champagne problems x jemily/hotchniss

thirty-four: derek

i'm sorry for the midday update! It's mother's day and i've been cooking for my mom all day but i managed to squeeze out an update that i'm semi proud of🥳

happy readings and stay safe besties! -salem🤍

TW: physical trauma, hallucinations, swearing, angst, mentions of violence, nods of self harm
word count: 5114

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Derek: "Grief is not as heavy as guilt, but it takes more away from you." Veronica Roth.

"Derek! Go! I got this!" JJ yelled as she held the other unsub at gunpoint.

Derek didn't hesitate to take off running to chase after the unsub. He followed behind her and was closing the distance. The woman turned down an alleyway. Derek was close behind her. Just as he was about to aim his gun, the woman body-slammed Derek into a dumpster. Derek's gun fell as her arm pressed right against Derek's throat. He tried to fight back when he took a good look at the woman.

Dark black hair, white porcelain skin. Slowly the woman turned into Emily.

"Emily," Derek said softly and tried to get the woman off of his throat. She only pressed down tighter. Derek's vision was getting fuzzy as she smiled cynically at him. "E-Emily."

Then suddenly, there were three gunshots fired. The woman was falling right to the floor. Derek got up, gasping for air as he turned to see who shot her.

Spencer stood there with a slight smile on his face. He holstered his gun as he walked up to Morgan.

"You okay?" he asked as Derek hunched over and felt sick to his stomach. He tried to shake the vision of Emily from his mind. Emily wouldn't have hurt him. "Derek?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Derek said and cleared his throat.

"What happened?" Spencer asked as Morgan stood up and took a deep breath in and then out.

"Nothing. She just got me good," Derek said and didn't say anything else as he walked off.

"What happened?" Hotch asked as he walked up to Derek and Spencer. Morgan practically blew him off as he tried to shake the image of Emily attacking him from his head. "Morgan."

"Can you give me a minute?" Derek yelled back. Aaron raised his eyebrows as the two men were staring down the other. "Damn woman had me in a chokehold, and I'm still recovering. So I'm sorry if I don't want to play one million questions right now."

"Excuse me?" Hotch asked again as the two men took a step towards the other. Spencer's eyes were flicking back and forth between the two. Derek clenched his jaw as he kept his eyes down to the floor. "Take a walk. Now."

Derek held his tongue as he walked off, taking off his vest. JJ and Rossi passed him, glancing between the two men. Morgan threw his vest into the SUV before walking down the street. His feet continuing to move as his mind went a million miles an hour.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Derek sighed as he finally stopped and grabbed his phone. "Morgan."

"Hey. JJ told me to call you. Is everything okay?" Penelope asked as she twirled her pen in her hand. Derek scoffed as he hung his head down. "What's going on?"

"What's going on?" Derek asked as he chuckled. "Hotch is having some sort of power trip. I got knocked down by our unsub, and instead of giving me a few seconds to comprehend what just happened. He fucking wants to ask a million questions."