Chapter Text
It was two days later that a clueless, overworked Derek Morgan went out to grab coffee for him and his colleagues. Technically they should’ve just been able to get coffee in their office building, but someone (Garcia) broke it while trying to get extra milk by doing a ‘hack’ she saw online. So they had to get their well-needed coffee from a nearby cafe and after a very intense game of rock paper scissors, it was decided that Derek was the one to get the whole department their hot drinks.
While walking to the coffee shop Derek had a weird feeling like he was being watched somehow. He blamed the raid they did around a week ago on a hideout of the case that they were investigating. It had been a pretty heavy one, Derek had been forced to shoot one of the goons as he was smuggling his gun to someone else.
The case was pretty difficult. The men that they had arrested from their raid refused to talk, this wouldn’t be so weird as a fact on its own, it was just that they truly seemed like they didn’t know anything. Derek would even go as far as saying the men were stupid . Like they were around when the plans were made, but didn’t understand a word of what was being said. Like they were given commands and rules to follow but they didn’t know why they were following them. Like they didn’t even know why they had joined the organization in the first place. And Derek could do nothing but find it incredibly weird. Who would hire such stupid people for their high-profile criminal organization? Maybe the leaders were dumb too.
The organization didn’t kill as often as others did too, the only bodies that they found and connected to this case were of people whose murder was an accident. Maybe they fell down the stairs, or they were tortured to the extreme to where their body couldn’t handle it anymore. They had found both victims and goons. The people in charge seemed to prefer kidnapping as a form of revenge, they had a couple more missing person cases that they had yet to find a body of.
Still a couple streets from the coffee shop, Derek passed by an alleyway when he heard a scream come from further down the small street. His instinct kicked as soon as the shout reached his ears and he quickly grabbed his gun, going towards the sound. He carefully approached what seemed to be the end of the alley and looked around in confusion. He was sure the scream came from this way. There was no one in sight, so he put his gun back in the holster on his hip.
The moment his hand was away from his hips he felt a hard blow to his head and before he could react, everything fated to black.
When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was being watched. He was confused for a second, waking up in an unfamiliar place felt weird. But then the memories from right before being unconscious came back to him. The coffee, the alley, the blow. Oh God, he got kidnapped! How didn’t he realize it was a trap? He had profiled they used kidnapping as a revenge tactic and now he lived that fate himself. How had he not realized it sooner?
Derek looked around frantically, searching for the culprit that did this to him. He took in his surroundings, the gray room, without a window or any furniture. The only thing that was in the room was the door, clearly locked. Derek tried to pull his gun but quickly saw that whoever had locked him up, had taken it from him.
After way too long, he saw that he was not the only one in the grim room. A blond girl sat in one of the corners looking zoned out at her feet. She didn’t look good, her state told him that she had been locked up in here for days, maybe weeks. He didn’t know how to announce his presence other than an awkward, fake cough.
She looked up, eyes widening as she registered that the man was awake.
“Oh, you woke up. That’s good. Are you Derek Morgan?”
Derek was surprised at the question. How could this random girl know his name? Who even was this? She must have sensed the question because she was quick to answer.
“I’m Morgan Brody, with the CSI. I work at the crime lab in LA. They had somehow mistaken me for you and kidnapped me. I’ve been here for around 5 days now.”
That explanation just raised more questions for Derek. LA? They were in Virginia. CSI? What did they have to do with this case? And even weirder-
“They mistook you for me? How ?”
The girl, Morgan, his brain supplied, laughed at his statement like it was an inside joke with herself.
“Trust me I wish I knew.” She said after she calmed down from her laughs. But Derek was still trying to process the information. This had to be a fever dream, there was no way this was real.
“No, but seriously how ? I mean no offense, but there is no way someone mistakes us! Ever! That’s actually crazy!”
“I know! I feel like the only thing we have in common is the name ‘Morgan’ and the fact that we work in criminology!”
He laughed at the absurdity of the situation, the blond started to giggle, and for a moment it was just that. These two people who didn’t know each other, and were forced into this situation together. Laughing.
“No, no! Don’t worry it gets better!” Morgan exclaimed, Derek looked up with amusement in his eyes.
“Like, okay it would be one thing if both our first names were the same or something, but they fucked even that up!” Oh God. That was completely hilarious, who would’ve thought that this big criminal organization was run by some of the biggest idiots that Derek had ever seen?
“So you work for the CSI right? How is that going for you?” Derek asked after a moment of silence, immediately Morgan piped up, excited to talk about her team.
“Oh, it’s amazing! I have such an amazing team, I have no idea how it happened but it really feels like we’re one big family you know?” She smiled at him and he smiled back because-
“Yeah, I do know.”
“Okay! So first of all there is our team leader, Russell. He is kind of weird but also incredible! Then there is Greg, he used to do DNA at the lab I think but now he is like one of the best CSI in the field! Oh, and Hodges! I feel like you would love Hodges, he is my best friend but let’s just say he is a bit unique-”
Morgan happily rambles about her team and after her initial introduction, Derek already feels like he knows the blonde's colleagues. After she goes into detail about their personalities, and adventures Derek finds that their teams are very similar but so different at the same time. They were truly all a big family and it felt kind of nostalgic listening to the girl.
She told him stories about her friend Hodges who had fallen in love with some Italian girl (who was almost certainly after a green card), she recited a story that she heard happened before she had joined her team, about Henry who worked at their lab. His infamous birthday party at a shutdown steak house made him crack up so much, he was laughing for almost 5 minutes straight. She talked about her girl trip with Sarah and Fin to a wellness center, and Derek laughed at her misery. He could relate, he too had some crazy things happen to him when he took a day off. She talked through her whole team and told about the craziest cases.
In return, Derek told his stories. He talked about Hotch, his stoic but kind-hearted boss who hadn’t smiled for the first years of Derek’s career as an FBI agent, but after some time warmed up to them. He talked about the things he and Hotch went through together. Morgan gave him a comfortable smile after Derek admitted that he missed his boss.
After that he talked about the banter he and Garcia shared, he told her about the nicknames they gave each other, and the embarrassing incidents when the phone was on speaker. Morgan had told him about their ‘computer guy’ called Archie and Derek had made a mental note to tell Penelope about him later.
They traded stories about Spencer and Hodges and talked about Emily and Sarah or JJ and Finlay. It felt good to talk about his experiences with someone who understood what the job took and had gone through similar things he had. Derek had found a new appreciation for all the lab work and investigating Morgan’s team had to do on a daily basis, and it seemed like the girl was interested in the psychology behind catching serial killers.
It took Derek a long time before he realized that he was actually having a lot of fun talking to her. He almost forgot they were kidnapped. Almost.
He was in the middle of dramatically retelling the time he jumped out of an ambulance 3 seconds before it exploded when he heard loud yelling outside of the door. He instinctively went to stand before Morgan, thinking that as the most physically fit one of the two, the least he could do was try to protect her.
The door broke down and a man he didn’t recognize stood before the duo. He was ready to attack the strange man, but Morgan had piped up in relief behind him.
“Russell!” She exclaimed and Derek relaxed slightly. The man smiled at the girl and looked like he was about to say something, but before the words could leave his mouth, Derek saw an all too familiar face come up behind him.
“Hotch!”