A/N: Thank you to all of you, for the support and wonderful and lovely reviews. They make us want to write another million stories. Thank you all so very much. - Naidoo
At the same time Derek had wide eyes, Penelope was narrowing hers. "Okay, Hot Stuff," she said in a leery tone. "What about dinner?"
"I forgot that I promised we'd meet some buddies of mine over here for dinner tonight," he said.
She shrugged. "So. That's not so-"
"In about forty minutes."
"Morgan, we're twenty minutes from the hotel!"
He grinned sheepishly as he said, "And the restaurant is fifteen minutes from there."
She didn't say another word; instead, she turned and began to jog to the nearest tube stop, with an apologetic Morgan in tow.
**
Only twenty minutes late, a stylish Morgan and Garcia walked into the Toad in the Hole eatery. It was a traditional English style pub, not very different than the one the first night they were in London. Dark wood bar and booths with matching dark wood beams on the ceiling. Dark curtains, low lighting, friendly smiling staff, and gaming tables.
She sort of expected someone to yell, "Norm!" when they walked in.
"Good evening, guv, miss," the host greeted. "What can I do for you?"
Derek responded, "I'm looking for-"
"Morgan!" a deep voice called out from across the bar. "Over here!"
Penelope looked over to a table full of handsome men. There wasn't a woman in sight. She groaned a little. Derek had promised there would be a bunch of men and women friends that they were meeting up with, so that she wouldn't get stuck listening to sports she had no idea about, and being bored silly.
"Clive!" Derek called out, waving back. He smiled at Penelope. "Come on, baby. Let's go."
"You promised me this wouldn't be a sausage fest, Derek," she grumbled.
He choked out over barely constrained amusement, "Did you just call this-?"
"Never mind that," she spat. "This is going to suck."
"Nonsense," he cajoled. "The guys definitely know how to treat a pretty girl."
"That's why there's none there."
"Oh, come now, be a sport."
She glared up at him, still smiling for the onlooking table. "You left no female friends in England?"
He answered her with a guilty leer.
Fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "You owe me," she said, as she started for the table.
Penelope was going to be the one that owed Derek. She was having the time of her life flirting with Nigel, Phillip, and the aforementioned Clive. She didn't have to buy a single thing; the men bought multiple bottles of wine, baguette sandwiches with roast beef, tangy cheddar cheese, and the best kettle chips she'd ever had.
She was feeling really good, when the need to go to the bathroom hit. She looked up quickly, and the room began to spin a little.
Derek put his hand on her knee. "Baby, you okay?"
"I'm fine. I just have to go to the bathroom," she replied. She waved some air in front of her face. "Whew! Hot in here."
He grinned back. "Not really, honey. You need me to walk you to the bathroom?"
"Nah. I'm good," she answered, then went to stand.
Derek, and all the other men, stood, as she left the table. He watched as her flushed cheeks turned pinker. She smiled and said, "I'll be right back."
He watched her walk away, when Nigel patted him on the back. "Poor Garcia. She's a bit knackered."
Derek glowered. "Well, if you people would stop buying her booze."
"Come on, Morgan," Clive said from across the table. "Take it from our perspective. You bring a pretty girl into our midst; we entertain."
"Nature of the beast," Nigel replied, pouring a beer.
Phillip gave him a mock sympathetic look. "You'd do the same."
"Well, just so you know," he said, his look much more serious than he intended. "She's coming back with me."
"Ahhhh,"Clive stated, stroking his chin. "You fancy her."
"So do I," Phillip said wistfully.
"It's not that," Derek retorted quickly, feeling a bit taken aback. He didn't know what to think of all of that. "I'm here to protect her and-"
"Oh, our lovely is back!" Nigel exclaimed, before leading the table to standing.
Penelope looked at everyone with a curious look. "What are you all looking at?"
"Nothing," everyone said in unison.
Everyone but Derek.
Shrugging, Penelope sat and helped herself to another glass of wine.
After dinner and several hours later Morgan and Penelope made their way to the closest underground station, both of them feeling too tipsy to actually walk the roughly two stops that were between the restaurant and their hotel. They had a great evening, with plenty of laughs and joy, and as well as maybe a bottle of wine too much between them two of them. Penelope was giggling all the time to the stop and Morgan had problems keeping her by his side. Who would have known his best friend was way easier to fill up when it came to alcohol then him that Penelope was such a lighweight when it came to booze? For whatever reason he had always thought of Penelope beingprobably as drinking experienced as him.
The subway just drove arrived into the station when they'd made their way to the platform and Morgan was already looking forward to his bed; his body still seemed to have issues adjusting to the time.
When he'd heard an announcement for the next stop, Morgan had looked up at the map that you could find available in each train and had to realized they took the wrong one. Instead of going only two stops to their hotel, they were on their way into the city again-further and further away from their hotel with each passing moment.
There went his idea of seeing his bed anytime soon.
When he'd explained to Penelope, she'd found it rather funny that they'd taken the wrong line, like so many things she had giggled about in the past hour. Her giggle started to grow on Morgan. All the women he knew didn't giggle, they were all … tall and grown-up and serious, even when they were drunk, a fact Morgan had never really noticed or thought about. Not Penelope. He thought it was kind of cute.
"Where are we going then?" Penelope all of a sudden asked.
"Well, I'd say let's get off on the next stop and see how to best get back."
Penelope got up slowly and walked over to the other side of the wagon, studying the map of the underground system carefully.
"Ohhh ….." she exclaimed excitedly. "The next stop is Piccadilly Circus. Let's get off there and go outside."
"Why?" he asked in a rather long-suffering tone. He was tired, after all!
"It's like Times Square, only British. Can we do that? Pleeeease?" she begged, with a bit of a whining noise in her tone.
Looking at his overly excited friend for a moment, Morgan had no other choice than nodding and smiling at her. How could he ever deny her anything? And since they were passing through it anyway, why not take a look at it when already being there?
It was getting past midnight by now and the streets were rather empty. All you could see were cabs and every now and then a few single people walking over the streets and passing them. The stop was right under Piccadilly Circus, which made it quite convenient for them to not walk far anymore. They had after all, they had been walking all day, and yesterday as well. Morgan started getting tired.
Penelope seemed happy with just spending a few moments admiring the bright lights of the advertisements; she was right, it was a bit like Times Square in New York. Just … more compact and therefore even brighter. It reminded him (a bit about)somewhat of home. Not that he felt homesick or anything-he didn't. No, right now there was no other place he rather wanted to be other than next to his Baby Girl, especially seeing the excitement in her eyes and her whole face. Morgan had to ask himself why it took him so long to actually take her away for a while, just the two of them, exploring, sightseeing, having fun.
Both of them were too lazy to actually make it back to their original stop and then change subways to make it to the hotel, so Morgan called for a cab to get them back to their hotel quicker and without changing. At some point during the short ride, he'd felt Penelope's head resting against his shoulder and just a moment later, looking over at her, he realized she was asleep.