Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds

Before either Derek or Penelope knew it 3 weeks had passed and now Sam was exactly 9 weeks gone, Penelope could see that Derek was trying to be happy but he wasn't himself, and it was killing her to try and make him happy when he truly wasn't.

'So Chicago this Friday... exciting.' Penelope said as they were out at dinner. Derek still didn't know that Kevin was long gone and Penelope was not about to add it to the platter.

'Would be if it were any other time.'

'Derek...' Penelope began. 'It'll be fine, they'll love her.'

'What like they did you?'

'Yeah they loved me, but I was your best friend, she's your... fiancée, they're going to love her.' Penelope told him and then stood, that momentary gap there threw them both. 'I'm going to head to the toilet; I'll see what's keeping her.'

'Thanks P.'

'No problems Derek.' Penelope told him, she'd taken away all signs of open affection towards him since Sam had told them she wanted to the whole family thing right, marriage then baby. Penelope was happy that Derek was settling down but then again her mind flashed to when she was shot and he said he loved her and when he started things with Tamara, they'd both shared that exchange but she never acted; now she wished she had but she could sit on her regrets for life and she was going to.

She walked into the toilet and heard Sam talking, she froze and listened, the woman sounded devilishly seductive and happy on the phone.

'I know baby, but this is a perfect way for me to inherit, it'll be fine.' Sam's voice floated out. 'Yeah, me too, I wouldn't want to marry him with her around either... it's okay, he'll forget about her soon.' There was another pause, Penelope was shocked. 'Yes, I'm sure he's loaded, he has apartments all over the place, earning a pocketful for them too and come on, you looked it up, he's an FBI agent.' She giggled at something and then Penelope heard her heels on the tiles. 'Right I better go or him and the geek will start to talk.' She laughed and opened the cubicle door. 'No we don't want that. Speak to you later babe... Love you too.' She said and stepped out, she immediately saw Penelope. 'Oh hey, Derek send you in to find me?' Sam asked sweetly, hiding the fact that she'd just finished her phone call. 'I wouldn't have taken so long but my sister called.'

'Right, and you call your sister babe?'

'On going joke.' She covered up.

'Oh stop the lies, I heard the whole thing, if you think you're going to do that to Derek you've got another thing coming to you.' Penelope then went to leave but Sam grabbed her arm and pulled her back from the door and slammed her into the wall on the far side of the room.

With her finger in Penelope's face she exuded anger and power over Penelope. 'Now you listen here, you dare say a word to him and you'll never know what hit you.'

'You don't scare me Sam... he'll find sooner or later.'

'You should be Penelope, I laugh at your stupidity, he uses you most of the time, did you know that? And well you don't want to get on the wrong side of me.'

'Like I said, you don't scare me.' Penelope said with confidence, her and Derek were closer than Sam knew; he wouldn't boot her for anything. 'So get off me and let me out of here.'

'So you can tell Derek?'

'Yes, so I can tell Derek.'

'I warned you Penelope, I'm capable of things.'

'So... get off me Sam.' Penelope pushed her way out of Sam's grip but then Sam slammed Penelope's head into the wall before letting her drop to fall as the pain explode, as Penelope slumped Sam threw punches, one splitting Penelope's slip and then she kicked Penelope before bending down.

'This never happened.' Sam threatened her, and then stood and left the bathroom satisfied. Penelope having hoped someone would've walked in got herself up and went into one of the cubicles to hide the damage; she sat down on the toilet and broke down.

Derek watched Sam saunter her way back through the masses of people and frowned. 'Where's Pen?' He asked as Sam slid into the booth.

'She said to get you home and show you how thankful I am.'

'For what?'

'For having such a gorgeous fiancée... she's not feeling great, she's just cooling off.'

'Not feeling great? Maybe we should wait for her.'

'She didn't know how long she'd be so told us to head off.' Derek frowned again and then gave in, he through some money on to the table for the bill and followed Sam out of the restaurant, something not sitting entirely right with him at that moment.

Looking in her mirror she saw the redness of her cheek, the split on her lip and she knew she could not hide this at work, sorting it out the best she could she got up and left, keeping her head down she was going to leave but found the table taken by new punters, she frowned, that woman was a snake.

Exiting the restaurant she found the cool air sting as it touched her lip, hailing a cab she found her ribs painful and it worried her admittedly but she'd go home and rest if over night and be fine come morning.

Come morning Penelope was no nearer feeling rested, she'd hardly slept and was continually taking pain relief, there was no way she could hide this but if she stayed home it'd worry the team and they would most probably end up at her apartment wanting to get her out of a supposed 'flu'.

Finding her foundation and other make up wonders she set to work to cover the faint bruises on her face, before she fled out of the door late. Making it to work she was permanent clock watching as 9 o'clock came and went, she was nearly 20 minutes late before she made it to her office and slumped into her chair, bag still on shoulder, to turn her computers on.

'Look who's late.' Derek said from the door. 'You feeling better?' He noticed Penelope didn't turn to look at him.

'Erm... yeah I am thanks.' She said meekly, almost embarrassed, she was helping Sam lie in the sense that she was going along with that excuse.

'Good, did you get home okay? I was gonna stay but Sam said you told us to go home.'

Penelope bit her lip but released it when pain imploded along it. 'Erm, yeah, got a cab right outside... straight home, straight to bed.' She told him and made it look like she was busy on her computers.

'Right, well it's good to know, I was gonna drop a text but we got carried away.' The thought made Penelope feel sick, and the fact that Derek's tone was picking up on the matters killed her even more. 'I'll leave you to it...' And he was gone, leaving her alone to battle her emotions, she stayed later than she needed to, no case, meant that not too much work needed to be done. So when she decided to go home, she packed her stuff away and left her office to be confronted by Emily and JJ.

'Pen!' JJ gasped as she saw the noticeable cut on her friend's lip. 'What happened?'

'It doesn't matter.' Penelope said and began to lock her door.

'We were going to see if you wanted to go out but no way ,we're taking you home, you shouldn't have come.' Emily said knowing not to push Penelope.

'No, don' worry about me.'

'Pen, you're obviously hurt.' JJ told her knowingly. 'So let's go back to yours and we can relax.'

'I'm fine.' Penelope told them and looked back up just as Derek came round the corner all smiles, Sam close to him. She gulped as the dark skinned brunette looked her dead in the eyes, almost with a death glare.

'Hey Pen.' Derek said as they got closer then he halted altogether. 'Baby girl...' She saw Sam tense at Derek's side. 'What the hell happened to you?'

'I fell.'

'Like hell you did, what happened?'

'Like I said, I fell, now can everyone just leave it and go home please?' Penelope said and left them alone, they all exchanged looks except Sam, her head was down trying to hide the smirk on her lips.