Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing, just the plot bunny ;)
A/N:This story is winding down to an end I'm afraid! SO enjoy it while it lasts and thanks, as always, for the reviews, alerts and favourites =)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- While In Wonderland -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Do you believe in Heaven?" Penelope asked as she turned her head to look at Emily. "I mean really believe that when you leave this world that you go onto somewhere else, that you don't just die."
Emily looked at her perplexed; she hadn't expected this type of conversation topic that was for sure. Yet as she looked at Pen's expression she knew it wasn't a joke or a subject to be taken lightly. Penelope was deadly serious about what she had just asked.
"I mean, we can't just die can we?" She asked, "I mean," She completely stopped then and ran a shaky hand over her head. "Me and Derek, we were..." Shaking her head Penelope just froze then. "Ignore me."
Frowning, Emily leant forward, standing up and then sat on the edge of the bed. "You can't stop now, PG." She told her and took her friend's hand, "You can tell me while we're alone. You know you can."
Penelope looked at her friend, "I was in paradise with Derek," She said so simply and felt her eyes begin to well with memories. "For weeks we spent time alone, just me and him in our house, at the beach, nowhere in particular and then one day I started to bleed."
Sensing Penelope's distress, Emily tried to make sense of what she was getting at. "Pen, what exactly are you getting at?" She saw Penelope's lips pinch together in an attempt to dismiss the topic at hand. "Don't tell me it's nothing, not now I want to know."
Smiling weakly, "Me and Derek, we thought it was all a dream." Penelope's chest heaved a little with a despondent sob, "He remembered the house exploding but woke up, he could've sworn it was dream, a nasty, vicious dream and I convinced him it was because I mean," She paused to calm herself a little, her heart beat gathering momentum, "I mean I wasn't hurt, I was fine, I was perfectly fine for weeks before we had any idea."
"You were where?"
Penelope looked into Emily's eyes, "I don't know." Penelope confessed and put her head right back against the pillows, "It was like real life, we were at ours, it was so real but it wasn't real. No one else was there with us, it was literally just the two of us and when I woke up here it was so weird. I was on a beach one moment, in Derek's arms and the next thing I knew I was drifting and the doctor was here."
"So what..." Emily started thoughtfully, "You were in some sort of purgatory?"
"Purgatory?" Penelope asked back, "Isn't that where souls go to be judged for punishment?"
"I guess, but I mean, come on, that's what it sounds like. You and Derek were in some kind of limbo waiting on the fates to decide whether or not to save you."
"But was it fate for Derek or did I beat fate by saving him?" Penelope asked Emily quickly, "I know it sounds so stupid, but think about it, he wasn't going to wake up without that and now we're both going to be discharged next week."
"You can't hang your faith on that, Pen. It's not fool proof."
"To me it is," Penelope argued back, "I lived it, Emily, I was there, with Derek. It was both of us, we both remember it. If it wasn't real then he wouldn't remember it and nor would I. It is real." Penelope breathed out exasperated then, her heart still pounding fiercely in her chest. "I don't know how to explain it, but it happened."
"Okay, it happened."
"Don't just agree when I know that you're lying to me." Penelope batted back, "You know not to lie to me, EP." Penelope scorned Emily playfully, "Especially when I'm laying in a hospital bed."
"You don't play fair you know that right?" Emily asked her back, and then dropped her gaze and Penelope's grip tightened reassuringly, "I'm glad you woke up, though, Pen."
Penelope could only smile at that, the thought of what they all went through in the immediate aftermath filled her with such consuming guilt it was overwhelming. She hated seeing any of them hurting when it wasn't her fault, and there she was causing them pain.
"I'm glad I did too," Penelope finally said, "I'm really glad we both did." She finalised as Emily looked up at her and smiled as their eyes met. "And one day you're going to go to wherever me and Derek went and you're going to know I was right."
"One day, Garcie, one day."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- While In Wonderland -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"I'm more in love now, Kid, than I ever gave myself credit to be." Derek said, his tone somewhat full of awe. "Do you believe in angels?"
Reid had to laugh, "Scientifically, there is no empirical truths to the existence of ghosts or, what seem to be commonly linked, angels. They're described as figments of our imaginations."
Derek chuckled then, "Go to Pen's room and look at her, because there'll be the angel of my life." He continued to tell him with such love and admiration. "What about heaven and hell and all that? What's that brain of yours think about that?"
"Again, there's lack of proof, there's no way to empirically prove its existence."
"What if I said I'd been there?" Derek said, "Lived it, breathed it, loved it?"
"It's your word," Reid started.
Shaking his head, Derek interrupted, "Pen was there too, Reid, actually there living it and she remembers being there."
"It can't be possible..."
"Why can't it?" Derek questioned him back, "Who got the ring for Penelope?"
"Me..." Reid replied warily of where this was going exactly.
"My baby girl had no idea of where that ring was before that explosion. I told her while we were in some sort of limbo, Kid. I told her exactly where they would be. In the pocket of those shorts, the middle drawer."
"Maybe she had found them beforehand and had chosen to let you believe she hadn't actually found it."
Derek shook his head, "No, she can't lie to me to save her life. It's all in her eyes when she lies, believe me." Derek told him, "We were on the borderline of heaven and hell I tell you now."
"You were in a coma, it's possible, with the amount of brain activity you were both exhibiting during that time, would mean you were imaging the other being there. You are one another's safe bases."
"You can give me any response you want to, Genius, but there's only one thing for it." Derek said and took in Reid's still somewhat shocked expression. "When you're this in love, you literally are one soul between two people. You're that connected. What happened, it's proof."
Reid couldn't keep arguing with that much intense honesty.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- While In Wonderland -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I've got an angel
She doesn't wear any wings
She wears a heart that can melt my own
She wears a smile that can make me wanna sing
She gives me presents
With her presence alone
She gives me everything I could wish for
She gives me kisses on the lips just for coming home
She could make angels
I've seen it with my own eyes
You gotta be careful when you've got good love
Cause the angels will just keep on multiplying
But you're so busy changing the world
Just one smile and you can change all of mine
We share the same soul
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- While In Wonderland -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Song: Jack Johnson - Angel