Disclaimer: I don't, as ever, own a single thing =(
A/N: I apologise for the break that has occurred with updates! Life took over and not all for the good, so my heads been all over the joint... But I did finally get this done and I hope you like =)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Needing Cupid's Help -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Derek went into his next lesson completely besotted that he and Penelope were finally getting their big break. He walked in more self assured, and he was positive that he was doing it all right. Derek took a seat and sat back relaxed, he wasn't going to find this embarrassing.
Lesson one had paid off after all.
"Let's skip all chit chat; did any of you get the chance to put any of last week's lesson into action? You had three different times here to work on that one area..." Gwen asked as she propped on the desk and looked at them. "Clive?"
"I thought we were waiting until lesson 5 to try them out." Clive replied innocently and Derek snickered, Clive looked at him. "What did you work it?"
"I did actually," Derek said coolly, "Worked as well."
Gwen smiled, she could tell he wasn't lying about and she knew it was working. "So come on then, Derek, what happened?" She asked him eagerly.
Derek smirked, grabbed his pen that was on his desk and began to fiddle with it before he begun to tell them what had actually happened.
"We'd been out with our friends and I offered to walk her home. I apologised for my recent behaviour and she told me she understood, I didn't want her to understand it like that, so I took her to the river front and we sat there and she opened up to me. We started getting quite deep and I pulled rank and we went to hers for a film night. I ended up going to work the next day in the same clothes."
"Oh! You were successful!" Gwen said excitedly, assuming things.
"Afraid not, I had the couch, but I did learn more about her than I ever did." Derek said happily, he didn't want that night to end any other way than it did. It was perfect that way.
"Well you're stepping it up on your own." Gwen said and smiled as she moved in front of Alan. "Well... you've been too quiet." Alan looked up, a cheesy grin on his lips. "How'd it go?"
Derek sat and listened as they exchanged the stories between them, he wanted to gloat, his lesson taking had been all worth it. Maybe not for Clive, but it'd worked a little for Alan and he knew it could only get better.
"Right you three. Lesson two is all about presenting yourself. She's not going to wait around on a man that doesn't seem eager and willing. You need to inject yourself into her life the best ways possible. Do things memorable. Do things that she wouldn't have you down as doing. Whatever you do, have her in your mind at all times. This is for her, make her see that."
Gwen watched them all write notes down, absorbing the lesson as she paced back and forth.
"The aim of the game is to be eager. Keep that in mind, eagerness will get you extremely fair. Try to take her out, keep it low key and familiar. Movie then meal, lunchtime coffee, picnic in the sun, day at the beach. Just don't rush it and do not, at any cost, make her feel like you want to be elsewhere."
Derek looked up from his notes, he could do this. It wasn't a hard task. It wasn't difficult. They'd been to the movies, done the meal, done a picnic on the beach, had coffee and so much more. He just had to step it up. Daily lunches, coffee breaks, Friday night out for a movie, go for a meal.
Derek Morgan was a ladies' man, he was suave, he was cool, he was able to do this. He just had to quit with the second guessing.
He just needed some careful planning and an agreeable Penelope.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Needing Cupid's Help -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Derek watched Penelope slug her way through their Friday shift. They weren't expected out, yet paperwork seemed at its heaviest. He'd been kept busy all day. Finally signing off his last report he stood up and went to Penelope's office.
He tapped before entering the room. He saw Penelope swallowing what looked like two white pills and he noticed her flushed look. When she was done, she turned and looked at him, a weak smile greeting him.
"You okay, Handsome?" She asked in her normal tone, there was a slight hint of tiredness and pain.
"I should be asking you that." He said as she stepped in and went towards her. "What's up?"
Penelope looked away. "Girlie problems. Penelope Garcia's hanging with her real BFF."
"Ouch," Derek put a hand to his chest. "I'm hurt." He teased her and she laughed. "You up for a meal tonight?" He asked her and he saw her face contort in thought. "It's not that hard a decision."
"So certain of yourself," She commented with a smile, "I'll let you pick me up at 8."
"Good, you okay to go dancing?" He asked warily, he knew if she was having girl problems maybe she wouldn't want to go out and party with him.
"If you're my partner then hell yeah, my Chocolate God." Penelope agreed immediately. "I always like my bump and grind time with you. Or well our dry humping sessions."
Derek chuckled at her. "I'll pick you up at 8 then, Baby Girl." Derek said and left the office without another word, he needed to get home and find something good to wear. Yet he paused in the corridor and turned back and went in there. "Wear your LBD, Baby Girl. I want you looking hot."
"Oh Mamma shall look hot then," Derek turned to leave, "But only under the condition that you look hotter?"
"Count it done." He told her and winked before leaving completely.
Penelope sat back in her chair. Considering she was emotional and suffering chronic stomach and back ache and wanted to hide under the duvet with a hot water bottle and a film on, she was surprisingly spritely now. Her time of the month didn't matter; she had a date with Derek Morgan. This time it wasn't going to be devastating because he was calling the shots on what to wear, not leaving her to second guess and overdo it.
After all Derek wanted her in her LBD.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Needing Cupid's Help -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Derek looked at his watch, it was just before 8 and he was nervous. Really nervous. He could only imagine what Penelope looked like and he looked down at himself. Smart trousers, a shirt, polished shoes; he was pulling out all the stops.
He knocked and got no response, he smirked, she always took too long to get ready. He waited and knocked again. He watched the door unlock and Penelope looked at him.
"I'm not ready." She said and looked down at herself and back up at him. She was half dressed, hair a mess, face with no makeup on. "Sorry."
Derek offered her a small smile. "It's okay, what's up?"
"I feel like crying." She admitted and dissolved into tears.
Derek did the only thing to do, he gathered her in his arms and held her. "I'm sorry, I need to get ready."
"Hey, we don't need to go out." He said as he pulled her into her apartment, closing the door with his foot and then took her to the couch and pulled her down. "We can stay in." He said as he saw the pot of pills out, a hot water bottle and a blanket screwed up on the leopard print couch.
"No, we haven't been out in a while and now..." she sniffed, "now I'm ruining the night."
"Baby, we have more than this Friday ahead of us." He pulled her back down as she tried to get up. "So this is going to be the plan. I'm staying here this weekend. We don't need to leave for work, thank God, and we're not. I'm gonna run you a bath, you're gonna get it in and while you're doing that I'm going to go get us some food, get loads of ice cream and junk food. Then when I'm back we'll get you settled and I'm gonna look after you."
"I don't need looking after. I've had these since I was 15; I know how to handle them."
"On how many occasions has someone told you you're being looked after?" He asked her and she didn't look at him. "Once in a while you need looking after too, Baby. I've seen you go on an emotional bender all day and I know it's not going to get better." Now Penelope looked up at him. "I know you, Princess. I know how bad your periods get and I'm not embarrassed to know. What I would be embarrassed about is leaving you to deal with this alone. You might have done it before, but I am not letting you do it now."
"What did I do to deserve you?" Penelope asked as she looked up at him, her urge to cry gathering again.
"You did nothing, but be your beautiful self." He said and stood up; he pulled her off the couch and took her towards the bedroom. "The dress looks gorgeous by the way."
"It's not, I feel fat and horrible in it." Penelope whined, the tears escaping again. "You look really handsome tonight, Sugar." She commented dreamily as she began to control her some, and took in his uptown look. "I like you in shirts."
"Why's that, Gorgeous?" He called out as he went into the bathroom.
Penelope smiled a little, "Ripping it off of you looks fun."
All she heard was Derek's chuckle as the flood of water came.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Needing Cupid's Help -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Later that night, once he'd gotten her in the bath and gotten everything he decided he needed for a successful night, he found himself under a throw with Penelope curled up around a hot water bottle, his arm around her protectively. Occasionally his hand dropped to massage her back and get rid of the dull ache. The rest of the time it worked on keeping it close.
Penelope was finally over her emotional overboard of crying for the moment and was now on the straight and narrow of eating what she craved, crying when she liked and cuddling up with her favourite person in the whole wide world.
"This film speaks a lot of sense." Penelope commented as they watched The Love Guru.
Derek had picked it up from his, deciding if anything would cheer her up, it would be that.
Derek looked down from the movie, he loved having her snuggled into him like this, it was a sense of perfection he wanted to preserve. "What about it?"
"When you assume, you make an ass of you and me..." She said and strained to look up at him. "We've been there." She told him as she sat up, her own throw still up around her shoulders, her hot water pulled close to her aching stomach.
"Baby Girl..." Derek said sounding apologetic. "I'm sorry for that night."
"Don't be." Penelope replied sadly, looking down at a little. "It's okay. I assumed wrong. I thought you'd want more, that was wrong of me. I made an ass of myself and you."
"You deserved better than I gave you." Derek said and went to continue with an apology but Penelope pressed her finger to his lips.
"Hush you gums, Hot Stuff."
Derek shook her off, laughing. "C'mere Baby Girl." He said and pulled her back into his arms. "This is about the here and now tonight."
"You're right." She said cuddling back down, feeling Derek's hand run down to her back, she smiled contently. "Assume isn't the only thing in the film, my Love."
"For now it is. We're not using a fake love guru to sort our love lives out." Derek told her as he laughed slightly.
"What if I found me one?"
"What if I found me one too?" He asked back rhetorically with confidence and Penelope giggled, shrugged and remained silent as she watched the film. "That's what I thought."
Looking at his baby girl he knew a lesson this week couldn't be a miss.
After all, he was presenting himself well. He was being eager and he was wanting to be in the one place he loved more than ever.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Needing Cupid's Help -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A.N:If you've not seen The Love Guru, watch it. I'm now a firm addict of it =P Makes me laugh each and every time! I'm easily amused me!
Sorry again for the break in my updates, but I hope you enjoyed =)
Want the next lesson?