Disclaimer: I don't own, unfortunately. :(
I AM SO SORRY! I haven't updated in almost a week! Midterms are killing me right now, and I've been jam packed and busy, and in all honestly I completely forgot about this story. Do not fear, mid terms are over next week, and I'm home by noon on almost all of those days, so there will be more chapters in your near future.
Ok, this chapter is D is for Denial, but the way I re-wrote this over and over, it sort of lost its Denial, haha. Originally it had about a page and a half of Garcia convincing Morgan that he liked him, similar to what she did to Reid in "Permission", but now it's sort of condensed, but there, so the chapter title remains the same, but it has a lot less to do with the actual story. I hope you like it, anyway, it's really not a big deal, but I was tearing my hair out while writing this, trying to get it right for you guys because I felt so bad about not updating in almost a week.
I'm rambling again. Curse my bad habits. Well, here it is, and I hope you enjoy. Sorry for making you wait so long!
D is for Denial.
"Hook him up? As in set him up with someone?" Morgan chuckled, out of surprise more than anything.
Morgan was currently in Garcia's self-proclaimed Realm of Infinite Knowledge with his feet propped up on a bare section of the desk, take-out Chinese in his hands. The two were eating a quick lunch together in Garcia's office after Morgan was unofficially banished by JJ and Hotch from eating in the bullpen after taunting Reid about his inability to use chop-sticks. "So tell me, just exactly whom," he said, turning his head towards Garcia "Are you attempting to set Reid up with?"
Garcia smiled and clasped her hands together in a maniacal sort of way. "I have this friend, Brendan, who's totally his type. Dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, he's sweet, sort of shy-" She was cut off by a cough from Morgan, who tilted his head at Garcia. "What?"
"Reid... is," Morgan stuttered a little bit. "Into…" Morgan glanced at the blonde next to him, seemingly at a loss for words. "you know, into guys?" Garcia clucked at Morgan.
"Absolutely. The man is at least bisexual, no doubt in my mind. Or in his." she added, watching Morgan through the sleek black of her computer monitor. Morgan's brows furrowed together, and he leaned his head back a little bit, eyes clouding over. Eventually he shrugged his shoulders slightly and made a "Hm." sort of noise before turning back to Garcia.
"I… I never knew." Derek looked away for a moment before coughing and nodding his head. "But that's fine; whatever makes Pretty Boy happy, right?" Garcia smiled at him encouragingly; this was going right on track. Morgan's voice caught her attention once again. "So, this Brendan guy… you think he'd be good for Reid?"
The Technical Analyst cocked her head a fraction of an inch to the right, a movement that did not go unnoticed by the profiler. "Positively! Brendan is just adorable: skinny, average height, blonde hair, blue eyes, smart, sweet, just his type." Derek Morgan choked on his dumpling for a moment, caught between a cough and a laugh.
"Pretty boy has a type?" Morgan laughed, while Garcia turned to him in an innocent, conversational way, nodding.
"And what, my American Hero, do you find so amusing?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow. "I mean, he needs to have preferences, it's virtually impossible not to." Morgan laughed again.
"Yeah, I get that, but the idea of Reid, genius, naïve Reidhaving a type sort of throws me off." Morgan shook his head, looking down at his food again, and the two sat in the comfortable silence that good friends develop. Garcia spared him one more glance, before turning back to her computer screen, where she was currently beating someone in Thailand at a game of online scrabble, the corners of her mouth twitching up. They sat there for a moment before Morgan set the chopsticks and container down, folding his hands behind his head.
"You know, I never would've taken Reid for a blonde hair, blue eyes type of guy." He said thoughtfully, while Garcia turned towards him again, eyes glinting.
"What makes you think that?" She asked, eyebrows completely disappearing into her red highlighted bangs, curiosity and smugness lining her features. Morgan thought for a moment, chewing on the side of his mouth before answering.
"Well, from a profiler's point of view, Reid is sort of… submissive, I guess." Morgan thought out loud. "I would've guessed that he would go for someone taller, more muscular, a dominant type. An alpha male, you know?" He asked when Garcia nodded, taking his point into consideration. "Not shy and skinny." Morgan shrugged his shoulders. "Someone who gets him, and who'll protect him… you following me, baby girl?" Garcia smiled, almost smirked, at Morgan before answering.
"So, someone more like you?" She asked coyly, and Derek froze. He hadn't expected her to turn his words on him, and now that she had, he felt an immediate shift of power. Garcia now controlled the tables here; she was the one working the strings.
"Baby girl, what's going on in that pretty head of yours? What're you planning?" He asked, almost not fully wanting to hear the answer. Garcia turned to him again, smiling sweetly.
"This would be the part where I begin my evil, bad-guy type monologue where I explain my entire sinister plan, but," she took a dramatic pause, "I'm not going to tell you. You, my handsome prince, are going to tell me what you think I'm planning." And power shifted back, at least in Derek thought so, as he resumed his casual pose, feet going back up on the desk, the now empty carton of Chinese in the trash can, and his hands laced together behind his head. A smug smile graced his lips as he stretched out like a cat.
"You, sweetheart, were trying to get me to admit that I liked Reid." He shrugged again. "Nice try, but no."
"No, what?" Garcia asked quickly, and then there was that rush that went through him again, the feeling that he wasn't the one who was calling the shots here.
"What?"
"No," Garcia continued, smiling like the cat that got the canary. "Meaning 'no, you don't like Reid' or 'no, you're not going to admit that you like Reid?'" Morgan stuttered for a moment, words lost from him. Garcia smiled and turned back to her computers.
"No, no, no, no, no."Morgan found words again and grinned at her, realizing what she was trying to pull. "You, little lady, are not trying to profile a profiler. No way."
"If you had absolutely no feelings for Reid," she said, voice still eerily casual, "then you would have immediately said 'No, I do not have feelings for Reid.' end of story. But you didn't!" She cried, hands clapping together again. "You, my chocolate god, avoided the question." Morgan looked at her, waiting for her to go on.
"That just completely confirmed where I was going with this, by the way." She said, finally breaking into the Evil-Monologue that she'd been saving for the right moment. "So you're either in Denial, and don't want to say anything, or you know that you are head over heels in love with the resident Genius, and just don't want to tell anyone. I think it's the second one. Don't think you can outsmart me, sweetie, I see how you look at him. And how you have those oh-so-subtle nuances, your different ways of being near him." She looked at him from above the rim of her glasses, and it was moments like these when Derek had no doubt in his mind that she was the Supreme Goddess of All Knowing.
"Garcia." Morgan said, looking straight at her, keeping his voice under careful control. "I do not, repeat do not like Spencer. Ok?" He looked, waiting for some sign of acceptance from Garcia, but instead got only a happy squeal. Shooting a questioning look in her direction, she explained herself:
"You called him Spencer." And with that, Morgan began rambling, akin to the nervous reaction of a certain tall genius, about how first or last names have nothing to do with anything, and that just because he'd called his colleague and friend by his first name didn't mean that he was publically exclaiming a declaration of love, it meant he was comfortable around the other man, and that there was no reason logically for her to think that he would have any feelings for Reid that weren't simply platonic. And, he pointed out, that if he did have feelings for Reid, he probably wouldn't tell anyone in the first place, because he valued Reid as a friend and didn't want to lose that.
Garcia looked at him carefully. "Derek. Aside from the obvious point that you just proved to me, and probably yourself, that you absolutely love him, there are about a thousand and four other points that I could name." She began ticking them off one by one on her fingers. "You touch his hair, repeatedly, actually. You call him 'Pretty Boy', and get mad when anyone else but you calls him that. You defend him when someone teases him, and when you tease him, you make sure he knows you're only joking." She took a deep breath and switched to the other hand, painted red nails popping up one by one. "You take him out when he seems down, you talk to him when he's sad, you worry about him more than anyone, and you make sure that no matter what, you're always there for him. Always. Honestly, Derek, did you think I wouldn't pick up on it?" She faked a sniffle and a tear as she grinned wickedly up at him. "I'm hurt!"
Morgan debated whether or not he should argue with her further; all of her points were valid, and truth be told, she'd hit the nail completely on the head. He had just hoped he could convince her otherwise, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. So slowly, he morphed from his King-of-the-World state and melted down to his rarely seen What-Do-I-Do Look, hands coming down from behind his head, feet dropping off the desk, and his elbows hit his knees, head coming to rest in his palms. He took a breath for a moment.
"Baby girl, you could be the best damn profiler this bureau has ever seen if you just used those powers for good." He teased a bit, looking up, before his smile faded. "Garcia, what do I do? I… I don't know, I didn't even know I liked him, and then it kinda hit me after a case one day, and… I just don't know what to do." And he looked so miserable and confused and worried that Garcia just wanted to wrap the man in a hug. But instead, she looked him straight in the eye.
"Derek Morgan, if I'm correct, which you know I am, that boy wants you every bit as much as you want him, so you know what you do?" She asked. "You go out there and get him. What happened to the Derek Morgan I know? The one that can get any girl or guy with a single glance?" She asked, eyeing him. He shook his head at her.
"This is different, Garcia. I don't know how to do this. I don't do relationships, I have, as Reid puts it, 'flings'. This is different." He looked up at her, defeated. "I don't wanna screw this up."
"Derek. That boy loves you as much as you love him. You have nothing; let me repeat myself, nothing, to worry about. Just be yourself, and let him know." Morgan looked at her for a moment, before something dawned on him, his expression morphing from thoughtfulness to curiosity, to the look of someone who'd been played.
"There is no Brendan, is there?" He said accusingly, but the smile on his face softened it a bit. Garcia looked at him, an obviously fake look of innocence plastered on her face before turning back to her computers.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, now vamoose." She said, waving her hand towards the door. "Leave. I have work to be done, and I hear the object of your undying affection walking by." And they did hear Reid walking by, obviously talking to someone, probably Hotch, in excited tones. Morgan smiled despite himself and got up to leave, placing a hand on Garcia's shoulder.
"Thanks, Penelope." He left the room, and through the door Garcia heard him join in Reid and Hotch's conversation, and she knew it wasn't just her mind playing tricks on her that both men sounded happier when they were around each other.
"Those boys owe me big time." She thought to herself before spelling out a final word, winning the game of scrabble.
T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R.
Hope the ending wasn't too corny. Hope you all enjoyed it! Remember, reviews make me eternally happy, and would so help me de-stress from all this pre-midterm studying. Thanks, guys! Have a great day! :)