Premise- Morgan and Garcia. When the pain becomes too much they find comfort in each other.

Note- This story starts immediately following season five episode one which was titled Faceless, Nameless which aired in the United States in September of 2009. The date used in this fic reflects the fact that the story actually takes place the day after the team came back from Canada. That episode was titled To Hell and Back 2 and it aired in May. So I'm just assuming that episode and Faceless, Nameless take place in that month.

To recap, in To Hell and Back the team goes to a Canadian pig farm that has around 100 murder victim's remains. It depresses all of them and the two unsubs are killed during the episode. At the end Hotch is attacked by Foyet.

In Nameless, Faceless Reid is shot in the leg, Hotch has surgery for nine stab wounds, and Haley and Jack go into protective custody. The team started that day on only four hours off between getting home from Canada and showing up at a new crime scene.

The title of this fic comes from the song Love Will Never Do (Without You) by Janet Jackson.

Never Do Without You

Morgan and Garcia

Chapter One

May 2009

He had been through a week of hell.

That was his only reasonable excuse for what had gone down tonight. SSA Derek Morgan was suffering from severe physical fatigue and work related stress, not to mention worry about the health of two colleagues and having serious doubts about his career path, life path, and if he'd ever had a love he could call his own for himself.

With all of that swimming around in his head he made a very bad decision that he regretted now. As he drove home through the streets of Washington DC he thought about when he had first stepped into the club earlier that evening. He had been off his game from the start.

Instead of flirting and being charming he was almost animalistic in his hunting for a woman to take to a motel and fuck. He was running on barely no sleep and didn't have the energy to flirt that night. Didn't even have the desire. Didn't wanna work for it. He just wanted to find a woman and hit on her in a quick and dirty way.

Derek had planned to fuck away all his stress. Needed that badly.

The stuff going through his head- about that pig farm, about what was the point of working in the BAU and would his job always make it so that he couldn't have a successful relationship or happy life, about if he had wasted the last decade of his life, about why he couldn't stop wanting a woman he couldn't have, about two friends in hospital beds, a mother and her son in hiding, and a freak unsub coming for the BAU like they were his own personal playthings to slowly destroy- it was all too overwhelming.

Derek was drowning that night. When he felt that way he usually went to Penelope. But he didn't this night.

This night he went looking for a quick fuck. It wasn't his usual style. He usually stayed home when he was in this kinda mood. When he went to a bar or club he liked to be all smiles. The life of the party. A woman's secret fantasy lover that she would remember forever. He always tried to make each and every women that he got with feel special, chosen for a night, and desired.

That is the opposite of what he had just pulled on some college girl he had met. Her name barely registered with him after he had walked up to her, whispered something filthy in her ear, and thrown money on the bar to pay her tab.

Ten minutes of intense "You know you wanna leave here and fuck my brains out," talk later and they were both heading for their cars. They met at the motel, got the room and went inside.

She moved in to kiss him, looking like a little girl playing dress up in her slutty black dress, and Derek just couldn't do it. He jerked back, stuttered out a stupid sounding excuse and took off.

Never before had he done something like that. But when that woman went to kiss him he had a flash of another face in his mind. And he wanted her tonight. Needed her arms around him.

But he couldn't have Penelope. So he was gonna go home, get drunk, and pass out. God, did he need a break from work. No one better call him for another case any damn time soon.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Penelope knew she was crossing a major line with what she was doing tonight but still went ahead full force with her plan and did it anyway. There was this instinctual desire to be here doing this that bubbled inside of her too strongly to ignore. This idea had struck her somewhere between her hellish day at work and her disastrous dinner with her now ex-boyfriend.

Kevin Lynch didn't understand Penelope's love for her team.

The last week had been a walk through hell for all of the BAU and Penelope couldn't just shake that off at the drop of a hat. That's what Kevin had expected tonight. It was his birthday and he wanted attention from her. That was only fair but she couldn't accommodate him tonight. It felt like she had the world on her shoulders. She couldn't be his good time girl. Not tonight.

And then it had hit her, while sitting at the restaurant barely able to get down her salad, she didn't want to even try anymore. She didn't want to be there with Kevin. She wanted to have dinner with a different man.

More than that, she needed to see him to get her equilibrium back in check.

So Penelope broke up with Kevin on the spot and ran out of there like her feet were on fire. Less than an hour later she was feeling calmer and a little more in control of her life again. She just hoped that her best friend took this gesture she was currently trying to show him in the way it was intended.

If Derek didn't like what she was doing then she really might crack.

The stress of the last week was a little much for any person to bear. Her mind was consumed with worry for Hotch and Reid, who were both in the hospital right that moment, for Haley and Jack, who had just gone into protective custody, and for Derek, who the Reaper could have killed months before but didn't because Derek had been passed out. That wouldn't satisfy the sickness in George Foyet if he took a life without that person looking in his eyes and knowing their life was about to end. Now the Reaper was back.

It was all closing in on Penelope. All this worry and stress. But she didn't want to think about any of that anymore. She just wanted- no, she needed- to relax some this evening. And she wanted to do it with Derek.

Hopefully he would feel the same way. She knew she should send him a text but something told her this would all be better as a surprise. Hopefully she hadn't miscalculated.

XXXXXXXXX

Derek pulled his SUV into his driveway. He tensed and went on high alert when he noticed a light on in his kitchen. There was no window low enough to look inside.

Jumping out of his vehicle, he made his way along the side of the house, up the stairs and tried the handle on the back door. Finding it unlocked he eased the door opened and came through it quickly with his gun raised.

"Ah!" a woman cried in shock at his actions, her hand raising to her chest to cover her fast beating heart.

There in his kitchen, instead of an unsub, was Penelope preparing some food. Derek blinked a few times as she stared at him wide eyed.

Lowering and holstering his gun he walked closer to her. "Garcia, what are you doing here?"

In a shaking voice she said "I was making you dinner before you just about scared the life out of me."

He pulled her into a hug. "Sorry, mama."

After a moment she pulled back and looked up. "Its my fault. You gave me a key to your place for an emergency. See, the thing is, tonight is an emergency for me. I could really use a dose of my Hot Stuff."

He felt tenderness course through him. "Well, here I am."

"So you're not mad?"

"Mad that you're cooking for me?" He looked at the stove and saw simmering pork chops in some kind of sauce. "Depends on if its any good."

"Ohhh, my love, everything I've got is very, very good. So good you don't know what you're missing."

Derek chuckled. He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. "So what's up? I thought that something seemed off with you when we talked on the phone earlier. Is it what happened with Hotch?"

"The boss man, Reid, Haley, Jack, everything. Its too, too much. And Kevin doesn't get that. We were out for dinner tonight and he wanted me to stop talking about the team and talk about some comic book convention in Vegas he wanted us to go to. For all I care he can take some friend of his cause this tech kitten is outtie."

Derek raised an eyebrow.

Penelope concentrated on cooking some vegetables that she was grilling. "We broke up. Or I broke up with him. On his birthday. I'm the worst girlfriend ever."

"Well that's kinda harsh but if you're not into the man then its better to just let it go."

"I don't know how I feel about him. I just know that when I left him tonight at the restaurant it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I only wanted to come to one place. To see you. So I hope I am not cramping your style tonight. It looks like you had mega major plans. You sure got decked out since you were at work earlier."

During the day he had on a t-shirt and jeans but since he had gone to a club Derek had changed into black slacks and a black button up shirt. The sleeves were rolled up. He had on an expensive watch he would never wearing during work hours and a silver chain.

"Yeah, I went out for a drink to chill but I cut it short. I wasn't in the mood for being around strangers." He looked around the kitchen, which was homey and smelling good because of the mix of Penelope's scent and the food. "This is actually just the speed I needed tonight. I'm glad you're here, baby girl."

She gave him a tender smile. "I thought you might be mad that I had overstepped by bounds."

"Hush with that. This is the way a man likes to come home. To a beautiful woman making good food for him. Yum. This is how I'd love to be living every night."

Penelope's cheeks got a little color in them and she smiled at that. Derek brushed a kiss on her temple and said "Give me five, baby."

He went to the bathroom, trying to wash off the stench of the club and that other chick, and then he went and put his gun in his safe before putting on some music for them to listen to as they ate. When he walked back into the kitchen he was smiling widely.

This is exactly what he had needed tonight. But he hadn't thought that he could ask her for it. Luckily his baby girl had all but read his mind.

Derek loved when things like that happened between them.