"-Come on, I thought you were meant to be a big time FBI agent? How would your unit like to know that their co-worker can't even fight little ol' me?"
The BAU's top agent, Derek Morgan, let out a booming laugh as he took a scoop of the woman in front of him's ice cream.
"You and I both know that this whole 'sweet southern belle' get up is an act, you'd beat me right into next week if I agreed to fight you."
"Too right, and I'd look damn good doing it" she did a small, giddy shoulder dance as she swatted his hand away from her half empty bowl.
"I always forget how southern you are until you laugh."
"Well you rarely see us anymore with all of your cases, I'm surprised you even remember what I sound like" she teased, watching him check his phone as an almost perfectly terribly timed emergency message came through, "duty calls I assume?"
"Yeah, sorry to cut the rare midnight ice-cream meet up short again Darling" Morgan stood up reluctantly, grabbing his bag with a deeply apologetic smile at her, "the case should be a week tops, rain-check until I get back?"
Darling just shrugged and took his ice-cream pot from the other side of the table, "I suppose it just means more ice-cream for me."
"No guilt trip to see me off this time?" He teased, making a rare snort come through her usual laughter at his familiar teasing that he couldn't help doing just to hear that genuine, nostalgic snort.
"Of course there's gotta be a guilt trip, I'll be sure to tell Addie that you've abandoned me once again."
"That's more like it" Morgan chuckled, pushing her shoulder playfully as a black SUV pulled up, the older man inside tooting the horn and rolling down the window to beckon him over.
"Come on Derek, my coffee is getting cold!"
"And there's people to save, cases to solve, justice to serve; but sure, Rossi's coffee is most important" the brunette in the passenger seat rolled her eyes, calling through the window before Morgan waved to the two in the car to wait, turning to Darling with another apologetic face which she shook her head at.
"Off ya go and do your job loser, if I see you dead on the news from one of your big time cases then you owe me $100."
Morgan couldn't hide his laughter at her usual humour that failed to hide her genuine understanding, "if I'm dead then how can I pay you?"
"You always stick to your word; you'd find a way- not that you've ever paid back the money you owed me before, you still owe me $5 for your ice-cream today" Darling teased before holding her hand out in front of Morgan when he went to leave, "uh oh buster, you can't leave yet; you're forgetting our rule."
"Really Darling? You're still making me follow your bizarre rules after all of this time-"
"It's not bizarre" she defended, folding her arms in with a frown until Morgan rolled his eyes, leaning down and pulling her into a big hug to comply with said rule;
Friendship rule number 8: Hugs make everything better, even goodbyes- never leave without one.
His arms swept around her like a warm blanket just as they always did, pulling her up onto her tippy toes and into his chest as she hugged him back, of course wanting to follow the 'rule' as much as she did.
"And what do we say when we say goodbye? It's the next rule on our list Mr Morgan-" Darling prompted with a mocking tone that made Morgan roar with laughter, patting her on the back and stepping away, "don't push it shorty."
"That doesn't sound like 'I love you.'"
"Because I don't" Morgan teased over his shoulder as she burst into fake shocked laughter.
"Ouch, you're going to regret that when you get kidnapped on the job and I'm the only one left to pay your ransom- maybe I'll put my phone on silent just to let you squirm with your captor!"
"Now that I find hard to believe with how much time you spend on your phone."
"Just because I'm not old like you and actually use my phone more than once a day" she teased, shooing him off with a friendly middle finger as he got into the back passenger seat of the SUV where two of his agents on the team he was on in the BAU were waiting for him.
"And who was that lady friend of yours Derek?" The older agent, David Rossi, asked with a small teasing eyebrow raise at Morgan who shook his head with a chuckle.
"Not who you're thinking it was; I was just catching up with an old friend."
"Friend? Is that what you call your new weekly women now?" Emily Prentiss, another agent at the behavioural analyst unit in the FBI, teased.
"Does this 'special friend' need a ride home?" Rossi offered, spotting the young woman with 70's styled long blonde hair and blown out bangs walk over to the other side of the road near the highway, holding out her thumb with a cocking of her hip.
"What is she doing?" Emily asked, Morgan looking over out of the car window and shaking his head at the ridiculous scene.
"Darling- what on earth are you doing?"
"Jesus Christ on a cracker Derek, you can't scare a girl like that" she turned from the road as another car passed her, the driver eyeing her up and down but choosing to carry on driving given the SUV full of agents the other side of the road talking to her.
"Are you really going to try to hitch hike home right now?" Morgan called out again, Rossi and Emily exchanging glances, "Darling, you can't do that!"
"How'd you think I got here today? It's better for the environment than the bus" she smiled and turned back to the road, holding out her manicured thumb with a floral green pattern painted on it, "now shoo, you're cockblocking from getting a ride home."
"Oh so you're suddenly an environmentalist now, huh? Tell that to all the hairspray you used in high school" Morgan mocked before he got out of the car and held open the back door of the SUV open, waving her over, "come on- we'll drop you home before our case, my boss will somewhat understand if we're late to stop you getting kidnapped."
A large pickup truck pulled up next to Darling, shooting a smile back at Morgan before hopping into the truck, "I ain't got time to go the safe way home- my 'duty' calls too."
"Darling-" Morgan started to cross the road with a stern tone watching her already chat with the trucker who was far too keen for his liking.
"So what bring's a pretty little lady like you to the side of this dirty ol-"
"Darling, out of the truck now- come on, stop playing around before you end up in one of my case files" Morgan interrupted, now next to the passenger side door where Darling stuck out her head with a frown.
"Stop being a sour puss, you of all people should know I can more than handle myself."
"It's not being a 'sour puss' to not want you getting in a random car with a strange man on the side of the road, do you know how many of my unit's cases start that way?" Morgan went to open the door but the driver locked it, glaring at him with offence.
"Is this your boyfriend, or just a simple guard dog?" He grumbled at Darling who burst out laughing at both options.
"My boyfriend? Why you've got to be crazier than a barrel of shrimp waiting to roll into the ocean to think that he's my-"
"Yes, yes I am- now open the door" Morgan interrupted with a lie that Darling rolled her eyes at before turning back to the trucker.
"He is not my boyfriend, just an overprotective oof who thinks just because he has muscles that he knows better than-"
"I think it best if you get out" the driver grumbled, spotting the black SUV with official looking plates across the road, "go on then miss, get out."
"Oh come on now, he don't mean any insults to you-" Darling tried to protest but the door was open and Morgan was pulling her out of the car before she could start, Emily and Rossi watching as Morgan led the woman by the wrist over to their car.
"Stop dragging your feet Darl."
"Get your dang man hands off me, you're all sweaty like usual you radiator of a-" Darling's voice yelled but seemed to be laughing almost as Morgan shook his head and tried to stop his own laughter at her- she always had a way of making him laugh in the most inconvenient and serious of times.
"This isn't funny Darling, you can't get into cars on the side of the road with people you don't know-"
"Isn't that what you're asking me to do right now?" She raised an eyebrow and gestured at the SUV where Rossi and Emily sat awkwardly.
"That's... this is different" Morgan was stumped by her observation which made her smile, shaking his head with a laughter he couldn't help, "stop enjoying this."
"It's not my fault, you get all funny faced when you're overprotective" she laughed, bopping him on his nose- having to stand on her tiptoes to reach his now scrunched face.
"Leave my face alone" Morgan rolled his eyes, amused by her familiar teasing that always entertained him much to his reluctance to admit it.
"Look at you- even that nasty vein is popping in your neck, the 'nasty vein' of my 'hero.'"
"Stop it- get in the car or I'll be forced to arrest you for being a nuisance to me and society."
"Aw, it's adorable that you don't think I could escape your arrest- my offer from earlier is still on, I'm prepared to take you in a fight" Darling beamed before reluctantly getting into the SUV as Morgan held the door open for her, shaking his head with amusement before getting in next to her.
"Hiya dolls" Darling smiled at Rossi and Emily who were looking back with confusion at Morgan and her, "nice to meet you two, sorry for interrupting your car ride and Derek making you basically kidnap me."
"It's not kidnapping if you're complying" Morgan pointed out.
"I'm only complying because I fear for my life" Darling said overly dramatically with a hand to her head, pretending to act out a scene of her talking to an officer about Morgan's 'kidnapping' to mess with him, "I swear officer, he was crazy! Kept looking at me with those bug eyes! I thought I would die!"
"I don't have bug eyes" Morgan laughed and nudged her with his elbow, almost forgetting after all of these years how easily they could fall into their playful banter that he always adored.
"Nice to meet you too" Emily chuckled at the strange younger woman, looking over to Morgan with a grin, "so... you two are friends?"
"Yup, been friends since high school" Morgan folded his arms at her and Rossi's exchange of eyes that Darling didn't see.
"You should have seen this one in high school, he had a permed mullet and-" Darling went to go into full embarrassing high school stories about Morgan but he covered her mouth before pulling his hand away.
"Ew! Did you just lick me?" He laughed.
"Why does your hand taste like pickles? Have you ever heard of hand wash?" Darling almost gagged and wiped her tongue on the back of her own hand.
Rossi glanced back as he drove and then looked at Emily who shared a similar cheeky expression that told Morgan he was in for quizzing later on.
"What's going on?" Darling looked around, "did I miss something? Why all the glances and eye rolling?"
"They don't believe we're just friends" Morgan shook his head at Rossi and Emily.
"It's not our fault, you do keep calling her 'darling,' we know how fond of pet names you are with Garcia but we've never seen you call anyone else a pet name like that" Emily shrugged.
"Who's this Garcia, aye? Finally got yourself a girl that's not the same type of clubbing broad you always go for?" Darling teased Morgan who rolled his eyes.
"She's my friend- just like Darling is my friend" he looked from Darling to Rossi and Emily.
"Why do you keep calling her 'darling' like that's her name?"
"Because that is my name" Darling looked confused at their confusion, Rossi looked back at her as he drove.
"Your name is 'Darling?'"
"Yeppers."
"That's..." Emily tried not to say anything insulting.
"The strangest name you've ever heard? The most southern girl name? Kinda white trash of me?" Darling surprised them by suggesting 'insults' for them with a knowing expression before laughing, "don't worry, I've heard it all before- I know I've got a name fit for a 5 year old beauty pageant contestant and not much else."
"No, no, it's a... unique name" Rossi nodded with an amused smile by this lady's 'loud' personality, and her outfit that seemed to match it too.
She was wearing a 70's print mod brown and orange mini skirt over thin black tights, a black crew neck bodysuit tucked in and a half pleather and half orange fake fur oversized coat with knee high dark brown boots.
Her dusty long blonde hair was half pinned back with the front curtain bangs blown out and styled to frame her dewy makeup look with a peachy nude lip.
"You don't dress or sound like you're from Chicago like Morgan- where are you from?" Rossi asked with curiosity as Morgan went to put her address into the SAT nav.
"Mississippi, born and mostly raised until middle school when we moved around a lot" Darling smiled before stopping Morgan and putting in a different address, "I've got to go to work too."
"At almost 1 in the morning?" Emily quizzed, Darling chuckled in response.
"You fancy agents aren't the only ones who have a complicated schedule."
"What do you do for a living?"
"Good luck trying to get her to tell you that" Morgan rolled his eyes, making Darling nudge him playfully with a loud laugh.
"Wait, you two have known each other since high school and you don't know what she does for work?" Rossi quizzed Morgan.
"We may have known each other since high school but we haven't always been in contact with this ones busy schedule, have we sugar?" Darling teased Morgan.
"I hate when you call me sugar" Morgan laughed with a grossed-out expression.
"You're right, you're nowhere near sweet enough for that name" she joked.
"It makes you sound like a southern grandma."
"Rude, you're the old one" she rolled her eyes.
"I'm literally only like four years older than you."
"Five" she corrected.
"Wait, if you're five years older than her then how were you in the same class in high school?" Emily quizzed as they pulled up to the diner where the address was directed to.
Morgan and Darling exchanged amused knowing glances.
"Let's just say I'm not entirely as dumb as I clearly look to you" Darling chuckled, hopping out of the car and grabbing her keys out of her bag.
"This is where you work?" Emily tried to hide her judgement at the old run down diner.
Darling raised an eyebrow at her, "is that a problem missy?"
"Darling-" Morgan rolled his eyes, "-stop getting defensive, you know this place is a dump- plus we both know that this isn't your job that you still won't tell me about."
"But it's my dump" Darling defended.
"No it's not, it's that jackass's of yours" Morgan mumbled, she tilted her head at him and went to say something before shaking her head and just grabbing her bag.
"Right well thanks for the lift agents, good luck saving the world- and hey, you still owe me for that ice-cream" she waved goodbye to Rossi and Emily before pointing at Morgan with her sharp nails who chuckled to ease the slight tension that had seem to go as quick as it came from his comment.
"Aren't you forgetting one of your own rules?" He teased out of the window, Darling looked back over her shoulder with a smile.
"See you sometime next year when you finally remember to answer my calls again Mr busy agent boy."
"That doesn't sound like 'I love you'" he teased, erupting a sort of snort laugh that he always enjoyed hearing from his childhood friend that he struggled to stay in contact with as much as he wanted to.
"That's because I don't" she teased back in the same way he did before.
"Ouch, you're going to regret that when I get kidnapped- I'll make sure they double my ransom to send to you."
"I'll live without you" she chuckled, waving him goodbye and mouthing 'love you' just like she always did- one of her many friendship rules she made him agree to when they had to say goodbye to each other the first time that Morgan moved away.
This was rule number 9: Never say goodbye without saying 'I love you,' since you never know if it's going to be the last time.
That came before rule number 10: always make sure there is a next time to say it again.
For a few years, it seemed they both forgot rule number 10...