Premise- Morgan and Garcia. Suddenly just being friends isn't enough anymore.

Note- This fic takes place right before season three. The title comes from the Mary J Blige song Be Without You, which reminds me of this pairing. As for this first chapter a good song to encompass the feeling of it is Think Twice (Before You Touch My Girl) by Eve 6.

Thanks for checking out this fic!

Sara

Gotta Be With You

Morgan and Garcia

Chapter 1

September 2007

He was cool with being just friends. Fine with settling for only flirting with her. Just fine with only having her body as his in his fantasies. Didn't want or need more in his life right now. Hell, everyone who knew him knew he wasn't ready to settle down. He was good with just growing their friendship for right now.

That's how, deep down in his heart and soul, Derek Morgan honestly felt about the status of his friendship with Penelope Garcia.

He would have sworn to that fact on a stack of bibles. Maybe he had just been fooling himself but he felt that way in his blood and bones. Satisfied with not claiming her. Oh so very okay with the whole way they were going about their friendship, never crossing the line and trying for more.

Yep, he was completely fine with the fact that they both dated other people. Through the years he had heard about her dates and she heard about his hook ups but it was all very casually mentioned. They had never flaunted their dates in front of each other so there was never that weird moment of him holding some woman's hand while Penelope watched, or him seeing some guy lay a kiss on her.

Neither had anything serious going on anyway. Nothing to get worked up over. Not that he would be worked up if she found a man to love. Nope. Penelope Garcia was free to do whatever she wanted with whoever she wanted. He would be the first to say "Good for you, girl!" with a big smile on his face if she met a good man who she wanted to date.

Or so Derek had always believed.

For the last three years he had lived comfortable in the knowledge that him and Penelope had a good thing going with their friendship and it was getting better everyday. He was a cocky man and he wouldn't admit to any fear that he was letting the most amazing woman on the earth slip through his fingers little by little each day due to his laid back, come what may, attitude.

No way. He was way too cool with the way things were. No need to go there in his mind.

That is until one particular night when he was shaking his ass on the dance floor at the bar. He was having himself a fantastic time, surrounded by college girls that all wanted a little bit of his attention, with a flirtatious grin playing on his lips while his hips moved to the beat of a hip hop song. Turning on the dance floor he just happened to catch sight of Penelope at the bar chatting up some stranger.

The look on her face stopped Derek cold. She looked dreamy eyed over that guy. No longer dancing, Derek's eyes narrowed as he watched Penelope lift her hand and stroke over that stranger's bicep then give him a sexy smile before throwing back her head and giggling.

Derek's whole body reacted to the sight in front of him. Though it wasn't right to be shocked over what he was seeing- the rational part of him knew that- he couldn't control the way his brain went numb at the sight in front of him. As if it was something that should not be possible at all.

He was struck with a huge slap of disbelief barreling smack dab into his face. Almost as if, since he had never saw it before with his own two eyes, that he had believed that Penelope could never look at another man in that way she did him. Or even look at another man close to the same way.

As if all her dates would have to be failures if they weren't with him. As if she'd forever stay sitting at the table during these nights out at the bar with their friends. Like she had done before. Turning down any guy who dared come around in the rare moments Derek left her side. Usually he was right next to her, stealing all her attention and making sure no man in his right mind would approach her. Not unless he was blind and couldn't see how she had eyes only for Derek.

Though Derek knew his way of thinking was way out of line, it had been the way he always saw things because he had been lucky enough to never be stuck in a moment like this before. Never had to watch Penelope looking at another man with lust written all over her face.

Swallowing hard, and running his hands over his head, Derek took a few stumbling steps closer to the bar before shaking his head, over the raw jealousy that was coursing through him and the shock that she was looking at that man that way, and turned to go back to the table.

Sweat dotted his brow from dancing but the heat he worked up on the dance floor wasn't what had his blood feeling like it was boiling. That was all because he did not like the idea of Penelope flirting with some other guy.

What if she hooked up with that joker tonight?

The idea of that man- who looked like he was a fast talking, slick playboy type- with his greasy paws all over Penelope's beautiful, creamy naked ivory skin was enough to make Derek long to put his fist through a wall.

He needed to sit down and calm down before that guy with his eye on Garcia left this bar in an ambulance.

Reid was the person at the table because Emily and JJ were playing darts. Derek grunted unintelligibly at Reid when Reid tried to engage him in conversation. Settling onto a stool, Derek watched Penelope like a hawk. Every smile she threw at that stranger drove Derek closer and closer to the edge. And when that man put his hand on Penelope's hip Derek actually stood up again.

"Oh, hell no," he hissed out. "This stops now."

"What?" asked Reid, clueless, looking all around.

Derek watched as the stranger bent, whispered in Penelope's ear, and then pulled away. Already moving toward them Derek didn't know what he was going to say but he knew that guy was getting away from Penelope and he was going to do it quick unless that guy wanted to leave this bar with less teeth than when he got here tonight.

Derek saw the stranger hand Penelope a business card. She smiled at him, slipped it in her purse, and headed towards the back of the bar, to the bathroom, while the stranger turned and headed for the door, passing Derek as he did. Heart still pounding hard in his chest, Derek walked down the long hall that led to the bathrooms.

Leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her to come out. He didn't know what he planned to do but he knew this feeling in him had to be calmed, to be cooled, to be tempered somehow and only she could do it for him.

She had to show him that he was the man who she wanted most. Had to prove it right here and now in a way he never tried to get her to prove it before. Nothing less would make him feel sane again right now. Nothing else would restore his equilibrium.

He was reeling from seeing the way she had looked at that stranger. That kind of deliciously seductive, steaming with lust, look in Penelope's eyes should be reserved for Derek and only Derek. In an instant he had realized just how damn wrong it was to see her look at someone else with sex in her eyes.

And how much he wanted her eyes to be on him instead. How he needed to have her reassure him that the way she looked at him meant something. Make him believe that she lusted for him a thousand times harder than that stranger. That's what Derek Morgan needed with every fiber of his being to know in that moment.

He wasn't leaving this bar tonight without an answer. Did Penelope Garcia lust for him for real? Did all her flirty words have anything backing them up? Was he just her buddy who she liked to tease?

Right now he was in no damn mood to tease.

He was pissed off, jealous, hurt- even if he had no right to be- and feeling shaky. Feeling like she had finally woken up to the fact that the world had other men in it and she just might fall for one of them. Something Derek always swore wasn't gonna bother him a bit but seeing her just look seductively at another man, lightly brush a gentle touch over his arm, watch that man touch her and whisper against her ear, knowing his lips were brushing her skin, had almost made Derek throw that guy across the bar and yell "Who the fuck do you think you're touching?"

Hearing that she had yet another bad date was nothing like seeing her chatting up a guy it looked like Penelope would happily let fuck her.

Just the thought had Derek's fists clenching and unclenching by the time the bathroom door opened. She walked out, startled at the sight of him, jumping a little, her eyes went wide as they stared each other down.

He had been living a lie of massive proportions. He wasn't fine with being just friends. He had lied also when he told himself he didn't know why he had followed her back here.

Lunging forward Derek put his hands on the sides of Penelope's head, titled her head up and watched as her eyes dilated with the quickest flash of unmasked lust before he brought his mouth down on hers in an urgent, needy kiss that sought to brand her as his.

All his.

She had to be his tonight. He had to know that. Feel that. Believe that. Or else the world was gonna turn black on this man. It was most definitely no longer just fine with him if Penelope Garcia wanted anyone else but him. With all he had he was going to kiss her in a way that made her know she should be kissing him and only him. Make her believe it with all of her body, soul and mind.

When his lips moved against hers, Derek kissed her as if the moon would drop from the night sky if he couldn't taste her right here and right now. For him it felt like it would.