A/N: A lot of you guys mentioned that they hope for things to pick up in Rome, where they left of in London, but ... well, he might have gotten a clue in London, but he is still far away from making his move. As always, thanks for the kind words. YOu guys seriously rock.

The next morning, Morgan and Penelope were taken by their host to a local coffee shop for breakfast. Penelope had slept like a stone when she went back to bed after her nightly meeting with Luca's brother and woke up this morning feeling better than ever. Morgan, on the other hand, looked slightly out of it and maybe a bit hung over. Cosimo joined them for breakfast and Penelope realized for the first time how very handsome he looked. Tall, dark, tanned and - what she only could assume – well built, if his shirts gave away anything. He had a grin that could easily challenge Morgan's any time of the day without even trying hard.

After that Luca and Cosimo showed them Rome, with all its tourist spots and postcard motives.

Luca played the perfect hostess, showing them everything, explaining things and treating them to local secrets, never leaving Morgan's side, or his arm, for that matter. It wasn't as if Penelope was jealous – okay maybe a bit – but she found herself wondering what intentions she had in regards to Morgan. According to Cosimo, they had something going on during college, but that was nearly 20 years ago now; shouldn't she have managed to get over Morgan by now?

At night, Morgan and Luca decided once more to hit the town and nightlife. This time Penelope joined them, with Cosimo in tow, who seemed to get more and more attractive with each passing minute. He had these dark, deep, secretive eyes, that somehow had Penelope hypnotized when she looked into them for too long and always a smile on his lips.

The moment they arrived at the club, Luca dragged Morgan away, leaving Penelope back with Cosimo, which she didn't really mind. He was a great company, funny and made her feel good. There was something in the way he talked to her that was so fascinating and seductive. Tonight he lavished her with compliments the moment he laid eyes on her, never leaving her side. He was so attractive, he was becoming more and more an Italian version of Morgan by the minute.

He flirted with her shamelessly, asking her several times to dance, which she always declined. She never danced in Virginia, and she certainly wouldn't start dancing here. Especially not after seeing how all of these Italian women were moving, and grinding, shaking and dancing. Penelope definitely wasn't born for moves like these, or dances like any of them. She was no Luca, who apparently seemed to have gotten very friendly and cozy with Morgan on the dance floor. She watched them for a while, saw how perfect they seemed to move together and compliment each other's moves.

"You know, just one dance. It won't hurt, I promise," Cosimo smiled at her, making one last attempt.

She had to laugh about it. How he tried, but didn't push it. Just like Morgan always had.

"Trust me, Cosimo, if that guy," she started, laughing and pointing towards Morgan and Luca, "on the dance floor didn't succeed in the three years I've known him, you certainly won't be able to get any further in just one night."

It might have been Cosimo's last attempt at asking her to dance, but there were several other guys at the club, and each time Cosimo left her alone to get more drinks, several of them approached her, asking for dances, phone numbers and other things. None of them seemed particularly shy about their requests and had such boldness in their questions Penelope was shocked for a moment.

Usually, back in Virginia, whenever she went out with Derek, some guy would make a move on her. Morgan would make sure that within seconds, the guy knew she was off limits. But now, with him just feet away from her on the dance floor, Penelope Garcia experienced for the first time of her life what it felt to have guys fighting for her attention.

A while back, she had told Morgan guys didn't see her across a smoky bar and write songs about her, but in truth right now, at this very moment, she really felt like she was that girl.

Unfortunately, Derek didn't even seem to notice her moment of triumph. He glanced over, but his attention was drawn immediately back by Luca's hands on his face, Luca's breasts on his chest, Luca's ass in his groin.

Cosimo, coming back with more drinks, instead of reacting in any way Morgan would, was actually joining in on their conversations, not being short on the flirting and compliments, either. The longer the evening lasted, the more she got used to how guys she hadn't even known ten minutes ago, where telling her how amazing she looked, how wonderful she was, and what a pretty smile she had. All of them asked her several times to dance, for dinner, drinks, or to meet them at some point the next day.

Despite of all of them being extremely nice and friendly to her, she nevertheless declined all of their invites. She wasn't ready for an international affair. She knew she wouldn't go home with any of them tonight, and probably would never see any of them in her life again, but she was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

Eventually, Morgan made his way over, seeing the scene around Penelope, and she could see the change in Morgan's posture. Like he saw all of the guys surrounding his Baby Girl as a threat and needed to protect her from every single one of them.

After being absent for the majority of the evening... Now was a bad time for him to play knight in shining armor, slaying these sexy Italian dragons.

She ignored him, laughing wholeheartedly about whatever the guy next to her just said, threw her head back and turned back to him, smiling even wider. It felt good, really good and she wanted to show Morgan she didn't need his protection, at least not for tonight. She didn't see any of the guys surrounding her as threat, more as fun and entertaining.

Besides, he had Luca to protect and care for... he'd barely noticed her before, he didn't need to do it for her now.

When she looked back to the spot where Morgan had been just a moment ago, he had gone. Not expecting that, she looked frantically for a moment, not sure where he could have gone to.

"You okay, bellina?" she heard Cosimo asking, probably having noticed her looking around.

"I … " she started, but then decided she was acting crazy.

This was what she expected. They were just friends. He had been out with Luca last night. She and Derek were on vacation together, but that didn't mean they had to be glued to each other all the time.

So why did her heart ache so much?

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said and forced a smile at her companion, before returning back to enjoying the rest of the night. And maybe Morgan got her drift, she was a big girl and didn't need to be rescued.