A/N: I do not own any recognizable characters. I wrote this for a prompt meme a few months ago.
She faithfully watches the news every night. Not just because she wants to know what happened, but because she has a chance to see her little boy. The first time she saw him on the news was when he was just starting at the BAU and he was talking with the press about some bomber. After making a series of phone calls to every family member she could think of, she smiled at the thought of her Derek doing such good in the world. Fran Morgan knew that she could not have gotten Derek to such a high place by herself.
"A mother can only do so much," Fran tells herself whenever she thinks about how Derek changed after her husband died. And knowing that Derek was there to witness it made her heart hurt even more; she knew that no good could come from everything he saw at such a young age. But she was grateful for the one person that helped her out when she thought it was just going to get worse. Carl Buford was a God-send.
Whenever Derek showed up on the television, she made sure to send something to Carl Buford. It was usually a large tin of cookies so that the children at the youth center could have some too, but it was her way of thanking him for all those years of helping her son. The man did so much that she really could not do as a single mother living in a rough neighborhood. He kept Derek on the right path, kept him out of trouble. From her perspective, Carl changed her son from a delinquent with a future in prison to a kind man working with the FBI. Fran owed so much to Carl that it scared her sometimes to think about where her life would be without Carl's help.
Then Derek came home for her birthday and was arrested up for murder. Fran's heart sank but she had faith in the team that showed up to help. They seemed like nice people and were exactly how Derek described them. Fran wanted to help so much that when Derek's team asked about Carl, she did not hesitate to lead them to the youth center. She made sure to say that Carl saved her son's life; they needed to know how great the man was. No one told her anything as the hours passed, just that they were going to get Derek out of jail. Carl helped with that before but she wasn't going to tell them about her son's less than perfect past. However, in the back of her mind, Fran did think about Derek's temper and hoped he wasn't showing out in front of his team, even if the lead cop had wanted her son in jail for years.
Everything ended faster than she could have hoped. Her son was out of jail and Derek's team left, but so did Derek. He called to say that he would be back in a couple of days and he wished her a happy birthday. Saddened and confused, Fran went to work on a batch of cookies for Carl. She didn't know his role in the event, but it was going to be something good; he always does right by her son.
By the time she placed the cookies in the oven, it was time for the news. Fran knew that she wouldn't see Derek in front of the cameras so she looked for Carl. When she saw him, a cold feeling filled her body. He was in handcuffs. Carl Buford was in handcuffs. The man that saved her son's future was being led away in handcuffs. Fran was so focused on the idea of seeing him on TV that she wasn't paying much attention to the story and only just realized the words "murder" and "child molestation" were stamped on the screen. When the reporter said that it is suspected that Carl had been at it for years, that there were allegations more than ten years old, Fran smelled the cookies burning. But she did not move from the couch.
The news transitioned to the weather and Fran finally went to the kitchen only to save her oven from too much damage. The cookies were burned beyond recognition and she would have to buy a new baking sheet, but she had more important things to worry about.
She tried to put the pieces together. Not just Derek leaving early.
She thought about how when he came home that he was always eager to hear about the youth center, but not Carl.
She thought about how he really didn't like the woods or camping or fishing. All those jokes about him being too much of a city kid when he went on family trips always seemed to get to Derek. Fran thought about the camping trips Carl took with Derek.
She thought about the nightmares that he never wanted to talk about. The way Carl seemed to have so much experience with the subject when she asked for help. The weeks Derek refused to talk to her after he found out she talked to Carl.
She thought about the holes in his bedroom wall that he attributed to playing in the house. How they always seemed to appear after a camping trip with Carl or staying at the youth center until late at night. She had played with the idea of Carl teaching Derek how to repair the walls but decided that she could teach him herself.
She thought about how when he injured his knee in college, Derek was happier than she would have liked him to be. His grades were good so he maintained his scholarship, but she wanted to see some disappointment at not being able to play football anymore.
The more she tried to place her memories of Derek into context, the more it hurt. She trusted and worshipped a man that was causing her son so much pain. But she didn't hate herself for not seeing the warning signs. She hated Carl for making it so there were no warning signs by saying it was normal for boys like Derek to act the way he did. Carl worked with teenage boys all the time, so who was she to question his experience.
Fran knew that she would have to talk to Derek about everything eventually. With all the press that was bound to cover Carl's actions, she knew that people would talk and she wanted to know where her son's mind was. She wouldn't ask him why he did not tell her. She only wanted to know how he was going to get through it all and if she could help.
Derek had been through so much, she just wanted to let him know that she was there, like a mother should be.