Previously on Not Anymore:

Without meaning to or even trying to hold himself back, Morgan placed a soft kiss on her crown. It was barely a whisper of a kiss, but he knew it was enough.

"I know baby girl, I know. It's the memories." He whispered against her hair as she came into his arms without a word of protest.

"It will always be the memories."

Quietly, with Clooney following his trail, Morgan led Garcia into his bedroom, silently promising to hold her through the night and protect her from her fears...

If not their memories.

...

Morgan stared at Garcia as she made herself her morning coffee while simultaneously avoiding his gaze. She was trying to distance herself from him, and he did not like it. He was fighting himself to keep quiet and not force her to look at him or acknowledge his presence. The reminder that they both needed time was a mantra in his head, albeit a fruitless one. Still, he contented himself with watching her flit about his kitchen. The morning sunlight streamed through the small window above the kitchen, creating a halo around her red auburn hair and lighting up her pale skin. She looked whimsical, peaceful almost, and had it not been for the fact that Morgan had held her while she slept through nightmares last night, he would have believed she truly was at peace.

Too bad he didn't.

"Would you please stop that?" Her quiet voice cut through his reverie of his former friend.

His dark eyes jerked up to meet hers for the first time that morning.

"Stop what?" he asked, confusion wrinkling his brow. As far as he was aware he hadn't done anything so far to annoy her.

Garcia let out an exasperated sigh as she added sugar to her coffee. "You're staring at me. I don't like it." She told him simply and began to stir the coffee in her bright pink cup.

Morgan chuckled, forcing himself to keep his voice light. "You don't? Baby girl, I think I'm insulted. If my memory serves me correctly you used to love it when I looked at you."

Garcia blushed, avoiding his gaze again. You are absolutely right, but that was before you shoved me out of your life and made me realize how much of a fool I had made of myself pining over you. She thought darkly, annoyed he would make a joke out of how she felt.

Morgan frowned when he realized she didn't take his comment lightly. Was she ashamed of those memories they shared? He wondered. The very thought made him grind his teeth in betrayal. He had hoped that this morning would be one of peace and a slow reunion of their friendship, but if she wanted to be bitter over a simple look he was fine with having their fight happen sooner rather than later.

"I apologize, baby girl. I didn't think looking at you would bother you so much." He grumbled, taking a sip of his coffee.

Garcia's annoyance shot up another notch. Her heart couldn't take much more of those cute pet names he kept showering on her. It made her feel angry, hurt, and dirty for him to call her baby girl. She wasn't that to him, despite his incessant repeating otherwise.

A thick, heavy silence reigned between them, ruining the light mood the morning had brought with them. Finally, Morgan sighed as he realized it was no use to be angry with her and brood. The only way to repair their rocky road was to do some talking and not avoid it.

"Baby girl, are we going to talk about last night?" He whispered, silently observing how she stiffened at her nickname.

Garcia was silent for a moment as she continued to stir her coffee. "There isn't really anything to talk about. I was tired. You drove me to your house. Clooney scared the crap out of me and jumped all over me and then you took me to bed. To sleep." She emphasized that last part with a minute trace of bitterness. It hadn't occurred to her before that moment that she had probably wanted more.

Morgan took a slow sip of his coffee. "Okay. The fact that you let me hold you all night in my bed is definitely not something that needs to be addressed." He drawled. "Nor do we need to address the fact that we have been avoiding each other for weeks, hurting each other incessantly, you slapped me in a bar, you want a damn transfer, or that we are both standing in front of a tattered friendship that used to be as strong as steel." His voice rose a little at the last part and their gazes clashed.

Garcia said nothing, and Morgan sighed in exasperation. He was determined to get her to talk to him, but she was obviously just as determined to avoid that. Fine, he decided, he would table the discussion for later. Instead, he was going to approach a different, yet potentially equally sensitive subject.

"Penelope, why are you so tired all the time?" He asked and smiled in amusement as she jerked her head up, a surprised look on her face.

For a second she had nothing to say and grappled with what she should tell him. As she stared at him for a moment she realized that it was probably best to tell him the truth. He had that particular look in his eyes that told her he was not going to let this conversation drop.

"I uh...I've just been working a lot...and with all the stress from the cases...I've just not been sleeping well." She hedged and knew by the narrowing of his eyes that he expected the details.

"We haven't had that many cases. Are you still doing victim counseling or something?" He prodded gently.

She nodded, praying this conversation would stay neutral. "Yeah...plus with all these budget cuts, technical analysts are limited and so I've been helping other teams."

Morgan scowled. "You've been assigned to other teams? Since when? I haven't been notified of that." The anger in his tone made her annoyance level rise.

"Well that isn't my fault, besides these teams aren't teams like you all...there...sorta like..." she paused as she grappled for an appropriate term, "they are like mobile cell teams. Whenever something bad pops up in an area, they are activated and are sent to deal with the problem on site. Red cells, I think they are called. Anyway, its just because BAU teams such as you all's aren't equipped to respond to every single case and some of them aren't necessarily serial murderers." She explained.

Morgan frowned and was silent for a moment, taking it all in. Now that she mentioned it, he had recalled picking up some conversation about these new cells that would be on the go all the time and ready to immediately respond in order to help ease the burden of other teams. It just bothered him that Garcia was working with someone other than him and that it was causing her to be overworked.

"Are you sure you should be doing something like this, baby girl? Not that you aren't equipped, but I just don't want to see you worked into the ground." He said.

Garcia shrugged. "Who else is going to do it? I have to help where I can...besides, I like being busy." She lied.

At that Morgan chuckled, "As if, baby girl. You hate being busy. You prefer eating ice cream and having fun to dealing with gore and you know it."

Garcia was suddenly annoyed that he still believed he knew her or that he believed he still had the right to call her pet names. She wasn't that person.

"Baby girl?" Morgan interjected into her thoughts, concerned he had said something wrong as she suddenly went into deep thought.

"Would you stop calling me that?" She snapped, sick to death of the constant reminder he was giving her. "I'm not that person to you. Not anymore." She mumbled, refusing to acknowledge his speech. "My name is Penelope Garcia."

Morgan stood, fire lighting his brown eyes, angry that a simple conversation had suddenly taken such a quick downturn. "I know your damned name, Penelope. You do not have to tell me twice." He sighed, praying for patience. "Why the hell are you making this so difficult Pen? I know I messed up and I've handled our friendship badly, but I'm trying to fix it here and I don't understand why you are so hell bent on not letting me do that!"

Garcia gritted her teeth. "You think its that easy Morgan? That you can just realize how much of a jerk you've been and waltz back in and swoop me off my feet to be your friend again?"

"No, I realize this type of thing takes time, but hell baby girl, it doesn't matter how much time I have if you won't let my foot in the door." He responded. He was tired of talking about this. He wanted his friend back and he thought he had made that clear.

Garcia felt her eyes get hot with unshed tears and she cursed herself not to cry. This was too important to show how weak she really was inside for him.

"I asked you stop calling me that. I'm not your baby girl." She whispered, staring at the swirls in her coffee, its color reminder her of the man before her and all the appropriate nicknames she showered on him.

This time, Derek didn't deny himself. Moving around the island that separated them, he gathered up Garcia in his arms, kissing her crown of auburn.

"Yes, Garcia, you are. I know I've done a bang up job of showing that but please don't ever think that you are anything but my baby girl or my best friend. I should never have pushed you away like that or made you feel you were anything less than important than me. I was caught up and I'm so sorry for that, but we're friends Garcia. Friends. And that means something to me." He said as he pulled away to stare into eyes that were wrought with pain and wet with tears.

Garcia pulled away from his arms then, needing space between them so she could breathe. Friends. Of course that was what they were. God forbid he see her as anything but the heavy tuba player computer geek with no love life and no chance of being worth his time. Garcia's jaw ached with the force with which she clenched it shut, but it was that or scream at Morgan and she had had enough of that game.

"Garcia?" Morgan's concerned voice drew her back to the present and she forced herself to cool down and take a step back.

"I'm going to take a shower. I'm assuming my clothes are still in the drawers?" She asked, schooling her features to be blank.

For a moment, Derek was thrown off guard by her expression before he nodded. It was clear that she was not going to yield to him about this. He just couldn't figure out why. The hurt in her face made his chest ache, but he had no way to figure out what was causing her hurt beyond the fact that it was him.

"Garcia, you can't run from this forever." He told her as she turned to walk out of the room.

His words stopped her cold and she said the only thing she could. The truth. "I love you, Derek Morgan. There is no running from what that does to me."

Without a backward glance or further explanation, she left him alone in the kitchen with their coffee cups still full and cold.

...

Morgan sat down heavily on his favorite couch, mulling Garcia's words. He was guilty and deserved her anger, but why had she said those words? A part of him was relieved that she still loved him, but the thought that those feelings had become an inescapable burden to Garcia ruined that pleasure. The fact that she was hurting because of her feelings for him only hardened his resolve. He knew for sure was that he loved Garcia and wanted their relationship to be repaired. He would do anything to keep from her hurting again or running from him. In truth, he loved Garcia more than any person he had ever met outside of his family. She was an explosive combination of fire and tenderness. He didn't forget who he came to when a case was too bad for the nightmares or who he shared movie nights with. The night he told her he loved her, he meant it. Though now he was beginning to wonder if his love, and hers too, reached beyond the boundaries of friendship.

He was not a clueless man. He readily acknowledged there was an intense chemistry between them that had been kept at bay with the harmless teasing. Morgan was also very aware of his attraction and rising need for Garcia, and before he had met Tamara and Garcia had entered into a relationship with Lynch, he had been considering on acting on it. He cursed himself for not acting sooner, realizing that was his first mistake. Letting their friendship go on in the way it had would have never worked. Eventually, he would have hurt Garcia or she would have moved on, as was the case now.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when Garcia reentered the living room, dressed in a simple navy blue dress that hit her at her knee and red pumps. Suddenly, Morgan noticed something he had missed the night before.

"You've lost weight." He blurted, immediately feeling like an awkward school boy ruining his first conversation with a girl.

Suprisingly, Garcia did not get annoyed at his comment. Instead she chuckled, though it brushed on bitterness. "Yep. I'm a little ol' size 10 now. What an accomplishment!" she cheered sarcastically. In truth she didn't like the fact that she had lost weight, not really. It was the product of too little sleep, not enough eating, and the ever constant stress. Most people would enjoy this side effect, but Penelope Garcia had never been ashamed of her curves.

Morgan shrugged. "I think you look good."

She snorted. "Of course you do." This time there was no mistaking the bitterness and Morgan couldn't help but bristle.

"Hey now. I'm not as shallow as you think." He argued as he approached her from where he was sitting on the couch. "I've never thought there was anything wrong with the way you look. But if you want me to admit how I really feel—"

"Oh please do. The suspense is killing me." Garcia interjected teasingly.

"I love your curves. I have always loved how curvy you are, how different you are from other women. It was nice being close to someone who didn't talk about the need to lose weight or fit in."

Garcia stiffened as she stared into his handsome face, mulling over his sincerity. The jaded part of her told her he was just feeding her a line to make up for their argument in the kitchen, but the part that used to be his friend, a part she had long thought too weak to speak, told her he was sincere...and that scared her more than anything.

"Garcia, a man can get a little wounded with you flitting away from the conversation the way you do." A heart stopping smile graced his face as he brought Garcia back to the present. "You know it's alright for me to pay you a compliment. It's not as if I intend to snatch it back."

Garcia said nothing to him. What was there for her to say? Little by little he was showing her how much he wanted their friendship to be repaired, but it only made the battle with herself that much more painful. A part of her wanted to yield to him and return to their normal routine, but another wanted more and was tired of being second and taking second best. She wanted to be loved, but didn't think Morgan would ever be offering the type of love she craved.

And didn't that just suck.

...

I have never updated this quickly, I'm commending myself. Lol. Anyway, I know it doesn't progress to far into the plot but its almost over! Three or four chapters and we'll reach the conclusion for my favorite tv pair. I hope you are enjoying this folks. I write for you...and for me because I still don't know what happens yet and my curiosity demands me to satisfy it! Love ya'll. Read and Review please!

Ps- The red cell thing is from the new criminal minds series, I thought I should put it in there sooner just for explanatory and background reasons. Don't get mad!