Disclaimer I hate you so much for making me keep saying this: I do not own Criminal Minds.

By the following Tuesday Penelope found herself in Derek's SUV, she watched the buildings pass as she got closer and closer to his place. When they made it she weakly got out of the car and immediately felt Derek's hand thread around her back and steady her on her feet.

Slowly they made it into Derek's place and he took her straight to the bed room, she smiled he'd put purple sheets on it and had fresh pyjamas ready for her. He gently sat her down and then began helping her to undress.

He just ran a hand gently over her bare skin; the amount of bandages covering her was shocking. The one down her chest was the obvious one, then there was the one where the chest drain had been, another obvious one but there was the one of her neck from the IV and the one of her on her groin, he smiled at her and pulled her pyjamas bottoms up one leg, then did the next one before grabbing the top and putting that on as gently as he could possibly make it. He then got her laying down in the bed and tucked her in.

'You need anything you just call me on the phone.' He told her, he was told by the doctor to get her home and straight to bed, she needed to be off her feet as often as possible for at least the first 3 weeks of being home. 'Anything you need?'

'No thanks Handsome.' She said tiredly and he turned the light off, making the room nearly dark with the curtains closed. 'Thank you... for everything.'

'No thanks needed, I want you better as soon as.' He said and kissed her. 'Now you get some sleep and I'll see you in a bit.' He then left her and went downstairs.

Penelope just lay there in the dark, she didn't know how to explain it but as soon as they had left the hospital she felt a new feeling begin to decline. She felt sicker than she had, and the exhaustion that shadowed her was scary; she could quite happily have laid down on the concrete and slept. Soon the sleep took over and she just slept, she wanted to sleep over this feeling.

Except when she woke up, the room was somewhat darker, showing the progress of the day, and the feeling of needing to throw up was building in her throat. She hurriedly, and to some extent with a terrified feeling, pushed herself into the bathroom, her legs buckling, making her fall to the floor by the toilet with a thud and she just made it.

Derek had only just checked on Penelope, and happy that she was finally settled he took a seat in the living room with his mom and sisters, but the moment he sat he heard the thud and without a second thought he was up and running towards the stairs. He found the bed empty and the bathroom do ajar, Clooney inspecting the room, he then heard the coughing and he went straight in to find Penelope bent over the toilet.

'Pen...' Derek said and automatically got onto the tiled flooring next to her, he knew his mom had followed but because he'd jumped stairs as he went he got up there a lot faster. 'You need anything?' Penelope shook her head as she threw up again, making her feel worse than she did already. He looked up at his mom helplessly, Fran just got him to move and she got down next to Penelope.

'You scared?'

'Why's this happening?' Penelope asked, she felt the urge to cry building up, the urge to sleep creeping in, the urge to just want to shrink consuming her.

'They changed the tablets before you left the hospital, that means your systems got to take that in to account. Plus you're walking around so much more than you can tolerate and you had opened heart surgery Penelope, not something minor but something major. You're body needs to deal with the sort of invasion that happened. In a couple of days it'll all calm down.' Fran soothed.

However a few days later Penelope didn't feel better. Derek couldn't help but panic about her, he tried to get her to eat, she didn't want to, he tried to get her out of bed, she didn't want to leave and he was near breaking point before his mom stepped in again.

'Look, Derek, she's been through a lot and right now her body and mind is going through the transition phase from being in hospital with the dependency being on doctors to coming home when she needs to learn to be independent again.'

'I feel helpless.'

'And you're going to but right now Penelope needs to be the one that can say when she's feeling odd, when her hearts doing something it shouldn't be, when she's ready to eat she will. In hospital, there's machines for this, and medicine to help with that, she's had that for over a week so she needs to just relearn to do it herself and she'll be fine.'

'Yeah but how longs that gonna take?'

'However long she needs to take to feel better. Just don't stress over it, because that's not going to help you or her and right now she needs you, more than ever and I know you know that so keep it going. Go and lay on the bed with her, talk to her, take the paper with you and read that to her, watch the telly with her, sleep with her during the day, just be there for her.'

Derek nodded and smiled, he then just ran towards his bedroom, he entered and saw Penelope stirring, his smile brightened and he stripped some and got into the bed with her, he wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled the best she could before falling back to sleep, he then just did the same and kept her in his arms until she was ready to be more like Penelope.

Later that day when Penelope opened her eyes, Derek was leaning against the head board, paper in hands. 'Anything interesting happening in the world?'

'No really, wish there were more exciting things to share but sadly not.' He said and put the paper on his lap and looked at her. 'You feeling any better?'

'A little, I've just got a little bit of pain in my chest. A little tired.'

'Well you're due your next meds so you know that's going to knock you out again and later I want you to try and eat anything.' Penelope groaned at the thought of food. 'I know you don't want to but you need to try Baby Girl, it's not going to do you any good otherwise.'

'I'll try, but just because it's you.' A knock came from the door and Derek got up, pulled his jeans on and opened the door, it was then Fran walked in.

'You got back then.' Derek commented and as his mom went and sat on the bed. 'Or ignore me.'

'Shh Derek.' She said and Penelope smirked. 'How are you feeling now?'

'A bit better.'

'Well I took a trip to the hospital, seems we've been worrying about you and your lack of eating and interaction.' Penelope immediately felt guilt shadow her, and she went to apologise. 'I dare hear I'm sorry I won't forgive you.' Fran said and Penelope stilled. 'I spoke to your doctor and he told me that not eating, not speaking much and not wanting to do a thing is perfectly normal. So you keep feeling like that because it'll pass.' She told Penelope and Derek sat back down on the bed. 'You feel the urge to cry, then you cry, you want to laugh you do so, but do it at your own pace because at the end of the day Penelope doing any of this recovery for someone other than yourself is only going to hurt you more.'

'But I'm affecting all of you.'

'Yeah but by doing things to suit us, to make us feel better is not going to get you better and that's affecting us more. So you do as you please Penelope but by the end of your third week you need to be up and walking around and eating.'

'And talking more.' Penelope added.

'Which you're already starting to do, so you see, things are looking up already.'