The end of a long day.

Luke stood outside Jacob's bedroom, watching through the doorway as Reid rocked the boy in his arms, gently shifting his weight back and forth between his feet, as he spoke softly to him.  Reid had insisted on picking Jacob up from Margo's on the way home from the hospital,  He had said it was because he wanted Jacob to sleep in his own bed, that kids, even babies, could feel when things were off and that he wanted to keep things normal for the tyke...but Luke suspected that it was because on days like the one Reid had just had, human beings find themselves wanting to be close to the people they love.  And Luke knew that Reid did, in fact, love Jacob.  And Katie.  And Luke.  He loved Luke.  There, I said it.  Luke backed away from the room and went down the hall to Reid's bedroom.  He'd never been in there.  Luke shook his head at the fact that he'd been with Reid for almost three months and that he'd never set foot in his bedroom, had never lay in his bed.  He had never watched Reid's eyes flutter open in the morning light or rested his head on his bare chest. Reid had said it the other day:  Life is short...and the day's events had certainly driven that point home.  Luke was suddenly aware of the lateness of things as he glanced around the bedroom, at Reid's space..at the two framed pictures on his dresser, one of them a photo that Katie had snapped of the two of them at the park a month earlier.  The unexpected sentiment of it made Luke smile.  Reid had grumbled about hating grass and bugs and air, but in the end, they had enjoyed a wonderful few hours of hiking around the lake and playing with Jacob in the sandbox.  Luke assumed that the other photograph was of Reid's parents.  Reid didn't talk about them much.  All Luke knew was that they were both professors and that they had died in a car accident when Reid was eleven.  Luke looked at the cross on the wall, at the poster of the Milky Way on the opposte one, at the boots kicked off by the bathroom door, at the shirt thrown haphazardly over the back of a chair at the desk, at the iPad and ear buds in the middle of his neatly-made bed, at the stack of books and half-empty water bottle on the nightstand, at the telescope leaning against the wall in the corner,...and he realized there was still so much that he didn't know about the man he loved.

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Reid entered his bedroom, placing the baby monitor on his desk and watched Luke stand up from the bed.  He felt exhausted, physically and emotionally.  He unbuttoned his own shirt and let it drop to the floor as Luke's eyes swept over his body.  He stepped toward Luke and tugged at the bottom of his shirt.  Luke immediately lifted his arms and let Reid remove his shirt effortlessly.  Reid drew in a breath as he took in the sight of Luke's bare skin, skin that he had longed to touch, to taste, for months now.  The wait was over.  Reid sensed it with certainty.  Luke was ready.  God, they were both more than ready.  But tonight wasn't about that.  Tonight was about finding some stasis in the dwindling minutes of a day that was blurry and dark around the edges.  Reid stepped forward into the safety of Luke's solidity, his face finding the comfort of Luke's neck, his mind quieted by the reassurance of Luke's strong arms around him.  Luke pulled him down on the bed, his arms going tighter around Reid's back and shoulders, his hands caressing him, soothing words falling from his lips, as Reid allowed himself to be held.  Reid thought about the man whose heart he had carried to Oakdale in a cooler, a man younger than him, a young father whose life was cut short on a sunny September day while he was busy living his life, not unlike his own father, who had died on another random sunny day many years before.  He thought of that heart, the ultimate gift from a stranger, that he had delivered to be put into Chris' chest, and his hand dropped to Luke's side, his fingers delicately tracing the scar there as he felt a wave of gratefulness for the original owner of the perfect, working kidney that filtered Luke's blood.  He felt a tear slide down his cheek, but he didn't pull away.  He didn't try to hide it.  He didn't feel the need to jump behind a wall or hide behind a mask.  He felt Luke's hand slide into his, as Luke murmured, "Tomorrow will be better."  Reid closed his eyes, safe in Luke's embrace, and drifted off to sleep.