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A/n this is a tag to "The Internet is Forever."

Pure of Heart

The bones in his back crackled as he stood and stretched. For some reason, the paperwork for this particular case seemed never ending. He grabbed his black coffee mug with a Department of Justice seal on the side, and headed down to the break room.

The emptiness of the bullpen had him glancing down at his watch. Was it really that late? He sighed… He didn't have anyone at home waiting for him. Oddly, this thought was beginning to bother him more in the last few weeks, than it had bothered him in the past.

Someone whimpered to his right, startling him out of his thoughts. It came from her office. His feet veered off toward the sounds of misery before his brain could engage them in another direction. She sat in front of her computer watching something he'd hoped he'd never see again. Why? Why would she watch it? It didn't make sense.

"What are you doing?" He demanded very loudly.

She jumped and whirled away from her screen, which pleased him immensely because she no longer saw the savagery playing out in front of her.

"Sir?"

The confusion and tears on her face cut him to the core. She reached back without looking and shut off the video feed.

"What are you doing?" He inquired in a gentler tone.

"I was…" Something caught in her throat. "I thought that if I could watch that, then…" She trailed off and stared down at the floor."

"Don't kitten," He said softly taking the chair next to her. "Don't cry."

She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. "Some FBI tech I am, I can't even watch that without going to pieces."

His hands reached out automatically and gripped hers tightly. "I'm glad you can't watch it."

She didn't pull away from his touch… Instead, she squeezed his fingers so tightly, his instinct was to pull away, but he did not, "I should be tougher and be able to endure -"

"What?" He interrupted, "Be able to endure watching one human being kill another and not flinch. I did that today and so did Hotch."

She started to speak, but he pulled one of his hands out of her tight grasp and put a finger against her lips. "I've seen more then you can imagine in the last twenty-five years. I've waded through blood and other disgusting bodily fluids. I've seen savagery and evil you can't imagine. One of the reasons I could watch that live, and not look away was because I knew you were looking away. The day you don't look away is the day I lose faith in humanity. It's day I know we've lost our innocence."

She sniffed in surprise pulling her other hand free to wipe at the tears on her red cheeks. "I don't understand… Why would you say that?"

He sat back in his chair. "When I first met you, I thought you were strange, with all your color, and your inability to even look at a crime scene photo. I wondered what you were doing in the FBI. Since then, I've come to value those traits about you. Please don't lose your innocence because you think it makes you less then brave, or valuable to the FBI. It's better that you should be outside of all of this," He waved his arms around the office as if to include the whole building, "Then to be inside and lose your soul as I have."

"No…" She disagreed, "You haven't lost your soul. If you had, you wouldn't care about mine."

"Why don't we agree to disagree over this one point?" He asked gently. "Promise me you won't try to 'toughen up' again because I happen to like you just the way you are, Penelope Garcia."

She blushed crimson. "I promise I won't try to desensitize myself again." She crossed her heart like a kid in school.

"I'm serious," he chided her.

"I promise," she said seriously.

Silence stretched out between them as he tried to think of something to say, but couldn't come up with anything.

"Why are you getting more of the sludge they call coffee?" She suddenly asked him, pointing to his mug.

"I still have paperwork to do." He answered with a long-suffering sigh.

"Why don't we get out of her and leave the work till tomorrow. I know a little café down the street that makes coffee even Reid would die for."

A smiled lifted the corners of his mouth as he ignored the voice in his head that he shouldn't do this. "Well there's a ringing endorsement."

She laughed delightedly, her eyes brightening, bringing back the happiness he was used to seeing on her face. "They have delicious peach pie."

"You don't have to convince me," He stood up. "Let's get out of here."