Derek Morgan didn't even flinch as he slammed the door to the apartment building complex behind him. To say he was pissed off would be an understatement. Sighing slightly, he stood against the wall and slowly pulled his hand over his face.

"You're suspended." His unit chief's monotone echoed in his ears: the conversation had been on constant replay his entire drive home.

"Hotch…"

"Morgan, this is out of my hands. Word got back to Strauss and she gave me no other option."

"I had to stop the unsub, that girl was going to die."

"Derek, this is out of my jurisdiction. I'm sorry."

"How long?"

"A month."

"A month? But I was—"

He was quickly pulled from the conversation as he heard his phone ringing. Pulling it out of his pocket, he gave a small smile when he saw the ID.

"Hey baby girl," he said, as he began to walk up the steps. The building had an elevator but it had been broken since the time he moved in. The superintendent, Jason Gideon, spent more time at his cabin than he did in the building, and therefore was never really around to help if something broke. Luckily, Derek had experience flipping houses and was able to fix most things on his own.

Derek wouldn't have minded as much if he didn't live on the sixth floor.

"Oh my chocolate thunder, you left before I got to see you. I heard you got called into Hotch's office, how bad?" Penelope Garcia's voice never failed to calm him down.

He sighed as he made his way past the third floor landing. "A month."

"A month? That's ridiculous! Who does Strauss think she is? She can hardly stand up straight in the field," he could hear typing in the background and figured she was trying to find the file about the suspension.

"I know mama, but as Hotch said, there's nothing he could do. I just gotta deal." He had finally made it to his floor and began to dig around his pockets to find his keys. Being on the top floor, he had one of the two lofts.

He didn't really know his neighbor across the hall that much. They've exchanged pleasantries whenever they saw each other, but never really had any real conversations. Derek knew the kid: he had no idea how old he was but he looked like a kid. He was tall, had stringy brown hair that used to be long, but last time Derek had seen him he had cut it. He didn't know what he did for a living and always seemed to have his nose buried in a book. He thinks his name was Springer or something close to that.

"It's going to be weird to not see my chocolate thunder around the office," he smiled as he opened the door to his apartment. Dropping his briefcase and keys on the table near the door, he closed the door behind him and plopped himself on the couch.

"Don't worry, little miss thing, you know I'm only a phone call away, and you're welcome over anytime," he sighed slightly before asking the question that he'd been dreading. "Are they bringing someone in while I'm out?"

He heard more typing before Garcia responded. "There's an agent being brought in from Cooper's team. No name listed, sorry, angel fish, wish I knew more."

"Don't worry hot stuff, I'll be fine."

After a few more flirtatious exchanges, Derek hung up the phone and dropped it on the coffee table. He plopped down onto the couch and fell asleep a while later.

Derek was woken up the next morning by the pounding knock on his door. He sat up and wiped a hand over his face, frowning at himself for falling asleep in his clothes from the day before.

The knocking continued and Derek got up, making his way to the door.

Opening the door, he expected it to be Garcia but he was surprised to find his neighbor from across the hall.

"Hi," the man squeaked out. Derek was slightly amused at the way he looked right now. His, he was right, short hair looked like he had just woken up himself. He was wearing a purple button up shirt with a black sweater vest and black tie. He was even more amused with the black and white converse on his feet. 'Man, he seriously is a kid.'

"Springer, right?"

"Uh, it's Spencer."

"Can I help you?" Derek asked as he leaned against the doorway and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Uh, yeah, " he cleared his throat, looked down and fidgeted with hands before looking back up at Derek. "I accidentally left my bag in my friend's car last night after he dropped me off from work. It, uh, has my keys and phone in it. You see, I locked myself out of my apartment and I was wondering—"

Derek quickly cut him off and stepped aside, gesturing to let the other man into the apartment. "If you could use my phone, yeah, kid, go ahead. It's there on the coffee table."

"Thanks," Spencer murmured as he stepped into the apartment.

Derek watched him walk to the middle of the room and then when he turned to close the door, he saw the superintendent coming up the stairs.

Derek went to look at Spencer again and he raised an eyebrow when he saw the kid hiding behind the support beam in the middle of the room.

Gideon was knocking on the kid's door when Derek turned back. After a few knocks, he had given up and turned towards Derek.

"Have you seen him?"

Derek didn't know what to say, so he shook his head in response.

"Great. I don't have time for this," Gideon began to make his way down the stairs before turning back to Derek one more time. "If you see him, tell him to call my cabin or something."

Derek watched him disappear down the flight of stairs before finally closing his door. Spencer had stepped out from behind the support beam and was obviously trying to ignore making eye contact with Derek.

"And you're hiding from the superintendent in my apartment why?"

Spencer looked up at him then back down at the ground. "I don't have the full amount for rent this month and was hoping to avoid him until two weeks from now when I actually get paid." He started pulling on the end of his sweater vest.

Derek was a little confused by that. "Why couldn't you just tell him that?"

"This isn't the first time. I, my mother is—"he was cut off by a loud *beep beep* that came from his back pocket. His face flushed slightly as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone.

Derek gave him an incredulous look, completely shocked that he couldn't tell if this kid was basically lying to him. He's a profiler, he should be better at this.

"I, uh, I gotta go. I'm really sorry about this, I am. I promise to talk about this when I get home," Spencer said, slipping the phone back into his pocket and walked past Derek to the door. Derek slowly followed after him.

"I'll hold you to that, kid," Derek said. He watched Spencer open the door to his apartment slightly, reaching in and pulling out a messenger bag that was quickly slipped on over his chest.

"Thank you. Agent Morgan," Spencer whispered as he quickly made his way down the stairs.

Derek nodded after his retreating form, and walked back into his apartment. "Wait, how the hell did he know I'm agent?" he asked the empty room. He shook his head slightly before making his way back over to the couch. He threw on a hockey game he had recorded on the DVR before settling in on his couch. "Looks like Spencer and I have some things to talk about."

Normally Derek would be happy to have a break from work: in his field one always had to take advantage of that. Now that he had been forced, he was growing restless. There are a lot of things that, after a while, don't distract you from the fact that you don't have anything to do. Derek had rearranged the couches and the bed in his loft, and was beginning to starting to feel the restlessness.

It had been two days since his suspension when Derek decided that he was bored enough that he was actually going to see if Spencer wanted to have that conversation he promised after he ran out of his apartment like his ass caught on fire for lying.

The only problem was that the kid wasn't actually ever home. Derek figured he'd been going over when Spencer was most likely at work. He didn't know what Spencer did, but it seemed like he worked a lot.

On the third day, Derek was on the couch, Clooney on the cushion next to him, not really paying attention to anything was that was on the TV. He sighed as he reached forward to the coffee table and picked up his phone. Unlocking it, he quickly pulled up Garcia's number.

"Fountain of knowledge, check my flow," she picked up after one ring, and with the amount of typing in that he could hear in the background, he figured the team must be out on a case.

He smiled slightly before talking. "Hey, gorgeous, it's me."

"Ah, my vision, how I've missed your sweet voice."

"Baby girl, it's only been a few days."

"A few days too many, sugar shack," he heard the typing stop. "How are you?"

Derek wiped a hand over his face slowly and sighed. "Bored, so incredibly bored. I bet that's expected, though. What about you, mama? Team out on a case?"

"Mhm, on their way back actually."

"Really? That quick?"

"They followed the yellow brick road to Shawnee, Kansas. Reports of a homicidal car thief."

Derek blinked at that, his brain quickly sorting through similar cases and the time spent trying to find the unsub. "You're serious?"

"Incredibly."

"How?"

"Gavin Jones was sloppy. His partner, Michael Ramsey, was killed by a drunk driver driving a Ford Focus at 90mph through a neighborhood when they were walking home from a date. Jones wanted revenge: began stalking and murdering those who drove the same vehicle."

"They solved that in two days. How?"

Derek knew the answer with the silence filled moments. He could hear the hesitation in the voice as she answered. "The agent they brought in from Cooper's team."

Derek sighed: he was right. "Penelope, it's okay."

"I know, but it's weird without you being there and I don't want to make you upset or angry or—"

Derek cut her off. "Breathe, I said it was okay. Tell me about them."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"I really don't know where the FBI found him but he's interesting, and that's coming from me. He's a genius, literally a genius. His IQ is apparently 187 and he has three PhD's. Three. Then two bachelors along with that."

Derek raised an eyebrow. "They brought a middle aged man in as a field agent?"

The snort from Penelope that followed made him frown slightly. "This kid is so far from middle aged honey."

"How old is he?"

"I stress the word kid. I think Hotch said he was 26."

"Who the hell is this guy?"

"His name is Doctor, emphasis on that, Spencer Reid. And you should see him, Derek. He's got that whole geek chic thing going on, you know, sweater vests, slacks, tie. Hell, he wears these pair of converse that look to be at least six years old. He's a beanpole, has a nice ass, but still super skinny and tall. Damn is he tall."

The description she gave sounded like someone he knows.

"You said his name was Spencer?"

"Yeah, why?"

'Is the skinny kid across the hall really my replacement?' Derek thought to himself. 'That would explain how he knew I was an agent.'

He was quickly pulled from the thought when he could hear Penelope calling his name. "Derek, Derek? Are you still there?"

"Yeah, sorry, got distracted."

"Well, how about I bring Chinese over when I get out? I miss your face."

Derek laughed. "Sounds good, mama. You know what I like, besides you of course."

Garcia gave him a small giggle before responding. "Damn right tiger. See you later," and the call was ended.

Derek smiled as he lowered his phone and placed it back on the coffee table. "You got a lot of explaining to do, kid." He whispered to the empty room, before getting off the couch and getting things ready for dinner with Garcia.