Chapter 7

AN:Thanks so much to all the wonderful readers and reviewers. I am still not getting reviews in my email, so I am terribly behind in responding (Heck, I am not even getting alerts that my chapters are posting!)...So, bear with me, and enjoy the next chapter...It's a little bit of a risk, but I sure hope you will love it...

Penelope was thoughtful and quiet while Kevin drove home. She felt horrible. Her heart ached for Derek. To add on to that, her forehead tingled where he'd kissed her, like a magic reminder of the chemistry she felt with him. It was always that way with Morgan: she felt things in overdrive when it came to him. It was never in small measures—at all times intense and full of emotion and caring.

She sighed, feeling like a bad friend because she wasn't helping Derek get what he wanted.

"What is that heavy sigh all about?" Kevin asked, still looking at the road.

She was wary of telling him about what she was thinking. He hadn't been positive all evening, and he hated discussing Derek's love life in general. She supposed it must've been a male thing—Derek hated discussing anything about Kevin, too.

"Nothing," she said diplomatically. She decided not to bother Kevin any more with this stuff. It really wasn't his responsibility, even though it affected her relationship with him.

"Penny Lane, I know that isn't the truth." He sighed himself, and then looked out the window. "Penelope, I know I wasn't very good this evening. I was fed up with all this Morgan drama. However, after nearly four years, I consider myself your friend, too, as well as your lover. Talk."

Penelope could tell he really didn't want to listen, but she felt like she was going to burst. This was a conundrum. Emily was out on a date, JJ would say to her, "You are the only one who knows what to do, Garcie," and…she couldn't exactly talk to Derek about this problem!

So, against her better judgment, she said, "I feel horrible."

"Why?"

She sighed again. "I wish I could tell him one of those women are okay. I really want him to be happy, Kevin! I wish I could say, 'That one, D!' But I can't."

"Why can't you?" Kevin asked. His tone wasn't cynical or nasty; it was matter of fact, questioning.

"Because they're not right for him," she answered quickly, somewhat exasperated. How could he ask that after those dates?

"Why?"

She gave a short laugh. "You know what they were like, Kev. They were awful, every one of them."

He was quiet again for a long time as they drove down the road. So long, she was certain that the subject had been dropped.

"You know what I saw?" They were at a stoplight, so he turned his head and looked at her. She noticed that his eyes narrowed just a bit, in serious contemplation. She knew that look. She'd seen it many times before.

"What did you see?" she asked, somewhat wary.

"I saw four nice women with slight flaws. Women that seemed perfectly fine to me."

"Please," she scoffed. "Loud or meek, whistling, weird…so, so not right for Derek."

"Nice, genuinely kind, interested in Morgan, good to us," he countered. He shrugged and looked back out the window. "Could be right."

"But they're not right for Derek," she emphatically said. "I know him. They're not right for him. They're—"

"They're not perfect, but they could be fine."

Penelope was growing more frustrated by the second. "No, Kevin, they couldn't!"

"Why?" he asked softly. He turned off of the highway onto her exit.

She huffed. She was definitely wrong to talk about any of this with Kevin. He didn't get it. He didn't understand any of this. He was just sick of it and wanted her to pick any pea-brained idiot with a pulse for Derek.

Well, she wasn't going to do it!

How could she doom Derek to failure with one of those women? Derek needed a kind, sweet, beautiful woman that would love him with all her heart, understand his pain, comfort him when he needed it. He'd said he wasn't going to fall in love, but she knew that was wrong. Derek had such a huge heart; he'd fall, and he'd fall hard. She didn't want to see him hurt. She'd rather die than see pain come to Derek.

She decided not to say another word, planning on being quiet the entire rest of the ride to her place.

Kevin must've had other plans. "Do you want to know what I think?"

She didn't, but she was a captive audience, stuck in a car for about five more miles.

Kevin was still looking out the window, and he looked nonchalant, but she felt that was deceptive. His hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly, his knuckles were turning white.

"Kevin?" she whispered, as a feeling of dread washed over her.

"I think Mother Theresa could be sitting across from Derek at Tia's, and you would still find fault with her." He continued looking forward, but he began to smile wryly. "I think a woman who looked like Miss Universe, with manners and grace like Princess Diana, and morals like the Virgin Mary, could be in that restaurant, and you would say she breathed the wrong way."

"Kevin, I—"

He interrupted her. "I think that whatever woman you saw with him would be incomplete in some way or another, and you would pan her, knowing she isn't right for your precious Morgan."

She gasped. "I am not that critical!"

"But the funny thing is," he continued, ignoring her completely. "I think you'd find that any one of those girls would be fine for me, or Hotch, or anyone else." He paused, and then said, "It's just Derek Morgan that they wouldn't work for."

"No—"

"Think for a minute, Penelope," he said, interrupting her again. "Think about me with one of those girls. Would I be too good for them?" There was no malice, no anger in Kevin's voice—just a sound of tired recognition.

Penelope's mind was reeling, and she felt nauseated. Kevin was absolutely right. There was too much truth in what he was saying. She didn't think she would feel that bad about Kevin dating those girls, or Hotch, or Rossi. In fact, she'd seriously thought about Reid meeting Suzannah. They'd debate avidly for hours!

So why was she doing it to Derek? Why wasn't any woman good enough? She loved Derek, no doubt about it, and he was the best of the best…didn't she want him to be happy?

That wasn't the issue. She wanted him to be the happiest, she wanted his relationship to be special, to be worthy of him. She loved him so much, she wanted someone that would see him as their everything, that would see him as the one who made the sun shine and the moon rise. Someone that would love him…that would love...

Someone that would love him like she did.

She paled, and tears were streaming down her cheeks. Her stomach ached, and her head hurt even more than it had a moment ago. She knew Kevin knew it, too—probably knew it a long, long time ago—that she was very in love with Derek, even though she couldn't face it herself.

He pulled in front of her apartment and put the car in park. He didn't say anything; he was simply silent, looking out the window. She blanched; she'd been so worried about hurting Derek, she'd never even realized how much pain she'd been causing Kevin. She felt terrible for that, too.

"I'm so sorry, Kevin," she whispered, sniffling.

When he turned to look at her, his smile was bittersweet. "Penelope, I knew when I first met you there was someone else in your life. Someone who mattered a great deal to you, and vice versa. I kind of knew this day was coming." He chuckled wryly. "I just didn't think it would have to be me that pointed it out."

"I don't know what to do," she said, wiping the tears off her cheeks.

"Yes, you do," he said with a smirk. He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "You're a bright girl; you'll figure it out."

That made her cry harder. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said. His eyes were wet now, too. "See you around, Penny. You know where to come, if you get lonely for code."

She chuckled and opened the car door. "You're a good man, Kevin Lynch."

"The best out there," he said arrogantly with a wink.

She shut the door, and he drove away.