A/N: Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a long time since I updated but life and blergh I suffered a minor block on this chapter, but managed to get it done anyways. This chapter is much lighter compared to previous chapters, as I felt M/G needed a little time together in between the angst. It's also kind of a thank you for putting up with my angst loving muse. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If it wasn't obvious enough I do not own Criminal Minds.

Chapter 6: Light

Bright beams of sun broke through the curtains of her brightening apartment. Penelope's eyes fluttered open as she woke before looking around her home. She blinked away the sleep before yawning, stretching her arms over her head. The room was a bit hazy as she fought to remember what had happened last night. It wasn't before the harsh ringing of her cell phone broke through the haze that she remembered. She groaned as the memories came flooding back. Sighing deeply she contemplated getting up and answering the phone. When the ringing stopped she relaxed back into the soft mattress. Closing her eyes, she was just about to slip into another dose when-

The ringing cut through the apartment again.

Groaning her eyes snapped open, grumbling to herself. She sleepily made her way towards the living room, stumbling over her own cold feet the entire way. She yawned before reaching for her phone that was sitting on the coffee table. Pressing a few buttons her tired eyes widened as she saw she must have forty text messages and about eighteen calls waiting for her…all from Kevin's number. Sighing she put the phone on silent before setting it back down, shuffling back to her bedroom.

Looking at the clock she sighed in frustration…five! She'd been sleeping so well, why did Kevin have to-

That's when the realization hit her.

She'd slept so well last night. Smiling she made her way back to her side of the bed and crawled back under her plush comforter. She had another hour yet before she had to get up for work…might as well take it. In her drowsy haze she hadn't paid much thought to where Morgan was until she felt a large hand snake around her waist, pulling her form closer. Her eyes snapped open when she heard a sharp yawn from behind her. The form snuggled back into the mattress before promptly falling back into slumber. Her eyes darted around the room hastily; panic beginning to creep into her consciousness. What had happened last night?!

As more sleep from her mind cleared the rest of the memories came flooding back. She sighed in relief as she felt a pair of sweatpants rubbing her leg. Penelope carefully shifted onto her back, keeping her right arm around the man sleeping next to her. Another smile crept across her lips and she sighed contentedly.

After Kevin had left, the two had dug through her cupboards and found a bag of popcorn lurking in the back of one. They'd then found a couple of DVDs Morgan had said he hadn't watched in a long time and settled down with the large bowl of food in front of the TV. Snuggling against Morgan Penelope smiled and felt a warmth wash over her as they watched as the two main characters fell in love. With his warm hand around her shoulders she finally felt the tension she'd been feeling for the last little while begin to fade. She hadn't felt this happy in a long time, the many simple nights she used to spend with him so many years ago now she realized now she had taken for granted. Before she'd been shot, before Kevin, they had used to have a regular night every week they did nothing but spend time together, laugh, and just enjoy each other's company.

Penelope frowned as she closed her eyes, trying to fall back to sleep. She hadn't realized how much she had truly missed him. His smile, his warm embrace and his encouraging words: she missed it all. She sighed, the nightmares had started for her shortly after New York and he had told her the few words that changed their relationship forever. From the moment he had told her 'You're my god given solace', everything had changed. She would often spend nights at a time worrying about the profiler, was he safe at home or was he lying dead somewhere in a dark alley? She called him more often now; it was as if hearing his voice was a reassurance high she couldn't seem to get enough of. When he got hurt she would yell, make him promise he'd be more careful next time. He would always laugh and force a smile, promising he would always be there.

As the horrifying images from her nightmare flooded back into her mind she whimpered slightly, turning over gently to face the still sleeping man. She snuggled deeper into his embrace, wriggling his arm tighter around her waist. Raising her right hand she lightly began to run her fingers down his jaw. She could still see his crumpled form at the bottom of those stairs from her dream, she could still hear his desperate pleads of her to run, his final declarations of how much she meant to him.

The loudest sound in her mind was the final gunshot.

As it echoed through her thoughts again she closed her eyes, a single tear slipping down her warm cheek. She felt the rising and falling of his chest as he breathed and shakily took a breath, feeling the tear fall onto the pillow beneath her head.

"Hey." He muttered sleepily before her eyes snapped open, suddenly remembering the intimate position she was in. She blinked and he smiled down at her slightly "What's going on? My little sunshine isn't supposed to rain." He said sweetly and she quickly brushed a few tears away.

"It's n-nothing handsome. Want some breakfast?" She fumbled with the comforter, trying desperately to get out of the position she was caught in. Kevin knew all about her nightmares and had already blabbed about them to his therapist. She didn't want anyone else knowing about it. She especially didn't want him knowing.

"Penelope." He muttered lowly before catching her wrist as she tried to escape.

She sat partially under the comforter staring at the man propping himself up in her bed. He had a serious look on his face and there was a glimmer of concern in his eyes. She was silent before motioning to the clock. "It's…six thirty. We have to be in the office at seven. Remember?" she smiled weakly and Morgan raised a brow before sighing deeply.

"I guess you're right." He muttered. "But woman, don't you dare think I'm letting this go. Because you're wrong! After work we are going to go for an outing and you are gonna tell me what's up. Got it, baby girl?" he asked; his features stern.

Her watering eyes locked with his and she slowly nodded…there was no way he was forgetting about it. When Derek Morgan's inner alarms sounded, there was no shutting them off. She took the silence as her way out and she quickly grabbed some clothes before running to the bathroom to shower.

When the bathroom door clicked shut Morgan sighed and shook his head before yawning, stretching his long arms he heard a small crack. Grunting slightly he rolled his shoulders and went to inspect his bruised eye. The darkened colour remained over his eyelid and he winced as he touched it slightly…yep, he wouldn't be getting a date any time soon. Smirking to himself he made his way over to the pantry 'Like I'm really thinking about that right now.' He mused internally and proceeded to grab a box of cereal and milk from the fridge. Pouring some into a bowl he poured some of the white liquid over the dry flakes before taking a slow first bite.

Seeing anyone was the last thing on his mind.

Chewing slowly he ran his free hand over his forehead, sighing deeply. He had a lot of things on his mind recently, but scoping for some 'company' was far from it. Not when he couldn't manage to sleep one night without being haunted of visions of that bastard's face. The abhorred man who decided to attempt to take her life, the son of a bitch who was too close to ripping the very light from his world. He couldn't remember the last night he had slept without seeing the grinning face of Jason Clark Battle followed by countless pictures of her lying in a hospital bed, fighting for her life. They would always end the same, she would die before he got to the hospital, or he would fail in protecting her that night in her apartment, he would always lose. Bringing a shaking hand to his temple he shook his head, trying to shake the disturbing images away. Yawning again he smiled pleasantly as he mused to himself…that wasn't entirely true.

He had slept last night.

When he had showed up last night, he had realized he might have been over-stepping his boundaries he had set up to protect himself, his heart. He had quickly dismissed the notion and had come anyway. He needed to see her after his conversation with Reid. He grunted as he continued to chew, everyone was trying to pry into his business. His feelings. But his Baby Girl didn't. He smiled…she would open her arms and take him as he was no matter how broken, angry or bitter he became. She would smooth over the cracks and fix him back up to face another day. She meant everything to him-

His reverie was interrupted when he heard someone enter the kitchen. He looked around and caught sight of the object of his thoughts. His heart took off in his chest as he took in her curves fitting perfectly into the blue and white figure-hugging dress she was wearing. Her red locks were curled and falling around her shoulders loosely. She beamed when she noticed him looking at her and gave a small curtsy.

"You like?" she giggled and smiled as she went to get some bread out of a bag "I bought it last week." She sat down at the little table with him and grinned cheekily "You got the first glimpse, handsome."

He gulped, trying to swallow the dry lump beginning to form in his throat. He nodded "You look beautiful mama." He sighed slightly before noticing the second of uncomfortable silence that followed. "…I'm sure Kevin will…love it." Wincing he felt his heart plummet at the thought of the little jealous man.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, smearing some peanut butter on her piece of bread. "I don't really care what he thinks." She said matter-of-factly and shrugged, looking down at her phone. He blinked before he took a breath to say something. She shot him a cold look before smiling at him sweetly, placing her fingers on his. "Can we not talk about that Derek? I just want to remember last night as what it was…more fun than I've had…in a long time." She replied and he held up his other hand in understanding, chewing the remainder of his cereal before swallowing. If she didn't want to talk about it, he wasn't going to complain.

"Right!" she chirped before tossing her plate in the sink with his bowl. "We've gotta get to work!" she exclaimed before Derek grinned at her, walking towards her bedroom to grab a shirt from his go bag he had brought with him. Pulling the dark fitted shirt over his shoulders he smirked, grabbing his keys from the table.

"Come on then sweetness, you're riding with me today. No buts." He firmed and she raised a brow.

"Okay…? Sure." She agreed.

"Glad we're on the same page then…because I've got my bike." He smirked and proceeded to open the door. Penelope stood there stunned as she called after him.

"Wait, Morgan! Bike…as in that screaming metal death trap!?" she squeaked before hearing a laugh echo through the stairwell.

"You got it baby!" he hollered back and she pulled the door closed behind her, proceeding to lock it. A rush of adrenaline coursed through her. She would never tell anyone…but she loved that thing. The wind in her hair, the speed…straddling her chocolate god on the back of it for dear life…a shiver ran up her spine before she giddily ran down the stairs after him.

xxx

He let out a hefty grunt of frustration as he shoved open the rusting door of his early nineties civic. Shutting it forcefully he grumbled as he grabbed his laptop bag from the back seat. Cursing to himself he shut the back door with equal force, causing the car to rock slightly on its wheels. He muttered under his breath bitterly. He worked for the FBI;you'd think he'd be able to afford a better ride. 'That's it.' He thought 'no more computers until I can afford to replace this piece of shit.' It wasn't that he didn't make enough; he just tended to spend it all on video games and accessories for his laptops.

Making his way towards the elevator sluggishly he stopped when he heard the approaching roar of a motorcycle. Rolling his eyes he continued on towards the other side of the lot.

'Damn kids.'

It wasn't until he heard the rumbling of the engine coming closer that he raised a brow, beginning to look around the nearly full lot. That was weird, where was that coming from anyway-

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the thunderous sound come tearing into the entrance of the parkade. He stood motionless as he watched the slick midnight black bike circle around once before rolling into a space right near the elevator clearly marked "reserved for Derek Morgan". Kevin's brow shot up again 'what did he do to deserve a spot?' He thought bitterly. Half the time when he arrived at work the only spots left was on the third floor and he would have to make his way down three flights of stairs. He inwardly cringed at the thought; gym glass was definitely not his 'thing' in school. He was starting to regret not taking Penelope up on her offer of cardio classes for them both last month…

He was about to continue walking towards the elevator but he noticed a flash of tell-tale red sitting on the back of the motorcycle. He heard a giggle before the tall profiler removed the helmet from his bald head. Putting it under his arm he moved off the bike before kicking the stand to prevent it from falling over. He offered his arms out to the woman still sitting on the back and she took off the helmet she was wearing and shook out her long hair before flashing an excited grin. Kevin's mouth dropped open: it was his girlfriend straddling Mr. FBI big shot Derek Morgan, on the back of his stupid 'I'm so cool' bike! He stared as she accepted his outstretched arms before he proceeded to help her hop off of the seat. Her legs were slightly shaky so the moment they hit the ground she stumbled on her fairly high heels, giggling like an excited school girl.

"That was awesome!" she said excitedly, a slight skip in her step as she ran after Morgan, trying to match his pace. She was rambling excitedly "Did you see how fast we were going!? It was just so incredible I mean I thought at one point we were going to die but at the same time you're obviously really good at driving and I knew you'd never let anything happen-" she was silenced by a firm slap on her ass.

Her face was a bright shade of crimson as she stood in stunned silence. Derek grinned wolfishly before he turned to her, smirking as he spoke. "Oh don't act so surprised sweet cheeks. I've only been threatening to spank that cute little ass of yours for years now-" it was then when he heard something behind him. He turned slightly and his face fell at what he realized silenced his friend.

Just a little behind them stood a seething Kevin Lynch. His fits were clenched so hard his palms were turning white, and his whole face and neck was turning so red he looked like he might catch on fire at any given moment. He opened his lips to say something when Penelope found her thoughts, quickly pretending to look at her phone. "Oh would look at the time! Morgan I think JJ needs us for this case…" she trailed off, hoping he'd get it.

Derek raised a brow "I didn't get a text-whoa!" he exclaimed as the redhead quickly grabbed his wrist, forcefully pulling him towards the elevator.

"We'd better get going quickly! Those nasties don't catch themselves you know! Oh, hi Kevin!" She frantically pushed the up button and cursed feverously until the doors closed.

Kevin seethed as he watched the elevator ascend upwards, his teeth grit together in anger. This was far from over.

xxx

Early that afternoon, the BAU team were all in their designated workspaces hard at work getting caught up on their paperwork. Much to Morgan's relief there was no new case, leaving him a chance to get everything ready for later. He had had time to arrange everything that he had needed to assure tonight would be perfect. It was a rare night that they didn't have to work and he intended to take advantage of it.

The rest of the team had noticed the extra spring in Morgan and Garcia's steps as they strode into the BAU together that morning. There was a smile on Morgan's lips, one that Prentiss hadn't seen on her partner in what seemed like forever. Penelope gave them each a hug as she got her morning coffee before brightly gliding to her office. She had even kissed JJ's cheek when she hugged her, before leaving her baffled friend to look questioningly at Reid who could only shrug, just as baffled as the rest of them. Late in the morning when Hotch had needed to retrieve a file from Morgan, upon entering his office he had observed the man hunched over his pile of paperwork whistling an upbeat song as he worked. He had blinked in surprise before the man had smiled at him, handing him the folder he needed. Upon leaving to return to his own office Morgan had stopped him, sincerely apologising for how rash he had been acting over the last little while.

Hotch was surprised. They all were.

Over the entire course of the day things were normal around the office. It relieved them all; it deeply saddened the team of profilers to see their friends so broken. With heavy hearts lifted and concern faded they had continued their daily work, positive that everything was going to work out for their friends. Morgan's everlasting smile had returned and Garcia's bubbly laughter filled the bullpen once again. It was as if everything was going to return to normal.

It was getting close to one thirty and Penelope was hard at work on the work that was currently literally piling up around her lair. She had four separate searches going, was working on at least three case files and was de-fragmenting a couple hard drives: all at once. She pushed her chair from computer-to-computer as she worked in a frantic attempt to keep up with the fast pace at which her babies were moving. She usually had no problems keeping up with the hectic nature of her job, but even she had to admit this was getting a bit much. Her eyes darted from screen to screen and she felt her heart thudding her chest as adrenaline coursed through her.

The final straw had been when she heard her phone ring on top of it all. Letting out a loud cry of frustration she reached for the receiver as she desperately tried to type with her other hand. Her efforts were futile as she reached too far, causing her form to topple out of her chair, landing on the cold floor with a loud thud. Groaning loudly she turned over slowly before she saw a pair of shoes walk in front of her eyes.

The phone was ringing loudly and her head was spinning, all making the situation increasingly frustrating.

"Penny." The person standing over her grunted. "We need to talk." Kevin crossed his arms angrily and just stared down at the woman lying on the floor below him.

"I don't need any help up." She groaned and proceeded to pick herself up slowly. "Nope, not me!" She rolled her eyes as she spoke, quickly turning back to the phone. She slipped on her headset "Hello, Hello anyone still there?!" she grunted before tossing it back on the desk in front of her.

Wonderful.

"Penny-" the voice behind her tried and she continued typing feverously on one of the keyboards, her fingers flying over the keys.

"What is it, Kevin?!" she muttered "if you can't see I'm extremely busy right now and I don't have time for this! Now if you'll excuse me, I need you to just…leave!" she waved to dismiss him from her office when he angrily stepped into view, proceeding to turn her chair away from the computer.

"No! We have to talk about this- we must talk about last night." He narrowed his eyes "we didn't get a chance to before he showed up." He spat bitterly and she sighed deeply before pressing her palms to her temple, beginning to feel a sharp thud pounding in her head.

"Kevin. Please. I do not have time for this right now. I have how many searches going, I have two of my babies cleaning themselves, and I-I have- like a million other things to do right now and I can't get into this right now with you so PLEASE!" she was frazzled. A few strands of her fiery red hair were tangled and her blue framed glasses were slightly askew on her nose. Panting heavily from her ranting she noticed the hurt look in her boyfriend's eyes before her own softened slightly. "Kev I'm…sorry. But I'm just…busy right now." She mumbled before turning back to her computers. "I'll talk to you some other time." She said nonchalantly and he sighed, obviously defeated.

"Fine…can we talk later? I'll bring over some dinner?" he smiled hopefully and she felt her stomach drop before she continued typing, not able to face him.

"I can't. I have…plans."

He was gone after that. She didn't need to see or hear him to feel the rage he left hanging in the air. Sighing deeply she smiled continuing to type quickly on her keyboards, not even going to try to deny to herself she was extremely excited for later.

A/N: I had another scene I was going to write onto this chapter involving M/G's little "date" but I hadn't even begun to get where I wanted and it was already at 4600 words...so I'm saving it for next chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed! please review and tell me what you think!

I also have an idea for a Valentine's day oneshot and I have another fic coming that is probably going to turn out to be an epic (20+ chapters, if it's called that) I've written the first couple chapters of I'll probably post soon as well. Stay tuned!