Morreid

"Pretty Boy. Hope they didn’t mess up that face too bad. You know that’s your best asset."

- Morgan to Reid during the Aftermath of “Rabid”.

Morreid is the slash ship between Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid from the Criminal Minds fandom.

Canon
Derek and Spencer have a very close bond. The two have been working closely together since when Reid first joined the BAU at 22 until when Reid was 34 when Morgan left the BAU. Over time the two have developed from a teasing bantering relationship where Morgan along with the team was a bit exasperated with Reid’s constant statistics. Their relationship evolved to a much closer bond over time in which both have a better understanding for each other. Examples of this are when Morgan teaches Reid to play baseball or when both hug at the end of “Entropy” and Reid tells Morgan “he knows”, talking about how Reid knows Morgan loves him, in a platonic way.

Season 1
In “Extreme Aggressor” (1x1) Morgan rants to Reid about how he’s feeling with Agent Gideon coming back to the team, especially since he seems a moment from a nervous breakdown. Gideon enters and points out that it isn’t called a nervous breakdown anymore, to which Reid agrees saying it’s called “a major depressive episode.” Morgan makes an exasperated sigh while saying “I know Reid.” Later during that episode Reid and Morgan are in charge of cracking a password for a suspect's computer, Morgan suggests that the password could involve his CD collection. Due to this insight Reid finds the right CD in the suspect's computer which leads to them figuring out the password which helps both to figure out that the victim is on a boat, this information being crucial to saving the victim’s life.

In “Plain Sight” (1x4) Reid has his 24th birthday, Morgan has a fun time teasing Reid about the trick candles on his cake telling him to “Blow Baby, Blow!”, when JJ points out that they are trick candles Morgan shakes around Reid’s hat jokingly. Later during the episode Reid and Morgan get stuck doing a stakeout together and in the conversation Morgan mentions that it’s like looking for a needle in the haystack. Reid adds “Actually, it’s more like we’re looking for a needle in a pile of needles.” After Morgan questions him he chuckles and shakes his head.

In “L.D.S.K” (1x5) Reid fails his qualification to handle a gun, Gideon and Elle in general say not to mention it because Reid will most likely be embarrassed by it, both pointedly looking at Morgan. Morgan raises a hand in surrender saying “Not a word.” When Reid enters the room Morgan does the actual opposite of what he said he would and heads over to Reid’s desk, stating that the whole team is there for Reid. Morgan then gives him a whistle and teasingly says “If you ever need anything,” uses the whistle “just blow on that.” Reid annoyed rips the whistle off. When everyone at the park is seemingly in danger due to a “sniper” trained on their locations, Morgan runs up to Reid and drags him down to the ground, later when both are hiding behind a tree and a gunshot is heard it looks like Morgan is pushing Reid back behind the tree to keep him from peeking at what’s happening. When Reid and Hotch are endangered by a SWAT team’s protocol Morgan and the rest of the team appear worried or frustrated. At the end of the episode Morgan heads over to Reid to ask if he’s ok (after Reid had been held hostage by a serial killer and how Reid had to shoot the serial killer fatally so Hotch and him could escape.) Reid doesn’t say anything just drops the whistle that Morgan gave him into Morgan’s hands and walks away. Morgan grips the whistle tightly and says “Touché kid.”

In “Derailed” (1x9) A passenger on a train is going through a mental break and endangering the train’s passengers plus an agent of the BAU because he’s convinced there’s a microchip in his arm, Reid offers to try and placate the mentally unstable passenger by doing a sleight of hand trick to make it look like Reid took out a microchip in his arm. Morgan refuses to let Reid enter the train because of how dangerous it is while putting his hand on Reid’s shoulder, he tells Reid to “teach it to me,” (talking about the sleight of hand trick.) Reid argues however their time constraints and Morgan reluctantly lets him enter the train. Before Reid enters the train Morgan coaches him on things to do and say so he won’t endanger himself further. As Reid’s about to head off to enter the train he turns around and asks the team “Could you guys do me a favor?” Morgan almost immediately replies “Anything.” Reid then asks “Could at least anyone look like you’re gonna see me again?”

In “The Popular Kids” (1x10) In the beginning of the episode Reid is shown dumping sugar into his coffee to which Morgan sees and quips “Have some coffee with your sugar tough guy.” Reid replies to him with “he needs something to wake him up.” Morgan teases him about having a “late night.” Reid unphased responds with “Not that kind of late night.” Morgan then tries to guess what Reid was up doing all night long settling on “Watching ‘Star Trek’ and laughing at the physics mistakes.” Reid corrects him saying “Actually, there aren’t that many scientific errors, in Star Trek, especially considering how long ago it was made..” Morgan, bemused, pats Reid’s shoulder and goes to leave until Reid stops him again. Reid asks if Morgan has ever had any nightmares and tries to talk to him about it but Morgan redirects saying he’s not the best person to talk to about it suggesting he ask Gideon instead. Elle interrupts the conversation telling them that Hotch wants to see the whole team then pauses asking if there’s something up between the two. Reid quickly replies no and takes his leave.

When an officer drops the two off so they can investigate an area of interest the officer asks if they need anything when he comes back, Reid replies with coffee and Morgan tells the officer “He takes about a quart of sugar in it,” and walks away laughing to himself. After Reid tells the officer that two teaspoons of sugar is fine he follows Morgan to where he headed off and confronts him about telling Hotch that he was having nightmares. Morgan reveals that he also told Gideon to which Reid becomes visibly upset and worries about being pulled off the team. Morgan assures Reid that they won’t take him off the team and then begins to walk away. Reid then snaps at him about how he had no right to tell anyone and angrily rants about how this is what he gets when he trusts someone. Morgan walks straight back to Reid and tells him that he got his first nightmares 6 months after joining the BAU effectively quieting Reid down who just stares at him a little shocked. Morgan tells him about his first nightmare and about how Gideon figured out that Morgan was having nightmares and talked him through it. Reid seems calmer with this set of information and asks what Gideon told Morgan, he doesn’t get an answer because a car pulls up before Morgan could reply. Out of the car comes a local high school student who leads Morgan and Reid to an outhouse farther in the woods (with conveniently no cell service. Also convenient that the second victim is located in the outhouse.) Reid vacates to examine the perimeter leaving Morgan and the high school student alone together. When Morgan reveals he knows the student is the killer Reid chooses that exact moment to come back from looking around only to immediately gets pulled back by the student and held at gunpoint. The student threatens to shoot “Morgan’s boy.” Then tells Morgan to put his gun down (It’s what he says I can’t make this up. “I will shoot your boy.” Word for word right there. Reid is Morgan’s boy confirmed.) When Reid and Morgan have both distracted the student enough so that he moves the gun away from Reid’s face in anger, Morgan tackles both of them to the ground and knocks the students lights out. Reid then complains about why Morgan had to tackle both of them to which Morgan shakes his head and says “You’re welcome Reid.”

Fanon
Several fans think of their relationship as a close brotherhood which has been mentioned a few times in the show, while some prefer to ship them romantically due to their frequent screen time together and how well they work together. Many fans like how Morgan calls Reid ‘Pretty Boy.’ It’s very popular in the fandom and widely shipped along with Jemily. While it is popular lots of fans also prefer to ship contrasting ships like Morcia, Jeid and the canon ships.

Fandom
FAN FICTION