Disclaimer: LOL.
Author's Note: This is by far the shortest chapter, one of the others are actually a thousand words longer :O Le gasp!
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The library was completely empty spare a woman and her son who was perusing a shelf of picture books. The woman nodded her greeting to Derek who smiled and winked at the boy. The counter was abandoned so he let himself into the back room.
"Hey Sexy, you in here?" he called into the room while he closed the door behind him.
"Excuse me?" a flustered voice sounded and a tall man entered the room and narrowed his eyes at the intruder. "You," he said coldly and Derek almost flinched.
"Sorry, I was looking for Penny. Is she here?"
"Yes, she is." Jasper looked into the room behind him. "Stop giggling and come out, Penelope. It's very uncomfortable to begin with and you're just making this worse."
Penelope Garcia excited the very small office room and snickered when she saw Derek. "You called Baby Cheeks sexy!" she exclaimed and doubled over in a new fit of giggles.
"Well," Derek said with a shrug, "he is quite the pretty boy." Jasper's cheeks quickly gained a healthy rosy color. "Your ready to go to lunch?"
"Sure am, Mr. Hot Stuff!" Penelope took a big red handbag from the table in the corner and waved goodbye to Jasper. "I'll be back in less than an hour, cutie pie. Don't make any troubles while I'm gone."
"Have fun, Pretty Boy," Derek said with a wink before he left after Penelope.
xXx
"So, what did you want to meet about?" JJ asked and blew on her coffee. She watched Penny intently over the edge of her cup.
"Jasper," the redhead said and took a cookie from the plate between them.
"Yeah?" JJ said and lifted an eyebrow inquiringly. "What about him?"
"A certain somebody have been asking questions about him," Penelope said and a sly smile curled her lips. "A mutual friend of ours."
"Is that so?" JJ asked and wondered why she felt like a character from a bad gangster movie. "Which of our friends would that be?"
"A chocolaty one."
"Derek?"
"Most certainly." Penny devoured another two cookies while JJ waited for her to offer more information. She didn't offer anything.
"What kinds of questions did he ask?"
"Oh, you know," Penelope said with a shrug even though her eyes twinkled. "Personal ones."
"Oh?"
"Yes."
"Which exactly?"
"If he was gay."
"He asked if Jasper was gay?"
"He did." The two women shared grins and sipped from their coffees.
"You told him yes, didn't you?" JJ asked, suddenly worried.
"Of course I did!"
"Good."
"I wouldn't lie about that, you know!" Penelope looked a bit affronted.
"I was suddenly worried that you didn't know."
"How could I not?"
"I know, he just has this gayness about him-"
"-in that non-twink-y way. I know, I've noticed too," Penny said with a wink.
"I love it when you finish my sentences."
"It is quite magical." The sipped coffee and ate cookies in silence for a few minutes before Penelope finally broke the silence. "So what do we do?"
"I'm thinking barbecue-party."
"I'll bring the red wine."
xXx
Penelope winked cheekily as she handed Derek a glass of red wine and pointed him back out to the back yard. She hummed cheerily while pouring wine into glasses and eating peanuts as Derek shuffled out into the warm August evening. Will nodded to him from the barbecue, busy keeping track with the steaks and sausages.
JJ waved him over from garden table where she was arranging plates and cutlery in neat stacks next to a big bowl of mixed salad.
"Derek! It's so nice of you to come, I haven't seen you since forever," she said and flung an arm around him in a half hug. "How have you been? And thank you so much for fixing the swing for Henry, I didn't know who else to call."
"It was no trouble at all and I'm good. My mother says hi by the way."
"That's so sweet of her!" Derek detected how JJ's eyes suddenly twinkled and realized he should be worried. "Oh, Jasper! Hi, come over here please. Derek I don't think I've introduced you to our new neighbor, Jasper Gordon."
Derek turned slightly and recognized the man walking towards them. Jasper slowed his approach down when he recognized Derek too.
"We've met," he muttered and kept Derek's gaze when he shuffled up next to JJ.
"Oh, good," JJ continued, not at all affected by Jasper's dismissive attitude. "Derek works down at my old station with Hotch and Emily. And he and Penelope go way back. Derek, Jasper works down at the library too. Oh wait, there's Emily and David, I have to go say hi – you two just... Get to know each other!" She flashed the men a big smile before leisurely sauntering over to the newly arrived couple.
"So," Derek said after a moment of awkward silence.
"Yeah," Jasper agreed and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"So where are you from?"
"Las Vegas."
"Vegas?" Jasper nodded. "Why did you chose to come all the way to Washington?"
"I got the money and wanted a change," Jasper explained with a shrug of his shoulders. "Are you from here?"
"No, I'm from Chicago originally."
"Chicago? That's pretty far from here too."
"Well, yeah. It got a bit uncomfortable when I came out so I decided to move away."
Jasper had a funny blank look of confusion on his face. "Came out?" he said and narrowed his eyes as in thought.
"I'm gay," Derek elaborated and Jasper's cheeks reddened. "As I've heard you are too."
"Who told you that?" Jasper asked disbelievingly.
"Penny did."
"How did she know? I never told her!"
"It's pretty obvious actually."
"What do you mean?"
"You didn't check out JJ's ass when she left us."
"Because she's married."
"And a woman."
"A married woman." Jasper looked at his feet a bit sheepishly. "Yeah, okay. I'm gay too. I don't usually advertise it."
"I want you to go out with me."
"What?"
"Do you want to go out some time?" Derek plastered his most charming smile on his face, but Jasper looked suspicious.
"I don't think that would be a good idea," he said slowly, as if tasting the words.
"And why wouldn't it? You're gay, I'm gay – we should do gay things together." Jasper blushed again. Derek decided that he liked the look on him.
"All the people I know is friends of yours. If it didn't work out it would be very awkward for both us and them."
"We'll just have to make it work then, won't we?" Derek asked and smiled when Jasper's mouth twitched and he rolled his eyes.
"Fine!"
"Great." They smiled to each other and Derek took a sip of his wine while Jasper's eyes were glued to his lips.
Closer to the house Penelope waggled her eyebrows at JJ who tapped the side of her nose with a knowing wink. She then moved on to telling people that the steaks were done and that the bread had gone cold.
xXx
How To Save Your Relationship In Seven Weeks
Emily turned the books and quickly perused the text on the back. She bit her lip thoughtfully and turned the book again to look at the front page where a beautiful couple laughed freely.
Was seven weeks really enough to save a relationship?
She put the book back on the self and took the one beside it. She would've never thought they had made a Relationship For Dummies too, even if it did make an awful lot of sense. She was chewing on her bottom lip when she put the book back on its place and took a step back with a sigh.
"Hi Emily, do you need some help?"
She spun around so fast her purse hit her on the butt and her heart raced from surprise and embarrassment when she saw the young, shyly smiling man.
"Oh, hi Jasper," she said breathlessly, "I was just... um... looking!"
"If you tell me what exactly you're looking for I'd love to help you find it," Jasper offered and tilted his head against the bookcase behind her.
"I really don't need your help," Emily assured him. "I was just looking for John Grisham when I noticed the Dummy book and I thought it was funny and that I should take a look... Who am I kidding here? Listen, Jasper, if everything in a relationship is going wrong but you still want to save it, what do you do?" She felt very sure that her desperation was audible in her voice and that her eyes pleaded the younger man who cleared his voice nervously and shifted his weight.
"I don't know," he said after more nervous fidgeting. "Talk about it with your partner?"
"I was kind of hoping there would be a book that could give me a few pointers on how to do it."
"I'm afraid our How To Magically Fix Your Failing Marriage is out at the moment, but we probably have some books that address the..." Emily watched Jasper as he trailed off while staring out the window, apparently in deep thought.
"That address the what?" she asked after a moment of silence and Jasper snapped out of his thoughts. He frowned confused at the window and then Emily. "Is something wrong, Jasper?"
"No, I just... I though I saw someone I know," he explained and scratched his scalp.
"Really?" Emily asked.
"I was probably mistaken." He smiled apologetically and resumed his instruction on how she could find books addressing the different aspects of a relationship. There were several shelves on communication between couples, guides on how to live with a shared economy, books addressing couples with different opinions about kids and upbringing, and a big collection on books about sex in all its aspects.
Emily liked the way Jasper blushed slightly when he told her about that department. He was so sweet and innocent at times, and she hated the nervous way he would glance at the windows every once now and then. He didn't deserve to have a care in the world.
Before she left with her enormous collection of books she thanked Jasper for helping her to the extend that he had and wished him luck on the date he and Derek were going on later that evening.
He was left a stuttering, blushing mess and Emily felt so very, very old.