Premise- Morgan and Garcia. Derek and Penelope meet for the first time in Chicago in 2000 and set off a chain of events that have life altering consquences.

Note-

Derek's age is based on comments in 'Profiler, Profiled' from season two when it was said he was about 15 in 1991. That would make him born around 1976.

Penelope's age is based on comments in 'Penelope' from season three when it was mentioned that she was thirty at that time. That would make her born around 1977.

This story begins at The Taste of Chicago. A large festival that takes place each year with food, music, and other entertainment. It is attended by millions. Since I live near there I have attended it several times myself. It always takes place near the Fourth of July.

Baby Girl

Morgan and Garcia

Chapter One

July 2000

He always got the attention of just about any female that he wanted.

Knowing that had made him a very cocky, testosterone driven, flirty twenty four year old. He hadn't dated much in high school- instead he had just one close girl friend that had firmly stayed in the friend category- but he made up for it with a vengeance in college, where he was the star of the football team for a couple of years. After graduating with a law degree, he did a short two year long stint in the marines before joining the Chicago Police Department last year. After six months he was moved to the bomb squad.

That kind of quick ascension was almost unheard of but he was just that kind of man. He excelled at most whatever he put his mind to. And that included bedding a large array of ladies in all shapes, sizes and ethnicities.

He was so far from settling down that the idea of it made him let out a loud chortle of laughter whenever his Ma brought it up. She wanted grandbabies but she'd have to look to his older sister, who had just gotten engaged, to get her first ones because Officer Derek Morgan planned to play the field for at least a decade more, maybe longer.

Why in the hell would he want to do anything else at this point in his life anyway? He was young and he planned to enjoy every sinful second of it. His good looks and charm would keep bringing the women swarming to him like flies on honey.

And he would keep being their sweet, sweet treat.

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She was used to being on her own. She had learned six years before that she would have to make it in this world without any further help from her family. Her parents had been killed in a car accident and her only siblings were step brothers who were way older than her and barely knew her. They were all raised with their mother in Kansas, while she had been raised in California.

So she had no family to speak of. No aunts or uncles or grandparents. No godmother or godfather. Her parents weren't much for religion or societal conventions. They had been hippies who lived in a rambling old house high on a hill in San Francisco. It had been a house filled with love and the memory of that love, Penelope Garcia had long ago realized, would have to be enough to carry her through the rest of her life.

Not that she didn't date or want to marry. Sure she did. She hated the idea of forever being alone. But it didn't seem that she had the greatest luck with men. They didn't immediately take to her like they did the skinny, fashion plate type of women.

She was quirky, a little chunky and a lot curvy. She wore pink streaks in her hair and big, bold jewelry. Sometimes she would sport a beautiful Indian necklace she bought at street fair back home but she was just as likely to wear a small skeleton pendent that was a leftover remnant of her Goth girl days.

Overall she was just a little too, too unique for all but a small segment of men. And that, for the most part, was okay with her. Sometimes it did hurt her pride to be overlooked by a certain type of man and know that she could only get computer geeks or Star War nerds like her to see the amazing awesomeness that was her, but she didn't let it get her down.

She had suffered through too much real life stress and fear after she had a breakdown immediately following her parents death to let little things like the shallowness and blindness of hunky men get her down.

But, oh, how she did love hunky men. Even if she thought they were overlooking her beauty in favor of more plastic and vapid females.

Oh well. Such was life and Penelope was finally getting better at managing her life. All on her own too, thank you very much. That's how she ended up in Chicago for the Fourth of July weekend. A hacker friend invited her out and she traveled by herself by train across the country.

Today her friend was stuck at his day job- his parents made him work in the family hardware store- so she was on her own for ways to stay entertained. She had seen on the news the night before that there was a huge, ten day festival taking place in Grant Park.

That sounded like a fun way to blow an afternoon. She was more than used to spending her time alone now, when her friends were busy with their own lives, because she rarely had a serious boyfriend. Most of her relationships left her unsatisfied but she was far from being bitter about the whole male race.

Nope. She was young, getting happier every day now that the darkest period in her life was over five years behind her, and actually becoming more and more okay with being an independent, lives by her own rules, sort of chick. She would find a man eventually who appreciated all she had to offer.

Till then she was okay doing things alone and dreaming about the day she made her own family, so there would be no loneliness ever again.

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He was going to meet up with a group of friends downtown at The Taste of Chicago. Derek had gotten off work that afternoon and took a train into the heart of the city, leaving his jeep parked at the station. Public transportation was easier and cheaper when going to the fest.

The rates they charged for parking were outrageous and finding a spot could prove impossible on all but the rainiest of days. Today wasn't one of those. It was hot as blazes out, over a hundred degrees, and the humidity was thick like a wool blanket. Lake Michigan was not far from the park that hosted the fest but it was just far enough away to not feel the cool lake breeze.

Derek was already sweating a little when he got off the train, walked through the underground station, and up a flight of stairs, surrounded by a huge crowd of people ranging from boisterous teens to senior citizens and plenty of families.

As they all headed down the long city blocks, and got closer to the area where the streets were blocked to traffic and vendors were set up, he could smell the delicious scents of the many different types of food being sold waft through the air.

His mind was on feeding his hunger, then catching up with his friends, and finally on relaxing at the concert that was about to start in forty five minutes. He stopped at a corner, still surrounded by a crowd, and waited for the signal to walk.

Just as the signal changed a woman in front of him, who he hadn't even noticed because he was lost in his own thoughts, tripped on the high curb and let out a startled sound.

Immediately his instincts kicked in and her said "Whoa, there, sweetie!" as he moved in to grab her, keeping her from falling into the street and possibly breaking an ankle, or at least skinning up one of her pretty knees.

Yes, she was pretty. In a punk rocker sort of way. Derek had never once had a thing for a punk rock kind of chick but he had been with all types before and this type was just as appealing to him as any other.

As he held her in his arms, her looking up at him, their eyes settled on each other. Hers were covered by a very funky framed pair of glasses- green- but still he could see how they were a sparkling shade of honey brown and filled with mischief.

The crowd moved, pushing and jostling somewhat, everyone rushing to get across the road, while Derek just held this stranger. After a good half a minute he realized he was being completely inappropriate by not letting go of her, even if she was staring at him lustfully, with her pretty red lips slightly moist and parted, and didn't seem to mind.

"I'm sorry for grabbing you like that," he said in a dazed tone. "Here you go, mama." He righted her on her feet again. "Just didn't want you to fall and break your sexy leg."

She had on a very bright green dress that went past her knees but was low cut around her generous, lovely breasts. She also wore high platform sandals. Her toenails were painted hot pink.

"Thank you very much, handsome stranger. If all the men in Chicago were as chivalrous as you then I would move to this city and live forever."

"So you're from out of town?"

The light changed again and the signal went to Don't Walk but neither of them noticed.

"Cali girl, born and bred. What about you? I think I hear a Midwest twang in your voice. Am I right?"

"Twang?" He laughed. "I ain't never heard that one before. I guess I never thought of us Chicageons having accents but you're right, girl. You nailed it. I was raised here and lived on the South Side all my life. And, you know, I thought this city always had the prettiest women in the world but I didn't know what I was missing out California way."

She blushed a little and batted her eyelashes at him. His heart did a very weird flip flop fluttering thing it had never done before. If he wasn't so excited about chatting up a hot blonde he would have gotten worried about that but Derek was majorly preoccupied

"I'd say," she purred at him "I was the one missing out on knowing where all the gorgeous men are hiding by never visiting this city before now."

"Oh, yeah, girl? Well don't keep missing out. Here is one reporting for duty, ready and willing to serve as a solider in your own personal army."

"Is that, right? I could have myself a lot of fun on this vacation with a Hot Stuff like you."

Licking the tips of two fingers he then touched his bare arm and made a sizzling sound. "Hotter than you ever met before."

A new crowd had gathered to walk across the street and they surrounded the chatting pair.

Derek said "After you, sweet thing," as the crowd bustled into the street.

He placed his hand on her back, in a gesture of marking her as his for that moment, and was surprised by the spark he felt, an actual real jolt that shivered down his spine and pulsated through his groin, at touching her.

As they made their way across the street and into Grant Park he noticed how good she smelled. Like flowers and vanilla all mixed together in a very feminine way, as feminine as her drop dead gorgeous curves.

Derek loved meeting new chicks. It brought out the hunter in him. Made his heart race fast and made his blood pump hard through his veins. He liked it even more than chasing perps or disarming bombs.

But meeting them wasn't the best part. The best part was the moment when he convinced them, even if it rarely took much convincing, to go home with him that night.

He was determined already that his sexy blonde, whose name he didn't even know, would be rolling around his sheets naked tonight.