Sorry this one is so chaste and been-done-before, but today was hectic, but fear not, as of tomorrow, I am officially on WINTER BREAK! That means better FanFiction Chapters and Christmas Cookies all the time! Yay!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own, although I am watching Criminal Minds as we speak.

Enjoy!

K is for Kitten

It all started, you could say, when Derek Morgan adopted a kitten.

Now, the words "Derek Morgan" and "Kitten" did not often find themselves face to face in context, but there was really nothing the BAU Agent could do; The cat showed up on his doorstep in the middle of a December storm, like some scene from a kids movie, the dark brown eyes batting up at him, begging to be let into the warmth, the slight shiver across the soaking tawny fur, everything. And Derek Morgan does not have a heart of stone, in fact, is you asked anyone (namely Garcia) they'd tell you he was actually a softie on the inside. So what choice did he have when the kitten showed up? Of course he would let it into the house, giving it a place to sleep, and some milk and cut up chicken. It wasn't a few days before the cat became a permanent structure in Morgan's home, and he didn't have a problem with it.

It did become a problem, however, when the thing followed him to work.

As cliché and "Mary Had A Little Lamb"-ish as it sounds, that's exactly what the cat did. Hitched a ride in Morgan's bag and decided to emerge once the Agent was sitting safely at his desk. It was one of those days where, for once, it seemed that no serial killers were off manifesting evil, so they were all left to face their own sort of evil: paperwork. He didn't notice the cat at first, until his foot shifted, and the bag tucked underneath his desk toppled over, and he bent down to straighten it, coming face to face with the kitten.

He immediately hissed as his head collided with the drawer handle as he jumped up to make sure no one saw the little creature; Hotch would not be happy if he knew there was an animal in the office, and he shuddered even thinking about Chief Strauss' reaction. After seeing that no one had noticed anything, he wrapped his coat around the kitten and surreptitiously scurried off to Garcia's office, praying that she had nothing against cats.

As it turns out, Penelope Garcia had a soft side for cats, and simply adored Morgan's little friend, cooing at it the moment he unwrapped the furball from his coat - his good coat, might he add- and plopped him on the desk. The cat looked at her a moment, studying her, before reaching out a paw to bat at the bright yellow stone on the ring she was wearing today. Almost as soon as he was dropped onto the desk, a voice rang out, Hotch's, calling them all for a briefing.

"Say no more, Say no more!" Garcia swatted him out of the room as he silently thanked god for Penelope Garcia.

~&~

The case was relatively short, and close, so there was no traveling involved. A local farmer had a major depressive episode after his wife was killed in a car accident, and has been murdering women resembling her ever since. They'd found him relatively quickly, and were back in the office by midnight.

Dropping his stuff by his desk, he made his way down to Garcia's Den, where he was greeted with the sight of his kitten nestled on her lap, swatting away at the charms dangling from her many bracelets. When he noticed the door open, the cat ran over and purred against Morgan for a moment, before running back to Garcia's bracelet.

"Thanks, Garcia," Morgan said, plopping down in the chair opposite her, watching her and the cat bond. "I owe you one."

"'Twas nothing, my sweet." She smiled, as the cat leaped off her lap and onto her desk, knocking over a few papers in the process. "Ah!" She clucked, pulling the cat back to her and off the desk. "Bad, Spencer."

It took Morgan a good long moment to register what she said, and another to question it. "Baby girl, sorry, but what in the world did you just call my cat?"

Garcia shrugged, laughing at the Cat, who was attempting to jump onto the top of her filing cabinet. "I called him Spencer. He looks like a Spencer, doesn't he?"

Morgan blinked, and chuckled incredulously. "No, he does not. That is so not his name." Garcia cocked an eye at him.

"Then what's his name?" She asked. It was then Morgan realized that he had never named the Cat. "Look," she said, swatting Morgan on the arm, pointing to the cat. "He's seriously a furry Reid Reincarnate!"

The cat attempted again to jump up the file cabinet again, before failing. He then sat very still for a moment, brown eyes looking up at the obstacle in front of him, clouding over, before jumping up to his hind legs, front paws stretching to catch the handles of the drawers to climb up, looking exceedingly pleased with himself once he reached the top. The technical analyst smiled smugly at him.

"If that isn't a Spencer Reid expression, then I don't know what is. Face it, Derek Morgan. You have adopted Spencer Reid… in cat form, anyway." Morgan shook his head at her as the cat jumped into his arms, snuggling again, eliciting a smile from its new owner.

"Fine, I'll call him Spencer, but if we ever speak of this again-" Morgan began, but Garcia cut him off, lost in her own little world.

"You know, if you let this one stay at your house, I wonder how long it'll be before you let our own resident genius stay over." She looked at him again, bending her head to the side. "You know, when that does happen, can I get pictures? Videos, even!" She called as Derek left the room, cat cuddled tightly in his arms, and wondering just how right Garcia might be.