A/N:Thank you again to all of you who are reading, reviewing and following this story. Again, it really means a lot to me!

Very special thanks to KricketWilliams for all her help with this story. If not for her, this chapter would not even exist, and the story would be so much poorer for that.

Here we go with a very angsty Chapter 4. I hope you enjoy, as sad as it may be.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Criminal Minds. I'm just playing a little

Chapter 4 - Ultimatum

When he turned slowly on one heel, the blazing rage in his face made her gasp and take a sudden step back so that she was almost up against the closet. He looked her up and down, his gaze stopping at her hands crossed over her midsection.

"We?" He hissed the word at her. "We are having a baby?"

Wordlessly, Penelope nodded at him.

"No Penny. We are not having a baby." Kevin continued to speak in a low, menacing hiss. He did not move from his spot just inside the doorway. "We haven't had sex in over two months … so find whoever the hell you've been screwing around with, and you tell them about having a baby. Not. Me."

Spitting the last words out at her, he turned again to walk out of the room.

Penelope's eyes opened wider and wider at every vicious word Kevin spoke. As he accused her of sleeping with another man, she clapped her hand over her mouth, her stomach threatening to rebel.

Still, she could not just watch him walk out of their life.

"Kevin, stop. Please!" she cried, shaking so hard she felt as if her knees might give out. "Please, listen to me. I.. I love you."

Whatever it was that stopped him in the doorway, and made him turn to face her, Penelope was grateful. He put down the suitcase and leaned against the doorpost, arms folded. It was clear that he was waiting for her to speak.

Penelope crossed the room to stand in front of Kevin. She started to reach out, but thought better of it and moved her hand back to her stomach. "Honey, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you."

She was actually encouraged by the fact that he didn't answer her. She ignored the tiny part of her spirit that was dying with every pleading word his actions were dragging out of her.

"It was only because I was starting to feel so sick … that's the only reason we haven't made love, Kevin, I swear!" She begged him to understand.

When he still said nothing, and merely kept watching her with that inscrutable expression, his arms still firmly folded, Penelope knew she still hadn't convinced him.

"Kevin, look … please, don't leave us." This time she reached out and touched his arm gently. "I'll do whatever it takes … please."

When he straightened up and actually smiled kindly at her, Penelope felt hope take wing in her heart and she waited anxiously for what he would say.

Taking her hand in his, Kevin said, "Okay. Then come with me."

"Wh … what?" For a moment, she wasn't sure she'd heard correctly.

"Come with me." He repeated, still holding on to her hand. "You know they wanted both of us on the project in the first place."

"I don't know …" Penelope began cautiously, and then hurried on as she saw Kevin's eyes harden behind his black frames again. "Wait! I'm not dismissing the idea. It's just that it will take a lot of planning to do it. I just can't pick up and leave right away; not with the baby coming."

Penelope had begun to think that maybe there was a way of making things work. She loved her life here, but she could love it anywhere in order to keep her family intact.

Just when Kevin's words had given her faint hope, he cruelly snatched it away again. "No. You don't understand, Penny. First you need to take care of … that … and then you can come to Tel Aviv with me."

Penelope gasped, feeling a searing pain in her chest, every one of his awful words feeling like another blow to her heart. She yanked her hand out of his grasp as her stomach churned again.

He had been causing her such pain for so many months, and she had been trying so hard! His ultimatum, however, this casual willingness to destroy the family she had worked so hard to create, was her undoing.

Stumbling backwards towards the bed, she pleaded, "I … I can't. Please don't ask that. I'll do anything else … anything!"

"That's what I want." Kevin was adamant, his words almost emotionless. "C'mon, Penny, this is just going to hold us back from getting all we want out of life!"

Penelope couldn't believe he was discussing the life of their child in such cavalier terms.

"Hold us back?" She whispered the words. In the midst of her despair, she couldn't even summon anger yet. She did, however, recognize the fierce sense of protectiveness she felt for that tiny life inside her. When she spoke, it was only that which enabled her to project a strength she absolutely did not feel.

"First of all, let me make one thing clear Kevin. This is without a doubt your baby; I'm already thirteen weeks gone … and we were definitely having sex three months ago."

Penelope waited for some sort of acknowledgement from Kevin, but other than a flicker in his eyes, there was nothing.

"Kevin, this is our baby's life you're talking about!" Penelope was pleading again, her hands moving in soft circular motions over her stomach in an unconscious attempt to soothe the tiny life against the horrible words being spoken. When he still said nothing, she made her final attempt.

"I'm sorry, Kev … but I just can't do what you're asking." Her voice broke, and her last request was delivered in a plaintive whisper, "Please don't ask this of me … please."

Kevin stared at her for a long, tense moment. When he finally moved, the last thread of hope that he would somehow become the man she had loved and married again broke with utter finality.

"I never thought you'd be one of the ones trying to keep me down, Penny."

He picked his suitcase up again, and walked out of the bedroom without another word.

As she heard the front door of the apartment slam, Penelope flinched at the sound. Her stomach heaved a final warning and she darted into the bathroom, not a moment too soon. She hadn't had much morning sickness at all, but it seemed her body wanted to make up for all it had missed.

Finally, when there was nothing left to bring up, Penelope dragged herself over to the sink. Rinsing her mouth, she happened to look up at the mirror over the sink and that was all it took for the dam of agony to burst inside her. Loud racking sobs accompanied a waterfall of tears as she sank slowly to the floor, arms wrapped around her belly. She made no attempt to wipe the tears away. She simply let them fall as her shoulders shook with the force of her sobbing.

It hurt that Kevin could even consider for one moment that this baby wasn't his. Still, that hurt paled in comparison to the agony of understanding that he didn't even want his own child – a child Penelope had been so sure was conceived in love.

As the tears stained her cheeks, Penelope remembered the promises Kevin had made to her when he asked her to marry him, and wondered tiredly what had become of that man.