Disclaimer: I don't own a thing! *sobs*
A/N:So he proposed... yeah... here's more!
ALSO, Thank you for everyone that voted for me on the FanFic awards =)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This Time Won't You Save Me? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Derek watched Penelope as she sat on the sand and looked out at the sea; he had been beyond terrified when he woke up that morning to find her side of the bed stone cold and her clothes gone. He hadn't wanted to worry anyone, and he was just about to give up and call for Hotch's help when he noticed her sitting alone in the morning light.
He saw her sleeve covered hands come up and rub over her face and called it time to go to her. He didn't want her to feel smothered but since the day before on the bridge, things had changed and it wasn't an entirely good change at that.
"I was waiting for you to come and join me," Penelope spoke up, "or are you still not talking to me?"
Derek's heart broke at the sound of her voice, the roughness to her tone and he realised what an ass he'd been to her the night before.
"I get it, I hurt you, but you need to just look at it from my point from view," she didn't once turn to look at him, just continued to look out at the sea, a place she hadn't been to in years to just unwind, "I had my reasons, but you never wanted to know as soon as I told you know you shut down."
"It hurt," was all Derek managed to tell her at that moment.
"Well it hurt to be asked," she told him and put her head down as the fell, "to be asked to be married and only have a couple of weeks of it."
Derek sat next to her then, and took her hand in his, keeping their bodies close to one another.
Penelope looked up at him then, and he immediately saw how sore her eyes looked, how puffy they were from over crying and he was left to wonder just how long she'd been out here, mulling over what had happened.
"I don't want you to be the man that married the dying girl, but you wouldn't let me tell you that, no you just ignored me, the moment we got off that bridge and came back, you allowed JJ to come with me to the room, you allowed Emily to wake me up for food and then I sat on the end of the table with you as far away as possible and then to top it all, when I excused myself to go to bed, you never even followed like you usually do. That hurt me Derek."
"I was trying to make you someone's wife, Baby Girl, and when you said no, I didn't take it well. There's no one else I'd ask that of, no one."
"I want to marry you, believe me I do, but I don't want to make you a husband and then a widow in the same month, that isn't fair."
"Fair on who? It would make me happy to have you as Mrs Morgan even if it were for just one moment." Derek told her and smiled a little, "you told me to grasp the moment as though I was going to lose it tomorrow and I am losing you, Penelope, and it's breaking me to come to terms with it and I just, selfishly, wanted you as my wife, so I could know what it felt like to have it before I lose my opportunity. I don't see it as me being the widow at the end, or the man that married the girl that's dying; I'd be the luckiest man alive to marry you."
Penelope was fully crying now, before it'd just been occasional tears as her thoughts processed but now, she understood it all.
"I shut down last night, and JJ told us she wanted just a little time with you alone, we thought that was it, and I was coming to get you up, but Emily wanted to come and do it, and well at dinner, I tried to sit with you, but everyone got there first and I was pushed back, I don't begrudge them, I get you in my arms nightly, I gotta let them have some of you as well and as for going up, my head's messed up right now, and I didn't see you go until it was too late, and when I got up to the room, you were already fast asleep and I didn't want to wake you up so I just got undressed and climbed into bed with you."
Penelope sucked in a deep breath, "I'm sorry." She sobbed and he just pulled her into his arms, "I'm sorry I was angry with you."
"Hey now, it's okay, Sweetness, we've sorted it, but just realise that I will never, ever back down on the marriage thing."
"Gimme chance to get my head around it."
"I'll be waiting a lifetime." He told her and kissed the top of her head and just held her in the sun light, keeping her close as they sat in silence.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This Time Won't You Save Me? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Penelope looked at her old house and felt her nerves bubble. She knew it wasn't owned by any Garcia anymore, but she just needed to see it. She turned to Derek and took his hand.
"We need to meet them," she told him, she'd only emailed, not having the courage to pick up the phone and now they were waiting at a restaurant for her, the team were joining them about 20 minutes after, allowing Penelope to take Derek for support.
"We'll be there before you know it, Kitten," Rossi told her and watched her smile.
They then separated and headed off, Penelope and Derek finding they were much too early, so asked for a table ready for when her brothers. Penelope and Derek sat on the same side by the window and Penelope laid her head on his shoulder.
"You feeling okay?"
"Like always," she deflected, "I love you," she told him and went to his kiss his cheek but he turned and kissed her on the lips.
Penelope moaned in pleasure at the intensity of the kiss, enjoying every movement of Derek's lips on her. Pulling apart Penelope just rested her forehead against his and smiled, she'd never grow bored of those kisses.
She felt eyes on her and looked up, four men looking at her, and she sat up straight, feeling her heart beating hard in her throat immediately.
"Hey," she said and they all smiled awkwardly and sat down without a word. "Erm, I'm really sorry about this being last minute." She said nervously, her hands on the table top, wringing together nervously, "I appreciate it."
"What is this about?" Penelope looked up at her brother Carl, the one she got along with the most when she was younger, the one that looked the most menacing now.
Derek's hand slipped onto Penelope's thigh, he just ran his hand over it, calming her the best he could.
"I just needed to see you, tell you something," She tried, feeling slightly calmer, "I-I..."
She stumbled and she decided to just be up front and blurt it out, except the waitress came over to take their order, Penelope watched her brothers as they ordered, they hadn't changed much, their hair a little greyer, they're skin a little more worn, their voices just a little deeper but they all were so familiar, like she hadn't left at all.
Her heart sank in that moment.
"Miss," she heard.
"Pen," Derek prompted her, "whatcha want to drink, Baby Girl?"
Penelope shook her head slightly, coming back down to reality, "Oh, erm, sorry," she apologised, them all watching her intently, "Can I just get a glass of water, please."
"Of course," she said, took Derek's order before leaving them.
"Penelope are you okay?" Another of the brother's asked, Penelope just stared at him, could see the sun glinting off of the ring on his finger. "You looked a little faraway."
Penelope's lips tightened in a smile, "I-I'm fine," she lied and tried to keep it real but it didn't work, her shoulders slumped, "I just needed to see you one last time."
Each of their faces knitted with confusion.
She felt slightly ashamed as the admittance came, "I'm dying." It took her a couple of moments to actually look up at them, them all just staring at them, "I'm sorry, I just needed to make things right, tell you why I left."
"So you think that because you're dying we're just going to take you back?" Carl spoke up, his tone heated, "you run off all those years ago, and now that you're dying that's it, we take you back."
"Hey man, hear her out." Derek defended, not liking the way he was speaking at Penelope.
Carl snapped to look at Derek, "I don't know who you are, but this matters lie with us and her."
"Look, she just wants to make this right, it's obvious you hold a lot of hurt over this but just give her a chance."
Penelope sniffed away the tears, "He's right, Derek," She said and grabbed her bag to put some money out for their drinks, "I told you this wasn't right, it wasn't fair, I was right." She wiped her face, and pushed her chair back. "Like I said, I'm sorry."
"Baby Girl..."
"C'mon Handsome, I'm tired and wanna pack to go home." She sucked a deep breath in, "You don't have to worry about me contacting you again, I just needed to see you one last time."
No one argued, they just watched her leave.
Derek shook his head and grabbed his jacket and followed her out.
"What hotel are you staying at?" One of them asked.
"Andy you can't be serious." Carl groaned, "she left us."
"She had every reason too," Andy said and looked at Derek, "Please, if she won't come back in I wanna came and see her."
Derek went outside, and got Penelope who warily came back in and sat down. Her eyes glassy from the new onslaught of tears. She went to object but slowly came in, her hands wrapped around Derek's.
"Carl, you can leave if you don't feel right being here." Andy told him, "but me, Joe and Sam want to be here."
They then all looked at Penelope.
"I was young and naive back then." Penelope told them tearfully, "I didn't know what to do or who to turn to, you had each other, I was on my own, I just had to leave." She rambled out hastily, "And then as the time passed, I found it harder to come back and get in contact, but last week I received some news and I realised I needed to fix things before I died with regrets."
"So you really are dying?" The oldest of them all, Joe, asked. "It's not a mistake."
"I had scans and tests, I have several inoperable brain tumours," she shrugged at them, "I could've had chemo, but I wanted to have some control, if I'd gone down that route, I wouldn't have gotten here."
"How long do you have left?"
"Couple of weeks, 2 months top." Penelope informed, and kept her focus on Carl, his demeanour softening, "The next time you hear, it'll be that I've..." She couldn't finish the word so just sucked in a deep breath and calmed herself a little, "It'll be details of the funeral, that's if you want to come."
"We should've come to you." Sam told her regretfully, "I mean we could've found you, I mean, we could've done something to find out what you'd done all this time."
Penelope smiled a little, they all started to ask her questions, and she in turn asked them, finding out that two of them were married, three had children and Carl was still the one looking for the right woman.
Now Penelope really wished she hadn't left it all these years to come back.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This Time Won't You Save Me? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A/N:Wouldn't wanna go with any regrets eh?
Sorry for no instant marriage!