I do not own Criminal Minds nor any of the characters.

"What idea could you possibly have that would get Derek to notice me? Derek will never notice me. He's spent ten years not noticing me. I don't think anything's going to change that unless I start wearing the tightest clothes I can find and dancing on him at the club."

"If Derek hasn't noticed you, it's only because he's an idiot. You're incredible and if he doesn't see that, it's his loss, but I think he still can notice you if you still want him to."

"I don't know that I do want him to. It would be too complicated. There's so much history between us."

"It might be worth it to try."

"Okay, but I want to know what your idea is first before I agree to it."

After a lengthy talk with Rossi and very little sleep, Penelope walked into the office the next morning looking a lot unlike her happy, sunshine-like self. The previous day had brought about a lot of emotional struggle for her, and she felt well and truly drained today. She really hoped that there wasn't going to be a new case today. She knew she wouldn't be able to handle it.

After getting into her office and starting up her babies, she went to the kitchen for some coffee, finding JJ and Reid at the table, Reid discussing the merits of reading Dostoyevsky in the original Russian versus English translations while JJ pretended to pay attention. Penelope did her best to ignore the conversation and tried to get her coffee quickly and return to her office, hopefully before Derek got in. She needed to prepare herself for the day ahead. Mostly, she needed to be ready for Rossi to set the plan in motion.

Unfortunately, luck was not on her side. When she walked back into the bullpen, Derek was sitting at his desk sorting through the papers laying on top, and Rossi was standing by her office, waiting for her to return. She had just decided to turn around and make a break for the kitchen when Derek spotted her.

"Hey, Baby Girl, how was your night?"

"It was alright. How was yours?"

"Good, Savannah had off work, so we finally got some quality time-"

Before Derek could finish, Rossi had walked over to the pair and had kissed Penelope on the temple in greeting.

"Good morning, beautiful," Rossi began, returning Penelope's smile. "Did you have a good night after I left?"

Penelope took a deep breath before answering, switching into flirtatious mode. "Yeah, but I had trouble sleeping. It would have been better if you had just stayed," she pouted as she said this, truly getting into character.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to stay. Really, I did. I just knew that I wouldn't be able to behave myself if I did."

"Well, you weren't very behaved as it was…"

"I try not to be," he said, smirking at her.

Pulling them out of their conversation, Derek coughed and Penelope couldn't help but notice the anger in his eyes after hearing their conversation.

"You were over at Pen's last night?" Derek asked in a very hostile tone.

"Yeah, we were having a late night chat, if you will," Rossi replied calmly, which only made Derek angrier.

"What were you talking about?"

"I don't know that that's any of your business. Plus there wasn't a lot of talking involved," Penelope lightly smacked Rossi's arm and started to blush when he said this. Encouraged by this, Rossi continued, saying "There was a lot of tongue, though."

"Whoa! What is going on?" Derek interjected, standing up now to assert his dominance and trying to gain some control over the situation.

"Nothing that you need to concern yourself with," Rossi replied, still calm. "We're just having some fun."

"Penelope! Are you serious with this? You know this guy's reputation and you're just going to let him use you and then leave you? I thought you knew better."

"Woah! Who said anything about leaving her?" Rossi asked, having moved into Derek's personal space staring him straight in the eye.

Penelope was debating running back to her office and hiding for the rest of the day, but she didn't want to have to put up with this fighting between the two of them.

"Derek, you need to calm down," Penelope began. "I know what I'm getting myself into, but Dave and I talked about it and we both want to give us a shot. I'm a grown woman, you don't need to protect me, and Dave's not going to hurt me. I have faith in him. He knows the pain that I've been through in the past and he's not going to let that happen to me anymore. I trust him and I want to see where this goes."

Derek finally stopped glaring at Rossi long enough to look at Penelope before saying, "I'm never going to approve of this-this-whatever this is."

"I'm not asking for your approval, Derek. It's my life and my choice and I choose Dave. I'm tired of waiting around for something else to happen. Because it's not going to." With that, Penelope broke away from the two fighting men and walked to her office.

"Wait. Baby Girl, what are you talking about?"

"Nothing, Derek. Don't worry about it. You never have before."