Hello everyone, looks like you get lucky this week. Since I think, I got all the feedback possible here is the next part. Thanks to Lena-F, RealMe07, Guest, KazyCMfan, leahloahla, Barbra4317, Paullyn6, Lenika08, DMfANATiC69, 123a456e, Zyrah329, LOVESxPAGET, and Guest for your feedback and thanks to those following and favoriting this story.

To some comments. Sorry for leaving you off with a fight, but a little bit of drama every once in a while is needed. I didn't want to make Derek look like the bad person in this. He has so many other things to worry about. Avery was upset and she would probably get over it soon. This next chapter will finally figure things out and as a special guest we have Mama Morgan

As always thanks to Kendall, hope the reading of those other parts and writing goes well.

Criminal Minds is not mine (obviously).

Mother instinct

"That he'll never let you down. That boy's got a heart the size of Kentucky, and he loves you. That's important. Take it from someone who knows. My mom used to tell me that whatever you do, marry someone who loves you more than you love him. And I listened to her. Why do you think Henry and I get along so well? I'm not saying that I don't love him, because I do. But if I ever left Henry or something, God forbid, ever happened to me, I don't think he'll be able to go on. And that guy would risk his life for mine in a heartbeat."
— Nicholas Sparks (The Guardian)

Derek had gotten close to no sleep the night before. First Avery's fever had kept him awake and then the fight with his partner. It wasn't like them to act this way and he knew that he had to figure it out before they got back to work. More importantly he didn't want to lose his best friend. However, he just didn't understand what had gotten into her. For two months, they had been growing closer to each other and almost acted like a little family, but now everything was just a big mess.

He got up and checked on his daughter, who was still sleeping, before heading downstairs to make himself a strong cup of coffee. He had finished his first cup and was about to refill another when the phone went off. He sighed, praying it wasn't a new case, and went to answer it. To his relief it was his mother. Well at least at first he thought it was a relief. After a little bit of small talk and half-hearted planning of their first Christmas together with Avery, Fran had caught onto the fact that something else was on his mind.

"What's wrong Derek?"

"I just didn't sleep a lot because of Avery's fever."

"So my baby girl is feeling better?"

"Yea, she is asleep and the medicine Emily brought really seems to help."

"Okay so what is the problem? Take a nap and everything is alright."

"I doubt a nap can fix that." He could have slapped himself for giving himself away so easily. Now he could almost see his mother raise her eyebrows at him and of course, she didn't say a word with it, just waited for him to start talking, dang her.

"She is acting weird lately. She hasn't been over in two weeks, excluding last night, and avoids me whenever she can."

"Well something must have happened or she wouldn't do that." Fran hadn't even asked who he was talking about, but naturally put Emily into the picture.

"Everything was just fine. It was fun to have her around and see something else than the baby occasionally and Avery loves her. She even called her mommy last night."

Instead of an answer, silence came from the other side of the line. Fran hadn't missed the importance of that little word her son had so carelessly put into his sentence.

"Mama?" He finally asked, when nothing came back. Derek was even more surprised when he heard the deep breath she took in before she spoke to him in a soft voice.

"Did you ever come to think that that might be the problem?"

"What?" He was completely lost.

"You don't think the fact that your daughter calls your partner from work 'mommy' might catch Emily off guard?"

It suddenly dawned on him.

"You know attaching goes both ways. The way I saw Emily interacting with Avery shows how much she loves your little girl. That word probably brought back to mind that this is exactly what she isn't. Emily isn't your daughter's mother and now that she is aware of that, she might be afraid of hurting Avery's and also probably her own feelings." She paused for a moment, before adding even more softly: "She just didn't calculate in that it is already too late to get out of it without hurting anyone's feelings."

Derek let himself fall into his couch. His coffee on the table in front of him was long forgotten. His thoughts were running a thousand miles an hour as he realized that, if his mother was right, his words last night had been the worst thing he could have ever said to her. He had been trying to protect his daughter, but now that he thought back, he was sure that she hadn't been able to hide the hurt completely before leaving the house. He had done exactly what he had accused her of doing to Avery: He had shredded her heart into pieces with one unbelievable dumb sentence.

"Derek, are you still there?"

"Yea…"

"I think you have some fixing to do."

"How am I supposed to fix this? I mean technically she is right. Avery shouldn't be attaching to my coworker."

"Honey, if you would just open your eyes, that problem could be fixed very easily as well."

"Mama, this is the second time you tell me to open my eyes, but I still don't know to what."

He heard a soft chuckle, but he wasn't in the mood to be done with that.

"Did you ever consider dating Emily?"

"What? No, of course not." That was a lie. He realized it as soon as the words had come over his lips. He had considered it so many times in the past two years that he wasn't sure if he could still count them on one hand. That first time he had seen her in the office, not knowing yet that she would be his new partner, but simply admiring her elegance. Then there was another time on the plane when she had obviously flirted with him over that book, of course, he had told Reid that it would never happen and he might have believed it himself, but he had still thought about it. Finally, in the past months, he hadn't really thought of it as dating, but rather how it would be to be a real family.

"Well I think you did." Her words brought him back into reality and he wasn't going to argue with her on it.

"Even if I did she isn't interested in Derek Morgan." He wasn't sure if he should feel offended as she laughed loudly over his words.

"Honey, no woman would play family with you for weeks if she doesn't have feelings for you. She might be as stubborn as you are and not admit it yet, but believe me there are feelings involved."

"So what am I supposed to do now?"

Fran laughed again: "Derek, I doubt you really need me to tell you that."

He shook his head at her, but deep down he knew that she was right.

"Well I've got to check on your favorite grandchild and bribe her with some more medicine."

"Okay, I love you baby."

"I love you, too."

When he had made his way upstairs, he found the little girl sitting in her crib, playing with the stuffed duck.

"Hey baby girl." He leaned down to the bed, softly brushed over the little forehead, and then her hair back. "You think you are well enough to not drive Sophie insane today?"

His only answer was some curious eyes.

"Daddy has to fix something and it's in your own interest to be good today and give me that time with Emily."

"Mommy."

"Well yea we are going to work on that." He responded with a soft chuckle, while fishing for his phone in his pocket to give his nanny a call. An hour later, his daughter was safe with Sophie and he was on his way to Emily's place. As of that point, he wasn't exactly sure what he was going to tell her. Now that he thought he understood what her problem was, he didn't know how to fix it. Obviously, there were pretty easy ways of fixing it. One of them would be to go apologize and tell her it was okay if they went back to just being partners and cutting her completely off from Avery. The problem with this was that Avery would hate that solution and if he was honest, so did he. Another way would be what his mother would like to see: him asking her out and eventually becoming a couple, which would make it natural for his daughter to call her mom. This would make his little one and mother more than happy and he surely wouldn't complain if she agreed to date him, but the risk was just so high. What would he do if she thought he was crazy? Maybe she stepped away because she did not see them dating at all and wanted to save them from making a mistake.

He stopped his car in front of her apartment complex, but didn't make any further moves. He stared at the door that would eventually lead him to her apartment. Both solutions he had come up with were not very satisfying and he therefore had no idea what he should tell her. For him the situation they had been in for the past few weeks was just perfect. The bureau didn't appreciate relationships between team members, so having her as his best friend almost always around seemed to be a pretty good plan B. Also by suggesting to date he would not only break the bureau rules, but his own: No dating of direct coworkers and then number two, which kind of goes with the first one, no dating of girls with guns.

He slammed his hand against the steering wheel in frustration. While talking to his mom earlier everything had seemed so easy, but he couldn't see any easy way out now. Everything was so complicated now. He could of course quit his job after all, which would at least solve the problem of breaking any major rules, but if she didn't agree to date him he would lose her completely and he was too selfish to do that. Maybe he could just offer her to continue playing mom for his daughter, promising nothing would change if he ever dated someone else, but seriously not even in his own ears did that sound convincing. Relationships always changed the circumstances. When it came to that, he even understood why she had stepped back. She had no right to his daughter and by pretending to be her mother she would only stop them both from getting into relationships, because that would be awkward. The funny thing was he hadn't seen that, before his mother pointed it out, because he had never even thought about dating someone else during the past month. The situation with Emily and Avery had been perfectly fine to him.

A soft knock against his passenger window startled him. He didn't even have a chance to react, before the door opened and she slid into the seat. After closing the door, she handed him a cup of coffee and then leaned back with her own in her hand. Derek needed a moment to stare at her, which caused her to laugh.

"You have been out here for at least half an hour; don't know how long it has been before I noticed your car." Emily informed him with a smirk on her lips, before taking a sip from her cup.

His eyes wandered from her too the built in clock on his dashboard and he realized how long he had already been here.

"So how is Avery?" Her gaze went straight in front of her. She was still upset about their fight last night, but the fact that he hadn't found the guts to get up to her apartment after thirty minutes told her that so was he.

"Doing better. She slept quite a bit after she got that medicine you brought over. I think Sophie has got it covered for now."

Emily gave a small nod, unsure of where to go with the conversation now that this part of the small talk was covered.

"I'm sorry about what I said last night. Avery was so upset the last two weeks and then last night when she was sick all she kept asking me for was Emi."

"That's what I tried to prevent by staying away. She was getting too attached." Emily quietly offered, leaving out the part that she was trying to protect herself as well.

"I know."

"You do?" For the slightest moment of surprise, her eyes left the tree down the road and wandered to him. She then lowered them to the cup, and she let her fingers play with the pattern on it.

"Well I needed some help figuring it out…" Derek confessed before carrying on: "…but I did hear that she called you mommy last night."

He saw as she swallowed and seem to stiffen. "I just didn't think much of it. I love having you around and I know Avery does too and so I thought it was just cute."

"Derek…" she started, but then hesitated for a moment to find the right words, which gave him the chance of interrupting her. He had turned in his seat so that he was facing her.

"You know I have been thinking. A lot actually, that's why I didn't come up yet. The bottom line of this whole misery is that I don't want to lose you and this has nothing to do with Avery. She is a great excuse to have you around, but really, I started to realize that I enjoyed our movie nights or dinners as much as the time with Avery."

The agent took in a deep breath, suddenly deciding to put everything on this one try and either lose or win, but at least knowing where they stood. His hand moved up to capture her face and turn it so she had to face him. Seeing her initial reaction was important in that kind of a situation.

"I was thinking that maybe we could try the more traditional way, instead of having an instant family. That is if you would be willing to go on some official dates with me?"

Emily's eyes widened and she swallowed hard. She couldn't help herself stare at him, for what must seem like forever to him. She just wasn't sure, if she really had just heard Derek Morgan asking her out. The idea had come to her mind while trying to find a solution on her own, but she had simply assumed that he wasn't interested and even if he was they were partners and that wasn't a good mix. Also, there was still Jordan in the picture. Given she didn't seem as interested in him anymore, but it still bothered Emily whenever she saw the two of them together.

He removed his hand from her cheek, suddenly regretting his decision of asking her out. How was he supposed to fix this now that the words had left his mouth?

"I mean, that was probably a stupid idea. Just forget that I said that and we just go back to being partners, Avery will get over it eventually." What he really meant was that he would get over it. "I mean it was just a thought, I don't know what I was thinking…"

"Derek, would you stop talking your head off?" She finally interrupted his rambling, a soft smile playing on her lips. "I would like to try this whole dating idea that is if you said it was a stupid idea to safe our work relationship and didn't actually mean it."

Now it was his turn to be surprised. With the long time she had just stared at him, he had assumed that he had made everything even more complicated. A smile wandered on his lips, which slowly turned into a grin.

"I'm taking you out then."

"Yes."

"The next Friday we have off."

"Sure." She smirked at the thought that this might take a while to happen with their luck. "You want to come up to finish that coffee?"

Derek's eyes went on the still full cup in his hand. Finally, he nodded and they made their way upstairs. While at first their small talk seemed to be rather awkward, they soon found back to their own self's over a TV-show they were both commenting on.