Don't Own.

Please R&R

Enjoy!

…

After changing into something comfy and taking the curlers out of her hair, she walked out into the living room to be met with the delicious smell of hot cocoa with just a hint of mint.

"That smells good" she said honestly as she came into the view of the kitchen. She figured that if she had to be stuck with Morgan until the snow storm had ended, she should at least try to be nice.

As hard as it was for her to admit, she would rather have him there with her than be there snowed in alone with a raging storm outside. She didn't want to anger him into leaving, even if they would just end up in separate rooms, because if she was being truthful she would have to admit that she was fearful of the storm and didn't want to be by herself.

Penelope plunked down onto the couch as Derek walked out of the kitchen carrying two steaming mugs of the hot cocoa. There was a candy cane hanging on the inside of the cup that he handed to her.

"Thanks," she said taking the cup from his hands and inhaling the lovely scent.

"You're Welcome" he said civilly, sitting down beside her. He put his own mug on the coffee table in front of them, then he turned to look at her and frowned.

"Now that sweater just doesn't fit" he stated as he took in the green Grinch sweater she was wearing. She also had on a pair of grey sweatpants, which was strange to him since he had never seen her in anything but a skirt or dress, not even jeans.

Penelope looked down at her sweater and then back up at him. Her first reaction was to take offensive but before she could say anything Derek continued.

"I would think you'd have a Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, or some other loveable Christmas character on your sweater because the Grinch just doesn't fit your personality. There's nothing Grinch like about you" Derek said, shaking his head with a small smile.

Penelope was stunned at first, and then she laughed "After how I've treated you the past few years, I would think you'd have thought it was a perfect characterization."

Derek didn't respond for a moment, before saying quietly "We obviously don't know each other at all."

"Well we never have gotten along" Penelope stated.

"Because you never gave me a chance" Derek responded.

Penelope gaped at him "I…that's not…" she stopped her stuttering and shook her head "Okay, I might not have given you a chance, but as soon as I met you I knew your type and I didn't need someone like that in my life, be it as a friend or just an acquaintance."

"Oh really?" Derek asked "and what's my type, may I ask?"

"A player," Penelope said matter-of-factly.

"Okay, maybe I was a bit of a player when we first met but…" Derek began but Penelope cut him off.

"A bit, and when we first met? You're joking right?" Penelope asked "You were the biggest player I've ever met and you're still a cocky, egotistical, self-centered jerk!"

"Oh, is that right?" Derek asked, getting annoyed, Garcia didn't know him at all. "Tell me, when was the last time I acted like a player…when was the last time you saw me hitting on a woman?"

"That's easy…" Penelope began but quickly realized that she had to think about it "Um…well what about today?"

Derek arched a brow "What do you mean what about today?"

"Why when we have a perfectly good TV and perfectly good beer here too, did you need to walk 3 miles in the snow to get to a bar to watch the game? Are you sure it was just the game you wanted to see, or did you have something else on your mind?"

Derek rolled his eyes in annoyance and said "You're infuriating Garcia."

"So I was right then?" Penelope asked with a smirk.

"No," Derek said "you weren't. I didn't want to watch the game here because, well it didn't have the right atmosphere."

"Sorry?" Penelope asked, disbelievingly.

Derek sighed and ran a hand over his head. "No one here likes football, definitely not Reid and Prentiss had no interest in watching the game...You need the right atmosphere in order to really enjoy the game. I didn't want to watch it by myself."

Penelope actually understood what he meant, and even though she wasn't a profiler herself, she somehow knew he was telling the truth.

"I know you probably don't believe me…" Derek continued since Penelope hadn't replied.

"No, I get it." Penelope said.

Derek frowned "You do?"

"Mmm hmm," Penelope began "After growing up with four big brothers who all played on their High School and College teams, you grow to have an understanding of the sport. Especially after going to most of their practices, all of their games, to their victory parties and getting together every Football Sunday to watch the game." Penelope shook her head "Football was a big thing in my family, so I understand that it's not really a sport you watch by yourself. I get the atmosphere thing."

"I didn't know you had brothers" Derek said when she was finished explaining.

That was not what she had expected him to say and was now lost for words.

Finally she stated "Well as you said, we really don't know each other very well."

"Yeah…" Derek said trailing off, looking away and taking a sip of his hot cocoa.

"So, you didn't go to the bar to pick up women," Penelope stated "does that mean you're not a player anymore?"

Derek looked at her seriously "No, and I haven't considered myself a player for quite a few months now."

Penelope looked at him disbelievingly and then snorted "Derek Morgan, not a player, what's the world coming to? And here I thought you didn't know how to be anything but."

Derek glared at her "You know what?" he said, beginning to stand up "I think I might just take my hot cocoa and go watch TV in my room."

Penelope looked up at him and realized that she had actually hurt his feelings, if that was even possible. She really was being rather insensitive.

"No wait," she said holding up her hand in a peaceful gesture "I'm sorry, that was rude. It's just hard to think of you not as a player, but if I think about it I really haven't seen you hit on any women in a while."

Derek looked down at her, trying to figure out if her apology was genuine, once he decided it was he sat back down.

"So, why the change?" Penelope asked trying to be non-judgmental.

"I've decided I want to settle down" Derek said honestly.

Penelope stared at him for a moment; she never thought she would hear those words come out of his mouth.

"Really?" she finally asked, honestly curious now.

"Yes." Derek said.

"But why?" Penelope asked again, she just couldn't understand it.

Derek sighed and ran his hand over his face, this was hard for him but he decided to tell Garcia the truth. He didn't know why, it wasn't like he would normally tell her anything personal; but he just wanted her to understand. However it was hard to tell something so personal to someone that he barely got along with, he hadn't even told anyone else on the team before.

But he decided to go out on a limb and tell Garcia the truth and hope that she would understand rather than throw it back in his face one day.

After a long silence Derek finally said "One year before I joined the BAU I actually was in a committed, serious relationship, we were even planning to get married. But then four months before the wedding I walked into our bedroom to find her sleeping with, my now, ex-best friend…"

Penelope's eyes widened at Derek's words but for once she kept her mouth shut and let him continue.

"I called off the wedding, asked for a transfer and basically cut off all my old ties, moving to Virginia after I found out that there was a position open on the team. After my almost wedding I thought that obviously having a serious relationship wasn't worth it and I didn't want to have to go through anything like it ever again. So I started flirting and sleeping with as many women as I possibly could, as soon as I felt like a relationship was getting serious I would break it off and find someone else."

Derek ran a hand over his head, feeling strangely light as he got everything off of his chest, even if it was Garcia who he was telling.

"But lately, in the past year or so, I've found that my life it strangely unsatisfied. I knew it wasn't my job so it had to be my social life. It took me a long time to finally admit to myself that I'm lonely. That I want someone special to spend the rest of my life with, so that's why I've stopped my serial flirting."

Penelope was silent for a long time, she felt awful. She wished he hadn't told her because she now had no justified reason for being a jerk to him for so many years. Even thinking about how he had treated her this evening she realized that there was obviously more to Derek than she had ever given him credit for. To now find out that the only reason for his player act was because of a broken heart, just made her wish she could crawl into a hole and never come out for all the horrible things she had ever said to him.

She had judged him, like judging a book by its cover and she hated when people did that to her.

Derek was becoming nervous because of her silence. Had he made a mistake? Should he not have told her? Did she think he was just trying to get sympathy from her and would now hate him even more?

"I'm sorry…" Penelope began.

"Don't, it was a long time ago" Derek said cutting her off.

"No," Penelope said "I'm sorry that I judged you without even knowing you. You were right; I never gave you a chance because I thought you would be like all the other players I had ever met. But you're not, I can't believe it took me a few days away from the BAU to see it, but it's obvious. You've tried to be nice, you calmed me down when I was worried about Emily and Spencer, you stopped me from going outside and freezing to death and you made me hot cocoa. You didn't have to do any of those things but you did anyway."

Derek just shrugged.

"I've met a lot of players in my life Derek," Penelope said, calling him by his first name for the first time ever. "I grew up with three of them. My oldest brother, Preston was the biggest player around. I loved him but I saw the girls he dated and how he broke their hearts without even a care in the world. When I met you the first thing you did was hit on me, with a cheesy line, one that I had heard my brother use many times and right then I stereotyped you and decided I didn't want to have anything to do with you."

Penelope was shaking her head "It seems I should have given you more of a chance because apparently there is more to you than I would have expected."

That was a lot for Derek to take in all at once, but he could tell by the sad expression on Penelope's face that she meant what she had said.

"Maybe we could start again…" Derek said, making a split second decision, and then before Penelope could answer he said "What's your favorite football team?"

Penelope looked at him awestruck; she couldn't believe he was willing to forgive her so easily after all the years she had been an ass to him.

But she decided that if he was willing to forgive her, she better just go for it "The Jets" she said, smiling at his stubble way of offering a truce "What about you?"

"Chicago Bears of course," Derek stated, starting off their conversation, where they discussed anything and everything, from their families, to Christmas traditions they had, and about five years of things that had gone unsaid.