It had been a week since Penelope had spoken to Hotch and things were slowly beginning to get better. She seemed to be happier and therapy was going well and she was no longer using drugs. She didn't particularly enjoy going to therapy because she didn't like the vulnerability of it but she knew that it was necessary. She was having a lot of trouble sleeping because she would have terrible nightmares about everyone around her dying. The doctor gave her some sleeping pills but they only helped her to fall asleep they didn't stop the nightmares so some nights she just wouldn't sleep, the fear was too strong.

Aside from her sleeping problems she actually was feeling a bit better, she was still struggling a lot but she was just taking it one day at a time, and trying to focus on her job and her friends.

The team was working on a bombing case where the Unsub was putting bombs in buildings and exploding them to kill people.

It was dark out and the team had been notified of a bomb in an apartment building it was on a timer so they didn't have the time to wait for the squad to show up. After evacuating everyone from the building Derek went inside since he had training with the bomb squad. He was on the phone with Penelope who was reading him the instructions to defuse it since it had been so long since his training, With her help he was almost done defusing the bomb.

"Ok, what's the timer at?" Penelope asked.

"50 seconds." Derek said.

"Ok cut the top blue wire and you're done." Penelope explained.

Derek made the cut but the timer didn't stop it kept going.

"It didn't work. There's 35 seconds left." He said getting nervous.

"Just get out of there." Penelope told him.

"No I think I know what to do." Derek said.

"Derek you don't have time, get the hell out of there!" Penelope pleaded.

There was a eerie silence on the other end of the line for a few long seconds then suddenly there was a deafening loud explosion sound the boomed through the phone.

Penelope flinched at the terrible noise and her breath caught in her throat, her body shook as the fear raced through her.

"Derek!... Derek!" She pleaded through the phone as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Derek! Please answer me."

"I'm here, I'm ok." Derek finally answered sounding out of breath.

Penelope let out a breath of relief and put her head into her hands.

"You're all ok?" She asked.

Derek put his phone on speaker so she could hear everyone for herself.

"We got out of the building, no ones injured." Reid said.

"We're all fine pen." JJ said.

"Go home and get some rest Garcia, it's late we'll talk to you tomorrow." Hotch told her.

"Ok, just stay super safe my hero's, I love you guys." She said to them as a few tears ran down her face.

"We love you too kitten." Rossi said.

"We promise we'll all come back safe." Reid said before they hung up.

——

Penelope was back at her apartment but she knew that she wasn't going to be sleeping tonight. she just couldn't seem to get that horrible explosion sound out of her head.

She knew that her family was safe but she just couldn't shake this feeling that raked her body. For a few seconds when Derek didn't answer her she really did think that he was dead this wasn't the first time that one of them had almost died, it wasn't even the first time the Derek almost gotten himself blown up and she knew that it probably wouldn't be the last.

When she first joined the team she never expected her life to be like this she never expected these people would become not only her best friends but also her family, she loved her sometimes dysfunctional family but having these people around her that she loved so dearly was also a scary thing for her especially considering the dangerous nature of the job. It was scary being so close to people that could just get shot or blown up in a building or get stabbed with a wooden stake. She just wanted to keep them all safe she wanted to be able to protect everyone, which she knew was impossible since death surrounds them everyday.