A/N: I'm guessing this is going to be a three-shot. I'll try to get the other chapters up as soon as I can, though they'll probably all be as short as this one.

Just a heads up, I haven't been able to follow season 9 of Criminal Minds due to some unfortunate circumstances so I don't know a thing about Sam and Savannah, who will both be featured in this story. Because of this they'll probably be completely out of character. I apologize in advance for this.

Chapter 1:
You Really Got A Hold On Me

''I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.'' Mia Hamm

2015

Morgan had a tight grip on the steering wheel as he was driving down the road, maybe - probably - going way too fast.
''Are you okay?'' He could hear Savannah ask and he looked over at her.
He took a deep breath and started driving a bit slower, ''I'm just great,'' he told her.

''You've been acting strange all week, you sure nothing is bothering you?'' She asked him - pressing the issue a bit too much for his liking. When he didn't respond she pursed her lips, ''it seems to me that you started acting like this at pretty much the same time Garcia announced her engagement to Sam.''

Morgan looked away at the sound of that name, still paying attention to the road while at the same time trying to forget that they were going to the engagement celebratory dinner. ''Like I told you; it's nothing,'' Morgan told Savannah, clenching his jaw. He was a profiler, he knew it would give away how he really felt about the whole thing, but he couldn't help himself.

He had gotten along with Sam from the start; he had even gone on double dates with him and Garcia. But now they were engaged?! It was too soon... Okay, perhaps not a lot of people would say that a year was too soon, but to him it was.
Knowing that she was going to marry another man truly marked the ending of their chapter together and he would get to watch her start the next chapter of her life with a man who wasn't good enough. And they had never even truly gotten their chapter, now that he thought about it.

If her life were a book, their chapter together wouldn't make it through the first round of editing.
Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but that was how he felt about it.

He looked over at Savannah; she was glancing out the window. Morgan frowned at her, 'does she know I'm in love with Penelope?' He wondered.
As the thought registered in his brain, his jaw dropped.

'I'm in love with Garcia,' he thought. He shifted in his driver's seat for a few seconds, trying to process that discovery.

'I am in love with her.'

It was all he could think, over and over again. He knew he loved her, that wasn't the issue. The leap from being in love with someone to loving someone usually wasn't that spectacular either, but for him it was in reverse and that changed everything.
He had always known he loved her, he knew it a month - to the day - after they had first met.

Maybe a bit soon but that was the way their friendship worked. He hadn't been able to admit it out loud, to her, until four years later. And now, another seven years had passed and he was in love with her...
Suddenly a lot of things made sense to him; the way he felt when he had been away on a long case and he saw her again, how happy he felt just simply being in her presence.

He had never felt that way with anyone before and though he hated to admit it, he didn't even feel that way with the woman he had been seeing for over a year, the woman who was currently sitting next to him in the car.

''What am I going to do?'' He quietly asked himself, feeling completely lost.
Savannah looked over at him, ''what did you say?'' She asked him.
Morgan shook his head, ''it's nothing.'' He replied.

'I'm so screwed.'

He couldn't believe how much one simple realization could change so much.

He had been staring at Garcia for what must've been forever, like he always did. And now he knows why he did that. The twinkle in her eyes when she smiled, the way she walked, the way she laughed... at his jokes.
The last part of that sentence pissed him off beyond belief.

His mother had always told him that when you're in love with somebody, everything they say makes you smile. He now guessed that that's why he always loved to hear her voice.
Now seeing her talk to her boyfriend - excuse me, fiancée - and seeing her smile at every single word the man says...

Morgan knew how she felt about the man, though there was something about watching the whole thing that just didn't quite add up. It's as if you need a hundred points to look like a couple that's truly in love, and they only have ninety-nine.

He had always felt that something wasn't quite right whenever he saw them interacting with each other and he never could figure out what it was that bugged him so much.
But now he knew... Sam didn't look at Penelope the way she deserved to be looked at. He didn't look madly in love with her. He looked happy to see her, happy to be around her. But in love? No.

The spark just didn't seem to be there.

If he had noticed it any other day before he would've attributed it to the dim lighting in the bar where they had gone after the dinner.
But now, now he knew better. He knew what it looked like to look at her like a teenage boy who was madly in love with a girl who was too good for him. It wasn't the way Sam looked at her.

And it certainly wasn't the way he looked at Savannah either.

Their spark had been extinguished a long time ago, if it had been there at all. And Savannah, too, deserved better than that.

He watched her make her way back to the booth where he was currently sitting alone; all of the others had all either gone home or had started dancing. She slipped in next to him, cuddling with him for a second before pulling away.
Seeing the indescribable look on her face he decided he had to do what he owed her - it was the absolute least he could do. Putting his arm around her he pulled her a little closer again, ''what's wrong?'' He asked, kissing her cheek.

She looked up at him and bit the inside of her cheek for a second, hesitating.
''You're in love with her.'' She told him. It wasn't a question, there was no emotion - it was simply stating a fact. She had looked at him as she had said it and could see the barely noticeable change in his expression.

Morgan cleared his throat after a few seconds, suddenly feeling the need to have a drink, ''I can explain,'' he told her. He wasn't going to deny it, she could see right through that.
Savannah shook her head, ''you don't have to explain. I just... -I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. I have been so blind!'' She said.

''Savannah, I-'' he began.
She cut him off. Putting up her hand she shook her head, ''it's fine. It's just fine. I'm going home, I'll make sure all my stuff is gone in the morning,'' she said as she slipped out of the booth.

Morgan stared after her in shock. It didn't go the way he had expected. However, instead of rushing after Savannah to straighten the whole thing out, he just sat there. In shock. He took a sip of his drink and did the only thing he could; he, once again, started staring at a certain blonde goddess on the other side of the bar.

''Trouble in paradise?'' Garcia asked as she sat down next to Morgan in the booth, putting her drink down on the table.
''You could say that,'' Morgan replied. ''Savannah and I are over.''

Garcia's shoulders slumped a bit, ''I'm sorry,'' she told him, putting an arm around him in a comforting way.

''It's okay, really.'' Morgan said, giving her a small smile. It was all he could muster at the moment. Savannah may not have been the girl he was in love with all along but they had been together for over a year and he would miss her friendship. ''I didn't even get a chance to congratulate you this week, I'm sorry. You know how our cases are...'' he began but didn't have to continue. She understood him perfectly - and not just because they worked together and she saw the cases as well.

''That's okay hot stuff. How about you and I go for a walk, just the two of us, and you can tell me all about what happened with Savannah,'' she suggested.
The last thing Morgan felt like, was talking about the girl he had just broken up with. He was just about to decline the suggestion when he realized that it would give him alone time with his baby girl, something he couldn't pass up. It would give him a small timeframe in which he could pretend everything was the way it had always been.

He nodded at her and took his hand as they walked to the door.
''You stealing my girl?'' Sam asked jokingly as he wrapped his arm around Garcia's waist.
''We're just going for a little walk,'' Penelope told him.

''I get it,'' Sam said with a grin, ''my sweetheart needs some alone time with her best friend,'' he told them.
Morgan grimaced a bit at the way the other man put the emphasis on the word 'friend'. Oh how he wished he could change that.

''We'll be right back,'' Penelope told Sam before leaning in to give Sam a quick peck on the lips.
As they walked out the door it reminded Morgan of the way married couples on TV gave each other a quick peck when they left for work in the morning. It's not the way you're supposed to be kissing when you're celebrating your engagement.

It made him mad that Sam didn't treat Penelope the way he himself would have - but at the same time he wasn't sure that his heart would be able to take it if he saw them kiss like that.

''So what happened?'' Penelope asked as they walked down the street - ignoring all the people that came out of the bars drunk.
''I guess it just wasn't meant to be,'' Morgan told her. ''She and I wanted different things.''

''What kind of different things?'' Penelope asked out of curiosity. She would completely understand if he didn't want to tell her, she respected his privacy as much as he respected hers.
''From what she's been telling me these last couple of months; marriage, children, a white picket fence. That kind of thing,'' Morgan explained.

''And you?'' Penelope asked.
Morgan stared at her as they continued walking, ''I want you.''

"I would love to say that you make me weak in the knees but to be quite upfront and completely truthful you make my body forget it has knees at all." Tyler Knott Gregson (Love Language)

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