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𝑬 𝑽 𝑬 𝑹 𝑮 𝑹 𝑬 𝑬 𝑵
❝ 𝚗𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎, 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚜 ❞

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ㅤ𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓 as she ran on one of the treadmills in the gym just a few floors below the BAU's offices. She was barely aware of her surroundings, music flowing to her ears through her earphones plugged into her iPod that was in her hand, playing You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC.

She was sifting through the recent events in her mind, the past few cases seemingly stuck in a loop. The first one after the case in Bradshaw College was one that she knew would affect Gideon the most as it was directly related to the man who made him famous—Adrian Bale. A forger, one who was a fan of his bombs, made waves that frightened a lot of people. Of course, the team was able to solve the case, but at the cost of nearly getting half of them blowing up with the unsub.

This included May.

Her ears rung even at the thought of it; though she wasn't necessarily traumatized—she's quite desensitized to near-death experiences—the sound of the bomb blowing up still echoed. But one thing she was concerned about, though, was how loud it seemed for her compared to Hotch and Elle.

The next case was one located in San Diego, and it also just so happened to take place on May and Spencer's 24th birthday. Right before they got the call, the two were surprised with a large chocolate cake. While Spencer tried his best to blow out the candles, May was crossing her arms as she stood beside Derek.

Even while sporting a weird, colorful 'Happy Birthday' hat, her face was set into her default resting-bitch-face. She watched as Elle, Derek, and JJ pranked Spencer with trick candles, trying her hardest not to reveal to Spencer the truth; it wasn't like she was in on the joke, but the second she spotted them, she knew what they were.

How couldn't she? She pulled the same prank on Jacob on his seventh.

When they got to San Diego, May offered to stay with Spencer in the station for the most part, a lingering question on the back of her mind. Recently, after their case in Seattle, it was starting to feel like she was a stranger to her own body; she's gotten more muscular without doing the work for it, her senses seemed heightened. It felt weird, and she didn't want to discover anymore changes by doing the physical work, so she stayed and did more brainwork.

But that plan didn't stick, of course, not when the whole team set out to watch the neighborhood. May ended up with Hotch, her gun securely on her person as they scanned the area. One minute she was drumming her fingers to the beat of Hotel California, the next she was running towards where the unsub nearly took another victim.

Now, it was several days later, and the tap on her shoulder broke her out of her stupor. Without warning, she switched the treadmill off and turned around to throw a punch at whoever did it, her survival skills suddenly going haywire. Luckily for Derek Morgan, her fist stopped just a centimeter away from his pretty face.

"Shit, I could've knocked you out," May cursed, jumping away from the running deck of the machine. She pulled off her earphones and paused her music.

"Well, I'm glad you've got great reflexes," he smirked. "But you wouldn't have been able to knock me out in one punch."

"You wanna bet?"

Derek raised his hands up in defense, the smirk on his face only growing. "How about a spar when we get back from our case?"

She frowned. "What case?"

"You will follow instructions carefully," Spencer began, reading from the scanned copy of the ransom note sent to Trish Davenport's father. "You will do this to ensure the safety of your daughter. You will wait for the call. You will answer the call at 8PM. You will write down the instructions and follow them to the letter."

Hotch took a deep breath. "That gives us less than nine hours to get to Connecticut, work up victimology on Trish Davenport and prepare her father for the ransom drop."

"How do we know the letter's real?" Gideon spoke up, eyes squinted slightly as he scrutinized the TV screen.

"Uh," Hotch pressed a button on the remote, showing a different window. "The handwriting is a match for Trish's. He dictated it to her, and they found saline on the paper."

May sighed from her place behind Gideon. "Her tears."

"He never says 'I'," Derek realized. "He doesn't say 'I will call,' he says 'you will answer the call'. He's distancing himself from the kidnapping. If he said 'I', he'd be taking responsibility for it."

"There's also another missing element," Hotch said.

"No mention of the police," Elle pointed out. "Ransom notes almost always forbid police involvement."

"So is he expecting law enforcement to get involved?" Hotch asked Gideon.

"Well," the man replied, "if he's expecting us, let's not disappoint him."

As the team dispersed to get ready for the flight, Spencer turned to look at May with a frown. "You're right, he is getting even more dramatic."

"I told you!" May giggled, slinging her arm around his shoulders. She had already showered—as fast as she could physically make it—and was dressed out of her workout clothes. She wore a white shirt underneath a gray, zip up hoodie, a pair of black baggy pants, and her feet clad in black and white sneakers. Her black hair was left untouched, still damp. "Now, come on!"

They had their usual debriefing on the plane, before the finally arrived in Connecticut. For once, May opted to join Elle and Derek on the field—much to the latter's delight—and they all stared at Cheryl Davenport, who was laying on the ground.

It was Derek who questioned it first, May trailing behind him, her eyes never straying from Cheryl's position. Elle had already walked closer to the girl.

"What's she doing?" Derek asked.

"Lying on the road," a male agent answered.

"Yeah, we see that. But why?"

A different agent, a female this time, replied, "She's trying to get a feel for what happened to her sister."

"By lying on the ground?" There was clear disbelief in the man's voice.

"The girl spent her teenage years perfecting ways to ditch her bodyguards," the male agent told them.

"We're just happy she's in our line of sight," the female followed.

That's when the both of them walked towards Elle, looks of confusion still on their faces. Derek turned to her as he walked, "I honestly don't understand...that."

May chuckled. "I don't know, I mean, she and Trish are twins. You know the whole 'twin thing'?"

He scoffed. "As if that's real."

"Hey!" She protested. "I don't know about you, but I've seen that 'twin thing' happen before my very eyes. My younger sisters, Rachel and Rebecca, are twins. I remember it so clearly..."

Elle hummed, beginning to listen to the story. "What happened?"

"They were probably around nine," she began, stopping right beside her fellow brunette, "Rachel was at a sleepover with one of her friends, and Rebecca stayed home 'cause she got really sick with a stomach bug. I was the one taking care of her that night, spoon feeding her chicken soup when all of a sudden she goes, 'Rachel's sad.' And I...didn't really know what to say. But then, the next day when dad picked Rach up from her friends, lo and behold, she started crying in my arms, telling me that the kids there pulled a pretty terrible prank on her. Something about locking in her in a closet."

"Yeah, I don't buy it," Derek shook his head. "I mean, what if Rachel just called her twin and told her?"

"Did you not hear me say that I was taking care of Rebecca that night? She never picked up the phone."

Derek just gave her a small smirk paired with a shrug of his shoulders before turning his attention the the girl still on the ground. "Cheryl Davenport?"

"Shh," the girl scolded, almost desperately, as she kept her eyes trained on the sky above. "Just a minute. No, I'm not crazy, I'm lying here for a reason."

Derek gave May an incredulous look, but she only mouthed 'twin thing'. He rolled his eyes as he turned to look back at Cheryl who finally set herself up, frowning as she looked around, an almost spaced-out look on her face. May could only watch.

Cheryl stood up. "He dragged her from the car." She walked forward a little and pointed at the ground. "This is where she fell. Trish is a fighter; she wouldn't have gone quietly. Not even with a gun pointed at her."

Elle looked at her file, scanning it before glancing at May and Derek. "She's right. There are nail marks on the car seat."

"So you believe your sister's still alive?" Derek asked Cheryl.

"I know she's still alive," Cheryl stated.

"You know the way...twins know," Elle responded.

"Not the 'I can feel my twin's pain' crap," the blonde rolled her eyes. "If you stick her with a needle, I don't cry out. But if something is bothering her, if something is wrong, I can feel it. Even from a thousand miles away at college."

May took a quick glance at Derek who began to walk away, but shifted her gaze back to Cheryl's. "You study physics, right?"

Cheryl turned to her. "If you're asking why a science major would believe in something non-scientific, I don't. I just know what I feel. My feeling is that my sister is still alive."

"I believe you," May stated. "Your feelings. My sisters were like that."

"Twins too?"

"Mhmm," she affirmed. She avoided both Elle and Derek as she focused on Cheryl, knowing that any more disbelief might make her less compliant about the whole thing. But it wasn't like she was lying. "Felt each other's emotions."

"How old are they?" Cheryl asked.

"Nineteen, your age."

Cheryl hummed. "Are they living separately?"

"Yeah," May sighed. "Rachel got a scholarship Washington state and fled the coop just like I did. Rebecca got married as soon as she turned eighteen and moved to Hawaii. They're very far away from each other."

The blonde pondered for a second. "Are they...are they still close?"

"No matter the distance, twins will always be twins. Don't forget that."

"You think Cheryl's a whack job because she claims she can feel her sister's anxiety?" May wondered, giving Derek a blank stare as she crossed her arms, standing beside Elle.

They were now in the Davenport home, preparing for the ransom call. They had just prepped Evan Davenport for the ransom call, and now they were just waiting for the kidnapper to make his move.

"I never said whack job," Derek quickly retorted, earning him a snort from both women.

"Actually, there may be a physiological basis for it," Spencer stated as soon as he was stood before them, earning him the trio's attention.

"Don't ask," Derek muttered to Elle.

"Reversed asymmetry monozygotic eggs split late between nine to twelve days," Spencer continued. "The DNA matches right down to the very last stranded code and there's sporadic documentation of shared physiological pain."

"And you believe it?"

"No, I'm just saying it's possible. I don't know everything. I mean, despite the fact that you think that I do."

"I never said that. When have I ever said that?"

"Every day since I met you."

"Literally three hours ago," May scoffed.

"This morning at breakfast," Elle added.

Hotch surprisingly joined in. "Yesterday when he beat you at cards." He glanced at his watch. "Um, we've got one minute."

Derek stared. "Anybody ever heard of sarcasm?"

"Mhmm," Spencer and Elle chorused.

But it was May who resorted to mocking him playfully. "Anybody ever heard of sarcasm?" She made a point by lowering her voice and making a face.

He rolled his eyes, wrapping an arm around her waist as they walked back towards the dining room, pulling her to him. "Snarky."

"You love it," she poked her tongue out.

He chuckled. "You know I do."

Immediately, she groaned. "When will you stop flirting with me, Derek Morgan?"

"It's my thing," he defended. "But I'll only stop if you agree on letting me take you out on a date."

May blinked. "Yeah, okay."

He sighed. "May, you know I've been asking for a while."

"Yeah, and you know I see you flirt with other girls," she rolled her eyes.

"Come on, May," he groaned. "I'm being serious!"

"And I am too," she huffed. "I don't wanna be played."

"May--"

"We have work to do, Agent Morgan," she gave him a pointed look, cutting him off. "Please remember that."

She turned away and headed over to where everyone was, ignoring the feeling of his eyes on her back. Afterall, she knew what kind of man Derek Morgan was. And though she admittedly does like him as a friend, she can't see herself ever being more.

If he wanted to score a date with her, he's got to stop being available to everyone else.

And he wouldn't be Derek Morgan if he wasn't. At least, in May Black's mind. 

author's note: i personally don't really like this chapter lol

but it's the only thing i can come up with that could move the story and add more to the characters' relationships with each other, so i hope everything made sense!

in case it got confusing (the relationship between may and derek): he's been somewhat pining over her for a while ever since he met her. he's interested in her, but he's still kinda 'open' and constantly flirts with other women, so she cannot really see past his flirtatious self despite knowing that he feels something for her. so, it's why she always turns him down. sometimes, she flirts back, but always playfully because she thinks he's always just playfully flirting with her. because of this conversation he'll definitely try to show that he's truly serious about her, which will slowly change his interactions with other female characters in the show (except probably with penelope; still unsure if i should "change" it or have her included in the story conflict somehow).

i hope you guys like this chapter, tho. and i'll see y'all next time! <33