He wasn’t used to kindness. Especially when he didn’t deserve it.
His brain kept telling him that he onlythoughthe was interested in Reid because Reid had been so kind, showed so much concern, been impressed by the fact that Gabriel had accomplished what he had.
But another part of him knew that wouldn’t leave him waking up hard and having to jerk himself off frantically, the image of Reid touching him still fresh in his mind.
Even when he tried to forget about it, banned himself from thinking about it while he was awake, Reid still came back to haunt him.
Gabriel had known going to space would change him, but he hadn’t expected this.
He had suspicions about what was going on, a hypothesis or two, but he wasn’t ready to state a theory. He was still collecting data.
Unfortunately, the most important data required someone else’s cooperation to gather. He’d never know if he enjoyed sex with men if he couldn’t find a man to have sex with.
Ideally, that would have been Reid.
“I know,” Gabriel said belatedly, shaking himself out of his thoughts. “I know stress is bad for you, but I’ve lived my whole life thriving under pressure. It’s a hard habit to break.”
“Well, if you don’t break it, it’ll break you,” Reid said.
He was probably right about that.
It was a shame that his current source of stress wasn’t something he had the tools to deal with. Gabriel was starting to think it’d be best if he ignored it and hoped it went away.
“You can get down,” Reid said, nodding to Gabriel as he went to his desk. “I’d like to see you again in two weeks,” he added.
“That’s it?” Gabriel asked, wishing as soon as the words had escaped him that he hadn’t said anything. He was lucky to be here. He didn’t need to question Reid’s methods.
Reid shrugged. “You’re recovering well. There’s nothing weird going on. But it’d be irresponsible not to keep an eye on you.”
“Oh.” Gabriel looked down at his feet as he got off the table. “Well… thank you for agreeing to see me again.”
“No problem. At least you didn’t punch me in the face,” Reid said.
Gabriel’s eyes widened. “Does that… happen a lot?”
“More than I’d like.” Reid wet his lips. “Sometimes I have to hurt people to help them, and some of them react badly to that. I get it, so I can never bring myself to be too mad at them. You’re not my most difficult patient.”
“Not your least difficult either, I bet,” Gabriel said.
Reid smiled at that. “Not quite,” he admitted. “Definitely one of the most interesting, though.”
Gabriel’s insides fluttered at the compliment, his heart swelling a he realized some of Reid’s warmth was coming back.
That was more than he deserved. He’d made a serious mistake, and Reid didn’t have to be nice about it. The fact that hewasbeing nice about it was something to be grateful for.
“I’ll come back in two weeks,” Gabriel promised, feeling just a tiny bit better about the whole situation.
Even if hehadscrewed up, maybe not all was lost.
