Disclaimer: As always, I don't own a damn thing!
Song: This Christmas – Donny Hathaway version
Three prompts: Strawberry lemon cheesecake/ Mistletoe/ Open fire
A/N: No replies just yet, busy day, busy night, I'm slightly intoxicated ;) BUT update as per, hope you continue to enjoy!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A Tender Loving Christmas -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Penelope leant over the box the best she could, peering inside while Derek covered the coffee table and surrounding surfaces with baubles, tree ornaments, lights, tinsel.
"This," she said as he reached and grabbed something and held it up, "she needs to be on top of the tree." Penelope told him as she fell back with the angel in her hand, "she's perfect."
"Ah you and my momma have similar taste." Derek said as he pulled more stuff out, he looked like a kid on Christmas day. "Both two very important people in my life."
Penelope didn't look up, the sentiment hit her hard, she knew it was just her frame of mind, she'd been completely out of sorts since the waking up from the crash and her emotions had been the most affected.
She didn't know what it was about Derek, but he was her biggest trigger.
Derek looked up after the silence slipped in, he frowned, "you okay, Baby Girl?"
"Yup," Penelope said as he pretended to look at the stuff that were within her painless reach. "Perfectly fine," she said and looked up, her eyes clearing and she smiled, "so this?"
Derek dropped the box and went over and took it off of her, "is going on the tree now." He commented and then grabbed the step ladder he had and put it next to the tree and climbed it, and Penelope watched as he placed the antique angel on top and secured it. "How's that?"
"Perfect." Penelope commented as he smiled down at her and she was more swallowed by the smile on his lips than the angel upon the tree. She looked away fast, swallowing her emotions and cursed herself.
"You're acting strange, Pen, what's a matter?" He asked her as he stepped down and went and sat on the arm of the couch, "you've gotten really quiet."
Penelope kept the silence before sighing, "I was laying in bed last night and I started to remember bits of the crash that's all." She told him truthfully, her hands nervously wringing one another, "It's really weird because it's not like how I'd remembered something like getting up last week, or when we first met, it was so much more real." She looked up at him, her eyes wild like that of animal caught in headlights, "I could feel the pain, and the snow that was hitting me as it was falling and I felt actually blinded by the lights."
She looked up at him.
"An-and I remembered being trapped and thinking that I wasn't even going to see Christmas."
Derek moved all the things that were next to Penelope and put them on the table, he then slid next to her and pulled her into a hug, "it was close, Princess, it really was but it never happened, we've got five days until Christmas day, and like I promised you in the hospital, we're gonna make this the best."
Penelope pulled back stiffly and looked at him, "thank you for this." She said and smiled shyly, "you didn't have to do this for me, but I really, really appreciate it, more than you'll know." She then fell against his chest, "and probably more than I can ever tell you."
Derek didn't want to move, he had Penelope protected and safe in his arms and he was enjoying, cuddles always happened between them, but this one was beyond any other they'd shared. Their understanding of one another had shaped, he'd leant how missed out this time of year was for Penelope, and she'd leant how much he loved it.
He had one idea pop into his head, but he decided it could wait until tomorrow, more today he was going to decorate the tree with his Baby Girl, then make the biggest open fire he could and just cuddle her while they watched old Christmas movies.
"Just remember I'll drop anything for you, Baby, you name it, I'll be there." He said, pushing a kiss to her temple and then he stood up, all smiles and Penelope melted into a smile then. "Right, I think we need you in the armchair, so you can direct me where these need to go exactly."
"I'm sure you're a big boy, Handsome, to do that yourself."
Derek stood there, his hands on his hips, "a Christmas tree always needs a woman's touch." He told her and she laughed, "you're the only woman around here, and I want this tree perfect."
"Let's do this then." She said as she made her way to the edge of the couch, and as ever into Derek's ready arms.
Gently easing her down Penelope grabbed a bauble, "here's your first," she said and passed it to him, "don't say I never give you anything."
"Oh baby, you give me some new every day." He teased her back and took the bauble and went to the tree, "just say when."
She watched him moving around, and teasingly kept him doing it, "when," she said just as he was about say something.
"You did that deliberately." He said as he plonked the bauble on.
"Prove it," she said innocently, just as he turned around and looked at her and she threw the next tree decoration his way, he caught it effortlessly but pulled a face at her, "what?"
"No over exerting."
"I threw it with my good arm," she exclaimed, it wasn't a completely lie.
"What about the good side of the ribs?" He asked and turned to look at her, "yeah I know all your bumps and grazes, Baby Girl, no getting away from it. I knew well before you did."
Penelope scoffed, "I was too busy sleeping to care about the damage." She said coolly, using his own words on him, making him laugh again, "I should've slept all this off a little longer mind you."
"Oh hell no!" He exclaimed as he put the bauble on himself and jumped down to turn to her, "There is no way I could've gone for longer without hearing you tease me any longer. God thirteen days was hell as it was."
Penelope smiled as she handed him a miniature gingerbread house for the tree.
"You were breaking your promise to me," he told her, his lips pouting.
"How can I make it up to you now?" She asked him, knowing he was getting at her promising to never stop talking to him from the New York case. "Keep talking to you?"
"More so than usual." He dropped in and grabbed a load of the tree decoration, "what about tinsel and lights, Baby Girl?"
"Oh, erm, put some more of those on and then we'll do tinsel and work on," she paused, making him turn to her and he saw her face and chuckled, "these." She finished as she held the tangled lights up, she then looked up and smiled at him, "Christmas is never complete without untangling year old knots."
"Definitely isn't." He agreed with her.
Penelope looked thoughtful for a moment, "Now is this too strenuous or am I okay to work my magic fingers on sorting these?" Penelope quipped sarcastically at him.
"If you're up for it after, I have certain other things you could use you magic fingers on." He asked huskily.
Penelope put the lights on her lap, "in your dreams buddy," she looked up, her pale lips in the biggest seductive smile he'd seen on her in a couple of weeks, "in your Penelope filled dreams."
"One day," he joked back hiding the pang of disappointment he was feeling as he went about putting the ornaments on the tree. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but something about that statement made some sort of longing bubble within him.
"Keep dreaming buster," Penelope told him, her tone low and concentrated on the wires.
What Derek didn't see was Penelope keep looking up at him and then putting her attention on the lights, trying to stop her head from making compromising thoughts and feelings. She put that down to the crash as well, mixing with her inner workings, making her even kookier than ever.
She sighed and that caught his attention.
"Everything okay?" Derek called over his shoulder.
"Success!" Penelope said, moving on from the sigh, "Lights are done and my stomach's calling the throat for food."
Derek put the remaining tree decorations he had on his fingers onto the tree and turned back with tinsel still wrapped around his neck, "how's Morgan's Italian surprise sound?"
"Is the surprise bit burnt offerings?"
"Nope, it's a secret."
"I think that's more ominous to be honest, Handsome." Penelope joked as Derek went to her and took the lights off of her.
"Well, let's just say, I know my Baby loves her an Italian, and I know her favourite dish."
"So really the surprise isn't a surprise, it's really stolen?" She joked with him and watched him disappear, "that's it! Leave the cripple behind!"
"You're not a cripple, Baby Girl." Derek called out, "just temporarily immobilised and easy."
Penelope's eyes widened and she began to laugh, "again, in – your - dreams, Hot Stuff!"
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A Tender Loving Christmas -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A/N: How you liking now? Want more?
