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Here's another chapter of this little saga. Thanks for the reviews!

4 Months Later

Derek entered the house after being gone for two days to find the twins and Haley sitting uncomfortably on the couch, staring at random places around the living room. Their expressions were mixed and Haley was wiping her cheeks. He put his go-bag down by the door and took off his jacket. "Everything okay guys?" he asked. He glanced around for Penelope and Eden.

"Mom kind of…lost it," Asher said bluntly.

As he was about to ask what they meant by "lost it," Derek heard an unholy scream from the upstairs and a crash of a glass. Racing up the stairs, he hollered, "Penelope!" Worry filled his head and he shouted again, "Penelope!"

Eden was sitting in the doorway of her parents' bedroom, crying into her knees. Derek knelt by her sobbing form and said, "Eden, what happened?" he asked, grasping her forearms. "Eden, where's your mother?"

"S-she just started –" Eden sobbed.

Derek stood up and ran to the master bathroom where he found Penelope, standing in front of their mirror which was now shattered. By the looks of it she had also broken a few drinking glasses in the sink. He gawked at the sight and said, "Penelope, what happened?" Because he was still wearing his shoes, he walked gently over to her and put his arms around her. "Baby Girl?"

Penelope's face was stained with tears and he pulled her into his arms, lifting her off the ground. She sobbed against his chest, staining his t-shirt. "I'm s-s-orry," she wailed. "I woke up when the kids came home and I thought someone was in the house and –"

"Shh," he soothed, kissing her head.

"I scared Haley," she said, wiping her teary face. "I can't believe I did that!"

"Baby, it's okay," he said. He laid her down on the bed and crawled in next to her, holding her in his arms. "I'll talk to her. Make sure she understands what happened. It will be okay."

"You can't tell her what happened, what Kevin did to me," she hiccupped. "You can't tell her." Through her tears, she kept mumbling she was sorry. Derek held her tightly in his arms the entire time, until her sniffles grew into silence and steady breathing. He could still hear Eden by the door as he kissed the top of Penelope's head. Rising gently from their bed, Derek pulled the comforter up around her and pushed some hair back from her face sadly.

Leaving his room, Derek pulled Eden up from the ground and hugged her. "It's going to be okay," he said softly. "Your mom is going to be okay, she's just…"

"It's my fault," Eden whispered. "I came upstairs and surprised her on accident while she was working on the computer."

"Baby Doll, your mom has just been a skittish of people," he said. "She's even been a little scared of me." It was only somewhat true. While Penelope was avoiding the topics of how she was feeling or how her psych examinations were going, she was consistently pulling Derek into bed whenever they had alone time. And it was worrying him. It didn't make sense that her sexual appetite was up times a thousand.

Eden sighed. "Our sessions we've had together have gone really well for the most part," she said quietly. "What's happening to her?"

Derek sighed and kissed his daughter's forehead. "I don't know."

XXXXX

It was dinner time and Penelope was still sound asleep. Derek called all the kids into the kitchen for dinner and said, "Alright, dinner guys!" Haley was the last to come in and sit down and her face was still set in sadness. She sat down next to her sister and slumped in her chair.

"Haley, are you okay sweetie?" Derek asked, squeezing her shoulder before sitting down.

"Yeah," Haley shrugged. "I'm fine. Can you pass me the rolls?" The whole kitchen was silent for the entire time they passed the food around. The twins were merely picking at their food, Eden just sipped her water, and Haley stared at the floor.

Derek put his fork down and sighed, "Okay, this is not normal for you four. What's going on?"

"Is Mom going to be okay?" Aiden asked gruffly.

All four of his children looked at him and Derek knew the spotlight was on all of them. Eden already knew what was wrong with her mother – she'd had nightmares about it – but the rest of them were all confused. None of them knew why their mother was having her third meltdown in the past four months. None of them knew why their older sister was waking up screaming in the night.

"She'll be okay," he said softly. "With time. She'll be okay."

XXXXX

Penelope woke up with a pounding headache. She sat up in the bed and put her head in her hands, feeling tears burn in the back of her eyes. She hadn't meant to scare her twelve year old, but when she'd heard Eden thundering up the stairs, she went into overdrive. Her heart had started to race and she became scared that someone was in the house. There was no rational reason behind her thinking, but she got so upset she locked herself in the bathroom. But when she looked in the mirror, she saw Kevin's reflection, and that was when she lost it. She threw anything she could find at the mirror until his reflection went away.

"Mom?"

She looked up to see Haley coming in the room, her small face hesitant. Penelope instantly felt guilty. The look on her daughter's face when she burst out of her bedroom was enough to make her think she was a monster for the rest of her life. "Yeah, baby?"

Haley walked over and sat down next to Penelope. "Are you…okay?"

She shook her head. "No, baby. I'm not okay." She pulled Haley into her arms, which was welcomed, and added, "I'm sorry if I scared you earlier. I'm so sorry." A few tears trickled down her cheeks and she sniffled. "But I'm going to get better. I promise."

"It's okay, Mom," Haley said sweetly. She hugged her mother tightly and let her cry into her hair.

XXXXX

"They should all be asleep now," Penelope whispered huskily in Derek's ear late in the evening. She ran a fingernail up his chest that age had not touched one bit. "We could –"

Derek put a finger to Penelope's lips and asked, "Baby, can I just hold you for a little while?" She sat up on her elbows and stared at him like he was crazy. Laughing, he said, "What is that so bad? We've been going at it like rabbits for the last few weeks. I just want to hold on to you for a little while."

Penelope sighed softly and let Derek pull her towards him to hold her against him. He put his hand on her hip and wrapped the other around her waist. "I love you, Baby Girl," he whispered in her ear, his breath tickling her skin. "And I love having sex with you, but we need to talk. I don't care how much we talk about, but I miss just talking with you."

Turning onto her other side so that her chest was against his, she kissed his neck and said, "What do you want to talk about?" She touched his beard and smiled.

"I want to make sure you're okay," he said. "You really scared all of us earlier."

She wrapped her arms around Derek and said tearfully, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry about this whole thing."

"Baby," he began, "you've got to stop beating yourself up. You went through something terrible and it affected you in the worst way. Haley understood. She knows you didn't mean to scare her. Don't worry about her." He kissed her forehead and showered her face with them until she was smiling through her tears.

"And you, I've been treating you like a sex toy!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry, Baby. I just don't know what's gotten into me lately."

He cupped her cheek gently and kissed her fervently. "You can treat me like a sex toy all you want. As long as I make it just as good for you," he said with the slight hint of a growl in his voice. His hand slid down her neck and trailed his fingers down to her breasts.

"Is this a proposition?" she laughed as his lips touched the base of her throat.

"Maybe…" He kissed her shoulders this time.

"Are we gonna do it anyway?" she asked breathlessly as his hand slid under the waistband of her silk panties.

"You know I can't resist you," he said huskily. "You wanna be on top, player?"

"You know it," she whispered as she slid on top of him.