Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Sorry the last two were cliffys. I appreciate your patience with me on this. Thank you so much for the reviews. This one is significantly more fluffy than my usual type I stick to, so i'm glad you're liking it. As for this one, I know a lot of you want Derek to be waiting by her car, but that would be too easy ;) We've got a little something different coming. But the angst is all over, so that's a good thing. Please enjoy!

By the time Penelope reached her car in the parking garage, she was already soaked to the bone. Her hair was flat against her head and dripping, her makeup was running, and her clothing was sticking uncomfortably to her skin. But none of that mattered. Not at that moment except reaching Derek's house and telling him how sorry she was for slapping him and walking out on him in the middle of the restaurant. She needed to tell him it was over with Michael and that she was in love with him, with her best friend. She needed to tell him that it had always been him, from the first day they had met.

The top of her car was down and she fiddled with her keys, setting them in the seat so she could have both hands. However, the top was stuck in place. She yanked as hard as she could and tried desperately to pull it up, but nothing worked. The damn thing wasn't coming up. Cursing, she checked her phone to try and call someone to see if they could drive her. Her groaned filled the parking garage and echoed off the walls. The phone was dead.

None of that matter though. She was going to get to Derek's no matter what. Huffing, she slid into her car and started the engine. She was going to be wet and cold for the next half hour.

In the end, she knew it would be worth it.

Pulling out of the parking lot, she braced herself for the downpour she was headed into and started off at as fast as she legally could. Just as she expected, she was frozen. It was September at night and it was pouring down rain. She could only pray Derek would let her in when she arrived. If he left her out in the cold, she was likely to burst into tears.

Half way there, however, the faint sound of a car sputter came from Esther. She drove along the road, hoping the sound was just in her imagination.

She wasn't so lucky.

In a matter of seconds after she heard the noise, her car started to slow down until she was trapped on the side of the road, the car completely still. "No, no, no!" she cried. "Not now, not when I have to find Derek!" She pushed some of her soaked hair from her face and tried turning the key in the ignition multiple times. She thanked God she was wearing contacts because if she hadn't been, she wouldn't have been able to see. God damn, why did her car have to stop and have the top broken on a rainy, stormy night. When it became apparent that the car was not going to start, she banged her fists against the steering wheel. And she was on the road to Derek's house, so she was on a treelined road, no sidewalks or any form of path.

"Dammit!" she shouted to the night.

All at once tears started to streak down her frozen cheeks. They were mixing together with the rain, but she knew they were there. She leaned her forehead against the steering wheel and a sob escaped her throat.

This was officially the worst birthday she could have imagined. Stranded in the middle of a rainstorm with a broken car top and her best friend was wounded by her words?

Yeah, this birthday took the cake for terrible days.

XXXXX

After he had gotten home after parting ways with Reid and Rossi from the failed mission to win over Penelope, Derek returned to his home and plopped himself down on his couch. This was the very couch he and Penelope shared their famous movie nights. At the moment, he felt fairly certain that they wouldn't happen again.

She was pissed as hell at him. That much was one hundred percent correct. There was no doubting it.

He sighed deeply and leaned his head back against the cushions, closing his eyes in an attempt to clear his head.

Clooney, however, wasn't too keen on the idea of being ignored. He hopped up on the couch and began licking Derek's face. Opening his eyes, he snorted at his German Shepard. "What's up with you?" he asked. "You gonna be a pain in my ass tonight?" His dog let out a bark and he laughed, scratching him behind the ears. As he was petting Clooney, he began to think aloud. "What am I going to do, Cloon?" he asked. "I love Penelope, but she's mad at me. Mad like you wouldn't believe. What should I do?" He smirked. "Do you know? Got any advice?"

Clooney merely wagged his tail and perked his ears up.

Derek laughed. "You think I should apologize?" He sighed. "Should I maybe just tell her I'm sorry and that I'll move on? I mean, people have to move on eventually if their love isn't reciprocated...don't they? 'Cause you see, boy, I don't think I could ever move on from my Baby Girl. She's - she's the only one for me. Yeah, it sounds cliché, but there's a reason they call them clichés...the idea just happens so often, it becomes normal." He ruffled Clooney's fur. "What am I going to do, boy?" he repeated absentmindedly.

His dog sneezed and wagged his tail once more, his eyes looking at Derek like he was trying to tell him something important. Derek tilted his head to the side and said, "You're trying to tell me something. I can tell." He snapped his fingers. "You think I should go and apologize. That's what you're trying to tell me!" Rising from the couch, he rubbed Clooney's ears and nodded. "That's what I'll do!"

And then he set off for the door, grabbing his car keys and entering the raging storm outside.

XXXXX

Penelope was shivering viciously. She knew she should get up and start walking back home, but she couldn't find it in her heart to move. She just kept her head against the steering wheel and wept. Her birthday was just terrible. She couldn't help but feel sorry for herself. It was ridiculous to do that; she was the one to blame here, no one else. She had treated the man she loved like dirt, she humiliated a man who was wonderful and kind - even if she wasn't in love with him, Michael was still a girl's dream man - and she was now stuck in the rain because she was stupid enough to go out without her car top working properly.

"I'm so stupid!" she cried.

As she was bemoaning her ridiculous decisions, she noticed a pair of bright headlights coming towards her on the road. She looked up and squinted, trying to see who it was. But the light made it difficult to make out who was there or what type of car was there.

What the hellI? she thought. She squinted to try and see who was in the car that had stopped. Screw it. She didn't care who it was, she just wanted whoever it was to help her get the fuck out of there.

XXXXX

As Derek was driving along, the sight of a bright orange Cadillac could be seen on the side of the road. His eyebrows rose and immediately he became concerned. There was only one person in the world he knew with a car like that. This was no doubt Penelope's car. But what really surprised him and shocked him was that the top was down. That to be the dumbest thing he'd seen. A storm was raging and she had her top down? Something was very off here.

Pulling up next to Esther, he glanced in and found his girl, staring up at him with a devastated look on her face. She couldn't tell that it was him, but the moment he stepped out of the car, she sat up straighter. Her makeup was running and her eyes were red and swollen.

"Baby Girl?" he called over the pounding rain. He ran to her side and opened the door to the driver's seat. She looked up at him and her perfectly shaped mouth rounded into an "o".

"D - Derek?" she said through chattering teeth. She rose to her feet and stepped out of the car.

She stood before him in the same dress she had worn to her birthday dinner. He put his hands on her shoulders and almost gasped; her skin was frigid to the touch. "Penelope, what the hell are you doing out here?" he yelled, his voice barely audible over the rain.

It was hard to tell if she was crying or if it was just the rain streaming down her face. "I came to find you!" she hollered back. The sky erupted in light with a bolt of lightning and a huge clap of thunder boomed through the air. She brought her hands up to cup his face. Her whole body was shaking from the cold. "I had to come find you and tell you that I...I love you! I should never have slapped you in the middle of that restaurant. Those fortune cookies were so sweet and I know you probably made up the holiday to give them to me, but -"

He cut her off. "It wasn't made up!" he said, putting his arms arms around her waist in an attempt to warm her up. "It's an actual holiday!"

She cocked her eyebrows, but shook her head. "I was coming to tell you that I love you," she yelled over a roll of thunder. "Michael may have proposed, but I told him no. He's not you! You're the only one I want!"

"Baby, I love you too!" he said as the rain poured on around them. Soon, he too was soaking wet. "I should have told you sooner than tonight. Rossi and Reid were helping me and we wanted to -"

To shut him up, she pulled his face down to her lips and kissed him hungrily. He stood in shock for a moment, but then he wrapped his arms around her and his fingers tangled in her hair. All of the sudden, the cold was disappearing from his body and all he felt was a warm cocoon of desire surrounding both him and Penelope. Even the sound of thunder was slowly fading until the only thing he could hear was the beating of their hearts in complete unison. His tongue stroked against hers and he wanted nothing more than to consume her in all her raspberry and mint taste. She clutched at the fabric of his shirt and moaned low in her throat.

Nibbling on her lower lip, he grinned against her lips as her hands started roaming across his chest and underneath his t-shirt. Her fingers traced the lines of his abdomen and immediately he felt hard. His breathing came in heavier pants and he pulled her against him, trying to show her how much he wanted her. He cupped the back of her neck and angled her mouth so that his tongue could dive in deeper.

When she came up for air, the rain was still pouring down. Gripping her bottom in his hands, he lifted her up into his arms and cradled her against his chest. "Let's get you out of the cold," he said in her ear, carrying her shivering form towards his SUV. She nodded and kept her face against his chest, trying desperately to stay warm. "I love you, Baby Girl."

"I - I l-love you, t-too," she stammered, the cold finally setting in over her limbs and body.

This one's gonna change to rated M, it's looking like. Stay tuned for the next one and PLEASE REVIEW!