Penelope was curled up on the sofa, half asleep, when the buzzer for her door went off. Groaning a little, she stretched as she sat up, the blanket she had been using falling into her lap before she pushed it off so that she could get up and make her way over to the intercom. "Who is it?"
"It's Aaron, Penelope. Can I come up?"
"Of course," she answered tiredly pressing the right button as she looked at her clock, seeing that it was nearly midnight. They must have just gotten back from the case, and she felt bad for not having stayed at the BAU, but there hadn't been any reason for her to stay, really. Going back over to the sofa, she picked up her blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders before opening her door and leaning against the doorjamb to wait for her partner. Her neighbor opened her door and set out a garbage bag.
"You're up late, Penelope," she said lowly, and Penelope shrugged a little, a tired smile on her lips.
"My partner just got home and decided that he wanted to come over. I can't say no, since he was travelling for work all week. Heading down to the dumpster?"
"Yeah. I like to wait until now, because there's no one out there, and I like the peace of night. Enjoy the rest of your night."
"I'll try, Louise."
Her neighbor grinned at her and gave her a small wave before heading back into her apartment. Almost as soon as the door closed, she heard footsteps coming towards her, and she looked down towards the elevator to see Aaron there, a weary look on his face. "Penny."
"Aaron!" she exclaimed, giving him as large a smile as she could muster as he picked up his pace to get to her side, wrapping his arms around her waist as he bent in to kiss her softly. She returned the kiss as she wound one arm around his neck, holding him close as they made their way inside the apartment. She kicked the door closed before pulling away from him so that she could gaze up into his face. "Give me a few seconds to lock the door, and then we can continue this on the sofa."
"All right," he replied, and she brushed her lips against his cheek before turning around and locking the door, making certain the chain was in place before making her way over to the sofa and dropping down next to Aaron, cuddling close to his side before resting her head on his shoulder. "Dave said that you had good news for me?"
"He didn't tell you?" Aaron shook his head. "Well, it seems that you have one less yearly evaluation to complete now. Strauss managed to get Director Shepherd's approval for our relationship, and so I report to Rossi now. I hope you don't mind having one less thing to worry about."
"Ah, but your review was the one I actually looked forward to writing every year."
"Strauss thought you might say something like that. We had lunch today, too, since she did us a good favor. Now, I am exhausted, are you planning on staying the night?"
"If I may. I don't want to disturb Jack and Jessica, so I texted her to say that I'd be spending the night here. I know, it's a bit presumptuous of me, but I thought that you'd let me in."
"Of course, you're my boyfriend, why wouldn't you be welcome here? Hell, Morgan has spent more nights on my couch than I count, and I don't mind him showing up at my doorstep when it was a particularly difficult case. Though I have the feeling that won't be happening very often, now that we're together."
He smiled at her as he shrugged. "You two are best friends, like Dave and I are. I wouldn't begrudge him spending time with you."
"That's sweet, darling, but let's head to bed, and in the morning, we can head over to your place and spell Jessica. Maybe even take everyone out to brunch?"
"That sounds like a good thing, yeah. Do you mind if I shower before I join you in bed?"
"That's fine, Aaron. I'll let you explore and find it on your own while I crawl into bed. It's a small apartment, it shouldn't take you long to find it." Leaning over, she kissed him once more before dropping the blanket onto the seat and getting up, stretching a little before padding over to the bed. She hoped that he wouldn't mind taking the right hand side of the bed, since the nightstand was on the left, and that was where she put her glasses while she slept. Pulling back the covers, she slipped into bed and squirmed around a little to try and get comfortable before she grabbed her Kindle and opened up the book she was currently reading.
By the time that Aaron finally joined her, she had read almost twenty pages, though she had yawned quite a bit as she did so. "Is that on your approved list?" he teased as he sat heavily on the bed.
"Yes. It's one of the older models that can only access the Kindle store, and before you ask, no, I haven't hacked it to access unauthorized websites. I've been good, ever since I joined your team, Dudley Do-Right."
He chuckled as he stretched out on the bed, turning on his side so that he could look at her. "I know, I know, but it's a question I have to ask. I'm sorry."
"I get it, really. I did a lot of ethically grey things during my time as the Black Queen. It took a lot of work for me to be trusted enough to work with your team. I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that, believe me. Especially since I now have to be extra careful, if I want to stay with you. And right now, I really do. I want to see where this journey will take us, and I'm hoping that it will be quite far, since you're a really great guy, Aaron Hotchner."
"And you're a really great gal, Penelope Garcia." She giggled a little as he leaned in and kissed her softly. She placed her bookmark before setting the Kindle onto the nightstand and turned off the light, allowing the darkness of the evening to fall upon them. "I haven't slept with anyone since Haley left," Aaron said quietly as she slipped off her glasses and set them atop the tablet.
Turning on her side, she gazed into his face, trying to figure out if he meant sex or cuddling, and she furrowed her brow a little as she snuggled in close to his side, letting her arm come to rest around his waist as she brought her forehead to rest against his. "That's what, two years?"
"Yes."
"That's an awfully long time to be without human touch," she said lowly, her hand splaying out on his back as she pulled back a little to look at him again. "But we're together now, and lucky for you, I am a very tactile person. Unless you don't want to be touched frequently?"
"It might take me time to grow accustomed to that, Penelope. When Foyet attacked me, he took sadistic pleasure in caressing my skin before he thrust the knife into me. I know that he was getting off on hurting me, and I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how much he was hurting me." She felt her breath sucked out of her lungs as she felt her heart break for him. "He was an evil man, Penny. He hurt so many people, and we were fooled by him for so long. Even Haley was taken in by him, because he could lie so facilely. I just, I should have figured out how close he was to my family, but I was distracted, even though Morgan did take over for me for a time. Strauss offered me full retirement. She said I deserved it after everything I had been through."
"And you do, but that's not who you are, is it? You want to protect all those families who are stalked by sadistic bastards and help them, the way that you couldn't help Haley. Because you are a decent, kind, caring, man." He frowned a little, as if he wanted to disagree with her, and she shook her head a little. "You are. And it's one of the reasons that I cared for you for so long. Because I could see the gentleness that was in your eyes, and could ferret out a little of what was in your heart. Remember? You defended me when Gideon called me stupid. No one had ever stood up for me like that before, and I know it might seem trivial or dumb to latch onto something like that, but I did. Even after Gideon and I started to get along, I knew that you were the one I could depend on when I needed something."
"Gideon had his moods, that's for sure. I tried to keep them in check, but even though I was his supervisor, he had been doing the job for long enough that he thought he could just do things his way. Rossi had a little bit of that attitude, too, when he rejoined the BAU. Or don't you remember him keeping secrets from us?"
"Yeah, I suppose that you have a point there." She yawned a little before snuggling in close to him once more, hooking her chin over his shoulder as his arm closed around her waist. "But we'll have to pick this conversation up in the morning, because I am exhausted. Good night?"
"Good night, Penelope." He pressed his lips to the side of her head as she closed her eyes, and she smiled widely as she drifted off to sleep, safe in his arms.
