"Morgan, GO!"

"Are you insane?" his words were labored, panting as he got another jab at the shorter man, "I'm not leaving you here, you know that!"

Your vision was starting to go hazy as you laid on the ground, but you could still make out Morgan's frame as he fought off his two opponents.

"They can't...lose...both of us," you were struggling to hang on to consciousness, willing your eyes not to close, shaking your head from side to side.

"They're not-" he grunted, delivering a swift kick that got the taller man on the ground, "losing either of us."

All of a sudden, your earpiece, lying a few feet away from you after it had been knocked out, crackled to life, "Y/N! Y/N, can you hear me?"

You were sure it had been broken in the scuffle, but Garcia's voice was unmistakable.

"Garcia!" you yelled as loud you could, "They have us!"

"Can you tell me where you are?" she asked, failing to conceal the frantic panic in her voice.

Your eyes flitted around, straining to make out your surroundings from where you lay immoble, "We're next to...the red brick restaurant on Main...in the alley..."

You heard several beeps before she responded, "Hotch and Emily are close and the others are coming not too far behind, just hang on for me, please!"

"I love you, Garcia!" You called back with what felt like the last bit of strength you had left in your voice.

"Y/N! You're going to be okay, it's going to be okay, help is coming, just hold on," You could tell she was crying now.

"Morgan!" You cried out weakly, turning your gaze to see he was somehow still holding them off, though he was visibly weaker, "I love you, too. And make sure the team knows I..."

Your vision was now darkening, the tug of your eyelids was becoming harder and harder to resist. Sleep never seemed so inviting, so peaceful...

"No! No, no, no, Y/N, don't you dare close your eyes!" Morgan growled, shoving one of the men down and stomping him hard in the chest while delivering a hard elbow blow to the other, "I love you too, but you have to stay with me. Listen!"

Your ears suddenly picked up on the sound of sirens, faint but quickly growing louder.

Just not quick enough.

You weren't even aware that you had succumbed to the honey-sweet invitation of unconsciousness until you were abruptly brought back to consciousness. The first thing that you noticed was the blinding white light that made your fluttering eyes squeeze back shut, and second was the fact that you were moving. The slight jostle indicated that you were in the back of a vehicle, and in a moment of panic you thought they had been too late-that the unsubs had taken you after all.

"We've got a pulse back!" An unfamiliar female voice called.

You fluttered your eyes open again, trying in vain to shift your head, only to feel something blocking your range of motion. It was a neck brace.

"She's moving. She's awake!"

That voice, you recognized. It belonged to Derek.

"Sir, we need you to stay still and hold this bandage in place," Another unfamiliar voice said, only this one was a male.

"Y/N," Morgan said softly, reaching out to take your hand, "It's Morgan. We're okay, just like I promised. They're taking us to the hospital. You're going to be okay."

His voice, along with the others, sounded slightly muffled, as if you were underwater, just beneath the surface. You tried to speak but your own voice didn't register. It was garbled, a noise rather than words.

"Shhh, it's okay, just breathe in and out," Morgan soothed, his silky voice becoming clearer, as well as a newfound ringing in your ears.

You pinched your eyebrows together and you blinked rapidly, bringing your surroundings into focus again. You were on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance, with two EMTs and Morgan watching over you carefully.

You leveled your breathing and tried to speak again, only to realize the thing keeping you from speaking coherently was a giant piece of plastic over your nose and mouth. An oxygen mask, you noted.

You weren't sure how much damage the unsubs had caused you. All you knew before you blacked out was you had sustained several small cuts and a busted lip from the smaller unsub, and the tall one had slammed you up against the brick wall, causing a pretty gnarly hit to the head. You had crumbled to the ground and he delivered a swift kick to your side to keep you down before Morgan grabbed him.

You were currently hooked up to an IV, so thankfully all you could feel was a dull throb at the back of your skull. One of the EMTs removed your oxygen mask, and you sighed in relief at the breath of fresh air.

"Did they get them?" You rasped, your eyes directed at Morgan.

He leaned in, dragging his thumb over your bruised lip, smattered with dried blood, before slowly dragging it up your jaw, "Don't worry about a thing, babygirl. They got them both, and they won't be seeing the light of day for a long time. We just need to focus on getting you better."

"Your arm," you said, extending a weak arm over to where he held his bandage in place.

"I'm fine, you know I'm made of pure steel," he winked, "It's a tiny cut, no biggie."

"A tiny cut that's gonna need four or five stitches," one of the EMTs snickered.

"Shut up, Harrison," Morgan chuckled, throwing a small plastic container at him with his non injured arm.

Of course he knew the EMT. It seemed like Morgan knew everyone here in his hometown of Chicago, which typically made cases that much more difficult.

"You two cut it out, you're gonna stress the poor thing out," the second EMT scolded, and you realized this time when she spoke that she was definitely older than you or Morgan, taking on a mature, motherly tone.

"How did you not get hurt more? You were fighting them for hours..." you rasped, searching over Morgan's face and body for more injuries. As far as you could tell, his only other battle wounds were a blossoming purple bruise on his left cheekbone and a little bit of dried blood under his bottom lip, matching yours.

"It's a damn miracle," the male EMT, Harrison, said solemnly, "By all means, he should be beaten to a pulp. We still need to run some tests at the hospital and he could've been put on a stretcher, but he refused to leave your side."

"It wasn't hours," Morgan shook his head, answering your question and ignoring Harrison's comments, "You were only laying on the ground for maybe five minutes until the others got there. Besides, you know my hand to hand combat skills are unmatched." He winked and you cracked a faint smile, the best one you could muster. Morgan lifted his hand to your face and tan his thumb over your bottom lip, "Looks like we match."

You felt your face heat up at the small gesture, "I bet I look awful."

"You could never. As much as I hate to see your angel face all bloody and bruised, you actually look pretty badass," Morgan smirked, only contributing to your bright red flush further.

Your smile stretched further slightly before you winced in pain, and you leaned your face against his hand as far as the neck brace would allow. Affection from Morgan was nothing out of the ordinary, but you appreciated it nonetheless, even if it was temporary.

Your relationship with Morgan was...complicated to say the least. Friends with benefits seemed to loose of a term, but it was as close as you could get to describing it. Neither of you had been in a romantic relationship for a long time and neither of you were ready to settle down either. It started as a stress relief thing after one case in Washington and one thing led to another and...well, you stayed at his apartment nearly every weekend. The team had their suspicions but so far no one had really tried to expose your secret. You were professional at work, but still bantered and flirted like Morgan was known for.

You both had made it clear that it was not a dating relationship, and either of you could bow out at anytime. You had also agreed that you could see other people, but you knew that neither one of you had. Recently you could tell things were changing; you ended up spending almost all your time off with him, doing things that did not exclusively include a bed like getting dinner or helping him with his house renovations. He had started doing little things like bringing you flowers to your apartment if he was in your neighborhood and holding your hand while walking you to your car after cases.

From the outside perspective, you were in a happy, mutually exclusive dating relationship. The only thing standing between you and that status was that neither of you had worked up the nerve to tell the other that you had developed feelings.

And then it hit you as you were lying there on the stretcher, what you had said before you went unconscious. You had let the words slip.

I love you.

It was true, and though you had also said it to Garcia, you knew Morgan knew it was different. It wasn't an "I love you as a friend and teammate" type of saying. You knew he knew picked up on the urgency and emotion behind it.

You couldn't be too mad at yourself for letting it out, seeing as you were sure you were going to die. And if you had died, you would have wanted him to know.

But here you were, heart still steadily beating, expecting to make a full recovery.

"Do you remember what you said right before you passed out?" Morgan asked, as if reading your mind.

Your heart rate hitched and picked up pace, the beeping on the monitor you were hooked up to betraying your attempt to act calm.

"Yes," you said simply, unsure of what direction he would take this. Was he going to reject you? Was he going to tell you he wanted things to stay the same as they were? Or, as you suspected (or hoped rather) did he feel the same?

"Well, I had already been trying to tell you for a while," he rubbed the back of his neck anxiously before returning pressure to his arm, "This thing between you and I...it's the best part of my life, actually. When I'm not with you I'm missing you and when I am with you I'm dreading the moment that you leave. And I know we agreed to not be inclusive but now the thought of you with another guy makes me see red. You are on my mind twenty-four-seven, and seeing you laying there in that ally, not knowing if you would survive, it made me realize that I wouldn't have a life without you. Not one I would be happy with, at least. In these last few months, I've been too scared to tell you how much I need you, how important you are, how I love you. And when you said it back there it made me realize how stupid I was for waiting, how short and uncertain life is, especially with our job."

You hadn't realized you were crying until Morgan reached out to wipe a tear from your cheek, his eyes shining with tears as well.

"What I'm saying is, I want you to be mine. All mine. Not just for the weekend, not just when we have free time, but all the time. I don't want anyone else," he looked deep into your eyes, taking your hand, "What do you say? Want to make this official?"

You tried to nod, not trusting your voice to stay even, but the neck brace got in the way, "Yes, please, yes. I love you, more than you know."

Morgan leaned in to press the gentlest kiss to your bruised and slightly bloody lip before moving to rest his head against your intertwined hands, "I am the luckiest man in the world." Harrison made a gagging noise from behind you and Morgan laughed, finding another small container to lob at his EMT friend, "Jealous?"

"Nah, just grossed out. I'm not a Nicolas Sparks fan," Harrison teased, earning an eye roll from Morgan.

The pain in your body suddenly seemed more bearable with the glowing, deliriously happy feeling you felt bursting in your chest. You were in for a long recovery, but you knew you could face anything with your stunning agent by your side.

I'm back loves!! This may not be super good, it's been a while and I'm a little rusty at writing these, but I'm so excited to keep this series going! More on the way so stay tuned!
~🌸