Close Quarters

Chapter Two

April 2010

Derek felt much more relaxed after he jacked off in the shower. Now he could face this day and the issue of having an adjoining room with Penelope with a much more clear head.

He had just stepped out of the shower, and wrapped a towel around himself, when he heard his phone ringing. He left the bathroom. As he walked across his room, he cast a glance at the still opened door to Penelope's room.

He pushed his door closed. He didn't need to see her again right now, get turned on, and have another boner before work. Especially when she would notice since he only had terry cloth wrapped around his waist.

He grabbed his cell. "Morgan."

"Hey, its me," said JJ, her voice sounding a little weird. "Hotch says we need to be downstairs in five."

"I'm throwing clothes on now. Thanks."

"Sure!" she chirped in a giggly way.

He furrowed his brow. Something was up with her but hell if he knew what it was. He opened a drawer and pulled out clothes, then went to the bathroom to change.

He could change in the main part of the room but that would mean locking the door between his room and Garcia's. He didn't want to do that. She might need him for something and she should feel like she could come in his room if that happened.

Derek would just have to make sure he was careful and she didn't get another eyeful.

XXXXXXXXXX

Penelope blushed deeply when Derek walked out of the hotel. Everyone was standing around three matching black SUVs.

Derek nodded at her, but stayed cool and detached otherwise.

Hotch said "All right, now that we are all gathered, I want Dave and Reid to start a canvas of the downtown. This is a small town. People talk. Someone might know something and not even realize they know it. JJ," he passed her newspaper "deal with this." The headline screamed that a serial killer was lose in the area, something that JJ had told the local media to not play up the day before. "Go there in person and make them get that they are only inflaming our unsub with their coverage. Something we are not prepared for yet." Then he added "Prentiss, you are with me. We're interviewing the parents of the last victim. They got into town last night and they're waiting at a motel near the interstate. Then we have to take them to claim the body." He looked at Morgan. "You get Garcia over to the second victim's place. She can work the computer today while you search the house. As I understand it she lived alone. Its an hour drive east."

The unsub was using the whole northern part of the state as a hunting ground.

They team broke up into the different vehicles. JJ rode with Rossi and Reid, who would take her by the newspaper office and pick her up after her meeting.

Penelope tried not to let her uncomfortableness show as Derek opened the car door for her and she got inside. She could still hear, in her head, him moaning and saying "Fuck yeah, just like that, baby girl."

Her body was on fire over it.

She had rushed back to her own room, grabbed her purse and headed to JJ's room before Derek could even make it out of the bathroom. She did her make up over there while JJ nagged her until Penelope admitted what had happened.

Not that she held out long. More like two minutes and then she sang like a canary.

Penelope felt like she had betrayed Derek's privacy and trust, a little bit, but she also felt like it was just too hot to not share. Damn, it turned her on to know he was touching himself and thinking about her.

Wow.

She snuck a glance at him as he started the car. Why did he always have to look so good? She would be wondering the whole ride to the victim's apartment if Derek could smell how aroused she was.

How in the hell could she get through spending all day working in close proximity to him? He might be her best buddy but he was also her favorite sex object, at least to imagine seducing.

The real thing?

She used to think she could rock the hell out of his world. But that was three years, one bullet, one boyfriend (who insisted she was too uptight between the sheets) and lots of tears ago.

Now her confidence was shaken. Badly. But he was still as hot as ever. Life was so unfair.

XXXXXXXXX

"You okay, Garcia?" Derek asked as he drove down the road.

She squirmed in her seat. "Doing just fine, sweetness. How are you doing this morning? It's a little early, isn't it? I think we should be given at least nine hours off between shifts. Time to eat, shower...um, er..." cough "shower and sleep. Don't you? That is only fair. But then again what is fair about these poor women getting killed? And we are the only hope for not letting it happen again to someone else. So if that means giving up some sleep then, I suppose, its not too much for Hotch to ask really. I'm sure he is as tired as the rest of us. I doubt he's had a good night sleep in the last six months. I feel so devastated for him, still, don't you? When does it get easier? Maybe it never does-"

"Take a breath, motor mouth." He chuckled. "I need coffee. What about you?"

"Coffee would be good. Sure! Though I already got some in the lobby of the hotel at the continental breakfast. I couldn't leave the hotel without some caffeine in me. God knows what this day will bring so I figured I better get myself properly prepared. Didn't you notice the coffee as you walked by? It was in that little room off the lobby. They had rolls too and-"

Derek pulled into a donut shop that had a drive through. "Baby girl, I love you, but please you gotta relax. You're squirming all over the place and talking a mile a minute." He placed their order. As they waited he looked at her. "So....that was....um....kinda hot...this morning, huh?"

"HUH?" She jerked to attention and looked at him, blushing again. "What was?"

"Don't play with me, woman. You know what."

Her only response was to stare at him and swallow. Her eyes were focused on his lips. She kept hearing him moaning in her head. But he hadn't known she was there....or had he?

Derek went on. "Don't be embarrassed," his tone was sweet and gentle. "I sure liked that early morning wake up call of having my girl in my arms." He grew more serious. "And we're both adults, right, so no big thing. Stuff happens, right?"

"Uh....right. Sure. Nothing really happened. You saw me in my pajamas. You've seen that before."

His eyes teased her, saying that she looked a lot better in her silky nightgown then in sweats. "Exactly. And, besides, with that adjoining door its liable to happen again, if we are stuck here a while. Its looking like we could be here another two weeks if we don't catch a break, so we might as well not sweat it if we accidently catch a peek of each other."

The fast food worker gave Derek their coffees. When he looked at Penelope again her eyes were wide. She asked "Did you just say two weeks?"