Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

Everything I'm Not

~Wow, three postings from me in 48 hours? That's like seeing...well, some rare animal in the wild. I was actually planning on updating New Year's With a Friend, but this came to me instead (I'll try to update NYWAF later today). Enjoy!

David Rossi strode towards Garcia's office with a clear mission in his mind. The Goddamned crime database he used to fact check his books was denying him access and he needed the technical goddess to fix it again. This time, at least, he'd printed out the error message he'd received so he knew that should make the electronic genius happy. As he reached the end of the hallway, he saw that her office door was partially open, so he entered without knocking.

"Garcia, can you help me get into-" That's as far as he got before he realized the voluptuous blonde was silently crying and trying to hide it. "What's wrong, Kitten?" He asked as he set his file down on one of her many desks.

"Agent Rossi, you startled me," she said as she swiped at her face with her hands. After she cleaned her face, she quickly tried turning off the computer monitor in front of her, but Dave had seen what was on it.

"Sorry about that, Garcia, but what's wrong?" He asked again as he came and stood next to her. He gently spun her chair around so she was facing him.

"Nothing's wrong sir. What can I help you with?" She asked with false cheer as she reached for the file.

"Nuh-uh," he said, shaking his head and blocking her hand. "I didn't become profiler extraordinaire for nothing. You're crying, Garcia and that usually signifies a problem. So what is it?"

She sighed, "It's nothing sir, really, I'm just being dumb."

"Garcia, you are one of the smartest and strongest women I know; if you're crying, then it has to be about something, so what gives?" He saw that she wasn't going to answer him, so he decided to pull out the big guns. "Penelope, do I need to get JJ involved?" He knew if anyone could get the woman to talk, it would be her best friend.

"No! I mean, no sir, let's leave JJ out of this," Garcia said, knowing that she could stand up to the profilers and their interrogations, but she would crumble under her best friend's inquisition.

"Then tell me what's wrong so I can fix it," Dave said. "Did it have to do with what was on your computer screen a minute ago?"

Garcia sighed and turned the monitor back on. The screen showed a still shot of Derek and his date for the evening pulled from one of the many security cameras that Garcia had 'unofficial' access to. "Derek really helped me through my breakup with Kevin a few months ago. He brought me dinner many nights, he kept me occupied on the weekends and he kept me grounded when all of you were out of town on cases. During that time, I realized my feelings toward him had changed into something romantic. Now, you know me, I'm not going to just ignore those feelings, so I talked to him about them and I thought he felt the same way towards me, but then I saw him leaving with her." Fresh tears streamed down her face and Dave's heart broke for her as he handed her his handkerchief.

"God Garcia, I'm sorry, honey; Derek is an asshole," Dave told her angrily. Derek had made his one ray of sunshine cry and for that, he was going to pay.

Penelope shook her head, "He really isn't, Agent Rossi, I mean look at her! She has a perfect body, great hair and she dresses like she's in a Gap commercial. She's everything I'm not. Who wouldn't choose her over me?" She asked.

"Me," Dave replied instantly.

Garcia snorted, "Nice try, sir, but I know what guys like and I'm not it."

"Are you insane?" Dave asked. "What's not to like about you? Yeah, you're not a size two but not every guy is looking for that. Curves on a woman are sexy, not every man wants to date a skeleton."

"Yeah, but-" she tried interrupting, but Rossi wouldn't let her.

"As for her clothes, okay, so she looks like she's out of a Gap ad, but that just means she looks like everyone else. You're unique, Penelope and I love it."

"Really?" She whispered.

"Really," Dave said firmly as he nodded his head. "God, Kitten, don't you know by now that this team would fall apart without you? You're the ray of sunshine in all of our lives. After all of the horrible shit we all see on a regular basis, we all know that we can count on you to bring light back into our worlds. Most of the time you do it with your kind words and joyous actions, but you've cheered me up with your sunny outfits on more than one occasion."

Garcia smiled at that, so Dave kept going. "Derek's date maybe what the fashion magazines consider an 'ideal woman,' but any red blooded, American male would be overjoyed to have you on their arm. Hell Garcia, if you were ten years older and I was ten years younger, I would show you how I got all of the anti-fraternizations rules put into place."

"I would let you," she said with a smile.

"You're a damn sexy woman, Garcia, and you'll meet someone who loves you for you and you shouldn't settle for someone who wants you to deny your true sense of self," Rossi said, nodding his head towards the monitor.

"You're right, Agent Rossi, I deserve better," she said with conviction in her voice. She turned off the monitor and then turned back to the older profiler. "Thank you sir, I really needed to hear all of that tonight."

"Any time, Garcia. Speaking of tonight, do you have plans?"

She shook her head, "Why?" She asked.

"Jimmy and I are meeting up for dinner at a pub in the city; care to join us?" Dave asked, knowing his friend would love the colorful woman.

Penelope grinned, "A priest, a computer geek and an FBI agent all walk into a bar…it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke."

Dave returned her grin, "Trust me, you haven't lived until you've seen a priest get shit-faced and it's my turn to drive tonight." Privately, he hoped Garcia would join his friend in imbibing; he had a hunch that the two of them drunk together would be epically hilarious.

"Let me get everything shut down in here and I'll meet you at the elevators?"

Dave nodded, "Sounds good to me," he said and then turned to leave her lair; his database problems could wait until the next day. As he made his way back to his office, he felt good that he was able to cheer up one of the happiest people he had ever met, but he was also planning to have a long talk with one Derek Morgan first thing in the morning. He was going to learn that no one treated Penelope Garcia the way he did.