Premise- Morgan and Garcia. Derek is forced to work with the wife he thought he'd never see again. AU. Angst. Note-
Right off the bat I want to warn that this plot bunny will not be everyone's cup of tea. It is an extremely painful plot line. Its angst, angst and more angst.
The idea got stuck in my head though so I went with it. While some readers will like this, for others it just won't be your thing, and that's all right. I hope you'll come back for my next canon story.
This story is AU. All my AU fics are inspired by Fanatical Writer. I love what she does with her AU world.
The title of this comes from a movie starring Salma Hayek. It is also the title of a song.
Fools Rush In Chapter One Morgan and Garcia March 2004
Special Supervisory Agent Derek Morgan hated being called into the section director's office. It always made him feel like a bad grade schooler who had to go see the principal. He was known for taking risks and chances in the field that were sometimes regarded as reckless- yet effective and always seemed to work out just the way he had planned.
Not that his bosses ever took that little fact into consideration afterwards. Nope. The F.B.I. was all about rules and regulations. There was no good excuse to break any standard protocol, in his bosses eyes. He had already been called on the carpet several times in his short three year career working in the Behavioral Analyst Unit.
Today looked to be another one of those days. He searched his mind for what he could have done lately to warrant another talk with SC Erin Strauss but he couldn't think of a thing.
Still he had to have done something because he was sitting across from the very severe looking woman at this very moment. Her eyes bore into him like lasers and he fought the urge to shift uncomfortably in his seat.
"Agent Morgan."
"Good morning, ma'am."
She flipped open a folder on her desk and glanced at it. Her expression was pissed off. Then again it was always pissed off.
Derek was very lucky he was the type of guy who stayed cool under pressure because otherwise this barracuda of a woman would have him sweating bullets. But he was used to have suspects in the box and using techniques to make them sweat. He'd be damned if she turned it around on him. He saw her tactics coming a mile away.
The way she let the silence linger and linger till the other person in the room said something just to break the tension, thus giving her the upper hand and allowing her to seem in control while the other person floundered for solid ground. That stuff might work on the guys in Computer Crimes but not on agents from the BAU. And that's why it was well known that Strauss hated dealing with their unit.
Derek waited patiently, for what seemed like a couple of long and dragging minutes, for her to speak again. What she said made his heart jump into his throat and all thoughts of staying cool fly out the window.
"You were married on June 7th 2002."
He sat forward in his seat. "Excuse me?"
Her eyes rose and met his. "You were married on June 7th, 2002 in Las Vegas, correct?"
"I don't see what business of anyone's that is!"
"In normal circumstances it would not warrant a second thought for me to care who you choose to make your spouse but in these circumstances it is of great interest to myself and the bureau."
"What..." he choked out the words as his heart pounded so hard in his chest that he was sure she could hear it "What circumstances are you referring to, ma'am?"
"When is the last time you made contact with your wife?"
"I'd rather not discuss the particulars of my marriage. That's my business. Unless you can give me a good reason why I had to take time away from my team to come in here and discuss my very private and personal past then I think it will be very appropriate for me to tell you to butt the hell out. Then for me to walk out of here and head directly to your immediate supervisor's office to discuss why you are rooting around in my life looking for dirt to use against me."
"Agent Morgan, I've heard good things about you from Agent Gideon. He seems to think you're a very bright, hard working young man with great potential. I'll defer to his opinion for now as all I see is a file full of questionable incidents. I must say that your marriage seems to be one of them."
His jaw tightened and ticked. "Why is my marriage an issue? It has nothing to do with my job performance."
"I'd like an answer to when the last time you spoke to your wife was and I'd like it now, agent."
He hated to say it but after a moment he said "June 7th 2002."
"I'm sure you're aware that if you lie to me your job will be on the line so I will assume you are not so foolish as to try and conceal contact you've had with your wife."
"Has something...did something happen to her?"
"She was arrested on October 3rd 2003 in Simi Valley, California and shortly afterwards sentenced to forty five years in federal prison."
Derek's hands rose to rake over his head and his eyes closed. He didn't know all that much about the woman he made his wife but he never thought she'd end up being a criminal. Then again how could he really guess what she might end up doing? Other than not living the rest of her life by his side like she had promised to do. That much he was damn sure a long while ago was how things would go down.
"What was the charge?"
"Multiple counts of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Your wife basically hacked into the C.I.A. and thought she wouldn't get caught. According to the confession she gave later it was not the first time either. I can not go into details but your wife went into many places she had no business being. Though she was good enough to get in she just was not quite good enough to get out and avoid detection."
A very long pause as he took this in. He tried to push the image of her sitting in a cell from his mind and tried to not think about if he would ever go and see her. That was something he'd have to figure out later. Right now he needed to know why Strauss was telling him all this. Did the beaura think he was dirty?
"Ma'am, I had nothing to do with her crimes."
"You've been under surveillance for the last six months. Ever since the bureau became aware of her activities."
"Then you know I'm clean."
Don't think about her locked up, he told himself, because she damn sure ain't thinking about you!
Thinking about her only made his stomach roll, made his head throb with tension and made him feel nothing short of a damn fool. He hated thinking about her. He hated what she had done to him. And, most of all, he hated that she had let him believe in her and believe in love for just a couple of days and then showed him, in the coldest way possible, how it had all just been a big mistake. Love was as much of a joke as he ever thought it was before she came along.
Strauss said "The beaura does believe you had no knowledge of or assistance in your wife's crimes. That's why you haven't been arrested, charged, and sent to join her serving out a four decade long sentence."
"So, if you know I'm clean, then why bring this up? I would prefer my private life stay my business alone, especially this part of my past."
"So your team is unaware of your marriage?"
"I don't see how that's important."
"Agent Morgan, you can fight me on every question and we can stay here all day or you can simply answer me the first time. I do already know the answer to this one. I'm just conducting this interview to get the official story down on record. So why don't you start at the beginning for me."
Totally frustrated Derek spit out a condescended version of meeting Penelope in Vegas when the team was stuck there because the jet had mechanical problems. By the next morning they had decided to get married. They did it alone with strangers as their witnesses, another couple that was getting married after them. They spent that day mainly in bed together but did go out for dinner and a walk along the strip. (They stood in front of a fountain and made a wish, though he left that part out of what he told Strauss.) The next morning it was time for the team to leave. Hotch came to Derek's room and found him still asleep. When Derek woke up, because of Hotch's knocking, he was shocked to find his wife gone and a note saying they had made a mistake. That's how the team learned Derek had gotten hitched on an foolish, love struck impulse. Since Derek was so frantic to find Penelope he asked the team for help. But they hadn't been able to ever track her down and it became a sore subject for Derek.
"I see," Strauss said, in a totally impersonal way, after Derek had just spilled the third most heartbreaking story he had in his past.
"Is that good enough for your official record?" he spit out at her, standing up. "I need to get back to my team, ma'am. So if we're done here..."
"We're not." Strauss picked up her phone "You can bring her in now." She hung up. "The beaura feels your wife could be quite the asset. Her sentence was suspended under the agreement she would work for the beaura for a period of ten years with exemplary service. Should she flee and try to resume her covert activities or contact any of the hackers in the loosely affiliated underground organization that she was part of her deal will immediately be revoked and she will be returned to prison to serve out the reminder of her sentence."
Derek's head was spinning by now. Just then there was a knock on the door. His head whipped that way.
Strauss stood up. "Your wife will be assigned to the BAU and you will keep an eye on her. Until and unless you divorce your fate in the beaura is linked to hers so I suggest you keep her from resuming her previous criminal behaviors. Are we clear?"
Derek swallowed hard.
Strauss called out "Yes, come in."
The door opened. There stood an agent and the woman Derek was sure he would never see again. "Penelope," he whispered
.