itinere | open | so I keep doin' my own thing; walkin' tall against the rain

Entry tags:

{criminal minds: derek morgan

open | so I keep doin' my own thing; walkin' tall against the rain

Derek had somehow gotten away with not getting sick more than a headache that was just getting worse and worse as time moves on. It was never so bad that he couldn't work though it though, not as bad as so many others in the city (knock on wood). So every morning he went into the rec center to put in a full day's work. Every evening he went to check on those people he knew here in Itinere who were sick. He took them food and medicine and whatever else they might need. And he tried not to get sicker himself.

At the rec center, throughout each day, Derek stayed busy. Some days he worked with the treadmills, weights and parallel bars. Some days he worked with the punching bag and settled in a training room to go through his judo moves. Some days he did laps in the pool. Some days he was out on the basketball courts shooting some hoops.

Every day, he helped out whoever came into the place. While people are sick, after people are feeling better. Derek is there.

When Derek isn't at the rec center he can be found around the City in various places. Sometimes he's at the market picking up odds and ends. Sometimes he's at the park walking or jogging on the trails with earbuds in his ears, music from his iPod blaring loudly in his ears. Sometimes he's driving down the streets and up into the twists and turns of the roads in the mountains on his bike from home, which had magically appeared recently. Sometimes he's stopping at the burger joint, because Derek has a hard time resisting a good burger now and then. But really, who doesn't?

ooc: Open catch all for Derek all the way into June. So even if you're sick, you can chat with him when you aren't sick anymore too.

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"She's amazing. She always calls me her baby boy and my sisters call me their baby brother... no matter how old I get." He's forty-one. And he's still forever the baby. Not that he seems to mind all that much. In fact, he wouldn't change it at all.

His fingertip glides down her jawline as she looks back to him. "And don't think I didn't milk bein' the baby for all it was worth." He's only kind of joking about that. Sometimes he milks it pretty hard, even now.

"I think she'd like you." And he means that.

"Do you?" Really, Venus looks like - and feels like - she finds that hard to believe. Not that she's calling him a liar, far from. Just ... well, her default is to expect others not to like her.

"Baby boy," she coos, smiling again. "I like that. And I like you, sugar." In case that isn't entirely obvious as she lies in this big tub with him, naked.

"I do." Derek says with a nod. His mother had accepted Penelope who is as sassy and quirky and different from the mold as they come. She'd accepted Reid who was so genius that he corrected and over-analyzed everything. She accepted anyone Derek was close to, just glad that Derek wasn't alone for as much as he steered clear of Chicago for reasons of his own.

"I'm telling you, she's the mom a guy could have. Take that to the bank." He grins at her.

Reaching for the sponge on the side of the tub, he takes it in one hand and pours some musk scented body wash on it. He starts to wash her, smoothing it over her shoulders, up her neck and down around each breast. "Feeling's mutual, pretty girl. I might have no idea what the hell I'm doin' sometimes but I enjoy bein' confused with you."

Arching her back almost on instinct, Venus rests her head back on his shoulder. "You're doing just fine, darlin'," she tells him. "If I could," she whispers, "I would like you to meet my son."

Had she talked about him? She isn't sure, keeping the boy close to her heart.

No, that is not something she had mentioned. His brows arch up though. Derek loves kids. He'd helped to take over the rec center Carl Buford had worked at once he had been sent to prison. And he volunteered at youth centers in the DC area. You see, there's a reason this rec center in Itinere is so near and dear to his heart. It's what he knows.

"I didn't know. I'd love to meet him if we ever get the chance." He says, every bit genuine about that. "How old?"

"Nearly eighteen," Venus says quietly, staring at the tiles of the tub wall. "He ... it was when I was had a ... I had a bout of sexual confusion. He doesn't know I'm his father and he won't, but ... he's a good boy. He thinks I'm his fun auntie Venus."

As long as the boy is safe, Venus can ask for no more.

That was complicated. And Derek felt sad that Venus hadn't been able to and couldn't be a parent to her son. The silver lining is that she still seems to be in his life in some capacity, as his Aunt Venus.

"I had a fun auntie Vaughn. She was almost like a mother to me when my mom was workin' so much." He says, as he continues to wash her. "Never underestimate the impact an Aunt can have on their niece or nephew."

Such a kind thing to say; it does bolster Venus's spirits, truly. "I suppose while I'm here, I won't have a chance to really do much," she says. "But as long as he's away from my mother and away from her influence, that has to be good, doesn't it?" Even dead, his mother could still do something terrible. It's better than the boy is far, far away.

"You gotta do what's right for your kid. Even when it's a difficult thing to do." He says with a light shrug of his shoulders. "In my line of work, I've seen all the mess that can happen when the right thing isn't done. It does more harm than anything, not making those difficult decisions."

He touches the sponge to her neck, just under her chin to lift that chin enough that he can steal a quick kiss. "You did what you think is best. Nobody can tell you it wasn't good and right for you. Nobody else can walk in your shoes and make judgments like that."

"You have an uncanny knack for sayin' just what will make me feel better," she tells him, her voice lightly, teasingly accusing. "Besides, not many can walk in my shoes period."

There's a little sass in that: but a size 11 high heel is quite literally a tough shoe to fill.

"You taste just as sweet as you look and sound, too. How did you manage that?"

"Hey, if I can help at all, I'm doin' good." Another kiss, this one to her temple after brushing one of her escaped layered curls back from her brow. It's so nice to make her feel good at all after what he'd put her through before.

He smirks. "You know I've always wondered how women walk in heels that high." He's not sure he could ever do it. "It looks painful. Hot, but painful."

He taps her shoulder and then gently guides her to lean forward a bit so he can wash her back with the sponge. The musky scent of his body wash fills the bathroom right now. "Gonna have to blame that on my mom, pretty girl. She raised some good kids."

"It's only painful if they don't fit well," Venus confesses as she wraps her arms around her knees. "Trust me when I say I found that out the hard way."

"The more you speak of your mama, darlin', the less I am thinking that there is even a chance of my measurin' up."

Perhaps mostly because Venus is not a girl, for starters.

"Trial and error, huh?" He asks around a deep chuckle. He can imagine trying different shoes and having to learn what works best. Especially for Venus, who, was not a girl in the strictest sense of the word. "Well at least you've got the legs for them. You do it right now, pretty girl.

Derek drops the sponge in the water letting it slip away amid a pool of floating bubbles. "That's just fine cause I don't need another mama. You just be you."

"That," she tells him. "I am very good at." She leans back to take a kiss before he snags the sponge, using it to run along his legs in the water. "And I can say that there is no one else quite like me. I think you are a unique specimen too."

He really hadn't expected her to wash him too, but it's sweet of her to push the sponge along his legs. In fact, it makes him grin with the remnants of that kiss lingering on his lips. Derek can't help but dip his head to kiss at the back of her neck, down over her shoulder. His hands smooth down along her arms. Just touching. Just kissing.

"Nah... I've met all kinds of people, even people like me. But I've never met anyone like you before." Venus has caught him off guard. And maybe some spell or drug and the conflicting emotions in the aftermath had pushed him at her. But this, whatever it is, is slowly taking on a life of it's own.

"That's good," she says with that touch of wryness and humor as well as sincerity. "I have to say, though," she says, turning her head, "I haven't met any like you, either. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, my profession has not allowed me to have many positive experiences with law enforcement. Nor did my choice of friends."

She leans back against his chest again, using the cloth on his arms,as she teases. "Had I know they could be as good looking as you, and as gorgeous, perhaps I would have sought them out sooner."

"You know what, I'm just gonna take the compliment with as much ease as you take mine." The grin is obvious in his tone. His arms stretch out around either side of her to give her room to wash.

"Your profession..." Derek says, trailing off. They have skirted around the topic several times and never really discussed it. He wasn't so oblivious that he couldn't glean what she did. But she had never come out and said it. And she has never made him pay for it. He has questions, he just has no idea how to go about asking about them.

Ah, yes.

Venus looks back at him, a little wary and a little curious. "I ... haven't had much experience doing anything but what I do. I could blame my mother, but ... I'm ... it's what I do."

There's a beat and she asks, "is that a problem?"

Derek grows quiet for a moment, not sure what questions aren't going to upset and hurt and what questions are okay. Either way, he has to know the answers. One arm wraps around her to trace up along her arm from wrist to shoulder and back down.

"Is it just because there's no other opportunities or... do you like doin' it?" He asks. Because if it's an opportunity problem, he could get her work as a receptionist at the rec center.

That's a tricky question that. "I'm not sure," she says, turning to face the wall of the tub again. "I am qualified to do much else." And yes, she is doing it. She likes being a domme at times, it's true, but for the most part ... her face makes it clear: it is not exactly her dream job.

"I didn't even graduate high school, you see. I .... " she shrugs, her chin to her chest.

"Nah, none of that. No puttin' yourself down." He brushes her hair back from her brow even as she's facing away from him.

"Pretty girl, I am pretty sure you could do whatever you set your mind to. I know it sounds cliche, but it's true." It might not be easy, but Derek likes to think that people are capable of amazing things. Maybe that's naive in a sense. There are some people that just don't have much of a chance. But he pushed and beat down every wall to get to where he is. He's seen others do that too.

He doesn't want to make her stop doing something she actually likes doing though, even though it settles just a bit uneasily with him. "Do you like doin' what you do?" He asks again.

Venus would not lie to Derek, not after all she's been through. So, that is why she says, "I like aspects of it. I like the power it gives me. But for the rest of it - for all of the other bits and bobs that go with it, I would not miss it, no." No, not by a long shot, the objectification, the dehumanization, the harshness of the life. No, she would not miss that.

"Like to be in charge, huh?" He asks, his voice light and teasing, but not so much so that it makes it seem that he isn't taking this conversation seriously. Because that couldn't be further from the truth. "Yeah, I got that earlier..." Earlier when he had tries to control her and she had quickly reversed it.

...and he had let her. Which was an entirely different set of thoughts and confusions.

He wraps hie arms tight around her, holding her against his body, her back to his front. For a few seconds he's quiet, just thinking before he speaks again. "The reception at the rec center can use somebody. If you want it. And if not... that's okay too."

For some reason, that offer just startles her enough to lean forward and turn to look back at him. "... don't you think that having me at your front desk might ... hamper business, darlin'?"

Having a big transsexual woman being the first thing to see might not exactly be a selling point, would it?

"I think if anyone's that kind of bigot, they probably shouldn't be up in my business anyway." Derek says, absolutely serious as his gaze meets hers. He has no room for that in his life.

He does have a unique perspective on it though. He grew up in a gang ridden neighborhood with a cop for a father, not to mention a father who was African American and a mother who was White and Irish. Don't think both of those things didn't cause problems for him. Even in the FBI, he'd worked cases in the South where the racism was strong.

He doesn't abide bigotry in any form. Because he's been on the wrong side of it too often himself.

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