itinere | Open | This isn't my scene

Entry tags:

{criminal minds: derek morgan

Open | This isn't my scene

When Karrin put a gloved hand on the doorknob at her crime scene and stepped through, Itinere was not the sight that she expected. By the time she got her bearings, though, the door had slammed shut behind her, and it refused to budge. This didn't look like anything she'd expect in the Nevernever, at least, but where else would a Way take her, and what was that doorway if it wasn't a Way?

She unholsters her gun in one easy movement, trying to ignore the voice in her head reminding her that if this is the faerie realm, firearms may not work at all. Karrin has neither mail nor sword on her. She was armed for Chicago, not wherever this is.

And she can't get back. This is Karrin's second offense when it comes to disappearing during an ongoing investigation. Coming so close on the heels of her first, it bodes anything but well for her shaky career. She's already gone from Lieutenant to Sergeant this year.

Anyone who encounters Karrin on her first day will find her in uniform, armed, and suspicious.

Even once time has passed and she has some grasp of what's happened, if not how, Karrin keeps wary eyes open. She investigates every corner of the city, this time in plain clothes and with her gun concealed. If a building is public, she may have stopped in. If it's private, she won't linger, but she isn't above glancing around corners and vaguely in the direction of open windows as she walks past.

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One of those public places that Karrin enters happens to be the rec center. The building is fairly massive, housing both indoor and outdoor pools and basketball/volleyball courts, a full workout room, racket ball courts and sparring rooms for teaching classes. Adjoining the building are fields for Baseball, Football and Soccer. Basically anything you could want for your work out or sports needs.

Derek is standing at the front desk while his usual receptionist is out to lunch. Upon seeing the new face, one he can't recognize from either the rec center or around Itinere itself, he offers her an easy grin and a lift of his chin in greeting.

"Hey. Haven't seen your face around here before." He says.

For lack of a dojo, the big rec center is the closest thing to familiarity that Karrin's seen since she got here. Training is a daily fact of her life. She's a tiny woman in a male-dominated profession that requires her to hold her own in life-threatening situations. When she first joined the family profession, Karrin looked more like a cute high school cheerleader than a cop. If she couldn't beat most of them in a spar or a marksmanship contest, she would've been laughed off the force. Instead, she clawed her way up through the ranks, surviving even a banishment to Special Investigations, where Chicago P.D. careers go to die.

If there's a gym, and she's stuck here, Karrin will be a frequent visitor. She heads through the front door.

Everyone she's caught a glimpse of so far seems like a garden variety human, at least some of them presumably brought here the same way she was. Derek is no exception. She purses her lips before offering a small answering smile to that welcoming grin. "I'm new," she tells him dryly as she approaches the desk.

Karrin looks up at him, not even noticing the need to crane her neck back. At five feet, almost everyone is taller than her. She's been looking up for a very long time. Offering a hand to shake, she says more genuinely, "Karrin Murphy. I take it you've been here awhile?"

His reasons for keeping up with his ability to fight are much the same; proving himself. The context is different though. And the reason he had wished the rec center here is very specific too. He knows how important a place like this can be in so many respects for so many people. If he's not an Agent, then this is where he'd want to be. Itinere seems to have understood that, creating this place just for him, seemingly overnight so long ago.

Derek takes her hand, shaking it firmly, followed by a nod. "Yeah, it's been awhile. Good to meet you Karrin." He likes people who give both their first and last names. It's usually a sign that they have nothing to hide. "Derek Morgan. I answer to both names." Some people call him Derek. Some call him Morgan. He has no preference.

Letting go of her hand, he steps around the front desk. "There's lots to do here to help you let off some steam. What's your poison?" He asks.

"I do too. Murphy at work usually, but Karrin's fine outside of the precinct." She does have a preference in her professional life. It was too hard to be taken seriously, and being one of many Murphys wasn't a bad thing. Older cops, the few who served with her father, can always get away with Karrin or even Karrie, but no one else even tries for the feminine first name. Answering to surnames is common enough in law enforcement anyway. Here, she doesn't much think it matters.

A good handshake, not weak or testing strength, and probably the right thing to say. She grins ruefully. Karrin does tend to have a fair amount of steam to work off. "Martial arts, particularly aikido. If there's no dojo in town, you'll probably see me in here most days."

Every day until that door opens again. She's supposed to be in Chicago. That's where her job is, and the people she swore to protect.

"Precinct. You're a cop." It's a statement of fact rather than a question. He has yet to meet any other law enforcement here, which isn't so much a bad thing as this place can be pretty Stepford most of the time. Seriously, a place that gives you almost anything you ask for with minimal crime if any at all? Well... Derek couldn't complain too much. It could be worse.

But there's a certain camaraderie between law enforcement that you couldn't fine anywhere else. People who understand the ins and outs and red tape and pitfalls and triumphs of doing one of the hardest jobs in the world. Derek feels an instant bond, knowing Karrin is like-minded with him in that respect. And he has a feeling she would be glad to know he's of the same persuasion as well.

He lets go of her hand. "Supervisory Special Agent with the BAU in the FBI out of Quantico." He says, belatedly explaining that since not even all law enforcement knew what the BAU was. "Behavioral Analysis Unit."

She nods.

FBI is probably the least welcome branch of law enforcement when it comes to camaraderie with police, at least in Karrin's experience. But she doesn't see any evidence of friction or resentment in Derek's reaction, so she'll grant him the same. Far be it from her to go looking for trouble or conflict. Enough finds her as it is. "Sergeant, Chicago P.D.'s Special Investigations division."

Karrin is self-aware enough to know that her face still sours a little at the word Sergeant, but she hasn't quite trained that out of herself yet. It's a new introduction. She still forgets occasionally and answers the phone as Lieutenant Murphy, and it's always a sucker punch when she has to correct herself. Given Derek's background, she puts the chances of it slipping past him unnoticed at about the same as the odds of pigs flying past the rec center windows in the next five seconds. Maybe he'll at least do her the courtesy of refraining from questions for the time being.

"My ex-husband is FBI, but I won't hold it against you," she says, wry humor in her voice and a hint of a smile to show she's joking. Mostly.

Derek has never fully understood the animosity between local cops and federal agents. Yes, he knows that the local cops don't like having their toes stepped on even when a case crosses state lines. But ultimately, they're all on the same team. That's the way Derek sees it anyway. The BAU only goes in on very specific cases though, serial cases; murders, rapes, abductions, arsons, bombings, etc. Outside of that, they're called in by local authorities and usually wanted there.

"Chicago!" Derek exclaims with no small amount of excitement over something familiar. "That's where I'm from. My mom and sisters still live there. You always lived there?" Of course, Derek was from one of the dirtier, more poverty stricken and gang ridden areas of the city. He doesn't like going back there very much. And if it weren't for his family, he never would.

"My dad was a beat cop there for years. Chicago P.D." Was. He'd been killed in the line of duty when Derek was ten years old. Derek had witnessed the whole thing. But maybe his dad, and all his dad's buddies who had lingered for years, cops who had made sure his mom had enough to keep food on the table for her three kids, was why he had the view of 'we're all on the same team, so chill out'. He'd had to tell more than one local cop that he understood their frustration with the FBI being there. And there was nothing placating about it. He really did understand.

He does notice her distaste at the title. He can't understand the context of it. But he can guess at several possibilities for it. Some cops weren't after the title rather than just doing their job. Still, he's of the opinion that she should wear it proud. You can have the title and still do your job just as well.

He can tell she's joking about the last comment. Mostly. And he grins at her. "Hey, live and let live, right?"

Karrin defaults to bracing for bad blood, just because she's so used to dealing with it even from her own department. SI was the local laughingstock until she took it over, and not much has changed besides their effectiveness. Their success rate increased exponentially under her command, which made her even less popular with those who placed her there hoping she'd be out on her ass within a matter of months. As for outsiders being brought in on her cases, they come in looking for normal human criminals. SI is better informed and better prepared for supernatural threats. Bringing in the feds or other local cops means deaths. Karrin hates needless bloodshed, especially on her watch.

Plus there was that time the FBI sent law-flouting werewolves to investigate a set of homicides that had been assigned to SI, but Agent Denton's team was... a special case. Most FBI agents don't get themselves addicted to shape-shifting magic.

"All my life. I've got a little house in Bucktown that used to be my grandma's. "And my dad was a cop too." Her father was, though she doesn't know it, Karrin's predecessor, one of the senior members of the thirteenth precinct tasked with dealing with the supernatural. Solving crimes and sweeping the real causes under the rug so people can pretend everything has a mundane explanation. The job got to him, and he killed himself when she was 11. It's part of the reason her mother disapproves so strongly of Karrin's career.

She grins again, wryly. "I think half the Murphy clan is on the Chicago police force. Reunions are a bunch of cops and their families, plus the occasional firefighter thrown in just for a little variety."

Before coming to Itinere, Derek would have never believed there was anything but human unsubs to deal with. It's no one's fault. ou can't hunt for what you don't know exists. In his world, that kind of thing just does not exist at all, as far as he knows. So he would probably be one of those uninformed 'outsiders' that Karrin really had no time for or understanding toward. Just trying to do his job, all the same. But probably getting in her way through misinterpretations of the unknown.

His FBI has no werewolves. He's pretty sure he would know about that if they did. But that wasn't to say that some Agents didn't get addicted to more common drugs. Reid, for awhile had suffered addiction after his abduction where he had been doped by the perpetrator almost constantly. People were people, flaws and all, no matter their vocation. Derek has no room to judge unless they're harming other people. He's plenty imperfect himself.

Right now, it's just nice to have the familiarity of someone from the Windy City, even if they're from different versions of Chicago, not that he would realize that just yet. "Bucktown's nice." He says with a nod. "I've only been over there a couple times." One of the more affluent neighborhoods in Chicago. Definitely considered 'uptown' from the poverty stricken and gang ridden Englewood where he had lived. "I lived in Englewood." He finally says, knowing that as a cop she would know all about that area.

"The family business, huh?" Derek asks with a grin. He knows that some families are like that. "I never intended to be law enforcement when I left Chicago for college. Was gonna go pro in the NFL. But... got injured on the field my Sophomore year at Northwestern. Life gets you where you need to be, right?" Because there was no doubt that he was doing what he was meant to do back home. Even here in Itinere, working this rec center, he was doing the only thing he could do here. His heart was in this place just enough to keep him from spiraling.

The problem isn't a lack of knowledge, which is fixable. It's a lack of belief. Even some of the cops who've had supernatural encounters of their own somehow manage to explain it away. They deny it all the harder after their experiences tell them otherwise. Karrin's friend in the M.E.'s office once reported humanoid but non-human corpses and earned himself a stint in a mental institution, despite the fact that there were actual bodies to examine that would confirm his words to anyone willing to listen.

She just nods at the comment about Englewood, especially given the pause before it. No ill-conceived comments about getting out or rising above. The last thing she'd do is patronize him.

As much in exchange for that revelation as in response to what Derek says next, she offers, "I didn't plan on it either. My brothers joined the force immediately. I married at seventeen, and everyone, me included, thought I'd be a housewife. A stay at home mom. Plans change. I'd never give my job up now." Not for anything short of being fired, and she'd only put herself in that position to save lives. Her first marriage fell apart, and by the time she had her second... Karrin's priorities were different. He wanted to start a family, but the law and her career were already too important to Karrin for her to accept any setbacks. Karrin's second marriage, she did sacrifice for her job.

Strange for someone to be so driven in their work and yet balk at any titles or ranks achieved in the line of duty. It spoke volumes toward Karrin, especially to a profiler, probably more so than Karrin would like. He probably shouldn't be profiling her. But some things were hard to turn off without forcibly doing so.

"I stand by my statement then." He teases with a nod. Life gets you where you need to be, whether you plan on it or not.

So two cops walk into a rec center... "Not much use for us law enforcement types here so far." He gets to the heart of the issue. "Up to you how you spend your time, I guess. You lookin' for work?" There really was no real reason to work here, not with the way things just appeared. But Derek knew he'd go crazy with nothing to do.

"Anything I can help you with? Questions or whatever?" If she was new, she was bound to have questions, he thought.

He's right. She has a few regrets, and a part of her still wants a family, but Karrin really can't imagine her life without her job now. She'd be a different person if she hadn't had Chicago PD, and if she'd never been assigned to SI.

"No crimes? Any unexplained occurrences, besides people being brought here in the first place and the recent bout of illness?" Karrin's questions are brisk and businesslike.

She purses her lips. That may have come out wrong. She wouldn't wish some of the things she's seen in Chicago on anyone. "I'm grateful enough for the lack of homicides. We can all do without those. I'm not much good at sitting idle, though. If I can't get home, yes, I'll be looking for work here."

"Unexplained occurrences. Yeah. Plenty of those. No crime though." Honestly, it was like an even cleaner version of some 70's sitcom picturing perfect lives with hardly a care in the world aside from who was dating who. The strange occurrences were what kept mixing things up. Not the people here.

If Karrin is looking for the business of law enforcement, she would probably be disappointed. Sad, but true. Derek had gone through a disappointment stage as well. Then he felt bad for that. No crime was a good thing, right? Now he had the rec center and he was okay with that. It kept him sharp and ready should a dangerous situation actually arise.

"I'll be glad to have you on if you decide to bite the bullet here." He says. But to be even more helpful, he continues with more. "There's also a shooting range not far from here. Outside turn to the left and go about two blocks." Somehow, Derek thinks that both the rec center and the shooting range are here because of him. They hadn't been here when he had first arrived. But he had wanted to stay sharp in every way.

She can do without the crime, but she needs a sense of purpose. "What kinds of strange occurrences?" she asks, hedging around actually referencing monsters or magic outright. Karrin is tired of being looked at like she's crazy, and she likes Derek so far. An acquaintance that could turn into a friendship if it doesn't go wrong and they both stay stuck here. Karrin isn't always good at making friends.

"I'd like that," she says, only a little grudgingly. It isn't her chosen career path, but as she said before, "I'm not built for retirement or nothing to do."

Karrin thinks she'll be working at the dojo if her career ever finishes its plummet at home. More self-defense classes taught in bad neighborhoods, possibly even a private investigator's license like Harry has. She cringes away from thinking too hard about her backup plans. She knows she'll come up with one, though. No job isn't an option for Karrin. Not anymore.

"Snow that made people say everything they thought. Roses that made people fall in love, turn obsessive. Clovers that made people lucky and then took that luck away. An airborne virus that made people all levels of sick from a sniffle to near death." Derek shrugs, as if these things are commonplace at this point. Before Itinere, he would have said she was crazy. But by now he's seen enough to know that crazy stuff is real.

He has to smirk and nod an agreement with her. "Yeah, I don't do so well with downtime either." Obviously. Hence, this place where he too teaches classes and sets classes up and helps people in the only way he can.

"You got your phone?" He pulls his phone out of his pocket. The PDA everyone here arrives with. "Everyone in the city is listed on here." He checks it everyday to see what's changed. "You can communicate with everyone through this."

"Magic," she says flatly, but without disbelief. "You have any of that at home, or have you just been here long enough to get used to it?" What Karrin wouldn't give for a little bit more of Harry's knowledge. She has a working knowledge of a lot of supernatural monsters, the kind who make dead bodies turn up in her jurisdiction. Magic itself, though? That's always a bit more of an unknown.

"Knowing about the list will help." Karrin is grateful for the tip. It will give her a leg up on getting to know who's in the city, when she already has names in mind as she encounters the faces that go with them.

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Open | This isn't my scene

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And then I lost Karrin's voice for ages. I think she's back!

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