Don't Own.

Please R&R

Enjoy!

…

An hour later found them at Moe's Motel. It was a shabby little place that neither of them particularly had wanted to stay at once they had got inside but with the storm only getting worse, they didn't have much of a choice.

It was two floors with only thirty units available in total. Penelope and Aaron had paid for two rooms on the ground floor; it wasn't very busy so they were able to get them right next to each other.

As Penelope walked into her room, she said to Aaron who was standing behind her "I think I might have rather taken my chances in the car."

Aaron chuckled at that "It's not that bad."

"Uh huh…" Penelope said the sarcasm practically dripping from her words, she eyed the peeling, yellowish, water damaged wallpaper as she wrinkled her nose at the musky scent.

Aaron rubbed the back of his neck "I guess I've gotten too used to staying in crappy motels while on cases, to let it bother me."

Penelope turned to him "Well I guess the upside is that if anything does happen to me tonight, the walls are so thin that you'll be sure to hear my screams."

"If you scream as loud as you did when I surprised you, I'm sure the whole motel will hear you" Aaron replied.

Penelope tried to look annoyed but a smile tugged at her lips.

"I'm sure we'll both be fine," Aaron said "if you're okay, I'm going to head to my room; it's been a long day."

Penelope felt her spirits diminish, she didn't know if she could survive spending the whole night in this room, especially not without Aaron there joking with her to help forget about the situation.

But she didn't want to be more of a burden to her boss than she already had been, he would have probably already made it to Rossi's if he hadn't stopped to help her.

She nodded "Yeah, of course, have a good sleep."

He smiled at her and wished her a goodnight before leaving, closing the door behind him.

Penelope stared longingly at the door for a moment. Then she took a deep breath and let it out slowly "You can do this," she told herself aloud "Everything will be fine, just as Hotch said."

Penelope carried her bags to the bed; she had gotten them out of her car as soon as Triple A had arrived to take it.

She looked around the room, checking out the open door to the bathroom she decided to get out of her wet clothes, have a warm, quick shower and then head to bed.

She unzipped her suitcase and searched through the contents, trying not to pull out everything she had brought she finally found what she was looking for and pulled it out of her bag.

But before she could head to the bathroom she heard a low rumbling that slowly grew louder until she heard a loud boom of thunder that seemed to rattle the walls. Penelope whimpered and the towel fell from her hand.

She really hated thunder.

…

Later that evening, in the next room, Aaron lay on his back wide awake, staring up at the ceiling.

He had been tired when he first got into the bed but soon found himself unable to fall asleep which wasn't an unusual occurrence for him.

He rubbed a hand over his face and sighed.

He could still hear the storm raging outside and hoped that by morning it would blow over.

Aaron closed his eyes and focused on trying to sleep, he calmed his breathing and snuggled deeper into his pillow but it was no use. His eyes flew open five minutes later and he threw the covers off.

He thought maybe if he went outside and got a breath of fresh air, it would help. He knew it was still raining but the awning would cover him and he wanted to stretch his legs as well.

So he stood and walked to where he had placed his pants that he had been wearing earlier that night, over a chair.

He dug into the pockets looking for his key card and was surprised when his hand closed over two cards instead of one, and he realized then that he had the key card to Penelope's room too. He had opened the door for her when she hadn't been able to open it herself. Then he must have put the key card in his pocket out of habit.

Aaron pulled them both out and headed to the door. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt which he decided not to change out of. If walking around did make him sleepy, he wanted to be able to hop right back into the bed and get to sleep.

Aaron opened his door and stepped out of his room. He stretched his arms above his head, cracking his joints and then turned to the left walking down the hall. His eyes were focused ahead of him instead of beyond the awning and parking lot where the rain was coming down hard.

When he made it to the end of the row of rooms, he turned around and headed back. As he was approaching Penelope's room he frowned. He could see light shining under the space beneath her door.

It made Aaron wonder if she was still awake.

When he reached her door he stopped and contemplated whether he should knock. If she was sleeping then he didn't want to wake her up but still he couldn't figure out why she would have went to sleep with the light on.

Finally his gut told him to do it, just to make sure everything was alright. So he stepped forward and knocked. He waited a moment but there was no answer. So he knocked a little harder but still nothing.

That made him worried.

Penelope may not travel with them on every case but he knew from the ones that she had come on, that she was a light sleeper.

Aaron looked down at the key card in his hand; he had almost forgotten it was there. He knew using it would be an invasion of her privacy but he just wanted to make sure she was alright and he knew she would understand.

That decided he swiped the key card, waiting for the light to glow green and then pushed open the door.

He frowned at what he saw.

Penelope was sitting on the end of her bed, huddled with her arms wrapped around her knees that were brought to her chest, and she had her head tucked down against them.

"Garcia?" Aaron called out but she was unresponsive.

He shook his head; she was really starting to freak him out.

He made his way to the bed and sat down beside her, and he realized with concern that she was still in her rain soaked clothes.

Her arms were covered in goosebumps and she was shivering quite badly.

"Penelope," Aaron tried again, placing a hand on her shoulder.

The touch startled her out of whatever trance she had been in. She looked up at him and blinked "Hotch?" she whispered quietly, obviously confused.

"Penelope," he said "what's wrong?"

"I…I don't like thunder" Penelope answered.

Aaron wracked his brain, he couldn't remember ever seeing Penelope act this way just because of a bit of thunder, but then he realized as unbelievable as it was, in all the years he had known her, he had never been with her during a storm.

He mentally shook those thoughts from his head; he'd have time to contemplate them later, at the moment he needed to worry about Penelope.

"You're going to catch a cold if you stay in those wet clothes," Aaron said standing up but Penelope didn't move.

Aaron thought for a moment about what he should do. He had noticed when he walked into the room that it was rather chilly, at least compared to his room. He wasn't sure but he had a suspicion that the heating wasn't working.

Finally Aaron made a split decision and decided that it was in Penelope's best interest if she stayed in his room for the night. It was warmer in there and she needed all the warming up she could get. So he gently took her arm and helped her to her feet. Seeing her towel discarded on the floor he bent and picked it up and then guided her towards the door.

Once they were in his room he dug through his own bags and pulled out a long t-shirt of his. "Can you put this on?" Aaron asked and waited.

Penelope reached out towards him to take the shirt but her fingers were trembling so badly she could barely gasp it.

Aaron took a calming breath. He knew the situation he was in was totally inappropriate and he hoped that Penelope would forgive him in the morning, but he knew he had to get her out of her wet clothes and warmed up or the consequences could be devastating.

Penelope was acting like a victim in shock and even though he didn't know what it was about thunder storms considering he was the only there that could help, that's just what he was going to have to do.

So he helped divest her of her clothes, being a gentleman he did his best not to look and quickly got the t-shirt on her.

When it was on he found himself looking Penelope in the eye and even though she still didn't seem one hundred percent back to normal, he could still tell that she seemed embarrassed.

He looked away.

"Okay," he said "you need to get into bed."

Penelope nodded and went to take a step forward but was interrupted by a loud clap of thunder and all of the sudden Aaron found himself with Penelope in his arms as she let out a sob.

Aaron tensed for a second in surprise but found himself relaxing as his arms wrapped around Penelope and held her tightly.

He ran his hands up and down her back softly, whispering to her that everything was going to be okay. Apparently that's all that was needed to release the flood gates.

Penelope began crying in earnest, her head tucked under Aaron's chin. All the while he just continued to comfort her.

The thought of going to sleep in her room had crossed his mind but now he couldn't imagine leaving her. He would end up worrying about her all night.

Instead he carefully maneuvered them towards the bed. He tried lowering her down but she was unwilling to let go of him so he got in with her. He pulled the blanket and sheets up over them. Then he continued rubbing his hands up and down her arms to keep her warm.

"You're alright, you're safe, I'm right here" he whispered to her and soon they were both fast asleep.