Disclaimer: I own nothing!

A/N: So I'm back and hoping to get this story sussed out properly! Thanks for the reviews, favourites and alerts... enjoys what's ahead, we're not near an end yet!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Believing the Devil's Advocate -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

When she opened her eyes again she could hardly believe she had made it. Nor could she quite believe how numb her body was, and how heavy one of her hands felt. She took a few moments to gather her thoughts, she remembered vague moments from the moment she got a nurse to take down Derek's number, to her being taken into the operating room.

And now, she took in the new room, the new bleeping of the heart monitor, the oxygen tube on her nose, the chest tube coming out of her side. She knew the real damage was even clearer now.

She then remembered the heaviness and began to look down at its caused, trying not to get her hopes up.

It was as her eyes settled on the top of Derek's head as he slept on her hand that she began to feel the real sobs make themselves known.

He had come to her. He had cared enough to come to her.

She closed her eyes as her body finally felt everything, all the pains came back subtly and they cascaded her body in waves, in and out, in and out. She realised then, that she had never felt more relieved in her life to see her chocolate God of thunder as he slept by her bedside.

She now knew everything was going to be okay.

"Pen..." Derek said as he shot up all of a sudden after hearing her weak sobs crack through into his light sleep.

Penelope felt her heart clenched, the reality of it all came back to her then. Nothing had changed at all, there was still the divide, they were still distant. She knew that just by his initial use of her first name.

Derek stood up then, leaning on the bed lightly, "Baby Girl," he breathed out in a relief filled smile, his eye glistening with unshed tears, "You've had me so scared, Gorgeous," he told her and ran a hand over her face, ignorant of the oxygen tube.

Penelope bathed in this moment, revelled in its perfection.

"They said you were attacked," He prompted her and her eyes opened as much as they could with the ever growing swelling that was now coming out, "They told me you were fine, but then you had problems. I only got the call when all they could say was you were in surgery."

"What happened?" Penelope asked him, her voice dry and whisper riddled, she looked up at him, "I was fine, and then it got kinda scary."

"One of your ribs had caused a small, insignificant puncture in your lung during the attack, it was so small it wasn't picked up and wasn't problematic, but the doctor said that the more it was left, the more the puncture grew. That's what caused your struggled breathing."

Penelope closed her eyes, trying to settle her heart rate that she could feel in her chest, and hear on the monitor, getting worse.

"Shh," Derek soothed, leaning in to kiss her forehead, "You're safe now, Baby. I won't let him get you now."

"I didn't see him," She whispered, "I just wanted to go home and forget about today, but he-he, he came out of nowhere."

Derek's brow furrowed, "Why would you want to forget about today?" He asked her gently.

Penelope looked at Derek, her head beginning to pound again, "Me and Kevin broke up," she started and saw Derek's face looked pitiful. "J-just after Emily," She added on top of it. "I found him with a woman in bed, they're now madly in love."

"In two months?"

Penelope shrugged weakly, "It wasn't the best break up, and then-then-"

"Then you found out we asked him to help out with your work load?" Derek asked and Penelope nodded and looked away from his gaze.

"I felt so betrayed that you thought that little of me, that I needed help." Penelope started and felt Derek's grip tighten on her hand, "It wasn't until after I was attacked that I realised that you only did it to help me." Her eyes snapped up to his then in terror, "What if that had been it? My last thoughts would've been that you didn't trust me with my job, that you didn't have faith in me to do it? I would've died thinking that when really you were just looking after me, even when I thought we had separated."

Derek stopped her then, "Never think that we would question your ability, P." Derek soothed, "We just wanted to lighten the load a bit. Hotch and Rossi had been picking up that you were at work more than you were at home. We just didn't think you and Kevin were anything but loved up. We thought he would be more than willing to help."

"Believe me, he was," Penelope said lowly, her mind racing back and forth the more she woke up, the more the fog from the anaesthetic wore off. Penelope looked p at him again, her face drawn with seriousness, "Why don't you go home?" Penelope asked him as her body absorbed everything, the slightest movements paining her all over again. "You've gotta get up for work soon."

"Because I'm needed here and the most important thing in my life needs me right now." Derek watched Penelope as she began to cry silent tears, ones that seemed to transcend into body wrenching sobs within sheer seconds, "Hey, hey, hey, you gotta calm down, Baby Girl." He told her, "This isn't good for you."

"I thought you had forgotten about me," Penelope sobbed at him, the pains in her chest from the new wound inflicted in the act of saving her life being exacerbated, "You don't talk to me so much anymore. I just thought you'd-d forgotten me."

Derek's heart broke, and in a quick moment of reflection he realised that that was how it looked. "I'm sorry, for ever, ever making you feel that way, Penelope. That was never my intention. It's just been hard for me since Emily's death to get my head around things. Just- never believe that I forgot about you."

"I really need you," She told him as she calmed some. "I seem to always need you."

"Nothing wrong with that, Princess," He calmed her woe, he loved that she needed him so much. "You need me for however much longer you need me."

Penelope smiled a little, "Thank you," she calmly whispered to him, "But why don't you go home?"

Derek smiled a little, as he noticed her tiring, "I love you, Baby Girl, but there's nowhere else and nothing else that I would rather be doing right now, but being here. I refuse to leave your side again, now I know I have every opportunity not to, I'm not." Derek calmed her as her need for sleep took over her damaged body.

"Please don't leave me," Penelope said, her tone filled with so much sorrow and heart ache, "Please be here."

"Like I said, I've got nowhere else to go."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Believing the Devil's Advocate -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-