AN: Sorry for once again being late with uploading the next chapter for this story, but I had a bit of a busy day yesterday and then my internet connection was gone again. We are almost done, just a epilogue left after this chapter. Thanks for sticking with it til the end and making my first case file quite a nice success and somehow inspired me one way or the other to write another case file - but in a very different way. Not sure whether that will be posted next. I might also just take it easy and take a bit of a break from posting for the rest of the summer.

After she told the team what had happened over the past few weeks and they all had gotten quite a good idea of what she did Penelope had hoped to finally get out of where they were. That's when Morgan, who by now was all over her again – something she quite certainly could get used to – steered her towards one of the SUVs. Mind reader, Penelope thought but then realized that it was only Morgan and her, and he didn't seem like he was waiting for any of the rest of the team.

"Um … won't you … wait for Emily or… Reid?" she asked a bit surprised.

"I told you we had to talk, Baby Girl," he smiled at her softly, before closing the passenger door and walking around the car to get in behind the wheel and driving off. "And trust me, for what I have to say to you, I most certainly don't need an audience."

The instant fear crept up almost immediately. God, he wouldn't chose now to start lecturing her on their friendship and everything that had went down between them before she went missing, did he?

"So... um… what do you want to talk to me about?" Penelope asked, trying to not sound anxious.

"Us mainly," was Morgan's short answer and Penelope felt even more worry coming up.

"Us?" Penelope asked, biting her lower lip. God, the possibilities of what would come next were endless. After all they didn't have the closest of bonds before she went away. There had been enough days during the past few weeks when she wondered how – if she ever made it back – her and Morgan would be. And there had been enough times when she actually had regretted to never have told him about her feelings. She remembered she swore to herself if she should ever see him again she'd come clean and tell him, but… well, somehow she wasn't so sure whether that was her best idea yet.

"Yes," he just said, before taking a turn and Penelope noticed than that he seemed to know where he was going to. As opposed to her, who had no idea where they even were right now.

"You and I are going to take a trip…." Morgan said rather shortly, making Penelope look at him curiously.

"A trip?" she just asked at which he nodded.

"Yes, but before we can go, I've promised your brothers to at least give them a few minutes with you to make sure you are okay," he laughed.

"They are… here?" she asked, seeing Morgan nod again.

"Yes, they kind of … um... stumbled into our search. Nice guys, I have to say. Very cool and they care a lot about you, Baby Girl."

"Yes, they always did. Probably cause I'm the baby sister, so they feel like they have to look out for me," Penelope explained, before going on. "You said we're taking a trip…. Care to at least let me know where to?"

"We'll go up north to Chicago. For you to meet my mum and sisters," he said, making Penelope look surprised at him.

"I … not wanting to sound,… um… bad or anything, but I met your mum already a few years back," Penelope said, finding it rather strange that after being gone for a few months and sort of kidnapped her best friend would find the first thing to do was to take her to his mum's.

"Yes," Morgan said, "But you haven't met them as the woman I'm going to spent the rest of my life with."

It took a moment for Penelope to take in what he just said, and before she could respond they stopped and Penelope saw four familiar faces smiling at her and looking relieved. Before Morgan could even get around, opening the car for her as he usually did, Parker had already yanked the door of the passenger side open and gave her a tight hug.

"Never ever do something like that again, Penelope. No matter what wacko claims to do god knows what to any of us, okay?" he asked, not letting go of her. By now Morgan had made it out of the car and Penelope could see him, but he seemed less than bothered stepping in.

After Parker, it was Palmer's turn to embrace her. He at least allowed her to exit the car before he pulled his sister in a tight hug. When Payton was done checking up on his sister and making sure she really was okay, the other two of her brothers repeated previous hugs and checks that she really was okay. Of course Payton mumbled several times how sorry he was that he sort of abandoned her with Victor, but in the end everyone knew that there would have been no way for him to stay behind.

While one of her brothers hovered over her, the others seemed to be engaged with Morgan, who seemed to get along pretty well with all of them. From previous experiences Penelope knew that every guy she had let meet with her brothers usually didn't like at least one of them. But looking at Morgan he seemed to get along just fine with all four. That thought brought her back to his earlier words in the car, but she found now wouldn't be the best time to ask further what exactly he had meant. Although, that should be rather obvious.

They spent the night at the hotel, which seemed to have been the home for the BAU team for the past few days at least. They had dinner and drinks with her brothers and only when the owner of the bar threw them more or less out they left for their rooms, with Penelope still having no answer to any of the questions she had.

Morgan had only informed her that they had an early morning flight to Chicago and that was that.

"Do I actually get a say in this?" Penelope asked the next morning, rather sleepy from the passenger seat of the SUV.

"A say in what?" Morgan asked.

"Well, whether I actually really want to go to Chicago?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Morgan asked back, with a smile that was disarming. "A week full of doing nothing and getting spoiled and pampered, catered to your every wish…."

"Ahhh, see, you left that last part out yesterday," she laughed now as well.

"I thought that would have been quite obvious. I mean when haven't I done that?" he asked, with a wink and Penelope realized they were back to the way they had been way before she got herself into all of this.

"Shouldn't we… um… talk about … well what you said yesterday. About that me meeting your mum as the woman…. um … "

"The woman I'm gonna spent the rest of my life with?" Morgan finished nonchalantly.

"Yes, that part. I mean… we, you… me… what I want to say is that me and you, before all this weren't really… close, at least not as close as we used to be. Shouldn't we at least work on reinstating that before moving on to… bigger things?" she asked, seeing Morgan look at her for a moment, before focusing back on the street.

"Woman, we've always been more than just friends, we just never bothered labeling it. Maybe it was laziness. Maybe we just didn't want to risk what the other could possibly think. But you have to admit we certainly always had been more."

"Well… we certainly haven't been lovers," Penelope commented.

"And we certainly won't become some…" Morgan answered sounding almost outraged, making Penelope look at him shocked for a moment.

"Well, if we won't than maybe I… um... got this all wrong," she tried back-paddling. She hadn't read anything wrong into this, had she? He had said he would introduce her as the woman he'd spend the rest of his life. That was pretty straight forward. Unless he was talking in a friendship-kind of way. That was the frustrating thing with him sometimes. He would say things and mean them entirely different, or he was just teasing.

"You are way too precious to be just a 'lover', Baby Girl. You're destined to be a wife, and if I'm lucky enough you'll become my wife…"

"Are you proposing?" Penelope almost shrieked. She couldn't help it. This wasn't something she would have expected before she left Quantico.

"Baby, trust me when I say that when I propose to you it will be the proper way after dinner and down on one knee and not in an SUV on the way to the airport while I drive. And anyway, I guess before we go down that route we should maybe start with a little less, like… let's say dating…" he smiled at her softly, before pulling into the airport just a few moments later.

Morgan didn't notice until he held the door of the SUV open for Penelope that she looked a bit panicked, if not even freaked out. Maybe this had been a little too much in too little time.

"I know this must come as some sort of a … shock to you, but truth is, Baby Girl, I always loved you. Every time I said these words I meant them, but I guess it was never the right moment. And over the past couple of weeks I realized there were aspects, people in your life I didn't know about or knew about really little. And I want that to change. I want to know everything and everyone who is important to you and vice versa."

"You want to date me because you want to meet the people in my life?" Penelope asked, astonished, at which Morgan just laughed for a moment.

"No, gorgeous, I want to date you because I love you, but I also want to know everything about you, stuff only boyfriends know… I've wasted all these years arguing with myself whether or not to make that step, whether you had any reciprocating feeling for me as well and almost lost you twice now, without you ever knowing any of that. I don't want to lose you almost a third time and then find myself hating the fact that we never gave ourselves a chance to find out just how amazing we would be together."

Penelope was about to respond when Morgan just pulled her in, pressing his lips softly against hers. And just like that everything became better and Penelope knew it would all work out. One way or the other…