Sorry it's taking so long to update. I have Carpel Tunnel and have been really busy. I'll try and make this one longer.
And thanks for all the reviews and everything! They make my day!
A/N 2: Sorry about the issue with the spaces. :/ FanFic did that with my other stories, too, but I was able to fix it on that. It should be better now.
Spencer woke up somewhere warm with big arms wrapped around him. But not like Sir's. Those were bad arms. They weren't warm and comforting. Derek's arms were. Derek's arms hadn't hurt him yet.
He knew he shouldn't just trust him like this. His mind was screaming that eventually everyone would hurt him in one way or another, but holding onto that distrust took so much energy. He'd trust Derek to keep him safe from everything. As long as he was with the agent, nothing could ever hurt him.
He held onto that thought. Spencer's instincts said Derek could be trusted, and Spencer decided to listen to them. He knew that if he couldn't trust just one person in the world, then he would break. He didn't know why he thought that; just something deep in his gut told him that he could go on being fearful of the world, just so long as he held onto one thing. He dreaded what would happen, though, if that one thing was torn from him.
And so, he lay in bed with Derek, clinging to him like his life depended on it. It might as well have.
Derek woke up suddenly that morning. He looked around and tried to figure out what it was that woke him up like that. Then he looked down at the tense little boy snuggled up next to him, and realized that Spencer must have woken up and started clinging to him.
"Hey, buddy," said Derek, running a gentle hand through Spencer's hair. "Sleep good?" he asked.
"Well," mumbled Spencer into Derek's arm.
"Well what?" asked Derek, confused.
"You said 'good.' 'Well' is the proper grammar since you're asking me how I was sleeping and sleeping is a verb, so you need an adverb rather than an adjective."
Morgan blinked. "Ya sure you're only seven, kid?" he asked.
Spencer looked confused. "I-I think so. I-I mean, what other age could I be? Unless my perceptions of time were way-"
"Woah, kid," said Morgan, interrupting what was sure to be a nice spiel from Spencer. "I was just kiddin'"
"Oooh," Spencer responded, in sudden understanding.
"Ready to get up?"
"Mm-hmm," said the little boy, nodding into Derek's arm.
"Well, come on then." Derek helped Spencer get off the bed and put him on the ground.
"Mmm," says Morgan, when he smelled his mother's cooking wafting up the stairs. "I smell bacon. Let's go!"
Spencer smiled softly at his guardian's childlike behavior and lifted his arms to tell him he wanted to be carried.
"Alright, kid," said Morgan leaning down to pick the seven year old up. "Here we go."
Derek shifted Spencer over to one hip and used the arm not holding Spencer to open the door, and then nudged it closed again with his hip on the way out.
Spencer and Derek made their way downstairs where they found Mrs. Morgan in the kitchen flipping pancakes while a skillet of bacon cooked next to her.
"Hey, Mama," said Derek, walking up behind his mother. "Mmm, smells good."
Fran Morgan gasped when she heard her son sneak up behind her and quickly turned, brandishing a spatula. "Derek Morgan! I swear to God, if you don't learn how to not sneak up on people and scare the livin' daylights outta them-"
Morgan chuckled. "Love ya too, Mama."
"Now go! Shoo!" says Mama Morgan, gesturing for the profiler holding a small boy to back off. "Go sit down at the table and stay there!"
"Yes Ma'am!" said Morgan with a mock salute to his mother. He bent down to settle Spencer down into one of the four chairs around his mama's circular table, but Spencer clung tightly to Derek, so the profiler ended up lifting to boy and holding him on his lap while Spencer rested his head on Derek's shoulder.
Fran brought plates and silverware over to the table and laid Spencer a plastic plate right next to Derek's glass one.
"Here sweetie," she said. "What do ya want to eat?" She had the plates of prepared food sitting out on the table. "We've got chocolate-chip pancakes, regular pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage."
Spencer looked up at Morgan with a question in his eyes.
"It's up you buddy," he said, able to guess the question that Spencer was trying to ask.
Spencer bit his lip in thought and looked at Mrs. Morgan with pleading eyes.
"Well, I'll just have to take a guess then," she said. "Don't eat something if you don't like it, ya hear?"
Spencer nodded, while Mrs. Morgan put a chocolate-chip pancake, some eggs, a piece of sausage, and a couple strips of bacon.
Spencer's eyes went wide as saucers when he saw all the food on his plate. That's a lot of food! Am I supposed to eat now? He glanced up and Mrs. Morgan and Derek who were both looking at him encouragingly.
He picked up his fork to start at his scrambled eggs, then hesitated. What if they take it away? I don't think Derek would but would Gramma? Well, if she tried to Derek would stop her, he concluded.
Spencer settled further back into Derek and clung more tightly to him, before taking a bite of the scrambled eggs. Spencer tried not to make a face, but they weren't very good. They tasted funny. Gramma said to say if I didn't like something.
Spencer looked up, considering doing as she asked, but hesitated. I don't want to seem unappreciative. Maybe it's an acquired taste.
And so deciding, Spencer picked up his fork and took another reluctant bite of eggs, making a face as they went down.
"Spencer?" asked Mrs. Morgan.
"Yes ma'am?" said Spencer almost inaudibly.
"If you don't like eggs, you don't have to eat them. We're just trying to find out what you do and don't like. You probably haven't tried very many foods in the past, so it's okay to experiment and see what's good. Alright?" she asked.
Spencer bit his lip and nodded. Maybe when it's just Derek and I, I can do that. I don't think I could say something like that to anyone else.
"Good," said Fran with a smile. Spencer didn't touch his eggs through the rest of breakfast, but he ate the rest of it, and seemed to enjoy it.
Derek had trouble taking his eyes off Spencer while he ate. He noticed the way he finished each dish before moving onto the next one and felt his heart lift at the way Spencer's eyes lit up when he took a bite of pancake.
When they were finally finished eating, Derek announced that he and Spencer should probably head home; toQuantico.
"Our stuff is already packed-up and we just need to hop in the car and go! I'd like to leave early so we can get there earlier. That okay with you, Spencer?" said Derek, making sure that Spencer knew he had a say in what they were doing.
Spencer nodded his assent and Derek clapped him on the back. "Ok, then. That's that. I'll go grab our stuff and we go."
"I'll help," said Mrs. Morgan.
When they were out of Spencer's earshot, Fran turned to Derek. "You better treat that boy right. I like him and he needs someone."
"Of course, Mama! I can't imagine anyone hurting him, let alone me!" he said, vehemently.
"I know ya do, son. I saw the way you were lookin' at him eat. You love him and he adores you, just don't abuse that."
"I wouldn't dare," Morgan told her solemnly, and she nodded. They finished grabbing the luggage, and loading up Derek's car. Spencer and Derek were on their way toQuanticoin the next thirty minutes.
Finished! Finally! Sorry it took so long, again!