1.10

4.7K 134 5
                                    

The team managed to catch the unsub in two days so they were back in DC the day before New Years eve and after some persuasion Rossi was hosting a party for the team and family.

"Why don't you see if Amelia wants to come?" Hotch asked JJ as they stepped off the elevator to be greeted with Garcia who was eager to discuss their party.

"Amelia?" Prentiss asked.

"Will's sister." JJ explained. "I will but it's not really her thing." She answered Hotch.

"You bringing your girlfriend Morgan?" Prentiss asked in a teasing tone.

"If you don't I will call her and do it myself." Garcia cut him off before he even got a chance to open his mouth.

"I don't want to overwhelm her with one of Rossi's parties." 

"That's such a bad excuse." JJ commented.

"Everyone head home, we'll catch up on the paperwork in the new year." Hotch declared, making everyone very happy.

"We will see you tomorrow." Garcia said, entwining her arm with Emily's and dragging her out of the room and towards her office.

"What are you doing?" Emily questioned enroute.

"You are calling Derek's girlfriend and inviting her to Rossi's." Garcia stated simply, closing the door behind them.

"Why me?"

"JJ would talk us out of it and I would get distracted." Garcia said as she began to type.

"And how do you plan on getting her number? We don't even know her name?" Emily said.

"Reid said he had her saved in his contacts as Blondie, so I just hack into his phone... and there we go." Garcia said as the number popped up onto the screen.

"Can you at least get her name so I know who I'm calling?" Emily asked, leaning over Garcia's chair.

"It's registered to... the Louisiana State Police department." Garcia said, the confusion etched on her face. 

"But he doesn't date cops?" Prentiss recalled, equally as confused. 

"Just call it, see if she has an accent." Garcia said impatiently.

"Hello?"

"Hi, my names Emily Prentiss, I work with Derek." Emily said, shaking her head to Garcia to confirm she didn't have an accent.

"Oh? Is he okay?"

"Everything's fine, I just wanted to invite you to a New Years party that one of our friends is hosting as Derek is reluctant but we're eager to meet you." Prentiss explained.

"I'd love to but I've already got plans with my family, another time maybe?"

"Okay, I will let you know next time we're doing something." Emily said, mainly for Garcia's sake.

"She seems really nice!" Garcia exclaimed as soon as Emily hung up the phone.

"She's not got an accent though, so why is her phone registered to Louisiana?" Emily asked, her pessimistic side shining through.

"Maybe she's got family there and she lived there for a few years?" Garcia reasoned. 

"Maybe." Emily said unsurely.

----------

"Hey babe." Derek answered his phone, having checked the caller ID before hand.

"Babe? That's new. Oh, is J with you?"

"Yeah, I'm just about to get in my car, is everything okay?" Derek said with a smile as she instantly picked up on the use of the new nickname, JJ also catching it.

"Yep, I'm all good. I just got off the phone with one Emily Prentiss and just wanted to make sure everything was okay." Lia explained.

"I'm going to kill them." Derek said, JJ's head snapping up from where she was unlocking her car when she heard the threat. 

"No, you're not Derek. It was alright, I just told her I had plans with my family and she didn't question it." Lia said, trying to calm him down as she heard the click of his car door closing.

"They're probably pulling background info on you as we speak, which will get back to JJ, then Will." Derek said.

"I know Garcia's good, but my phones not registered to me. It's registered to the Louisiana Police Department so that Justin wouldn't be able to track me."

"Where are you?" Derek asked.

"My place, planning lessons for when we go back." Lia said. 

"Have you eaten yet?" He asked.

"Nope, but I've been craving takeout all day." Lia said, knowing where he was going.

"Thai?"

"Please."

----------

After unlocking and opening the door to her apartment, Lia kissed Derek whilst swiping the food out of his hands.

"Hello to you too." Derek teased, following her as she walked into the kitchen to get cutlery. 

"Sorry, I just haven't felt like eating all day." She admitted, hating herself as soon as the words left her mouth.

Derek wrapped his arms around her stomach from behind and she instinctively froze before relaxing back against his chest. "As long as you eat something now."

Passing him his food, Lia lead them back into the living room and sat on the sofa. "Sorry about the mess." She said with a small laugh, noticing the mess that covered the coffee table which she often used as a desk as she was happiest sat on the floor, a trait that came from doing homework in the corner of her fathers office as a teen.

They ended up putting a random show on whilst they ate in silence. Lia couldn't finish her food but despite knowing Derek was a profiler, she sat and pushed the food around the container to make it look like she had eaten more than she actually had.

"Can I ask you something?" Derek asked, causing panic to set in to Lia's bloodstream as she overthought the possible things he could want to ask.

"Sure."

"Why does Will call you Shelly?" He asked, carefully studying her reaction to make sure it was a question she was comfortable answering.

"So you know Lia's short for Amelia right? Well Amelia isn't my actual name, it's Michelle and Amelia is my middle name." Lia explained. "So when we were kids, Will obviously would call me Michelle which shortened to Shelly. Then when I moved to DC, JJ noticed how I would freeze when she called me Michelle so she started calling me Amelia and it stuck." She paused, waiting for him to say something, but he didn't know what to say. "I prefer Amelia though, Michelle makes me sound old." She added, panicking that she had left the story in a place that make it awkward for him to reply.

"I hate that everything in your life reminds you of him." Derek said.

Lia paused for a second as she tried to think of something to prove him wrong; running? No. Holidays? No. "I became a teacher because of my eighth grade English teacher. She used to let me sit in her room at lunch to get all my homework done."

Authors note: We just hit 1k reads which is insane!! Thank you all so much for all the support and I wish I could've given you a better chapter to say thank you. This chapter is a bit of a filler as we are only a few chapters away from the season finale of sorts!

A Little Too Much | CMWhere stories live. Discover now