Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: Thanks for the all the reviews! So it's been a couple of days, my apologises! Enjoy!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- True Love's Lie -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"So where's your little miss gone?" One of Derek's old college friends said a couple of hours later. "It finally looks like Derek Morgan met his match with her."
"Er," Derek started and snapped back to reality, "She's gone back to Virginia."
"Shame," One of the girls said, "I really wanted to get to know Penelope a bit more, Derek."
A couple of people gathered then all shedding disappointment that Penelope had left promptly.
"So how long have you two been together?" Someone asked and looked at Derek's expression, "Oho, Derek Morgan's got it bad for his best friend."
"It's not like that," Derek batted off heatedly.
"Okay, not like that for you, but she sure was into you."
"The way she looks at you Derek, and treats you and you didn't even see it did you?" Derek's best friend, Sam from his childhood asked, "Jeez, I'd be a lucky man to have a girl like that love me. Real lucky."
"She doesn't feel like that," Derek said ignorantly. "She's my best friend."
"You should've seen her face when you told your mom you didn't love her like that, Derek. Her expression when you said she was just Penelope, God, she was devastated. Like some question she had wanted answers for was finally answered." Derek's friend James' wife spoke sicnerely.
Derek jumped up aggressively, "She is just Penelope. We've been through a lot in the time we've known one another. She is my best friend and that is all she'll ever be because believe me I told her I loved her once and she got with another man."
"Yeah, told her just after she got shot if I remember right," Derek's eldest sister Sarah spoke up from behind the group. Everyone parted to show her and she looked at him questioningly, "It doesn't take a genius to know that that would leave you pretty messed up."
"Two years she was still with him," Derek argued back, not choosing to believe anything else.
"Safety nets are amazing things, Derek," Sarah continued and got a couple of agreements from the females around. "So admit it to yourself that you love Penelope and she loves you."
Sitting quietly for a moment Derek felt the familiarity of emotions rush through his veins, surge into his system. He was in love with her, who was he kidding, he had loved her, had wanted a prosperous future with her for years, for nearly a decade now. He just never thought himself as someone Penelope would love, but he had to give her the chance.
After all, he was liar. As he stood with everyone around him, he was the liar because he had said she was just Penelope and he didn't love her. It was all wrong. Penelope was more than just Penelope; she was this astonishing ray of light on a bad day, a breath of fresh air when he felt like he was suffocating. She was more than his baby girl, his god given solace. Penelope was his everything, and he had let her leave with her believing she was just another person in his life.
"I'm in love in with her," Derek mumbled as he finally spoke out loud what he had forbidden his self to say.
Derek grabbed his phone, she was long gone, but her flight wasn't boarding for another fifteen minutes. He found his only fast way to get a hold of her was to call her and tell her to wait that he wanted her back with him.
She just had to answer his call.
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Penelope hadn't wanted to ruin Derek's birthday, but either her staying or not, she would've killed the mood and that was the last thing she wanted to do.
She had seen him at his happiest and she had seen him let loose his real self and for that she was happy to leave. Derek would, if he hadn't by now, just forget that she wasn't around and calm down. He would enjoy his party and the company and he would start to dread ever going back to Quantico.
Looking up, she saw her flight was boarding at last and sighed, when she got back she would still have five days off and she knew she would use the isolation to put whatever new mask she needed to carry her through knowing the truth that her love for Derek was completely one sided.
Grabbing her bag she finally went towards the gates, not even looking back.
However Penelope looked at her phone, just as Derek's number began to call her. She paused, quietly and watched the screen before it changed and told her she had one missed call. Moments later a voicemail was left and she closed her phone and headed to the boarding gates.
She just wanted to go home.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- True Love's Lie -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"You can't give up then." Derek's friend, Dean, said as he watched Derek after leaving the voicemail. He had heard his friend's confused voice speak down the phone, telling her he loved her, that he didn't wanted her to leave.
Derek stood with his hands on his hand, his phone still under his grasp, "What do you expect me to do, Dean? Go there and stop the plane just before it takes off?"
"If you have to," His friend James said with a mere shrug as he came to stand next to Dean.
"You're even more stupid than you were back in college," Derek told him and tried to think rationally. "The both of you."
"If you loved her surely you'd try everything," Dean spoke up, "I mean, you do not get a girl like that come into your life more than once."
"She even stuck by your stupid ass after all the idiotic moves you do at work," Sam mentioned as he leant against the wall outside. "You've told me one or two stories over the years, Derek and I mean she got shot and survived. I would've taken that moment then and there. Told her everything."
"I didn't want her pushed into anything," Derek said sorrowfully as he remembered that night he took her home and told her he loved her. "I told her alright, but I didn't force anything on her or pressure her. I just let life go on."
"So stop letting life just go on, man. Cease the moment, go to her," Dean said as he handed back Derek's phone. "C'mon, D, you're the only one that has it all waiting for him to start. We all got ours, now get yours. Try her again"
Opening his phone, he looked at him, "I'll try once more, then I give up," Derek said as he tried to think of a plan that would work. "No, you know what I'm going there. I'm going to bring her back," Derek said as he headed inside to find a set of car keys.
"And if we miss her, we could take a road trip and bring her back," Sam replied, trying to help his friend out. "If you don't like it, we don't need you with us. We can always go alone."
"You wouldn't," Derek commented, but he knew his friends would. "I'll give her until this evening to pick up and if she doesn't I'm going back to get her and bring her back."
The three men smirked in success at that, before James remarked, "See, you just nee-"
"Derek!" Derek's sister screamed out in terror, "Quick Derek, you need to get here now!"
As he ran to room he saw the news coverage across the screen in the living room. He stopped as he looked at the scene of the
"It was Penelope's flight, Derek." Fran spoke up shell shocked, "There are no known survivors."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- True Love's Lie -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
