Sorry, this has taken so long everybody, my muses were pretty occupied beating off homework and personal issues these past couple of weeks. I cant promise that that will change soon but I'll do my best and I hope you havent given up on this story yet.

Btw, just to let you know, the next 2 or three chapters will still be focused on Spencer and Morgan. I really want to finish this one story arc before moving on with the overall story. But dont worry, I havent forgotten about Hotch^^

For a moment they remained still in their positions, just looking at each other.

Finally, Morgan was the first to move. He pushed to his feet and then bent down to offer Spencer his hand, "Here let me help you up."

This time around, Spencer almost didn't hesitate at all before putting his hand in the one offered to him.

Morgan pulled him up with ease, keeping a steady hand on his arm to make sure he wouldn't lose his balance. Spencer held on instinctively as he gingerly tried to put weight on his strained ankle. He hissed in pain almost immediately, swaying.

He startled slightly when a warm arm wound itsself around his waist, keeping him upright; suddenly they were so close it almost felt like he was leaning into the older teen's body, like an embrace. He blushed, embarassed, and pulled away slightly -he had decided to give Derek the chance to prove himself, yes, but that didn't change the fact that he barely knew the other and that they were hardly this close even if Derek didn't seem to mind.

"I don't think you'll be able to walk properly just yet," Derek mused calmly, seemingly oblivious to Spencer's conflict, "Maybe we should put some ice on it. I have some in the apartment, come on."

He made to turn towards his door, pulling Spencer with him, only pausing when he felt the younger boy stiffening in his arms. Morgan hesitated and Spencer almost felt guilty at the look of sadness that came over his face when he saw his reluctance to trust him had remained. After a moment, Morgan shook his head, sighing, "It's okay, I get it. You don't know me and trust has to be earned."

Spencer swallowed, breathless; he didn't know what to say, torn between the desire to trust Morgan and the remaining mistrust in why Morgan was being so nice, why he would even want to earn his trust...

"My sister Desiree is home, if that'll make you feel better," Morgan suddenly remarked, "She's a freshman at our school."

Before Spencer could reply, he rung the door bell to his own apartment, and seconds later the door was opened by a girl around 13 who looked at the two of them with open confusion on her face.

"Derek, what are you doing standing out here? And who's that?" She looked at Spencer curiously but clearly not the least bit worried or intimidated.

"Desiree, this is Spencer and he hurt his ankle. Could you get some ice out of the fridge?"

She shrugged and then disappeared, leaving the door open to skip down a warmly lit corridor. Morgan turned to look at Spencer questioningly, hopeful almost, as though he was asking him to trust him. Spencer breathed in deeply, finding himself unable to keep up his defenses any longer. If Morgan was lying he was a damn good deceiver indeed.

He nodded quietly, letting Morgan help him hop into the apartment.

Ten minutes later he was sitting on the Morgan's couch, still bodily unharmed, an ice pack pressed to his ankle. The pain was slowly subsiding but now the silence was becoming a little weird, disrupted only by Derek's sister signing along loudly to a CD in her room somewhere. Spencer stared at his knees, thinking about something to say. It felt odd to not talk, considering he'd been invited into someone's home. It was not easy though to find a topic considering his last words had been accusations...

"Uhm, the apartment is...nice..." he said after a long moment of silence. It was in a way. It was small but neat and homely. Derek smirked dryily, leaning back in the couch.

"It's the best we can do. I work as much as I can but for now it's basically just my mother taking care of the four of us."

"Where's your dad?" Spencer asked before he could think better off it, regretting it almost instantly when a shadow passed the others face.

"He died when I was ten," Derek eventually answered quietly, "He was a cop, someone shot him. Since then, it has only been my ma and my sisters."

"I'm sorry," Spencer pressed the back of his fingers to his mouth, guilty but Derek waved the matter off.

"It's okay, you couldn't know, "Derek shrugged, "Not a lot of people at school know either...well, mostly because they don't bother to look beneath the surface."

His mouth briefly turned into a hard line at those words and Spencer knew he was talking about Aaron and his sister -and this time he did feel sort of bad for simply assuming they were always right.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, this time for something else though, "You're right...I shouldn't have judged you without...its just, you were so...and at my old school picking on me was everyone's favorite hobby, so I probably overreacted, but I shouldn't have-"

He was interrupted, startled, when Derek put a hand on his arm, stopping his ramblings. "I get it. We were both being presumptous. I wouldn't have acted like I did had I thought I was actually scaring you. I thought you were just shy,...nervous, you know?"

Spencer turned to look at him directly, confused, "Why would I be nervous if not because I was scared?"

At his question, the look in Derek's eyes suddenly seemed to shift, from regretful to something else, something he couldn't quite identify but that kept his eyes glued to those dark irises, raising his heart rate. Spencer felt his breath catch as he really looked into those eyes without reservations, seeing that expression in them again which Derek had regarded him with before, but which had never made sense to him so far...now it seemed to be pulling him in, entrancing...He was reminded of Penny's teasing a while ago...she was right, he really was very handsome...

They both jumped, their intense eye contact broken by the ringing of Spencer's phone.

It was Jason, his worried voice carrying as he demanded to know where Spencer was at this hour. Spencer quickly assured him that everything was fine and that he would be home soon, conviently leaving out the part about sitting in Derek Morgan's apartment. He didn't doubt that his father would flip should he find out, especially with the whole aggravated assault charge thing...

Once he'd hung up there was silence again, the odd athmosphere from a minute ago suddenly gone. Derek shifted, looking like he wanted to say something, but ended up remaining silent. Maybe thinking of Jason had redirected his thoughts, too?

"So..." Spencer eventually asked a little out of context, "About those assault charges...was that just a misunderstanding, then?"

He couldn't keep from hugging himself as he waited for an answer, tense again. He really didn't want to upset Derek again by sounding to distrustful, but the truth was, he had to know.

Luckily, Derek didn't get mad, he merely looked a little troubled, leaning away.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I did hang around with the wrong people at the time," he frowned, "We got into trouble with another gang one night, we were shoving each other around and one guy fell at a bad angle, needed a couple of stitches on his head. Police made it out to aggravated assault, there was nothing I could do to dispute it, especially since the other guys really did deserve the charges. I did some community service and broke ties with my old friends. I'm trying to stay out of trouble now...problem is not everybody is willing to believe that. They'd much rather make me the bad guy."

Spencer didn't miss the renewed jab at the Hotchners but chose to instead focus on the fact that appearently Derek didn't have quite as much criminal engery as he'd been told. If what he said was true of course.

He was just so confused...

"I...I need to go home now, my dad..." He got up, relieved to find his ankle was much better now.

He saw Derek's face fall at the sudden change of mind, seeign it for what it was, a retreat. Specner wasnt sure why Derek woudl eb so sad about that, but it immediately made him feel bad again despite himself.

The more time he spent here the harder it got to see him as the bad guy. But he needed time to think about everything...

"Sure," Derek covered up his dissapointment moderately well, pushing to his feet, "Do you want to call him to come pick you up?"

"No, I'll walk," he shook his head quickly, not making eye contact.

"Are you sure?", Derek's expression morphed into one of worry as he looked down on him, "I meant what I said earlier: This isn't exactely the safest area, especially after dark. I should probably walk you home."

"No, you don't have to. I'll be fine."

Spencer made to walk towards the door, surprised when a hand around his wrist stopped him.

His heart skipped another beat, but Derek's grip remained light, more of a question than a demand, warm skin on his. He shook his head, clearly bothered by one or several things but also determined, "Let me walk you home. I'll leave you alone from now on if you want that but please...I want to make sure you get home safely."

Once again, Spencer found himself at a loss of words as he looked up at Derek, trying to make sense of the authentic worry he seemed to feel, all the while acutely aware of where they were touching. He was torn between feeling undefinably guilty and unexplicably nervous.

"Okay," he found himself saying before he knew it, nodding in confirmation when Derek raised his eyes from their hands to look at him. "Okay, take me home and I'll think about all of this until tomorrow..."

He almost smiled when Derek nodded, seeming immensely relieved that he was given a chance.

"Okay," he smiled.

xxxx

"So you and Penny were a couple in kindergarten?" Spencer chuckled, amused at the idea.

Derek nodded, also smirking, "We sure were."

They were walking down a dimly lit street of Derek's neighborhood, one Spencer would surely have been scared to cross alone. As it was, Derek Morgan was not only proving to be a great distraction but also a gentleman. Spencer pulled the jock's leather jacket closer around his slender body, glad he had offered it to him against the cold. He had chosen not to ponder the implications of that too much, merely glad he could be warm and relaxed after all this evening for once.

He was starting to think that maybe trusting in Derek hadn't been such a bad idea after all. Better even, he was surprisingly pleasant company and once they had gotten to talking it seemed like they had known each other for much longer than just a few weeks.

"So what broke you up?" Spencer asked, chuckling, "Did you pull her ponytail?"

"No," Morgan shook his head, "I just realized she wasn't my type is all."

"What?" Spencer looked at him in surprise at that answer, not having expected an honest one really, "Why not? She's pretty and funny and just great..."

For a second he wondered if it might be her size, whether Derek might be one of those shallow guys despite all indicators. His theories were shot to the wind when Derek shook his head, "Yeah, she is. For a girl."

It took Spencer a full thirty seconds to catch up, only to end up completely shocked. He stopped in his tracks, taken aback by Derek's appearant confession, "You...what? You..."

Was he saying what Spencer thought he was saying? Derek Morgan? He was sure he looked like a fish on land as he gaped at the older teen.

Derek stopped as well, only his eyes hinting at insecurity as he calmly assessed his. "Damn, you weren't kidding," he smiled sadly, "you really were totally clueless."

He took a step towards Spencer and suddenly there was no mistaking the expression in his eyes anymore. Or the fact that it was directed at him.

"Wha-" Spencer squeaked, heart suddenly hammering in his chest when he realized what was happening. That was the reason Derek had stared at him all the time, followed him around, made allusions...? THAT? But, that couldn't be, even if he was...he would never-

His thougths came to a crushing halt when two large hands cupped his face out of nowhere, Derek suddenly standing right in front of him. He gasped, the sensation of his fingers brushing over his cheeks running through him like an electric current. Only minutes ago, his first instinct would have been to back up, but now his brain didn't seem to work properly, entranced by the intensity of Derek's gaze.

"I like you, Spencer," Derek said, voice slightly rough as he leaned down, "I have liked you since I first saw you...with your doe eyes and your cute awkwardness, the way you talk, the way your breath catches when I touch you...I know that wasn't all fear, Spencer, I can tell. You could like me too if you gave me a chance."

Spencer shivered, the words reverberating deep within him. He could feel heat rushing up into his cheeks as he stared into Derek's eyes, breathless. He knew he should move, or say something, knew that Derek would probably take his lack of protest as confirmation of his words, but he couldn't move, even as the other leaned in closer, bringing their faces so close together that he could feel his breath on his lips...

"Well, well, well, look who we've got here?"

They both jumped apart when a sudden voice broke through the silence. Spencer spun around, eyes widening in shock when he realized that Kyle and three others from his gang where suddenly standing only a couple of feet away. Anxiety slammed into him immediately, making him forget all else. Where had they come from all out of a sudden?

"Nice catch, Morgan," Kyle leered, smacking his lips.

Spencer felt his stomach turn at his words, turning to look at Morgan, painful betrayal filling his chest.

Cliffhanger :D

Well, at least this chapter wasn't quite as short and it had some plot right?

So, what do you think? Please, please review!