The sweet singsong voice of Penelope Garcia, greeted Derek Morgan the second the silver elevator doors opened. Revealing not only the familiar expansion of parting hallways and the glass doors leading to the bullpen, but the colorful rainbow in human form. For it was as though the sun itself, had beamed it's light down upon the Earth and formed it's rays into the bubbling body that exuded the same bright kind of light, in the same blinding yellow glow. 

For Derek listened to the clicking of her neon magenta heels slowly come to a halt, as his eyes spanned upwards over the frilly sunshine yellow skirt that flared out at her hips and trailed the glow down to the ends of her knees. A white knit sweater left unbuttoned, draped over the top of her bright yellow dress, as a large beaded necklace wrapped securely around the base of her throat. Dangling sunflower earrings nearly brushed against the very tops of her shoulders, as her blonde hair was pulled up and pinned back into a sleek style. With two pearl toned chopsticks hidden within to keep the whimsical nature of her identity present while balancing out her professional seeming hairstyle. 

As Derek's eyes scanned over her face, it was the disconnect in her expressions that made him raise a brow her way. For her magenta painted lips were curled downward into a frown that seemed to have no rightful place on the beaming woman's face. Her eyes, shadowed with sparkles and dark mascara behind the bright tangerine frames balancing on the bridge of her nose, were clouded by something grey in the swirl of her naturally baby blues. 

"There you are!" Penelope exclaimed in her high pitched concerned voice, one that Derek knew a little too well from their shared line of work. "You're late and you're never late! What's going on? You have to tell me what's wrong and what's going on with you, because you know how I worry and--"

Her worrisome rambles were sharply cut off the second she felt Derek Morgan grab gently to her shoulders, pressing his warm palms against the sides her arms as he took a step closer to her. Smelling the sweetness of her perfume and the fruity nature of her conditioner that floated up from her fly away strands. 

"Baby Girl," Derek raised a brow as he looked into Penelope's eyes, that were swirling with her hyper level of anxiety. "I'm fine, everything is fine. Just a little trouble in paradise this morning, that's all."

Loosening his gentle grasp on her arms, he let his hands fall from their placement. His left grabbing tightly to the strap of his bag strung over his shoulder, as his right slid into the pocket of his dark washed denim jeans. Watching Penelope's expression immediately soften, as his words ease away all of her worry and tightly wound nerves, they began to walk slowly towards the bullpen. 

"Oh no," Penelope muses, clutching a file to her chest as she walked in tandem with his steps. "what did you do?"

Derek's brows furrowed as his head snapped to the side, shooting Garcia an incredulous look. "Me? Why does it always have to be something I did?"

Penelope simply gave him a knowing look, tilting her head a fraction his way as she began to explain to him as though she was spilling out facts she'd received from Spencer Reid himself. "Because men always downplay when a woman is upset. Now spill."

Derek shook his head as he released an exasperated sigh out into the atmosphere, "It's honestly nothing Garcia, she just..." His right hand rising out of his jean pocket to rub idly at the back of his neck. "the hours are getting to her, that's all."

"Your hours?"

"Mhm," Derek hums in a low rumble, as their footsteps slowly come to a stop as he leans back against the edge of his desk. Letting his bag slide off of his shoulder, gliding down the smooth leather of his jacket, that he soon takes off and places in the seat of his chair alongside his bag. "The same hours I've always had. The same hours I had when we met, the same hours I had when we moved in together. The same hours I had when I proposed."

Derek shrugs his shoulders with another exhaled sigh and lifts his hands before letting them fall back to gripping to the edge of his desk. "Look, it'll blow over. I got in late from our case in Denver because the paper work needed to be in by the end of the--"

Penelope's clear voice cuts into Derek's explanation, abruptly leaving his lips parted without the words to tumble past them. "Oh sweet beautiful boy. You don't understand it, do you?"

Her brightly painted lips pursed softly, as her eyebrows raised in what he could only assume was slight amusement and trailing pity. 

"What?" 

"It isn't about the fact that you're working the same hours. She knows how crazy your schedule is, what the hours on this job are like, she's been living with it for what? Two years now?"

Derek tapped his fingers against the underside of his desk, as he could feel the frustration bubbling up in his chest. "Then what do you think her blow up was about huh? Because what I got through all of the crying and the yelling at me, was that I'm never home. Which is sort of true, but she knew tha--"

Penelope released a soft puff of air, nearly resembling that of a breathless laugh as she shook her head at Derek's blindness at something so clearly obvious, that it almost put his profiling skills into question. "She's scared Derek. She is scared that she's going to marry someone who won't ever be around. Someone who will get home, but his head will still be left behind here at work. She's scared and she misses you. She knows that the job will always be a priority, but she's going to be your wife Derek and she's starting to wonder how big of a priority she plays in your life."

It was Derek's turn to release a large puff of air as he shook his head at Garcia's words. "Come on Garcia, she knows--"

"When was the last time you took a vacation? Hm, just the two of you?" Penelope's empty hand rested against her hip, as her delicately traced eyebrows sat high. "Or called in because she was sick and you wanted to take care of her? How many times have you waited to do stupid paperwork until the next morning because you would rather get home to her for a few hours before coming right on back here?"

Derek Morgan hated to admit that Penelope Garcia's words made him reflect back on the span of his relationship, but what he hated even more, was realizing how right she truly was. For he couldn't pin point the last vacation he had taken her on, that honestly constituted as one. He couldn't remember the last illness she'd had that he had stayed with her to care for her, instead of grabbing cold medicine or a case of ginger ale and a pack of saltines on the way home from a late night flight back. Garcia's words, rang a truth that made his stomach instantly twist inwards on itself. Guilt bubbling up in the pit of his chest, as his eyes shut tightly in regret at his lack of compassion towards her tears earlier this morning. 

"She's already scared every day you come here Derek," Penelope stepped forward and rested her empty hand against his that gripped tightly to his desk. Opening his eyes at her warm touch and gentle contact, for even as her words struck him deeply, no ounce of judgement or harshness tainted her honest words. "she doesn't need another reason to fear ending up alone."

Derek's eyes flickered up to meet Garcia's awaiting shimmering eyes, as his lips parted to respond to her soft admission, the thundering sound of JJ's heels clicking quickly out of the round table room and down the stairs in a swift motion, sounded around them. She hurried towards them in a flurry of charcoal grey and sleek blonde hair, as she approached them with a wide eyes expression across her face. 

"You guys need to see this." JJ's eyes met Derek's and Garcia's for the briefest of moments before her hand raised with the remote clutched tightly in her fingers. Pointing it towards the TV propped against the opposite wall and all set of eyes immediately met the screen. 

Derek wasn't exactly sure what he was viewing the moment his eyes landed upon the television screen, for even with the news banner running along the bottom and the symbol in the corner, what consumed most of the visible shot was a thick cloud of dark grey smoke. It billowed outwards from wherever the shot was being broadcasted, consuming the screen in a shadow that sent a chill prickling up the skin of his spine. For there was something eerie in the smoke that covered the lens, concealing the true disaster and forcing those watching to simply wait for it to be unveiled. 

"Where is this?" Garcia spoke up softly and Derek could very nearly feel the anxiety beginning to beam off of her. 

"Downtown," JJ responded swiftly. "a neighboring business called in a huge complex fire not even ten minutes ago."

Derek's head shook involuntarily as he listened to JJ's words, continuing to watch the screen for any sign of anything other than a thickening grey smoke that rolled forth relentlessly. It was as though a dense fog consumed the camera, for it was persistent in it's shadowing presence. The screen was dark and showed close to nothing distinguishable and yet, everyone in the vicinity of that television screen couldn't look away. It was a car wreck, a devastation that drew the eye in the most sorrowful and sickening way. Derek's eyes were glued to the broadcast, as he could feel his heart beginning to slowly drum in the base of his chest, as he waited for the impending damage to pan itself across the wide screen. He could feel it in the atmosphere, as everyone who watched the news coverage stood still with an unnerving silence, that the smoke that immersed the camera lens was that of a green hued sky. A sickening swirl in the clouds as the wind blew in a thunderous storm, bound to shake the Earth and everyone who stood beneath it's raging clouds. 

Until a faint flicker of light began to slowly emerge from within the smoke. It was as though a lighthouse in the depth of a shadowing sea, for it beamed out timidly through the smoky haze until it's blinding orange hue spanned across the screen all at once. Wiping the soot from the lens and giving those watching, a front row view to a fiery blaze that completely consumed the structure of a once stable building. Even through that of a television screen, dimmed by hazy atmosphere and blinding light, the shade of the blistering flames nearly beamed through the screen. For the anger of the fire was nearly palpable, screaming it's vengeance through that of it's blistering orange and yellow flames that resembled that of the burning rays on the surface of the sun. It was a sight that turned Derek's stomach, for all he could think of as he watched the camera zoom out on the wildly dancing flames, were the lives prematurely lost in a moment that was unfathomably unfortunate. 

The news coverage panned out to show the bright yellow tape roping off the area, as the shrill sirens of the firetrucks and ambulances wailed in the background as their lights flashed within the glow of the burning fire. It zoomed out and allowed the shape of the building to take shape on the screen, showing the left side of the once strong structure caving in on itself, as it's exterior turned to a charred black shade that emanated matching smoke into the once blue sky. But it was only as the camera fell upon the fallen business sign beside the adjoining street signs, that Derek Morgan felt his heart completely catapult into the pit of his churning stomach. 

He barely registered as Penelope's hand gently reached out and landed against his shoulder, as her lips parted in shock. "Isn't that--"

Derek's lips parted as he panted out a breath, feeling as though his lungs were giving up their ability to take a semblance of a deep breath, as his head began to spin watching the name of the burning business scroll across the bottom banner on the screen. His eyes were in communication with his mind, for he knew what he was reading and what he was seeing, but it felt as though his heart wouldn't accept the information he knew to be true. "Oh my God."

The words left his mouth in the form of a breathless whisper, hitting the atmosphere that suddenly felt incredibly thick and unforgiving, as his legs began to move him before his mind could register the steps. The sharp cries of Penelope and JJ instantly falling upon his suddenly deaf ears. Derek Morgan ran towards the elevators he had only just recently exited from, knocking a file off of his desk and feeling the edge of another banging into the side of his hip in the process, but he ran without any hinderance as he entered the empty elevator and let it take him down towards the first floor. 

She was never the one supposed to be in danger. She worked at a little local non-profit. She helped people in need, she cared for their interests so much so, that somedays she carried their woes home with her. For he saw the way she worked herself dry somedays, trying to figure out a way to make it all work and how to get the absolute best to those she was helping. She went to a little office four days a week, wearing clothes that she loved and always put a smile on her face, to help those that left with a mirrored smile from her overwhelming kindness. Although her days could be long and hard on her heart, that ultimately beat a little too loudly for the world that she yearned to help and heal, she never complained. She loved her job, Derek could still remember the ecstatic tears brightening her face when she got the news of her hiring and he loved the passion that drove her heart towards these people. But as Derek's hands tightened against the steering wheel, as he drove furiously down the highway, all he could think was that it was never supposed to be her. 

The images of the little non-profit building downtown, that so many times Derek had stopped by to bring her lunch on slow days or even just to see her face and give her a kiss in the middle of the work day, erupted in flames as the establishment burned relentlessly held his mind captive. For it had always been his line of work that prompted those types of danger. Derek Morgan had been held at gunpoint, threatened and faced with the worst humans to ever inhabit the Earth, he was prepared that the inevitable could happen to him one of these days and yet, that day he hoped never came for him... came for her. It wasn't fair, it wasn't how it was ever supposed to be Derek cursed, banging his fist against the steering wheel so hard he could feel the action rattling in the depth of his bone, as he barreled down the lane. 

But what truly ate away at Derek Morgan's soul, as he tried to keep his eyes steady on the road he soared down, was the idea that the last thing she would have remembered of him was watching him walk through that front door as she stood in the kitchen with delicate tears trailing from her eyes. It wouldn't have been the sound of his voice telling her how much he loved her, it wouldn't have been the image of him smiling down at her as he held her body close, it would have been an argument ensued by her fears, that left her standing alone as he walked away not knowing what more to say to her vulnerable emotions. And it pierced his heart in a way that nearly made him sick. 

Leaning forward, his hand reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cellphone. It was an action Derek knew would ultimately be futile, but something within himself begged for him to at least try. Hitting the speed dial number without even taking his eyes off of the road, Derek listened to the echoing and unnerving dial tone surround him. The ringing seeming as though it lingered through the atmosphere for an eternity until it was finally cut off, diminishing the last ounce of his hope when her voice mail message floated through the speaker. He listened, as his heart thundered with a painful beat, to her voice. For it sparked a regret so deeply rooted inside of his heart, that it nearly brought tears to his eyes. Derek Morgan couldn't help the thoughts from spiraling as he listened to the sound of her voice, even as short and sweet as the simple message was. The regrets and the thoughts brought up earlier in his discussion with Penelope suddenly tormented his mind. 

Would it have killed him to take a day off, solely for her? Couldn't he have waited on that last pile of paperwork and gone home and held her? Why didn't he hold her hand more often? Gotten the chance to kiss her goodnight when she was still awake? Why couldn't he have tried to be home more, in the home he himself had restored for their life together? A million regrets swirled in his head, a million wrongs that he wanted to make right, but as he watched the sight of the fiery scene come into view, Derek focused his mind and his heart on finding her before he never got the chance. 

Derek's boots hit the asphalt with a strong conviction, one that rattled his very bones and threatened to shake the ground beneath his heavy steps. The atmosphere he inhaled as he exited his vehicle in a frantic rush, was tainted by the dense smoke that burned at his nostrils. Feeling the sting tickling against the back of his throat, as he ran towards the think lined yellow tape, blocking off the building as the firetrucks blared loudly in every direction. His eyes began to water at the piercing heat in the close proximity and the painfully thick air that was beginning to choke him the closer he grew to the roaring fire. For it completely engulfed the building, although the left side was charred black, caved inward on it's own foundation and no longer burning. The right side was still ablaze, the strong flames fighting against one another as they seemed to twirl higher and higher into the mid-morning sky. 

"Sir, you need to move back right now!" A voice shouted in Derek's direction, as his burning brown eyes were wide as he took in the sight of the blazing building he had seen standing just a day or two before. 

Derek's fingers scrambled to reach for his credentials, his hands shaky in a way that coincided with the strong churning sensation in the very pit of his stomach. "I'm with the FBI and I need all the information you can give me, please."

The man was clearly of a higher authority, a fire chief perhaps. He shook his head at Derek and opened his lips to speak, but Derek didn't allow for any rebutting words to fall as he frantically pleaded with the man. "Have you pulled out any survivors? Any bodies? Please, you have to tell me, show me a list of the accounted for employees, anything man, please!" 

"Sir--"

"My fiancé might still be in there, I'm asking you to help me here, please!"

Derek could see the compassion and empathy wash over the middle aged man's face, his dark brows furrowing as his lips flattened into a line as he shook his head sorrowfully. "Sir, I would tell you everything if I thought it would help you find your fiancé, but we're still pulling people out. We're trying to get a grip on this fire and the more time I spend here explaining to you that I have no new information to give you, means one less minute I have to actually help find your fiancé alive. I'm sorry."

Derek didn't blame the man, in fact, he would have said the exact same thing if the roles had been reversed. But as he stood out among the street of bustling personnel, as emergency lights flashed as though competing with the bright glow of the flickering flames, with piercing sirens wailing like an echo chamber around him, all he could think of right now was the fact that she might be feet away from him...with no way for him to get to her. 

He felt sick. His hands were clutched tightly into fists that dangled lifeless and yet jittery at his sides, while his heart hammered harder against the restraint of his ribcage. His body ached due to the harsh rigidness in which his muscles constricted and he knew every joint in his body would be turning white if visible to the eye. Derek watched helplessly as the dark smoke slowly began to dissipate into the open air, as water was rushed onto the burning flames, the golden flickers of sparking embers shrinking little by little as the harsh gusts doused the angry flames. His lungs felt tight, not only due to the thickness that held the atmosphere captive, but in the fear that made any small breath seem impossible. His body was frozen in place and yet, just like his fidgeting fists, he couldn't help the anxious jitter that made his body jerk in restrained adrenaline. For he needed to move, but it felt as though thick rope kept him bound and complacent at the very edge. Derek Morgan had never been trained on how to simply stand around and wait, it wasn't in his nature. It wasn't in his make up, he couldn't willingly stand by and allow for a life to be lost when he still had a chance to save it. 

Unclenching his right fist, releasing the pain in his white knuckles, Derek wiped at the sweat beading at the base of his forehead and had begun to slowly trickle down the sides of his temples. Tiny droplets, trailing down his flesh, making it feel as though a crawling sensation that was only heightened in the intensity of the current situation. His fingers found the back of his neck and lifting his left, he clasped his fingers behind his head. Feeling the sweat collecting in the neck of his cotton tee, soaking through the lightweight threads of thin fabric, the heat of the diminishing flames but the rising sun basked against his flesh in a heavy glow. Squeezing his eyes together as he rung his neck tightly, he could feel the movement already coursing through his veins far before his mind had any time at all to think it through. The tug-of-rope feeling evident in the back of his mind, as his brain questioned his actions while his body made him sure of them. Releasing his arms, Derek looked to his sides for any close personnel, not finding any that were looking in his direction. Inhaling the deepest breath he could muster, feeling the burn of thick smoke seeping into the cavities of his lungs, Derek leaped swiftly over the taped off barricade. 

His boots stormed across the concrete in strong jogs that hit the ground harshly, feeling the pressure through the thick soles of his shoes. He could hear the faint echoes of voices shouting out to him, the calls from his team that had finally arrived at the scene, yelling for him to come back. But he couldn't turn back now, he physically couldn't stop his legs from running him closer to the smoking structure. The heat of the expanding sunshine soon faded as he reached the sidewalk beneath the slight shadow of the building, but the stifling warmth that emanated from the once burning building replaced the rays with a strength that overtook his flesh. It was overwhelming and nearly suffocating, as Derek rushed through the threshold of the front doors that had been shattered and lined the flooring beneath his feet.

Glass crunched beneath his steps, as they immediately slowed once inside the nearly collapsed structure. Everything that had once been sleek and delicately decorated, all of the little nuances of the establishment that brought a brightness and an individuality to it's space, was now reduced to ashes. Darkness consumed the once light facility, the walls no longer painted an inviting sunshine yellow, but rather charred to a black that peeled the foundation from the walls as though it melted from it's surface. The roof above him hung in shambles, piercing bright rays of natural light through it's holes as pieces of it swayed back and forth, dripping with the water that had extinguished the fire. The ground beneath the soles of his boots squished with the water soaked papers and materials never to be restored, it crunched as broken shards of glass from the many surrounding windows had been instantly shattered. It creaked as the boards of broken bookshelves and burnt desks cracked beneath his weight. Everything that had once lined the walls in pride and enjoyment, were burnt or forgotten in the ashes that painted every inch of the space in a hopeless shade of black. Every piece of furniture that had been so meticulously placed, was broken and crushed or charred beyond recognition. The building that Derek Morgan stepped into, was the skeleton of a place it once was. 

As Derek ventured further into the burnt building, the air inside was thinner yet still just as pungently burning against his senses. His eyes scanned over the rubble that lined the once spotless hardwood, now cluttering the space as though another floor all together. The pieces of ceiling fallen beside lost items once belonging on the far side of the room, everything scrambled and misplaced within itself. Derek's eyes passed over the ashes and the charred belongings that he climbed over and tried his best not to crush all over again, but it was the sight of hands reaching out from beneath the debris that halted his heart. The sight of a soot ridden shoe, propped up over a piece of broken down furniture in an unnatural position, made the slim particles of a breath fluttering in his lungs suddenly dissipate. A pair of broken glasses lay bent and shattered against the wreckage, a lock of bright blonde hair peeking out from beneath a layer of shadows like a little glimmer of light. Innocent casualties lined the destroyed structure and Derek felt a heaviness descend over his shoulders as he stood amongst the makings of a vast human grave.

"Sir!" A stern shout startles Derek, making his head swirl around to spot the same man from earlier striding towards him. "this structure is not safe, you need to exit right now!"

Derek turned his head as he nodded along to the fire chief's words, his eyes scanning over the debris one last time before beginning to move towards the exit. The light of the sun floated through the holes in the missing ceiling in pale rays, gentle light as it filtered across the wreckage. Particles of dust and ash twirled in the beams of warm light, but just as Derek's body began to move with the other personnel, one of those rays touched upon something that he saw in his peripheral. Stopping his movements, forcing him back to where he was just standing, but this time making him fall to his knees in the broken debris. 

"Sir--"

"Wait!" Derek called out, holding his hand up as his other dug through the thick layers of rubble that tore at his bare fingers. For beneath the charred remnants of the building, the thin ray of light fell upon something that seemed out of place within a dense shadow. Sunlight glinted across a tiny diamond peaking out from beneath the rubble, sparkling a light twinkle in the midst of burned chaos and capturing Derek Morgan's attention immediately. For even as the sight was faint, buried beneath layers of broken and burned wall and ceiling, he knew that ring. He knew the sight of the subtle twinkling glow, for he'd been looking at that light everyday for the past six months. Derek saw the rising sun dance across that diamond every morning he woke with her in bed beside him, he saw it as she drove and it rested comfortably against the steering wheel. He knew what that diamond ring looked like on her finger, for he was the only person to have put it there. 

He couldn't speak as he heard the man calling out for him again, for Derek put all of his energy into lifting a large piece of the fallen ceiling from the debris. Her fingers peeked out beneath the ashes, they were still and limp, but he used them as his guiding map as Derek continued to dig her out of the rubble. He could hear the man rushing out behind him, for a paramedic as he caught sight of her. Derek's hands were scrapped raw as he dug deeper and lifted with all of his strength, every single piece of wreckage pinning her body to the floor. The air he breathed still burned his lungs and the ashes stung as they sunk deeper into the new wounds on his hands and the exposed flesh of his forearms, but he didn't care and he didn't stop. For with one last piece of fallen ceiling, he revealed her body. Clothed in the dress he had seen her in that morning, a light floral tone that he never knew he'd be so happy to see again. Although tainted by the staining of dark soot and her own crimson blood, she had never been more of a beautiful sight to grace his eyes than she was in that very moment.

Her skin looked as though it had been smeared in the soot that covered his own body, streaking shadowy marks across her unconscious body as though darkening ink dying her flesh. Jagged cuts and deep gashes lining her exposed skin up and down her body. Seeping dark blood that stained the concrete and loose debris beneath her. Derek knew she was bound to have broken bones, as he witnessed the bending in her extremities that made himself wince at the thought, but finding her, even in this frail condition, was already better than not finding her at all.

Derek released a harsh breath as his eyes welled with tears, as his fingers gingerly pressed against the flesh of her cheek. Feeling the warmth of the heat still engulfing the air around them, settling on her skin, along with the dryness of smudged smoke coating her cheek as though a second layer of skin altogether. But as his eyes watched her delicate frame, he could see the way her chest rose and fell, the action enough to make his own heart start again. "Wake up baby, please wake up."

The crunching of feet sounded behind him as paramedics crowded around him, not pushing him aside, but working closely enough to slide a backboard beneath her delicate frame. Derek didn't know if it was the sound of his voice repeatedly calling out her name softly, his fingers gently stroking down her blood stained cheek, or the movements from the paramedics that forced her consciousness to return, but he didn't care about the reason. All he cared about, was seeing the very faint fluttering of her eyelashes against the base of her cheekbones. Her eyebrows bent in deep furrows, out of pain or confusion he wasn't quite sure. But the lines in her softly scrunched forehead, appeared more prominent by the creases in the thick layer of dark ash covering her skin. Her lips wincing softly as her eyes tried to open, but eventually settled for a weak flutter that was soon shut once again. She wasn't coherent, Derek knew, but knowing she was alive was all that she needed to be in that very moment.

"I'm here sweetheart, it's me. I'm right here, I'm always going to be right here."

Derek Morgan realized, as he watched the paramedics carry her out of the wreckage and load her into the ambulance, that she was his gravitational pull. She was the force that grounded him, bringing him back into reality when the world felt a little too overwhelming. What eased his heart after hard days and kept his sense of hope alive in his soul, even after everything he'd seen that tried to take it away from him. He needed her, in an all consuming way. She was the center of his universe, his moon and stars and burning sun. She was the reason for everything and so Derek made a promise to himself, that he would forever be by her side. No matter where the world called him to be, he would always remain centered with her, right where he belonged. 

A/N: Wow, this one had a little bit of everything! 

There were dynamics about this piece that differed from some of my others ones I've written, throwing me for a while and definitely making me second guess most of it while I was writing and editing, but as I read it completed, I am very happy with how it turned out! This was the first piece, that I've really explored a deep and lengthy conversation/scene between Derek and one of his team mates. I'm not sure why I haven't written one yet, but I thought that the beginning between him and Penelope was the perfect way to start off this piece. I love their friendship, their unique and deep relationship and mutual respect and care for one another. I knew at some point, I would eventually create a scene for these two. Although the fact that I hadn't created a scene quite like that before, that dialogue driven moment between Derek and one of his close team mates, had me second guessing the choice, I thought that this dialogue/scene turned out really well and started this piece off on a lighter tone and in a comforting and familiar way!

I've also only had one other piece written from Derek's point of view, which again, I'm not sure why because I love exploring aspects of the story from his perspective! But I'm really happy with how it turned out. I hope you all enjoyed this piece, with it's angsty rollercoaster ride! I would love to hear your thoughts!❤

(I also wanted to take a moment to say that no matter how much I second guess my writing, lack the confidence in pieces I'm working on  and inevitably face doubts, discouragement and fears about what I might be creating, I just want to thank you all again for being a constant source of love and support and acceptance of the pieces I put out. Your encouragement, your words of pure kindness, your loyalty to the stories that I write, it drives me to create these pieces with all of my heart and soul. It warms my heart and keeps me going and writing. It validates the hard work and all of myself that I pour into these pieces, it pushes me to become a better writer and it truly means the world to me. Thank you for believing in me and my writing, even when I have moments when I might not always be able to believe in it myself.❤)