There was a part of Derek Morgan’s tragic past that he’d rather not share with anyone. In fact, he never did until it came up in a case the BAU was investigating. When he was a teenager, barely hanging on and vulnerable, he was on a football team coached by Carl Buford. Carl Buford had haunted him for years, a ghost lurking in the shadows of his past. Derek was one of his victims. His dreams of playing pro football now squandered and left to rot on the muddy field he used to play on.

Later on in life, when he’s ready to address his years of repressed trauma, he finds himself walking into a sexual abuse support group, a group full of people who had similar stories. He wasn’t alone anymore, not that he ever was, really. In this support group, he meets you. As the session progressed, Derek felt the weight of a past long buried begin to lift. Sharing felt less like an exposé and more like a freeing of the soul.

After the meeting ended, when the time was right, Derek found you standing in the back and approached.

“Hey, I’m… Derek. And you?”