Emily yawned tiredly as she pursued the aisles of her favorite used bookstore. It had only been a fifteen minutes walk from her old apartment and she'd spent a lot of time there several years ago. Enough to know the owner, who'd greeted her with a smile when she'd walked in ten minutes ago. It was small, but well organized and she found something very soothing about making her way slowly over the shelves, plucking anything that peaked her interest. She grabbed a Phillip K. Dick novel from the shelf that she didn't yet own and added it to the small stack in her arms. After finishing with the science fiction shelf she moved over to the mysteries-thrillers shelf and soon immersed herself in the selection of Carl Hiaasen books. Unlike Dick, she hadn't read all of Hiaasen's books yet, as they were a bit more challenging to locate in book stores and libraries.
Her fingertips had barely touched the spine of one with an unfamiliar title (Sick Puppy, of all names) when a familiar voice spoke her name. Her muscles tensed and the pit in her stomach began to throb angrily. Dropping her hand, Emily turned.
There he was, standing barely two feet away from her, smiling like he hadn't put her through hell. He reached a hand out toward her and Emily backed up quickly, her back hitting the bookshelf. Reece dropped his hand and the light in his eyes died.
"Oh Hinny, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you or scare you, I'd never want to do that, you know that. I just thought…well that it was just a bit of fun."
"Fun? You thought that was fun? So you think me crying was me having fun?"
His gaze dropped to his feet for several seconds. When he spoke, his voice was soft and full of contrition. "I know I took it too far, Em. I swear, it won't happen again. I swear it."
"I trusted you, Reece, and you...you..." She couldn't even say it. Not even Ian Doyle left her with such of feeling of betrayal.
His head hung toward the ground. "I hurt you, I betrayed your trust and I will live with the regret of that for the rest of my life. It makes me sick to think of what I did. I don't know what I was thinking, Emily, I really don't. I swear I think back to the weekend and I don't even recognize myself."
His voice had dropped low, like he could barely speak about it, so Emily to a chance and reached out, her fingertips just barely brushing his hand. Reece gently took her fingers in his hand. "God I'm so sorry, Emily. You have have right to walk away from me, and you're probably smarter to do so. But I have to try to get you back, even if it means begging, because I've got this wretched feeling in my stomach that feels like a bloody volcano going off every time I entertain the idea of never holding you in my arms again."
Emily didn't respond, except to tighten her hand around his. Reece took the opportunity to step closer to her, and when she didn't try to move away, he brushed the tips of his fingers along her cheek. She leaned into his touch involuntarily. He moved closer, bringing his other arm around her slim waist, and when she didn't resist or try and get away, he pulled her close to his body, taking the books in her hand and setting them on the shelf, so he could pull her flush against him. Emily trembled, but didn't stop him. Her body responded to him as it always did when he was affectionate: growing warm and sliding to fit perfectly against him.
Her quick breaths began to slow and she allowed herself to rest her forehead against his neck, her cheek against his should, inhaling the scent of him. He held her tight, rubbing her hands over her back, pressing kisses into her hair and whispering words of love into her ear. "God, I love you, Emily. I was so scared when you took off, I can't bear the thought of losing you."
Emily felt herself begin to sink into him and pressed her lips into the crook of his neck, letting him soothe her. Letting him love her. She relished the feel, the familiarity of it. His spoke with his lips against her ear. "Why don't we pay for your books, and find us a flight back across the pond?"
Her body seized up and all her warm feelings began to fade away. Emily pushed away from him. "It's not that simple, Reece. I can't trust you."
His bright demeanor fell. "You're right, Hinny. Let me make it up to you then. Allow me to take you to dinner tonight?"
Emily inhaled, her teeth sinking into her lip as she resisted the urge to gnaw on her nails. "Not dinner, I'm not there yet. But there's a park, Finley Park, it plays old movies outside during the summer."
He smiled. "That sounds like fun. What time do they start?"
"Eight." She'd gone there with Penelope a few times and Reid and Morgan too. It had surprised her to learn that Morgan had a soft spot for Hollywood classics. "We can meet there about a quarter to?"
"Sounds like a plan." He picked up her stack of books and handed it back to her. "Now, how about we pay for your books and I walk you home? Where are you staying?"
The pit in her stomach started to burn again. "With Derek."
Reece's eyes darkened and Emily prepared for an outburst that never came. Instead he relaxed and smiled again, a smile she didn't yet trust. "That's good, I know you two were very close while you were with the BAU."
She considered reminding him that they were still close, but decided it was best not to push him. It was understandable for him to be a bit jealous that she was staying in the home of another man. She'd be jealous if he was staying with another woman. "I actually drove though, so I'll just meet you tonight?"
She'd taken Morgan's pick-up that he usually used when he was working on houses. Derek had taken his bike to work, no matter how many time she told him he was nuts to ride a motorcycle in D.C. during rush hour. The people of D.C. could not drive for spit, and I-95 was the worst of all of it.
"Alright. I ought to be going then. I need to fresh myself up, you see I have a date with a very attractive and very sexy lady. I need to impress her." He offered a sly smirk and Emily found herself smiling.
"I'll see you tonight," she said.
Reece nodded and headed out of the store. Emily grabbed Sick Puppy from the shelf and headed up to counter. "Hey Jimmy."
He smiled and chattered to her about a couple first editions that he'd got in as he rung her up. Emily felt better than she had in days. Reece had handled his jealousy like an adult, instead of screaming and grabbing and slinging verbal abuse, like she'd expected. And he respected her concerns enough to start with a date that most teenagers would describe as tame.
Maybe he could change.
When Derek got home after work, he found that Emily had been grocery shopping and was already busy preparing them a light supper. She seemed in much better spirits than she'd been in for her entire visit, and he felt his mood lifting right along with hers. After changing out of his work clothes, he hurried back into the kitchen, eager to enjoy her good mood. Emily was crumbling feta cheese for what appeared to be a Greek-style salad. Morgan stood behind her and peered at the bowl, swiping an olive and earning an elbow to his chest.
"It's not ready yet," she admonished.
Morgan chuckled, still chewing on his olive and backed away, hands in the air. He looked at Clooney. "You see that Clooney, I worked all day and she won't even let me steal a bite."
The dog did not move from his spot beside Emily, but did offer him "forgive me" puppy-dog eyes, clearly siding with her.
"Psssh, it will be done in five minutes," Emily said, shooting him grin.
"I guess I'll just busy myself setting the table." He said, sounding sad and wistful at once.
Emily rolled her eyes at him. "You poor, deprived soul."
Morgan grinned, and gave her arm an affectionate squeeze before reaching above her head for plates, his body brushing against hers. He heard her inhale and he knew she'd felt the resulting spark, the heat, as well. Like the gentleman he was, he grabbed the plates and quickly backed out of her personal space. Considering whatever was going on with the ass-wipe that was texting her, now probably wasn't the time for them to start anything. And that was fine, because he didn't even know if he wanted to start something. Their friendship was not something that he would risk lightly.
"Oh by the way," she said, adding the cheese to the salad and tossing it. "After dinner, I'll be heading out to meet up with a friend."
"Oh yeah? Anyone I know?"
"Nope." When she didn't add anything else, Morgan grew suspicious. Emily wasn't exactly known for being forthcoming with information, but normally, she'd have at least offered context on the friendship, like from where she knew the person.
"That's good. You should have some fun while you're on vacation." He grinned at her as she set the bowl of salad on the table. "And as much as I might like to, I can't survive anymore late nights this week."
Emily snorted. "Are you getting old, Derek Morgan?"
"Bite your tongue, Princess."
"That's alright, if I was working this week, I would certainly not being going out tonight." She paused and looked at him thoughtfully. "How the hell do we do it on cases?"
Morgan scoffed. "I have no idea. Coffee and adrenaline, I guess."
They chatted to each other as they ate, enjoying each others company as they always had, almost from the moment they'd met. It had always been easy with them; they'd just clicked. At work too. She'd joined the team and fallen into sync with him almost as if she'd been working with him for years. After they finished and cleaned up, Emily went upstairs to change and Morgan grabbed his messenger bag and brought it to the den. He was a tad bit behind on his consults, so if Emily was going out, tonight would be a good night to catch up.
He headed to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, and stopped as he saw Emily coming back down the stairs. She had on, dark blue jeans, a dressy black top and dangly earrings and just enough make-up to accentuate her deep, dark eyes and full lips. She was dressed for a semi-casual date, and all at once it hit Morgan. He knew what she was hiding about her "friend". Emily was meeting up with the bastard that had been making her cry last night. He felt sick.
She looked beautiful.
"You're seeing him, aren't you? The text message guy."
Her smile dropped and she stopped momentarily in her decent, only to finish and stand in front of him. "Please don't give me a hard time about this, Morgan. You don't know anything about him, you—" He but her off with a finger to her rouged lips.
"I wasn't going to." He wanted to. He wanted to shake her and ask her what the hell she was thinking, but that wasn't going to help. He knew the pattern to these things, he'd studied so many of these cases to get his obsessional crimes specialization, that knew giving her a hard time would just push her closer to the guy, whoever he was, and he wasn't going to let that happen. He did the only thing he could do. "Just keep your phone turned on and promise me that you'll call if you need anything. Anything, Emily."
She nodded and squeezed his bicep. He watched her grab her purse and head out the door. She gave him a smile before she left and he just wanted to throw-up. He'd just let her walk out to be conned and charmed by the bastard who was stalking her via text message. But he knew all that he could do was assure her that she had a safe space here with him, and be ready to take her hand when she finally asked for help. When she finally walked away.
Morgan squeezed his eyes shut and hoped that would be sooner rather than later.
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