A Little Too Much | CM

1.11

The next few months flew by, Lia and Derek growing closer every day. 

The team had given up on trying to get information out of him after assuming they had broken up when he stayed at work on Valentines Day. Really this was because Lia hated the holiday and as much as Derek meant to her, she would rather spend the night at her apartment, watching the latest animated film with Henry whilst Will and JJ enjoyed a romantic night together.

In March, Lia had to turn down multiple advances from Clara's dad, Tyler. For some reason the man could not get it into his head that one, she had a boyfriend and two, she doesn't date her students parents. It didn't help her case that he thought her boyfriend was Jack's dad after seeing them talking after school on multiple occasions.

"You know I could treat you better than him right?" Tyler said, making Lia jump. 

"What?" Lia asked, her brain scrambling to regain control, not wanting to break down in front of Clara who was the only child left in her class. "Clara, why don't you take that book back to the library whilst I talk to your dad?" She said, although Clara wasn't the biggest gossip, she didn't need rumours about her personal life floating around the school.

"He rarely picks his kid up from school, it's always up to you or the nanny. Apparently he's away a lot for work, he probably wouldn't even realise if you were cheating on him." Tyler said, thankfully waiting until his daughter had left the room.

"Good job I'm not dating him then." Lia said, turning away from him in hopes he would take the hint and end the conversation.

But she was never that lucky. "Let me take you on a date sometime then?"

"I know you've been through a lot with your ex-wife Mr Meadows but dating your daughters teacher isn't going to solve it."

Lia hadn't told anyone about that, scared about how they would react.

----------

"Morning sleeping beauty." Derek teased as Lia emerged from his room wearing a sweatshirt she had found in his draws.

"Morning." Lia said, gladly taking the mug of coffee he offered to him.

"As much as I miss JJ, your brother being out of town is the best thing to ever happen." Derek said, walking over to where Lia had sat down on one of the barstools at his kitchen island and wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"Mhm." Lia agreed, taking a sip of her drink as she leant back against his chest.

JJ and Will had taken Henry away for a few days for their second anniversary despite Lia offering to take him so it could be more romantic, and maybe give her a niece. 

So being off work for spring break and not having Henry, Lia's natural reaction was to spend as much time as she could at Derek's apartment, even coming over to make dinner before he got home so it would be ready as soon as he arrived. And he wasn't complaining.

"Isn't today two years since the robbery?" Derek asked, Lia simply nodded before placing her half drunk mug on the island and shrugging out of his hold. "You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm just going to get dressed before you have to go to work." She said, with a smile. A smile he could tell was fake as it didn't quite meet her eyes.

"You know I don't mind you being here when I'm out. That's why I gave you a key." He reminded her. Getting her to accept the key had been a fight of its own but even after that, she didn't like to use it unless she had a specific reason such as making dinner. Her eating habits were back to her normal, one average meal at dinner and a small lunch, after Derek had supported her and slowly built her confidence back up to where it was before Christmas.

"I know, I just have some errands I need to run today." 

----------

"Trouble in paradise?" Emily teased as she leant on Derek's desk.

"What?" His head snapped up away from his phone where he had been waiting for Lia to reply to his text to see if she wanted to meet up for lunch.

"Your girl's been staying at yours for the past few days and you've been a lot happier than usual but now, you're checking your phone every few minutes." 

"2.56, roughly." Reid interjected.

"and you've got that look on your face."

"It's nothing."

"So, what's happened?" Emily pushed. 

"She just seemed a bit off this morning, and then rushed out to do errands." Derek explained.

"It would be a lot easier to give you advice if I knew her name, rather than calling her 'her' or 'she'. I mean you've been dating her for what? Six months? With no problems at all? Surely it's serious enough for you to introduce us."

"Five months actually." Derek corrected.

"We've got a robbery at a bank downtown. Hostage taker is demanding to speak to Agent Rossi." Hotch declared as he walked out of his office.

"Todays two years since the face-card robbery." Morgan said, immediately connecting the dots as he fought to stop the panic rising inside him.

"It looks like a copycat." Hotch agreed. "The director wants us at the scene because we handled the original case. As soon as we arrive, Dave and Prentiss start negotiations. Morgan, liase with MPD and Reid, I want you and Garcia to go over the security footage. They cut the feed seconds before they entered so work on IDing hostages."

Authors note: I'm so so so sorry!! I completely forgot to update yesterday! Was going to double upload as an apology but then I realised what point of the story we were at...