Note- Takes place following Season Five, episode eleven: Retaliation.

The Most Important Thing

Chapter One

"Good morning, princess." He had made sure he was hanging around the bullpen around the time she always came in.

"Hey there, Hot Stuff," she said as she kept walking.

He would have preferred to hear: I'll show you a good morning, Hot Stuff. But he would certainly take the greeting she gave him. It was much better than the times she called him by his last name, almost as if he was just any old co-worker to her and not anyone special. He needed to feel special to Penelope.

Derek knew he sometimes called her Garcia too. It wasn't said to make her feel bad. It was when he was tense about work or had dark thoughts in his head. No matter what he was calling her deep down inside she was his baby girl.

He rose off the desk he had been sitting on and walked right into her path. "Pump those brakes. You got a minute for me?"

"For you, sugar? I got all day and all night. I do hope you aren't teasing me this time."

"But teasing you is so much fun, baby girl."

Baby girl.

Just saying the words again made him feel better. He had tried to keep them out of his mouth while he was acting unit chief. It wasn't easy and sometimes he slipped. But he wanted to be a professional and he wanted to do Hotch proud.

After Haley died Derek spent a few miserable, completely sleepless nights and long, coffee fueled days when he thought about his life and the emptiness inside of him. Before then he had told Tamara that she was helping to bring him back to life.

What he didn't tell her was why he felt half dead. And he didn't tell her why he was moving so slow with them. Taking a half step toward her and then shutting down for weeks. Making a call out of no where and showing up at her door in the middle of the night. Then not seeing her again till he was lonely and broken another time. Till he was missing Penelope and he needed to feel like some woman wanted him.

He hadn't even slept with Tamara and now he was glad for that. Because Haley dying had woken him up to a few things. He couldn't spend his life like he had doing these last few months. He couldn't put distance between him and Penelope for anything- not the job, not to protect his heart, not even to do right by her because she had Lynch.

He needed her. She was the one woman who he couldn't do without. The phrase baby girl was the salve for his weary and battered soul.

He had to call her that nickname. He had to flirt with her. He had to smile when she walked into a room. He had to hold her close and just take the warmth she offered.

Life was short and getting shorter every day. It was time to make sure his baby girl knew just how much she did to make his world a better place.

Because if he should be the next one to die he didn't want her to not even be able to remember the last time he called her baby girl.

She flirted with him "But teasing can only satisfy for so long until a woman needs something a little more substantial to get her through the night."

He couldn't help but smile and chuckle, feeling like he was finding himself again after way too long of wondering who the hell he was turning into. "Baby, any night you want."

Her eyes lit up and her red painted lips pursed. "Mmm, I shall let you know, my love. Await my call." She walked off to get coffee while he watched her leave, a huge grin on his lips.

This was a good start to his day but he had much more in mind for her. For them.

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Penelope slipped into her office with a smile on her lips. She started up her babies and sipped her coffee while she waited for her computers to load.

She told herself You are so easy for him to wrap around his little finger.

There was no malice in her tone as she thought that. It was more like a dreamy tone that was relieved to realize how quickly they could get back all that she had feared they lost. As soon as he started calling her baby girl again she felt warmth infuse into her and her walls started to crumble for him.

Then Haley died.

After that she was wreck. She ached for Derek to wrap his arms around her and make the pain stop. She could see on his face how lost he was. But he didn't reach for her in those first few awful days.

She clung to Lynch but he couldn't soothe her like she needed. She lay awake at night until she fell into fitful, short bouts of sleep with Lynch next to her. While she was awake she would think about the team, all the things they went through together and all the pain they were feeling now. And she asked herself over and over "What could we have done different so we didn't feel this emptiness now?"

For her the answer was simple. She should have simply told Derek "I met someone at a coffee shop and he asked me out but I said no.....because he's not you. I'm waiting for you, Hot Stuff." Then she could have walked away and left it up to him to decide if she was joking or serious. If he wanted her or not.

At least by now she would have her answer. Instead she had confusion. He was so good to her after Battle tried to murder her. He kept her alive, defended her, protected her, soothed her fears and chased away her demons. He was the noir hero she always called him- come to life. She knew he had never been all that to any other woman and that it was emotionally making him raw to be so exposed for her. She kept wanting him to just go home so he wouldn't worry about her and she wouldn't feel vulnerable. But he stuck around for weeks, nursing her back to health and living at her apartment.

All the while she had already met Lynch. He was sending her e-mails, coming on to her. And she fell for him.

Really she was running from her feelings for Derek and she knew it. But she couldn't stop herself. She made up reasons why her and Derek would never work: the frat rules, he's a player, the team might be affected and lives depended on them, they would only be a fling and it wasn't worth that, their friendship might be ruined. Excuse after excuse to keep her from what she wanted most.

Haley's final words killed all Penelope's excuses.

Within a week of the funeral she ended things with Lynch. Now it was a few weeks later and she was back to flirting with Derek. Back where she started. Back to the only place that felt right.

And this time she was going to find the nerve to take them all the way. Picking up her phone she called his cell.

He answered by saying "Can't get enough of me, can you, baby girl?"

"Never, my love. I only want you more with each passing moment. How about we do lunch today? Your place or mine?"

"Mine. I like home field advantage. I think I'll need it with a sexy Goddess like you."

"You don't think you can handle me? I'm so disappointed. I suppose you are getting on in years now."

"Bite you tongue, woman."

She smiled and said, in a very throaty tone, "See you in a few hours, baby."

His voice dropped to a very sexy growl. "Counting the minutes, sweetheart." Click.

Penelope raised an eyebrow. Her body was on fire from that one comment. He actually sounded quite turned on when he said it.

Her mind flooded with reasons why she was overreacting and imagining that he was being a little more serious than usual. Then she told herself, in a firm tone, Stop it! You want him to be serious so what is the harm in believing, if only for a few hours till lunch, that he is?

No harm at all. She smiled and got down to work.