A/N: It'll get better, honestly. Maybe not at the speed people hope for, but we get there... I also dedicate this chapter to kathy0518 and dothepepperminttwist, who can both learn a valuable lesson in regards of patience with this story.

Morgan stood there in the yard of the house trying his best to understand what just happened. For a moment he actually felt lost, which was a whole new experience for him. Usually he had control and power over situations. He certainly hadn't felt lost for years.

He'd never seen Penelope the way he had seen her in the last few minutes, before she took off leaving him there all on his own. She was in such rage and so angry that he wondered how he would ever make things up to her again. She didn't even let him speak.

Morgan could still feel his skin burn from the slap she had given him. And that was something new as well for him. Never before had a woman slapped him in the face. People would probably assume he had experienced that at some point, with all his conquests, and flirting and weekly girlfriends.

He let out a long sigh, sitting down on the porch steps and got his phone, dialing for a cab to pick him up.

He was angry, of course he was, she didn't even let him say anything. Interrupted him every time he started to say something and then had the nerve to drive off, leaving him back here. No, scratch that. He wasn't angry, he was pissed. Pissed at her, for acting like that and leaving him here. Pissed at the whole situation in general. But most important he was pissed at himself, for being so stupid and lying to her in the first place.

Penelope was still so furious that she hardly was able to drive within the speed limit.

She hadn't meant to slap him in the face, to say half these things she said and to act the way she did, but when he wanted to start his excuses and trying to use his charm to twist her around his little finger, she had lost it. For the first time in their years long close friendship she had yelled at him and they had a fight so big that she found herself wondering if this could ever be fixed again.

Right now, she didn't think so. The deep mistrust he'd shown her, the feelings he had brought up in her with his behavior was something she hoped she never had to feel again.

When she made it back to the station, Penelope knew it must look weird to the others. And just within seconds Hotch asked where Morgan was.

She turned towards him, telling him she dropped him off at some of the stores, he needed to get a few things done. Right now she didn't really care what Morgan would tell them when he eventually made it back here. If he made it back here. And this was the moment when it hit her what she just did.

She had left her best friend all on his own in the middle of nowhere.

She just wanted to be alone, be away from all of this, and didn't want anyone to know what had happened. But when JJ and Emily came after her, she could already hear it in the way they walked, that they were on to her. Not now. Anytime they could ask her anything, but not now.

Apparently Hotch must have noticed something as well, because when she was about to pack her mobile station up, she saw all three of them standing in front of her, with Reid and Rossi subtle in the background a couple of feet away, pretending they were reading some files or looking for something else.

"Great. Attention," she thought to herself. "The last thing I want and need right now."

"Are you alright, Penelope?" JJ asked first.

"Did anything happen?" was Emily's question.

Looking at Hotch, waiting if he would throw a question at her as well, Penelope didn't answer right away.

But Hotch remained silent, just looking at her, as if he had already found the root of it all.

Penelope looked at him, waiting to say something, for anyone to say something really. The moment Emily wanted to speak, she saw Morgan walk into the station. Sooner than she would have thought. The team must have noticed from her look that something had happened and turned around, seeing Morgan now as well. Hotch left them and walked towards him, speaking to him briefly. She saw nodding, Morgan talking a lot and Hotch just nodding as well.

Oh boy, was she in trouble. How on Earth would she explain her actions to any of them? How could she say anything that didn't make her sound like an absolute fool and not get him in trouble at the same time?

Yes, he had lied to her, but that was no reason for her to ruin anything in regards of his job. She knew when Hotch or Strauss would find out about him being involved with Tamara Barnes, there would be consequences for him. No, she didn't want that. It might be bad but it was something that was between the two of them, something personal, not something the rest of the team should get pulled into.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she heard JJ asking, her voice thick with concern.

"I'm fine, I just … had a rough day," she explained, hoping they would buy it. Because right now she definitely didn't want to talk about it.

They didn't like her answer, judging by their faces, but let it go for the moment, not pushing it any further.

"You know who to come to if you need to talk, right?" she heard JJ say and Penelope just nodded.

Hotch never came over to her, never demanded any explanation of what she did and why. As a matter of fact, of what she had heard when standing closer to Morgan and Rossi earlier, packing up her computers, it seemed to her as if Morgan actually backed her story up.

On the plane it was the same situation as before. Morgan on one end, her on the other, and in between the rest of the team. Halfway through the flight everyone was deep asleep, everyone apart from Penelope, who was wide awake and wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. Her mind was running a thousand, if not even a million miles a second and wasn't going to stop anytime soon