A/N: The italics are a flashback. *sigh* I'm supposed to be writing another story, but damn if you reviewers don't keep pulling me back in!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with True Blood either, but I did borrow Jason from there.
J.J. spun out of the embrace with her brother, and then tugged him toward the table. The others had stood as well, in anticipation of greeting the newcomer. "This is Dave," she introduced, as he was nearest to them. Then her face took on a deviousness that was usually only worn by Garcia. "You know the rest of them," she dismissed with a wave, even as Hotch held out his hand. Instead, J.J. pulled her brother by the arm to her now vacant seat across from Emily. "I'll just go grab a spare chair." She started to walk away, and Emily was almost grateful. Almost. "Oh, and this is Emily. She is very single." With that, the blonde was gone.
Emily let out a sound that was somewhere between a nervous chuckle, and a desperate scream for help. She turned pleading eyes to Garcia, and the other woman happily proceeded to intervene. "So, Jason, how long are you in town?"
The rest of the conversation was lost on her as Emily's thoughts ran rampant. She was so immensely relieved, glad that Garcia had rescued her. Though Jason had definitely seemed to notice. Even as he began to answer Garcia, he kept his glossy hazel eyes firmly trained on her. When he finally did turn away, she found her gaze wandering.
She had noticed his attire when he had walked in. A fitting dark, gray t-shirt, and a pair of blue jeans that were far too revealing for a man. Not that he wasn't pulling it off, she reasoned. Now she was starting to enjoy the view, and her profiling skills were inadvertently kicking in. His skin was tan and weatherworn, obviously an outdoor working man. That meant that his muscles probably came naturally, and not from hours spent in the gym. He was definitely a small-town, country boy. And his face… damn. She'd been caught. He smiled brightly, which only intensified the blush that was consuming her cheeks.
"I need a refill." She stood quickly. "Anybody else?" She didn't really wait for an answer though, just made a b-line for the bar.
J.J. returned with a chair to see Emily booking off in the other direction. She looked down the table to Jason, and he was staring after her friend, biting down lightly on his lower lip. She shook her head and placed the chair between Dave and Garcia.
Usually, Derek would be on the dance floor after he was five drinks into an evening. His partner, as of late, would have been a toss-up. He seemed to venture out onto the floor with Emily about as often as he would with the random women that plucked up the courage to invite him. Emily had told him, in no uncertain terms, early on that it didn't bother her to see him flirt with other women.
"So, I know that you don't care about the way I am with Garcia, but I'm sorry about that detective." The two of them had spent the better part of the past week cooped up in the back of a surveillance van with the local lead investigator. It got hot in Arizona, so the acceptable dress code had quickly been relaxed on the first day. Morgan had resorted to removing his dress shirt, and the skin-tight tank top left very little to the imagination.
Of course, he had been more focused on the van's other occupants. Emily had lost the blazer early on, and both women had dropped a few more buttons on their tops than considered classy.
He had found himself almost choking on the view of his partner, and forced himself to tear his eyes off of her. By the time that he had noticed the detective, she had been veritably drooling. Some salacious flirtation, and he had found out that she had a thing for muscular arms.
He had flirted pretty heavily with her, but only out of compensation. With the way that he had been looking at Emily, he was almost afraid that the detective would report him for sexual harassment on her behalf. "I was trying to…"
"I don't wanna talk about that," Emily said, rolling over to face him. She propped herself up on her elbow, lazily tracing a finger over his collarbone.
He grabbed hold of her hand gently, stopping the motion. "I'm trying to apologize for acting like an ass here."
Her shoulders dropped, and the action was followed by a deep exhale. "And I'm trying to say that I don't care about that."
She leaned forward to kiss him and he put a hand on each of her arms, halting her midway. "You don't care about me flirting with another woman?" He wouldn't deny that he had been hurt by her choice of words.
"Another woman?" she repeated questioningly. "Look Derek, I have no illusions about what this is." She gestured between them. "I'm not that woman. I'm not your woman." This time, he didn't try to hold her back.
Now he was wishing that he would have said something, that he would have pushed her away for a second time. Hell, a third time if it meant that she would understand.
He turned his stare away from the object of his thoughts and her new dancing partner, and was met with a familiar pair of cerulean eyes. "I know Jason is cute, but I thought you were more interested in women?"
J.J. had posed the question with a sarcastic tone, and Morgan knew that she had caught on. He tightened his jaw before giving in to her obvious conversation-starting ploy. "What do you know?" he asked carefully. "Better yet, what do you think you know?"
"Ha!" J.J. discreetly looked around to make sure that no one was in earshot. "That you and Prentiss are… extremely close friends."
He groaned. There was no denying it, no point in trying to really. He reluctantly nodded, earning a gleeful squeal from his friend.
"I knew it!" she boasted. "So, how long?"
Derek dropped his gaze to the table. "Long enough that I want to go smack your brother in the back of the head."
"Oh, sorry about that." She grimaced apologetically. "I wasn't one hundred percent sure, so I had to test you."
He met her eyes quizzically. "Test me, or test us?"
"You, of course," she replied without hesitation. "Everybody knows you're a player Derek Morgan, I'm just looking out for Em."
He huffed out his disagreement. "I don't think she needs any looking after."
J.J. narrowed her eyes. "Why do you say that?"
"It's nothing," he shrugged off the question. "I think I'm gonna call it a night." He got up, and then moved toward the exit. He heard her calling after him, but he just kept walking.
He was mad at Emily, sure, but he was deeply angry with himself. He really had thought that he could wait for her forever, if need be. But he had also thought that she had some kind of attachment to him, some form of loyalty that would keep her from hurting him. He wasn't sure if he was wrong about that or not after tonight, but he was positive that the only reason she had had anything to do with Jason was because of him. He had to make that stupid comment, to suggest that she was too old to be with J.J.'s brother. It was rash, and out of pure jealousy, but he had said it. He was fairly certain that it was the only reason for her actions. At least, he hoped it was.
A/N: I'm writing this on the fly and, I gotta say, I am really liking Jason...