AN: This story was written by request of the Wednesday Night Girls (Especially Hellomy). They saw a promo shot of Derek and Penelope on a double date with their dates, and well—Bleh! So! This is my interpretation of how that ill-fated date should end (CM, please take note?)...Also, credit to Rose—I used your nickname for D...Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Everything was a blur as Penelope was driven down the highway, away from the diner toward her apartment, which would've been the same as three hours ago when she'd been driven to her night out for drinks and dancing.

Except she wasn't in the same car and the driver of the car was different.

"I can't believe they just left us there," she mumbled to her best friend, the scowl on his gorgeous face completely matching hers.

"Well, they did, Baby Girl," he said rather unnecessarily, gripping the steering wheel of his little Audi and glaring at the road.

Derek had spoken with a finality to his tone, too, which meant that he was done discussing the matter of the evening, but that was just too bad. She had a lot to get off her chest, and she wasn't anywhere near done talking.

She huffed. "I mean, they left together—Sam and Savannah. Walked off and left, arm in arm, like they were dating!"

"Sweetheart, I don't need the play by play," he drawled, and then he arched an eyebrow as he glanced away from the road for just a second. "Leave it alone."

He was back to the business of driving, and silence fell again...but not for long.

"It wasn't kosher, Derek," she fussed. "We didn't do anything wrong. I mean, to just leave us there like an previously read newspaper..."

He sighed heavily. "We weren't exactly forgotten news."

"What would you call it, then, my caramel-colored Ken doll?" she asked in a snippy tone.

"I'd call us more 'unwanted,'" he said with brutal honesty. "Used and done by two fed-up people."

She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest as he drove, a feeling of sadness overtaking the righteous anger she'd been holding onto. She felt miserable—and a little guilty.

That's what bothered her the most...that she almost felt she deserved what had happened tonight. Almost.

"You got wine at your place?" he asked out of nowhere, which showed he was feeling the same way she was feeling.

"I've got a bottle, I think."

He changed lanes, which brought them away from her apartment. "I have enough for both of us at my place."

"This is much better," Derek said, plopping down on his leather sofa and putting his stockinged feet up on his ottoman, right next to Penelope's. He could see her mulitcolored toenail polish right through the pale pink tights she was wearing. He loved her feet—not big, like his, but not too tiny, like they wouldn't support her. They were just right.

Penelope snuggled closer to his side and handed him his glass of wine. "I agree."

Derek didn't turn the television on, although he could've. Many times, they'd watched movies together, her snuggled into his side like she was right now, or him lying on her lap or vise versa. They'd let something drone on in the background while they talked and laughed and caught maybe a tenth of the films they'd watched. He still didn't know who the kid was talking to in "The Sixth Sense," but he didn't care; he just liked watching with her.

"I can't comprehend the whole thing, sweet cheeks." She sighed, taking a big sip of her wine. "It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Your boyfriend asked my girlfriend if she'd like to leave, and she said yes."

She glared at him for his simplicity, which he'd known was going to happen. "It's not as easy as that, Derek."

"Oh, wait...how'd he say it?" Derek stroked his chin and then snapped his fingers. "Ah, yes! 'Savannah, would you care to accompany me for the evening?'"

Penelope shrugged. "At least he was being somewhat gentlemanly to her."

He rolled his eyes. "Pansy way to say it."

She arched a brow back at him. "And Miss Eager, practically bounding to his car, is filled with manners?"

Derek chuckled. "Baby, are we actually defending them?"

"No," she said, taking another sip of her wine, her cheeks coloring to a paler version of the ruby fluid in the glass. "Well...not entirely."

Derek put his glass down. He needed to be prepared to hear all of this. "Why would you be doing that? Do you want him back?"

Her big brown eyes widened in horror. "No. Oh, no. Hell, no. Not after that." She shook her head and put her glass down. "Public humiliation does not put one in this goddess's good graces."

"Good. You deserve better than him."

"Thank you, angelfish," she said, cuddling against him.

He tucked her near him and placed a kiss on the top of her head, settling back in his spot on the couch. "What's bothering you, then?"

"It's that word he said..."

At the sound of her voice, he wondered if he should've settled back. "What word?"

"Inappropriate."

Derek laughed. He wasn't expecting that to be her problem. His bold Baby Girl never had an issue with needing to be appropriate, and he was pretty damned sure that one disastrous double date wouldn't change that.

"I'm serious, D," she whined. "Everything about your relationship with Derek is inappropriate."

Derek waved at the air. "He's just blowing smoke out his ass."

"Savannah, too?"

Derek sighed as he thought about that. Savannah hadn't liked his use of Penelope's nickname. Maybe he did call Penelope "Baby Girl" one too many times at dinner. Or "Sweetness," or "Angel," or...

Wait a damned minute.

"That's still crap, Penelope," he argued, getting angry again. "I was calling you Baby Girl long before he came into the picture. Why should I stop using your nickname? Hell, I gave it to you. I feel it's my right to use it."

"It is, lover," she said, settling him by placing a hand in the middle of his chest.

"Besides, Lynch didn't have a problem with it," he continued. "Why should—"

"Sam said Kevin lacked a backbone and that any man with a spine would've said something," she interrupted, looking at him for his opinion.

Damn. He couldn't really argue with that, could he?

"But it wasn't just the nicknames," she said, her color in her cheeks again, showing her feelings.

Derek closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. The touching. Savannah and Sam both mentioned the touching. It was bringing back the whole night, a rehashing of what he didn't want to revisit...

"Derek. Do you even realize it?"

"What?"

"What you are doing!" Savannah whispered in a near hiss.

They'd started toward their cars, and Derek, out of pure habit, had opened the door and put his arm around Penelope's waist to lead her into the car, as he had done before a thousand times when it was just the two of them.

It was an honest mistake.

"Oh, sorry, sweetness," he said, releasing Penelope. As he turned to the flashing, angry brown eyes of his girlfriend, he knew at that moment that another relationship of his had bitten the dust.

"Don't touch me," Savannah ordered coldly as he stepped toward her. "I'm tired of this. You don't know what you want." She glared at Penelope. "Neither of you do."

"That's ridiculous," Derek began.

It was an honest mistake.

Derek's gut twinged at that thought...Wasn't it?

"No. I have to agree with Savannah," Sam, who was maybe a percent point better than Lynch, commented. "I was going to speak to Penelope about the same thing."

"About what?"

Poor Baby Girl's eyes were wide, like a deer in the headlights. It made Derek want to comfort her, hold her in his arms and tell her it was going to be okay.

"Your relationship with Derek," Sam continued, his upper lip very stiff and unyielding. "It's inappropriate."

Derek saw the anger light in Penelope's eyes, and he was rather proud of her. "Oh? What do you think is inappropriate?"

"Everything about your relationship with Derek is inappropriate!" Sam snapped. "The hugs, the hand holds, the nicknames, the..."

At that point, Sam shook his head and then turned his gaze to smile at Savannah. "Savannah, would you care to accompany me for the evening?"

Savannah glared at Derek and then took Sam's arm. "I'd love to."

Derek kept his eyes closed. He didn't want to think about it, what it all really meant. Not yet. They weren't ready for that step yet.

As he opened his eyes and looked at Penelope, he wondered...

Either way, nothing was going to keep him from being with his Baby Girl. Not even himself.

Sitting up, Penelope picked up her glass and took another big drink. Her heart was aching, but she knew what she had to do. "Derek, I don't want to stand in the way of your relationships, and if the way we act is—"

"Don't you dare, Baby Girl!" he snapped, interrupting her and making her gasp. "Don't you go changing on me."

"I-I'm not," she stammered, seeing the anger flash in those chocolate brown eyes. She rarely saw him angry, truly angry. It was an awesome sight.

"We've been friends, best friends, for nearly ten years," he began again, "and I will be damned if I'm going to let other people dictate how I'm supposed to feel or act around you."

She shook her head, letting the words sink in. She agreed with him. "No. They shouldn't."

"Do you feel it's inappropriate when I call you Baby Girl..." he started and then added with an arched brow, daring her to disagree, "Baby Girl?"

She began to smile. "No. Not at all, handsome."

"And if you call me your chocolate hunk of man meat—"

She pulled a face and started to laugh. "That sounds disgusting!"

He ignored her and continued, "—and I don't mind, why the fuck should anyone else?"

She grinned, raising her glass. "Hear, hear!"

Just as she lowered it, Derek took her glass out of her hand and then pulled her back against his side, holding her tight against his side with his warm, muscular arm.

Her cheek rested on a spot between his chest and his shoulder that was meant for her, and her hand rested on his taut belly. A warm, swirling feeling, one she tried so hard to suppress around him, one that she'd fought against valiantly for almost ten years, started to win and take over her body, making her pulse race and her breath quicken.

For a moment, he held her, burying his face in her hair and breathing deeply. Penelope took an unsteady breath of her own, fighting her own demons, ones that told her it wasn't meant to be, she wasn't what he wanted, or what she really wanted.

"I've held you a million times, angel. Nothing feels as right to me as this does." His voice was hoarse, thick, as he said, "No one is going to tell me what's between us is wrong."

A fierce pride rose in Penelope, pride in their friendship, pride in the love they felt for each other. She didn't doubt that word, or what it truly meant. For that was what it was, the rightness between them that she always felt, too, just as he was feeling now...love.

Friendship set on fire.

"Look at me," he said softly, and she turned her face toward his.

His eyes were dark, intense, yet tender, and Penelope's heart caught in her throat.

"Nothing inappropriate about that, is there?" he asked, his warm, wine-scented breath touching her face.

She couldn't speak. She could only shake her head, knowing she was lying as she did so. Everything about them was inappropriate—this wasn't just your run of the mill friendship.

They were right. Sam, Savannah, Kevin...everyone who'd ever seen them together over the years. They were right. They'd always been right: No relationship for Derek or herself was ever going to work...unless it was with each other.

The air was charged between them, filled with electricity, secrets revealed that both of them had been keeping, yet yearning to set free. An inappropriate heat and lust that was oh, so appropriate between them.

Derek's hand came up to cup her cheek. "There's nothing inappropriate about kissing you, either..."

Penelope closed her eyes and welcomed him as Derek fit his mouth over hers. That rushing warmth now flooded and engulfed her, and she began to shiver with the intensity of the kiss. At the same time, heat grew everywhere in her body: her hands, her cheeks, her mouth...her pussy. She'd never reacted to a simple kiss so strongly before.

But then, the kiss wasn't simple. Derek coaxed her mouth open, and when his tongue touched hers, her blood seemed to erupt, like molten lava searing through her veins. She drank greedily from him, as he returned the favor, drawing everything from her until she felt boneless and weak in his arms.

Derek drew his mouth to her neck, slow, open-mouthed kisses that promised much, and then whispered in her ear, "Nothing inappropriate with this, either, right?"

Her eyes were still closed. She opened them to see him smiling seductively, waiting for her answer. She was smiling, too, as she answered, "No, love bug. Nothing inappropriate at all."

"I'd like to show you some other things, too, Baby Girl," he said, rising to his feet and then pulling her up to her feet and into his arms. She could feel the hardness of his body against hers, the familiar strength she loved, along with the protrusion of his erection against her softness.

"I don't know," she teased with a wink and an eyebrow wiggle. "Wouldn't that be inappropriate?"

"Everything I'm about to do is appropriate," he said, cupping her face in his hands, "as long as I do it with you."

As he bent to kiss her again, Penelope couldn't agree more.