Chapter Seven:
It had been a full week since Derek had called things off with her. They were back at the BAU now. Fran was with him, helping him recover. Penelope hadn't spoken to him since he'd essentially kicked her out of his hospital room. Fran had tried to convince her to stay, to fight for him, but she couldn't. She had desperately wanted to beg him not to give up on them, but clearly she'd been too late.
She was going back to work. Spending time at the office would distract her. Hotch had told her she could take some time, but she needed this. Derek was still out, so she could be free to work without the distraction.
"Oh, uh, hey." Luke said awkwardly as he joined her in the elevator. She hadn't spoken to him since the hospital either. "How is Morgan?"
"No idea." She replied vaguely. Luke gave her a questioning look. "Derek and I are not seeing each other."
"Oh, I just assumed-"
"Well don't." She snapped. She sighed. "I'm sorry. It's not you. I just…Derek told me I should choose you, and we haven't spoken since. And the thing is, if he hadn't asked me out after you did, this would never have happened. You and I would probably be planning a lunch date right now, but he was pissed that you were treading on his territory. So his jealousy took over, and he messed with my head, and now I'm alone."
"Penelope, you're not alone," Luke said gently. "Look I'm a little bummed that you and I were so short lived, but I do want to be friends. Let's have lunch together, it might cheer you up."
"That'd be nice." Penelope said with a small smile.
She wasn't sure if she'd ever get over Derek Morgan, but lunch with Luke would make her forget him for a bit. She hated that she had let him fool her. She was stupid enough to fall in love with him. He wasn't the kind of guy to look twice at her, then again neither was Luke Alvez. But, at least Luke hadn't played with her feelings.
Penelope holed up in her office unable to face the rest of her team. She loved them, she really did, but they could read her like a book. If they asked her how she was, she would break down in an instant. She was barely making it through as it was, she didn't need their sympathy right now. But, she needed to get a file from Hotch, so her isolation had to end. She sighed.
After convincing herself she'd be okay, Penelope headed to the bullpen. She was going to go straight to her boss's office and then hurry back to her office. She walked as fast as her high heel wearing feet would allow her. She was nearly to her destination when she heard it. The laugh that could send her spiraling. Derek Morgan.
"Penelope!" She heard Emily call for her. She turned to see Derek smiling at whatever it was he and Emily had been talking about. Rage filled Penelope. He wasn't hurt at all by their breakup, if you could even call it that. She turned her head up high and walked the rest of the way to Hotch's office.
After getting what she needed, Penelope hightailed it out of the office. She refused to let Derek see her cry. Especially since he clearly didn't care about how much pain he'd caused her. She was not going to let him see it.
"Hey, Garcia, wait!" Penelope was actually relieved to see Luck rushing toward her. She slowed down for him to catch up to her. "I finished up my paperwork, are you down for lunch now?"
"That'd be great." She smiled with appreciation. Luke must have been able to see the hurt on her face when she saw Derek. "I just need to finish something up really quick."
"No worries, I'll run to the cafe and get our food. It'll give you time to wrap up." Luke replied. He leaned in and kissed her cheek. He whispered in her ear. "Derek doesn't deserve you, Penelope. And I plan to make him realize what he lost."
Penelope felt a smile raise to her mouth as Luke walked away. She felt a bit of relief as she walked back to her office. Derek might not have even noticed her and Luke's interaction, but she hoped he did.
Once back in her office, Penelope went to work finishing up some data she was pulling for her boss. Hotch had asked her to look into some local crime stats for him, and she was almost done. She would be glad when it was done and she didn't have to look at how many women were killed each month in D.C. She was sending Hotch the information when she heard footsteps behind her.
"One moment, my handsome cup of tea," She said. "I'm all yours in two seconds."
"So you and Alvez didn't wait long."
Penelope whipped around in her chair to see Derek standing in the doorway. She tried to keep her jaw from dropping. He was looking at her with anger on his face, which she found comical.
"What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be on bed rest?" She asked.
"You'd like that wouldn't you? Then you could flaunt-"
"Derek, you told me to pick Luke! Don't you dare pull that jealous card with me." Penelope snapped. She stood coming face-to-face with him. "It wasn't me that made this choice."
"And you just went right along with it. I was in the hospital and all I could think about was having to fight for you. I wanted you to pick me, I begged you. But you needed to string us both along."
"That's not true and you know it, Morgan. Luke asked me out and you got mad. How many years did you have to man up and ask me before he came along?" She asked. She'd never been so pissed at him.
"You knew I loved you!" Derek accused, shouting.
"No, I didn't!" She replied. "I was your nerdy best friend. I am nothing like the women you date."
"I don't date women like you because I don't want a woman like you, Penelope. I wanted you." Derek replied. He stepped even closer to her, their chests touching.
"I wanted you too! God damn it, Derek you're such an ass! I picked you, I told Luke it was over and then you-"
Derek cut her off by pushing her back against her desk and kissing her. Even though she was angry at him, she couldn't help but kiss him back. Damn, she'd missed him. More than she even realized until his lips were on hers. She moaned against his mouth, pulling him as close as possible to her.
"Derek I-"
"I'll uh, come back." Penelope shot up and realized Luke had been standing there. Derek had known he was there, she realized. Luke hurried out the door. Penelope turned in anger to Luke. "What the hell?"
"Pen-"
"No, you suck! You kissed me to make him jealous. Screw you, Derek. Screw you!"
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Penelope was wallowing. She'd picked up some Ben and Jerry's and was sitting on her sofa. She was so mad that Derek kept playing with her feelings. He was such a jerk. She couldn't believe she kept letting this happen. She wanted him to leave her alone, but she also wanted him to come and apologize. She was contemplating what to do next when she heard a key in her door turning. She sighed, Derek was the only one with a key to her apartment.
"Go away!" She shouted.
Derek ignored her request. She heard his feet as he approached her. She didn't have enough fight to insist he go, plus, she never wanted him to leave. He sat beside her.
"What?" She asked, avoiding eye contact.
"Baby, I'm sorry." He said she could tell he'd been crying. It startled her to picture tears running down her noir hero's face. "I was a jerk earlier, and have been for the last week."
"You hurt me." She admitted quietly. She willed herself not to cry. "I thought that after you go shot…I-I thought we'd finally get our happy ending."
"I was confused, honey," He said, taking her hand. "All I could think was that you were going to pick Luke, and I had to end it before you could. Baby girl, you have my heart in your hands, and I was so afraid that you were going to crush it."
"So you broke my heart instead?" The tears finally sprung from her eyes.
"It was stupid, I wasn't thinking clearly." Derek explained. He wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I love you."
"I love you too." She said, her lip quivering. He pulled her into his arms.
"Forgive me." He requested. She nodded.
"Always." She gave him a teary smile and he pulled her to him, kissing her for all he was worth.
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The pair eventually fell asleep in each other's arms. As much as Derek wanted to finally be with his baby girl in the most intimate way, he was still recovering from the gunshot wound. So, he settled for holding her all night. His mother had flown back to Chicago that morning, after insisting that he make things right with Penelope. Derek felt like an ass for how things had gone down, but not that he was with her, he knew he could never go back.
In the morning, the pair got ready for work together. She had a change of clothes for him from one of their many movie nights. Derek was glad he didn't have to go home to get ready. He didn't want to spend a moment away from Penelope until he was cleared for the field.
"Why did you come into the bureau yesterday?" Penelope asked him as they shared a cup of coffee in her kitchen.
"I wanted to see you." He admitted. She smiled softly. "I missed you and I knew after what I'd said to you, work was the only chance I'd have to be in your presence."
"I'm glad you were there." She said, she leaned over and gave him a sweet kiss. He pulled back and smiled at her.
"I'm so lucky." He said. She took a sip of coffee, giving him a playful wink. He grew serious. "So, what's Alvez going to think?"
"He'll be okay I think," Penelope replied. "We were going to have lunch as friend's yesterday. He knows how much I wanted you. He took it well. Better than I expected."
"So the competition is over?"
"Baby, there never was a competition. Not really. And I should have told Luke that I from the start. As soon as you told me you were interested, my heart knew. I should have been braver and let you love me from the beginning." She replied. He rubbed her arm. "I'm sorry for putting you through the ringer."
"Don't apologize, baby. I should have told you years ago how I felt. But, let's not waste more time on that. We're together now, and this is true."
"God, I love you." She said, kissing him again.
"I love you." He told her, booping her nose.
They headed to work a bit later. Penelope went to her office and Derek did some paperwork at his desk. By the end of the day the team had a case in a nearby district, so they had to leave. Derek went with them, but was banned from the field. Luckily, it was a quick case, and they had the unsub by dinner time, which was rare.
To celebrate, the team decided to go out for drinks. Penelope and Derek rode together, and since he was still recovering, he offered to be her DD. The team was gathered at a table together, and were chatting casually. Derek was trying to keep his hands to himself, not wanting to throw their relationship in Luke's face, but it was very hard. Now that they were official, he wanted to have his hands on her body. But, they hadn't officially told the team yet, so he was behaving as best he could.
"Hey, you in the black shirt, wanna dance?" A blonde woman asked, approaching the table. She had been watching Derek for a while.
"No thank you." Derek said, giving her a tight smile. She wasn't giving up though.
"Come on, it'll be fun. I'll even buy you a drink."
"I'm okay, really I'm here with my coworkers, and I am just not available to dance right now." Derek said.
"Playing hard to get, I see. I'll join the game," The woman smiled. "Tell you what, you give me half a song and if I bore you, you can leave before the end and I won't bother you again." Derek felt Penelope stiffen beside him. "What, handsome, are you scared?"
"Look I'm not-" Penelope cut Derek off midspeech with a long, far too passionate public, kiss. Derek heard the woman gasp. They pulled apart.
"You could have just said that." She said, walking away quickly.
The team stared at the pair for a moment. Derek was willing his body to relax after that kiss. Penelope was trying to catch her breath. After they regained their sense, they knew they had to address their gaping coworkers.
"Sorry." Penelope blushed.
"Nothing I haven't caught before." Luke smirked.
"So, you two are…" Emily said looking expectantly at them.
"We're together." Derek confirmed, placing an arm around her. It was a relief to not have to hide it now.
"Damn it." Rossi said, pulling a $50 from his wallet and sliding it to Emily.
"Thanks!" She grinned, taking the money.
Luke caught Derek's eye and gave him a slight nod. Derek knew this was his way of telling him he was okay with their relationship. Derek also knew, though, if he stepped one foot out of line Luke would kick his ass. He was glad someone cared for Penelope, and he wasn't jealous of their friendship. He knew Penelope loved him, and he wouldn't do anything to lose that. He was going to spend the rest of his life making her happy.