Title: As Long As It Matters
Author: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Spencer Reid
Fandom: CSI/Criminal Minds
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,766
Warning: ongoing series
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Spencer Reid, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

"But why do you have to go now?" Greg wailed, unable to keep the words back even though he knew that he should. Of course Spencer couldn't stay in Las Vegas if his team had called him back to DC; his work was important, and Greg knew that.

He shouldn't be whining like this. But he hadn't been able to spend nearly as much time with Spencer as he had wanted to, and finding out that his lover would have to leave Vegas tomorrow afternoon made him want to break down in tears.

They would have this last night together; Greg had the day off tomorrow, too, so they wouldn't be rushed. He wouldn't have to get up early to be at work in the morning, and he wouldn't have to spend his day thinking about Spencer and wondering what could have been.

No, he would just end up spending the rest of the weekend doing that, he told himself with a sigh. He had no choice, really. He couldn't beg Spencer to stay here; he knew how important the other man's work was, and he had no right to put their relationship before Spencer's job.

But the fact remained that he would do almost anything to keep Spencer here a little longer, and that he would feel completely lost and brokenhearted once his lover was gone. There was no telling when they would see each other again -- or even if they would.

No, he wasn't going to think like that, Greg told himself firmly. Spencer would be back in Vegas, and he'd said that he would try to come back as often as he could, now that he had more of a reason for coming here than just visiting his mother.

They hadn't even had a chance to discuss the possibility of a long-distance relationship; the moment he had entered Spencer's hotel room, he'd been told that the other man was leaving early in the afternoon on the next day. There was no time to sit down and talk calmly.

All he wanted to do was lose himself in Spencer's embrace, for them to make love all night, and for the night to never end. He wanted to saturate himself in Spencer's touch, to make this night last until the next time they were together, no matter how long that might be.

It could be months before they saw each other again, Greg thought despairingly, dropping into the chair in front of the picture window. This might be the last time he saw Spencer for an indeterminate amount of time. Or they might never see each other again.

Spencer's job was dangerous. There was always the possibility that he could be killed any time his team went after an unsub. Greg swallowed hard, blinking rapidly to hold back the tears that rose to his eyes at the thought of Spencer being snatched away from him.

"Greg, I don't want to go," Spencer told him, laying a hand on his shoulder and speaking in a whisper. "The last thing I want to do is leave you. I know we'd had plans for the weekend. But I've got to go back. I don't have a choice. The team needs me."

"I know they do," Greg forced himself to say. "You have to go back to DC. I just .... I don't want to lose you, Spencer. I'm afraid that something's going to happen, and I won't ever see you again. I know it's not likely, but you never know what could happen."

"Nothing's going to happen to me, Greg." Spencer moved to the front of the chair, kneeling down in front of Greg and looking into his eyes. "And we'll see each other again. As soon as I can get back here, I will. I'm not sure how we'll work this out, but we'll do it somehow."

Greg nodded, unable now to stop the tears that had begun to trickle down his cheeks. Spencer stood up, taking Greg's hands in his own and pulling him to his feet and into an embrace. Greg let himself lean against Spencer, his tears flowing freely.

Spencer wanted to be with him. This wasn't going to be just a few days of enjoying themselves and then forgetting about each other. It might not be easy for them to maintain a long-distance relationship, but they would manage somehow. They had to.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Spencer told him, his voice soft and husky. "And I'll keep coming back. I'll be with you as long as you need me to be, Greg. As long as it matters to you that I'm here, I will be. And even if I'm not here all the time, we can still be together."

"Are you willing to do that?" Greg whispered, hoping that Spencer's answer would be yes. This wasn't the way that he'd wanted to broach the subject of a long-distance relationship, but the question was out in the open now. There was no way that he could work up to it.

"Of course I am," Spencer told him, sounding surprised. "Did you think I wouldn't? Then you don't know me very well at all, Greg." He shook his head, tightening his arms around the other man. "I don't have to see you every day to know how I feel about you."

"Long-distance relationships supposedly don't work out very well," Greg murmured, hoping that Spencer wasn't going to agree with his words. He wanted -- no, he needed -- the reassurance that the two of them would beat the odds, that they would work.

"That's because the people involved in them don't try hard enough to make it work out," Spencer said, his voice strong and firm. "We're going to be the exception to that rule. We're going to make this work. That is, if you're sure that this is what you want."

"What's your team going to think about you not only dating somebody long-distance, but dating a guy?" Greg asked, trying to marshal his whirling thoughts into some semblance of coherence. "Some of them might have a problem with that. I know some people I work with will."

"I don't care what they think," Spencer said, shaking his head. "My personal life doesn't have anything to do with my professional one. If they don't like the fact that I'm dating a guy, then they'll just have to deal with it. Because I'm dating the person I want to be with."

"I'm not going back to being an escort." Greg spoke with finality, though he wasn't sure just what he was going to do financially without this second job. "I can't date you and have to act all sweet and cozy with other guys, even if I don't sleep with them."

"You don't have to, do you?" Spencer asked, looking worried. "You've never said if this job is something you need to do because of money problems, but I think it is. I don't think you'd be doing this if you weren't in some kind of financial straits."

'I wouldn't," Greg admitted, sighing and shaking his head. "Yeah, I kind of need to do this. But if I'm dating you, then I don't want to be. I don't have to sleep with any of the clients, it's just something that I do once in a while. But just being arm candy -- I guess I could do that."

"It's not going to bother me if you do," Spencer told him, taking Greg's face between his hands and gazing into his eyes. "If all you're doing is being an escort in the strictest sense of the word, then it's nothing to do with our relationship. It's not necessarily a bad thing, Greg."

Greg nodded, relieved to know that Spencer didn't think less of him because of this job. "I just .... I don't feel like it'd be right for me to even be out with another man," he murmured. "But I really don't have a choice. I need the money."

"I can help you out financially," Spencer told him softly, raising a hand to stroke his hair. "Call it my part of the rent on our apartment, since I'll be staying with you whenever I'm in Vegas. Would that work? It's not like I'd just be giving you money."

"That makes me seem a little bit like a kept man, doesn't it?" Greg asked, a little dubious about what the other man was proposing. "I'm not even used to thinking of you as my boyfriend yet, and you're saying that you want to live with me -- well, in a way."

"I know it's moving a little fast, but we don't have a lot of time to discuss things," Spencer said with a soft laugh. "If you'd rather we not work things out that way, then we'll figure something else out. But I don't see why that couldn't work perfectly for us."

"I don't either," Greg admitted, pulling back from Spencer slightly and smiling at the other man. "So I guess I should start thinking of you as being my boyfriend, huh? I've got a whole night to get used to that before you have to leave. But I know you'll be back."

"Of course I'll be back," Spencer whispered, stroking Greg's hair back from his face. "As long as it matters to you that I'm in your life, I'll be here. I might not be here all the time, but when I'm not, then we'll both know that it's only a matter of time before I am."

"Then I think everything's going to work out just fine," Greg answered, feeling a wave of relief sweep over him. Their solution to the problem that faced them might not be perfect, but it seemed that it could work out, if they were willing to give it a try.

He was definitely willing, Greg told himself as Spencer pulled him into another embrace. He wanted to be with Spencer more than he'd ever wanted anything in his life. And no matter how difficult this might prove to be, as long as they were together in the end, then nothing else really mattered.

***