AN: Hey Everyone! I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support. I truly cannot get over how amazing you guys have been. I will never be able to truly thank you enough. My Christmas story is four chapters in and almost complete. I am trying to do what I did with my Halloween story and have it all done before I post it. So the first chapter will be posted in a day or so.

I want to say Happy Birthday to an amazing follower of mine nae1213. She is so sweet in so many ways. She's a great supporter and I smile when I get a random PM form her asking how my day is going. Thank you, sweetie. You are a rockstar and I hope you have a wonderful birthday.

Penelope blinked a few times, not sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her. There was no way Derek could be at her door. She froze in her spot trying to make sense of anything that was happening.

"Penelope?"

His tattered voice snapped her into action. "What the hell are you doing here? Oh God," she cried and she grabbed onto his soaking wet shirt and brought him into her apartment. She instantly went into overdrive, trying to help him. She could tell he was struggling to stay up, so she grabbed onto his side to help him walk.

"God, why are you so stupid?" she mumbled as she brought him into the bathroom. "Do you need my help or can you get out of those wet clothes on your own?"

Derek blinked at her, not sure of the answer he should give. He wanted her help. He needed to know how it felt for her to care for him again, but right now was not the time. She hadn't even looked him in the eyes yet.

Penelope shook her head. "Never mind. Give me a second and I'll get you dry clothes and make you a cup of tea."

She left him in the bathroom. If she didn't think the universe was messing with her before, she was sure of it now. Not only could she not throw away that stupid box, now the owner of the items was at her doorstep. To make matters worse, she actually had to go into the discarded items and retrieve that undershirt that was under the couch, along with some sweatpants.

She grabbed the clothes and padded back to the bathroom. She opened the door and tossed them at him. "I'll have hot tea for you in the living room. Just leave your wet clothes in the sink and I'll come in and get them later." She turned and left him standing there.

Derek stared at the shut bathroom door. When he hobbled up to Penelope's front step, after the cab had dropped him off, he somehow pictured this differently. He figured he'd get the door slammed in his face, or her scream at him. But no, not at all. Yes, she was shocked to see him there at first, but she immediately took charge and made sure he was okay.

He looked down at the clothes in his hand. He was surprised to see them. He had thought she would have gotten rid of everything that belonged to him.

Somehow this gave him hope.

He wasn't able to lift his arm to get the shirt on, and after trying several times he decided to give up. He was in too much pain and far too nervous to figure out how to get into the shirt.

He made his way into the living room to see Penelope sitting on her couch, looking out of the window. He knew he made enough noise that she would have know he was there, but yet, she wouldn't even look towards him.

"Umm, Penelope?" he said, with a shaky breath, causing her to snap her attention back to him.

She jumped up from her seat and rushed over to him, placing his arm over her to help support his weight.

"Can you help me get this on?" he asked his voice riddled with pain.

She brought him over to the couch and sat him down grabbing the shirt from his hand. She carefully maneuvered over his dislocated and bandaged shoulder and abdomen.

"Thank you," he said.

She nodded and handed him the cup of tea that she had made, to help warm him up. She watched as he took a sip and then placed the cup back onto the table.

"I didn't think you'd have anything left of mine," he said as he gestured to his clothes. "Thank you."

She motioned to the box under the window. "If it wasn't storming, there wouldn't be anything left."

He nodded and then swallowed hard. "Umm… thanks for letting me in–"

"Why are you here?" she asked coldly.

He looked at the pained expression on her face. "I… you weren't there when I woke up."

She stared at him blankly.

"Everyone else was there, but you weren't and then Hotch said Hunter took you –"

"Why does that even matter to you?" she interrupted.

Derek went to move back further onto the couch but winced when he turned a certain way. Penelope instantly moved over to him to help him settle. "Why did they discharge you if you're still in so much pain?"

"They didn't discharge me," he said through clenched teeth.

She turned her head to the side. "What do you mean they didn't discharge you?"

"I left," he said. "As soon as the team went back to the hotel, I unhooked my IV, and got dressed and left."

"Why would you do something so stupid?" She shook her head standing up. "God, have you lost every ounce of intelligence in that handsome head of yours? We need to get you back to a hospital, come on."

"No," he said. "I'm not going back. Not until we talk."

She turned back to glare at him. "Derek, you're obviously in pain. You need to get back to the hospital and get some pain meds, have the doctors check you out."

"No!" he shouted. Going to stand up. "You weren't there when I woke up, you were out with Hunter. How am I to know that if I leave right now, he won't be right around the corner waiting to come in here and fu-"

"Whoa! You need to relax." She walked back over to the couch. No matter how much she wanted to scream and him, and make him believe Hunter was there. Derek was hurt and he didn't need the added stress. She took his hand and helped him back onto the couch. "Hunter is in New York."

"Good," Derek mumbled, before looking at her, taking a deep breath. He looked over at the box. "You said if it wasn't storming you wouldn't have any of this."

"That's right," she said softly. "Tonight was the night I was finally okay with letting you go…" She then shook her head lightly. "… but then here you are." Figures the universe would like to fuck with my pain some more, she thought not looking at him.

Derek moved as close as he could to her without hurting himself. Swallowing hard, he said, "I know I hurt you…. God, baby, I promised to always protect you and I'm the one that hurt you."

"It's done," she said looking up at him tears present in her eyes.

"I didn't know how to tell you I took the job," he started. "I was so afraid that when you found out, you'd hate me. So I kept putting it off and putting it off, then before I knew it I was scheduled to start in New York. So I came over here to finally tell you and –"

"You'd thought you'd finally see if you could play with my heartstrings some more? Show me what it was like to finally make love to a man and give every part of my heart, body, and soul to another person only to wake up and find you had left. And not even just left back to your house like most of your other one night stands. No, you left to another state," she said trying her best to push back the tears.

"It wasn't like that," he pleaded.

"No, it was worse than that. For someone that was my best friend–"

"Is," he stated. "Is your best friend. God, Penelope, you're my everything, you're my world. You always have been and that night meant –"

"Nothing to you," She interrupted.

He moved closer once again this time grabbing her hand. "That night I made love for the first time in my life. I know I'm at fault here. I ruined us, but I'm here now. I got a second chance at life. I'm here to fix us, show you that you're the love of my life. I won't waste this second chance."

She pulled out of his grasp. She needed to distance herself from him. This man sitting next to her, shattered her heart. She befriended him, told him all of her deepest darkest secrets. She fell in love with him, a love she still had to this day, but he, he destroyed her. Not only did he not tell her he took the job, he slept with her and then bolted the next morning.

"Derek, when Hotch told me I needed to go with them to help you I was pissed, hurt, and scared. I didn't want to see you. That first moment I saw you, everything I had been trying to hide away came rushing back. You hurt me, Derek. More than I have ever been hurt before in my life. You crossed a line in our friendship and I never wanted to see you again."

She watched Derek swallow.

"But I had to. I had to help you catch the unsub and then when he took you…" she trailed off looking away.

"I'm so sorry, for everything."

"I saw you with your head hanging and I thought you were dead. The man that still owned all of my heart was dead. But you raised your head –"

"Owned your heart?" he asked clinging to the bit of information she had divulged.

"I stopped breathing. I worked as hard as I have ever worked before to get your location. I didn't want you to end up like the other agents. I wasn't ready for you to die yet," she cried, finally letting the tears fall.

"I'm alive because of you," he stated.

"No, you're alive because the whole team worked together to save you." She shook her head.

"I thought I was going to die. I thought that was going to be the end of me, and I couldn't stand the thought of leaving you that way. You were the reason I held on. You were the reason I looked up at the camera. You kept me alive."

She turned towards him. "It's not smart you left the hospital."

"I don't give a damn about being in the hospital and what's smart or not. All I care about is you, and only you."

"I can set-"

"You ran to me when they wheeled me out, but then you stopped. You stopped," he said with a pained expression remembering her falling into Hunter's arms.

"I couldn't run to you. You're not my best friend. You aren't my lover," she whispered.

"I am, though. I'm yours," he said.

She shook her head and stood but motioned for him to stay seated when he tried to follow. She went to the hall closet and grabbed some blankets and a pillow. She walked back into the living room. "If you won't go back to the hospital, which I think you should, I won't send you out in the storm."

Just then there was a crack of thunder and a bolt of lighting that flashed through the living room. "I can call Hotch in the morning and he can take you back to New York tomorrow, or the hospital here," she continued. "I'm sure he'll be calling, once he finds out you left the hospital like the idiot you are."

He moved to stand up, holding his side, trying to reach for her.

She moved out of his grasp handing him the pillow. She moved around him and began setting the couch. Once she was done, she turned to face him. "If the pain gets too much just holler for me and I'll take your stubborn ass to the hospital."

She left the living room not looking back.

Derek threw the pillow down and moved over to the box. He slowly started pulling everything out. There were pictures of him and her, some of just him, trinkets he had bought her over the years. He felt his heart sink even more, realizing she was about to throw him out of her life for good.

He picked up a picture of him and her. He let his fingers trace over her cheek. "I'm yours," he whispered not wanting to disturb her in the other room. "No matter what it takes I will prove to you that I'm yours forever." He placed the photo back where it used to be and grabbed another item from the box placing it where it once called home, too.