A/N Don't ask me where this came from - this is my entry for Round Two of ilovetvalot's Fanfic Challenge 2010 - I was given the pairing of Morgan/Strauss, and the song title 'She Feels Like a Brand New Man Tonight', by Aaron Tippin. The song is quite optimistic and cheery, but...well, this isn't, LOL. So I hope you like it anyway! :]
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Criminal Minds, and this is purely a hypothetical situation. Title from Beth Orton, lyrics from Aaron Tippin.
her last lonely teardrop fell; along about nine o'clock
his memory was history before she hit the parking lot
The room is dark.
It's a classy event, all sharp suits and dresses that will never be worn again.
Erin Strauss smiles politely at the people who greet her as she enters, but she recognizes only a few.
The sooner she can leave the better, because her husband is out schmoozing clients and her children are doing God knows what and Erin Strauss would really just like to kick back and relax.
She moves to one side, catches a glass of champagne as it passes on the tray of a waiter.
And then she spots him.
Derek Morgan. Instinctively, she stiffens, quickly searching for the rest of the BAU. She breathes a sigh of relief when she sees that it is only him – one alone, Strauss can manage. The BAU together, the bane of her existence.
Their eyes meet across the room. He is surprised, but the widening of his eyes soon settles into a grin. She feels embarrassment heat her cheeks, and nods once in recognition.
The woman on his arm leans up to whisper in his ear, and Strauss would give anything to be that young and attractive again.
Sometime during the evening she loses track of Derek Morgan and his date, and submerges herself in the bureaucracy of being Section Chief. She smiles and laughs and converses with political jackasses until she's wondering whether it's too early in her career to retire.
Smiling to herself at the thought of leaving the FBI, Strauss turns.
She freezes. The smile disappears.
It's like somebody has just punched her in the stomach and knocked the air from her lungs.
Her husband, her husband of twenty-five years, is in the corner.
He's in the corner with his face buried in the neck of a woman she has never seen before.
She's not sure why, but she searches the room for Derek Morgan, no longer able to watch her husband, who isn't even supposed to be here, being intimate with a two-bit whore.
He's seen what she's seen, just as she's sure many others have. His eyes are clouded with sympathy, the line between his eyebrows deep in concern.
Strauss feels the bitter sting of tears and digs her fingernails into her palm. She should have known that when her husband said he was working, he meant escorting his mistress to an event.
If she leaves now, it will seem too obvious. If she doesn't leave at all, it'll seem like she doesn't care.
Her husband is still unaware that she's here – she doesn't know which hurts more.
When she looks again, Derek Morgan has finished his phone call. He apologises to his date, and Strauss wonders how they met, and then he's crossing the room towards her.
"Chief Strauss," he says as if it's the first time he's seen her all night.
"Agent Morgan."
His eyes flick over her shoulder and she watches them tighten at the corners in what she thinks might be disgust.
"JJ just called a case in," he says quietly, "I think we could use some help from higher up the food chain on this one."
It's bullshit and they both know it.
He's giving her an out.
Strauss lets out a shaky breath, and this time letting Derek Morgan charm her into believing a lie doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
"Lead the way, Agent Morgan."
she feels like a brand new man tonight; she didn't come in here to hang her head and cry
she's through throwing good love away; on some boy that don't treat her right
she feels like a brand new man tonight