Morgan was sitting beside his Penelope, the movie just wrapping up. He smiled when he remembered how she always referenced the "Officer and a Gentleman" style ending. Touching her face softly, he was brought back to Alaska after the teen killer.
"I think I am going to stay on the job a little while longer."
She smiled up at him comically and asked him smartly, "Yeah, how much longer?"
Leaning closer to her, their noses almost touching, "Every day of my life."
He could see her walls crumbling around her and she playfully punched him against his chest. "I kinda love you, Derek Morgan." She wiped her tears from her eyes and bowed her head down.
Pulling her into his chest, he kissed the top of her curly red hair and replied, "And I kinda love you Penelope Garcia." He stared off into the distance, appreciating the feeling of holding his red delicious so close to him in this moment.
"I wasn't kidding when I said I love you, Penelope Garcia. I never would joke about my love for you. Im sorry for us getting distracted along the way." Pressing a tender kiss upon their joined hands, he touched her soft red hair and stared down at her with desire to love her and to see her brown eyes stare up at him. "I swear to you, when you wake up, you and I will be unstoppable. But I need you to do one thing for me. Just open those pretty brown eyes of yours. Please baby girl, I need you. Please."
There was a knock on the side panel of the door and Derek assumed it was Nurse Austin coming in to check her vitals. He was surprised to see JJ staring at him with sad eyes. He looked at her defeated stance and moved his attention to the sleeping Penelope. "Any change?" she asked stepping closer to the bed.
"No, but the doctor said that talking helps. If she has something to come back for, she will wake up sooner." Derek rubbed his thumb along her wrist and placed shaky kisses upon their joined hands.
"Morgan, you have to know that Penelope has plenty to come back for. She will make it through this. I promise you that." JJ rubbed her sorrow filled friend's shoulders and was troubled by how much tension she felt in his neck and shoulders. "Wow, I should have Reid refer you to his massage therapist."
Confused, Derek turned his attention to JJ who had a smirk on her face and she gave Penelope a delicate kiss upon her cheek. "Reid has a massage therapist?"
"I don't know. All I know is that I went to pick up our best friend this morning for the briefing, but not only was he not home, but when I called his cell a sleeping Rebecca answered his phone."
Derek laughed and said, "That's our kid, finally getting some."
"We gave him a lot of crap about it this morning when he showed up with tingler on his lips, glitter oil all over his body that smelled like the caribbean and old college sweats we know aren't his." JJ smiled when she noticed her friend and colleague loosening up for the first time since the explosion.
"You hear that, baby girl. Boy genius finally got some," he said kissing their joined hands.
JJ studied the profiler in front of her and saw nothing but devotion and love in his mannerisms. She knew that getting him to do anything he wouldn't want to would be difficult, but the urgency of this case was too high to shut the team down completely. They were down one member physically, another emotionally, they didn't need to lose more. "Derek, do you know if Pen said anything strange about the case to which there are other paths for possible unsubs?"
Derek grew tense once again and looked down at his baby girl. "This seemed to be a quick job. She sounded suspicious that we were able to track their bank statements quickly and suddenly, but we just assumed they were growing lazy. Do you think that they wanted us to follow the trap to Tymes for this to plan to go into effect?"
"Its definitely a possibility. Do you know if Pen has mentioned meeting anyone in her counseling events that is particularly strange or suspicious?"
Laughing down at his baby girl and meeting JJ's eyes once again, he replied, "You know Pen, JJ. No one is too strange or too different for Penelope Garcia. Its just another person to love and reach out to." He stood up and placed a soft kiss upon her forehead and looked at his friend with tired eyes. "I need to go to the bathroom, will you not leave her please?"
"Sure," she said watching him look down at Penelope reverently as if he asked her a silent permission. He walked down the hall, even though the bathroom in the room was the closest one. He knew the JJ needed time with Garcia and that he wasn't going anywhere soon.
JJ looked down at her best friend and studied her injuries. Tears began gathering into her eyes as she listened to her friend's heart beat create the noise in the small room. Doctors and nurses seemed to be flying past her room as Penelope continued recovering. The bruising upon her face caused JJ to cringe and she was startled to see the bloody bandage covering her ribs. It was another moment she was close to losing her best friend.
JJ felt Garcia's tight grip on her hand as she watched her friends leave her room. She quickly glanced up as she heard Derek slam his hand into the wall and watched Reid attempt to calm his passionate friend. JJ turned her attention back to her injured best friend and gave her a sad smile. "What do you need, Pen?"
Garcia looked up at her best friend sadly and began fiddling with her fingers, a nervous act she caught her doing from time to time to ease a situation. "Jay, I need you to promise me that you guys won't treat me like a victim. That you won't let Derek get too emotional. That you will view this case like any other case."
Looking at her friend with sad eyes, she replied, "I can't control Morgan, but you have to know we are all emotionally invested in this case."
"When you are emotionally invested, you lose perspective and focus. You will all have a higher chance of getting injured thinking that way. If you can be detached you may have a chance of finding this bastard." Penelope looked away and JJ noticed two tears fall from her brown eyes. "I guess I wanted to believe that someone would want me and I let myself ignore the signs. I mean come on, no one in that league would honestly look at me."
"Pen..."
"You know its true. I know Derek didn't mean to hurt me, and I know I went out with this guy out of spite, but I wish for once I could believe that I could be someone's miracle, someone's reason for existing."
JJ felt tears climbing into her eyes and she kissed her friend on the cheek in a form of comfort and support. "Penelope Garcia, you don't know how loved you are. You can't see how desired you are and you are a fool to believe that a particular agent wouldn't cross a smoky bar for you."
With a sad laugh, Penelope looked up at her beautiful blonde friend and squeezed her hand tightly. "You go get him JJ. Run like the wind!"
With a quiet smile JJ let go of her hand and returned back to the boy eagerly waiting to learn what Penelope wanted to tell her alone.
"You continue to frighten me, Penelope Garcia. What kind of influence are you being Fairy Godmother?" JJ straightened her jacket and placed her hand in hers. "Pen, we need you to get up. I know that it may seem safer to sleep, and I promise you it probably is right now, but you have a lot of people who need you and a lot of people who love you wanting you to wake up. We need you to add your own little jabs into Reid for going to Rebecca's place last night. Henry asked me if you were going to see Toy Story 3 with him again. He really adores you, you know?"
JJ let go of her hand and felt the desire to pace the room in front of her. She looked at Penelope's broken ankle and let the tears burning her eyes escape her. "You know the teams a mess without you. Hotch sent Rossi and Prentiss to look up records information! You have my support to strangle him when you wake your beautiful ass up. Im sorry, Dave is practically a monkey on the computer! He would do better hitting it with a baseball bat than sending a document to print. And Prentiss looks like she is going to break down if you don't wake up. The three of us are the sexiest musketeers Quantico, Virginia has ever known. We need you, best friend."
Moving back to her best friend, she held her hand tight and brushed her hair off her stitched forehead. "You listen to me, Penelope, and you get this information into that hard headed brain of yours. Derek Morgan loves you more than you'd ever know. I don't think he has been able to breathe since he knew you were in the explosion. He is taking this so hard. He really needs you. How did you describe it to me? Yes, you were what he called his "God Given Solace." I don't think he would give that title to anyone but his baby girl. If you don't have any other reason to come back from this, wake up for that man who adores you."
She leaned her head down and gave her the softest hug she had ever given anyone. Her body shook with sobs and she cried into her, "Please come back, P. I miss you so much. I love you. Please wake up."
JJ's tears stopped when she heard a knock at the door. She looked up and saw a tired yet dutiful nurse in front of her. "Hello, my name is Nurse Austin. Im assuming you are a friend of Mrs. Garcia."
"Yes, she is as close to a sister as I ever had." JJ squeezed her soft hands and watched the nurse check her vitals and increase what appeared to be her pain medication.
"Did Mr. Garcia finally get himself something eat? I swear his focus was noble yet frightening to witness!" The nurse said with a laugh.
JJ laughed and replied, "Derek can be intense. When it comes to his baby girl, if the wind blew her the wrong way, he would find a way to fix it for her."
Nurse Austin laughed and marked her chart. "It isn't often you see such dedication and love in this world. Penelope is lucky to have such amazing family. Doctor Ford has requested that Penelope get her cast set so we will be taking her now. Would you mind informing Mr. Garcia for us please?"
"Yes, that's not a problem," JJ replied. She gave her Pen a kiss on the forehead and watched as they wheeled her away. She took out her phone and text Will : Just saw Pen. Really sad. Hasn't woken up. Will call soon. 3 you and our beautiful son more than anything. 3
Derek walked toward Penelope's room and noticed her bed was missing and JJ sitting outside the room staring into her hands. Frantically Derek rushed to JJ and asked, "Where is Pen? What happened? Why didn't you get me?"
"Morgan, calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down, where is Penelope, JJ? Where is she?" He asked loudly and brokenly.
"Morgan, calm down. She is just getting her cast sized and placed. Just breathe." JJ motioned for Derek to sit in the chair she had previously occupied and watched as he stared into the room with heartbreak written into his features.
"Are you sure that is all they are doing, JJ? Nothing happened while I was gone?"
"No, your baby girl is going to be fine. I promise. You can even sign her cast first," JJ said attempting to bring humor into the situation.
"Damn right, I'll be first," he said with a laugh. "To Baby Girl, Love Hot Stuff." sound about right?"
Laughing she answered, "Of course, only from you hooker."
Derek's smile faded slightly at the friendly term. He knew his track record wasn't the best, but he wanted to believe that Penelope could see passed that part of his past. "JJ, you believe she is going to wake up, right?"
JJ swallowed her emotion at the question and sat beside her colleague and friend. "Derek, she is going to wake up and be looking for her Chocolate Adonis before you know it. Hey, maybe you should find those chaps she has been asking for for years," she said with humor in her tone.
He gave a sad shrug at her joke and looked down at the photo he had of the two of them. "Do you think she knows I love her, JJ?" he asked sadly.
"Derek Morgan, I believe she knows that you would do just about anything for her. And just so its clear in that stubborn mind of yours, she would give up anything for you. You just need to believe in your baby girl. You got it?"
Nodding quietly, he shot up when he saw Nurse Austin rolling Penelope back toward her room. Derek ran toward them and Nurse Austin motioned for him to stop and stay where he was. "Doctor Ford will be coming to check on Mrs. Garcia soon, Mr. Garcia. Just let me do my job and get your wife back into her room."
JJ pulled her friend back toward him and watched as Morgan took in Nurse Austin's every move as she handled getting his solace back into her room. "Are you ever going to correct them about not being her husband, Derek?" JJ asked with a smile.
"No, not right away. It really hasn't crossed my mind," Derek said shrugging his shoulders. Looking at the clock it was 12:11 and she knew the Spencer would be arriving soon. Once Nurse Austin adjusted Penelope's bed, she motioned for Penelope's family to return inside the room and stand vigil to the very loved patient.