Dealia's knees were pressed up against her chest as the cooling water fell around her. Her eyes were fixated on the small cracks that spiderwebbed through the subway tile. She assumed the tile was meant to be white but thanks to time and the sediment in the water, the tile was stained a deep rust color. The cracks fanned out along the wall, reaching all the way up to the showerhead.

She flinched when she heard the yelling start up again. Alex was in a full-blown rage. She couldn't quite hear what he was saying, but when she'd retreated to the bathroom, they had been 'discussing' what to do next. She had voted for laying low and taking some time to work through everything that's happened. Spencer wanted to go to Jason Gideon's, an FBI agent they had met years back when they were kids, Dean, their father, had helped him on a shifter case and he'd stayed in touch. He was closest with Spencer, but Dealia didn't mind the man, Alex didn't trust him though.

Alex just wanted to drive, he wanted to put this place in their rearview mirror and never look back, Dealia couldn't blame him but his inability to stop projecting his grief onto Dealia and Spencer was becoming ridiculous.

Dealia remained curled up at the bottom of the shower until the water ran ice cold. The voices became more clear after the sound of the water vanished. She slowly dried herself, attempting to block out her yelling brothers in the other room. She felt numb. She couldn't really make out what was being said, but the yelling suddenly stopped when she heard the front door opening and slamming shut. Her pace began to speed up as she attempted to guess what the silence really was. Did one of them leave? Who left? Where are they going? Are they coming back? Her thoughts rapidly progressed to someone coming inside. All the bad guys weren't dead, they could have been easily followed. By the time she made it into the main living area, Spencer had shoved the last of his things into his duffle bag.

"Where did Alex go?" Dealia asked softly, her eyes following his hand as he zipped the bag closed. He didn't even look up at the sound of her voice. He didn't say anything either, he just shrugged. "Spence…" It wasn't hard for her to piece together what was happening.

"I can't do it anymore. And now that Dad and Uncle Sam are gone, we'd be stupid to keep fighting an unwinnable game. It's never going to end unless-"

"Unless what Spencer? You think just because Dad and Uncle Sam are dead, they're going to just let us be?"

"It's worth a shot." He said curtly.

"Come on, you of all people know the chances of that actually happening. What about Kevin?" Dealia asked, "are we just going to leave him at the mercy of Crowley for the rest of his life? And who knows what the hell Crowley will be able to do once he forces Keven to continue transcribing the tablet!"

"Dealia it's not our job to save the world."

"You're right, its not. But Kevin is our friend, he's done a lot for us. He's our responsibility." Spencer was quiet, but he still wouldn't look at her.

"I'm sorry Dealia, but I can't." And he left. Dealia didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to do to make him stay, ultimately she knew she couldn't, so she didn't really try. Once Spencer made his mind up, that was it. She tried calling Alex, each time he would send her to voice mail and eventually the number was no longer in use, but by that point Dealia had more important things to worry about.

000

Dealia woke to something, or someone, warm pressing up against her back and an arm being draped over her. She quickly remembered that Derek had stayed the night. It took her eyes a few moments to adjust to the brightness of the baby monitor before she could make out the time on her alarm clock, 4:30. The twins were still curled up in their little toddler beds still dead to the world. She felt Derek's breath on her neck as he pulled her into him. She couldn't tell if he was sleeping or if he was awake as well, at least that was until he pulled his face away slightly and spoke.

"I didn't mean to wake you." He said. It didn't matter that he whispered, with his mouth being so close to her ear, it was all she could hear. "Go back to sleep." He pulled her in closer, as if the first time he did it wasn't enough. That was the one thing she really liked about Derek, he didn't make her feel like a booty call, that and he was one of the only men who never pointed out her scars or made a big deal out of them.

They had met six months ago at a mutual friends house and had it hit off immediately. Normally Derek wouldn't go for someone her age, he had a strict 5-year difference policy but after they crossed paths a few times one of those times involved copious amounts of alcohol and his reservations had been thrown right out the window. "What woke you up?" She asked.

"I haven't been able to fall sleep." He said after a few moments. Dealia attempted to roll over, but he held her in place. "This is comfortable." He said. "There's just a lot to think about." He moved his arm, so it was underneath the blanket, he pulled the blanket up and over his shoulder, so both were fully covered. When he settled, he wrapped his arm around her stomach.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked. He had taken then news significantly better then she had expected him to, then again her first baby daddy was quite the nutjob, it made sense that she had been a little hesitant to tell him. especially since he was in his thirties and hadn't settled down with really anyone yet, ever. In her experience, men who fell into that category tended to prefer the fast and loose lifestyle. Just another way that Derek was different then the typical type of guy she would find herself with. She was glad that she seemed to have a small drop of good luck considering the massive amount of bullshit that the universe had forced her to put up with so far.

"I don't really know what to say." He said. "I think I'm still in shock….and you're positive it's mine?"

"Yes."

"Sorry…I know I've asked you that a million times."

"And you're more than welcome to after the kid is born. But I will continue to say that you have been the only man I've been sleeping with for the last five months or so."

"But why? Did you feel like you couldn't see other men?" Derek finally allowed her to roll over and she sat up. Reaching for the lamp on her bedside table. She blinked thought the light for a few moments before she could see Derek's face. He was propped up on his elbow, using his other arm to pull her back down so she was laying on her back. Like he didn't want her looking down at him, but he didn't want to sit up. She rolled on her side and matched his position so she could see his face comfortably. Her eyes traveled down his chest to where the blanket began and then went back up to his eyes.

"No, I just have a very demanding full-time job, twin 2-year-olds and a 14 year old. I barely have time to squeeze you in my bed, let alone anyone else…that and I always know you never leave me… hanging?" He couldn't stop the smirk from forming at the compliment, no matter how shocked, scared, or uncertain he was. His mind wandered to her other children and where their father was. She talked about her kids often, but he knew that her time with him was also her time away from her kids. So if she didn't bring them up, or anything about them, he didn't either. But not he was curious. He knew the father wasn't involved just by talking to his friend who worked with her, but Weston generally wouldn't answer his questions, or his answers were very vague. Derek knew that their job, whatever department they worked for, his security clearance wasn't high enough so he tried not to press them too hard.

"What about your other kids?"

"What about them?"

"Their father, is he involved?" Dealia took a deep breath. She knew it would come up, but was hoping to put it off for a little longer.

"No." She sighed. "He is in prison." She added. Not wanting to draw it out. Derek's eyebrows raised immediately.

"What for?"

"For trying to kill me when I was 32 weeks pregnant with the twins, it was… a bad situation. So no, I have a lifelong restraining order against him that includes the kids."

Derek cleared his throat, "oh…I see why you waited as long as you did to tell me."

"I've only known for like 4 weeks and you were out of town for 3 of them." She said, "and I'm only 14 weeks along, so I really didn't wait that long….you are taking it a lot better than I thought you were going to though."

"How did you think I was going to react?" Dealia thought about it for a few moments before kind of shrugging.

"I don't know, maybe call me a liar, a whore, tell me to get an abortion, you know…" She shrugged again.

"No." He said, "I don't know."

"You're a good guy Derek, but not all men are. And it seems like I pick the bad ones 9 times out of 10." She dropped her eyes from his and he wasn't sure what to say back to that.

"You should go back to sleep; you have to get up in two hours." As much as she wanted to keep talking, she knew he was right. He pulled her into him again and she let the conversation go.

000

Decisions, decisions…Dealia tilted her head back and forth as she looked over the report. She didn't like the idea of keeping the shapeshifter in custody, she was all for just offing it and letting that be the end of it, but the director wanted to learn as much from them as possible. Thankfully no one was hurt to badly this time around, the agents were able to subdue him before he had even made it to the end of the hallway, but still.

"Knock, knock." The voice was followed by three short raps against her open office door. Weston, or Agent Reynolds, popped his head through the doorway.

She raised her eyebrows at him. "What's up? Didn't I tell you to go home?" She shut the folder on her desk and pushed it to the side, she would need to have a meeting with the director before she could make any lasting changes, right now, just leaving him in a cell with no human contact worked just fine.

"I finished up the case report for Michigan." He said, holding it up for her to see. He shut the office door behind him and crossed the room to the chairs in front of her desk and sat down.

"Wes, this could have waited until tomorrow, you guys just got back from a rough one." She took the file from his hand and set it on top of the one she was just looking through.

"I'd rather just be done with the whole thing honestly." She gave him a soft glare before sighing. "But um, I meant to ask you when we got back, what happened with the shifter?"

Dealia took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. "Well, Tammy went into the cell to get some more blood samples, he had somehow unscrewed the bolts that held his bed in place, moved the bed so there was some space between it and the wall. He knocked Tammy out, hid her in the space between the bed and the wall, shifted into her and then started screaming that the shifter escaped, and he got out when they came to see what happened. They got him back in the cell relatively easily and Tammy is fine other than a concussion, but still…"

"What are you going to do? I mean he's locked down-"

"He is, but if he keeps shifting into staff members, it's a problem. You know when they shift that start collecting memories from who he's impersonating, the last thing I want is for him to learn information he shouldn't just because he's got on the same meat-suite. I personally just want to off him, he's more of a danger in my opinion, but that's ultimately up to the director."

"Do you feel the same about the other monsters?"

"Yes and no, shifters by nature are very intelligent and then the memory download thing they have going on. I think it's just too risky until we can come up with a safer way of holding them." She took a deep breath.

"We could change the staff that does its tests and then have everyone it comes in contact wear something to disguise themselves? Or we could put on a blindfold that he can't take off?"

"That's the second option I'm going to offer the director when I go in there to tell him to kill it." She said. "Anyway, how Sara do on the case?"

"Good." He said, pausing for a moment. "It was just a simple salt and burn, nothing too crazy. She did very well with the victim's family, and she didn't freeze when we encountered the ghost, she's promising." Dealia nodded in agreement.

"She is, her family has some psychics, or had some a few generations back from my understanding."

"Why a few generations back? Magic can just fade out?"

"Well, psychic abilities are just like…having blue eyes. So yes, it can fade out of a family. But I think she's got a few small abilities, sensing I mean. She's got very good….intuition." Dealia could tell that he was still confused. "Sometimes psychics don't even realize that they are psychic, it just gets written off as natural talent or just, like I said with Sara, good intuition." He nodded.

"Are you going to send any of the other new recruits with us?"

"I might, it depends on the cases you're sent on and if I feel like they're ready or not. If I do it will be just like how I sent Sara, one at a time."

"You're putting them out there a lot faster than you did us or even the team after us, we were in the office for almost a year before we got to see any real monsters and it was about the same for Noah's team."

"To be fair, I hadn't trained hunters before you guys and it was a lot of trial and error, not to say that it's going to be perfect this time around, but already having successful and functioning teams out in the field for simple ride-alongs is a very big help." Dealia said, "And now that we have a few monsters here where I can show some hands-on things in a controlled environment is also a big help." Weston gave her a look.

"I thought you said you were staying out of the cages."

"What I meant was, having other agents demonstrate things." She corrected herself, "either way, I have a better idea of how to train new agents then I did in the beginning." She looked down at the case file in front of her and began looking through it.

"So…" Weston began, and Dealia's took a deep breath before looking back up at him. "….have you told Derek yet?"

"Yes, I have." She said, "not that it's any of your business." Her eyes immediately moved back down to the file. Weston couldn't really tell if she was just being her usual grumpy self or if he was about to make her angry.

"Did it go well, or…"

"He slept over." She shrugged.

"Like, it was too late to drive home slept over, or slept over?"

"I really don't want to talk about this."

"Really?" Weston's eyes went wide, and he leaned forward in his chair. "Wow."

"What are you trying to say?" Dealia asked, glaring at him. "Are you trying to say he shouldn't have?"

"No, no, I just mean. I've known Derek for a long time and…don't get me wrong, I knew he wasn't going to be a dick to you, but I can't tell you the last time he dated someone."

"We're not dating." She said, her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to figure out where he got the idea of dating from.

"I- I know." He said quickly. "But he wouldn't have slept with you again after finding out you were pregnant if he didn't want to." He explained to her.

"I mean, that's kind of a big assumption." She said, "there could be a dozen reasons why he wanted to sleep with me again. Just-"

"Dealia!" Weston cut her off. "Have you never had a healthy relationship in your life? People like you for you, not just because of what you can give them." Dealia closed her mouth and just kind of looked at him. "Not everything transactional, why did you sleep with him?" She kind of thought about it.

"I like him." She kind of shrugged. "But I tend to make bad decisions when it comes to my personal life, so I mean…" Weston just looked at her. She was right, but at the same time; she had come a very long way from the 18-year-old girl he'd met 8 years ago, granted most of that growth had been brought on by the twins, but still.

"I think you may have stumbled your way into a good situation. Derek's a good guy and you should give him a fair chance. Don't go doing a background check, try not to be up in his cases too much, if he's made it this far, he doesn't need your constant supervision." He ticked each item away on his fingertips and Dealia's face soured once again. "Just go with the flow and just let it play out. Derek is a very chill dude."

"You act like I've never met the guy!"

"You said you guys have just hooked up a few times."

"Well yeah, but sometimes we would watch movies or…" she kind of folded her arms in her lap. "you know, he'd make breakfast in the morning and we'd hang out for a little bit…he's taken me out to dinner, so it's not like I don't know him."

Weston just kind of let out an exasperated sigh, "that's basically dating, or at least closer to friends with benefits then what you've described to me." Dealia just kind of shook her head at him and went back to looking at the report she had been previously working on. "How often are you guys, 'hanging out?' is it a lot?" Weston asked, still trying to get information out of her, she was being unusually forthcoming, normally it was like pulling teeth to get her to talk like this. Granted, it was similar to how she behaved when she'd been pregnant with the twins, she opened up a little easier, that's how they had figured out what had been happening when she was at home. It reminded him that she was still young, and she was pretty emotionally stunted from her childhood.

"Um, I don't know, whenever he was home and I also had time. At least once a month, but generally, more than that since I don't travel."

"Do you talk when he's away?"

"Eh, not really. We might flirt a little over text but nothing of substance really."

"He likes you Dealia, and if you guys are going to be tied together for at least 18 years, why not try, and see if there's something there?" She couldn't really argue with him there.

"Don't you have paperwork or something to do?" She asked, quickly straitening her back and folding her hand on her desk.

"I thought you wanted me to go home?" He asked, a smirk tugging at the edge of his lips.

"Or that." She said, "just go away. I don't care where."

"Has my meter run out? No more feelings talk?" Her face soured and he laughed while he stood. "Have a good day, I'll see you in the morning."

"Yep, you too." And she went back to her report as he closed the door behind himself.

How do you guys feel about this?