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"God, your car is going to be completely soaked," Penelope muttered as Derek unlocked his beat up car. "Really, I'm super sorry about this again."

Smiling at her, he shook his head. "I told you not to worry about it," he laughed, opening the door for her. He held up his finger to have her hold on for a moment. Leaning into his car, he pulled out a sweatshirt and a huge throw blanket from the bottom of his back seat. "Here, the blanket is in my car for when my sister, Desiree is in here with me. She gets cold way easy." Looking down at the ground, he added, "I'll…well, I'll look the other way if you wanna…"

Seeing her blush and her mouth form a small "o" in surprise, she stammered, "Oh!" A small cough escaped her lips and she nodded swiftly. Biting her lip, she looked at him and instructed, "Okay, unzip me please."

He paused for a moment and stared at her. She wanted him to unzip her? Blinking a few times, he swallowed hard and nodded. "Uh, sure," he mumbled as she turned around. He stepped forward and hesitantly put his fingers on the clasp to unhook it. Pulling the zipper down, he couldn't resist letting his fingers trail down her skin. It was chilly from having fallen in the fountain, but it was silky soft, like the finest muslin cloth. As his fingers trailed down her spine, he watched as she noticeably shivered, whether from his touch or from being slightly chilly, he didn't know. He wanted to keep touching her and feel the wonderful softness that was part of her.

When the zipper was completely down — and it was all too soon for him — he reluctantly released her. He never wanted to stop touching her skin. "Okay," he said in a choked voice after taking his hands away from her back. "All set."

She hurriedly pulled the sweatshirt over her head as he stood gaping at her beautiful form. He scolded himself for not turning away, but she was covered up so quickly that The sweatshirt was big enough on her that it almost went down to the middle of her thigh. She held her dress on one arm and laughed at his longing expression. Apparently she didn't see his look as anything more than perplexed, though. She giggled in amusement at him and asked, "So…do you wanna get going?"

He nodded stiffly and reluctantly drew his eyes away from her luscious form. "Right," he managed, tossing his jacket in the backseat. She sat down in the passenger seat, gently placing her dress in the back beside his jacket. As he was going back around to the driver's seat, he took his shirt off and threw it in the back with the rest of their soaked clothing. When he shut his door and turned on the car, he glanced over at her and asked, "Alright, where am I taking you?"

She met his eyes and said, "You know where Honey Creek is?"

"Er, no," he said. "Which way do I go?"

"Left out of here," she directed.

He put the car in drive and started in the direction she told him. Glancing sideways at her, he said, "So, uh, you were dancing with Sam from my grade…you guys an item?" He was desperately hoping the answer was no.

She smirked and moved some of her hair from her face. She glanced over at him and cocked a brow at her. "Why do you ask?" she laughed.

That didn't sound promising. Gritting his teeth, he elaborated. "Well, you know, you were dancing together…and if you're dating, does he treat you right? 'Cause if he doesn't treat you right, I could — I could, I don't know, beat the shit out of him. Or —"

Cutting him off, she murmured, "First, you're gonna take a right up there at Sargent. Second, no. Sam and I were just dancing. We have a class together. We worked on a project for it, and we just started talking after that." She met his eyes and smiled softly. "But it's sweet that you're concerned if a guy were treating me right." She was silent for a moment. "You know, do you want me to beat the shit out of Jordan for treating you the way she does?"

It was his turn to bark a laugh. "Naw, I'll figure out a way to —"

"You know Derek, I still don't know how you put up with that crap," she interrupted. "You deserve way better than her! I should be beating her ass for being awful to you." She huffed angrily. "God, you know I saw her harping at you earlier this week! You don't deserve that at all. You deserve someone who you can be happy with and doesn't treat you like a walking doormat!" She huffed and kept going, not giving him a chance to say anything. "I just don't understand how she can treat you like that either. I mean, is that just how she's programmed? You shouldn't have to — oh, take another right up here — urgh! I just wish she would realize that you're a great guy and she's lucky to have you." She crossed her arms over her chest and grumbled something incoherent.

He was silent for a moment. No one, except for maybe his sisters, Hotch and JJ, ever spoke so vehemently about wanting to see him treated better by the women he dated. She was right. He did deserve better than a girl like Jordan. Why couldn't he allow himself to dump Jordan and date someone he did deserve? After another few minutes of silence and her telling him where to turn, he finally found his tongue.

"Listen, I know Jordan is a bitch, but right now she's…she's what I'm looking for," he said lamely.

Apparently, this was not the answer she was looking for.

She looked at him like he'd gone completely insane. "Seriously, Derek? What is wrong with you?" she demanded incredulously. "You're looking for someone who treats you like complete shit? I get that we're in high school, but you can't possibly be happy like this!"

Suddenly he felt a rush of anger go through him. He didn't care how much he liked her at that moment. He was pissed that she was making assumptions about his life when she didn't know the half of what he'd gone through. Not everyone lived perfectly content lives the way she did. Not everyone could just be happy about with everything. Sometimes you had to settle with being content. His jaw clenched and he hissed angrily, "Penelope, you don't know anything about my life. Don't try and make judgements about how I live it."

"I care about you being happy, but apparently you don't give two shits about it," she growled.

He snorted. "Yeah, well, I don't know why you should care," he snapped. "We hardly know each other."

She rolled her eyes. "Forgive me for being concerned," she muttered sarcastically.

"Yeah, well take this tone as me not caring and your cue to butt the hell out!"

After that they didn't speak at all. He noticed her street coming up on the left, so he put the turn signal on before she could say anything about turning. Sure, he agreed with her about Jordan and he wouldn't mind so much if she were just going on about her, but he wasn't going to listen to her running commentary on how he needed to change his life. So he focussed his attention on the darkened street in front of him and didn't pay any attention to her.

They sat in silence for another extended length of time as they drove down the length of her street. She spoke after another ten minutes of tense quiet between the two of them. In a soft, almost choked voice, she added, "My house is the next one on the right."

In stark contrast to how he usually felt with her, he was happy that they wouldn't be speaking in a few minutes. He didn't like where this conversation was headed, and the sooner it could be ended, the better it would be for both of them. Pulling into the driveway, he stopped the car in front of her family's house and put it in park. He stared ahead out the windshield, not looking at her. Penelope started rustling around in the back seat for her dress. He didn't glance over until his sweatshirt, now slightly damp from being on her wet body, landed on his lap. She was sliding herself back into the damp dress and he said, "You could have kept the sweat —"

She cut him off and glared sharply at him. "I didn't want to keep yet another article of clothing of yours," she said coolly. "I still have your leather jacket…but don't worry, I'll give it back on Monday." Then before he could say anything in response, she slammed the door to his car and stormed into her house, slamming that door, too.

Rubbing his forehead tiredly, Derek shook his head and huffed angrily. He'd have to figure out a way to fix this spat that was going on between them, but right then he just wanted to stew in his anger, maybe knock a few punches out against his father's old punching bag in the basement. Putting the car into reverse, he started back out the driveway and thought about the ways he would avoid thinking about Penelope.