Disclaimer: It's in part 1, I swear it.

A/N: Challenge answer: Some Kind Of Wonderful. The line was: "It was better to be with someone for the wrong reasons than alone for the right ones." Now on to today's installment. Thank you to everyone who continue to review, alert and make this story their favourite. You are making me so very happy.

Chapter 10 – Affirmation

Penelope wasn't sure what she would have done if Derek had died that night but she knew it would not have been anything positive. She had been so relieved to hear Derek's voice in her ear an eternity after the ambulance exploded that she had begun to sob. He might be alive but she wanted to kill him right then.

Once she was back at the hotel she sequestered herself in her room. Although she had told Derek she was too angry to speak to him and he claimed he could wait she knew her best friend. After a hot bath she donned one of his t-shirts, a pair of sleep pants and brushed out her hair while she waited. As she figured the gentle knocking began about half an hour after she'd arrived in her room.

Penelope opened the door preparing, to remain silent but one look at his battered appearance and she began to cry. Derek gathered her in his arms and walked her backwards into the room, gently nudging the door shut with his foot.

"Baby girl, I'm sorry."

"You better be. I can't lose you."

"You won't."

"How can you say that? You came so close tonight."

"Because I knew you were with me. Nothing bad could happen. I meant what I said, Pen, you are my God given solace."

"Don't ever scare me like that again, Derek Morgan. Do you understand me," Penelope asked as she tightened her arms around him. He flinched at the pressure to his sore shoulder and that's when she took a full inventory of his bumps, bruises and scratches. "You need to have a hot shower and lay down before the adrenaline completely leaves your system."
"Can't."

"Why the hell not? You have another bomb that needs to be disposed of in Central Park?" She didn't mean to be so harsh but he'd really scared her and she was just barely keeping herself from stripping him and kissing all of his pain away.

"Nothing that dramatic, Pen. It's just that I'm roomed with Hotch and…"

"Say no more. Give me your room key and get your beautiful butt into my shower."

He raised an eyebrow at her suggestion. "Not sure that Hotch will be any happier with the idea of me rooming with you, goddess."

"Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, hot stuff. He will likely thank you in the morning for letting him have the room to himself so he can mourn in his own way. Now, stop arguing and get in there. I'll be back before you know it."

Penelope took longer than she expected only because she stopped for extra towels and ice to pack Derek's shoulder. When she returned to her room she walked into a cloud of steam and nearly into Derek's naked body. He was clad in nothing but a brief towel with beads of water still clinging to him. It took more effort than she would ever admit not to remove the towel from his waist and use it to wipe the drool from her mouth. She had to stop this. Kevin. Yes, Kevin. She had to focus on her boyfriend not her battered and in need of some TLC best friend. She was in for a very long night.

Once his shoulder had been iced and he was feeling a bit less like he had jumped from a bomb packed ambulance the adrenaline on which he had been running for hours sapped right out of his body leaving him sagging against the headboard of Penelope's bed. Rummaging in his go bag she found the sweats he always packed for bed. She eased them up his legs and once she was close enough to the towel turned her back so he could pull them up the rest of the way. She took the towel from him along with the now wet one from his shoulder and dumped them in the bathroom before returning to snuggle down bedside him on the bed. In very little time they were both asleep.

Penelope was dreaming. Derek was kissing her while he pleasured her with his long fingers. To not be unfair Penelope was pleasuring Derek, as well. Slipping her hand under the waistband of his sweats she had him in a firm grip and was maintaining a steady rhythm along his generous length in time to his kisses. Although it had been months since they last had sex he still remembered just the right places to touch her to make her even wetter. Penelope tightened her hold on his penis and let just one finger hook his scrotum as she drew back toward his tip. That was when a rush of moisture infiltrated her dream state and dragged her rudely into reality. This was no dream. Derek was indeed kissing her senseless with her sleep pants undone and lowered to give him better access to her. But the real shocker to her system was the realization that Derek had just come all over her hand and was still thrusting into the pressure of her closed fist. A moan of satisfaction escaped him even as she felt her own body shudder with her building orgasm. No, this wasn't right. They had stopped having sex. She wasn't supposed to be losing herself to the tension, to the promised release, to her best friend and his magic mouth and fingers. Despite herself she moaned his name as she also came and suddenly Derek's eyes opened and the reality of what they had just shared bounded into the room and sucked out all available oxygen like a crazed bull during the running.

Derek removed his lips, his hand and his body all from her presence in one very rapidly executed roll. He sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands but she heard his words clearly, "Pen, I'm sorry. I thought I was dreaming. I'd never disrespect you like that. Give me a minute and I'll go."

She gently took hold of his undamaged shoulder as he made to rise from the bed. "Derek, it wasn't your fault. I thought I was dreaming, too. We'll caulk it up to tension release after everything the team endured today. No harm done, right?"

"Yeah, sure, tension. Are you going to tell Kevin about this?" He lay back down but met her gaze head on.

"No need," she said.

That got a stunned look from him. "You don't see a need to tell your boyfriend that you nearly slept with another man?"

"Derek, had it been some random man, yes, but you and I have a history. We didn't set out to do what we did. No need to blow it out of proportion by bringing Kevin into this. Let's get back to sleep. We are wheels up in less than four hours."

Derek did indeed lie back down but with as much space between them, as the queen-sized mattress would allow and facing away from her. Penelope watched his back wanting so badly to mold her body to his. She refused to question why she had no compunction about not telling Kevin or why she wasn't questioning why she had been dreaming of Derek instead of her boyfriend to begin with. As she'd said, her and Derek had a long history with many angles to it. Kevin would simply have to accept Derek's permanent place in her heart, nothing more. As she watched Derek sleep and the numbers on the clock tick by she wanted to tuck away the pleasure of his touch and the feel of his kisses as much as her relief that he was alive and with her for another day. Affirmation of life there was another benefit to having Derek as her best friend. Kevin was just going to have to accept what she could give him. "I love you, Derek," she whispered before turning to face the windows and wait for dawn.

TBC…