Disclaimer I hate you so much for making me keep saying this: I do not own Criminal Minds.
6 months earlier....
The team trudged in after another case, their minds already mentally writing the reports that were waiting. They wanted their homes, their sanctuaries, a place for them.
But they knew they had to wait for such safety. Entering the bullpen they all smiled. Sitting their desks were a coffee each, a bag and a note.
'Penelope Garcia strikes again.' Derek said with a larger smile as he picked up the note for him.
*Well, well, well, what's that I see right there at your desk? Would it be a piece of chocolate deliciousness? Oh no wait that's you! Silly me!
Anywho! Enjoy the cupcake, cupcake!
Love P
X*
He couldn't help but laugh at her even if it was in note form. He knew where she was right now, why she wasn't here to greet them; her and Kevin were having a deep conversation, one about their future. Kevin was gonna propose tonight and something about that made him breathless and his head spin.
Emily smiled more as she pulled the bag apart. With the bag in hand she then grabbed the note
*Hey honey! Got your favourite so eat that case away! Love Pen*
Reid grabbed the note and knew Penelope hadn't let him down. *Hey kiddo, get that sweet tooth satisfied! Love Pen* he opened the bag to find a chocolate brownie and immediately broke a bit off and ate.
'Hungry there kid?' Derek asked him as he sunk into his chair and grabbed his cake.
'Just a bit.' Reid replied innocently. 'How does she know our favourites?'
'Oh Reid, you might be amazing at facts but with Pen you lack, she knows more than she let's on.'
'I second that!' Derek replied with a mouthful, and Emily rolled her eyes before starting her report.
JJ sunk into her chair immediately before her eyes ran over the drink, bag and note. She took a large sip of the drink and sat forward completely. *JJ, kitten, enjoy a little you time before that gorgeous kiddie and hubby consume you! Pen x*she smiled and felt at ease, looking in the bag she smiled more as a cookie sat in the bottom.
Rossi grabbed the note in his usual manner and read it as he stood. *Well I couldn't guess your sweet tooth favourite so I went with what I know. G* he looked in the bag and laughed. There in his bag were 3 tiny bottles of his favourite scotch.
Hotch walked into his office and saw the white bag as it sat primly with a large coffee and a note. Immediately the guilt consumed him and he remembered how rude he'd been to Penelope throughout that case, looking in the bag he saw a sugar doughnut and then he smirked and grabbed the note.
*You dare apologise for the case I'll have to tell Jack his father's into cannibalism... Enjoy the doughnut boss man! G*
He put the note down and left his office. 'Go home guys, get some rest, the report will be there in the morning.' He said and everyone gratefully got their bags, coffee, cake and left.
Penelope was near enough on cloud 9 as she entered her apartment, she had long since accepted 2nd best and she was happy with her decisions in life. She was happy and settled after the case, content with herself for leaving the team their own unique little presents.
'Hey honey.' Penelope said as Kevin left her bedroom, she looked past him and saw the suitcase on the bed, her smile dropped, her good mood depleted in an instance. 'Kevin, what's happening? Are you going away?'
'I'm leaving.' He said and a guilty look hung on his features. 'I've been lying to you for too long now and I can't do this anymore.'
'Excuse me? Lying to me?' Penelope asked as her heart faltered, she thought she was coming home to a marriage proposal, she told Derek she was excited about the idea of marrying Kevin Lynch and as he stood there she realised how much of a liar she'd been. 'Leaving me?'
'I'm seeing someone else Penny.'
She saw red then. 'Penny? It's Penelope and you have the audacity to tell me, I need to stop talking to Derek and you're seeing someone else. Who is she?'
'It doesn't matter.'
'Are you going to her now?'
'To him yes.' That hit her and stilled her, him, did he just say him? 'I'm gay, and I did love you when we started this and my family were happy that I'd found a nice girl with the idea of settling down but it's always been there and I can't lie about what I am.'
'You're gay?' She asked and she felt her hands shake, she felt sick. 'Get out.' She said as she tried her keep her tears a bay and get through this torture. 'Leave my place now and never come near me again.'
'Penelope... I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen.'
'No it just did didn't it?' She asked him and stepped away from his hands as he tried to touch her. 'Why didn't you just go with the 'It's not you, it's me' bull shit!' She said and grabbed what she could and threw it at him, first a cushion, then a vase, then a photo frame, then another cushion, she just kept it going, Kevin dodging it all. 'I seriously thought you were going to propose tonight.' She said and threw a glass dish. 'Get out Kevin!' She near enough screamed as she kept herself as strong as she could.
Kevin left pretty sharply after that, he made a dash, telling her he'd brought her stuff back and that he was sorry, and he left kicking himself. He was going to gently ease it into the I'm leaving you moment not just do it but he had be culminating everything. For some reason the idea of his girlfriend and Derek Morgan continually flirting angered him more now that he was leaving than it ever had.
As the door shut over the broken glass, Penelope broke. She sunk to the floor and sat there, hot angry tears flew down her cheeks and she just put her hands to her lip and wondered how it'd all gone wrong. She had been bragging to Derek how happy she was, how she was ready to move onto the next stage of her life and she couldn't wait to be married.
Now, however, that was all back at being a pipe dream, all being up on the drawing board and she had to go to work the next day and be happy, and chatty, and laugh, and be excited and calm everyone's stresses so she sucked in a deep breath and went to clean up the multiple, now smashed, objects that littered her apartment.