When Liv faced a loss that would rewrite her entire life, she stepped away from her work. A year and a half later, she returns to the BAU in search of normalcy; so she can finally move on. On a new team, Liv is immediately thrown into the game of ca...
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"Is this your strategy? Drinking?" Derek said from behind Liv at the hotel bar. She turned around with a chilled glass in hand, giving him a sloppy smile in return.
"The invitation is open, you know."
He shook his head despite the grin on his face, taking the seat next to her without hesitation and waving down the bartender for a drink. "So how long are you going to keep this up?"
"The drinking?"
"No," Derek responded with a laugh, taking a sip of his new beer. "The avoiding."
"Derek, I swear to god." She turned to him too quickly, a little bit of her drink sloshing over the side of her glass. She didn't seem to notice, nor care. "If you're here to try to talk to me about Hotch, you can take your pretty little ass right back up to your room."
He watched her in amusement, granting that it was rather late, and she had had a fair share of time to get a couple drinks in. He masked any concern he had for her and her feelings for the moment, because he didn't exactly want to be banished from his seat beside her yet. "Fair enough." He conceded, not pushing the topic any further. Deep down, he was aching for the two to get over themselves, so finally the tension in every room they both existed in would finally dissipate. However, he was not interested in crossing Liv sober, let alone three glasses of wine in.
They had finished the case, taking the night to finally get some sleep before they flew out in the morning. Liv wasn't doing much resting, not that she hadn't tried. In fact, her tossing and turning rather early in the evening discouraged her from attempting to sleep completely, which found her in her current state. "Wait a second, where have you been?"
"There's a bar across the street." Derek gave her a look. "A little more lively than a hotel bar, don't you think?"
"Ahhh," Liv nodded with a laugh. "You were looking for women. You should've invited me, I make an excellent wingman." She said with a wide grin, nudging his arm with her elbow. "Or maybe I could've found one for myself."
"Well you've seemed to have a hot date with a bottle of wine tonight."
Liv looked down at her half full glass in admiration, swishing it around in the light. "I love wine. It doesn't disappoint you. And it's just, always there."
Derek watched her in amusement, hardly having seen her intoxicated to the point where she completely loosened up. "Isn't so nice to you in the morning though, is it?"
She let out a huff at the realization, knowing very well that a hangover and a plane ride didn't sound like an ideal morning. "I'm an idiot." She slapped herself in her forehead, letting it rest in her palm against the bar. She was an idiot for so many things, so many things that had nothing to do with being a little too tipsy at the hotel bar.
