1. I write Derek in, even under a flimsy excuse, because I loves me some Derek.

2. This story is shameless and self-indulgent. Enjoy.

Luke's old unit chief was in Emily's office, Penelope had noticed and was immediately intrigued. When he had transferred over she had snooped on all his old personnel files. Some were sealed and even though she could break into them she didn't want to get in trouble over it, but she'd still snooped as much as she could without breaking the rules. So when she recognized his old boss from her investigation, she was intrigued. JJ and Reid saw her trying to act casual as she peeked around the corner.

"What's going on, Garcia?" Spencer asked.

She was startled, glancing at them momentarily before returning to her surveillance, "I'm not sure exactly but that's Luke's old boss, maybe he's in trouble or something." She gave a conspiratorial look to the others who were both grinning wildly at her thought process.

"I doubt it, he's been with the team for awhile, I don't think they'd just be reprimanding him now." JJ smiled at her back.

"The fugitive task force might need our help on a case. That would be interesting." Reid interjected.

"Unless there was another jailbreak, I don't see why they would." Penelope answered back. JJ shrugged her shoulders at Garcia's back as she continued her focused observation.

Luke and Simmons walked up silently, standing next to JJ and Reid who were still observing Garcia as she was trying to be covert. "What if Luke did something bad, like really bad and now they are discussing how they have to punish him?"

Luke took a few steps towards her, standing just inches from her back and leaned in close to her ear, "Are you saying something about me being a bad boy?"

Penelope stood up straight and huffed, before whirling around to face him, "Would you tell us if you were?" She tried to maintain an indignant glare even though she'd been caught.

The other three agents were laughing, watching the exchange between the two of them.

Rossi walked out of his office and towards the gleeful group, "We're going to be needed in the briefing room soon." He informed them.

Garcia headed towards her office to get her tablet that she assumed she'd need. Luke followed her out of the glass doors. He ran into Tara, she was hurried and had case files in her arms as she was coming in, "Hey, briefing room in a few." She smiled at him as he held the door for her. Penelope was getting further away, so he took a quick jaunt towards her retreating form.

She knew he was behind her, probably to tease and taunt her about snooping. Well, it's not like she was snooping about him she was just snooping and it happened to be about him, probably.

She turned to shut the outer door but he got there first and put his hand on it to stop her movement. She huffed again, rolling her eyes accepting that he was coming in. She turned to the original task, retrieving her tablet and a pen. "So you think I'm still some troublemaker? After all we've been through?"

"I didn't say anything. I was just making a possible observation." She maintained her dignified yet annoyed tone.

"Sure thing Hotshot, that sounds about right."

"Can I help you with something?"

"No, just wanted to see why you were so concerned about me." He paused to leer, "Unless there is something you need help with." He raised his eyebrow at her.

"No flirting. I don't like that."

"Since when?"

"Ugh!" She said exasperated before lightly hitting him in the chest with her tablet as she walked past him through the door, knowing her annoying shadow would be along in moments.

…

Garcia walked into the conference room, taking the chair between JJ and Tara so Luke couldn't sit next to her if he tried. He smirked at her anyway and took a seat directly across from her so he could keep annoying her.

"What are we here for?" she asked.

"If you don't know, we don't know." Dave said as he poured his coffee.

Just then Derek walked in "Hey, what's this I hear, you need my help?"

Penelope stood up with a look of elation on her face, "Derek Chocolate Thunder Morgan, what are you doing here?" They both hugged each other with force. He held onto her, before kissing her forehead, "I don't leave my Sweet Thing for too long."

The others all stood up to give handshakes or hugs. Luke was the last one, he reached over the table with a smile on his face, "Nice to see you again, Morgan." Everyone got seated again except Penelope who was still standing near Derek.

"Seriously, what are you doing here my love?" Penelope asked.

"Prentiss called me just a couple hours ago, asked me if I was bored and if I wouldn't mind coming in for a case. Said it was minimal risk, Savannah and I agreed that I'd hear it out. I know nothing more, Sweetness."

"I wonder what it could be." Reid stated curiously.

"Don't know, Pretty Boy. But if it means I get to be with my Angel Face, I'm a happy man." He had one arm around Penelope's shoulder now as they faced the round table.

"Love you too!" She scrunched her face at him.

Everyone was watching them, enjoying the familiarity, including Simmons who got used to it when his team consulted on that family killer three years ago. Luke was the only one who hadn't really seen it for himself. He'd heard about the infamous relationship but he'd only briefly met Morgan. He tried to maintain an emotionless facade but he couldn't help but wonder why the hell he didn't even get an ounce of her sweetness when it was now oozing out of her. He could feel the confusion marring his face, catching himself, he looked around the table at the others, hoping they didn't see. He straightened himself out and brought his face back to impassive.

Emily walked in, followed by a tall broad shouldered man, while he was very physically fit, he looked closer to Rossi's age than any of theirs. "This is Ted Sero." Emily said as she gave Morgan a hug before walking to stand in front of the screen.

Luke stood up and gave the man a handshake, grabbing his arm, "Good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Alvez. We miss you." After his brief pit stop he followed Emily.

"So we'll cut right to it. Sero is here because he wanted to take Luke off of our hands." Prentiss informed.

"I can pack his stuff up in less than ninety seconds." Penelope chimed in. She had taken her original seat, she glanced around not knowing if it was an appropriate time to joke but Emily's grin made her release the breath she'd held. The others smirking at her while Luke shook his head. Derek grabbed another chair and brought it directly behind Penelope's.

"Actually, I said we wanted to keep him but they do need his help temporarily. When Sero explained the case, I thought we could lend our expertise." She made a hand motion that Sero could further explain.

"Normally, our operations take time. We have to go undercover, learn everything we can, build trust. Unfortunately, we don't have time to start from scratch. We tried to bring down a drug operation in Miami, years back. Originally we were assigned to it because there was a fugitive working for the operation, he later fled the country but since we already were in deep, we tried to bring down the big boss. However, he ended up in jail for something unrelated, the drugs were still filtering through but on a smaller scale. Obviously his goons were doing the best they could without taking risks. I know it doesn't sound like your serial killers, but this guy's killed at least twenty people over the last five years we were just never able to pin it on him."

"We'd love to help but how can we make ourselves of use?" Rossi questioned, his hand around his coffee cup.

"That's the problem, we thought a lot of the kills were just dealers that stopped selling, or owed money, but we've come to recognize a pattern, he kills during Spring Break in March and the second week of February as well as around Christmas."

"So you think instead of being a hazard of the job when you work with criminals, it's actually a serial killer using his business as a way to satisfy the need to kill?" Tara contemplated.

"Quite possibly and the reason why our help could be useful is because there was a kill last month and with Spring Break happening all this month..." Prentiss trailed off.

Luke's face was closed off but his eyes were telling, he wanted confirmation, "This is about Stone Mountain?"

Sero turned to him, although he was a serious man, there was a little gleam in his eye as he nodded.

Luke sat back in his chair, blowing out a breath, then briefly closing his eyes before he looked back to the his former boss. "I'm back in?"

"Don't see another way."

Luke crossed his arms over his chest in acceptance of the task.

Penelope was observing him just like the rest of them but she was concerned. She hadn't seen him this closed off in a long time. She also didn't want to see him in danger, and she figured going undercover would be. She straightened her shoulders, trying to maintain a modicum of sensibility as she attempted to calm her now jumping nerves.

"Unfortunately, we are going to need to work very hard on this one. We might not have to go undercover the same way Luke will but we can't have contact with our families. It is possible we can jeopardize the case if we seemed out of place. Morgan, that's why I thought you might be of use, we need to blend in, none of us are rowdy college students but there's a lot of good-looking, professional singles that go there around these times as well. We need to look like, well quite frankly we all need to look like we're going to have a good time sitting in a jacuzzi." Prentiss tipped her head.

"So we'd be acting like we were on vacation?" Derek questioned.

"Essentially, we would be checking out the clubs, seeing if we can figure out who runs what, but we are not intentionally supposed to engage. Only Alvez will be doing that." She answered.

"I don't mean to insult myself here, but I don't think I blend." Rossi raised an eyebrow.

"That's why I asked Morgan, Tara, this will likely last two weeks and you have the trial you have to be here for next Monday. Rossi, I figured that you weren't planning on hitting the clubs up with us." She smiled at him as he politely shook his head. "And that means we'll be short handed."

"Not sure I would blend either. I don't think anyone would believe I went on vacation to Miami on purpose." Spencer spoke up with a crooked smile.

"It's up to all of you, that goes for everyone." She nodded at everyone around the room. "No contact with your families for two weeks is a lot to ask and isn't in your normal job description."

"If you don't mind, I think I will take the time to work with my mother and her doctor, we're trying memory recovery techniques and I don't think I should take that much time in between." Spencer gave a tight smile as he thought about his mom.

"I understand."

Emily regarded Simmons, who answered confidently, "I'm on board."

"Me too," JJ smiled.

"I'll clear it with Savannah but it shouldn't be a problem." Derek spoke.

Emily took a seat and let Sero stand in front of the screen so he could brief the team on the case. He was about to speak, but he glanced at Luke who had his arms crossed, and was otherwise completely emotionless. "Actually Alvez, would you mind? You were the one that went through all of this." He held the remote out to him. Luke gave a curt nod obeying the orders even if they were really just a request.

This was it, these people he had come to know, these people he was letting himself open up to and care about, were going to find out just how deep undercover he had to go sometimes. They were going to see a completely different side of him, maybe all sides of him, and he was going to have to trust them with it.

….

The next chapter will explain, oh so much. Thanks for reading.