Disclaimer: I own neither Criminal Minds or the song...
A/N:New story based on the song JLS - Other Side Of The World... Really fuelled this idea, so enjoy =)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Other Side Of The World -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Well your taxi is leaving,
And I'm here in the hall,
You know I only just kissed you,
But it feels like you've already gone,
To the other side of the world.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Other Side Of The World -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Derek felt his eyes well; he felt his heart churn in his chest, the crushing pain rendering him silent, and completely frozen. He just watched as she checked she had absolutely everything she owned.
This was it.
The end of them.
The end of everything they were becoming.
He watched as she geared herself, sucking in calming breaths to ease her shaking hands. He could see she was petrified, could see she was beginning to feel lost.
"So this is it." She said as she walked towards him, across the now empty apartment. She stopped where her leopard print couch used to be and just looked at him, her expression solemn, her eyes needy for answers. "Can you believe this?"
Derek shook his head, "No, no I can't." He admitted to her and ran a hand over the back of his neck in disbelief.
This all seemed surreal, this wasn't his idea of reality because Penelope was what grounded him and she was leaving, not at her own want and right. She had no freedom in the choice. She was chosen by Strauss to leave, like JJ, and now as they stood in the dim lighting in the middle of the evening she was leaving and she might have well be leaving for the other side of the world rather than the other side of the country.
"I guess California was always going to call me back." Penelope said sadly, diverting her eye contact from him, she was in refusal to look at him for fear of breaking completely. "We can visit one another."
"How often?"
Now Penelope looked up, Derek sounded angry by that, "As often as possible."
"Well that's just fantastic." He said as he watched her across the empty space. "We get you on Christmases, maybe birthdays, occasionally at thanksgiving and the rest of it's history."
"I don't quite know what you want me to say, Handsome." Penelope said stepping closer but Derek stepped back one. "I got myself in this predicament, it's my fault, I hacked all those years ago and I wasn't good enough to hide it, but I knew I was running on a short time line, I was told that when I started the job. I knew one day it was going to end, that Strauss could have me thrown wherever the hell she wanted me to go and I couldn't have a say."
"I just hate that it's now," Derek confided as he finally took that step back towards her, closing the gap.
Penelope looked up at him, "My sentiment exactly, Stud, but it was going to happen and when it started I never expected to find you. I never expected to have my own Noir Hero." Penelope admitted truthfully, she shrugged and smiled through the irony of her next thought, "I never expected to fall in love."
"Neither did I." Derek whispered as he looked away from her for a moment, "I can't lose you Penelope. This is going to be the death of me, you leaving."
"As much as this is going to hurt, it's the truth, you're place is here, with our family." A tear fell down her face and she tasted it as it hit her lip and she just bit down to compose herself before starting again, "the team needs you, and Chicago, that's your home too. I'm just someone that walked into your life that day all those years ago."
"But you didn't just walk into my life." Derek said as he reached up to take away more of the falling tears, "you weren't just a nobody to me, and it's not fair that you have to leave like this isn't your home because it is."
"Doesn't matter where I go I know my home's here." Penelope tried to comfort him, she shook her head a little in disbelief, "There'll be another girl for you to fall in love with."
"I don't want another girl to fall in love with." He argued back, "I'll only ever get myself one Penelope."
"I should hope so," she teased and smiled at him weakly, "I know it's hard, but the way I got my job meant that commitment wasn't a stable thing for me, and I didn't count on meeting a man that saved me in more ways than I can ever count, and in more ways than I can ever thank him for."
"I don't like you going without me."
"I'm a big girl, Morgs," she deflected, keeping her brave face on, "I made the mistake of making a good life, I got myself the best six people around me, the best, best friend in there. No one else made that mistake, that was down to me."
"It's because you're amazing," he praised her and ran his hand down her arm, taking her hand in his, "You're this bubble of life, you're the breath of fresh air and you're this woman that holds such power in making our lives easier and now you're being taken away from us."
Penelope pursed her lips, looked down to their hands, saw how perfect it felt and then slowly looked back up, looked at Derek's sad face, his handsome feature scarred with his emotional pain, she took a deep breath, "You'll move on, soon all of this that you're feeling will be long forgotten and I'll be old news. You lot will look around in months to come and be like, Garcia who?"
"No," Derek said bitterly, "No we won't, you've had too much of an impact on our lives and I will fight to get you back."
"Don't fight this. I have a life sentence, Handsome," she told him as she threaded fingers with him and brought it to her chest as she stepped closer. "There's no point waiting this out because it will mean that we ruin one another's lives and that is the last thing I want to happen to you."
"I need you," Derek confessed desperately, "I am not having just one date, a couple of mornings with you and that be it. I will not have you walk out this easily and I will fight every day of my life to have you back."
"Please don't." Penelope whispered tearfully, "Don't do this because we know it's not going to work. I can't stay and we're on even more borrowed time."
Derek released her hand from his and pushed it up under her hair, tilting her head up to his, "I am not against kidnapping."
Penelope let out a tight laugh, it not quite what it would've been in their usual teasing moments. She lavished this, she loved the feeling her heart went through whenever Derek was here, she loved the absolute vibration of lust that took a hold of her body and she loved knowing that she was, to Derek, his entire world.
Yet that was the killer part of it all.
"I would be a willing counterpart trust me." She breathed out and studied his eyes intently; all she could read was lost love, longing, want, and the fiery centre of anger. "I will always love you."
Derek felt like his heart was breaking and he just did the one thing he could, he kissed Penelope, he released everything into that kiss, he released the anguish and he let go of everything he felt he was rushing into telling her weeks ago.
He was losing time and he only had mere minutes before her cab arrived to take her to the airport to tell her exactly how fallen he had become for her.
The pair stood kissing, neither relenting in ending this perfection of what they both wanted and screamed for.
It was only as the honk of the cab came they abruptly broke apart, wishing immediately for just that little while longer because now they were faced with the haunting reality.
Penelope was leaving.
"I guess I'll talk to you when I'm there," Penelope said someone impishly, her tone somewhat coy and distant, "be good, Handsome." She said as she hastily left her apartment and Derek behind before she let her refusal to leave override her.
Derek turned and went to the door, he left the apartment and stood in the hall, she was already gone.
Penelope's entire life was gone, either donated, thrown or boxed.
And now Penelope was gone.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Other Side Of The World -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A/N: Now... who's for more?
