Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds and I'm not making any profit off this story.
Summary: AU: A chance meeting in the park has Penelope's heart a flutter, the only problem; she's already in a relationship with her long term boyfriend Kevin, and besides who knows if she'll ever meet the handsome man again.
This was written as a gift fic for Huntress79, whose birthday is in March. So Happy Birthday Huntress, I hope you like the story.
…
Penelope Garcia sat quietly on a bench in Jams River Park. She was reading the Latest copy of 'Wired' a magazine filled with reviews on the latest gadgets and how to use them.
Her boyfriend Kevin Lynch, who was supposed to be meeting her later that afternoon, had a column in it where he talked mostly about computers, laptops and their hard drives.
Penelope was a bit of a tech herself, she knew computers inside and out but was the best at reading code. She was quite the hacker if she tried but she didn't have any use for that at her secretary job in downtown Virginia. The most she needed to know how to do was use Microsoft Word or Power Point, or even Excel on the rare occasion.
Her job was rather boring but after dropping out of University when her parents had died, it was the best she could get. She had wanted to go back to University for quite some time now but Kevin hadn't been pleased with that idea, whenever she brought it up they got into a fight so Penelope decided just to drop it.
Just as Penelope was turning the page she heard a whimpering by her feet and looked down in surprise. A small white puppy sat there looking at her, it was shaking with fear and trying to hide behind her feet.
"Hello there," she said quietly. She looked around but didn't see anyone who seemed to be the owner so she slowly reached her hand out and waited. The puppy tentatively stretched its nose out, sniffing her hand and then stepped forward letting Penelope pet it. After a few minutes, once the puppy seemed comfortable with her, Penelope gently grasped it and picked it up.
The puppy, who Penelope realized was a female, whimpered at first but once she was in Penelope's lap she settled down and snuggled in. She leaded up into Penelope's face to lick her chin, Penelope laughed at the ticklish feeling.
Now that Penelope had a better look she thought the all white puppy was a Westie, though she didn't know for sure. Then her eyes caught on the puppy's collar, it seemed that luckily enough the puppy had an identification tag.
Penelope looked closely at it and saw that the puppy's name was Gracie. On the back of her tag the owner was listed as an Aaron Hotchner and his number was written below it. Penelope took out her cell phone and dialed the number, absentmindedly stroking Gracie's soft fur as the phone rang.
"Hello," a man said picking up after the third ring.
"Hi," Penelope said "Is this Aaron Hotchner?"
"Yes it is," the voice said "may I ask who this is?"
"My name's Penelope, I believe I found your puppy in James..."
She was cut off when the man let out a sigh of relief "You did? Thank God, we've been so worried about her. Thank you so much, are you still in the park, can we meet?"
Penelope smiled at his rambling, "Yes I'm still in the park, do you know the west entrance by the playground?" When he confirmed that he did Penelope nodded even though he couldn't see her. "Good, okay can you get here in the next hour?"
"I'm twenty minutes away," he answered.
"Okay, well I'm just at a bench right inside the park, I have blonde hair and I'm wearing a red coat." Penelope explained.
"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can," Aaron said "thank you so much."
Penelope was barely able to get out a "No problem," before the line went dead.
She turned to look down at the puppy "We'll get you home to your family really soon Gracie," she told her, scratching her chin as she did.
...
It was less than twenty minutes when a tall, dark haired man wearing jeans and a dark t-shirt, ran up to her. "Penelope?" He asked out of breath.
She nodded, "You must be Aaron," she held the puppy, whose tail started going a mile a minute when she saw him, and he gently took her into his arms.
The puppy was wiggling happily in his arms as she tried giving him kisses, which made it difficult for him to clasp her leash onto her collar. Once he finally got it on her, he ruffled her head and then looked back up at Penelope and grinned widely at her "Thank you so much," he said "my son was devastated when she managed to get away from us. We were at the dog park and a bigger dog scared her so she ran and made it out using a hole in the fence, never again..."
Penelope just watched him, a small grin lighting up her features.
At her look, he ran a hand through his hair with a slight blush "Sorry, I'm rambling, I'm just so relived, you have no idea."
"It's quite okay," Penelope said "don't worry about it. Is she your first dog?"
"Yes, my son's been begging us for a dog for years but Haley, his mother was allergic so we never could have one, however she passed away of lung cancer about two years ago and he's just started asking me again which made me hopeful that he's finally moving on, so I thought it'd be the right time now."
"I'm very sorry to hear that..." Penelope began.
"No it's okay, I mean it's been tough but we're finally starting to feel normal again, you know?"
Aaron felt strange, he didn't know why he was telling this stranger so much about his life, he was normally a very private person but this information just seemed to be gushing out of him.
Penelope was also at loss to explain how their conversation had gotten to this point, but there was just something about this man that compelled her to want to keep talking to him.
"I do understand," she said "my parents died when I was in University and it took me a long time to get over it, but I know what you mean by starting to feel normal again."
Aaron nodded, realizing just how much she would understand.
"Anyway as for the dog park thing, I know it's nice to have some place to let your dog run free, and it's good for their socialization too so I would suggest the off-leash dog trails here. They're better fenced in than the dog park and it also allows your puppy to learn about leadership since she'll be following you. Though if you want some place she could interact with other dogs you should check out Pup-tastic Playground, it's only for puppies from two months to one year. It's relatively new and it's in a building so no chance of her running away, plus it's less intimidating that the bigger dog parks and a good place for your puppy to interact with other puppies."
"Wow, you have a lot of knowledge about this, do you own a dog yourself?" Aaron asked.
"Penelope laughed and shook her head "As much as I'd love to have a cute, little furry friend like this," she leaned in and petted Gracie who had curled up sleepily in Aaron's arms "my boyfriend would kill me, he's not really into the whole pet thing."
As Penelope pulled back she missed the flicker of disappointment that passed over Aaron's face at the mention of her boyfriend. However he quickly pulled himself together when she looked back at him. "No, my best friend has a Golden Retriever and I helped raise him, so I know a thing or two about puppies and the best puppy friendly places."
"That's too bad, you seem like you're really good with dogs, this little girl really seems to like you anyways and that's saying something because she's usually rather shy."
Penelope shrugged "Well for now that's just how it's got to be, but I'm glad I got to meet Gracie, she's adorable."
'And what about me?' Aaron felt like asking but pushed the thought out of his mind, deeming it inappropriate. Instead he said "We'll thank you for all your help, as well as the tips, I will make sure to try them out sometime. However for now I should be getting home, Jack will be impatient to see Gracie."
"Anytime," Penelope said feeling slightly disappointed that their conversation was coming to an end "I'm just glad that I could help get her back to her family."
"We'll it was very much appreciated, you just made an eight year olds' day," Aaron said wondering if he she offer her a reward but somehow that felt wrong to him "maybe we'll see each other again sometime?" He asked, allowing a bit of his hope to seep into his voice.
"Maybe," Penelope said not giving an indefinite answer "I do like to spend my Sunday afternoons here."
Aaron nodded "It was nice to meet you," he said.
"You too," Penelope answered before watching him turn and walk away.
He got about eight feet away before he looked over his shoulder back at her; he smiled, then turned down another path and was gone.
"Who was that?"
Penelope jumped as she heard Kevin's voice in her ear "Kevin! You scared me."
"Sorry," he said as she turned to look at him, that wasn't the first time he had snuck up on her, he was always just so quiet when he approached, Penelope didn't know how he did it.
"It's okay," Penelope said and allowed him to take her hand.
"So you ready for our date?" He asked.
She nodded.
Together they walked side by side out of the park, as they walked Penelope explained about the little white dog that had actually found her, and that the man had been her owner. She left out the part about their conversation or about the fact that they seemed to have really good chemistry, but it was something she couldn't help but let her thoughts keep drifting back to.