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: Bit of Christmas day loving... as promised =)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A Tender Loving Christmas -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Penelope woke up to the smell of cooking, and immediately her stomach rumbled at it. She sat up on her elbows and looked around, she had no way to move and she could tell she was paying for moving around on her own now.

She soon realised there was one thing that was making her excited. It wasn't the presents, or the day, or the food that smelt so good, but the thought of Derek coming for her, to just see him today made everything so much better.

She fell back and just lay there, she wasn't going to be a hardhead and move and get downstairs on her own, she was going to allow Derek a moment of dominance that he loved so much.

"Someone want breakfast in bed?" Derek's voice came as he walked up the hallway and through the door.

Penelope looked down and her smile magnified.

"Morning Baby Girl." He told her as he put the tray on the dresser and went over to her, kissing her on the lips.

"Mmm," Penelope said as they pulled apart, "I'll show you a good morning, Hot Stuff." She breezed, "you have timing I must say."

"I like to call it my Baby Girl instinct; I know when you're awake and everything."

Penelope rose an eyebrow as she pushed herself up, "Sounds a bit like a stalker there, Handsome, I'm not gonna lie," she quipped and waited as he grabbed pillows to support her, "but what a good looking, sexy stalker you'd be."

Derek chuckled as pulled the quilt down and then turned for the breakfast tray, "so this is what you look for in a stalker huh?" He asked her.

Penelope nodded at him, "Yup, tall, dark and handsome." She smiled at him and looked down at the breakfast he'd made her. Penelope's eyes watered as she read it.

"Merry Christmas Baby Girl." Derek said as he repeated the words he'd spelt out.

"Merry Christmas," was all she mastered and her smile grew, "you really know how to spoil a girl." She told him and watched him walking away, "where you going?"

"I'll be back, but I need to eat as well."

"Tell me you're bringing it up here." She asked him and just saw his head nod and watched him disappear, she watched him fully disappear and still she stared at where he once was.

Waking up to this man every day was heaven on earth and Penelope didn't want it to end, she never wanted to wake up in her apartment, and be alone again. It was with that that the dread grew in her, she knew once she was all healed and out of a cast, she would be home and away from him.

She shook her head, a lot could happen in the next couple of weeks, and for now she'd enjoy it.

Derek walked in and went to his side of the bed, "how's the eggs?"

"Delicious, my Chocolate Adonis." Penelope said mid mouthful, she swallowed and licked her lips and looked at him, "you sure you nearly burnt your mom's house down?"

Derek laughed, "In my defence I was young, okay?"

"You got better with age." She told him and went back to cutting up more of the pancakes, "and I don't mean just with cooking either."

"Eat up Silly Girl, so I can get you downstairs for some present opening." He ordered her.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A Tender Loving Christmas -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Penelope was sitting in wait in the living room, resting, and facing the tree. She was waiting for Derek to check the turkey; the last thing they wanted after all was a burnt turkey. Not just because it would ruin dinner but because Derek knew Penelope wouldn't let him leave it down.

She leant over for the remote and turned the volume up on the TV, and remembered the song from her childhood, her mom singing it while she prepared the dinner for them all and she smiled at the memory.

Fireside blazing bright
We're carolling through the night
And this Christmas will be
A very special Christmas for me

She hummed it in her head, just like she remembered. It'd been years since she'd heard it and even longer since she sang the lyrics but she remembered them like it was only yesterday she'd heard it last.

"Presents and cards are here, my world is filled with cheer, and you," Derek came in singing out loud and Penelope twisted to look at him, "This Christmas, and as I look around, your eyes outshine the town, they do, this Christmas" He continued as he walked to the back of the couch and put his hands on it. "My momma used to sing it all the time." He told her.

"Yours and mine alike." Penelope told him with a coy smile.

He leant in, "and what I just sang was all true, Baby." He said as he kissed her gently. "You outshine everything possible." He said as he remained there, looking at her, leaning on the back of the couch, "you're absolutely beautiful you know that right?"

Penelope smiled coyly, and looked away as her cheeks flushed with the heat of a blush. Her heart swelled at it, no one ever called her beautiful, not even Kevin, not even when she'd dressed to impress when they went out. He never once gave her the look that Derek was giving her, and he sure as hell never went passed the compliment of 'you look nice' before going for the door.

"Look at me," Derek commanded her gently and she listened and look back up at him, "I should've told you a long time ago, and that's the one regret I have. I wished I'd told you sooner, I've never been so happy."

Penelope's smile widened, "You're doing a great job at catching up, Handsome."

"I'll give my life to beat the game," he said and winked at her, "I don't ever want you to leave."

Penelope's eyes widened, she felt the same, "we have us a little while yet, D."

"I'll convince you never to leave." He told her and pushed himself up and looked at the tree, "presents?" He asked her and she nodded and he went over and picked up one up, "you can have the one from JJ's first, she made a stipulation that the flat one is strictly from Henry."

Penelope watched as he grabbed a load of presents and scattered them on the coffee table, "gimme my little gumdrop's one first."

Derek handed Penelope the multicoloured box and watched her open it and she just stared at it, her lip trembled with adoration and she put it down and lifted out a piece of paper, her smile just blossomed.

"What did the kiddo get you?" He asked and Penelope just handed it over and he had to laugh a little, "Kid's got sense," he said as he looked at the picture of Penelope and him, JJ's hand writing clearly labelling who was who. "Let's see if any of these others can trump this." He told her as he placed the picture down and grabbed another box.

It was when they were down to six presents on the table that Penelope looked perplexed, "so whose are those? I can tell ones yours."

Derek smiled and leant forward, "Well they're all yours from me."

"Five?" Penelope asked shocked and felt guilty, "But I only got you one."

"Hey, we've been over this, Goddess, I'm fine with one," He told her, making her smile at how sweet he was, "so I'm gonna see what this is."

Penelope gulped, as she watched him grab his present and sit back and opened it, he stilled as he looked at it, and then he looked up at her and back down. "You did this."

Penelope shrugged, "It's nothing."

He laughed in disbelief as he pulled the frame out and looked at it, his fingers running over the details and the glass over the photo, "wow."

"Like I said, it's not much."

Derek looked up from the photo and smiled, "not much? Baby, this is the best gift I've ever been given!" He told her, "no one's ever made me something like this."

Penelope smiled as he got up and went to her, kissing her heavily, "I love you," he told her as though he were just taking another breath, "thank you for making my Christmas perfect."

Penelope didn't have chance to answer as he went over to the shelving unit under the TV and watched as he made room and put the photo frame down.

Derek backed away, looking at the photo of him and Penelope, wrapped in one another's arms, Penelope smiling away, Derek pushing a kiss onto her temple. The little picture joint onto one of the small frames held one of them dancing and the third photo was of them sitting asleep side by side.

Around the frame all little tad bits from their life together. The "Hey Gomez" moment printed onto the frame, nicknames, places, inside jokes. Penelope had put time into this present and for that he'd be eternally grateful.

"I just wanted you to know how much you mean to me." Penelope told him.

He turned to her and got down beside her, "I know how much I mean to you, I hear it whenever you worry about me during a case, or speak to me when we're at work or out, and I know how much I mean to you when you give me that look." He said and cupped her face, "That crash scared me because I didn't want to believe that you were so easily taken, Baby. I always had you on a pedestal, especially after Battle, I believed that you were invincible and I didn't need to tell you how I felt because you were always going to be here and then one day we were told we could lose you."

Penelope's eyes watered.

"I never, ever want to waste a day, P, I never want to lose a moment that I could have you as mine and hell, I don't want to wait for our right moment, it never happens. I just want you and me to stay as we are right now. I want to remain this madly in love with you forever."

"You won me over at Gomez," Penelope told him and kissed him, this time putting all her pent up emotion into it and all she felt was Derek respond perfectly.

He was her best Christmas present this year.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A Tender Loving Christmas -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A/N: How's that for romantic Christmas day?