Reid and Reid Ship Oneshots

Reid Wears Ankle Braces

(The formatting is kinda bad, but I think the plot is cute)
❤️

Reid wore ankle braces on both legs, and had been for most of his life. When he was younger he could get away with wearing his supports and not using crutches, but once he hit his growth spurt, he needed much more help in standing and walking.
By age fifteen he was going through his college courses with bilateral ankle braces and an axillary crutch.

He was bullied relentlessly. Kids were cruel, ungodly cruel. Everyone got off on making themselves bigger at the cost of someone else. You could be the nicest person on plant earth and that feeling of belittling someone would still feel empowering. It's human nature to love it. It's when you can't get enough that makes you a bad person.
They thought less of Reid because they assumed they knew better than him. He was crippled, he was young, he was eccentric; the magic triage of inferiority in a developed society.

There was a small group that would try and trip him in the halls, or throw his things in places he couldn't get them.
It was an inconvenience, but it was never directed at his disability. No one ever admitted they did it because he was disabled. It was just a general consensus of his campus that Reid was the disliked one. No one could come up with a reason why, because if it was spoken out loud, they'd be outcasted. There was a bandwagon that everyone just jumped on, and any stragglers were caught under the wheels.

Even though the bullying was minimal by most standards, Reid still had a hard time with his confidence. It wasn't until he was accepted onto the BAU that he realized he did it, and that he was good enough.
He hated how school made him feel, and instead of preventing himself from learning; preventing himself from doing what he loved, he was never going to feel that way again.
If someone tripped him, he'd stand up for himself. If someone took his things from him, then he'd get them back. He was so done with being below people, that he didn't even want to be above them. He just wanted to be with them; at their level. Reid was never going to be the kid with crutches again. He was gonna be the youngest recruited FBI agent in Quantico history with three PhDs, two bachelors degrees, an IQ of 187, and he had crutches. Everything came before that.

While on a case, Reid having been part of the BAU for two years now, Morgan was talking to a police officer local to the area. They were in Galveston, Texas on a serial murder case.
Just recently, Reid had found his ankles not being able to support his weight as well as they used to, and he was moved from a single axillary crutch, that he had been using for years, to two elbow crutches. His bilateral ankle braces were still fitted, but he just needed to walk with less weight on them.
It honestly made him look more disabled than possibly injured. Elbow crutches aren't traditionally used in injury but more so for long term stability.
In short, it was harder to lie about it to people.

Most law enforcement thought Reid was unfit as is, but the team could get away with saying nothing about it.

So when an officer asked Morgan, in private, about Reid's condition and problems, it was awkward. Morgan had no idea what he would want him to say about it. Would he want him to lie? Explain in detail? Ignore the question? Put the officer in their place?
He had never had to do anything before, as Reid was more than comfortable to do it himself.

"Well, don't be mistaken by Dr. Reid's appearance. He may look all scrawny and use crutches, but he used to be the shining agent back at headquarters." Morgan said, uncomfortable in his own lie.

"Really? That's hard to believe." The officer scoffed.

Morgan was a little offended by that, and he wasn't even the one being gossiped about.
"Well, he was."

"So what happened? He get shot in the ankles or something?" The officer laughed to himself.

This is where Morgan hadn't fool-proofed his lie. He didn't think that far ahead passed the fake story of Reid being an unsung hero.
"No, he-uh-jumped off a...building while chasing an unsub." He replied, cringing at how obvious his lie sounded. He felt pity for all of the unsubs he had put on the spot.

"Heh, unbelievable." The officer chuckled, walking away.

Morgan cursed himself for lying. Reid was going to hear about the situation sooner or later, so he might as well hear it from him instead of that snarky officer.

He searched around for him, eventually finding him in the break room of the precinct.

"Hey, Reid?" Morgan asked, cautiously entering the room.

"Yeah?" He replied, attempting to stand up, assuming he was being called to do something elsewhere.

"No, you don't have to get up or anything. I just want to tell you something." Morgan said, sitting in the empty chair that was being used to rest Reid's crutches on. It only made him feel worse for what he did.

"What is it?"

"Well, to start, you know I'm not embarrassed by you. You would never think I was, right?" Morgan asked, obviously referencing Reid's disability.

"I wouldn't mind very much if you were. I understand that in a field like this you're kind of held up by your physical capabilities, and I'm obviously lacking in that department." Reid chuckled at his own joke. Morgan managed a smile too.

"I'm not though. I may say some things that are rude in the moment, but I honestly don't mean any of them." He said, sounding very desperate compared to the tone Reid was trying to set.

"What is this about, Morgan? This sounds like a goodbye." Now he was sulking too.

"It's not, I just wanted to say that I lied to an officer about why you wear ankle braces and use crutches." Morgan began to relay the event to Reid so he could give some amount of context to his situation. "He was making snarky remarks, and asked me what was 'wrong with you'. I didn't know what you would want me to say, so I lied."

"Ok, what was the lie?" Reid was really just amused by all this, and I little endeared that Morgan would stand up for him like he did.

"I said that you used to be the head honcho back in Quantico, and you hurt yourself jumping off of a building while chasing an unsub..." Telling it back, it sounded so much more unbelievable.

Reid erupted into laughter.
"And did he believe you?"

Morgan was caught off guard slightly.
"I mean-I guess not." He then started to laugh along with Reid.

"Though I appreciate the effort, I can handle myself when it comes to arrogant people." Reid quieted his laughter.

"I know." Morgan replied.

"And if you're gonna lie for me, lie better."