"Hey buddy. Did you miss me?" Morgan cooed out as he bounced Hank lightly in the air. He stood up and went into his mother's kitchen to make Hank a bottle. Everyone was starting to have trouble feeding him because Hank decided that he no longer liked formula. The chubby baby started fussing as the bottle was being made so Morgan went to grab a pacifier. Morgan looked at the clock and realized that he had 30 minutes to meet up with Emily. He grabbed his phone and texted her, trying to figure out where Emily wanted to meet. She texted him back an address and he grabbed the diaper bag and got Hank settled in his car seat. He got into his car and used GPS to get him to a part of the city that he wasn't particularly familiar with. The driveway that he pulled into held a large house tucked back away from the street. The home was close enough to be in the city but far out enough to be in seclusion. He pulled up next to Emily's SUV and cut the engine before stepping out. After he got Hank out of the car, he heard some banging around in a nearby garage off the edge of the house. He took a long look back and noticed that most of the house was covered on the right side as was portions of a tree and a makeshift shed. The front door opened and Morgan was graced with Emily's presence. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail and she was wearing a tank top and leggings. "Uh Princess?" Emily laughed, "This is my place. I bought it a couple of years ago. I've been coming back and forth to the States and taking my time to finish it. I understand now why you fix up homes. This project helped me decompress from the job. I only have one wing left to do but I'm still figuring out how I want it to look." Emily's eyes followed his and he pointed at the tree. "Treehouse. For my nephews." "Aw Princess. You don't play in treehouses?" Morgan asked with a pout. "Not in over 15 years."
Another noise alerted Morgan to the garage. "Relax Morgan. It's just my children." "Children?" Morgan asked confused. Just then, three dogs scrambled out of the garage. He let out a loud laugh that was infectious to not return. "Morgan, these are my fur babies. The German Shepard is Doc, the Dalmation is Lucky, and the Husky is Blitz." Morgan tried to hold back a laugh. "Don't laugh. They were rescues and I let the boys name them." Morgan held his hand up in surrender and snuck a look at a car that was partly covered. "Something I need to know? You trying to bring Fast and the Furious to life?" "Ha ha. Those are projects I do with my dad. You want a tour of the garage?" "Sure." Morgan tried his best to keep his eyes on the back of her head but it was a hard task. Her exposed neck, small tattoos in the middle of her spine, hourglass figure, the bouncing and jiggling of her rear all had him distracted. He managed to stop before he ran into the back of her as she flipped on a light switch. "This is a '72 Plymouth Barracuda, '34 Ford Coupe, '41 Willy Coupe, '57 Chevrolet Bel Air, '68 Pontiac GTO. '76 Pontiac Trans Am, '63 Ford Fairlane 300, '67 Dodge Dart, '64 Porsche 356 SC Coupe, '99 Plymouth Prowler, '53 Jaguar, and our newest project, '51 Kaiser Henry J." Morgan noted how bright and proud Emily's smile was when she rattled off the car names to him. "My dad has always been a car guy. This was the one thing we always got to do…go to car shows. They're all here because my mom would flip if they were at the house. We restore them and either take them to the show or just go for a drive." Emily wanted to knock herself over the head. "Morgan I'm sorry." "Don't be. I had good memories with my dad. Don't apologize for having good memories. I've actually never seen you smile so much talking about your family."
Emily saw Hank squirming in the car seat so, she unbuckled him and picked him up. He smiled at her and she rubbed his belly before he laid his head on her chest. Morgan chuckled and Emily turned to him, "Don't hate. I managed to get both of the Morgan boys sprung." Morgan choked on a breath and it was Emily's turn to laugh. "You hungry?" Morgan was stuck in a trance and had to run to catch up with her. When they walked into her house, he stopped in the living room and noticed all the artwork gracing every wall. He eventually followed her into the kitchen and she was making a bottle for Hank. "Just a fair warning Em, he's been really picking with formula these days." "I know." "You know? How?" "Your mother." Emily replied simply before placing a bottle in Hank's mouth and he eagerly took it. Morgan was perplexed, "How did you?" "It's breastmilk not formula." Morgan's eyes averted to Emily's chest and she threw a banana at him. "Not mine. It's donor milk. Women do sell their breastmilk Derek. They have so many options for specificity that it's mind-blowing. When your mom told me, I talked to this woman that I know and now Hank is drinking breastmilk and enjoying it. There are leftovers in the fridge. Help yourself." Morgan washed his hands and opened the fully stocked refrigerator and grabbed a plate of homemade quesadillas and a bowl with salad mix. Emily let him enjoy his meal, as she burped Hank, before rolling out the questions. "Why are you still punishing yourself over Savannah?" Morgan avoided her eyes and continued to eat. "Because I should've seen it sooner. I'm a profiler." "Derek, you should know by now, thanks to you being a profiler, that women are more manipulative than men are. Next question, why did you flip out on Garcia?" Morgan let out a long sigh, "Babygirl was pushing too hard. In the beginning, she didn't like that our flirtation came to a halt. I didn't even notice it, which makes me an ass. She was just being herself and it started making me uncomfortable. She…she…she kept saying that she thought that I would wind up with someone else instead of Savannah. Savannah heard her once and it didn't end well. After that I just started remaining professional and distancing myself from any activities with the team outside of work. JJ and I got into an argument because she thought that I was too hard on Garcia. Hotch brought me in his office one day and essentially told me that I needed to get it together. He said that I was almost acting the way I did when you guys came to Chicago and found out about Buford. He agreed to let me work on this crazy schedule and here I am."
Emily had remained quiet while Hank played with her hair. She carried him into another room and came back with a small rocker that she put on the counter. She strapped him in and turned on the low vibration. She looked back at Morgan, who was waiting for her to speak, and she gave him a small smile. She took a few steps towards him and leaned forward on the elbow she rested on the kitchen island. Morgan was directly across from her, so she could hear the catch in his breath. She reached a hand over and grabbed a piece of the quesadilla he left on his plate. He always remembered to put some of his food aside for Emily's extremely healthy appetite. He still knows that I eat his food. Yay me! Emily looked at Morgan through her thick lashes, "Derek". Morgan couldn't hide the shudder that coursed through his body when she said his name. She laughed at him when he glared at her, "You love me huh?" "Emily that. I didn't. I-" Emily slowly walked around the island as Morgan stumbled over his words. She was to his immediate left and he pushed back on the stool a little. Emily glanced at Hank, who was finding his sock interesting, and turned back to face Derek. Once again, she stood into a small space in front of him that he left open. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to say that? I always thought that we were really good friends. I felt strong feelings for you and I hoped that you reciprocated them. After all the craziness with Doyle, I figured that I blew my chance with you. I forced myself to move on, especially after you told me about Savannah. I don't think that I ever succeeded with getting over you." Derek's eyes flickered to her lips and then back up to her eyes. He placed his right hand behind her head and brought their faces closer. Their breaths mingled and both pairs of brown eyes locked on one another with such intensity. "Em. I only dated Savannah because I was trying to forget about you. I didn't think that you wanted to be with me, so I started dating." Emily pressed their foreheads together. "You finally going to make your move SSA Morgan?" Morgan smiled and leaned in for a kiss but not before his ringing phone caused him to groan and pout like a little boy. Emily chuckled as he answered the phone. Emily shimmied past him and went to grab a squirming Hank. She picked him up and bounced him as she cleaned up Morgan's plate. His face let her know that he wasn't happy and that he'd probably be leaving soon. Morgan hung the phone up and looked at Emily, "Em. It's a favor for a friend down at CPD." "It's okay. Derek. Go. We'll be here." "Em, I can't ask-" "You're not. We'll be fine for a few hours." Emily walked over to him and placed her mouth near his ear. "To be continued."