Baby Girl

Morgan and Garcia

Chapter Six

July 2000

Derek did not want to make this call.

It had been just a couple of weeks since Penelope went home to California. They had been chatting online and on the phone nearly everyday. Not only did they share confidences and comfort each other through their mutual loneliness but they made each other laugh and get turned on over and over again.

He hadn't felt this way about a woman ever before. If she lived in Chicago she would be the perfect woman to make his first serious relationship as an adult with. But she didn't and so they were getting by the best they could.

Sometimes it seemed as if she was fighting her feelings for him. Derek didn't even bother doing that with her. Though it would be smarter to let her go he didn't want to be smart and cautious. He wanted to feel good and loved and excited about life again.

Penelope made him feel that way.

And that is why it hurt his heart to make this call to her. He was sitting on the window sill in his apartment, where he had been for a while as he contemplated doing this. Finally he knew he had no choice. He had to leave in the morning and, just in case she didn't answer right now, he wanted to leave time for her to call him back.

"Hello, my handsome heroic bomb squad baby."

He chuckled. She always called him the funniest and cutest names. His favorite was Hot Stuff because she said it to him a few minutes after they first met. But he liked them all really and she had inspired him to think up names for her beyond baby girl, mama, sweetie, sweetness, and sweetheart. He called her the light of his life, hot blonde, dream girl, fantasy maker, and whatever else struck him in the moment. And he loved doing it too.

"Hey there, baby girl. How are you doing today?"

"Working away at something better left unspoken since you have that badge."

"Yeah, probably. I just hope you are being a good girl and staying somewhere near the legal line."

"Don't ask. Don't tell."

He chuckled. "Okay. Anyway, I thought so much about you today. You stay on my mind, woman."

"You always invade my thoughts and my dreams too, lover. You walk through my mind like its your playground and I am completely helpless to stop you."

"Hey now, none of that talk. I don't want you even thinking about kicking me out of your head. I still wanna come see you real bad. The thing is, girl,...uh... I don't think I'm gonna be able to anytime soon-"

"Oh."

"Penelope-"

"Its cool. I'm sure you're real busy on your end and I am on mine. So if you can't come next weekend like we planned then maybe next month or the one after or maybe we'll just be e-mail buddies or something. We are not exclusive either so you can have your playboy fun and I'll have my tech kitten forays into romance and there should be no hard feelings."

"Hard head, that ain't what I want at all. But I do understand if you need to move on. I hope that when I do get to see you again, and I will see you again one day, I promise you that, maybe you'll let me take you out so we can spend some time together. Who knows what it will feel like but I know I have to see you again and find out."

"We'll see, Derek."

He let out a heavy breath. "Look I am not supposed to talk about this with anyone but you're not just anyone. Please don't make me regret telling you this. You can't tell anyone else, no matter what the circumstances. Can I trust you, baby girl?"

"Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Shhh, of course not. Your hero would never cross the legal line. That's tech kitten territory and I sure do hope you get out of that line of work fast cause I can't have my girl breaking Uncle Sam's rules. For now I will keep your secret where that is concerned because I just like you too much to rat you out. Now tell me if you'll keep my secret."

"Yes," she said in a very serious tone.

"I'm going undercover."

"Oh, give me a break!"

"Penelope, I'm for real!"

She went off on him. "I'm going undercover on a top secret mission and I'd love to call, write and visit but the fate of the world depends on this chocolate gum drop strapping on his cape so sorry, baby, but don't expect to hear from me anytime soon," she mocked. "I guess you think I'm stupid, huh? Well, I am not a dumb bunny and no blonde jokes apply to me! Sell that stupid, lame, pathetic excuse elsewhere. I did not ask you to come visit me or call me or text me or email me. All your idea. So if you're bored then just say so. Or better yet, go to hell! You're a total jerk and a disappointment! I thought you had more class than this, Derek. Guess not." Click.

He stared at his phone like it had grown a head. Then he tried calling back. She wouldn't pick up. He spent hours pacing his apartment, trying to distract himself with eating and packing a suitcase, watching the game and balancing his check book, in between calling her over and over and leaving begging messages to please call him back.

He wrote her an email.

Penelope,

I understand why you said what you did but you are wrong. I did not lie to you and I really NEED to speak to you. Do not throw this chance away for both of us to speak TONIGHT. Please stop being hard headed and call me. I NEED YOU VERY MUCH TONIGHT.

Yours,

Derek

PS. You are still my one and only baby girl. You might not think that means anything but for me it does mean a lot. Call me!

XXXXXXXXXXX

Penelope had heard a lot of stories from men over the years. Most women had her their share of lies and crazy excuses and stories from the male population. Tall tales meant to either get them interested or brush them off. But she had never felt quite as insulted as when Derek Morgan tried to tell her he was going undercover.

Obviously that was just like the time a guy told her he was moving to Africa to work with orphans. She saw him out with another girl a month later. It had been just saying to say instead of "I've lost interest."

She wasn't sure how she felt about Derek anyway. Sometimes she thought she had fallen in love with him. The memories they made together during her vacation were the most magical romantic memories she had for her whole life. But other times she wondered how she could ever think she loved a guy she barely knew who was a self confessed womanizer, not looking an anything serious, and lived half a country away.

Talk about hopeless. Her and Derek probably didn't have a chance. But she had let him talk her into trying. Their night of love making was incredible, their dance was incredible, and just being near him doing anything at all felt incredible.

But if he was over it all then so be it. She had learned to take blow after blow to her heart ever since her parents died and she learned how to always bounce back now. No more depression for her. No more all black Goth girl for Penelope. And no tears over lying Derek Morgan.

She had her mind made up but then she read his email. She checked her phone and listened to all his messages. There was a sadness, a slight fear, and desperation in his voice. She knew he liked to appear cool and collected so it had to be hard for him to show her that vulnerability. Why would he bother if he was making up this undercover thing to blow her off?

Just to save her feelings? Would he really go to the trouble to keep calling and begging for a chance to talk just to convince her a lie so his conscious was eased that she was comforted with a convenient story and didn't feel rejected? Or was he telling the truth?

It was bad enough to worry about him working in the bomb squad but undercover? That sounded even more dangerous. An everyday, every minute, sort of dangerous that chilled Penelope to her bones. Would she ever see him again if he did this?

How long would something like that last?

She picked up her cell and called him.

"Baby," he said tenderly into the phone.