Read my Lips
Chapter 39
When Derek Morgan arrived to work at seven thirty in the morning, the only person he was expecting to find there was his new unit chief. If she had paperwork to do, Prentiss liked to do it when the office was empty and free of distractions. Derek had a protein shake in one hand, his breakfast, and a coffee on his other hand. The coffee was for Prentiss. It was his version of a preemptive apology for the overtime Emily was going to have to authorize for him. Derek promised another unit chief that he was going to organize training exercises for their team.
Savannah was already unhappy with Derek for taking on additional responsibilities at his job. Now that they had a child, they agreed that they would both reduce the time they were spending at work. An agreement that Derek wasn't exactly honoring. Having his wife mad at him was already more than enough to deal with. He didn't need Prentiss to be pissed at him too.
Derek stopped, setting the drinks down on his desk and casting a concerned glance towards Spencer's desk. Not only were there ripped up papers and books scattered around the area, but Spencer himself was present. He was leaning forward over the desktop, his head resting on his arms and his crumpled up suit jacket.
"He was here when I came in," Emily said once she was close enough that Derek could hear her soft whisper. "I think he slept here."
"The hell?," Derek grumbled. He would never even begin to presume that he knew how Spencer Reid's mind worked. But this was strange behavior, even for the BAU's resident eccentric. Derek couldn't think of any reason that Spencer would be sleeping at work instead of with his girlfriend. Especially when Eliana was hurt and probably in need of love and support. Derek glanced at Prentiss as he considered how to handle the situation. She shrugged and shook her head, indicating that she wasn't sure what to do about it either. Derek took one more look at the scattered mess on the floor. And then he kicked Spencer's desk chair with his boot.
"Hey! Reid!," Derek barked. "Wake up!"
Spencer's body jerked as his head popped up. His clothes were wrinkled. And his hair was mashed to his face on one side. There were dark bags under his eyes. But it was the expression of total devastation on his face that was the most concerning. He looked so awful that Derek immediately softened his approach. He pulled a chair from the closest desk over and lowered himself down into it.
"Hey kid," he said, addressing Spencer with his old nickname for him. Spencer had been too old to be referred to as a kid for years. "What's going on? Why are you sleeping at the office?"
Spencer didn't answer right away. He scrubbed his haggard face with his hands. When he lowered his hands, he stared down at them for a moment. He was so miserable that even holding his head up took effort.
"My bed smelled like her," he admitted. "I couldn't sleep there."
"Did something bad happen between you and Eliana?," Derek asked. His concern for his friend and coworker was rising. He could still remember how devastated Spencer was when the girl he was talking to on the phone got shot. And Spencer never even met her before that happened. Eliana was a real girl that he had a real relationship with. If that ended badly, Derek worried what that might do to his kind and gentle friend. It might break him.
"I did the right thing," Spencer lamented. "Why do I feel so bad?"
"What did you do?," Derek asked.
Spencer paused, burning his hands in his face for a moment before he answered. "I couldn't stand to see her hurt again because of me. The only way I could protect her was to end it…"
"Wait? What?," Derek asked, his eyebrows knitting together as he processed what Spencer was telling him. "You broke up with her? With Eliana?" He sat down with the intention of listening and being a supportive friend. But he was unable to keep his opinion about Spencer's actions to himself. "What the hell is wrong with you?," Derek demanded.
For being the smartest person on their team, Spencer was being pretty goddamn stupid. In fact, he was acting like a total dumbass, at least in Derek's opinion. There was a reason Casanova chose his girlfriend over any other woman he could have more easily taken. Eliana was more than just a pretty face. She was smart and sweet and kind even to people that didn't deserve it. And for whatever reason that was only known to her, she looked at Spencer like he was personally responsible for making the sun rise and shine. Morgan had been searching his entire life and he'd never found a woman that looked at him like that. Not even his wife.
"I can't let what happened to Maeve happen to her," Spencer lamented. "I can't let her die because of me." The pain was so fresh that he couldn't even bring himself to say Eliana's name. He couldn't sleep in his own bed, because it smelled like her shampoo. He regretted ending things between them before the words were even out of his mouth. He turned around three times on his way home from the hospital.
"None of that was your fault," Derek coaxed.
"Does that matter?," Spencer countered. "Everything bad that happened to her, all of it happened because of me." The combination of pain and guilt in his voice was so intense, Derek could almost feel it in his own chest. He had to admit, if Savannah wasn't already pregnant by the time that she was targeted and shot by someone that wanted to get revenge on him, he might have considered taking the same course of action Spencer just took. And it would have been just as big of a mistake. Whether they argued about how much time he spent at work or not, his wife and son made his life worth living. They were the reason he was determined to keep on making the world a safer place one killer at a time.
"You can't live in fear," Derek said, saying the words out loud for his own benefit as much as Spencer's. "There's always going to be another bad guy around every corner. But If you let them dictate how you live your life, then they win whether we catch them or not." Derek sat quietly for a moment. He made the choice for himself when he asked Savannah to marry him. But that didn't alleviate the guilt that came with knowing that just being with him came with a certain amount of risk and always would.
"I think both of you are forgetting something," Prentiss said. She was perched on the edge of a nearby desk. And up until now, she was quietly listening to their conversation. Both men turned, curious to see what her opinion was on the matter. "Shouldn't the choice be hers?" Eliana was a grown woman. And more than anyone, she knew the risks and dangers that came with being romantically involved with a member of the BAU. In Emily's opinion, Eliana was more than capable of deciding for herself if being with Spencer was worth that risk to her or not. From where Emily was standing, it was clear that Eliana already made her choice several times over.
"Do you love her or not?," Derek finally asked once they both got done absorbing Emily's input on the matter. Spencer nodded. He loved Eliana more than anything else in the world. Before Morgan could say anything else, Spencer turned and started fishing through the pockets of his rumpled suit jacket. He pulled out a small black velvet box. Turning back towards Derek, Spencer popped the lid open and revealed the ring that was nestled inside.
"I was going over to her house to give her this," he admitted. Emily stood up and moved in for a better look at the ring. It wasn't a traditional engagement ring by any means. But it was beautiful nonetheless. The large stone in the center was a dark almost midnight blue with tiny flecks of white and silver sparkling inside it. There were tiny diamonds on either side of the large stone. It took Emily a moment to realize that it was meant to look like stars in the night sky. Like a galaxy. It was the perfect nod to all the weird sci-fi stuff Spencer and Eliana were both into without being too obvious. Emily didn't think she'd ever get a ring from any man. But if she ever did, she could only hope that it would be something that was as much to her taste as this one was to the woman that was hopefully going to be Spencer's wife if he could hold his shit together long enough to propose.
"Oh Spencer," she crooned. "This is perfect. It's beautiful."
Derek watched Spencer as he considered Emily's reaction to the ring. He still didn't seem totally convinced by their advice. But Derek suspected that one look at Eliana would cure him of his indecision.
"Get up," Derek ordered. He snatched the ring from Prentiss and snapped the box closed. Then he shoved it in Spencer's general direction. "Get the hell up. Come on. Let's go."
"Where are we going?," Spencer asked, though thankfully he at least rose up out of his chair willingly. If he hadn't, Derek was prepared to physically drag him out to the car.
"I'm driving you over to her house right now," Derek announced. And before Spencer could object, Derek grasped him by the sleeve of his wrinkled shirt and started hauling him towards the elevator. They made it about halfway across the office before Spencer was moving faster towards the elevator than he was. Derek could hear Prentiss laughing behind him when they had to start jogging just to keep up.
Derek and Emily each took turns pounding on Eliana's front door before it became obvious that she wasn't home. Derek stopped halfway down her steps to whip out his phone and call Penelope. He almost felt bad about waking her. But he knew she wouldn't want to miss being involved in Reid's love life. She was the nosiest interloper he'd ever met. She'd be angry later if he didn't call her. And she could find Eliana faster than the rest of them put together.
"Do we have a case?," Garcia asked, her voice still thick with sleep.
"No," Derek told her. "We need help finding Eliana."
"Oh my god, she wasn't kidnapped again was she?," Penelope asked.
"Third times the charm," Derek quipped, much to Spencer's annoyance and Prentiss's amusement. Emily burst out laughing, took a look at Spencer and then tried to choke off her giggles. "No, nothing like that. Reid's just looking for her. They had a fight. And he needs to find her so they can make up and he can give her the engagement ring he has in his suit pocket."
Derek had the foresight to hold his phone away from his ear. But he could still hear Penelope screaming on the other end of the line. The shriek was loud and higher pitched than one would think a woman with her low toned speaking voice would be capable of making. When she was done expressing her excitement and joy with her vocal cords, Derek could hear Garcia's voice mingling with another. He shook his head. Kevin must have stayed the night at her house. Derek could hear them talking to each other. Kevin was asking her why exactly in hell she just woke him up by screaming directly into his face.
"Everythings fine," Penelope assured him. "Do you know where Eliana is?"
There was a pause. And then Kevin asked, "Who wants to know?" Penelope explained that Derek was on the phone. But it was Spencer that was looking for Eliana. Derek heard some shuffling. And then Kevin's voice on the phone.
"Put Reid on," Kevin demanded. Derek raised his brow. It seemed unnecessary for Kevin to talk to Reid directly. But he shrugged and headed down the last few steps, handing the phone to Spencer.
"It's me," Spencer confirmed. "Can you tell me where Eliana is?"
"Why do you want to find her?," Kevin barked back. "So you can break up with her while she's lying in a hospital? Again? Asshole!"
Spencer held the phone away from his ear with a look of concern on his face as he listened to what was now a full on fight between Penelope and her probably now off again boyfriend on the other end of the line. Penelope was screaming at Kevin. Kevin was hollering back at her. Some of the insults involved technical jargon that was hard for anyone else that was listening to even understand. Derek was laughing when he reached for his phone back.
"Baby Girl!," he shouted into the phone. "Garcia! Hey! What have you got for me?"
Penelope paused her argument with Kevin long enough to ask Morgan to hold on for a minute. He heard a door slam, which he assumed was Kevin being unceremoniously tossed out of her bedroom. And then she was back, her fingers flying across her keyboard.
"She's not checked into any hotel rooms. There's nothing on her socials. Her dad is still on assignment in Florida. But she didn't fly down there. Aha! I found her! Eliana Kaminski. She didn't fly to Florida but she did book a flight. To Marrakesh! She's at Washington National Airport. Crap on a cracker, she's leaving for Morocco. Like right now! Her plane departs in thirty minutes!"
"How far is Washington National from here?," Prentiss asked. She was already plugging the location into her phone as she jumped back into the car. Derek offered Penelope one of his signature gratitudes, ending the call as he slid behind the wheel. "This says it's twenty five minutes away," she announced.
Derek glanced behind him, giving Spencer a reassuring smile before he grabbed his emergency siren light out from the center console and slapped it down on the dash. The siren blared as they flew across the city. They made the drive in eighteen minutes flat. But that still didn't leave Spencer much time to make his way through the crowded international airport and find Eliana before she boarded her flight.
The three of them rushed from the car with their badges out. Derek and Prentiss stopped to haggle with airport security. But Spencer didn't have time for TSA bullshit. He ignored their loud objections as he jumped the gate and took off running through the crowded terminal.
Derek shook his head as he watched Spencer disappear from sight. "His ass doesn't run that fast when we're chasing a suspect," he observed.
"Should we go after him?," Prentiss asked, taking her credentials back from the angry TSA agent that seemed to be looking for a reason to deny them entrance to the airport terminals.
"Hell no," Derek replied. "I've got a better idea." He and Prentiss headed in the direction they saw Spencer take. But unlike him they weren't running. Derek set a leisurely pace as he pulled out his phone and called Garcia back. "Baby girl, I'm gonna need another favor."
