Author's Note: I super duper apologize for the delay in posting this chapter. Real life around the holidays is hectic, and I really, truly wish that I could just have a day to sit at home, write, and finish this story so the followers don't hate me. I debated posting this chapter, but I figure if I post it, it'll give me the push I need to finish and post the next one ASAP. I hope it's not as long of a wait for the next chapter, and if it is, I apologize in advance.
Over the next week, the two of them completely avoided each other. Derek did two things: went to work, then came home. He never strayed from his new routine, and if he had to leave the house for something, such as walking Clooney or grocery shopping, he'd make it a quick trip and pray to whatever deities may be that he wouldn't run into Spencer. Because of this, he always offered to take extra shifts at the coffee shop, considering Spencer wouldn't show his face there. Anytime a co-worker wasn't able to work their shift, he immediately volunteered to take it from them, not even letting them question why he wanted it.
Anytime Penelope tried to talk to him, whether it was about Spencer or anything else, Derek would be too busy or need to do something and walk away from her before she could try again. No matter what she did, Penelope couldn't say more than two words to him without him ignoring her or distracting himself. Since he was taking on so many shifts, both morning and night, he rarely spent time away from the coffee house and was working a lot more hours than usual.
One afternoon, Hotch walked up to Derek. "Derek, could I talk to you for a minute?"
Derek raised an eyebrow. "Sure thing." He stepped away from the register, following him to the back room and leaning against the wall, crossing his arms. "What's up?"
Hotch sighed. "Are you aware that in the past week, you've nearly doubled your hours?"
He shrugged slightly. "I've taken a few more shifts for people who needed someone to cover, I didn't think it was a big deal."
"While I admire that you're willing to help out your fellow employees, you need to cut back on the hours."
"So long as the shift is covered, I don't see why it's a problem?"
"I appreciate your hard work, Derek, but you're going to have to switch shifts or say no."
Derek sighed, taking a deep breath and grabbing his jacket. "I'm going on my break," he mumbled, pulling it on and walking out of the back room, leaving the coffee house and closing the door behind him.
Hotch stepped out, looking at Penelope and pointing toward the door. "Is there something going on with him that I should know about?"
Penelope opened her mouth to respond before quickly shutting it, shaking her head. "It's not my place to tell."
"Not your place? You do realize you're Penelope Garcia, and gossip may as well be your middle name?"
She tapped her fingers on the counter. "While that may be true, the topic of Derek Morgan is not something I'm interested in discussing these days. Though if you'd like me to gossip, I know a certain Emily Prentiss was in town last week according to her Facebook page, but it's funny, because she didn't visit myself or JJ," she said, glancing up at Hotch.
He cleared his throat. "Back to work."
She smirked, saluting him. "No problem, captain."
Meanwhile, Spencer spent all of his time at his place. He didn't want to leave his house and risk running into Derek somewhere, or even run into Penelope and have to talk to her, knowing full well she would most likely be a messenger and tell Derek everything he said. He tried to keep busy looking through the acceptance letters, hoping to finally choose one, but they were just a reminder that he'd kept them a secret from Derek for so long and never thought to prepare himself for when Derek would find out. With all of the alone time, he got a lot of thinking done. He could've approached Derek about it months ago, telling him about it and maybe even offering to have Derek go with him. He could've found somewhere close and discussed the options with Derek. Instead, he was sitting in his living room, in his pajamas most of the time, thinking and pretty much regretting everything he'd done. He did love Derek and really wished they hadn't fought.
There were several times when JJ would attempt to check on him. At first, she would come by herself and try to get into his house to talk. That was met with an 'I'm busy' and him quickly closing the door. When she learned that wasn't the way to go, she started to use Henry. She'd tried mentioning him in conversations with Spencer, but that turned out to be a dud. It got to a point where she actually had to bring Henry with her so Spencer would invite them in and not slam the door in her face after very little talk.
JJ stepped inside, setting Henry down. "Buddy, why don't you go sit on the couch and I'll get you a drink, okay?"
Henry nodded, carefully walking over to the couch, shoving aside several books before sitting down.
"Been keeping busy?" JJ asked, turning to Spencer before walking out to the kitchen.
Spencer shrugged, looking around at the books off of their shelves, specifically off of the bookshelves that Derek had made for him. "Just doing some rearranging," he mumbled, walking over to his chair and sitting down.
"Why Uncle Spence in jammies, mommy?" Henry asked, looking over at him.
JJ grabbed a juicebox from the drawer in the fridge, walking out and putting in the straw, handing it to him. "Sometimes, adults like to stay in their jammies all day when they feel a certain way."
"I'm fine," Spencer mumbled, pulling his arms into his sleeve and sighing.
JJ raised her eyebrows, sitting next to Henry. "Well, Henry and I were going to head over to the park and go to the playground for a while, and we wanted to know if you'd join us."
"Please, Uncle Spence? We can swing. You get the big one."
Spencer smiled slightly, shaking his head. "I have a lot to do, today. Thank you though." He reached for the remote, putting on cartoons for Henry.
"Soap operas, Spence?" JJ asked.
"It's what's on," he put plainly. "Elle used to watch them when she was home during the day."
"How's she doing, anyway?"
He shrugged. "She met someone, they live up in New York near her family, and she's happy."
"Good for her. I take it you two still keep in touch?"
"Sometimes." He cleared his throat. "So, you two are going to the park?"
Henry nodded. "I wanted, and mommy said yes."
"Well, you have a good mom. Exercise is beneficial, as children these days spend at least seven and a half hours per day in front of a screen of some sort, and they need to unplug."
"What about you?" JJ asked. "Need to unplug, get out, get some fresh air?"
He shook his head. "I'm fine," he repeated.
JJ tried a few more times to get him out of the house before she ultimately gave up, telling Henry to say goodbye to his godfather and give him a hug before leaving.
What was especially hard for him was not thinking about Derek. He tried, but everything seemed to remind him of Derek in some way or another. Everything was attached to a memory of the two of them, and Spencer wished he could just ignore it all, but he couldn't. His couch reminded him of Derek's drunk not-so-accidental 'I love you', JJ mentioning the park had reminded him of when they'd had a snowball fight, his kitchen reminded him of the many mornings Derek would make him breakfast, and his study reminded him of their argument. He'd removed all of the books from the shelves Derek had made him and put them in piles around his apartment, as they had been before. He spent most of his time either reading or watching daytime television, hoping it would give him enough of a distraction to not think about Derek for a short while.
Considering the two of them were ignoring each other so well, Penelope wanted to be the one to get them to talk again, and hopefully get them back together. At work with Derek, she tried to slip Spencer into conversations without making it seem obvious, though subtlety had never been her forte.
"So," she started, tapping her fingers on the counter and eyeing Derek. "How have you been?"
He shrugged. "Fine," he put plainly, checking the clock.
"What, do you have somewhere to be?"
"Anywhere else would be great," he said, "just a couple more hours."
"What, you don't enjoy spending your time with someone as fabulous as myself?"
"It's not so much the company as the location."
"And what's wrong with the loca- oh," she said, realizing that this was where everything with Spencer had started. "Maybe some time off would help?" she suggested.
He shook his head slightly. "I'll just go home in a few hours, go down to my basement, and work it out."
"Does that help?"
"Does anything?" he asked.
"And you can't just talk to him? I mean, maybe it's not as bad as it seems and you two could work it out or something."
Derek took a deep breath before pulling off his apron, walking to the back room, pulling on his jacket, and walking out.
"...I'll take that as a no."
She thought that she may have better luck trying to talk to Spencer, considering they didn't see each other every day and it was less likely for him to get sick of her. One afternoon after her shift, she decided to stop by Spencer's place to see if he was up for something, whether it be leaving the house or just a conversation.
She knocked on the door a few times before she heard him moving on the other side of the door. It opened and she smiled at him. "Hi... need some company?"
He looked back at his living room, noticing the mess and sighing. "It's not a good time."
"It's as good of a time as ever to discuss the latest happenings in the Whovian world," she said, "now come on. If you're going to make me talk all things Capaldi with JJ, you're not the devout Whovian I thought you were."
He chewed on his cheek. "Ignore the mess," he mumbled, holding the door open.
"You, mess? I don't think those words go together like ever," she started, stepping inside and looking around, raising her eyebrows, "though I guess they do now. Where do you want me?"
He shrugged slightly, motioning toward the living room. "There I guess."
She walked to the living room, moving a stack of books off of the couch and onto the table, sitting down.
"What brings you here? Because you've been texting me about Capaldi after every episode, so I highly doubt you have any new material…"
"Busted," she said, clicking her tongue. "We um, have some specials coming up at the coffeehouse, if you're interested in hearing them? Because seriously, there's nobody out there who loves coffee as much as you."
"No thank you. Try again," he said, tucking his legs underneath himself in his chair.
She exhaled, eyeing him. "I'm kinda here for me, but I'm here for you too, and for Derek. I just, I think the two of you could talk about this and figure something out. You two care about each other way too much to let something so simple get between you."
"Simple?" he asked. "Me finishing school and trying to figure out what to do with my life is simple?"
"Okay, poor choice of wording." She thought to herself. "Well, basically, I miss you. We miss you. Even though he's as stubborn as the day is long and won't talk, I know he's hurting and he needs you back."
"It's not that easy. We both said things and it's not something you can just put a band-aid on and forget about."
"So you mentioned Julian. That doesn't mean you two need to ignore each other-"
He shook his head. "That's not what I meant, and I'd appreciate if you left."
She groaned. "Come on, Spencer."
He got up and opened his door, holding it open. "Don't put yourself into a situation you don't understand and try to empathize with me. Please leave."
She picked up her purse. "Fine. But when you want to figure out what to do? I'm here." She put it over her shoulder before walking out, Spencer closing the door behind her.
The following day at work, she turned to Derek. "Fine, you win."
He raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
She put up her hands. "You win. You're a big sad rain cloud, Spencer is a kicked little puppy, and there's nothing I can do to fix either of you. This is your problem to fix, not mine. I'm sorry, I'm done."
He tapped his fingers against the counter, nodding. "That's the smartest decision you've made to date. Congratulations."
"I admitted it. It doesn't mean I have to like it," she pointed out, "and if or when you two want to try to resolve this and don't know how? I'm here." He gave her a look and she shook her head. "Nevermind, your issue, all yours."
Penelope had been beyond frustrated when they kept up ignoring each other. She knew better than to talk about one to the other, and she was pretty sure they thought she was playing messenger. Anytime Derek wasn't at work, he was now at his home gym, working out. When she would stop by Spencer's, she saw either several coffee cups in the sink or takeout cups from other coffee places in the trash. She finally came to the decision that they wouldn't fix this themselves and she needed to do something to get them to interact again.
While Derek was on break one afternoon, she reached for the phone, dialing Spencer's number.
"Yes, Penelope?" he answered.
"Well, hello, Grumpypants. Is it possible that Spencer Reid is there and I could talk to him?"
He sighed, shaking his head. "Hello, dearest Penelope. How can I help you today?"
"That's better! I was wondering if I could ask you an itty bitty favor?"
He groaned. "Penelope, if this involves seeing Derek, I'm not ready to-"
"It's not!" she lied. "I was just - I was going to have a Doctor Who marathon on my next day off, because they're so few and far between these days and I need something to make them better-"
"You're rambling."
"Right, sorry. I'll get to my point. I can't find my David Tennant seasons anywhere and it's bothering me and I know you have that super set, so I was wondering if you'd lower the security you have on it so I could marathon? I absolutely promise you that I will treat them like your first born child and not let anything happen to them."
"Don't you usually illegally download the things you don't have?"
"...Usually, yes. But since one of the sources ratted me out to my provider, I'm on watch and can't exactly do that without getting my speeds cut down. And if there's something this girl needs, it's her internet speed. Now come on, please?"
He exhaled. "Fine, when are you going to be off of work?"
"That's the thing. I'm busy after work every day this week, and my next day off is going to be on Saturday-"
"Then I'll drop them off on Saturday?"
She winced. "Not possible. Honey, I love you, but no-makeup Penelope is not to be seen by anyone who is not sleeping with her."
"...We knew each other in college. I've seen you hungover and stuffing your underwear into your purse, in case you've forgotten."
"Yeah, that's the first and the last time you'll see me that way. Could you stop by the shop for a sec and just drop it off? I really don't have the time to get over there."
He was quiet for a minute before sighing. "Is he going to be there?"
"He's on break," she pointed out. "Please?"
"I'll be there in a few minutes."
Before she could say anything else, she heard him hang up. She smiled to herself, hanging up the phone and hoping this plan was going to work.
She kept eyeing the door, hoping Spencer would be late coming in and Derek would make it back from break. When Derek came back and pulled off his jacket, she squealed excitedly, clapping her hands together.
He raised an eyebrow. "Hello to you too?" he said, walking behind the counter and ducking into the backroom, pulling on the apron. "To what do I owe the excitement?"
"As if I need a reason to be excited to see your amazing face?"
He shrugged. "I guess not?" he tied the apron behind his back before stepping back out to the register.
When she saw Spencer's car pull up in the parking lot, she turned to Derek. "I think we need more decaf out here. We had that group of 'I need to study, but I don't want to be up all night' students earlier who practically wiped us out. I'd get it, but it's on the tippy top shelf and these heels don't make miracles happen in the form of that much height."
He put up his hand. "Say no more, I'm on it." He patted her arm before walking to the back room, closing the door behind him.
She turned back to the door as Spencer was walking in. "You, good sir, are a godsend and I love you."
He raised an eyebrow. "Thank you?" He handed her a bag. "I've taken note of every dent and ding on the box. Don't add to them, because I've also included the links to eBay listings for a brand new set, and they're not cheap."
"Consider it noted." She tucked it underneath the register, smiling. "You are a superhero among mere mortals, thank you. I'll return it to you as soon as I finish, I promise. And it'll even come with Tardis shaped cookies if you so wish."
He shrugged. "Okay." He dug through his pocket, taking out his car keys. "I'll be seeing you."
She reached out. "Wait, don't you want a coffee or something for old time's sake?"
He swallowed, checking his watch and shaking his head. "No thanks, I should get going."
"...What about discussing the latest episode?"
He looked at her confused. "If I didn't know any better, you don't want me to leave, which is ridiculous, because you know I don't want to be here. Which could only mean-" he paused, groaning, "Penelope, you didn't."
"Technically, I didn't do anything," she noted, "you just happen to be here at the same time."
"Who are you talking to?" Derek asked, walking out and turning to the shelf, putting up bags of decaf.
"Just a friend."
He raised an eyebrow. "Just a friend? You have never used those words to describe anybody you know."
Spencer's eyes went wide and he shook his head. Before he could head for the door, she clicked her tongue. "See for yourself."
Derek turned around and saw Spencer standing there, awkwardly toying with the strap on his bag, focusing on the floor. He shook his head, looking at Penelope. "You said you were staying out of this… you said this was my problem to fix, not yours."
"I know that's what I said, but I never really promised it. And besides, you were taking entirely too long to do something about it. This isn't elementary school and you're not two kids with a crush on each other, nor did you fight on the playground. I'm done watching you be sad little puppies and I want it to be over."
He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing. "I can't believe you did this."
"Well, I can. So stop talking to me and start talking to him," she said, pointing to Spencer.
"He can leave," Derek said, "he was planning on it."
Spencer bit his cheek, turning to Penelope. "This was wrong, and I can't believe you did this behind my back."
"It's not like I could do it to your faces," she defended, "all I get when I bring up the other one is a blank stare or a 'shh' or a subject change and I'm sick of it."
"It's not your problem!" Derek snapped, causing everyone in the shop to turn and look at him.
Hotch stepped out of the back. "What's going on out here?"
"Nothing," Derek said quickly, "I just- nothing. I raised my voice and I'm sorry."
Hotch looked at Penelope who motioned toward Spencer and sighed, leading Derek to the back door, lowering his voice. "I can't have you bringing your problems to work with you, Derek. You need to check your personal life at the door."
"I have been," he defended, "it's not my fault that Penelope brought my personal life to work when it's not her business what's going on!"
"Go home," Hotch put plainly. "I want you to go home, clear your head, and come back fresh tomorrow."
"I'm fine," he insisted, "believe me, I'm fine. I just need to keep working."
"While it may be a good distraction and I appreciate your work ethic, I can't have you making comments or snapping at a customer."
"A customer?! He hasn't bought a single thing from this place in nearly two weeks. If anything, he's just loitering on the property."
"That's enough," Hotch said. "Go."
Derek groaned, slamming open the door with his hand and grabbing his things, pulling off his apron and throwing it down. He pulled on his jacket and took out his keys, walking out and looking at Penelope. "Thanks for affecting my paycheck. Really, it's great." He walked right past Spencer and outside, closing the door behind him.
"Thanks," Spencer said sarcastically, "as if I needed to feel lower than I already did." He reached behind the counter, grabbing his bag and walking out, closing the door.
She winced, turning to Hotch. "Sorry."
He opened his mouth to speak but instead shook his head. "Whatever it is, no more. Get back to work, I need to find someone to cover the rest of his shift."