The cab dropped him off in front of the address Reid gave him. He hadn't been this nervous in his life before; he took a deep breath making his way to the door. This was going to be his one shot to fix everything, if it went well he'd be bringing his baby girl back with him. He decided his best course of action would be to catch her off guard so she couldn't run. He placed the key in the door and turned it.


After Dan sent her home she decided she'd make dinner for the team. It served two purposes: one feeding her family and two distraction from what was bound to happen with Morgan. She grabbed her phone and sent a text to let everyone.

I'm making dinner for all of you. Come by around 7; invite Morgan.

She was stirring the sauce when she heard the door open.

"Boy Wonder, what are you doing back so soon? I just text you to tell you I was making everyone dinner and …." She stopped when she saw Morgan walk into her kitchen.

"Hey Baby Girl, you making dinner for everyone?" He walked over to the stunned Penelope. Once he was right in front of her he grabbed the spoon from her hand and brought it to his mouth to taste. "Mmmm tastes good, Sweetness. "

She was frozen. After not seeing him and than ignoring him she didn't know what to do.

"Penelope?"

She coughed, "Yes?" She tried to move as far from him as possible.

"We need to talk."

She didn't say anything at first, just walked over to the fridge grabbed the wine that was chilling and a beer. He watched her movements trying to analyze her. With a rather large wine glass in hand she handed him the beer and walked out of the room. He followed letting her lead the way.

Once they were in the living room, she put down her glass on the coffee table and motioned for him to take a seat while she turned off the radio that had been playing. Once turning off the radio she made her way over to the couch sitting in the furthest spot from him.

He looked around admiring the décor. "This place looks amazing, Baby girl. You've been able to do so much in such a short time."

She took a gulp of her wine. "Yeah, Spencer came out one weekend and helped me. We spent the whole four days getting me moved in and decorating the rooms. Rossi found this place for me because he wanted there to be enough rooms if everyone came to stay at the same time." She knew she was rambling but she couldn't help it.

He cleared his throat, "When did Reid come?" He knew the answer already. He was going to have another talk with their resident genius soon.

She looked into her wine willing it to give her strength. "A couple of nights after I left I called him upset, we spoke for hours. Once I finally fell asleep he booked a trip for that weekend. He was and is my savor." She looked up at him with a sad smile.

"I noticed that you call him a lot. I hear his phone go off all throughout the day." He inched closer to her.

"Yeah, sometimes I just needed someone to talk to and others were updates on his mom. I started going to see her when I first got here." She stood up to move to the chair away from him.

He groaned internally, he knew this was going to be difficult.

"Do you like Unsolved Crimes?" He was trying to make small talk not sure how to start the conversation.

"Yeah, it's okay. It's not high paced like before and it's uber relaxed. It's nice to work with just Dan and Randy; we get along really well. It's not you guys, but it'll do."

"So Randy, he's a good friend of yours?" He stood up and moved to the spot on the couch closes to her chair.

"He was so kind to me when I got here. He took me under his wing- sort of speak. He loves the outdoors and adventure and wants to take me on some trail…"

He looked at her with his eyebrow raised.

"I know me hiking… not so much." They both laughed.

She cleared her throat needing to get this conversation over with. "So how's Savanna?" She looked back into her glass praying her heart could handle whatever he was going to tell her.

"Why didn't you talk to me? Why'd you have to leave the letter? I thought I meant more to you than for you to be such a coward and leave when I was out of town."

A single tear fell from her eye "I run Derek, it's what I do. I ran when my parents died, I ran when I was hurt, I'd rather run than have to witness whatever I caused." She took a deep breath looking into his eyes. "I'm sorry I left the way I did, but I'm not sorry I left. I was living a lie in Virginia. Everyday I would fall deeper and deeper into a hole that I couldn't find a way out of. I don't expect you to understand most people don't. It hurt being near you to the point that I couldn't breath." She looked away willing herself not to cry, "Excuse me, I need to go stir the sauce." She moved to the kitchen trying to distance herself.

He followed her everyone move. "You could have told me, Penelope. I would have listened."

She turned to look at him. "And what good would that have done, Derek? I come to you and tell you I'm so in love with you that it hurts when I'm with you. You have Savanna, Derek. The women of your dreams…" she turned back to her sauce and whispered "I was just the nerdy best friend who fell in love with the wrong man."

"Had." He said firmly. She looked up at him her eyebrow cocked "You said have it's had, Savanna's gone."

She threw her head back looking up at the ceiling. "Oh God, now I've ruined the best thing you've ever had." She turned to look at him. "I'm so sorry, Derek. I didn't mean to hurt you or ruin your chance at happiness."

"My chance at happiness wasn't ruined when she left Penelope. My chance of happiness was ruined when you left. I died inside when I read that letter, it felt l like my whole world crashed and there was nothing I could do. No matter what I did, I couldn't get to you. You just cut me out, but it wasn't like you cut everyone out it was just me. You would call them all the time and I'd be left wondering if you were okay. I was angry at the team for not telling me, I was angry at you for leaving, but I was most angry at myself for letting you go…" She looked at him confused. "I never saw what was right in front of me. You were always my rock my-"

She cut him off. "Derek, you need to stop right there. I don't want to hear this. I won't sit hear and listen to you tell me you never knew or never looked at me that way. You forget that I know you and you just want everything to go back to normal. I can't do that Derek; I can't go back to living a lie. I need to move on and live my life."

Her words cut him to the core. "Penelope listen to me, it's always been you. Who did I go to in the middle of the night? Who did I go to when I was hurting or scared? Can't you see it's always been you? Even if I couldn't admit it out loud, subconsciously I knew it was you." He moved fast to trap her against the counter. "When you were around I'd do whatever I could to keep you from leaving. I would drag on our movie nights by placing move after movie on hoping you would get so tired you'd have to stay the night just so I could see you the next morning. I love you Penelope, you and only you." He kissed her hard trying to express every emotion he had.

Her head was spinning and her heart was pounding as she was trying to digest what he was saying. When his lips came down to hers her world stopped; she'd wanted this for so long. When he pulled away he rested his forehead on hers. "I love you," he whispered, "I love you so much that I can't breath without you."

Her doorbell rang bringing them both back to reality. She looked at her watch it was 7 o'clock. "How did we talk so long?" She moved away from him to go to the door.

There stood her family. "This place is amazing, PG!" JJ said, while walking in with her go bag. "Thanks Peaches, dinner is going to be a little late, I still have to put the water on."

Rossi kissed her cheek, "I'll take care of it. Go show Aaron and JJ around." Rossi left the group and walked into the kitchen.

Everyone but Rossi and Derek were in the living room, she assumed they were talking. She was telling JJ and Hotch about the decorating she was doing and what she planned on doing. After a couple of minutes Derek walked into the living room. Penelope stopped mid-sentence and looked up at him. "I'll be right back make yourselves at home." and she took off running up the stairs.

Derek went to go after her but was stopped by Reid. "I've got this." and he walked up the stairs after her.

Rossi came out of the kitchen once he heard the door slam from upstairs. "I guess we came back a little too early? " He looked over at Morgan. Morgan just cast his face down with a shake, "I love her, I'm in love with her." he said as he sat down putting his head in his hands.

"It's about time you realized that." JJ said sitting next to him. He took his head out of his hands. "I was so blind; blind about her feelings and blind about mine. Being apart from her made me realize what she was to me, what I want, who I want. I've really messed this up. She's happy here look at this place, it's like Garcia's dream home."

"She's not happy here. She's trying to survive, there's a difference," Said Hotch. "She struggles everyday here, we all know it. She tries to hide the hurt when she calls us but she can't, she's still in love with you. You know; she calls Reid every night so he can read to her until she falls asleep."

"What do I do? How can I fix this?" He looked up, his eyes pleading with everyone.

Rossi spoke next "Go to her, don't back down. She's put walls up around her heart but there is a flaw in the foundation and that flaw is you." Rossi left making his way back to the kitchen. He called back "Second door on the left."

Morgan stood up making his way over to the stairs once he was half way up he looked back at his team. Hotch nodded in support