Derek woke next morning and groaned, his head hurt like a sonofabitch.
'Morning sugar' the sweet and far to cheerful voice of Penelope Garcia seemed to echo round his skull.
'Urgh' he grunted and reached for the cup of coffee she held out to him. He sipped gratefully
'You're a goddess woman'
Penelope laughed
'So you keep telling me'
Twisting on the sofa morgan sat up and stretched.
'How are you doing baby girl?' she smiled
'I'm ok, still pissed at you but I'm ok'
Derek stared, her voice in his ear yesterday...he stared a beat too long and he knew it.
'Baby?' she called once, twice.
'Earth to SSA Morgan' he blinked
'Sorry sweetness'
'Cmon get dressed we need to get to the hospital see how Hotch is doing, I already spoke to Reid, everyone's ok but you'll feel better once you see that for yourself'
—
At the hospital everyone was angsty, too much time spend confined in hospital rooms wasn't doing any of them any good. They sat around uncharacteristically quiet.
'Derek you should go back to the hotel' Rossi ventured,
'You look almost as bad as Hotch'
Derek shook his head
'You go, I'll hang around til he's released. He'll need me to drive him home'
Penelope knew better than to argue, she knew he hadn't slept well and when she'd got up to check on him he was restless even in his sleep.
'Come' she held out her hand 'at least let's get some food'
—-
Derek knew he was being uncharacteristically quiet, just like he knew Penelope was giving him space by deliberately not noticing. He watched as she queued for some sodas. He wiped his face, if was hotter than hell in here. She was wearing a toned down version of her usual outfit, a black and light lilac floral dress, her hair was pulled back into pigtails...
'Morgan?' Derek started as Emily appeared at his side. She followed his gaze a raised an eyebrow.
'So how'd you manage to get into Garcia's good books again so quickly?'
'Beats me' he sighed, still watching as Penelope smiled and paid for their drinks. Emily frowned at the wistful note in his voice.
'Hey you ok?'
'I...' his voice trailed away as she brought the drinks over
'This is all they had' she handed one to each of them. Looking from one to the other.
'Did I interupt?'
'No baby girl' Derek squeezed her hand
'C'mon lets get these back to the others'
—
SSAs Rossi and Reid stood watching as Derek hugged Garcia goodbye, she was going to fly back with the, to get a head start on the reports while Derek would drive Hotch. Neither agent missed the way Derek buried his face into her neck.
'Do you think he's in love with her?'
'Seriously kid?' Rossi murmured 'he's been in love with her for years, he's just too stupid to see it'
Reid looked confused
'What about Garcia?'
'She's trickier to read.' The both turned away
'I hope she does, love him' Reid replied climbing into the car.
Me too Rossi thought as he jumped into the front seat, and watched Morgan's gaze track Garcia back to the car, because if she's not and Derek takes the risk, I'm not sure he'll recover.
—-
