Hello again my darlings! I recently introduced a character in a different story that some (Tina!) thought might be a good fit for Morgan. I promised a spin off. While I welcome anyone interested to check out my other stories, I will write this one to stand alone so anyone who hasn't read the other story will not be lost. Please let me know what you think!-J

"Now the miles stretch out behind me
Loves that I have lost
Broken hearts lie victims of the game."-Survivor 'The Search is Over'

Morgan stood watching bemused as Reid headed back to his desk. When did his world get so unfamiliar to him? He was the elder of the two friends. He was the teaser of the other. He was the one who had been the man of the house and family since he was ten years old. Now this little snot nosed kid just stood and told him the way things were. Morgan had just been chastised by Spencer Reid and that was not how things went in Derek Morgan's world. In Morgan's world, the world he was comfortable with at any rate, Spencer was a kid and Morgan the older brother. He teased and played it off as good natured, which it was, but it was also a subtle reminder of which had been around the block more than once.

Okay, he knew that calling Reid a kid wasn't all that fair anymore. He was rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday and was in the final planning stages of his wedding. Hell, if not for the unfortunate miscarriage suffered by his intended, he would have been a father by now. Alright Derek, be honest, it's not Reid's age that is making you upset now, it's that he's right. And that he just turned the tables on you. Morgan tried to tell himself that it hadn't been necessary for Reid to be like that. Morgan had only asked if a friend of Reid's fiancée Maggie was single. It wasn't that outrageous of a question. She was a damned fine looking woman with her deep chocolate brown eyes and auburn hair, and she was smart too. She was a colleague of Maggie's at Georgetown. They usually didn't hire dummies to teach there. Why wouldn't he be interested? And from the sounds of it, Claire was interested in Derek too. He never assumed that a woman would be interested or would accept an invitation from him but he never feared asking either. That confidence probably got him more dates than his appearance or his job ever could. He had been accused in the past of flashing his badge to get a date but he never had to.

Back to the topic at hand, Reid had acted uncertain about acknowledging that Claire had also asked about Morgan. What was that he had said? "Don't pull your usual Morgan crap"? It stung when he heard those words but thinking about it he realized the hurt at hearing them was probably due to the legitimacy of them. He was a cad and that was something damned hard to admit. Really thinking about himself, he knew that if a guy like him ever dated one of his sisters and treated her as he sometimes treated the women he dated, he'd kick the guy's ass. It's not that he ever hit a woman or said mean things to her. It was just that so often he didn't really think about their feelings. It didn't enter his thoughts that a woman who went out with a guy and ended up sleeping with him might think that there was something more there than he did and might be hurt by his disregard for her afterward. He was way too cavalier with their feelings. He often tried to rationalize that he was just saving them a worse heartache because of his job and the odds against a relationship working out. That was just an excuse and as he knew very well, excuses were like assholes, everyone has one and they all stink.

He had promised Reid that he would treat Claire like he would want someone to treat one of his sisters or his mother. Maybe he needed to anyway for other reasons. There was a saying that if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got. Maybe it was time to look at relationships differently. He was tired of hearing his mother complain about not having grandchildren and he wasn't getting younger. He hated admitting it but the opposite was actually true and that process only seemed to be accelerating. Maybe it was time to look at a date as something more than a means to a night's pleasure and look at it instead as a means to something deeper. Maybe he should really try to get to know Claire Turner. Maybe he shouldn't try to get into her place, her bed, on the first date. Maybe he should approach this much more slowly.

He picked up the phone on his desk and felt a sudden knot start to grow in his stomach. He hadn't felt that since high school. He knew he wasn't nervous about whether she'd say yes; Reid had already confirmed that she would. He realized with a start that he was nervous about what he might be starting with this date. He'd always seen himself married and maybe with a kid or two but he knew that every woman he didn't call back was a way to actively push that possibility farther from him. It was time to man up and stop running from this. If Reid could take a step like this then Derek Morgan surely could as well. And it was only a date. He didn't need to fall in love with Claire. He just had to give it a real chance. He dialed the number Reid had given him. It rang three times before he heard Claire answer.

"Dr. Turner."

"Hi, Claire? It's Derek Morgan. I work with Spencer Reid, Maggie's fiancé?"

"Agent Morgan, how are you?"

"Fine, fine…And please call me Derek."

"Alright Derek, did you need something?"

"I really called just to see if you might like to have dinner with me some night."

"I'd like that a lot. When did you have in mind?"

"Tomorrow?"

"That sounds very nice."

"I'll pick you up at 7?"

"I'll see you then."

Morgan hung up the phone thinking that the knot in his stomach would go away after the call ended but he noticed it had hatched into what felt like a thousand butterflies. He actually found himself worrying about what to wear.