I still don't own anything – but I have some shiny new earrings. Does that count? No? OMGz WHUT? Damn.

Part ten:

October 21, 2011

"Hey," Reid said from the doorway. "Hotch wants everyone in the conference room in ten minutes. Morgan said I should tell you."

Penelope snorted indelicately. "Of course he did," she said slightly bitterly. "Because all of a sudden, he's not speaking to me, right?" When Reid licked his lips nervously and nodded, she rolled her eyes and sighed. "Spencer, I understand completely that this seems like an about-face, but I don't care if I ever see Derek Morgan again. And he feels the same way."

"Well, regardless of your… dysfunctional relationship status, conference room in a few," Reid repeated. "It must be pretty important if you're getting called in."

Penelope nodded and sighed, going back to work. She'd almost forgotten about the missive, till the intercom buzzed. "Garcia, get in here," Hotch ordered.

She got up and rushed down the corridor, stopping to grab a quick cup of coffee and Danish out of the break room on her way. Everyone stared at her as she came in. "What?" Penelope said defensively around a mouthful. "I'm hungry!"

"Sit down," Hotch ordered.

She huffed but complied, trying not to look at Derek just like he was trying not to look at her.

Rossi cleared his throat. "Something has come up that might undermine the team," he said, glancing at Penelope. "It involves Emily Prentiss."

Penelope paled and pushed the remains of her snack away. Even JJ and Reid noticed that, shifting in their seats and taking a sudden interest because Penelope looked stricken.

The door opened and Emily hobbled in on crutches.

"How did you get here?" Penelope gasped, jumping up and immediately shuffling Emily into her seat.

"I stole a car," Emily said dryly. "Stop fussing over me, Pen. I'm fine." She smiled hesitantly around the room. "Hi, guys."

JJ rounded on Penelope. "YOU KNEW SHE WAS ALIVE AND DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING?"

Rossi stepped between them. "Lay off Garcia, JJ," he said. "I think you'll find that she's not at fault here."

"No, she just didn't see fit to tell anyone that –"

"She was sworn to secrecy," Emily said.

"And since when do you fight Garcia's battles?" JJ snapped, glaring at Rossi.

"You do not want to go down that road, Jen," Rossi said in a very calm tone that meant that he was seething beneath the surface.

Penelope edged toward the door, knowing she didn't want to be there if shit really hit the fan. She was almost to safety when Derek called, "Where do you think you're going, Baby Girl?" His tone was condescending and malicious.

"I don't need to stay here to be slandered, since you've all drawn your conclusions about what happened already," Penelope snapped. "You've made that completely clear since I told you, Morgan."

"Enough!" Hotch yelled. "Everyone sit down and shut up."

"I gave Emily my seat," Penelope said very quietly.

Hotch got up and gestured. "Park it," he ordered. "Because we're going to be in here till we've worked this mess out."

"I brought my pain pills, so I'm good for as long as it takes!" Emily said cheerfully. "And I've got all the time in the world, now."

Penelope sat down and looked across the table at Emily. "Tell them," she ordered. "You tell them everything, Emily. Start at the hospital."

"What, you don't want me to start when you shot Chloe Donaghy?" Emily asked, chuckling. "I didn't think you'd actually have the balls to pull the trigger, Baby Girl –"

"Start in the hospital," Penelope repeated, her voice taking on a steely edge that Emily finally reacted to.

"Okay," the other woman said, her mirth disappearing. "I was extracted from the hospital by the CIA. They faked my death and put me through physical rehabilitation and conditioning so I could go undercover on a mission to take out Chloe Donaghy – the mother of Ian Doyle's son, Declan." She looked down at her knee. "You can all see how well that went."

"I sent emails to her old address, because I needed to think I was talking to someone," Penelope said. "The Agency intercepted them and thought I was a threat to the mission, so they arrested me on trumped up charges. That's when I found out that Emily was alive."

"Penelope was forced to swear an oath to stay silent for the duration of the mission, or she would be forcibly detained until I came out on the flipside," Emily spoke up. "It is NOT her fault. None of this is her doing and she should NOT be blamed for not telling you that I was out there, kicking criminal ass and taking names."

"Are you stoned?" JJ asked, looking over at Emily. "Because like hell I'm not going to hold her responsible for –"

"JJ, I think we need to hear the rest of the story," Reid said. "There's more."

"When I was sick, Emily showed up on my doorstep with Declan and told me to keep him safe, no matter the cost," Penelope said very quietly. "Chloe Donaghy broke into my apartment and I took the shot. Emily came in a couple of minutes later, and… here we are."

"You adopted Declan Doyle yesterday," Rossi said. "You forgot to mention that."

Penelope shrugged. "It's not relevant," she said. "Declan is Emma's brother. I couldn't NOT adopt him at this point."

"I asked her to," Emily said simply. "And, for the record? Don't piss Penelope off. She's a better shot than any of us."

Reid cleared his throat. "I have a couple of questions."

"We'll try to answer them," Emily said.

"Why you?" Reid asked, looking at Emily.

Emily smiled sadly. "I knew names and locations. Even with Doyle dead, the fundamentals of his empire stayed the same. Chloe took over as frontrunner. I got in on the bottom floor, as security. Pretty straightforward operation till the emails almost blew my cover."

Reid nodded, satisfied with her explanation. He looked over at Garcia. "You changed after you were 'arrested'. Is it because you knew Emily was alive?"

Penelope swallowed hard and nodded. "Keeping that secret almost killed me," she said, glancing over at Derek. "I didn't want to hurt anyone. I didn't want to be the one that had to tell any of you that everything you knew was a lie." She caught his gaze and held it for a long second, not liking the simmering anger she saw reflected in his eyes. "I thought so many times that if I told someone, it would be better. But I knew that was a lie. So I kept my mouth shut and started trying to distance myself from you. So when today happened, it wouldn't hurt so fucking much. But that's a lie I told myself because it hurts worse than I ever imagined." She got up and glanced at Hotch. "I need to use the loo. Excuse me."

She fled the room, all but running down the corridor to the restroom. She locked herself inside a stall and promptly lost her shit. She hit the door a couple of times because it was a nice, solid target, then she kicked it for good measure. By then, she was crying.

Tough-girl Garcia was at her breaking point. She wanted to give up, collect her kids, and get the hell out of Dodge. She couldn't deal with the blame that was being heaped on her shoulders, couldn't hide from the anger that Morgan was constantly dishing out in her direction. She had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. And she didn't want Rossi taking one for her because it wasn't fair to him. He didn't sign on for any of this.

Her hands splayed across her belly, and she whimpered, "Oh, little one, what are we going to do?" She swiped away her tears, straightened her skirt and her sweater, then opened the door. She was on her way out of the restroom when she ran straight into JJ.

"Hotch sent me to get you," JJ said.

"I should've run like hell," Penelope commented wryly.

"Emily doesn't want us to blame you, but I can't help it," JJ said. "You could have said something, anything –"

"No," Penelope murmured, "I couldn't." She brushed past JJ and made her way back to the conference room. She got her cup of coffee and the last of her danish from in front of Emily and sat back down in Hotch's seat before she continued her snack.

"Welcome back," Derek said snidely.

Penelope licked her fingers and glared at him. "The peanut gallery can stuff it," she said. "Unless it has something productive to add to the conversation."

"Play nice," Rossi scolded. "Both of you."

Hotch put both his hands down on the table and said, "The question of the hour is 'where do we go from here?' Can any of you put this behind us and get back to work?"

Penelope and Emily raised their hands without hesitation. Rossi paused, then added his hand. Reid took a moment longer than Rossi, but his hand joined them.

"What will it take for you two?" Hotch asked JJ and Derek.

JJ shrugged. "Time," she said.

Derek snorted. "I am never going to be able to understand," he said. "So don't try to make me, Hotch." He pushed back from the table and stood up. "I'd like to go back to work now." He turned to leave, but stopped, turned the other direction, strode over and kissed Penelope roughly, deeply, his fingers tangling in her hair, loosening her messy bun. "One for the road," he muttered before storming out.

Penelope touched her lips and burst into tears, running from the room in shame. Oh god, she really had lost everything! And he'd just cemented it in front of everyone.

January 10, 2012

Penelope headed to work with a spring in her step; it had been so long since she'd felt good that it was a foreign feeling. But the sonogram had gone well and she was armed with pictures of 'Peanut', as Rossi had dubbed his unborn grandkid. It was also the first day she had to wear maternity clothes, so she didn't feel quite so confined.

She'd already spoken to Hotch and Strauss about maternity leave and stressed the importance of being allowed to tell her co-workers in due time.

Apparently, due time was due.

Emily had settled back into the natural order of things and eventually, JJ had forgiven them both. But Derek Morgan was still openly hostile toward Penelope. It broke her heart to see him fawning over Emily like she was the last woman on earth, but maybe it was for the best.

She was strong enough to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders as she took off her coat and hustled into Rossi's office. "I brought you pictures!" Penelope cried. She offered him one of the print-outs with a smile. "It's a girl!"

"She's always gonna be Peanut to me," Rossi said with a smile, drawing her into his arms for a huge hug. "Congratulations, kiddo – she's gorgeous. Like a peanut."

Penelope laughed. "Don't be silly, Daddy," she said, hugging him tighter, not realizing they had an audience.

"Well, isn't this cozy," Derek said coldly.

She spun around and stared at him, stricken. "Derek –"

"Look, I get it," Derek said. "You couldn't wait forever to get into Rossi's pants."

"What?" Penelope spluttered, stepping away from her father. "How can you even – Derek –"

"Morgan, you've overstepped," Rossi growled.

"Don't defend her," Derek spat. "She's brought nothing but trouble to this unit, Rossi. And now that she's fucked you and me, who's next? Hotch? Reid? Maybe JJ, since she's into homewrecking."

"CONFERENCE ROOM, NOW!" Rossi roared. "EVERYONE!"

Penelope jumped a little, surprised at the rage in his tone, not to mention the sheer volume of the proclamation. "I –"

"You, too, Kitten," Rossi said, lowering his tone. "It's about time we told them, isn't it?"

"Which part?" she asked weakly as Rossi picked up the sonogram pictures.

"All of it," Rossi replied. "C'mon." He offered her his arm. "When I'm done, no one is going to fuck with you again. I will shoot them myself."

When they got to the conference room, everyone was already seated around the table. They were all confused as to why they were there except for Morgan. He glared at them as they walked in, then reached for Emily's hand with its simple diamond ring on it.

Penelope's heart sank into her toes. So he'd replaced her; she already knew that. But she didn't expect it to hurt quite so much.

"As most of you have noticed, Penelope and I have grown close in the last few months," Rossi said, his arm reassuringly comforting around her shoulders. "But it's not because I'm a ladykiller or because we're sleeping together. Penelope is my daughter."

Reid and Hotch both had frowns on their lips. Emily dropped her cup of coffee, spilling it. JJ looked shocked. And Derek? Derek's face hardened into stone.

"Are you serious?" Emily asked.

Penelope nodded. "Yeah," she said very quietly.

Rossi hugged her shoulders tighter. "It's still a new thing for us and we're trying to build a relationship on a shifting foundation," he said. "Her mother was bipolar, so we have a lot of trust issues; if I'd have known that Cassandra had a kid, I would've challenged for custody, but the woman went into the wind and…" He looked down at Penelope. "And I missed 30 years with my daughter because I walked away and went back to Caroline. Maybe that was stupid. I don't know. All I know is that I have a beautiful, intelligent, loving daughter who has embraced me with open – if slightly reserved – arms, and three incredible grandchildren."

Penelope smiled shakily as he held up the sonogram pictures and all but waved them at the team before putting them on the table. "Dave, I thought I was supposed to announce that I'm pregnant," she said quietly. "Not grandpa."

Rossi laughed and kissed the top of her head. "Sorry, Kitten. I was on a roll."

"I'll say," JJ said, her eyes wide as she looked at the pictures. "Congratulations, PG."

Emily squealed as she got up and hugged both Penelope and Rossi, completely oblivious to the fact that neither of the targets of her affection returned the gesture. "I'm so glad you found your dad, BG – and you're PG! I'm going to be a godmom again!" Emily enthused.

Penelope's smile was very weak as she looked over at Derek. "I may be PG, but it was very much NC-17," she said very quietly to Emily. "And I see congratulations are in order for you, too," she whispered.

Emily looked down at her hand, then waved it dismissively. "It's kind of a probationary thing," she explained. "We're trying it again. Derek's mom is coming down for the weekend and –"

Hotch's voice cut through. "Garcia, I know I told you this before, but now it has more meaning: congratulations. From what I've seen so far, I can report to Strauss that you and Dave being assigned to the same team will not affect the bottom line of productivity and morale."

Emily backed off and went back to her seat, only to turn to Morgan and say, "I think I'm not ready for a baby and a white picket fence."

"Me either," Derek replied, glancing up at Penelope. His face was unreadable, but his eyes were full of pain. "We should wait till –" His hands wrapped Emily's tenderly.

Penelope couldn't take it anymore. She saved her sanity and shrugged her father off and walked out. JJ followed her at a run, but Penelope was already collecting her coat and purse from Rossi's office. "Tell Hotch I'm taking a personal day," Penelope said. "I can't stand there and watch them being all freaking… lovey. It makes me sick. She's my best friend, but I can't talk to her anymore without feeling like I've –" Her face crumpled for a moment as she tried to regain her composure.

"Is the baby his?" JJ asked very quietly, hugging her friend. "You don't have to say yes – I can tell just by the look on your face. I'm sorry. Are you going to tell him?"

"He's happy with her," Penelope whimpered. "Why would I hurt them? Why would I hurt my best friend and her – my – Derek."

JJ smiled a little. "I think you just proved why," she whispered. "You couldn't decide if he was hers or yours."

"He left me," Penelope whispered. "I told him Emily was alive and he left my apartment and the next day, he – he was a different person. He was so full of anger and hurt and – the next thing I know, they're back together and how can I ruin their chance at happiness?" She sighed and rubbed her belly, trying to calm down Peanut, who was kicking hard. "I need to go, JJ. I'm sorry about the word vomit – I didn't mean to just dump on you."

"Figure out what you want, and go for it," JJ said firmly. "It's Derek Morgan – don't be wishy-washy. When you get in the game, play for keeps."

"I'm not the girl that men see across a crowded room and write sonnets about," Penelope said, shrugging into her coat. "Why ever would he want me now that he has her?" With that, she turned and walked away.

She didn't have much face left to save. She'd let her heart reside on her sleeve for far too long.