Penelope waited patiently at the hospital waiting room with Emily, JJ, Reid and Rossi. Hotch was in with the Doctor for a check up after being released only hours before, the shots fired in the hospital left a ringing in his ears that were starting to bother him. Derek was being given a once over after his little stunt move with the ambulance, they hadn't spoken since she told him that she was too mad at him to promise him anything, and truth was she was still mad. A part of her wanted to go straight back to the hotel and let him stew in the hospital knowing that she was livid with him, but she couldn't. She needed to see for herself that he was okay, and then she would kick his ass.

Hotch emerged with his hand to his ear, looking rather uncomfortable. Seeing him looking wounded, realising that they could have all easily have lost him evoked an overwhelming feeling inside her. Without a thought or hesitation she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist carefully not wanting to hurt him. Surprised and somewhat touched Aaron encircled her into a firm hug,

"I'm okay Penelope." He assured her. With tears in her eyes she looked up at him,

"I know, I'm just glad. I, I'm sorry about Kate." She said sorrowfully. He knew that seeing the explosion of the SUV with him only a few feet away would have shaken her to the core, and losing Kate would have only solidified just how close they had come to losing him too.

"Thank you. Are you okay?"

"Boss man, you're the one who's injured."

"I know, but you've had to watch me almost get blown up and talk your best friend through a ride of his life, I'd say you've had a pretty rough day yourself."

"I'm just glad you're all okay. Which isn't to say someone isn't going to get a kicking in the rear end the moment I see that he's in one piece!" Hotch laughed,

"I'm counting on it." He replied with a grin. As if on cue Derek came out of the emergency doors. With the exception of a few cuts here and there, he was perfectly fine. Hotch released her and gave her a gentle nudge towards Derek, as she looked back at him with a raised eyebrow he gave her a quick wink. Penelope chuckled before walking over to Derek. Derek wasted not a moment and pulled her into his arms.

"I'm sorry P." he apologised, knowing just how unfair he was asking of her what he did. Penelope said nothing but hugged him tightly against her. He pulled back to look at her but Penelope refused to meet his gaze. She hugged him once more before stepping out of his embrace. Just as she turned to walk away from him he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back towards, his eyes pleading but she only shook her head sadly before shaking his grip off her wrist. He had pushed her too far and he knew it. It was a quiet ride back to their hotel, barely a peep was made, all lost in their own thoughts. The only sound in the SUV was Hotch trying his best to talk to Jack on the phone despite how painful it was. Penelope wondered if Haley ever put two and two together, that at the times when he seemed so desperate to talk to his son, were his biggest 'loss' days. Penelope shuddered at the thought of that one phonecall that she knew would devastate Haley. She prayed such day would never come.

As they arrived at the hotel they had all disbursed into their own rooms. Derek stared at Penelope's retreating figure and sighed. He had a whole lot of work ahead of him and he knew it. He had never seen her so mad at him, and she had every reason to. Penelope was thankful that she had a room to herself. JJ and Emily were assigned a room together before Will came. She jumped into a long hot shower and stayed there for a good half an hour before emerging. When she emerged from the bathroom she found Derek sitting on her bed waiting for her. Tightening the robe around her she walked towards the bar fridge and handed him a beer. Derek took the beer from her and placed in on the bedside table taking both hands in his,

"You infuriate me Derek Morgan!"

"P,"

"This hero complex you have is starting to really lose its charm Derek. I can't do this anymore. You may not care about your life, but there's a bunch of us do and when you disregard it just like that, throw yourself in harms way every chance you get, you're screaming loud and clear that you don't care. Did you think for a moment how that conversation was going to go down between me and your mother? That as much as it would kill me to be the one to tell her, I would have to be the one to tell her? Did you think how devastated she would be if anything had happened to you? Derek, what if I had been wrong? What if that bomb was detonated before I thought it would be? Then I would have been the one who signed your death certificate. You're my best friend, and I love you. You know I would do anything for you, but sometimes I think you overestimate my abilities. Don't you know that losing you would be like dying as well?" Tears began to pour from her eyes. Derek stood to his feet engulfing her in his arms into a fierce hug. Penelope brought her arms to his chest not allowing him to get any closer to her, Derek ignored her protests and just pulled her as close to him as possible.

"I'm sorry Baby Girl." He whispered desperately into her ear,

"I'm so sorry." Penelope stepped out of his embrace and wordlessly lay on her bed. Derek followed wrapping his arms around her as he spooned behind. He could her soft whimpers and moved as close as he possibly could to her.

"I had to do it P. I know you think I always pull stunts like that, but this was different. If I didn't take that ambulance out of there, all those people would have died, including our family. All I could think of was that I didn't want Jack to grow up without his Dad. I didn't want him to go through what I had to. I had no doubts that you could get me out of there P. No one else could have done that but you. I'm not some young idiot looking for a high P. I did what I know was the right thing to do. I'm just so sorry that I had to put you through that. The last thing I ever wanted to do was scare you the way I did. You're my best friend P, and if that ended up being my last moments, I wouldn't have cared, because those last moments, I was talking to you." Penelope turned to face him, acutely aware that he had only momentarily loosened his grip before retightening them,

"You still suck, but I get it. Try and not do it again any time soon."

"I promise."