Criminal Minds: My Pseudo Partner

written by taleanaomi

Disclaimer: Not mine, don't own; just enjoy and have fun with it.

o0o

It had been one of the those cases that made you want to lie on the couch for a week; with headphones and an eye-mask. Upon returning to the office, Derek Morgan had debriefed with the team and then gathered this things and headed for home. Halfway to the parking garage, he changed his mind and let his feet roam over the campus.

Several minutes later, he found himself at the physical training centre. The gym as it was called was full. There was a late class in session, extra circular if he was reading the sign right, on self defence. On impulse, he yanked open the door and stepped inside.

After watching the class for a few minutes, he realized that there was two different people inside that gym. Most of them were almost graduates and then rest were semi-experienced full agents. They were all standing in a circle around the mat.

He watched as two of the students took on the role of the agent and the UnSub or perp. The former failed miserably.

"Nice try." The blonde-haired instructor commented. "You just got your weapon taken away and the UnSub just blew your brains out. Back in the circle, gents."

The young men sheepishly got to their feet and the 'UnSub' handed the rubber weapon back to the instructor.

The instructor's green eyed gaze swept the group looking for the next person to take on the challenge. Her eyes fell on Morgan for a quick second and then moved on.

"Alright." She announced to the group. "You've all been standing for way too long. Five laps around the gym. Let's go!" She clapped her hands and everyone took off to complete their ten laps. The students were joking with one another and raced. But the more experienced agents took things at a more even pace.

Morgan grinned. He remembered those days. He might have been tempted to join if things hadn't taken so long with this case. He turned to leave when the instructor called him back. "Agent!"

Morgan turned back as the woman jogged over to him, ponytail swinging. "Do you have a moment?" She asked stopping in front of him. "I could use some help demonstrating the proper technique."

Morgan hesitated. It had been a long day and he had really been ready to go home and decompress.

"I wouldn't normally ask, but I'm on my own tonight and could really use a hand." She explained. She held out her hand. "Devon. I've seen you around. I know you know your stuff."

He took her hand. "Derek. Yeah, sure. I'll give you a hand."

Tension drained out of her body and she smiled. "Cool. You can drop your stuff off over there." She waved towards the bench with towels and gym bags. "We're almost finished, but I really want them to get this hold down before they leave. Especially the students."

"Which one are we talking about?" Morgan asked, letting his bag slide off his shoulder and onto the bench. Devon explained what she'd been working on as Morgan shucked shoes, socks, watch, jacket, and gun. He already wore a t-shirt so that wasn't a problem.

What Devon was describing was fairly simple; what happens when an UnSub gets your gun and holds you in a choke hold? With all their training, it was fairly unlikely that something like this would happen, but Morgan knew that things weren't always so straight forward in the field.

"Let's do a quick practice around." He suggested. "I want to be sure I know how you want to teach this."

By now, most of the agents had finished their laps and had come back to the mat. They had a few watchers, but it didn't seem to bother Devon. She held out her hand in front of her like she was holding a gun. She frowned. "You sure about this?" She asked.

She must have seen something in his eyes to make her ask that question. Morgan quickly buried anything that might have been showing. "Of course." He said. The case wouldn't leave him alone, so he would have to leave it alone.

He grabbed her hand and they slowly did a mock practice run. He relieved her of her 'weapon,' shoved her around and placed his arm around her neck. She went for the classic get out of the hold move and Morgan reacted instinctively, tightening his arm and keeping her in place. Quick as a flash, Devon slipped through his countermove which lead them to a stale mate before they realized they would need to start over again.

"Sorry." They both apologized to one another. Devon let go of him and he stood up. By now, the entire group was watching.

"Let's do that again." Devon said quietly. This time, she narrated through the whole thing. They made it through without any incident. Devon called over the remaining students and they all gathered in a circle around the mat to watch.

Devon introduced the move again. And let them know that they would practice it themselves. They went again without incident. It took three tries in order for all the students to get what they were doing. Morgan let himself be 'arrested' several times during the students practice runs. Then they all gathered around to discuss what had happened.

"When taking hostages, they're going to look for someone smaller, someone less threatening then them." Morgan told them. "Which is why I played the bad guy in this scenario."

"It's not about strength." Devon said. "It's about leverage." She took the rubber gun and shoved it against Morgan's ribs. "Go with me on this one." She told him before grabbing his arm and gently twisted it behind his back. "Who's got the upper hand here?"

"You do." The guy answered. "Your using a gun, he's going to get shot if he moves. But that's cheating!"

Devon dropped the gun and wrapped her arm around Morgan's neck in a gentle chokehold. Morgan had to almost lean backwards to accommodate her smaller frame. "And now?" She asked. No one answered her.

"I do." She said finally into the silence. "I have my opponent off balance. Let's see if he can get out of it."

Morgan took that as his cue. Strength wise, he was stronger then she was, but as off balance as he was his struggle against her didn't last long when she could yank him even more off balance and kick his knees so he fell to the mat.

"Its not about strength." Devon told the students. "It's about training. You've got to trust in your training. You've got the tool to control the situation. You're UnSub doesn't."

Morgan took the opportunity to use a few of his own moves from his training and dumped Devon on the mat unceremoniously. "But be prepared for surprises." Morgan said, picking up where she left off. "Anything can happen. Don't let your guard down."

A few snickers came from the crowd. Devon had just done that. She managed to smile, but stayed on the floor. "Class dismissed!" She told them with a wave of her hand.

A stampede went towards the benches and locker room. Morgan offered her a hand and helped her up. "Sorry about that. I thought it was a perfect opening to talk about surprise moves."

Devon took his hand and got to her feet. "No. It was great. Thanks for helping out, even after that little hiccup earlier."

Morgan knew she was referring to how he'd reacted earlier. "Yeah, about that.."

"It's okay." Devon said with a shrug. "It happens." There was a moment of silence. Devon motioned towards the mat. "I've gotta clean up, so..."

"I'll give you a hand." Morgan offered.

Devon look at the clock. "It's after nine; don't you have some place to be?"

Morgan shook his head. "Not tonight."

They gathered the rubber weapons in silence and then walked them over to the buns in the corner of the room.

"So you usually teach this stuff without a partner?" Morgan asked.

She laughed. "Teach, heck no! I'm usually out in the field, but I fill in as needed. Surveillance tends to get a little tedious so I started a few supplicant classes for the more experienced agents. The ones whose skills tend to get a little rusty. I don't usually have students so it works well with just me." She explained. "You should volunteer to lead a class or two." She encouraged, turning to conversation back around.

Morgan shook his head, grinning at the image of him instructing.

"No, seriously!" She exclaimed. "You're patient, you know what you're talking about, and you've got decades of experience."

"Decades?" Morgan asked. He grinned. "Just how old do you think I am?"

"Older then I am." She replied with a wink and a nudge. They both laughed and quickly finished storing the equipment. A quick wipe down of the mat and they were done. Morgan returned his clothing to it's proper place and expected to leave alone, but Devon followed him to the door and turned out the lights.

"Going my way?" She asked with a smile. It turned out they both were headed for the same parking garage. As fate would have it, Morgan had needed to park in a different one that day due to the heavy amount of traffic around the BAU building.

Devon locked the gym door behind them and returned the keys to her gym bag. Her badge and gun were also in her bag. "Thanks again for helping." She said as they reached the parking garage. "See you around sometime?"

Morgan nodded. "Sure. And I'll think about that offer to lead a class."

"You better!" She laughed. "After today, my students realize that I don't know everything. They're going to need another teacher. Good night."

"Night." Morgan replied, watching her walk towards her car which was several parking spaces away. She had made it easy for him to ask her out, but he didn't date inside the FBI. Why tempt fate by starting a relationship where the two parties involved never saw one another except in passing?

He turned to his truck, pulling his keys from his pocket. He unlocked the door and threw his bag onto the passenger seat. From behind him, a car horn sounded. The sound struck him as odd and he turned back to looked Devon's car.

He saw two figures struggling in the dark car. That wasn't normal; she was being attacked. Morgan drew his weapon and moved towards the car. Two people fell out of the car, one was Devon – he could tell by the blonde hair and the other was male, ski mask in place.

She broke the UnSub's hold on her neck in much the same manner she'd used during their training exercise earlier and scrambled away, reaching for the gun that had skittered across the cement floor. But the man in black was quicker and shot her in the back.

She cried out, it echoed in the parking garage. But her fingers still stretched for her weapon that was a few millimetres out of her reach. Feet came into view and she looked up as Morgan raised his weapon and took the shot, and then another one.

The man in black fell, dead. Morgan knelt down and accessed the wound. He pulled out his cell phone and dialled the emergency number. "Yes, I have an agent down. Parking garage, I need medical ASAP."

"Hang on, hang on." He told Devon as she grunted and gasped with the pressure he was putting on the wound. "Don't bleed out on me, you hear me?"

She nodded, grabbing ahold of his sleeve with fingers that turned white. "Derek..." Her eyes widened and he realized she was looking past him. He looked up just in time to see a fist flying at his face. He fell over with the force of the punch.

The guy that he'd shot twice in the chest was up and he was ready to kill. Through a fuzzy haze, he saw the man advance on him, gun in hand. Morgan reached for his weapon and then realized he left it lying by Devon. He shook his head, trying to clear the stars from his eyes. The gun came up, and then two shots were fired.

Blood sprayed at him and Morgan instinctively closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the man in front of him collapsed to the cement floor, two shots to the back of the head.

He saw Devon lower the gun to the floor, panting with the effort. By now he could hear sirens. He got to his feet and stumbled over to her. There was a pool of blood collecting under her body. The sirens got closer as Morgan once again closed the hole in her back with his hand.

"Get him?" Devon asked.

"Yeah, you did. You did good, girl." Morgan told her.

She sighed, nodded. He grabbed the gun out of her hand as she fell unconscious; just as the EMT's rolled into the garage. The two medics jumped from the back of the ambulance. One of them hurried over to Morgan as the other one rolled the stretcher out.

"What happened to her?" The medic asked bending down beside Morgan.

"Gunshot to the back." Morgan told him. He motioned with his head. "UnSub is over there. Dead."

"Alright." The medic bent over to check on Devon. He quickly grabbed Morgan's hand. "Keep pressure on that wound, don't move your hand. We're going to have to load her quick."

The EMT's quickly worked to get Devon onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. On a second glance, the medic thought it was safe for Morgan to take his hand away and the medic took over.

"Where are you taking her?" Morgan managed to ask before the doors close.

"Closest hospital." The medic yelled back before they took off. By the time the ambulance left the parking garage, Bureau Security had arrived on scene. It took another hour to get his statement and close off the crime scene.

Morgan broke away and pulled out his phone. He dialled and waited until it picked up. "Hotch. There's been an incident."