Disclaimer: I own nothing because I'm not cool (or rich) enough!
A.N: I'm baaack! But I'm knackered, so only Funhouse got half written! But I'll give you some of that tomorrow, promise!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Love To Surprise-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"You still need to rest up." A nurse that the group had come to know told Penelope. "That gorgeous little girl needs you on top form, and so does that man of yours."
"I know." Penelope told her as she sat on the bed, ready to be discharged, the IV being removed.
"Especially with your man after you." She joked with Penelope. They'd all seen how protective Derek had become; nightly he'd be on the bed with her, making sure she was sleeping through the night.
It'd been 4 days before the doctor was confident that Penelope would rest up and take it more easy, and avoid major stresses. Now she could go back to watching her baby girl as often as she wanted to do, within reason.
"I think he would quite happily fireman's carry me home." Penelope quipped at her as she thought about it.
The nurse looked at her and the pair laughed. "I wouldn't say no."
"Well if you wanna distract him at any time so I can make a normal, let's keep some decorum exit, be my guest." Penelope joked with her. "He does give a good fireman's carry though and normal exit's just aren't my thing."
"Had many have we?"
"And a lot of other stuff." Penelope quipped and the nurse laughed. "Oh, speak of the devil!" Penelope said excitedly as Derek walked into the room. "How's my baby?"
"I'm fine, thanks for asking Baby Girl." Derek quipped and Penelope cocked an eyebrow at him. "She's doing really well." He said and Penelope's heart melted at the way he said it. "Real good."
"Well you better get up there then, Penelope." The nurse said as she finished up. "You're free."
"Mm, now that sounds good." Penelope replied wistfully and soon she got her wish, she was stood in front of her baby, again in Derek's arms.
"How's it feel to be out of that bed for good?"
"Too good." Penelope mused at him. She pulled away and groaned. "I need to go change."
"Why?" Derek asked alerted and worry, Penelope turned to him, an amused grin on her face and Derek saw it. "I think you sprung a leak Mamma." Penelope laughed at him and looked around for her bag. In reality, Penelope had sprung a leak, the biggest express of milk he'd seen from her since Annabelle was born.
"Ah crap." She muttered at him. "Your mom took it home with her."
"Don't worry, I'll go call her, just go and get those pad thingy's okay?" He told her and Penelope laughed again.
"Breast pads, Handsome. No long complicated words, just breast pads." She said and left him there for the moment. She came back some and looked at him. "Just been told to donate my breast milk."
"Oh yeah?"
"Just until Annabelle can have it, apparently it's really good for them." Penelope told him and put the pads down. "When her lungs are ready, they'll take her off the ventilator and start feeding her it and she'll get the nutrients to help her grow and develop." Derek looked at her amazed at what she'd just told him, making her even more bemused. "Then when we can hold her, I can start properly breast feeding."
"You wanna do that?" Derek asked her as he followed her go the corner of the room and grab a pad, he watched her sort herself out fluidly and then turn back.
"It's good for bonding and it's good for her, so yeah I'll give it ago." Penelope replied and then went back to him. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Just, not many women like doing it."
"I'm not many women." Penelope quipped and Derek smirked.
"Don't I know it?" Derek replied and pulled her close and kissed her. "I love you, you know that right?"
"I'll love you too if you go ring your mother and get a clean and dry top."
"I wanna hear you say it when I'm back."
"Saving the words and breaths as we speak, my Chocolate God." She purred at him and was left with her daughter and the lingering feel of a kiss on her lips.
Penelope put her hand onto of the incubator and looked at her daughter, she just wanted to be home now, she wished she could just take her away and never look back. It was a lie to say she was in love, her love ran deep within her now. Hit every raw nerve she had in her body, made her heart balloon. Penelope was unequivocally and without a doubt in love with two people in her life.
"We'll be a family." Penelope promised the baby in a whisper and she heard Derek coming back into the room. She kept her watery smile on her lips; she still got overly emotional when she was in this room.
There was so much she wanted, so much she wanted to do, but she felt like she was being held back. Like some bigger force was doing this to her. Torturing her so.
"You get hold of your mom?" She asked and tore her attention away from her daughter to look at Derek.
"I did." He told her and came and dragged her over to the seating. He pulled her down and wrapped his arms around her protectively. "She's on her way." Penelope lay her head on his chest comfortably and just remained there. "It's going to be a while before we'll get to hold her."
"I know." Penelope whispered woefully. "I just feel like I did something wrong somewhere in my life."
"Everything happens for a reason. You told me I didn't get it when Battle shot you, but now I do. Our baby was born like this for a reason and it'll make her even more important to us for a lifetime. She's our little surprise, she's our little precious baby and we know now, how to cherish and love her."
"What if I'm not cut out to be a mom?" Penelope doubted.
"Think I'm cut out to be a dad? We've both lacked in preparations here. It's going to be learning curves from here on out."
"And stabilisers." Penelope told him as she sat up and she looked at him. "Like a bike, Handsome, when you're learning you have stabilisers." She watched him understand and laughed. "Slow much?"
"Hey! I'm wounded by that; I've had two ill baby girls to contend with." Penelope looked at him somewhat guiltily. "Wipe that look away right now."
"Or what?"
Derek leant towards her. "I'll kiss it off." Penelope continued to keep the look, her eyes showing she was playing with him and it worked. Derek kissed her passionately, making her moan at him. He pulled her away, looking at her kiss swollen lips, her closed eyes and her flushed complexion. "I don't want you back in hospital for lack of breath." He teased her and Penelope opened her eyes wide and pouted at him. "You're adorable." He told her and she melted into a grin.
"I know I am." She told him confidently. "I'm also told I'm quite a good lay, so some delicious chocolate blooded man told me." She winked at him.
"I've never said that." Penelope smirked at him. "I told you, you were a God damn given vixen once you're undressed and laying in wait."
"You sure made me purr." She told him and stood up. "I'm going to the loo, keep an eye on my baby or else."
"Or what?" He asked her and she stilled at the door, holding it as she was half in, half out.
Penelope looked at him, the largest teasing grin he'd seen her show him for weeks. "I'll just have to kiss you to death."
"Can't think of a better way to go." Derek said and put his hands behind the back of his head cockily. As Derek sat, with his daughter in front of him, he couldn't help but think he had the good life, however dire it looked from the outside right at that moment. He had a woman, that would, one day in the near future, help him set up a home, ready for them to bring their child home to. One that he would propose to her in, wed her, and then expand their family in. He would live a content man with that.
He had a family in Chicago that had proven supportive and didn't judge him for any of the wrongdoings he'd done over the years. He even had a family that he worked with. One that shared and shared alike. Be it joyous moments or times of grief, they all stuck together.
When Penelope made it back in, she found Derek asleep. She stood and watched him. His head against the light pink walls of the NICU ward. His eyes closed, his hands still behind his head, his mouth slightly open, his legs splayed out.
Penelope just went and grabbed her phone and stepped in front of her. She took a photo and then Derek reached up and grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap.
"Photo opportunity?" He asked her as he smothered her in kisses, holding her tight in his arms. She giggled and tried to push away from his sloppy kisses, he was doing it on purpose.
"Handsome, I'm still tender, so put me down." He released his hand from her back and her thigh and just remained sitting there. "I didn't mean it literally. I'm fragile luggage right now."
"Not luggage." He said and kissed her, putting his hands around her gently, holding her supportively. When he slowed on the kissed, Penelope put her head on his shoulder and stared off. "Pensive Penny's settling in." Penelope whacked him on the arm playfully. "What? You are."
"I've got a lot on my plate right now." Penelope told him and looked at him. "I feel like I'm messing you around, because I don't know what I want."
"I don't expect you to know right away. You just go at your pace and I'll be behind you waiting for you to turn and tell me what you want."
"What did I ever do to get you?" Penelope asked him in awe.
"Hack." He told her and looked at the door as his mom and Hotch knocked on the window and entered the room. "You can get changed now."
"Thank God." Penelope said and her and Fran left the room. Fran going with Penelope to the bathroom, Hotch going in and sitting with Derek.
"Strauss got suspended." He said as he slid down and looked at Derek. "Did you know the directors got the biggest soft spot for Penelope?"
"I knew she'd worked with him on some things, but I didn't know it was enough."
"Well she's done something amazing, as soon as he heard about Penelope's arrest; he reprimanded Strauss and got me, him and her into his office. Woman scorned is all I'm gonna say about Strauss." Derek laughed at that, he was right. "She stood and looked guilty that Penelope had collapsed whilst being taken to the police station. He beat her down and broke her."
"By saying what?" He asked intrigued, he wished he'd seen the downfall of the BAU ice queen.
"That she victimised a woman that had just given birth under the pretence that she claimed to have had no idea she was actually child bearing. He even whacked out a medical report and a load of information Reid had put together about mysterious pregnancies. Strauss tried to say it was a lie on Penelope and yours behalf because it's not medically named, but with a statistic to sit next to it and a full doctor's report she got blown out of the water."
"So how longs she been suspended for?"
"A month, I think he said. Plus, it looks like her drive to focus on breaking up the BAU has landed her in even more bother and she's being demoted."
"Wow, justice or what." Derek said and ran a hand over his head nervous to ask the next bit. "So, what's going to happen with me and Pen? I mean with our jobs."
"Frat rules ignored, the director knows exactly how you two operate, as long as you don't change that, you'll be fine. Just keep it the same."
"To keep us together at work, I will be." Derek told him and waited for Penelope to come back into the room.
Fran and Penelope were walking down the corridor when Penelope just blurted it out. "Do I make your son happy?" Fran froze and looked at her; it was a bizarre question to be asked. "I mean, as a mother, do you look at him and see him as extremely happy with his life?" Penelope rambled then. "My mom always told me that if a man's happy, it'll show to everyone than the woman he's in love with or so forth. I was just wondering, if he is."
"You've got nothing to worry about. I've not seen Derek like this since he met you. 9 years I've been trying to get a meeting with you, but you were always busy. He's never brought a girl back home, but you, he was seriously contemplating it." Fran told her with a smile. "But don't you dare even worry. My son gave you his heart unknowingly the moment he called you Baby Girl."
Penelope didn't say anything else, and the smile she got as she walked into the room from Derek, told her everything she needed to know.
Then came the better news of knowing what had happened to Strauss and work.
Life was just getting easier as they went.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Love To Surprise-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A/N: Strauss got her just desserts! Stupid woman, in this and on the show!