All The World's A Stage...
It was out in the open now.
"So, sweetness," he said the next morning in her office. "Is that the only secret you've been keeping from me?"
The night before, Derek had sat front and center, next to Hotch, one row ahead of Prentiss, Rossi, and Reid, watching her in her play. Watching her so intently, she'd stumbled over her lines twice. Lines she'd never flubbed up on before.
She looked at him, and tapped her chin with a blue-painted fingertip. "That bugged you, sweetheart, didn't it?"
"Yes, it did." He leaned back against the corner of her desk and crossed his arms over his chest in a gesture of self-defense so obvious, it didn't take a profiler to read it. "We're best friends; we're not supposed to have secrets from each other."
She looked back at her screen guiltily, and began in a high pitched tone, "Like I said, you have your properties, and-"
"Properties you have been to how many times?" he asked her archly.
She turned back to see him narrowing his eyes at her. She swallowed and smiled sheepishly, "I haven't seen the basement of the one on 34th Street."
"Baby," he said, leaning forward, putting both of his hands on her arm rests. "You could move into any of my houses, if you just said the word."
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "D, we've been over this. I am so not taking a house from you."
"It wouldn't be taking; I'd be giving."
She shook her head. "Same difference, cupcake."
"That's neither here nor there, and we're getting off subject," he said, waiving his hand in dismissal. "What I want to know is why didn't you tell me?"
He stood back up, his arms folded across his chest again.
She could tell, she'd upset him. She hadn't meant to. She didn't want to put him out over anything; her reasoning was the polar opposite of that.
"It wasn't to keep a secret, something that you didn't know about me," she began.
"Could've fooled me," he muttered.
"Derek," she retorted with just enough of a whine to show that she was exasperated with him.
"Alright," he said, relaxing more, his arms falling akimbo. "I'm listening."
"The theater takes a lot of my time. When I am doing things for the theater, I become absorbed in my part; I don't think about anything but the part," she explained. She held her palms up. "Ask Kevin; I ignore him all the time."
Derek scoffed. "I ignore him all the time, and I'm not playing a part."
"You're terrible."
"I'm truthful," he countered. "Keep going."
She sighed again and looked away. "I didn't want to do that to you, ignore you like that or make you have to see my plays. So, I do it all on the sly, reading my part in private by myself. Otherwise, I would be tempted to ask you to help me."
He cocked his head to the left and looked at her. "Why didn't you ask me?"
She blushed. "It doesn't work. I tried with Kevin-"
"Hey!" he interrupted her. "Trying with Lynch and trying with me is not the same thing."
That caught her attention. Just the way he said the words, so forceful and intense, made her think differently. Besides, secretly she'd always wanted to read with Derek. He had a delicious, low baritone that would sound good reading ingredients off a soup label!
No mono-sodium glutamate, sweetheart- just pure broth, along with chicken, rice, peas, and lots of fantastic noodles. Oh, hell, yes, momma; that would make a-
"Penelope, you okay?" he asked, his brow quirked in amusement.
"I think we'd be awesome together," she whispered finally.
He smiled back. "Like I said: aren't we already?" She'd barely had time to grin back, before he said, "Okay, so I will be at your place tomorrow night, and we'll read."
"Oh, okay."
He stood and walked to the door, before saying, "What is our play this time?"
She grinned. "Journey of Passion."
He laughed and shook his head. "I take it that's not slapstick comedy?"
"Nope."
"Hot and heavy romance?" he asked, brow quirked again.
"Yep."
He winked at her. "Just my cup of tea."
And he left her office, whistling a happy little tune.
AN: Thank you to JenRar for editing for me and for laughing. This was driving me crazy, I had to fix it. Dedicated to Jen, Betty-Anne, Cara, and Harley, who asked me to write a story about that line about being "awesome together."
This was going to be a one shot, but if you'd like, I can keep going- like a two, three, maybe four shot. What would YOU like?