Disclaimer: I own nothing...
A/N:Hope you continue to enjoy, sorry about all the late responses to reviews, hope you're all enjoying still =)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Rhythm Of Love -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Can you just stop the car," Penelope broke the silence that has descended throughout the car as they drew closer to Chicago. "Please," he voice quivered some, "Please, Derek, just stop the car!"
"Okay, okay, Baby, I'm gonna pull over, I just need to find a gas station." Derek said calmly, trying not to get distracted by her sudden mood swing, "there's one just a couple of miles up."
"No!" Penelope said as she undid her seatbelt in agitation, "Just please pull over and let me out of the car."
Derek listened and indicated and pulled over onto the side of the highway, immediately turning off the engine as Penelope bolted from her seat and walked away from the SUV. It didn't take him long to follow her out, he was beyond worried as she walked rubbing her stomach almost systematically.
"Pen..." He called out to her, the sky was darkening as evening set in and he just watched her halt and look out at the horizon. "Talk to me Penelope." He coerced her.
Penelope turned back and now he saw the tears on her face, her face drawn with worry and angst. "Why are we doing this?" She asked him as though she had no idea at all, "Why are we going to Chicago?"
Derek stepped in closer, "to see my family, I need them to see the woman that stole my heart."
"But have I?" She asked him, "I was for one night, Derek that was it. We're nothing more than that, you've had me for one night and now I'm your forever?"
"Baby, that's not true and you know it. We're so much more than that and we always will be."
"Are we? Or are we just a reaction of being separated? Did you plan to come back to me like this, Derek? Or did you expect to find the same old plain Garcia that I've always been? We were just best friends with that little added kick before that night and out of fear of losing you I admitted my biggest darkest secret and look where it got us."
"It got us to be happily in love with the best thing ever happening."
Penelope began to cry at that, she knew she was being irrational but this had been eating away at her, all of the insignificant things were just burning away at her inside and playing on her subconscious. She knew it was now just the realisation that Derek wasn't going to leave her again and that he was here to stay and she knew stressing wasn't a good plan but she couldn't help herself, simple as.
"But we did it under false pretences, we made promises we shouldn't have that night. I don't know what you did while you were away and I'm only left to fantasise about it and all those women you had before me. What if one of them ended up like me?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa Baby Girl. What the hell do any of them have to do with this exactly?"
Penelope threw her hands up in the air, "I'm one of them, one night Derek, one night just over eight months ago you and me were each other's one night stand and I can't quite get that out of my head and now we're going to Chicago so I can be paraded around like some show piece and we don't even know if you're family are going to like me!" She almost screamed at him, "families have expectations, I know that, and I'm not going to be what they expect from you. I am never what a man like you should have. I am not that type of woman."
"You are in my life." Derek argued back, his need to defend his love overriding. "You're what I want and need, Penelope and to hell with my family. This is about us and our baby. No one else should matter." He told her. "And they will love you; there is nothing not to love." He said as he finally got in front of her, close enough to wipe her tears and get her to look at him.
"I'm not the type of girl you usually have." Penelope admitted, she'd never felt this insecure in Derek's love but lately she just felt she wasn't reaching the expectations Derek had. "I'm not slim, and I'm not beautiful, and I'm never going to be."
"Who says you're not beautiful, because you are the most beautiful thing ever to me." Derek spoke the truth, he didn't care if he was declaring it in the side of a road, he could be in the middle of a supermarket and not care, he could be at work and not give a care to who was watching. "All those months I lay in my bed looking at the same spot and all I could see was you. I closed my eyes and I saw you, I slept and I saw you, it's always been you, Baby Girl." Derek said grabbing her hands, determined to get it into her head how infatuated he was with her, "Since day one it's been you. My normal type is not my favourite type, I didn't want a girl like you because you were the only one that fitted my type and I didn't want a substitute."
Penelope's mouth dropped a little, and then closed, as though she was trying to form words.
"Do you want the truth of what I want from you exactly?" Derek asked her, his tone low, guiding, loving.
Penelope nodded slowly, her tears not ceasing at all.
"I want to stay in bed on a Saturday morning and you know have some fun; I wanna hold hands whenever and wherever; I wanna love your fears and hate your tears. I want us to fall asleep on the couch together and wake up to a pile of kids on top of us and I want to pick you up and carry you off and feel like Monday morning is so far off that the weekend might as well be like a lifetime's length away. I want to do that with you because only you make me see any of that."
Derek cupped Penelope's face in his hands and made her look at him as he looked deep into her tearful brown orbs.
"Only you drive me crazy and only you keep me happy. You're my light, my strength, my heart, my soul. Penelope you're my entire life." Derek confessed and smiled at her, "You're my everything and more."
"I'm sorry," Penelope said feeling pathetic as Derek's words finally penetrated her mind and she finally believed them and her mood lifted, "I don't know what's wrong with me."
"You're pregnant, Baby Girl, and there's nothing wrong about that." He said and wiped her cheeks of fresh tears with his thumbs, "It's incredibly sexy on you." He told her and kissed her lips gently.
"I will always love you, and I will never feel any differently. My life is about you and our daughter, and whatever other children are going to come." Derek smiled more at that, "my life is devoted to keeping you happy and loved, and I will see that you are kept that way until my last breath."
"Don't make that happen too soon." Penelope told him, "I need you for a lot longer than just a few months."
"I promise you we'll be grey and babysitting great, great, great grandkids when that happens." He teased her, "I would've taken you to Chicago a long time ago but we never had a reason or the moment. Now we do."
"I'm just worried." Penelope whispered lowly.
"Penelope, I was told that a man's next actions will always be his defining moments, and they'll make a man for life. So I want you as my wife Penelope, I want to be defined as the happiness man alive and I will show my family that you make me that. They will know that you complete me fully."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Rhythm Of Love -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the mini dose of angst, and thank you wordofwyrd for inspiring this! ;)
