A Little Too Much | CM

1.09

By the time they made it back to Derek's apartment, Lia had mostly calmed down, her hands were still shaky and she was still on edge but the pounding of her heart and constricting of her lungs had stopped.

"I feel like I owe you some sort of an explanation." She stated as he locked the door behind them.

"You owe me nothing." Derek said, turning to face her. "If you want to tell me what happened, I'd like that but you know I'll never pressure you into doing something."

"I know and I want to tell you because if I trust you enough to take a step further in our relationship, I trust you enough to know what happened." Lia explained, Derek didn't say anything, he just nodded in understanding and lead her over to the sofa. "I've mentioned Justin haven't I?"

"He's your ex, you were together for seven years before you moved to DC." Derek recalled from their conversation on Christmas.

"That's the one. He was your stereotypical, blonde hair, blue eyes, muscular firefighter and he was incredibly charming, he'd won my dad over in ten minutes. Billy took a bit more persuading but not much. For context, I was teaching but living at home when we met but then Katrina hit and... well, you saw the state of my house so I moved in with Justin and that was when it started."

Lia paused to gather her thoughts but Derek knew exactly what was coming having seen it several times at work. "Just little things, he didn't like me meeting friends after work, when we'd go out he would shame me for eating anything more than a salad but it wasn't physical because he knew Billy would notice something was wrong." Lia explained. 

She felt like every ounce of strength in her feather-light form was holding back the tears that were starting to cloud her vision, wanting to make it through the story without stopping because once she stopped, she wouldn't be able to continue.

"And then, all on one day, his stars aligned. Billy moved to be with JJ and I found out I was pregnant. He convinced me I'd be better off not working, home schooling our kids and being a firefighters wife. He started to hit me occasionally because he could leave marks now, I didn't leave the house. Then one day, he'd had a bad day at work, he got violent and I miscarried. The next four years are a blur, I never went back to work and I had three more miscarriages. He never hurt me enough that I needed to go to the hospital and if our neighbours called the police, I would just say I was related to William LaMontagne, they'd know either my dad or my brother and drop it."

"You shouldn't have gone through all that on your own." Derek said, not knowing what else to say.

"But I did, and if I hadn't then I wouldn't be here now. I'd still be teaching in New Orleans."

"That's a very positive outlook on it." Derek said quizzically because Lia wasn't the most optimistic person he'd ever met.

"It's what JJ says. When I first moved to DC I was a wreck, I felt like I didn't have a purpose, I didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't think I'd ever feel safe or normal again but when I'm around you... it's like... I don't know, I feel invincible and like no ones going to hurt me ever again."

"Maybe it's because you know I'll never let anyone hurt you ever again, and that's a promise." Derek says, trying to inject some humour into the conversation.

Lia knew there was no way he could guarantee that but she knew he would do everything in his power and that meant a lot.

"Can I do something crazy?" Lia asked, cutting the silence that had grown between them back. Derek barely had time to nod in response before she easily manoeuvred her small form so that she was straddling his lap and pressing her lips to his. Her hands rested lightly on the sides of his face and once he had processed what was happening, Derek placed his hands gently on her hips.

They stayed like that for a few moments before Derek pulled away and as soon as he did so, Lia looked down, scared she had done the wrong thing. He had wanted to make sure she wasn't just doing this because it's what she felt obligated to do but the look on her face told him all he needed to know.

He raised one hand from her hip to her chin and used his index finger to lift her gaze so she was looking at him before kissing her again, this time it was more passionate and less tentative.

"Justin would always tell me no one else would ever want me because I'm so fat and ugly but you make me feel wanted." Lia admitted as they pulled apart for air, resting their foreheads together so they could look into each others eyes.

"Everything he told you was a lie, you know that right?" Derek asked, lifting his head and pressing a kiss to her forehead as she nodded. "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty hungry. What do you fancy to eat? We can order whatever you want." He said.

Lia had repeatedly said how much she hated it when he profiled her but when he was worried about her, he couldn't help it. The bags under her eyes, the baggy clothing and Justin telling her she was 'fat and ugly' were all the signs he needed to know she wasn't taking care of herself currently. So he would do it for her.

"Can we get pizza?" Lia asked, moving back to where she was sat previously.

"Any preference?" Derek asked, reaching for his phone.

"Pepperoni, not deep dish though Mr Chicago." Lia joked.

"How can you not like deep dish?"

"One, it's like 700 calories per slice. Two, there was this place back home that did 'authentic Chicago Deep Dish' and it was the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten." Lia listed.

"When we go to Chicago, we're going to Giordano's and you're trying their deep-dish." Derek said, pointing his phone at her before standing up to order the pizza.

----------

Lia managed to eat two slices of pizza and a few fries before she started feeling sick and had to stop, Derek noticed this and moved her plate away as if to say that he wasn't forcing her.

Only twenty minutes later and she was asleep, still facing the TV which was playing some random movie they had stumbled across. It sounded cliché but Derek couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked when she slept.

She didn't look very comfortable, so Derek waited until he was certain she was in a deep sleep to pick her up and move her into his bed.

And he was very thankful that he did as only a few minutes later, his phone rang. They had a case.

He wrote a quick note and leant it up against the fruit bowl to grab her attention and placed his spare key next to it before leaving.

----------

"This just proves my theory that serial killers don't understand the idea of public holidays." Emily complained as she walked into the round table room.

"At least you didn't have plans." Derek added.

"Do those plans happen to include your mystery girlfriend by any chance?" JJ teased.

"Now everyone's here, I can in fact tell you, this serial killer does understand the idea of public holidays." Garcia said, taking extra caution to make sure she wasn't looking at the photos as they appeared on the screen behind her. "You're going to Wisconsin where every night since Christmas eve, families have been killed some time in the middle of the night. No signs of forced entry and CSU have found traces of blood around the chimney of all the houses."

"You're not saying Santa's killing people now?" Emily said, looking at Garcia like she was crazy.

"That's one of the conclusions local media have drawn. They're calling him The Santa Strangler as he is strangling the parents before suffocating the children in their sleep." Hotch said. "Local PD wants us there as soon as possible as they are expecting another murder tonight. Wheels up in twenty."

"So what were these plans?" Prentiss asked curiously once Rossi and Hotch had left the room, leaving the younger members of the team.

"Nothing important, we were just going to watch some films but she fell asleep not long before I got the call." Morgan explained.

"So you left her at your place?" JJ asked.

"In our line of work?" Prentiss added.

"Yeah." Morgan answered like it was no big deal, because to him it wasn't.

"You must really trust her."