Penelope was finally able to find a familiar part of town and walked hime from there, she was still extremely anxious though. She walked through the front door and called out Dereks name to let him know that she was back but she git no response. She walked into the kitchen and found a note on the fridge that said he went out to look for her. She turned to look at the clock on the stove and saw that she had been gone for over an hour and he must have been getting worried.
As she looked back to the note she felt her mind drifting back to when she was a teenager reading a similar note that her parents had left her when she didn't return home on time from a party, that was the day that her parents died in a car crash.
She immediately grabbed her phone from the table and called Derek. "Please answer. Please answer." She said to herself over and over until he finally answered.
She let out a breath of relief as she heard his voice over the phone. "Hey, I'm back. Sorry i didn't realize how long i was gone for."
"Its ok i was just worried. I'll be home in five minutes." Derek told her glad that she had made it home safely.
After they hung up the phone Penelope went into the bathroom, she wanted to do something with her hair, it was driving her crazy with how long and dead it was. It took out her ponytail and let it fall down to her waist, she grabbed a pair of scissors from the cabinet and started to cut it off.
She was about half way done when she heard the front door open and Derek called her name.
"Up here." She replied.
"What are you doing?" He asked even though it was obvious by the hair covering the bathroom floor.
"It was driving me insane, i could hardly even get a brush through it." She explained.
"Here let me help."
Penelope handed him the scissors and he finished it for her. Her hair was now shoulder length and it looked and felt so much nicer.
"Thanks, handsome."
"Anytime, baby girl."
——
About three weeks had passed since Penelope had returned home and physically she was feeling much better, she was no longer feeling weak or sick which was good. Her doctor had even cleared her to go back to work when she was feeling up to it, she hadn't told Derek that yet though knowing that he wouldn't want her doing anything that could stress her out.
She had never told him about what happened on the side of road after savannah showed up that one day, not wanting him to worry about her anymore then he already was.
Derek had gotten his job back at the BAU so Penelope spent most of the day at the house alone, or sometimes she would hang out at the office but it was so frustrating seeing her friends all working on cases when she wasn't allowed to help. she hated staying home because she was bored and she had nothing to distract her from the awful memories that plagued her mind, no amount of bright colours or cute cat videos could help her feel better. When she went to sleep her dreams were filled with horrific nightmares so she forced herself to sleep as little as possible while still being able to function so Derek wouldn't catch on.
"Hey, are you going to work now?" Penelope asked as she walked down the stairs to meet Derek in the kitchen.
"Yeah, did you wanna come?"
"Yeah i actually wanted to talk to Hotch about maybe getting my job back..." Penelope said.
"I don't think thats a good idea, baby girl."
"Oh come on, the doctor cleared me a couple days ago and i am going stir crazy being in this house all day."
Derek knew that he wasn't going to win this so he gave in knowing that Hotch wouldn't let her back if he wasn't confident in he ability to handle it.
——
Penelope and Hotch had their long talk and he decided to let her come back. They had gone down to the reception office to get her badge renewed. Penelope assumed that it was just to get a new picture since her old badge was probably expired by now but when the lady at the desk handed her the new badge she looked up at Hotch confused. "SSA?" She asked.
"Well you're technically an agent now and though you're still be our analyst, i thought that it would be nice to have an extra set of feet on the ground, if you're up for it that is."
"Um yeah thats fine i guess." Penelope agreed, she just really wasn't expecting it and she honestly wasn't sure if this was what she wanted. She never really liked being out on the field she was always much more comfortable being behind her computer screen. Even in Iraq she was only there because she wanted to help, she never actually enjoyed much of her work there. But she did want to help her team so she pushed her doubts aside and accepted Hotch's request.