A/N: Apologies for the delay. I was making my way back to warm Dublin yesterday - well, warmer then freezing Germany at least - and therefore wasn't able to post a chapter. But from tonight on we will return to the daily update schedule.

Penelope sat in her office for what seemed hours. It wasn't enough that Derek Morgan, her best friend, the one guy in this world who wasn't supposed to betray her – at least not as bad as Kevin Lynch did – somehow ended up betraying her one way or another. No, JJ and Emily now had to back him up as well. Why was everyone of her friends so determined on getting this date out of her?

Tapping her pens several million times against her desktop, thinking how to proceed from here, she thought she'd lose her mind. Weren't friends supposed to be on your side? And not make you think about things you are opposed to?

When she didn't get any further really, wasting more time but not coming up with any real solution or answer, she decided to relay on old-fashioned ways. Getting a pencil and a piece of paper, making a list of pros and cons, hoping secretly that this would give her the answer.

All she wanted was an uncomplicated, string-less bit of fun. And what did she end up with? A notorious womanizer who needed to pick her and this exact time to wave goodbye to his old ways and become monogamous. What happened to guys that kept to their words? That really let it be just uncomplicated, string-less fun?

An hour, three security updates and a list of sixteen points on it still didn't get her anywhere. Somehow she didn't like her list very much, especially the fact that it had more or less only pro points listed, and just a few cons, but they weren't really cons, more like facts that couldn't be changed anyway. She wanted a clear answer, and okay, given the answer her list was given her was loud and clear, but somehow not what she had hoped for.

Occasionally JJ and Emily checked on her, stopping by for a coffee and some chitchat, starting to slightly annoying her with the question whether she made up her mind now and then vanished. Weren't friends supposed to kind of help you make a decision and not make that decision for you? What happened to the days when guys were guys, slept around and you could depend on them doing just that and girlfriends helped you make right decisions? What happened to these days? Back then she sure as hell wouldn't have found herself in such a situation.

By five she still hadn't found the answer to her question, and gave up, calling it a day and going home, hoping that either by tomorrow Derek Morgan would have come to his senses or her friends would at least be of better help. Neither happened. And after a week Penelope felt like she was about to combust. She was more or less aching for Morgan, desiring his closeness and touch, his kisses and his skin on hers, his hands caressing every single inch on her body. She was starting to go insane more and more each day she didn't have him in her bed, or his, or at least next to her for the night. Okay, she never spent a full night, at least not since they started sleeping with each other, but that was just formalities anyway.

What was even worse was that Morgan, despite his little ultimatum, still acted normal around her. Brought her coffee every morning, still called her all the nicknames in the book. He just didn't flirt as much with her anymore as before and kept his distance. Probably more for reasons of self-preservation than anything else. And maybe that was her way out of this. If he was feeling like her, needing her, aching for her as much as she was for him this could be solved quickly. She just needed to get him break down, give in and they would be all settled. She just needed to make him see he couldn't go without her.

Another four days later and she had to realize her plan didn't work. Who would have known that he had such an incredible amount of self-control and that she was so transparent? He had seen right through her and her little plan right from second one. Of course he wouldn't tell her right away, no, he made her push his buttons and then fail.

When her plan of seducing Morgan didn't work she decided that Derek Morgan wasn't the only guy out there. And okay, given she couldn't compare to any of these stick-thin topmodel wannabe's. But she could hold her own out there. It wasn't as if she had been waiting around before Morgan. There were other guys before, there would be other guys now. So she went out, to the clubs with the goal of finding someone else who she could scratch that itch with. But somehow it didn't really work out like that. Sure, Penelope found a guy, rather quickly actually, but somehow, she couldn't invite him in. Max was all she needed: good-looking, charming, physically very attractive and very promising. They both seemed to just want one thing from each other and that was good. Fewer complications the next morning. But when they made it back to her place there somehow was something that stopped her, something that couldn't get herself to invite him in, rip his clothes off and just do it. When he kissed her before she asked him to come up, it already felt odd. But not as odd as seeing him standing in her doorway. It felt not just odd, but somehow also wrong. Not morally or things like that, just … wrong from a general picture. And somehow her mind was set on everything else than sex tonight.

Sighing she decided to stop it there, calling it a night, letting him go home and crawling in bed, all by herself. Great, now Derek Morgan was screwing with her mind and love life without even being present.

The next morning at work she made a quick stop in her office, having hurried past the bullpen quickly and seeing the goodness that Morgan was this morning. Given, he was in unusually early today, but who cared. She needed to speak to him anyway and the fewer audience they had the better.

"It's not fair," she pouted at him, starting to get slightly annoyed. She wanted him. Badly. Now.

"What isn't?" he asked with a soft smile. Of course he knew what she was complaining about.

"I know you want me, as bad as I want you. And yet, all my tries in getting you to … give up didn't work."

Morgan laughed at that for a moment, studying his best friend. "Well, Baby Girl, that is mainly because I had a lot of practice with you in not getting what I want," he explained.

"What do you mean with 'you have practice'?" Penelope asked curious.

"Ever since we started this we have been moving in a direction I didn't really want us to go and yet, I waited it out, hoping you would come to your senses, or at least let me talk you into a date. It didn't come, so maybe I got a bit impatient."

"We started six months ago," Penelope exclaimed and saw Morgan only nodding his head.

"You've waited since six months?" she asked shocked, not sure how to take this information.

Morgan nodded again, before smiling at her again. "You kind of made me be a very patient guy, Baby Girl. I can't say I've ever waited that long for a chance. Actually, I never waited at all for someone. Usually I always got my way." He smiled mischievously at her.

Penelope looked at him skeptical for a moment, not sure what to say, or what to do at all. That definitely was a first for her around Derek Morgan. Usually she always knew what to do or say.

He went on "Look, I am not trying to pressure you into anything. I do not want to manipulate you into anything. All I want is a chance to show you what we could be, but if it is that hard for you to say yes, I guess… I'm gonna live with it and move on. I don't want you to say just yes, because you are getting desperate or stuff like that. I have been wrong about what you feel for me and maybe I risked too much, I thought it was on both sides, but I guess not," he finally said, looking defeated, a sight that broke her heart. She didn't mean to hurt him, she didn't mean for any of them to get hurt as a matter of fact. All she wanted was just … what they had been doing over the last few months.

Maybe Emily was right… maybe she really did pick the wrong guy for something like that. Maybe they were the wrong kind of people for something like that.

Sighing for a moment, she put her hand over his and looked down on him sitting in his chair in the by now deserted bullpen. "Okay, you get your date. One. You have one chance to convince me we are a good idea and if it doesn't work out, we'll never talk about this ever again. Okay?" she asked, seeing Derek's face light up in an instant.

And what exactly had she gotten herself into now?