A/n: I just rewatched Zugzwang and my heart ached so I wrote this to soothe myself. I might do an AU later where Maeve survived or something.
Spencer was the only one.
Before, Derek had only ever had these sorts of feelings for assorted women and of course, his one-and-only, but those women only ever seem to enter and then proceed to exit his life more frequently than Clooney needed to be let out to pee at night, and as much as Garcia is the perfect woman, she didn't swing that way.
"What is bothering you my sculpted chocolate vision?" She asked as she placed her cup of coffee down on the table next to her keyboard after a quick Oh thank you I was going to pass out in about three minutes when he brought it to her. Garcia had been finishing up the serial rapist case they had worked on for the past week, and she had put in the most hours out of anyone in the team. Derek doubted she even slept last night. He ran a hand over his smooth head and down over the back of his neck, and sighed.
"It's nothing you need to worry about, Baby Girl."
"Hm," Garcia said as she downed another boiling gulp of coffee and hissed slightly. "Okay, you know I know you better than the BAU database and trust me when I say I can do anything and I mean anything with it, so why don't you stop pretending and tell me what's bothering you, sugar?" She said, the last word husky, intent on making Derek laugh.
Derek chuckled and Garcia smiled at him over the brim of her mug. "It is a woman?" She inquired.
"Uh … sorta."
"Do I know her?"
"Uh … sorta."
Garcia paused for a beat, and when she started talking she sounded a little irritated. "Derek Morgan you are my vision of angel sweetness but do I have to shake you out because I am not speaking to my answering machine."
Derek groaned a little and then realized just how stupid he was being – this was his Penelope, and he trusted her daily with his life, as did the team. They were one big family, and apart from the fact that he maybe probably had feelings for a particular member of the family, there was nothing they wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with the rest of the team.
"It's uh … It's Pretty Boy."
Garcia immediately perked up, bringing the brim to her lips again. "Boy Wonder?"
"Yeah." Then the phone rang, and Garcia grimaced as Derek nodded.
"Wait a second sugar shack," She said, swivelling around to face her desk, and put down the mug to tap a button. "Try me you buy me, what's your poison?" She said, obviously on the phone. From the way she said what part of glitch spells hard Derek could tell it was down at Database and the sarcastic oh it's blocking some server routes, Jimmy you've found my heel. Wedge heel, that is made Derek laugh. Garcia turned to him and mouthed that she was going to be literally ten seconds, and Derek downed the bitter mug in one turn, as if the way to tell his Baby Girl lied at the bottom of the mug.
"You're all good Jiminy Cricket, just stay clear of that patch!" Garica chirped before she turned back to Derek, swivelling in her chair. "That was just Jim down at IT." Bingo. "Okay now, Reid."
"Yes, um …" Derek said, and his tongue went heavy and dead in his mouth again. He breathed deeply, and then imagined this like one of his phones chats he has so often with Garcia. "Okay baby doll, you probably know more about this than I do, so I'm just gonna ask –" Garcia nodded so hard the poofy bun on her head shook. " – How did you know you … played for that team?"
Garcia was quiet for a second, and then "Team Free Will?"
"What, no, no I mean – how did you know you liked girls?"
Garcia's mouth was open slightly, and Derek had only ever seen her speechless on three other accounts. "Garcia?"
"Oh my sweet is this the day I've been waiting for? Is my statuesque vision of gorgeous developing feelings for geek shack?"
Derek's eyebrows rose as he considered what she said, and then – "Geek shack?"
"Don't change the subject." Garcia injected. "Are you saying you might have positive conscious responsiveness to the activities of one Spencer Reid?"
Derek frowned a little again but quirked a smile. "Mama are you getting all fancy on me?"
"Oh angel never, but simply put – you like Reid."
Derek couldn't get any words out of his mouth, so he just nodded a little. "Maybe." Got out at the end.
Garcia was suppressing her urges to squeal, flail and full-out obliterate all of Derek's respect for her, as solid as it was. "Okay." She managed out after breathing cooly. "This is new, this is good, mama loves a challenge."
"Challenge – Garcia what are you –?" Derek asked, getting up from his sitting position on a clear corner of her desk.
"Nothing my love, just check back with your goddess later." Garcia smiled and waved him off, and when Derek still didn't move and just stood there gaping at Garcia, she gave him a shove and said goooo.
It wasn't that Derek didn't like these feelings – they were more than familiar. But it was the fact that he seemed to lose all abilities to function around Spencer. He could treat Spencer as a co-worker, but any attempts to go beyond that left either one of them or both in embarrassment and usually Spencer in confusion, and seeing as how he was a super genius, was quite an amount of work.
Derek usually arrived early to either train or check up on Garcia, and when he went to get another mug of coffee Spencer was already there, yawning and filling up his mug. His usually rumpled hair was even more rumpled, but he had on a fresh shirt and vest, and when Derek got near him to grab the coffee pot he could smell aftershave.
"Hold up there kid, you want some coffee with that sugar?" Derek said, and then remembered that was – "that was what you said the first time you saw me have coffee." Spencer remarked.
"Yeah kid, I remember." Derek said, smiling. Then he leant against the counter as Spencer spooned in more sugar. "What's up with your hair?"
Spencer looked at him, obviously confused. "What's wrong with my hair?"
Derek used his free hand to wave around his own bald head. "It's all … everywhere."
Spencer's eyebrows kicked as he tried to flatten the mess on his head. "Oh," He said after he swallowed his coffee. "Right, it was really windy outside."
"Kid, the walk from the metro is like three minutes."
"I am serious it is like a hurricane out there." Spencer argued, but a laugh was coming up and Derek could see it.
"You know that's dangerous; a gust like that could lift you off your feet and carry you away."
Then the dam broke and Spencer laughed and Derek liked it; he really liked it. But the hair just wasn't going down despite the kid's valiant efforts, and Derek sighed, gesturing for Spencer to come over. He obediently did, and Derek worked out some small knots that kept the hair boofed up and put it behind Spencer's ear.
"There, now you're pretty boy again." Derek smiled. Spencer smiled back and there was something behind that, but Derek couldn't read into it, and Spencer left with a quiet thanks. Hotch nodded in their direction as he came in, and headed straight into his office. Spencer settled down at his desk to work through some spare work for his Psychology Bachelors, and Derek went to his desk too. He didn't really have any work to do though, so he just swivelled around in his chair and looked over past files. He was absently aware of Spencer's phone ringing, and as JJ and Prentiss came out of the elevator a few minutes later, his own phone rang. He looked at it, smiled and picked up.
"Hey Baby Girl –"
"Look to your right." Was all Garcia said before she hung up. He frowned at his phone, smiled a little, and looked to the right as he put it away. There was a small wall that surrounded his desk, as did some of the other members of the team who had desks in the bullpen. Past that, with his hands against the top of his wall, was Spencer.
"Morgan, can I speak to you for a moment?" He said, and his chocolate eyes were wide. Derek smiled and nodded and as he thought about how much Spencer reminds him of Clooney as a puppy. Spencer was leading the way into the conference room, which was empty in the morning until Garcia or Hotch brought in a case. At this moment, there was no reason for anyone to come in. What made warmth flutter in Derek's stomach though, was the fact that as Derek stood and began to follow Spencer, he reached back and took Derek's hand. He faintly heard JJ and Prentiss quietly laughing about something Prentiss had said.
After Spencer closed the door, he followed Spencer into the furthest part of the room. From there no one from the bullpen could see them, and as Derek turned from the wall to ask what Spencer was doing, Spencer firmly planted his two hands on either side of Derek's head, framing him against the wall. Derek unconsciously backed into it, and Spencer's face was down, as if he was trying to compose himself.
"Kid, what's wrong?" Derek asked, and Spencer shook his head.
"I-I-I just want to clarify something, Derek." Spencer said, and his name on Spencer's tongue made Derek's throat tighten up. "I-I like you, I do. But, but I can't. Not after – not after what happened with Maeve. I can't. Not right now, I can't." His words tumbled out, his head still bowed.
There was the silence in which Derek didn't know what to say, and after a few moments stammered out "Kid, listen –"
But Spencer had finally raised his head, and all he needed to do to silence Derek was lean forward and press his lips, ever so chastely against Derek's own darker ones. As he leant back slightly, he whispered I'm sorry, and then left Derek leant against the wall, probably because his knees would give out if he tried to walk after Spencer.
They didn't speak again after that, nothing except for wan smiles with something behind them, not until they got to the next crime scene, and Derek made a crack joke about fractions and the amount of segmented body parts. Spencer laughed and provided statistics, and they were back again. Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid were normal again, except for a little bit gained. It wasn't much, but it was enough for a foundation when Spencer eventually moved on from Maeve.
Derek had never had feelings for another man before, but this was different. It didn't necessarily mean anything specifically about his sexuality, because this was different.
Because Spencer was the only one.
A/n: I was thinking of this as a one-shot but if you guys want me to continue it then do leave a review! :)
