Here it is the first chapter of the sequel of "The Swan".
Reviews are much appreciated. Enjoy :)
Where we are
Morgan reached Garcia, Reid and Prentiss sitting at a table in a fast food in a remote town in Kansas. It wasn't a busy night, few clients were dining and the waitresses were chatting and laughing in a relaxed and slightly tired atmosphere. A waitress named Wendy refilled the coffee in the cups of the BAU agents and brought a new one for Derek. They were all drained by the case they just closed, it had been a rush against time but they succeeded in catching the unsub before he killed another couple so this was one of the good days, but that awareness didn't erase the effect of almost four days of constant work. They always started the investigation with the purpose of taking turns sleeping but actually none of them would accept the idea of laying down while a killer was out loose hands and they all regularly ended up dragging themselves around as a revival of "the night of the living dead".
Garcia was teasing Reid for his purple scarf wrapped around his neck in pure Oscar Wilde style and he had answered in the usual geeky way, leaving her and Morgan exchanging amused glances. Emily instead was staring at void.
"Hei, sleeping beauty.." Garcia mocked her waving a hand in front of her eyes.
Emily shook back from her trance "Ah, sorry… You were saying?"
"What were you staring at?" Morgan questioned.
"Those two" Emily hinted bowing her head toward a couple sitting at a table and sharing a slice of chocolate cake.
"Mhh, dirty thoughts about chocolate?" Garcia suggested with a malicious grin.
"No" Emily chuckled "They are dating… And I was thinking of the last time I went on a date…and I actually cannot recall it.."
Morgan frowned along with Garcia who exchanged with him a look filled with curiosity. Even though neither Morgan nor Prentiss were big in sharing she intended that they had been seeing each other for a while and on a pretty exclusive basis. Suddenly she fired him with a deadly look at the thought he had been cheating on her, just to find a baffled and frankly surprised expression on his face as well.
Reid interrupted this battle of glances to enlighten all of them on the topic "Generally dating is considered a form of courtship consisting of social activities done by two persons in the attempt to assess each others suitability as a partner in an intimate relationship or as a spouse…"
"Assessment of suitability… How romantic Dr Reid!" Garcia commented sarcastic.
Reid went on "In animal behavior we can observe a range spanning from species in which members of one sex compete fiercely to gain reproductive privileges with the highest number of partners possible, being this an indicator of good fitness, to species in which pair bond arrangements are meant for a lifetime." He took a little pause looking at his audience and temporary freezing his hands otherwise frantically moving at the rhythm of his words "According to some anthropologists in this spectrum humans are somewhat in the middle, they form pair bonding but there is the possibility of cheating or changing partners"
At this last hint Garcia vigorously kicked Derek's knees, causing him to startle from his seat.
"Thanks for the fine anthropology lesson, I will call you WikiRead from now on" Emily joked, then caught a more and more confused look from Morgan and felt to explain her train of thoughts "When I was a kid we moved around a lot.. you get to that age when blending in is the basic survival need, so I had adopted this technique, I would watch people in the streets and take in their behavioral patterns, how they dressed, what they ate, how did they interact. To me their lives so stable and settled were all amazing, almost a mirage. Even though many of them envied all my journeys, back in time my dream was to have a conventional, boring life, in a conventional boring family. Now, watching that couple made me think of how far from conventional our life is, so that the idea of going out on a date is almost completely alien to me…" she smiled shaking her head.
"Oh such a cutie, a teenage profiler…" Garcia joked at the idea of a young Emily taking in behavioral patterns "Well, though I have to say that considering your high school Gothic style you must have looked for behavioral patterns in really messed up places"
They all giggled, all except Morgan still uncertain on how to take her words.
"Okay, time for me to go." Emily concluded getting up form her seat "I still have to pack my bag before we leave, see you later guys"
Derek ran after her in the street "Hey, wait a second" he looked nervous "Is there anything I need to know? Like an agreement on seeing other people or on taking a break I wasn't aware of?"
"Derek, are you suggesting we should break up?"
"I don't know, are you? Because that speech on dating to me was kind of a cold shower, and frankly I thought that after what we've been through in the past months we were finally doing fine, but apparently I missed something"
Emily stared at him surprised in seeing Derek Morgan displaying uncertainty, then connected the dots, and sighed realizing how her comments could have been interpreted "Derek, I am not even thinking about seeing other people and I don't want to break up. This doesn't have anything to do with us, but… sometimes I just miss normal ordinary things that with our schedule are almost banished…"
Derek relieved a little bit, but not completely, he was about to add something but he dropped it halfway when he saw Reid and Garcia catching up. Not that their growing intimacy was a secret among the team, but they all had silently agreed in not crossing openly the fraternization rules while at work.
The subject wasn't brought up again until later when they finally got back to Quantico and he gave her a lift home. In entering her apartment she tiredly dropped the bag on the floor and let herself sink onto the sofa. Derek reached her and sat close, unsure on how to approach the subject "So, where do you want to go?"
She gave him a questioning glare.
"For our date. Where do you want to go? Restaurant, cinema, theatre, you let me surprise you…"
She reversed her head and laughed lightly, failing to repress a yawn "You mean when we are not in the field or coming back from a case too exhausted to even make it to the bedroom?" she smiled leaning on his shoulder.
"That's exactly what I mean" he gave her one of his smiles, then turned serious "it's almost six month now and how many times did we go out on a real date?"
Emily straightened herself up in order to look him in the eyes "Derek" she took his hand in hers and bit her lip trying to find the right words "We know exactly the kind of life we do and we understand perfectly what this implies, long working hours, almost no time for private life and a lot of sense of humor when we decide to plan something ahead of time. So far we haven't had any problems with the fact that our being together doesn't stick to canon, not until I made that stupid comment about dating and you got nervous."
He opened his mouth to reply but she stopped him with a gesture. "I guess what I am trying to say is that I am sorry if I made you feel inadequate or gave you the impression that I am not satisfied with our relationship, because honestly you are wonderful and patient and I am so messed up and.."
"Don't even try to go there, Emily" this time it was his turn to shush her with a kiss "Come on now" he took her hand and got up guiding her to the bedroom.
Emily had had troubles sleeping over the last six months; being abducted by a couple of serial killers who almost turned her into schnitzel and knowing that one of them was still out there loose hands potentially targeting her, had proved to be a tough experience to leave behind. Many nights she would wake up sweat through, panting in the darkness, the absurd feeling that Rose was there in that room watching her. She knew she would come back one day, but she made a promise to herself not to let this thought overpower her and her life. Besides she had worked so hard to convince Hotch and Strauss and her mother and everybody else that she was fine that now the last thing she wanted was to bring the subject up again.
She had also managed to keep it from Derek, because when he was spending the night with her she would sleep like a baby, his embrace apparently working as a shield against bad dreams, so she had decided not to worry him for the moment. During the past period his support had been so precious in such a number of ways and now she didn't want to mess things up as her usual, besides she was more and more confident that she could handle the situation by herself.
She couldn't have been more wrong.
I know this is kind of a soft beginning but don't get used to it, the rest of the story is nothing like that. :)