A/N: After last night's short chapter you'll get a long one always thank you very much for all the wonderful reviews. They really mean a lot and are definitely appreciated.

It had been a few days now since Penelope had regained her memory about her now ex boyfriend, Kevin Lynch, and the realization that the last months with Morgan had only been an act to 'go gentle on her brain'. There had been a few check-ups with her doctor, who wanted to make sure everything was back to normal, as well as a talk in which Penelope broke it to him how she felt that he encouraged her friends to play into her delusion, making her live a lie basically. He explained to her why he urged her friends to do it and what could have happened if they had told her that the memories she thought she had about Derek Morgan were in fact none existing events.

She had also returned to her regular lunches with Emily and JJ and had almost forgiven them, as well as Rossi, Hotch and Reid, despite them not acting as desperate as JJ and Emily and simply giving her time and distance. The only person she had not talked to, listened to, or even considered forgiving anytime soon was Derek. She understood by now why they all did it, but that still was no excuse for Derek Morgan to go all the way, sleeping with her, when he in fact knew that what she thought was not correct.

"You know… you can't be mad at him forever," JJ started once they found an unoccupied table and sat down. "I mean … sure you can, but … you have come to terms with all of us, except him. What is so different about him? Okay … he was, is your boyfriend, I mean he isn't or wasn't … but, you know what I mean," JJ stammered, not really sure how to actually phrase this all correctly.

Penelope just sighed at her friend, at which Emily smirked knowingly. "You slept with him," she announced - sounding surprised - , still smirking for a moment, until she realized that this maybe wasn't the best moment to smile. Penelope seemed not like she was in the mood for funny comments, or jokes like they usually would probably have done without any issues or problems.

Penelope just nodded and both her friends could see this was harder on her than anything else. Even a blind person could see that although she had gained her memory again, she had also lost something in the whole process - her heart. And she lost it to no one else than Derek Morgan.

After lunch all three women went their separate ways, with JJ looking over more files, trying to figure out where to go next, Emily seeking out Hotch and Rossi for whatever reason and Penelope hiding back in her office from the world. Lunch somehow had dampened her mood a bit. It wasn't like she was all sunshine before, but now she felt like crawling in bed, with a large cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows and the Lifetime channel on for a good few hours.

Maybe half an hour had passed since she had returned back to her office when Rossi walked into her office, a cup in his hand which he handed to her and at closer inspection she had to realize it was … hot cocoa with marshmallows. God, she hated profilers.

He grabbed the chair which was closest and sat down next to her, not saying a word for a few minutes. It was an odd situation, both of them sitting opposite of each other, looking at each other but no one really spoke. Dave just looked at Penelope with a strange expression.

"You know, kitten…" he started, and every time he called her that she knew something that could take longer was on its way. "I know it is none of my business and I certainly don't want to push you in any sort of direction, but we have noticed there seems to be a certain friction between you and your favorite profiler."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Rossi," she joked, knowing fully well that he was talking about Morgan.

David didn't respond to it at first. He just sat in the chair, leaned back and studied her for a brief moment, before leaning forward again, resting his elbows on his knees. "What's the problem? I mean… you sort of have more or less forgiven all of us, but he is still in the dog house and to all of us it seems like he won't be allowed out of there anytime soon. We all have been lying to you, but you understand that it was …, " he went on but was interrupted by Penelope.

"Don't say 'doctor's advice'. I seriously can't hear it any longer."

"I thought when the time would come that you regain your memory again he would be the one who be forgiven first. You have a great friendship, a very unique connection, what … happened?" he simply asked, surprising himself as much as Penelope. She had expected he either would dance around the subject for another while or just try to probe for information the indirect way.

Dave went on "Fact is we all lied to you equally. We all had a part in this, but yet he is the one who is punished the hardest. Anything happened between you two?"

Penelope bluntly answered "Nothing a couple wouldn't do."

And suddenly he understood as well as Emily and JJ that Penelope was not mad about him actually lying, but was more healing from what seemed to be a broken heart. He always had suspected more between these two, and was always surprised that it never happened. There was so much chemistry, sparks, fire and passion between these two that on some days he was surprised they didn't just have a go at each other.

"He doesn't care for me the way I … um …. did," she admitted in a quiet voice.

"Kitten, have you actually looked at him? I mean ... really deeply looked at him for longer than the split second it takes to get from the bullpen to your office in the last couple of days?" Rossi asked, seeing Penelope thinking for a moment and when she didn't answer right away he went on. "I don't think you did, because if you had, you might have noticed that he hasn't been himself lately. He is awfully quiet and has his mind God knows where, but certainly not here and definitely not on the job. He looks pretty much beat down and like he hasn't slept in over a week. He actually looks like he gave up. So if you think he never cared for you the way you did for him, maybe you should look again and rethink your idea," David said, and Penelope couldn't help but think. She had overheard JJ and Emily discussing how Morgan seemed so awfully different over the past few days, but didn't think much about it. She had her own problems to overcome.

"That still doesn't change much," Penelope answered defiantly. She knew it was stupid, but she somehow couldn't wrap her head around it right now. He still slept with her, knowing fully well that she was someone else's girl and taking full advantage of her situation.

Rossi just let out a sigh, seeing he wouldn't get much further with her. At least he tried. He hadn't expected her to get up and run into Morgan's arms, but somehow he had hoped that bringing her attention to Derek's state of mind and behavior would soften her. She might not have been a profiler, but she surely was able put two and two together. Or maybe not. Maybe it was still too early for expecting anything. They could be glad she had forgiven them that quickly. Maybe she just needed more time to forgive Morgan as well, or see that this was not what she thought it was.

Rossi left Penelope's office at some stage, having to admit defeat, and an hour after him Aaron Hotchner all of a sudden appeared on her door. He didn't make it down to her office very often, mainly because he had usually a lot of things on his mind - cases, his son, the bureau.

"Penelope, can I have a word with you?" she heard his voice and when she nodded he moved further into her office, sitting down on the chair that had been just occupied by Rossi earlier.

Hotch looked at Penelope for a moment, looking like he had to think about something before he finally spoke.

"I know it isn't my place to judge, or interfere and it certainly isn't my business what you do in your off time, but when it starts affecting your jobs that's when I get involved," he started, making Penelope wonder what would come next. Was he talking about Morgan or her? Or both of them?

Hotch added "We are all a bit worried, to be honest. And you can believe me that we all had our doubts about what the doctor's said would be best, to just act as if your memories were for real. We all played a part in it and you forgave most of us, yet the one person who had the biggest doubts and had constantly second thoughts about this all you punish the most. Morgan had a really hard time. Trust me when I tell you he certainly was torn up between right and wrong. He came to me, shortly after the accident, not understanding how telling you he is your boyfriend when in fact he isn't should be helpful in any way. And if, in fact, things had been handled according to his wishes you would have been told the truth right away. It took him a long time to warm up to the idea and he just did it with your best interest in mind. He had doubts and thought he would take advantage of you by playing along. He didn't want to lie to you and let me tell you he … had a conflict of interests to say the least. He had a hard time letting you believe you were engaged in something more than just your friendship and it took him quite a while being comfortable with this whole idea and being around you, pretending to be something he wasn't. Or not yet at least," he smiled softly at Penelope.

It was quite a speech Hotch delivered and he knew that Morgan probably didn't agree with him sharing this. But he also knew that Penelope needed to hear this. She had thought until this point that Morgan had been a very willing participant in this, when in fact it took him quite some time coming to terms with it.

Hotch looked at Penelope for a moment, who was just staring at him, trying to understand what the other man had just said, and couldn't reply.

Hotch let out a sigh as well, just as Rossi did before when there was no answer from the Tech. But he mistook her silence for stubbornness. He thought she just didn't want to hear anyone telling her that Morgan did care and this was not as black and white as she seemed to think so far. He got up, looking at Penelope once more, before leaving her office.

And maybe they had been wrong. Maybe this was something Derek and Penelope couldn't work out.