A/N: Written for Chit Chat On Author's Corner PYOP Challenge. My pairing: Morgan and Garcia (of course!), prompt: Character A calls Character B in the middle of the night because an appliance blows up

A bit of angst, a touch of drama, a whole lot of romance (eventually): yes, this turned out into another multichapter.

Because apparently I can't help it: the title is from a song by Dutch singer Anouk. I think they lyrics are pretty fitting for this fic, but since it's not a songfic but rather lyrics that resonate with it, I'm not posting them.

I hope you like!

Disclaimer: okay okay I admit I still own nothing.

=~==Baby, If You Were Mine==~=

Two AM phone calls usually didn't mean anything good, so when Derek heard his cell phone ring, pulling him from a restless sleep, he jolted up in bed, grabbing the offending piece of technology with one hand and reaching out to find a shirt with the other.

"Morgan," he barked, not even checking caller ID.

All he heard was sobbing. Confused, he rubbed his eyes so he would see clearly, and checked caller ID after all. Why would Penelope call him in the middle of the night, crying? Surely his mind was playing tricks on him. But no, the display clearly read "baby girl".

"Baby girl, what's wrong?" he asked, concern dripping from his voice. By the time she was breathing enough to be able to start answering, he was already tying his shoes.

"It exploded, hot stuff, it just went … BOOM and then..." She started crying again, only worrying Morgan even more.

"Sweetness, Penelope, it'll all be okay. I'll be there in ten minutes, and whatever it is, we'll fix it, okay? Just stay on the phone with me, and try to breathe in deeply, baby girl, can you do that for me?" he coaxed, trying to make her calm down.

He had never driven so fast in his life, at least not when not chasing an UnSub or driving a bomb-laden ambulance through NYC. Through the entire ride, he kept reassuring her, but he became none the wiser as to what happened. Not bothering to park properly when he saw a police car and firefighters coming out of the building she lived in, he put his phone away and ran up the stairs, where he saw her sitting just outside of her apartment, a blanket around her, an officer hovering over her, trying to calm her down.

In a second he was on his knees next to her, gathering her up in his arms, dropping kisses in her hair and rubbing her back while she clung to him for dear life. When he finally had her calmed down as well as he could, he eased back a little, cupping her face in his hands.

"Baby girl... what happened?" he almost whispered, hating to see her so distressed. He wiped her tears away, looking her in the eyes. "Tell me, please, what happened?"

The officer, still standing next to them, scraped his throat.

"Sir, excuse me but I will have to ask you to step back. We need to take Mrs. errmmm..." he looked at the doorbell, "Mrs. Garcia's statement."

"We're with the FBI," Morgan flashed his credentials. The officer looked at his badge, then at the gun he hadn't noticed before, and chose to believe him.

"Well when you're ready," he hesitated a moment, "just give me something for my report. It's pretty ugly in there." Morgan simply nodded and then returned his attention to a still sniffing Penelope.

"Goddess, please talk to me," he pleaded. "What the hell?"

She took a deep breath, then looked at her hands, folded in her lap. Morgan just responded by squeezing her arms, encouraging her.

"I was making brownies." She just stated, and looked up at him.

"Brownies? At 2 AM? And you decided to invite the local leos and firefighters to celebrate with you?" he joked, trying to relieve a bit of the tension. He quickly thought better of it when he saw tears welling up in her eyes again.

"Hey, hey, I was just joking, sweetness, continue, please," he apologized. She actually tried a watery smile at him, shrugging.

"So I was baking, because tomorrow I'm supposed to go to Kevin's mother's birthday party, and we got in so late yesterday I had no time, and she's always nagging to Kevin that I can't cook so I decided to show her I just don't have time for it, and besides, he's old enough to look after himself, and..." she rambled, making big, agitated gestures with her hands. Morgan nodded, nudging her to go on. Of course Lynch would have something to do with his baby girl's distress. His dislike grew with every mention of the man.

"And I don't know what happened, but all over sudden the oven exploded, it just went up like that," she gestured some more.

"Probably a gas build up. Did you have the oven checked lately?" Morgan gently asked, causing Pen's eyes to flow open like saucers.

"No! I just bought it last year. Should I have? Oh my God I'm such an idiot," she gasped, her hand over her mouth.

"It's okay sweetheart, it's not your fault, what happened then?" He sat a little closer to her again, knowing she needed physical contact for comfort most now. Where the hell was Lynch?

"It started burning, and the flames were so high, but I was in the bedroom so I didn't see it at first and fortunately Mrs. Beckwith next doors was awakened by the explosion and she called the police while I tried to put it out with the fire extinguisher but it was no use." She seemed more calm now, her analytical brain coming back. Morgan knew Pen reacted pretty emotionally, but usually she wasn't a mess like this.

"Baby, look at me," he cupped her face in his hands again. "It's okay, the fire is out, there's some damage but I promise that will be fixed even if I have to do it myself, and before you know it, it'll all be just a bad memory."

For the first time she really smiled, leaning into his touch. He smiled back at her, and as much as he wanted to kiss the last tears away from her cheeks, he refrained, just like he always did when they were so close. She had chosen Lynch, and he needed to respect that. Where was he anyway?

Pulling away, he groaned slightly, not really wanting to let her go, but he had to, for his own sanity.

"Is Kevin still on his way?" he asked, hesitantly, not wanting to ask her outright why she called him and not her boyfriend.

"Kevin. HAH." she scoffed, and a new flood of tears was ready to burst from her eyes. "He... I..called him when I was outside, and all he could do was rant because it was late, I woke him and his mother up, and I was an idiot and couldn't do anything right anyway so I could just solve my own mess now."

"Oh baby girl, he is the idiot here," Morgan answered truthfully, "You are a Goddess who experienced a little hiccup, that is all."

"You always know what to say to make me feel better cupcake," she said softly. "I'm so sorry for waking you up though, I'm sure Tamara didn't..."

"There is no Tamara," he quickly interrupted her. "Never has been. Nor anyone else. Never think you don't come first baby girl," he put his heart on his sleeve.

Her eyes started welling up again, but this time it were happy tears, even if they were mixed with a little melancholy because her noir hero would never be hers. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she shook her head, quickly stood up and tried to straighten her clothes as well as possible.

"Thank you. But I better go give my statement and then find a way to convince Kevin to let me stay with him until this mess is cleaned up." She started towards the door, but was surprised when he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. Was Lynch out of his mind? He needed convincing to let her stay with him? Morgan would give up everything to have her with him. He shook his head.

"No way, Penelope," he said, his tone very serious, demanding, leaving no room for a negative answer. "You are coming with me."

A/N: More?