Disclaimer: *See Chapter 1*

What had only been a few weeks sometimes felt like an entire lifetime. The memory of sharing a decently-sized home with just Clooney (and sometimes Garcia) was fading fast, Emily now feeling as constant as the paint on the walls. In the days leading up to her most recent breakthrough, Morgan often found himself waking up in a panic, the fist of worry only releasing its grip when he let himself take in the subtle rain of a busy shower. No matter how much curiosity nagged at him, he kept quiet when her shadowy figure slowly crawled back into bed long before the sun was even high enough in the sky. Derek could only smile softly when the smell of freshly washed hair blanketed every inch of the room, her damp hair tickling his nose. He knew then that she was dressed head to toe in only something he would wear, her slight frame making it at least three times too big for her. He noticed that she had a tendency to float between crying herself back to sleep and laying there in absolute silence. Both occasions usually demanded as much entanglement of their two bodies as she could manage. This night was no different.

When the comfort of the shower could be heard, Derek let his shoulders fall readjusting himself so his arms could be manipulated to fit her need. In an attempt to rest his eyes while he waited, he relied on his four remaining senses to help in the awareness of Emily's presence. Usually protected from head to toe, Derek could feel nothing more than skin. Naturally, his heart was halfway up his throat while she found her final position.

"Emily?" he whispered more concerned than ever. He could barely make out the soft sigh that passed her lips when his hands found her breasts. He would be lying if he said he wasn't fighting the urge to do the same. Raised by his mother or not, Derek Morgan was still a man. Thankfully, the smallest of voices kept him almost perfectly still, surprise this time only playing a minor role. The truth was that she had never asked for him like this. Up until a few hours ago, the very idea left Emily paralyzed with fear, despite the number of suggestions she made on the topic. Her lips where barely a butterfly's touch against the inside of his arm.

With any other woman it was often enough to get even the smallest rise out of him. But Prentiss was different. The kind of different put on this planet, in his life to show him something else. Because as much as she went on about how different he was, she was the first of his runaways that set out to teach him even more about himself than even she knew. Being with Emily was never about the traditional intimacy he often found in the occasional girlfriend. This…whatever they were was meant to heal both parties, hopefully long term.

"I….All the hot water's gone," she whispered meekly. Derek nodded. This wasn't the first time. It sickened him to think that it wouldn't be her last either. When the falling water felt like ice against her skin, Emily barely shuffled out, feeling three times dirtier than when she stepped into it. It was still everywhere. He was everywhere. In her head, on her body, in her body. No amount of running, no amount of scrubbing was going to silence him. But that didn't stop her from trying one more time. Just to see if this time would be different.

"That's okay." Prentiss shook her head. No, it really wasn't. Nothing was okay. Nothing was ever really going to be "okay". She'd been looking for it for so long that she couldn't even recall what the word really meant anymore. He sighed. Both knew that the heat pump had nothing to do with the comment. "You're not dressed." Her hair swished with a careful nod. That was the point.

"I need you to help me forget," she whispered slowly pivoting in his arms to face him. That wasn't hard to puzzle out either. He just wasn't sure how they were going to go about that without…."I want you to hold me like this." The officer rolled his lip wondering how much of her anxiety this was actually going to solve. "I want your hands everywhere…" Her request wasn't necessarily laced with fear. If anything her words came through with an urgency he hadn't seen before.

"Tell me what you need," he whispered. Now it was Emily's turn to bite her lip in concentration. If she was being completely honest, she had no idea what more she wanted. She wasn't sure how to go about instructing him on the elimination of a ten year old ghost. The only solution she could think of was…No. To ask for that so soon after was...Well, it made her no better than a word she could no longer say.

"I…I need you to…I need you inside," she confessed, her cheeks warmer than they'd ever been. If it wasn't for the fact that he had learned to read two very distinct tones, Derek could say that the switch had flipped yet again. "I know it's…" Emily groaned, now hating herself even more as a result of the words that tumbled out of her mouth.

"Baby, do you know what time it is?" His comment just made her flush deeper, the natural urge to turn and hide burying her face in his forearm. "We can't….Not right now." As cruel as it sounded, part of him hoped she would forget even asking. When she suggested going all out, Morgan figured it would come later. Much later. "But right now I can hold you. I can hold you just like this…" he murmured. The calming air of his words nearly brought her to tears.

Not until he offered it to her in that moment did she realize just how little she'd been held as a child. It was a wonder she even understood the concept at all. Maybe what Derek had said had more truth to it than she originally thought. They didn't teach you any of that. It's a part of who you are. It was that subtle echo that brought to light who her parents really were. So far as she knew, her father had never touched her with love. Up until that fateful day, he'd never even touched her at all. Her mother had likely done it in small doses of obligation. Just enough to ensure that she stayed alive. Beyond that….Nothing.

"I….Nobody's ever just held me before." Derek had lost count of just how many times he'd heard those words. Whether they came out of her mouth or through her hands, she said them more often than anyone should have to. There were times he heard it in how close she managed to get to him.

"Shh..." It broke his heart to know that the only hands of kindness she'd ever known were his. To think that it took a person 25 years of life to understand any show of kindness was simply disgusting. As unfamiliar as the feeling was, there was a comfort in knowing that the touch belonged to Derek that made her feel like she had known his hands her entire life.

When he pressed a light kiss to the base of her neck, Emily couldn't help but squirm, every bit of his offered warmth making her organs dance unexpectedly. When she finally went still again, he brought his index finger along her chest, stopping at the top of her stomach to see if doing so brought anything back for her. Even when she began to cry quietly, Prentiss did nothing to stop him, silently hoping they would make it as far as her waistline before he thought to stop. As he began tracing along her hipbones, she slowly brought his hand to rest at the inside of her thigh. This brought his usually lazy travels to a sudden halt, the shake of his head making her chest constrict. He doesn't want me.

"Please…" Though there wasn't any sense of pleading in her words, he outlined before pressing lightly along her sensitive folds, the sensation making her buck instinctively, the sense of pleasure that followed rattling her entire body. She'd been forced to make her body behave this way for so long that the thought of it being something she wanted, something she asked for was still new.

"Just this," he warned gently, neither of them in any positon to use up all of their energy and resources. It didn't escape him that given the circumstance, pressed with a strong enough hand Emily could push herself through it but he would have to be dead and buried before she found herself in such a situation ever again.

"Just this," she breathed. Before now, she had always been forced to keep her eyes open. If and when they began to close, men (especially those who knew her father) took it as an insult. Either that or they got their charge out of watching all kinds of fear and pain cross her face. Emily figured it was a little bit of both, with a bit more influence on the latter, the revelation making her stomach twist. But this was Derek. Derek was touching her in a way that felt good. His hands were on her body but she was safe. He always made sure of that. This time, she could close her eyes. This time, she could like it. The minute she did, she almost instantly regretted it, her eyes snapping right back open, her entire body jarring as she gripped the sheets to steady herself.

He's here. As many times as she tried, there was no forgetting eyes like those. Emily wasn't necessarily raised on religion. To be frank, her parents hardly had time to…be parents. But no one had to sit you down and explain the concept of evil. Evil was in a person's eyes. It was in their hands. It was in their words. It also helped that they were the blackholes she stared into almost every single day of her life since she was no more than four years old.

When she started to rock slowly, the twisted smile he always wore sat front and centre in her memory, the image branded to her brain. Emily let out a caged whimper, the reaction not at all tied to the pulsing of her desire felt moments before. Hearing it, Derek froze, running his hand swiftly back up along her hip. The absence of his touch brought on an entirely new sense of panic. He was standing right there. He was watching. "No!" Prentiss nearly shouted desperately, the word choked in her tears.

"What?" he asked frantically, naturally looking over every inch of her body to see where he had caused her injury or pain. "What's wrong? Where does it hurt?" Derek rattled off these questions with his heart in his ears, the light of the moon and stars giving him just enough to see by. Good. One less way to startle her.

"Put it back, put it back, put it back!" To say that he was confused would be an understatement. Reactions like that taught him to back the hell off. It never seemed to do a damn thing for Buford but anyone with a good moral compass and a decent dose of common sense knew fear.

"Prentiss, what is it?" Barely a second passed before she took it upon herself to put him back inside her, rocking against his touch like it was the most natural progression she'd ever known. Because it was. Being with Derek in any capacity was like breathing new air. Fresh air. Air that kept her alive. Her father was going to see that. He had to. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he would try and fight him off, to "take her back" as it were but Derek wouldn't let him. Derek would keep her safe. With at least a dozen questions racing through his head, he resumed his slow paces, hoping it was enough to bring her iritic breathing back down to something normal.

"Put it back, put it back, put it back…"

"Shh...Nice slow breaths, alright? I can hear your heart from here." Usually a joke, the quiet that surrounded them alerted him to how anxious she was.

"He found me…." Morgan knew better than to ask who, his entire body going cold at the idea that even her most private moments could be invaded like this. They'd spent the last half hour trying to lose him and he still managed to find them anyway. "We have to keep going so he knows…" The officer knew that no physical display of anything was going to shake him but with visions that clear, it didn't really make a difference. Still, he slowly brought his hands back up around her face, fully intent on keeping her focused on him.

"Emily, look at me." There was no end to her fear as she shook her head hard. He was staring right at her, inches away from Derek. One wrong move and he would be… He watched her eyes dart in almost every other direction, doing what she could to look at literally anything else. When they finally settled, he saw them directed at something directly behind him, the invisible figure making her tremble violently. "Eyes right here. Look at me. Forget him. It's just you…and me, alright?" As much as she wanted to, as much as her body craved it, she couldn't.

"He's mad…He's really, really mad…" Despite the unevenness, he could make out every word, the pain in them so evident he could feel his own body replicating them along his bones. He wasn't even sure if it had more to do with the sympathy or the fact that they had been down this road too many times to count. Either way, he barely flinched when she took him in a death grip, her sharp nails digging into his skin. "He says you have to keep going. You have to….He wants you to…he wants you to…He wants you to…to make me come…" she whispered, not daring to say such a thing out loud. If he wasn't so intent on keeping her present, the growl that was ready to rip out of him would have echoed through the room. Instead, he ignored the comment knowing that the so-called "request" had nothing to do with Emily herself.

"He can't hurt you anymore," he whispered, the fist around his heart tightening when he realized she had found a way into his lap, even like this. "It's just you and me….I won't let him anywhere near you." As many times as she heard the words, as much as she believed them, it was something else entirely when the object of her fear was sharing a room with them. The sick knowing smirk on his face didn't help either.

"You have to touch me. You have to touch me so he knows." Even while she said the words, every hair on her head told her he did. Her father knew with startling clarity who Derek was and what he intended to do to her. Imagined or not, the man still managed to look as though he was encouraging the display, taking bets as part of a game she knew all too well.

"I'm not doing anything until he leaves," he said quietly. "He might like an audience but I sure as hell don't." No matter how scared she was, Emily still managed a small smile, making a mental note to thank him properly in the morning for everything he was already doing.

"You're not like them…" she mumbled. Saying the words aloud helped to reassure her that no matter what the monster wanted, he wasn't about to play into his games. Because he was good. Because he loved her. Wrapped in his arms, she felt a sudden chill travel the length of her body, tapping each of her insides before flowing out again.

"Good. That's good. Just breathe…" Nodding wordlessly, she ccomplied, her second wind felt deep within her muscles while she kept her tight hold on him. "Close your eyes if you have to," he mumbled. No. Closing her eyes gave her father every opportunity to hurt him. Derek had already been hurt so many times before. She wasn't about to let her sick father be yet another nightmare they had in common.

"Daddy's going to hurt you," she choked. "He's going to hurt you like he hurt me." Morgan sighed softly, a firm kiss eased to her temple while he ran his fingers gently through her damp hair.

"Focus…It's just you and me in here. Through me, remember?" Right. Through him. One shot and he would go down just as easily as Bear did. "Close your eyes, pretty girl. I'll be right here." The softest sniffle was muffled with the bulk of his shoulder. The tender flow of his words made her believe that maybe...just maybe such a thing was possible.

"Derek?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. "This is…I know it's weird but could you…Can you sit inside me till I fall asleep? I just…If he…If he thinks we're…he won't touch me…" In the most twisted of ways, her logic had some sense to it. The only thing stopping him was a list of at least ten different things that made it equally horrendous. "It…It's not sex….I…I fell asleep with them inside me all the time. I…I never liked it…It…It made me feel dirty. To them I was garbage. If….If you…Because of you I feel pretty. When we touch, I'm special…You….You want me. All I…All I can remember is that they made me...They forced themselves inside of me…"

"Emily…." The softest kiss she'd ever laid upon his lips stopped any attempt at words he had. "Baby, I don't think that's a good idea…" As much as he understood why, the idea in general was twisted beyond recognition.

"But…"

"We're not protected," he pointed out. No matter how much skin on skin contact managed to calm her down, without a safeguard for the fact that they were this close was just going to turn up rocks that didn't need looking under for a long time, if ever again.

"Yes we are," she corrected. How else did he think she managed to give men what they wanted when they refused to come prepared? Just because she didn't have a roof over her head didn't mean she didn't know her way to the damn clinic. Sex was meant to be a way to stay alive, not dead. Just because she was a disease didn't mean she wanted to make everyone else around her suffer the same fate.

"I don't have…"

"You know that free clinic you go by every time you come get me?" she mumbled. Even while he nodded, Derek didn't miss the way she arranged her words. Whether or not It was simply because she was too used to talking about it like that didn't stop the quiet pang from knocking him completely off guard.

"Sweetheart, you're not going back there." Emily blinked going through her response quietly in her head.

"I know," she whispered, her head pressed to his chest. "I guess I just…I'm used to saying it," she admitted, her entire face lighting up with embarrassment. Just the fact that those words had become her norm made Derek sick to his stomach. "I…I go there to…get stuff. It's…They're free."

"I know they are." That didn't make the fact that she needed to use them at all any easier to swallow.

"We won't make a baby," she said. Even if those words were meant as a comfort for them both, a part of Emily felt a moment of sadness about it too. Given the opportunity to have Derek's baby inside of her would bring her more joy than he would ever really know. Maybe one day….When I'm better. When he doesn't have to take care of me all the time. When I'm not scared…Despite the comfort it brought him, the way she reassured him wasn't missed. In that moment, he couldn't help but think he struck a nerve. "We already know I'm not very good at it…"

"Shh…That's not true." Emily just shrugged. No matter how anyone chose to look at it, he did ask him to take a shotgun to her stomach. She had ended a human life, no matter what the circumstances might have been. "And that's also not why. You'll have a baby when you're good and ready. When you're healthy." She knew Derek was right. He almost always was. That didn't make the idea anymore appealing. It didn't make her any less sad to know that a baby…his baby was probably never going to happen anyway. It then struck him that he'd never actually seen her take anything. "Wait a minute….When do you take them?"

"They're in the bathroom…" she mumbled. "I'm not always…here but…For five minutes right after? My head is better and I'm me. That's when I take them. I never forget. Because even if I forget once…"

"Something might happen." Again she nodded, quietly bringing her hand down into his lap. As much as he wanted to put an end to this idea, he really wasn't sure how to anymore. She was intent on forgetting her pain. Derek helped her replace that pain with good feelings. She was protected. Beyond outright telling her no, there wasn't much else he could do. When he was finally settled himself, the sigh of contentment fell out of his mouth without warning, the sound spreading the biggest smile across Emily's face. I did that. I made him feel good. Carefully readjusting herself in his lap, he sucked tenderly at the soft skin of his neck, finally letting her eyes close.

"Now he can't come…" she sighed willing herself to become impossibly small in his arms. This time it was more out of wanting to surround herself in him than the original fear those words usually brought up. "He can't come because you're already here. You're inside me. He can't come because you love me…"

"….and he doesn't know the first thing about love," he sighed.

"Daddy doesn't have to know that it can feel good. I…I can keep a secret…" Biting his lip, Derek presed a light kiss to the crown of her head.

"Stay with me, pretty girl. Stay with me…." Much like hours before, he couldn't quite make sense of what exactly brought them from point A to point B. But here they were, in very much the same questionable position. Even though it didn't make all the sense in the world, letting her explore affection she had clearly never been exposed to before managed to keep her present. For tomorrow's meeting with JJ, Emily needed to be as aware of herself as possible. At the same time, he also hoped that she felt safe enough to disappear behind her mask. There was a good chance that Emmy had a better understanding of how to help Emily than Emily did. He would be lying through his teeth if he didn't at least admit that falling asleep like this had very evident perks. He only hoped she didn't need it all the time. No way in hell was he willing to be compared with a good for nothing bastard. Not in any capacity. Even if he was "good". Even if he did love her.

A/N: Yes, yes, I know. Another impossibly short one. I'll be back next week(ish) with more.