Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: You couldn't really believe I'd kill her? I'm not mean like that, honest lol Thanks for the reviews as always!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- True Love's Lie -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Derek," Penelope whispered to him as they parted. She looked from his lips to his eyes, soaking up his existence as it took over her sense and overwhelmed them. "W-what are you doing here?"
Derek closed his eyes, revelling in the moment, "I thought you died. I thought I had lost you, Baby Girl. I can't lose you."
"I'm here," She told him back and sat back down, taking him with her as she felt him lose his strength in the truth of the moment.
Penelope looked at Derek with worrying alarm. He hadn't acted like this when she was shot. Of course he had acted out, lingered in the hospital, but never had he looked on the verge of tears and so fragile at the truth of what the world could do to their lives, but here he was, a befallen hero for the moment.
She had forgotten about the moment she had seen the plane take off and then subsequently explode. She had forgotten about her hands shaking violently with the shock and she had forgotten about the tears that had attacked her lashes as a result of looking at what could've ended with her own death like so many others that had boarded the plane.
Her mind coursed over the day's events. How everything seemed to just merge together between waking up and going out for a birthday breakfast for Derek to her listening to a voicemail and then watching a fire ball of twisted metal fall fresh out of the sky.
Now here she was, with the one man that she had wanted to have, alive whilst so many had lost out. She just felt the shock wash back into her, her adrenaline disappearing.
"I don't understand. They said everyone was on board. How did not they notice you were on?" Sam asked as he sat opposite Penelope. He could see her hand wrapped around Derek's as she sat still in physical shock.
Penelope shook her head in confusion, "I-I-I gave them my ticket, but before I boarded, I don't know, I just walked away and left my ticket." Penelope looked off to a point, confused, and full of shock, "I had to listen to that voicemail. I don't know why, but I just had to and the next thing I knew the plane was taking off an-and then..." She trailed off as the tears brew in her eyes. "You saved me," She said simply and looked at Derek, "If you hadn't have called me I would've gotten on that plane."
"I'm so glad you didn't get on it, Penelope," Derek said as he put his hand to the side of her face and made her look up at him, "You're not just Penelope to me."
Rolling her tearful eyes, Penelope bit her lip, "I know." She said as she remembered his voicemail. It was simple from his tone of voice down the line that Derek had known that he had screwed up big time and was begging for a second chance.
I messed up, Penelope. When I said I didn't love you, I messed up. How could you be just Penelope? You're everything to me. The reason I get up, the reason I smile. Christ, you're the reason I stick to the job because I know I get to come back to you. Whenever I'm with you my life doesn't seem some uphill battle. My life is perfect. I have done nothing but lie to you our entire friendship. I should've told you I loved you so long ago. God, I had loads of times to, Baby Girl. I'm a fool. I'm in love with you so don't go. Please. Please, just don't go home.
"C'mon, I think we need to go back to the house," Fran said as she noticed that there were no more words this moment, for this reunion.
Penelope looked up at Fran and smiled and looked to Derek's waiting hand and allowed him to help her to her feet before he started to walk behind Sam and Fran. Never once did she want to let go of his hand, and never did he try to drop it.
She knew there was still a lot to talk through, but Penelope couldn't mistake that her friendship with Derek was never going to be the same again.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- True Love's Lie -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Everyone watched with trepidation and anticipation as the door opened and Sam walked in first, followed by Fran. They waited and saw no sign of Derek. Their hearts bottomed as they assumed the worst.
Then as they all dropped their gazes mournfully, thinking about how to be with Derek after they had found out he loved Penelope, that he regretted not telling her, that she had died never knowing the extent of his love he walked through the door.
"What the hell?" James asked as he stood amongst the stunned mass still gathered from the party.
They all watched Penelope look up at them, her expression much like a deer stuck in the headlights of an oncoming car. She swallowed hard, here were a group of people that knew Derek like she did, but she was still the one feeling like the outcast of them all. She had left to prevent this, and now here she was again. She just knew she hated the attention.
"She never got on it," Derek simply told them. "She didn't get on board, she listened to the voicemail."
"Whodda thought technology could've saved the day," Derek's friend Crystal commented, her tone full of relief.
"Oh Honey, technology is severely underestimated," Penelope quipped and smiled impishly and looked at Derek. "Plus, Derek never leaves me a voicemail unless it's important." She smiled then, "Plus, something didn't feel right."
Derek smiled brightly then, knowing that Penelope had trusted her gut above everything and that she hadn't gotten on the plane to spite her negative feelings. He couldn't have thanked her any more than he already had for listening to intuition.
He thought to crash and everything thought he had had and realised that there was reasons for it happening. He needed Penelope to desert him like she had, to walk away. He needed her to go to the airport and he needed everyone to pressure him and, strangely, he needed that plane to crash to make him realise just how firmly implanted in his life Penelope was. How much of her he needed to help him breathe and survive just day to day life. He needed to believe she was dead, for even just a miniscule moment, to cherish her and realise how important she was to him. Now, he realised just how precious her life was to him.
"It's good you're back. Derek really went like a petulant kid," James teased Derek. "Never seen my main man so loved up. You did something to him Penelope and I gotta say, I like seeing my man a little vulnerable."
"Shut up, J," Derek replied as he shot his friend a look.
"Ah, Handsome, it's fine to admit that my very presence is the one thing you need to keep your day on track."
Derek smirked, "Believe me, it's more than your existence that I need to keep my day on track, Gorgeous." He smiled as he watched her blush, "I am just never giving you a reason to be out of my sight."
Fran stood with her daughters and smiled warmly as she finally saw her son settle for the first time since Penelope had left the house that morning. She looked as Desiree moved to the stereo.
"I guess this means the party's back on again?" Desiree called out and then put the music on, "Double celebrations are in order, I think."
Derek couldn't disagree with that, he might be one year older, but he was one step closer to getting everything he had only ever dreamt off. He pulled Penelope close and for the second time in short succession kissed her like it might as well have been his last.
Penelope's hands came up to wrap around his neck, to deepen the kiss, to linger in the bliss. She felt the heat race through her veins and relaxed as she gave him her all.
With a kiss like that neither could deny what the other was feeling.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- True Love's Lie -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-