A/N: This chapter is written completely from Derek's point of view. I wanted to give you all a glimpse into his thought processes and why he does what he does. My goal with this character was to write him as having Narcissist Personality Disorder. I am by no means an expert, but I did do some research. I found some information, but there seems to be very little knowlege on NPD. Please feel free to let me know if you see any glaring issues or inaccurate information in here. My goal was to be as accurate as possible.

Warnings: Bleeped swears, references to abuse

When Derek meets May Parker, his heart skips a beat. He's a surgeon, newly transferred after a move from California, (long journey, he knows, he needed a change of scenery). She's a nurse working in the ER. She's young, beautiful, and single, as he soon finds out. He introduces himself the first chance he gets, charm dialed high.

"Excuse me miss," he speaks in a posh british accent. "I don't think I've had the pleasure of making your acquaintance. My name is Doctor Derek Evanson." She laughs, and it's beautiful music to his ears.

"Well Doctor Evanson," she giggles, mirroring his accent with her own, albeit less masterfully. "I am May Parker."

"Miss May Parker, I hope I'm not being too forward when I say that you are the most beautiful woman I have seen in a long time," He drops the accent, but gazes into her eyes, searching them for any sign of interest.

"Oh please," she shakes her head in amusement. "I'm really not as special as all that."

"Oh but you are special," Derek smiles. "Maybe I can convince you of your beauty over coffee after our shifts?" At the look of hesitation on her face, he's quick to reassure her. "Nothing too formal. Just a couple of coworkers sharing a bit of caffeine after work." She nods, once, and then a couple more times as she agrees.

"Yes," she nods. "Sure, yeah. Sounds great. I'm um, I'm off at six. You?"

"Six it is," he agrees. "I'll meet you out front by the doors."

Coffee becomes a regularity between the two of them. In fact, it starts to turn into a ritual. Sometimes they go out just to spend time with each other. Sometimes, they use it as a time to decompress after a particularly stressful shift. One coffee date, May opens up about Ben, and how much she had been hurt by his passing. She reveals that she had closed herself off, feeling almost as though dating another man would be disrespectful to her late husband's memory. Derek reassures her that he only wants to support her, and that he would never pressure her to make their friendship more than what it is. He knows that if he pushes too hard, it could quite possibly have the opposite effect, and drive her away. Her pull is irresistible, magnetizing. If he can make things official with her, a young woman who is both beautiful and has closed herself off from men?

Coffee dates become dinner dates. Dinner dates become movies. After movie times go from Derek taking her straight home, to long walks in the park, and heart to hearts by the riverside under the stars. She confides in him. She tells him about her nephew, her ward, Peter. How both of his parents passed away in a tragic accident, and how it left him with scars on his heart that he only ever shows to the people he's closest with. He holds her when she reveals, in an emotionally draining conversation, how worried she is about Peter. How he's been sneaking out, how he lost his Stark internship.

Then, one coffee date, she's nervous again. Not ten minutes after they've sat down, she's torn a napkin to shreds, and tapped her nails aggressively enough to almost irritate him. He asks her what's wrong, and after a moment's pause she explodes with a phrase that makes his heart leap. She's ready to take their relationship to the next level. If he wants to. And there it is. He's done it. He has reached the unreachable level with May Parker. He makes sure she's sure, that she's ready for this step, that's made so much more significant for them than the average pair given what she's already told him. She's sure, and with no hesitation on his part, they make things official.

He takes her to the Trattoria L'incontro that Friday night in celebration, and gives her the largest bunch of roses in the history of bunches of roses. She blushes when he calls her beautiful, and she's a little embarrassed by his large display of love, but he reassures her that there's nothing to be ashamed of. "So what if they stare?" his voice almost conspiratorial. "We're the happiest couple on earth. We deserve the attention." She giggles a little, and raises her glass of 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon in a toast "to happiness". He agrees.

Then, one momentous day, she brings him home and introduces him to Peter. She's pacing, waiting for Peter to come home from school, worried he won't approve, or that he'll be hurt that she kept their relationship a secret from him. She needn't have worried. Peter is over the moon. He's excited that she's finally found someone who treats her right.

It isn't long after that, he moves in. He puts up with Peter's constant energy for almost two months, before he almost loses it completely, scaring the teen in the process. Not that it's his fault, really. He can't help it if he hates Tony Stark. Then one day he and Peter are arguing, and the kid brings up Tony again. It barely registers until contact is made, that his hand has flown out to meet Peter's cheek. He immediately apologizes, begging the kid not to tell May, because he really hadn't meant to hurt the kid, and f*** if May finds out, he's toast. Hurting Peter was never his plan. He'd definitely thought of it before. Wondered what it would feel like to slap that constant smile of excitement off of the boy's face. Well, now he knows, and honestly? It feels pretty satisfying. The loud crack of flesh meeting flesh. The red blush that immediately blossoms from the area. The power he feels watching Peter cower back in fear. When May leaves a week later to go visit a friend, leaving Peter in his care, he decides it's a good time to see what other fun he can have with Peter.

At first, he just pushes him around a little, relishing in his terror and justifying his actions, because really, Peter doesn't have the right to just go wherever whenever he wants. It escalates when he realizes how disrespectful the kid is. Derek hates feeling disrespected. He is the authority and deserves to be treated as such. It's infuriating how infatuated Peter is with Tony. Derek is twice the man that Tony Stark is.

Pushes and shoves evolve into full on beatings, and soon, Derek looks for any reason to punish him, relishing in the high he gets every time Peter apologizes, or begs for mercy. It all grows and escalates as Peter is taught to mind Derek's authority, and obey his whims, even the ones that seem crazy. Then, he has the nerve to suggest that Derek is abusive. It's quick thinking, and scalding words that rescue the situation. He's pleased when Peter apologizes for falsely accusing him.

Only Tony f***ing Stark himself would be brash and reckless enough to fight him for a loser like Peter. Not that it matters. He'll beat out Stark in court. There's no way he can't paint Stark as the bad guy. The man has plenty of people who hate him. Derek will smear him in the press, too. That way, if for some reason Derek does lose in court, Tony will lose too.