Savannah couldn't help but feel like an intruder stepping into the room. The two close friends didn't even notice her at first until she cleared her throat and approached the bed smiling…on the outside but inside she felt broken.

"Well hello Sleepyhead." Savannah said as cheery as she could muster.

Penelope slid her hand out of Derek's avoiding his eyes and reality jerked her back to the real world. The facts were that he belonged to Savannah and Penelope was trespassing. His eyes were on the beautiful doctor now and she had slid back into her role as friend.

"I better get going. I'm sure you two would like to spend some time together."

"Thanks. Good seeing you again, Penelope."

"You too Savannah."

Derek didn't want her to leave…ever but now the one whom he had given the title had arrived and stood waiting to be acknowledged as such. He was in pain not from his injuries but from the constant nagging reminder from his heart that he needed to decide…to make some real decision and live with the consequences.

"Glad to see you awake, babe."

He hadn't heard her; his mind was still on Penelope. Her light kiss on his lips wrestled his attention back as he returned her kiss. He cared for Savannah and he didn't want to hurt her. Only weeks ago he had been so sure that he was where he was supposed to be. Penelope was with Sam she seemed happy and he had resolved to work at giving up his foolish dream of a life with her. Savannah was everything a man would want and there was no question, she loved him. The time spent with her was fun and comfortable but…no buts…she deserved his efforts at making it work and it was time for him to settle down and stop his restless ways hopping from bed to bed with women who now were just blurry memories.

"I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

She grabbed his hand and held it to her chest searching his eyes for the look that he had just given so easily to Penelope.

"No, of course not. What kind of question is that?"

"It just seemed like you two were…" Her voice cracked.

"Come here."

He pulled her to him. She sat on the edge of his bed and gently placed her hand on his chest. How could he tell her the truth? How could he break her heart? They shared so many things, made promises to each other…and assumptions.

He saw the tears teetering on the verge of falling. He didn't want to know that he was the cause. What an amazing woman, he thought, he wanted to love her like she deserved and in her eyes he saw her need. He pulled her close and she rested her head gently on his chest. The silence of the next several minutes seemed deafening and neither one of them wanted to speak what they knew was the truth.

Penelope was surprised to see Sam when she returned to the waiting room. He seemed troubled by her haggard appearance. Surely she had not stayed the night, he thought to himself but looking at her he knew the answer.

He rushed over to her and pulled her close trying desperately to show his concern for her and refusing to question the fact that she had left him sitting alone in an expensive restaurant to race to the bedside of a man that was only supposed to be a friend.

What was he doing here? Things were already complicated enough; he was so understanding never questioning, never objecting and now he was here with the rest of her team being supportive and it made her stomach wretch.

Penelope knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was going to break his heart, another casualty of her love for another man. For a moment she thought she'd found the man that would do, the man that would make it okay to settle. But there was this place that refused to hear of it, refused to make do, refused to pretend that making do was good enough. That place was her heart.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was worried. You left the restaurant in such a hurry and I haven't heard from you since."

"I'm so sorry, Sam. You must think I'm an awful girlfriend…"

"Hush, Silly! Of course I don't think that. He's your friend of course you would want to be here with him…for him."

Girlfriend. She was Sam's girlfriend now, not Derek's. She felt despicable, he didn't deserve the small morsel of herself that she doled out to him; it wasn't fair or right to pretend like this was where she wanted to be.

Sunday Morning

Penelope had promised herself that she would not occupy Derek's entire day. He was still in the hospital and she wanted to be there with him but then there was Savannah. She didn't want to be disrespectful of her and their relationship but she couldn't help but think about yesterday when it was just the two of them in the room. She saw something in his eyes…deep, emotional, was it? No, it couldn't be…or could it…

"I like her."

She couldn't bring herself to say her name.

"Who?"

He knew exactly who she was talking about.

"Savannah. I like her."

"I'm glad, Baby Girl."

She began nervously fluffing his pillows. She couldn't fool him, she never could. He saw it in her face the non-stop fluttering was making him uncomfortable and so he gently grabbed her wrist to make her stop.

"Look at me."

She didn't want him to see her misty eyes.

"I just want to make sure you're comfortable, I know the nurses have been busy and all but my Chocolate Thunder needs to have his pillows fluffed at least once an hour."

"Penelope…"

"And this linen…geez…what is this 100 thread count?"

"Penelope…stop…stop…talk to me."

She sat on the bed next to him. He watched her struggle to relax and look him in the eye.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"I thought…I thought I'd lost you." Her voice cracked, that wasn't the real reason for her tears.

He grabbed her hand.

"Never. You can't get rid of me that easy."

"So, you and Savannah…you two okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?"

"Nothing, forget I asked."

It was silent again and she hadn't realized until now that he was holding her hand stroking the back of it with his thumb almost as if it were a reflex. There it was again, that look…it was trying to tell her something that he wasn't able to say out loud.

"How's Sam?"

"He's good."

"You guys okay?"

"Peachy."

"Good."

So the dance continued between them; he bowed she curtsied around the truth politely ignoring the elephant in the room. They had become flawless at the art and execution of their denial.

Penelope only moments before stepping into Derek's room had resolved to give her relationship with Sam another try and do everything in her power to give up the crazy notion that she and Derek were meant to be. It was nothing but foolishness and after nearly ten years of fantasizing about Derek Morgan, it was time to grow up and admit some things and one of them was that Derek was her best friend and nothing more.

He wanted so much to be able to see a future with Savannah. She'd come into his life at a time when he needed someone that wasn't afraid to love him and someone who could convince him that he wasn't a lost cause. Savannah had done that. She was honest and she pulled no punches when it came to checking him on his stuff. There were so many confirmations that he needed to stay put; for one Penelope was with yet another man, she'd chosen Kevin and then Sam and there was no indication that she would ever see him as the man of her dreams. It was time to settle down and end his player days. He knew it would take a lot of work to get his heart to agree with his head but he was willing to put in the work.

BAU Headquarters, Quantico, VA

The team had been called back to work. Section Chief Mateo Cruz ordered them back from the hospital reminding them that evil didn't give a rat's ass that they were one man down. Hotch knew that the team would resist being forced to go back to work but they had no choice.

"I'm sorry, I know you all are worried about Agent Morgan, but we need you here." Cruz began.

It was rare that their new section chief briefed them but these were unusual circumstances.

"NYPD is asking for our help in a double homicide in Manhattan."

"Great. Let me guess, some rich socialite is murdered and it's calling all cars." Rossi angrily growled.

"Dave." Hotch admonished.

David waved his hand in apology and opened the case file in front of him.

"Quite the opposite Agent Rossi. Father Martin Silvestri, from the Holy Covenant Catholic Church, discovered the bodies of Sisters Mary Martha and Sarah Marie this morning. Both had been raped and their bodies were found stuffed in separate confessionals."

"What was the cause of death?" Hotch asked.

"Asphyxiation. They were strangled with their rosaries."

"Had there been any threats against the church or these sisters?" JJ asked.

"According to Father Silvestri the church hadn't received any threats and as far as he knew neither had the sisters."

"These women were raped, maybe the fact that nuns take a vow of celibacy has some significance to the case." Reid added.

"And they were strangled with their rosary beads." Alex said.

"There definitely seems to be some anger against the church here. This UnSub could have been victimized by someone in the church." Hotch noted.

"You mean like a priest or a nun?" Garcia asked.

"Maybe. Let's get on this before more bodies start showing up. Wheels up in thirty.

The five agents headed toward the elevators, leaving Cruz in the conference room looking after them. Garcia headed toward her bunker to get busy searching for leads.

LATER…

There had been no mention of the car accident from the night before. Everyone had been consumed with worry for Morgan. The driver had hit the SUV that Morgan, Rossi, Reid and Alex were in. The driver of the other truck was drunk and walked away with only scratches. He was arrested at the scene and taken to jail. The detectives hadn't been able to question him and frankly weren't in a hurry to do so. They had no problem holding him in jail drunk and forgotten, the price for nearly killing a Federal agent and endangering three others.

On the nineteenth floor of the Federal Bureau of Investigations was a highly pissed off Section Chief. There had been a plan that had taken months to create. Every angle, every scenario run to insure that nothing would go wrong. He was not accustomed to failure so it was understandable that he was inconsolable. He had been assured that nothing would go wrong…but it did. They were still alive and the fact that one of them was seriously injured didn't help his disposition. Now, he'd have to regroup, re-plan and reconsider those responsible for the execution of his plan.

His cell phone rang, a call he was expecting; there was some explaining to be done but nothing would satisfy him until they were all dead.

"You screwed up!"

"I'm sorry boss…I didn't know he'd go and get drunk before the job."

"No excuses! Do you know how hard and how long I've worked to get them in the right place at the right time?"

"I can fix this, I promise…"

"You better! I won't stand for another failure from you, do you understand?"

"Yes sir, I understand."

"Good. Now, I've sent them to New York on a case. When they get there they'll find out that NYPD has already closed the case."

"What about the one in the hospital?"

"Take him out first. It should be easy he's not going anywhere."

"I'll take care of it, Boss…I won't screw up this time."

"Yeah, you better not. "

"I'm on it."

"One more thing. It seems as though Agent Morgan has fallen in love. I know how much you like an audience when you work, so I want you to kill her…while he watches."

Mateo Cruz smiled an evil wicked smile as he ended the call. Perhaps things would work out after all. His employee knew what would happen if he failed this time, so he was motivated to say the least. He breathed a sigh of relief what he wouldn't do for a drink, he thought. There would be time for that later, for now there was work to be done.