(Garcia's POV)
Anyone that was to take a simple glance at my life, they would see nothing wrong with it; I'm married to a man that most woman would kill to be married to, I love my job which saves people on a daily basis, and I've got a great group of co-workers that have become my family. Little do they know that if they were to look behind my so-called 'happy marriage', they would actually see that it's hanging on by a thread.
The man I'm married to, Derek Morgan, was my best friend for a number of years before he finally asked me out. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a whirlwind romance after that point. It was like my biggest dream had come true. It truly felt like I was living this fantasy every day. It was over all too soon though.
That 'happily ever after' lasted for roughly a year and a half, and we've been married for three years now. It's not that he became this raging alcoholic or started abusing me, he would never do that. We just started growing apart. He's off to various parts of the country hunting down serial killers, which caused some tension between us. Then again, I had no right to be mad at him. It was for his job after all. What pissed me off even more, was the fact that when he finally did come home, he wanted nothing to do with me. Derek barely even acknowledging me is a feat all on its own seeing is that not only do we live together, we fucking work together too!
As time passed on, we talked less and less. Even though we were married, it seemed that we were just passing ships in the night. It was 6 months ago when I decided that I couldn't take this anymore and thought about finalizing for divorce. It finally went through my mind that I couldn't be married to someone that didn't want to hold a conversation with me. I remember the day I brought it up to Derek. Well, tried to anyway.
(Flashback)
I came home after an excruciatingly long day at work. The only thing I did was watch videos that a serial rapist leaves at the scene of every woman he's raped; we have 5 videos. I will never be able to get the images of those women being raped and mutilated over and over again out of my head. On top of that happening at work, today's the day I told myself I was going to talk to Derek about divorce. I know, all this shit just happens to come together all at once. I have to do it today though. I've been talking myself out of this for months and I can't avoid it anymore.
When I walked through the front door, I was greeted by complete silence which was normal for me. Morgan had been staying late at work often, coming home only after I've fallen asleep. I practically have a heart attack on those rare days he comes home before midnight.
My mood turned sourer as I tossed my purse on the wooden side table by the door, which I didn't know was possible. I practically snatched my phone out of my front pocket and dialed Derek's number. Talking to him about this over the phone wasn't the most ideal way of handling but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
It rang for a few moments, which caused me to frown. Before all of this distance, I would call and the first ring wouldn't even finish before he would answer the phone. Eventually, though, Derek did answer the phone.
"Yeah?" He answered, obviously occupied with something else.
"Take it's another late night at the office, huh?" I did my best to hide the disappointment in my voice. I'm surprising myself at how well I'm doing right now.
"Looks like it Penelope. Paperwork is piling up, not to mention the fact Hotch wants me to continue to analyze the crime scene photos to see if there's anything I'm missing." I couldn't help but roll my eyes as he continued talking.
"I know you have work Derek but there's something I want to talk to you about." My voice shook slightly but I was determined to hold my ground on this.
"Sweetheart, I'm sorry but can we talk about this later? I've got a ton of shit to do tonight." Of course, it's always can we talk about it later. Why did I actually expect something different?!
"Yeah, sure." This time, I wasn't afraid to let the irritation show through my voice.
"I'm so sorry-" I hung up on Derek, tossing my phone onto the table. He wasn't going to make this situation any easier on me, was he?
After that night, the team ended up getting called away to New York as the rapist had struck again. I think it's safe to assume that we never ended up talking about it. Derek completely forgot about the situation, which pissed me off even more. A lot of people may think my next move was drastic but I was fed up with being ignored and not actually talking about things. The next chance I got, I went to the courthouse and gathered up the divorce papers, signing what I needed to sign before sending them off to be delivered to him in New York.
He was in for a rude awakening if he thought he could avoid me now.
(Morgan's POV, a few days later)
Saying my life was hectic would be an understatement. With the job I have, you can't expect much else though. If you were hunting down serial killers too you'd understand! I am thankful though for the loving support system that is my wife. God, I wouldn't be able to do what I do without her. I know it sounds like a load of bullshit seeing that we haven't been as close as we usually are, but I wouldn't be able to live without her. I fully intend on making all of this up to her when I get the chance.
Right now, I'm at the latest crime scene for the rapist which the press has now named 'The Prince of Darkness'. The scene has had its usual comb-over but I was doing what I do best, which is immersing myself as the unsub and acting as if I were him. It sounds crazy, but let me tell you it gets results.
While I was in the 'zone', my eyes wandered towards the right as I saw a figure in the corner of my eye moving slowly. He was a male in his mid 40's, give or take. Everything else about him was just average; average build, average height. It's almost as if he was trying to stay anonymous. Out of habit, my hand fluttered towards the gun on my right hip as I continued to eye the guy.
"Sir, this is an active crime scene, you can't be here!" I called out towards the man in hopes of catching his attention. The guy looked up and smiled at me as he began walking closer to me.
'Don't worry, I'm not here to intrude. I'm just looking for a Derek Morgan, is that you?" I raised my eyebrow as he mentioned my name. Only now did I notice the brown messenger bag slung over his shoulder.
With my hand still on my gun, I answered back. "This is Derek Morgan, and you are?" The man smiled yet again before reaching into his messenger bag. He shuffled things around inside the bag before pulling out a manila envelope that was filled to the brim with papers.
He hands me the envelope before stepping away from me and walking towards the door. "You've been served." With that, the man walked out the door and towards the street. Ok, what the hell just happened? Did I just get served papers the old fashioned way, seriously? That still happens to people?
I stared down at the manila envelope in my hands for a few moments, allowing myself to wonder what was in there. Whatever was in this envelope, could wait. I had a job that took precedence over whatever these papers had.
(A few hours later)
It was later that night and the entire team was back at the hotel. JJ, Emily, Rossi, and I were hanging out downstairs in the lobby of the hotel, relaxing with what little downtime we do have. As they all chattered and laughed around me, I held the manila envelope in my hands, still unopened. There were many points throughout the day where I thought about opening it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I mean, what was in here was most likely life-changing. What if I didn't want my life to majorly change, huh?
I was brought out of my little 'trance' when I heard Emily mention my name. "Morgan, just open the damn envelope, would you? I'm tired of you looking like someone shot your dog." I mean sure, she may have not worded it all too well but it got the message across.
Slowly, I let out a breath and peeled open the envelope. I pulled out the small stack of papers carefully as if it were a bomb ready to explode. My eyes quickly scanned the papers. Most of the text on the papers blended together, but one sentence stood out towards me.
"Petition for Dissolution of Marriage.." Dissolution of Marriage, wait, divorce? I was sent divorce papers? No this can't be real, this has to be some sort of elaborate prank set up by Penelope, she loves me for Christ sakes! I let my eyes scan to further down the page and sure enough, in her elaborate handwriting on the bottom of the page, was Garcia's signature. This can't be happening, this just can't be happening, there's no way!
With my jaw hanging opening now and my face as pale as it could be, the others spoke up.
"What the hell is it Derek?" JJ asks, her own eyes filled with worry.
"It's uh- it's divorce papers. Penelope sent me divorce papers." With that statement, the room fell silent. Everyone now stared straight ahead or down at the ground. None of them seemed to have the courage to look me in the eye.
Emily suddenly stood up, coughing nervously. " I should uh- oh look, I hear Sergio meowing I should probably check on him!" She rushed out of the room and began making her way towards the stairs.
"But Sergio's back in Virginia!" I pointed out, in which Emily shot back with "You don't know that!"
It was JJ's turn as she now stood up from the couch. "I'm going to call Henry and Will, see how they're doing." With that, she left the room in less of a hurry, but she still had the frantic, nervous look in her eyes.
Rossi was left as he stood up from the couch, sighing as he got up. Just as he was getting out of the lobby, he turned towards me and set his eyes on me.
"Getting sent the divorce papers the first time sucks, take it from me. Then again, I was hammered through most of the marriage." With that, Rossi left the room, leaving me to my thoughts, and the divorce papers.
I just can't believe it, the girl of my dreams, the one I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with, sent me divorce papers. How could she do this? I thought everything was going fine! Guess everything was not what it seemed.
The sadness that once filled my mind was now slowly being replaced by anger. Penelope, in all the years I've known her, has never been a quitter, especially when it's come towards our relationship. Now all of a sudden she wants to back out? Yeah, fat chance in hell I'm going to let that happen.
(Garcia's POV, a week later)
It's a week later and the team should be home rather shortly. They caught the rapist a day ago. Turns out it was the sheriff of the town who was doing this. His victims had a resemblance to his ex-wife who cheated on him. In other news, I haven't heard anything from Morgan said I got news that the papers had been delivered, which concerns me just slightly. I'm the type of person that doesn't like the unknown and with me not knowing what the hell is going on here is freaking me out.
I don't remember why, but I found myself currently in the bullpen doing god knows what. Maybe it was my subconscious telling me that this whole situation was stressing me out and I just wanted Derek home to get this over with.
Before I knew, the elevator had chimed and opened to reveal the team walkthrough. All of them had the same exhausted, yet joyous look on their face that they were home except for Morgan; he looked like he was on the hunt for blood. The anger in his eyes was unmistakable as they all entered the bullpen.
Once Derek's eyes landed on mine, he began making his way over towards me. Once he had gotten in front of me, he practically ripped an all too familiar manila envelope out of his bag as he waved it in front of my face.
"What the fuck is this Penelope? Seriously, why would- just how?!" Derek asked, his voice easily raising as his eyes bore into mine.
"Being an FBI agent you'd think you'd know how to read but apparently not!" I found myself muttering under my breath before sighing. "They're divorce papers, Derek. The quicker you sign them, the sooner I can move on with my life."
"Move on with your life, where the hell is this coming from?!"
"Maybe if you were home I'd be able to tell you! Wait, even that wouldn't work because you don't want to talk to me, ever! Hey, maybe if I were a serial killer, you'd actually have a conversation with me! I'll have to try that out sometime." I began to walk away from Derek, thinking that this conversation was over. He grabbed my arm and roughly turned me around to face him
"If you think that even for a minute I'm going to let you walk away from the relationship that's taken 8 years to get here without so much as a fucking explanation, then you're sorely mistaken. I married you because I never wanted to spend a day without you by my side, and I'll be damned if I let you walk away after all this time." For a few moments, we stood there staring at each other, with Morgan towering over me.
Eventually, I was able to shake myself out of his grasp and walk the other way. To my surprise, he didn't try to follow me. That won't last long though, he's not going down without a fight. It's one of the first things that made me fall in love with him in the first place.