and listened. He could hear sounds of a scuffle down the hall, but didn't put it down to much; he had thought he could hear a whole number of things since they had let Spencer go, but nothing had ever come out of any of it. Maybe his dehydration was getting the better of him finally.

He had just let his head fall back down onto his chest when the door exploded inwards with a flurry of voices and guns.

"FBI!"

One face in particular pushed to the front of the already familiar group, and the Spencer was kneeling in front of him, slender hands framing his face and gently wiping away the crusted blood that Derek could feel on his temple.

The young genius was combing over his face with his eyes.

"You idiot. They could have killed you."

He looked up into the face of his fiancé and released a deep, shuddering breath before leaning forward as far as he could and resting his head on the slim shoulder beneath the sweater.

"I was scared they hadn't taken my advice. I was so scared I had made a mistake. I was relying on the team to pick up on our tag signal once you were out."

"It worked perfectly."

One of Spencer's hands went to the back of his neck and gently stroked as one of the officers worked on the cuffs around Derek's wrists. He was still murmuring gentle reassurances when the cuffs fell free, and as soon as they did, Derek wrapped his arms around the younger man's slender waist, pulling the slim figure tightly against him.

He buried his face in the light brown strands of his lover's hair and breathed in deeply before whispering.

"Tell me you didn't believe anything I said. Please. I had to make them think we weren't connected, otherwise they would have used it against us; I didn't want you to get hurt."

A small laugh escaped Spencer.

"Derek, I knew you were lying as soon as you said you would be out chasing a girl. It was risky though."

"I know. Jesus, I know. Are you okay? Did they hurt you bad?"

His fiancé's voice was muffled a little by Derek's t-shirt but it didn't matter; he still heard him crystal clear.

"A concussion that was gone by this morning, and a few bruises, but nothing that can be handled. I was more worried about what they'd do to you once I was gone."

Spencer pulled back and touched his fingertips to Derek's cheek before he leaned in and kissed him gently on the mouth.

"Let's go home."

Derek gave the first smile he had smiled since their abduction. He kissed Spencer again.

"Yeah, pretty boy, let's go home."

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