Disclaimer: I own nothing, just mine to have a little fun while I can...
A/N: Wow your support is phenomenal for this, guys! Glad you're loving it, let's just hope you enjoy what's to come!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Every Little Part of Me -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"It's your fault it ended," Derek ground out, unable to look at her, "I'd be a happily married man if you'd just kept a lid on your emotions for just one day."
Penelope stared confused, "Me?" She asked him incredulously, "I'm sorry Derek but I don't get how I finished your marriage."
She could feel her heart racing in her chest, near enough thumping off of her rib cage.
"I love him so much, Em." He retorted, "It took me marrying someone that wasn't you to realise that?"
Penelope remained silent, her eyes filling with tears, her fear only becoming ever growing within her. She'd known for years, realising from day one, that she loved him; it wasn't some spur of the moment recognition.
"I gave you years of friendship and then I find that out after you stood by my side at that alter, you helped me pick a suit and the rings and you helped put the wedding together and all along it was you just being fake. What the hell is that about?"
"I did it for you," Penelope said and stepped forward, trying to fix this, "You were getting married; I wasn't in a place to say you were making a mistake or I knew you weren't entirely happy because only you can decide that."
"You lied to me," Derek said and he sounded so hurt, "I could see you didn't want to be there, that you had other places to be, that you'd probably prefer sitting at work actually doing something or at home hiding away than out seeing me get my big chance at something that you knew I wanted so badly."
"You're not listening to me." Penelope said, her tone tight and heated, "You – were – happy. What of that can't you understand exactly? I was there to keep that happening, regardless of what I felt. And the only reason I'm here is to see if you're okay, like a friend should be."
"And here's me betting you have an ulterior motive there. Oh, Morgan's on the rebound let's jump in and get what I want." He looked at her, his eyes glowing with that anger again, "Well guess what Garcia, I don't love you and never will. Not after this."
Penelope felt the hot tears fall down her face, "That's fine; I won't be around much to care." She said and went to go back in, she was going to say bye to Fran and leave for her hotel.
Her heart officially beyond repair.
"And what the fuck is that meant to mean?"
Penelope dropped her hand from the door handle and turned back to him, "I requested a transfer." She said lowly.
"Running from your problems, well that isn't very you. I mean you never ran when that bastard shot you or the other bastard cheated, but me, oh me I get you to transfer."
"Well that's because this bastard took it too far!" She yelled at him, finally breaking, "Years I spent just hoping you'd open your eyes and look at me and it never happened and then Alice happened, you haven't been bothered with me for months, so why bother now Derek?" She asked him, "Scared to lose the play toy you had at your beck and call for years?" She asked him and the tears got heavier, "I was a fool to ever get close to you if this was what was going to happen."
Derek could feel his heart breaking at this moment, "So what? This is the end of us?"
"What us?" She scoffed at him, "The girl came along and I was old news, I wasn't needed anymore so," she shrugged, "what us?"
"All that you said outside that night, to Emily, I heard it all, how you refused to tell me well you got your chance, I called out for you on my wedding night, on my honeymoon and she cheated on me." Derek's hands went to his head in frustration, "You're always in my head and I thought distance would help but God it never did."
Derek looked down then, straight into Penelope's piercing eyes and he saw how broken down and worn she was from loving him and how hard it was for her to just be here.
Penelope shrugged again and swallowed the lump in her throat, "I didn't expect you to hear that."
"I guessed so." He answered, he could still remember hearing how absolutely heartbroken she had sounded that night; how her sobs had been heart wrenching and so powerful that he felt his entire world shake.
"I was hurting and I couldn't, for the life of me, watch you dance with her, I'm sorry Derek but it's plain and simple, that moment made it real, I lost, like I always do." Penelope dropped her head as the tears got harder, "at the end of the day, you're married, you can make this right and I won't be around for you to worry about."
"Where are you going?"
"Does it matter?" Penelope asked him sadly with a brief smile, "I guess fresh breaks and everything, but I get it, I'm not needed, or for that matter wanted here so I'll leave but when you get back home, talk to Alice, she'll come around, I know she cheated and I know how you're feeling, God do I, and I know it's not a great feeling but salvage it, because you only find you're better half once."
"Baby Girl..." Derek called out, his tone softer, he realised then that Penelope wasn't there to get him to love her, she was there to apologise for her own mistake that he'd been unaware of, to offer him his best friend in his hour of darkness.
"Don't make this harder," Penelope began to sob, "I gave you up a long time ago, I know it doesn't look like it but you can't help when you fall so in love with someone, but I really did give up a long time ago. I just wasn't the one you wanted."
"Don't leave." He pleaded with her to stay; he had so much to say.
Penelope laughed in disbelief, "When I got here you asked me to leave; now you don't." Penelope wrapped her arms around herself against the cold air, "If you come back and I'm gone just know it was good knowing you. Amazing even."
"I never had you down as a chicken."
"There's nothing there for me now! I need to move on; I can't just stick around forever."
"You know what," Derek said, his mood shifting again, and all because he was scared of the love he had for Penelope, the one he knew was real and reciprocated, "You leave and I don't ever want to hear from you again, not at Christmases or birthdays, nothing, if you can't be strong enough to stick around and try again in Quantico then I don't want to know at all."
Penelope's heart shattered even more again, the splinters almost dust now. Readying to be blown away into the Chicago night.
"Count it as already done." She said and went back into the house, she watched Fran shoot out of her chair, "Sorry about the intrusion Fran, it was lovely seeing you again, but I'll see myself out."
"Penelope, if you love him so much why not fight?" Fran asked, having heard the fight even through the closed door and windows.
"He has something good started at home. I'm not going to break that." Penelope shrugged at her, the saddest of smiles on her lips.
Fran's eye watered, this woman loved her son so much she'd make herself so unhappy for him to remain happy, "I think you need to look closer at the situation."
"Fran, Derek overheard something on his wedding night, something I said in confidence to a friend and it played on his mind. Simple thing is, Derek doesn't love me like that, and he never will."
"Oh Penelope, maybe you need to look at what just happened..."
"Thank you, Fran, but I don't want to look any closer, if we were in love then it'd have happened, and it hasn't and I get it now, just a little too late, tell Derek I said bye and that I'll always love him, but I have to leave."
Fran watched Penelope leave the kitchen and as the front door she had one thing in mind that she'd hope her son would realise Penelope had done.
If you love something set it free, if it comes back it's yours, if not it was never meant to be.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Every Little Part of Me -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A/N: So who's lost the faith?
