Hey, Readers! Welcome to my second Hermione X Derek story. The first story was called "Late Night" (feel free to look it up, but it isn't necessarily connected to this story.) I'm a little short on time, but suffice to say—there isn't enough Hermione and Derek stories out there, so I thought I'd contribute.

"Ah, c'mon man!" Derek hit the doors of the elevator. The stupid thing had the audacity to stop in between floors. "Don't do this!" He was already pissed and the damned elevator was not helping.

"Derek, calm down. It's just stuck. Just press the emergency button—someone will get us out," Hermione sighed. First the fight, now the elevator—today wasn't shaping up to be a good day for anyone involved.

"Don't tell me to calm down…" Derek growled at her.

This would be their first fight… and it hurt. The words flung from each other were hurtful and disappointment wrenched at her stomach. It wasn't like he had asked for much and yet she still said no.

Hermione pressed herself to the wall and slid down into a sitting position. She needed to breathe and compose herself. Her feelings were hurt, she was stressed, and now suddenly, she was in an enclosed space with no exit. She knew that she was on the verge of tears—and that wouldn't help this situation at all. She closed her eyes and tried to take long, controlled breaths. Out of nervous habit she pulled her long sleeve shirt's sleeves over her hands and she began to fidget with the red colored hem. Had it just be herself, she could pull a hundred spells out of her memory to fix the elevator and get it working again, but she couldn't with Derek around.

Oh, sure. Many muggles would have had no idea if she used a little wandless magic here and there. However, Derek Morgan was far more observant and vigilant about his surroundings. He always seemed to notice if she used any magic—wandless or wordless. At first, she hadn't realized that he noticed. She would casually unlock the door to her apartment with a wandless 'alohomora' or even pull something out of her purse that had an undetectable expansion charm. It wasn't until she had used accio to pull an object that was ever-so-slightly out of her reach to her—bare millimeters away—that she realized that he was noticing these things. He had given her a sideways look of confusion, but never commented on it. Sometimes she would clean her apartment using magic—just minutes before he would arrive—and she could swear that he knew something was off. It unnerved her so she had owled Minerva McGonagall about all of it. Minerva had mentioned in her reply that the late Albus Dumbledore had often pondered whether or not certain humans could 'feel' magic, for lack of a better term. He had cited a few humans, one being Sarah Williams—a young woman Albus had met on his travels.

"C'mon." Derek said, dejectedly. He turned to push the emergency button one more time—finally getting a response.

"Do you have an emergency?" the female voice on the other end asked with a snarky tone.

"Wouldn't have pushed the button if we hadn't," Derek said politely from gritted teeth. "Elevator 3 is stuck between floors and we are stuck inside."

"Well, I can call the emergency repair crew—but you'll be stuck for about an hour, at the least." Hermione noted that the woman seemed slightly pleased by their predicament.

Derek took a breath, seemingly to calm himself, "We would really appreciate that."

Hermione watched as Derek began to calm himself.

"Hey," she called out. She looked at the man carefully when his eyes finally reached hers. He looked exhausted. His usual tall posture was now sagging slightly and his eyes were starting to redden. "Derek… I know you just got back from a case and we've just had a fight…But, are you okay?"

The large man sighed as he brought up his hands and scrubbed his face. "No. I'm not okay."

She hesitated, waiting to see if he was going to elaborate. He didn't and lowered himself to sit against the other wall, facing her, one knee was dragged up and an arm resting over it, while the other leg spread out.

His sad, brown eyes looked defeated.

"Is this because I said 'no'?" she asked softly as she adjusted her sitting position carefully. The silver walls of the elevator were slowly looking closer.

"Well, it's not like I asked for something huge…" he trailed off. "Just wanted to introduce you to my family."

"You know that I wasn't trying to hurt you, right?"
"Then why don't you want to go? They're my family and that's all I wanted."

"But do you really think it's such a good idea to show up to Christmas with me? Completely unannounced? You only just told them that we were dating," Hermione said gently. She considered it highly rude to show up to a Christmas reunion unannounced and uninvited by the host and she had no intentions of getting off on the wrong foot with his family.

"They would be fine with it—they'd love it."

"But it would be so awkward, sweetheart. You haven't seen them since your last visit. They'll want to see you—not me."

Suddenly, she noticed that this wasn't the crux of the problem. There was something deeper going on in Derek's head than just a simple rejection and she said so.

"…we lost a kid on this case," he confessed. "An eight year old, little girl named Moriah. We found her in the woods." Derek tipped his head into his hands. "It was the babysitter. I…I just wanted to find her alive." The case had started out as a missing child case, possible abduction. As the whole debacle progressed, time ran out for Moriah. The clock gave her her final minutes and she suddenly wasn't a missing child. She was a small body without what made up the essence of Moriah.

Hermione made a soft cooing sound of grief and she scooted over to Derek's side.

Her claustrophobia was suddenly much less of an issue.

Her arms wrapped around the love of her life and she held onto him as he mulled through his darker thoughts.

Without warning the lights of the elevator switched off with a resounding snap and both Hermione and Derek flinched. Hermione's eyes widened as she began to mentally panic.

Derek was pulling himself from his thoughts when he noticed that Hermione's breathes were becoming quick and shallow. "Hey, hey, hey. What's wrong?" His eyes searched in vain for hers, but the abrupt oncoming of the darkness hadn't left time for his eyes to adjust yet. She didn't reply and he blindly reached out for her hands.

When he finally found them, he found them clammy and cold. "Hermione…Are you afraid of the dark?" he ventured a guess.

Between breathes, Hermione responded in negative. "I have claustrophobia," she supplied.

Shit, he thought. He cast his thoughts back on anything Reid had mentioned about claustrophobia. It wasn't a normal topic for him to talk about, but Derek was sure that Reid had rambled about it before. "Stop trying to take deep breathes, babe. The kid told me that it only makes things worse. Just breathe through your mouth. You'll be okay. Think of somewhere else." His hands found her arms and he rubbed them up and down. "Tell me about your boarding school, about your friends—anything."

"There's Harry and Ron. Ginny's the youngest and Bill is the eldest. Charlie works with dangerous creatures and won't cut his hair—it drives Molly to distraction." Hermione trailed off, her thoughts taking her to darker places.

"Hey now, don't stop. Who else is in the family?"

"Percy's a prat!" Hermione spat, obviously angry with 'Percy' for something, but she continued on. "The twins' business is expanding and Arthur can finally retire. He said that he would like to meet you one day."

Hermione continued to ramble for a few moments before Derek stopped her. "Should I be worried about all these guys you keep listing off?" he teased.

"No—they're family." Oh, Merlin, she wished she could use her magic. In such a panic that she was, she accidently siphoned some magic into nameless spell and the elevator lurched, roaring to life and allowing the lights to flicker back on.

"What the—" Derek started at the burst of magic and the impromptu startup of the metal cart . They must have got it working, he thought. "Hey, there. See? Not so bad." He lifted himself to his feet and then lifted his girl to hers. Seconds later the door opened to Hermione's floor and they both stumbled out into the hall way.

The two had forgone their plans to eat out and called for take away Chinese food instead, and later that night found them settled on the couch, digging in. They were both feeling miles better and feelings had been reconciled.

Derek shot Hermione an amused look over his mushroom chicken and she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What?" she asked warily.

"I'll make you a deal. You said that Arthur wanted to meet me? Well, my mom will want to meet you. I'll meet your family, if you meet mine."

Horror passed across Hermione's face for a split second as she realized just how dangerous a meeting between the Weasley's and Derek really could be. Oh, the things the twins would do to Derek. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. She could almost see how dashing he might look with bright blue ears—…on second thought, maybe not.

Hermione couldn't repress a groan. "Just promise me one thing…"

"What's that?" he asked as he took a bite.

"Do not, under any circumstances, eat or drink anything the Weasley twins give you."

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and that you'll possibly head over to read "Late Night". Expect more oneshots between Very special Agent Derek Morgan and Miss Know It All Hermione Granger!

-Ever yours, the InvisiblePuppeteer