Hey there, baby girl.

“That’s… That’s very kind of you.” Her voice cracked. “I-I, um… I’d really love a cup of coffee, to be honest.” Her eyes wandered to the pavement. 

“It is. And I know nothing about this place” she sighed. “But that job you have sounds cool, just don’t try to shoot me again. Alright?”

“hm–” spencer opened the card, making a show of reading it, he could have easily read it in a few seconds, but took a few more to really appreciate it. it wasn’t amazing. it wasn’t highly skilled and storebought and pretty. but, it was very morgan. and that was fine by him. 

“i wondered how you managed to remember to send a card every year–even when we were halfway across the states.” he joked,  laughing gently..

he smiled, though it faltered a bit at the question about ‘christmas’.

a swallow, the truth will wet you free. his voice nagged, in the back of his head, “it was alright.” not good, not great alright. a strianed laugh, “you know – outside of running into my dead girlfriend. that was–” good? bad? nice? horrible? “awkward.” 

yeah. awkward was a good word for seeing a girl you buried and mourned for four years and then having her show up when you’re finally really starting to date. but, he wasn’t letting morgan deflect, “i’m fine, it’s water under the bridge and it’s fine.”

a stern look at the man, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees and frowning, “i know when you’re avoiding a subject derek. and i know you don’t want to talk about it – you don’t want to think about it, but–” a sigh, “i don’t like seeing you hurting. i hate seeing any of you hurting.”

Derek watched as the kid read over his letter, yeah; it wasn’t perfect, it was last minute, but he truly meant everything he said on the card. He always wanted to be there for him. For all of his family. He’s made mistakes, what man hasn’t? Morgan knew the genius could have read his letter in seconds, and was touched by the fact he took his time looking over each letter carefully. “Mah usually did it for me, honestly pretty boy. My mom...” His family. His Mother, Sisters. Without him, nobody would visit the grave of the still unidentified boy he raised the money to get a headstone for all those years ago. He felt so selfish for being so upset about his son and  fiancée, he was completely neglecting to think about his other family. 

Derek tried his best to listen to Spencer when he was answering the question about christmas, but his head began to spin; he could feel the all too familiar burning upon his chest. His hand lifted to clutch gently at his shirt. He could feel himself half slipping out of consciousness, but he knew how to surpress the pain. He was trying his best to hide it from the kid, so he took a deep breath through his nose and held it for a short while.

Wait, did he mention his dead girlfriend? Derek gulped to clear his throat, before he realise what had actuall been said. “You mean... You saw Maeve?” Morgan stammered. He never wanted Spencer to have to go through this again, he couldn’t imagine how hurt he must be feeling; and he’s only making things worse showing up in this state. He was supposed to be the strong one. It shouldn’t be fine, it’s not fine! People don’t come back from the dead, that’s just not how things work! Everything was upside down.

1: What kind of childhood did he or she have?

2: What's their profession and how did they get there?

3: How do they deal with conflict and change?

4: What is their favourite place to be and how would they describe it?

5: Who was their first true love?

6: What is their deepest regret?

7: How would they describe their parents?

8: What is their favourite time period & why?

9: What is their favourite genre of music & why?

10: What are they most influenced by?

11: If someone were to be angry with them, what would be the reason?

12: What are their most common mannerisms?

13: What do they think about before falling asleep?

14: What are their fondest memories?

“Yeah, I-I know…” She muttered, feeling uneasy at the slightest mention of her untimely demise. 

spencer was halfway through a games of chess against himself when there was a knock. with anyone else, knowing how a person knocked would seem silly, but spencer enjoyed it, and he knew exactly who was knocking. morgan. a glance at his watch, and he stood, leaving the game nearly finished as he went to open the door, smiling at the man, which soon feel when he saw his face. crying – he wasn’t surprised. 

spencer missed his mom, and would have loved to have spent the day with her, but being on his own on christmas was a common enough occurrence that it hadn’t bothered him any more than it usually would. he’d written her a letter, enclosed a picture of him and jj in front of the statue of liberty and a postcard, before placing it in the box. he’d graduated to a box around the first of november, having run out of room in his drawer for all the letters.

he didn’t think much, gently pulling him inside and closing the door, leading him to the couch without saying a word. he sat down next to him and pressed his lips together, looking at the older man, before sighing softly.

“you look like hell.” spencer joked, dryly, but couldn’t manag to laugh. 

Derek didn’t resist when he was pulled inside and sat down on the couch, he probably wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight even if he wanted to, right now.A chuckle passed Morgan’s lips as he held out the poor excuse of a card for him to take. “Your not wrong there, kid. I feel like hell too.” A laugh passed his lips, yet it was something of a mix between a cough and a laugh. 

“I just came to give you that card, I don’t want to intrude on your day, I just forgot that I needed to buy cards and shit. Savannah usually does that for me.” Derek laughed, he ran his hands down his face, Derek rested his head in his hands for a moment just taking the time to breathe. His last memory of her was in the hospital, not exactly the ideal memories you’d want to have of the woman he was planning to marry. He was engaged, but now he was stuck, without knowledge of how she and his son were. 

Sitting down on the bench beside him, she let out a small sigh. “So are you a cop or something? My dad was one before the apocalypse”

“die hard? from that name, it sounds pretty stupid to me.” he was willing to watch though. i mean, he definitely want’s to have more time with this guy. ( c’mon just look at him!! ) “but i’m interested…”

Morgan shrugged his shoulders slightly, smirking at his comment. “Well, it’s not technically a Christmas movie, but it’s a tradition to watch it” Morgan shot him a brief smile. “It’ll probably be on one of the channels later tonight if your that interested.”

“Judith grimes” she replied, not moving from where she was

even if she was happy with spencer, it still felt strange. “yeah, it’s just – it’s funny, you know?? we’ve known each other all these years and now this. i just hope things get better and easier to handle with time.” her lips flashed a small smile at derek, before telling him what had happened. it seemed like the BAU could never be at peace. of course, they all had signed up for a tough job, and they were completely aware of the consequences – limited time with the family, having their lives at risk, you name it – but could they have a normal life for at least a week?? jj wasn’t fooling herself, she knew the answer to that question.

“derek … you need to breathe.” jj said with her arms across her chest, jumping a little at the male’s sudden reaction. her blue eyes fixed to the shattered vase, its pieces and the water. her voice broke, shaking her head slightly. “no, this isn’t your fault. it wasn’t anyone’s fault but peter lewis’s. we can’t blame ourselves, or the team.” jj wanted to believe her own words, but it was hard. she knew they could have done more to keep hotch in the team, but it was done. “we have to focus on the good side of it, alright?? he’s going to be with jack, and spend time with jessica too. they need to be a family. he deserves it.”

jj fought back the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks, swallowing hard and blinking a few times. “when we’re back, we’re going to catch him. i promise.”

A normal life? No, that wasn’t granted for people like them. They spent every hour of every day helping others, catching the bad guys. But they never got to be happy. Derek could guess how the kid, Spence, would give him a stupid statistic about how many people in their line of work doesn’t make it to retirement, He didn’t need statistics to know that it was a LOT more than it should be. Too many of them, good people, heros; don’t make it home.

JJ was right, he did need to calm down; but he blamed himself, if he was there he could have helped, he could have, and now look at the mess they were in, and he was powerless to help them. He closed his eyes tightly nodding his head. It was true, he did deserve to be with Jack and Jessica, he could spend a lot more time with them now.He took a deep breath in before he opened his eyes, setting his brown hues upon his friend. “ JJ, when we get back I promise you I’m going to do everything in my power to come back, I will do anything to help you, I made a mistake; I should never have left.” Morgan assured her, placing a firm hand on her shoulder. He still didn’t remember leaving the day he planned on leaving after Savannah was shot and Hank was born, but it was best not to mention that.

Maeve took a step back as Derek turned around. “You–” He was one of the last faces that she saw before everything had gone black. Now, here she was. “I-I know you.” 

Derek blinked again, this couldn’t be happening; it couldn’t. He was there. He saw it with his own two eyes.How did someone explain that they watched them die? “I work with Spencer... I was there when...” Derek’s sentence stopped short - this was impossible.

“don’t worry about will. he’s a great father, but things between us were a little rocky.” she shrugged. she found instant peace the second he mentioned garcia. she knew the kids weren’t alone, but sometimes she just needed to hear it – to be reassured. “me and spence, yeah.” she let out a small smile. “it happened… well. rather naturally. we didn’t even say anything – it just happened, and it felt natural and here we are.” her hands were on her pockets. “it sounds kind of silly when you think about it, but i’m happy. he’s been the only thing keeping me sane around here.” and that was true. she loved sencer and spencer loved her, and that’s all that truly mattered.

“i know this is way too much to take in, and it sounds impossible – but it’s real, or at least i think so.” jj continued. she didn’t really know if this was real, or if this was all in her head. maybe none of this was actually happening in reality and they were all back home, as if nothing had happened. on the other hand, jj was now understanding morgan’s case. they’d been taken from different timelines, per say, so that meant he didn’t know about – hotch. great, more bad news. 

“yeah, hotch was framed, and he was arrested at gunpoint in front of me, henry and jack.” jj took a deep breath, trying to gather her ideas. “it was peter lewis. and the DOJ decided to believe a narcissistic serial killer rather than an FBI agent. can you believe that??” that still irritated her. “anyways, the case led us to a prison break, hotch was freed and everything seemed perfect until garcia got the news.” the news that were one of the reasons she couldn’t sleep at night. “thirteen serial killers escaped federal prisons. lewis is one of them.” a swallow. “the blame was on aaron, of course. and he was, uh–” a pause, fearing to say the words. “fired.” it came out as a whisper.

Morgan’s lips twitched upwards into a smile, he shook his head patting her gently on the back. “It doesn’t sound silly at all. When you love somebody things just happen and nobody should tell you that your wrong for feeling that way. I happy for you guys, I wish you both the absolute best. I really do.” Spencer and JJ? He knew they were close but he didn’t realise how close, but he truly was happy for them, he didn’t see any problem with it. 

Derek ran his hands down his face, trying to take in all the information, it seemed that the good new wasn’t enough to stop the tonnes and tonnes of bad news. His fists clenched tightly, he should have been there, he should have been there to help and protect them; what was he thinking about leaving? He would always be there for the team, they’re his family too, but he didn’t want anything to happen to him and leave Hank alone, and of course Savannah too. But now he was leaving them alone. They were all alone and he was stuck, HERE in new york. 

The agent swallowed, but it got caught in the back of his throat, causing him to cough, the clenched fists didn’t loosen, they only got tighter, the veins in his arms began to show, pulsing just slightly. “Fuck.” Morgan mumbled quietly to himself. Hotch was sent to prison? FIRED. He swung his fist to the closest object to him, which just so happened to be a flower vase on the table beside him, the vase fell to the floor, shattering into many smaller pieces, the water in the vase scattered them across the floor. He turned to face JJ, his vision began to blur ever so slightly, his free hand gripped gently at the throbbing pain on his chest. “JJ, I’m so sorry, I should have been there, this is all my fault; I wasn’t there for you.”