Title: The Monsters Are Real
Author: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Spencer Reid
Fandom: CSI/Criminal Minds
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,710
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.

***


Spencer glanced over at Greg, his brow furrowing in a frown. He knew that his boyfriend seemed as though he was recovering from the ordeal he'd been through, but he also knew that Greg was good at dissembling and covering up his true feelings.

Greg was a lot less confident than he appeared to be about a lot of things -- and Spencer was fairly sure that he was still nervous about being in their apartment alone. But he had to get back to DC; he was leaving in the morning, against his better judgment.

He didn't want to go, but duty called. He'd taken all the time that he could to be here with Greg, and he knew that the BAU needed him. Besides, he couldn't just drop everything for an indeterminate amount of time; he had other responsibilities back in DC, too.

He had his own apartment there, and other things that he had to do. As much as he wished he could simply tune out the rest of the world and stay here with Greg, he knew that it wasn't possible. He had to go back to work, and give Greg the chance to stand on his own two feet again.

Maybe he'd been too overprotective of Greg in the time that he'd been here, but he didn't want to think that. Anyone would feel protective of their lover in the situation that Greg had just been through, Spencer told himself firmly. Staying here hadn't been a mistake.

But Greg was an adult, not a child who needed his protection all the time. He had already gone back to work at the crime lab, even though he called Spencer as often as he could, just to let him know that he was all right -- and, Spencer suspected, just to know that he wasn't alone.

Greg was still having nightmares about what had happened, but Spencer couldn't blame him for that. He'd had to deal with his own horrible dreams after he'd been abducted and tortured by Tobias Hankel -- and what had happened to Greg had been so much worse.

Just the thought of Foyet daring to touch Greg literally made Spencer see red -- even the thought of that bastard having his hands on Greg's body made a red mist rise in front of his eyes. He had never been so angry about anything before, angry enough to kill.

Foyet was the kind of monster that he was used to dealing with on a professional basis. But things had turned personal when the bastard had dared to lay his hands on Greg, and now all Spencer wanted to do was to find Foyet and make sure that he spent the rest of his life behind bars.

He would prefer to see Foyet dead, but he didn't think that would happen. That psychopath had proven that he was good at escaping death, so keeping him in prison would have to be good enough. It wasn't really all that satisfying, but it would give him some closure.

Would it give Greg the same kind of closure? Spencer wasn't sure of that; he didn't think that his boyfriend was ever going to have the kind of closure he needed unless he could make Foyet tell him just why he'd committed that one horrific act.

Spencer doubted that Foyet would even have a reason. The man was psychotic; one thing that he'd learned from his work with the BAU was that people like Foyet often didn't have a reason for the horrors they enacted. They just did it because .... well, because they could.

That wasn't a good enough answer, he told himself, his fists clenching as a wave of anger swept over him. Greg deserved more than that -- and so did he. But he knew they wouldn't get any kind o a satisfactory answer, not from Foyet. The bastard would never give them a reason.

"What are you thinking about?" Greg's soft voice cut into his thoughts, jerking Spencer into the present and out of the world of his mind. "You look like you're mad enough to punch a hole in the wall. Don't try it," Greg cautioned, shaking his head. "You'd just have to go to the emergency room."

"I wasn't thinking about it," Spencer said with a forced laugh. He let out a breath, then took another, wondering if he should tell Greg what had been on his mind. He wanted to have complete honesty between them; they shouldn't have any secrets from each other.

Spencer crossed the room to where Greg sat on the couch, sitting down beside his boyfriend and turning to him. "I was .... thinking about Foyet, and what a monster he is," he murmured, hoping that his words wouldn't upset Greg. "And I was wondering if we'd ever get any closure."

Greg shook his head slowly, his gaze meeting Spencer's. "I don't think we ever will," he said, his voice so soft that it was almost inaudible. "I guess I can live with that, as long as I know that Foyet is behind bars and that he can't ever get out again to hurt anybody else."

"I wish I could have stopped him," Spencer blurted out before he could stop himself. "I mean ...." He shook his head, closing his eyes. "I feel like I should have been able to stop him before he could get to you. It's not fair that you got caught up in the middle of his vendetta with the BAU."

Greg sighed softly, reaching out to take Spencer's hands in his own and giving them a gentle squeeze. "I've learned a lot from working in the crime lab," he said, his voice still very soft and a little hesitant. "If there's one thing that's stuck with me, it's that the monsters aren't just in our imagination."

"The monsters are real," Spencer whispered, a shudder going through his body. "I know that from my job, too. I see so many of them on a constant basis. And sometimes, they don't even look like monsters. They just look like the most normal people you could imagine."

"Yeah, I've found that out myself," Greg said with a sigh. "You can never know just where the monsters are, can you? Sometimes the people you think might be hiding a monster behind a mask turn out to be the good guys, and the ones you'd never suspect are the most evil."

Spencer nodded, feeling his throat tighten at Greg's words. He wished that his boyfriend hadn't had to make that discovery, but maybe it was better that he had. Greg wasn't the kind of guy who would want to have the proverbial wool pulled over his eyes.

No, it was better for Greg to know about the monsters, so he would be able to protect himself from them. Even though neither one of them had done a good job of that this time, Greg hadn't been forewarned about Foyet. If he had been, then maybe things would have turned out differently.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from that monster," Spencer whispered, his heart aching for what he hadn't been able to accomplish. "I should have warned you about him, Greg. I should have told you that he was out there. I should have --"

"How could you have known he would come here?" Greg interrupted him, raising one hand to place his fingers against Spencer's lips. "You didn't know he'd make me a target. You didn't know I'd be involved in something that was a BAU case. Spencer, it's not your fault."

"I want to protect you from all the monsters out there," Spencer said, shaking his head. "I want to be sure that none of them get to you. I know that's an irrational hope, but knowing it's something I can't do doesn't stop me from wanting to. I just want to keep you safe, Greg. Always."

"That's not possible, not with the job I've got," Greg pointed out pragmatically. "There are always going to be monsters in the world, Spencer. And considering what we do, we'll see more of them than most people do. We've just got to be on our guard against them."

Spencer let out a deep sigh, closing his eyes. "Yeah, I know. I see more of them than I want to. I just hope we'll both be able to avoid them from now on. It's enough that we deal with them while we're working -- we don't need those monsters invading our personal lives."

"The monsters might be real, but we're not going to let them get to us," Greg told him, moving closer to him and resting his head on Spencer's shoulder. "It's not always easy to avoid them, but we can't let them into our lives. Unless," he added, "they manage to force their way in."

Spencer winced at Greg's words; that was exactly what Foyet had done, and look where it had gotten them. But at least he was out of their lives -- for the moment. Spencer couldn't help thinking that sooner or later, he would show up again -- with even more murderous intent.

But if he id -- no, when he did, Spencer corrected himself, for he had no doubt that it would happen -- they would be prepared for him this time. They weren't going to let Foyet, or anyone else like him, take them by surprise. They would have each other's backs next time.

"They might try, but they won't succeed," he whispered, bowing his head to brush a gentle kiss across Greg's hair. When his boyfriend lifted his face to Spencer's, he leaned forward until their lips met, wrapping his arms around Greg and pulling him close, losing himself in a kiss that seemed to have no end.

***