SSA Dr. Spencer Reid

It's been all of two hours since Reid had stopped by the store to surprise his boyfriend with a late lunch. Luke can never have too much to eat, after all, and they'd both agreed just the other day that they ought to stop by the Thai place near their apartment for a meal again sometime soon. Today had seemed like a good choice. Today had seemed like it could only go well.

Now, the food sits in its paper bag on the ground, just inside the doorway of the store, discarded and forgotten as Reid rushes to lock behind him before moving to his next intended destination.

Luke is gone. Not gone from the city, Reid knows that much, he's already called his boyfriend's cell phone and it's still in service and anyway, it'd been clear the second he'd approached the outside of Graymark Books that something wasn't right. The closed sign had been put up, the door locked and the lights shut off, but it's not a full moon tonight and Luke had mentioned nothing about closing early. If there'd been an emergency, Reid would already know about it, and it'd been past the time Luke typically takes a lunch break so that'd been another possibility dismissed, too, all before he'd even found what was inside.

It's clear there was a struggle, unsurprising considering Luke is a werewolf, but what's puzzling is the fact that while the inventory that'd been knocked over hadn't been cleared up, someone had still taken the time to make it look like the store was closed. His first thought is that this is a message directed toward him. Reid remembers Luke mentioning an attempted attack last week, he certainly remembers Marcus admitting the leaders of the vampire clan responsible for the string of murders they've been investigating had see to it that he be followed; but foolishly, he realizes, he'd never thought Luke could possibly be any real danger. That he might be responsible for the love of his life being in any kind of trouble, any kind of pain, just as a pointed message to get Reid to stop digging makes him physically ill--to the point that he'd actually had to rush to the bathroom to throw up before attempting to text every contact in his phone who might have seen Luke today.

The only person he texts again, after the slew of questions he receives back, is Alec. Of all the people he knows, Alec is the one closest to what he considers family, one of the people he trusts the most after Luke. Now, Reid stands at Alec's door, pounding as hard as he can, entirely ignorant of the noise he's making in his desperation to seek help.

They've graciously been invited to Derek's Thanksgiving celebration on the actual day itself, but Reid had gotten to thinking after Luke had told him of the invitation that it would be nice to throw a small get-together of their own. Halloween at the bookstore had been a success, after all, and in spite of the fact that they'd been sent to a hellish version of Darrow for the next ten days, Reid had really enjoyed planning and decorating for the holiday with his boyfriend. In a way, it also serves as a bit of a housewarming, even if nobody else needs to know that. They've been officially living together for a week now, though the only real difference is that he's handed over his keys to the Dimera apartment back to the landlord.

Still, being able to call this apartment home, knowing that he gets to spend every night with the man he loves, it means something special to him, and he wants to share that sense of home with the rest of the people he cares about.

So he sends out texts to Alec and Magnus, Peter and Jason and Hild, telling them all to save the date for the twenty-first so they can have an early Thanksgiving celebration. Others are welcome, of course, and Reid suspects they'll have more than enough food because he'd made arrangements for one restaurant in particular (one that he visits often and had already been promoting take-out for Thanksgiving Day) to set him up with a turkey dinner early. There are all the expected fixings, though he'd ordered four turkeys because Luke still needs to eat more to make up for all the weight he'd lost in the alternate version of Darrow, plus a couple pumpkin pies and various other desserts strewn out across the table. The wine Peter had given to him on Halloween is out, available for consumption to those who want it, but Reid will be sticking to water tonight.

If anyone asks, he's been slaving away in the kitchen all day long, brewing coffee after coffee as he and Luke make sure everything looks nice and neat for their first Thanksgiving dinner together. The food is set out over the counter in the kitchen, china and utensils and glassware placed at the very end so people can take what they want and find a place to eat in the living room, where they've placed extra chairs, and it isn't until they hear the first knock at the door that Reid finally decides he's satisfied with the way everything looks.

Every single person who will be here tonight has been through so much, seen more than one person ever should, but tonight, Reid is just grateful that they're all still here.