Clark was reading brochures. Technically, that wasn't in his job description and he was on company time, but it was a slow day, all of the tasks of the case had been delegated out and he wasn't the most skilled agent at crime fighting in the unit. He had a week paid vacation coming up and he planned to enjoy it thoroughly. The first case he'd worked with the BAU had been the Banks case and it had been disturbing enough to bother him at night. While he was sure he'd get over that issue in the long haul, he was still growing accustomed to the horrible things people could do to one another. Terrorism was one thing, but the personal psyche was ever darker, ever more unnerving.

In spite of his intelligence and his ability to read people, Ally was still a kid at heart, and truthfully so was Wyatt. So the two tended to hit it off sometimes and Wyatt was learning more sign language by the minute, so it was easier for them to talk to one another. They were just kind of running around together and they'd gone to get lunch while everyone else was working and screwing around. When they got back he walked over to the desk and he patted Clark on the shower to hand him the lunch he'd brought back for him.

Food was always a welcomed gift and he turned around to show his overjoyed facial expression at the offering. He had to admit, the kid always knew what he liked. For the moment, he set the brochures aside and glanced over at Wyatt with a polite smile. For some reason (rather obvious), Clark had never quite taken to the guy. He didn't like the idea that Ally had been so infatuated with him, and probably still was. Even if he was older and liked to think he was past all of that inadequacy stuff, he didn't like his odds if he ever had to go head to head with Wyatt. Wyatt picked up on the faint air of hostility and he always gave Clark a wide berth at the office. "How was your lunch?" Clark signed as he dug into his own.

"Good." Ally moved to sit down on the edge of Clark's desk and he helped him unwrap his sandwich. He opened the little bag of chips and dumped them out onto the paper so that he could pick at them while Clark at the sandwich. "We got sandwiches and ice creams. I got you a cone but I ate it on the way back." he laughed softly, but it was silent, it was just his shoulders shaking a little bit.

Very few people could take food from Clark and live to tell the tale. Ally was one of them, and he let the boy nibble off his chips, especially since he was the one who had brought them. "It isn't bad enough that you ate the ice cream, but you had to tell me about it to be sure I missed it?" He made a sad face, as if his heart was broken.

"I was thinking that we could go after work and get some ice cream before going home." He nudged his foot against Clark's and then he signed that he'd gotten his netflix and that Clark should come over to watch them with him. Really that meant they'd start a movie and probably spend the rest of the night making out or grinding on one another.

He loved watching movies with Ally, mainly for that reason. "We could do that," he nodded and kept eating his sandwich. After a few moments, he put it down so he could sign again. "What are you going to do without me when I'm on vacation? Are you going to put in for a substitute?" He wasn't sure he liked that idea. Once again, his worries about not being enough kicked in. What if the substitute was more proficient? Or just better in other ways?

"I don't know." He shrugged his shoulders a little bit. "Wyatt has gotten a lot better at signing, I thought maybe I'd just go without. Or maybe I'd put in for my vacation." Because he was due to take some time and he figured he could go up and visit his family. "Maybe I will go and see my dad and my brothers."

Their relationship wasn't very well expressed. It was anything but written in stone and Clark often found it confusing. But he thought it best to keep it like this just because of the age difference and the fact that they were co-workers. But as time went on, Clark realized how unsatisfying it was to adore someone so much and not be able to call them one's own. He regarded Ally for a moment, wanting to tell him that he should come with him on his vacation, that they would pick a place together, but he didn't say anything.

When Clark didn't say anything, Ally just took a few bites of his chips and then got up to walk around to his own desk so that he could work on his case files for a little bit. But he really couldn't focus and so he signed over at Clark. "Where do you think that you are going to go?"

"Someplace with water," he said thoughtfully. "Actually I was considering a cruise. Or maybe Las Vegas. Someplace with water or a buffet." He was the sort that could go on vacation alone and enjoy it immensely. But something was telling him that this year's trip wasn't going to be as good as the last because he'd be thinking about Ally.

That made him smile and he signed back that he would have loved to go somewhere with a buffet. If they had gone to Vegas together he kenw their entire trip would revolve around food but he wasn't going to ask Clark to take him with. "Do you think it would be really hard for me to get a sub while you are gone?"

Clark frowned a little and shrugged. "It would be easy to get one, but it would be impossible to get one as good as I am." He said that, but there was a part of him that was genuinely worried about that.

"Well I think that is true at least." Just because he clicked with Clark and they worked really well together. In a lot of ways. "Maybe I'll just stay here and save my vacation for when I actually have something I 'd like to do."

Clark nodded and looked back down at his brochures. Maybe he could wait for a vacation too. "So long as you don't make the sub cry, you could probably get by without me. Actually, since Wyatt has set his mind to learning sign language, he's practically certified." Wyatt learned with extraordinary aptitude.

"Well he does a very good job of talking to me, that's for sure." He nodded and he smiled over at Clark a little bit. "I could probably get by without you for a week, though it would be difficult."

"He does a good job of everything, I'm sure." There was the faintest hint of resentment there, even if he didn't want to feel it. It was hard to keep it from coming through in the motion of his hands.

Without caring about anyone that might see, he reached his hand up and settled it on top of Clark's to stop him from signing. He just let it rest there for a second before he drew it back to say, "He's not you."

Clark looked at the way Ally's hands simply couldn't cover his own. He liked that they were delicate by comparison to his own. "No, he's nearly the opposite of me." Clark wasn't worried about anyone seeing their interaction either. He didn't find a great deal wrong with workplace romances. He didn't necessarily include himself as a member of tje team either, so it was even less of an issue.

"Do you feel threatened by him?" The question was sort of casual and he tried not to make the look on his face match what he was thinking. He didn't want other people knowing what he was asking and because Wyatt was the only person who understood his signs he wasn't worried about it.

Even though he knew what Ally meant, Clark answered with a joke. "Threatened? I'm pretty sure I could take the smartypants in a fight." He passed the issue off with a laugh and a return of his attention to his lunch.

Ally caught the edge of the paper and tugged the sandwich out of Clark's reach before looking at him with a knowing look. He wanted a real answer, not a smart ass answer.

Clark frowned up at him. Food going in the opposite direction of his mouth was a sad thing. "No, I'm not." It was a lie, or more accurately a fib meant to avoid his own issues with their current underdefined relationship. If he was threatened, then it was something more than he was ready for.

Ally regarded him carefully and then pushed the paper back towards him so that he could have the rest of his sandwich. And he went back to work, having a feeling that this conversation was over.

That wasn't a very satisfying ending to their conversation, but Clark would take that over actually dealing with anything. When he finished his food, he got up to throw his stuff away and headed to the bathroom to clean up.

Ally couldn't help but wonder if maybe he was just a fun play thing for Clark and that he'd eventually tire of him. The thought was sort of scary, mostly because Ally knew his feelings were already deeply involved and it was just getting worse everyday.

Clark came back and sat at his little work area. There wasn't much for him to do when Ally wasn't interacting with someone. "Since this case is in DC, do you think they'll let you get out into the field?"

Ally shrugged his shoulders again. "Typically no. They only take me in the field when they really need me for something. I'm too much of a liability otherwise." Because he couldn't always be as aware of his surroundings as other people.

"Do you want to, or do you prefer the more intellectual side?" He realized that he had never talked about stuff like that with Ally. What if he didn't even know the boy very well.

"I really wanted to be a field agent. I passed all the tests and everything with flying colors. I can handle the physical endurance and all of that. It's just the hearing. I can't be in the hfield because I can't hear what is going on around me."

"Have you ever considered getting an implant to help you hear again?" Technology had not been anywhere close to developing a cochlear implant when his mom was alive, but he often wondered if she would have gotten one.

"No, I haven't." His dad had brought it up to him once and it had resulted in a fight about not being good enough just because he was deaf, and his father had backed down. He wasn't really looking to repeat the fight with Clark so he said nothing more on the subject after that and pointedly did not look back up at him after that.

Just because Ally had let him off the hook didn't mean Clark would return the favor. "Their success rate is astounding. The adaptation only slows as you get older though. You really should consider it if you want ro do field work. You wouldn't be giving up your identity."

"I don't want to have brain surgery. If they mess up they could kill me and I'm too young to die." He said, as if that was the only reason why he didn't do it, but there were so many.

Clark scooted his chair close to Ally's. Reaching up with his hand, he slid hosbfingers against the bone that was right behind Ally's ear. "It's an extremely low risk operation. They don't go very far in, just under here. Most patients go home the next morning." He understood all the issues with it, having studied and been a part of deaf culture his whole life. But he was under the impression that Ally's hearing was holding him back from doing something he really wanted to do.

"And if I get it and I can hear then I wouldn't need you and you'd be out of a job." He sighed, liking the way it felt to have Clark's fingers in his hair and he just closed his eyes for a moment to concentrate on that and nothing else. "And I don't want to get my hopes up about anything and if I decided to do it, I will."

"You would still need me for quote awhile. Your brain won't adapt its language centers overnight." Instead of removing his jand, je kept it there, slidimg a little higher and letting the side of his thumb graze the shell of Ally's ear. "What's wrong with some hope?"

"Because what if it doesn't work? I can't take not getting to be a field agent again. It was hard enough to hear them tell me no the first time." And if he tried again, and failed again, he knew it would crush him.

Clark didn't like hearing that and he pulled his hand back. "Well I can't force you to go for it." Even if he thought the kid should at least look into it.

When Clark pulled his hand back he felt like he'd said something wrong, but it was the truth, which made the recoil even harder. His mood dropped in an instant and he turned his attention back to the computer.

He could understand being told no was hard, but part of why he liked Ally so much was that he seemed like the type of person who didn't give up. Clark went back to his own work.