This was one of my favorite stories. I know some of you weren't a big fan of the mystery but I loved writing it. As I announced in the Summer update, I will finish off my last two stories and then I will be stepping away from Criminal Minds. The show has been slipping for awhile and if they are going to waste time giving Luke a personal life and ignoring all the women and Reid while simultaneously extinguishing Garvez chemistry, it is just not for me anymore. Thank you to everyone, and of course I always enjoy and appreciate your reviews or anything you do to let me know you like a story. Thank you.

They found Luke in a small waiting room by himself. He had his elbows on his knees. He was making fists and staring straight ahead. He heard them enter, but he didn't bother to look up. The silent tears were running down his face. He could easily discern who was there, but he didn't care. He was only glad he didn't have to worry about everyone's feelings, and that only a few of them had come.

"She's in surgery," Layla stated rather than asked. "It's Asherman's."

Luke nodded without moving any other muscle in his body.

Phil wheeled up next to him and put a hand on Luke's shoulder, which made Luke bury his head in his hands letting go of more tears. Matt sat next to Luke on his other side, putting his hand on his other shoulder. Layla came to kneel in front of him, covering his hands with hers.

Derek nodded to JJ for them to sit a few chairs away from the four of them. He let JJ lean into his shoulder and put his arm on the back of her chair. He let his head lay on hers as they waited.

A couple hours later, Kelsey walked into the room, pulling off her scrub cap. Derek and JJ woke up instantly. Layla was lying between Luke and Phil. She fell asleep while the other three men had been silently contemplating.

Kelsey waited a moment for everyone to adjust. "It went well. There wasn't that much build up yet. There were enough adhesions to block the blood exiting her uterus, but I cleared them, and she should be fine."

Everyone let out a relieved breath. "Can I see her?" Luke asked.

"They are moving her from the O.R. I'll come get you when they put her in her room." Kelsey gave him a half smile. "I-I just wanted to tell you that, I'll have to run tests to be sure, but, between this and her low chances before, it would be nearly impossible for her to ever conceive."

Luke shook his head. "That doesn't matter at all. Good, I'm glad. Then she won't have to go through any of this again. That's never what we wanted anyway."

Kelsey nodded. "I know. I just wanted you to be aware. Give me a few minutes to make sure she's been brought up." She had the door half opened when Derek's voice stopped her.

"Hey I just wanted to-"

She held up a hand. "It's better for you to think ill of me than to make them divulge something they weren't prepared to."

Derek nodded. "Thank you." He meant for saving Penelope's life, not for the forgiveness for his attitude. Kelsey nodded and exited.

"None of you have to stay. I'm not leaving though. So don't even try to tell me to," Luke told them.

"Wouldn't dream of it. But we'll stay until you see her for yourself," Phil said to him and waited for Luke to nod.

Kelsey waved at him through the glass door, and Luke followed her down the hall. Penelope was still sleeping. "She'll wake up soon. She'll be groggy," Kelsey said before stepping away to give him some privacy.

Luke silently walked to her bedside, pulled the chair near the bed, and took her hand in his, letting them fall to the bed. "I don't know how we even got here, Chica, but I'm not leaving."

When Luke finally felt her move, he didn't know how long it had been, but he had zoned out with his head on her bed. When he looked up, he saw her half open eyes. "Luke." His name barely came out of her lips.

He shushed her. "Baby, I'm right here. I'm not going away. You did really good. You're fine. You're going to be fine." He leaned over to kiss her forehead.

She sleepily nodded. "I had a dream this would happen. Does that make me psychic?" Her voice was raspy.

He laughed. "I think it means you're crazy."

"Well damn."

"You know this means- it already meant we can't have any kids, even if we change our minds."

"We won't. I still have you, right?"

"Yes."

"Then that's what matters."

"I need to let the others know that you're awake. Do you want anyone to come see you?"

She barely shook her head. "It doesn't matter, but you can't leave."

He chuckled. "You couldn't make me even if you tried."

"How long do I have to be here?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"I'm sure glad we boned a lot yesterday because otherwise it would be another few weeks. I'm assuming."

He laughed again. "That's where your mind goes?"

She let her eyes close and then open slowly. "You clearly don't know how good you are."

"I love you."

"I love you."

There was a tap on the door behind him. "I can let them back for a few minutes if you like, but I want them to let you rest," Kelsey said quietly.

Penelope nodded. "Feel free to kick any of them out." She watched Kelsey walk away. "How bad do I look?"

"Seriously? Who cares what you look like when you've clearly gone insane."

"Well, can you at least put my hair back in a ponytail so I don't feel like a mess?"

He grabbed her hair tie out of the bag of personal belongings and pulled her hair back into a high ponytail. "I guess helping Layla all those years finally paid off." He pulled the blanket further up her body, covering her up to her chest. He could tell she felt a little exposed in the ugly hospital gown.

When he heard the others approaching, he rounded the bed and held her hand on the other side to let them gather around near the door. "Hey Penny. Don't worry. Phil and I told them your whole life story. Now you don't have to go through it, but you can still use all that sympathy to cash in for gifts and favors," Layla announced as soon as she walked in.

Penelope sleepily shook her head. "Thanks, Layla, but I'll just take my boots back I think."

"Damn."

"We're sorry we were pushing you. We just... we don't know how not to know everything. We're always together. There aren't secrets between us. It was just so- but we weren't there for you, and, for that, we're sorry. All of us." JJ let a couple of tears fall.

"Jayge, let's not, okay? I think it was better this way."

"Well I'm happy to see you are feeling okay, and, even though this week has brought about a lot of revelations, I am ecstatic that you two are together." Matt gave her his signature smile.

"Or for some of us, we're ecstatic you're back together," Phil added.

"We should probably leave you to rest, but Layla is right. Just tell us what you need, and we'll do it," Matt told her. "I'll even let you color in my tattoos like you've been bothering me about."

"Oooh, you say that now when I'm not allowed to move. You tease." Penelope gave them a sleepy smile as they waved goodbye and silently made their way out.

Derek let them pass by him before he sidled up next to the bed and took her hand. "I promised myself I would never see you like this again, in a hospital bed. I swore it to myself, and here we are, and I didn't even know it." He was tearing up.

"Hey, hey, Baby Boy. You couldn't have done anything."

"But that's not the point, Garcia. The point is I promised to protect you, but I can't do that if I'm not even paying you enough attention. When did this happen? When did I stop being- When did this happen?" He was letting a few tears fall. He was grateful Luke was quietly holding Penelope's hand and not making him feel exposed.

"Angelfish, you got married and had a kid, remember? Your priority can't be me anymore. It's the way it's supposed to be."

"But you were always my priority. You were everything, and I forgot that you weren't anymore and I just- I thought you still were, but I wasn't doing anything to keep you close, and I think I took you for granted. I'm so sorry. I'm not a good best friend or protector if I don't even…" He brought his hand up to swipe at his eye.

"Oh, beautiful Chocolate Thunder. It's alright. We both grew up. We were each other's everything when we didn't have anything else, but we couldn't do that forever. We couldn't act like that forever. We still love each other. It just looks a little different now." She assured him.

He leaned in to kiss her cheek and then her forehead. "Here you are making me feel better, silly girl."

"Well you're always the mess, not me." She squeezed his fingers before letting them go.

Derek stepped back and then rounded the bed. "I'm sorry I didn't do more, and I'm sorry I didn't see you either. You've been there for the whole team, and you were there for me when we were chasing this unsub. I probably took you for granted too, but, more than that, I'm just going to say thank you because I'm pretty sure you love her the way I want her to be, and that's what makes you good in my eyes. It's what matters to me." Derek stuck his hand out, Luke let go of Penelope's to take it, and the two most important men in her life gave each other an embrace around their clasped hands before pulling away.

Luke grabbed Penelope's hand again as she spoke. "Love you, Hot Stuff."

"Love you too, Goddess." Derek ambled away slowly.

"Poor thing is still in love with me." Penelope leered at Luke.

Luke chuckled. "Oh, I never doubted that." He sobered, "But I'm in love with you too."

"I'm even more in love with you."

"Get some rest. I'm not going anywhere." He pulled up a chair to the opposite side of the bed and watched her eyes close as she held on tightly to his hand.

….

Four weeks later:

"Hey, c'mon in." Luke waved the large group of people into his house. Layla, Kelsey, and Phil had already been there, and they happily greeted all of the people they had met just a month ago.

"Wow, here we all are again. Man, there are too many of us," Emily said.

"Well, Mark's not here," Tara said hopefully.

"Yeah, neither is my mom," Reid added.

"No kids to speak of," Kristy said.

"Okay okay, there's less of us, and there's still too many." Emily walked to the kitchen counter where she saw a bunch of drinks set out.

Luke gestured to the drinks and snacks set about. "I take no responsibility if anyone gets sick. Layla was in charge of all this." He pointed to the tables of food.

They all settled in and started mingling. "Hey, where's Garcia?" JJ questioned.

"She'll be down in a few. She's just happy to be back in her own bed. Well, my own bed, our own bed... I don't know. She's happy to be home, and the past week she lingers in each room taking everything in like she's being excommunicated." Luke shrugged.

"I am not. It's just all so... I don't know. It's not a hospital bed. I like being home." Penelope came into the room. She smiled at everyone, but she went straight to Luke to hold onto him.

"Feeling back to normal?" Savannah asked her.

"Mostly. Apparently, we have to continue to look for all kinds of things to occur. So Luke gets to drive me three hours to Pennsylvania to see Kelsey all the time, so she can take care of my uterus and stick her fingers in my hoo ha. It's super annoying."

"Hey," Kelsey said affronted.

"I'll let you stick your fingers in my hoo ha, and I won't complain." Layla stuffed a bunch of chips her mouth.

Kelsey rolled her eyes. "Yeah, thanks, dear."

"We're happy to see you doing well, Kitten," Rossi said as he took a seat near Hotch.

"Garcia, we all are very happy to know you're okay," Hotch added.

"We're all grateful you're fine, and that we are all on the same page again," Tara said.

"It's true. JJ started writing down things about everyone so she wouldn't miss anything again." Will kissed his wife's forehead.

"Is that why you asked me why I was lifting more the other day? You thought something was wrong?" Matt asked.

"I'm not taking any chances," she told him.

"Now there's even less chance for privacy," Luke said to Penelope as he held onto her with his arms around her and her arms still wrapped around his waist.

"Yes, well in the interest of being open or actually in the interest of being not profiled, we're glad you could all make it. We wanted to inform all of you at the same time and also avoid the fallout later. We are married," Penelope announced.

The shock on the faces around the room was becoming an annoyance. She always thought she would love to keep secrets from these people, but it lost its shine quickly. "That's not- why weren't we a part of that?" Derek asked and then looked to Phil.

"Hey man, I didn't know either." He held up his hands.

"No, none of you knew, including Layla. We didn't want a big affair and to worry about wedding details. That stuff seemed so insignificant. We got married at the hospital a few days before I was released. Kelsey was our witness. It wasn't to exclude or keep a secret or anything of that nature. We just needed to do what we needed to do for us," Penelope said confidently.

"Right, and we knew we'd get these looks right here, so we wanted to let you all be a part of planning and enjoying a reception of sorts. Anything and anywhere. Whatever you all want," Luke added.

"Can I bring Amanda?" Spencer asked quietly and then he shyly looked down.

Penelope smiled, "Of course."

"So what I'm hearing is that we can make this as lavish and eccentric as we want it to be." JJ pouted her lips slightly. "Interesting." She gave Tara and Emily conspiratorial glances.

"Uh oh," Luke said as he kissed Penelope's forehead again.

"We knew this was coming, Honey."

"That we did."

"Alright then." JJ stood up and walked to the front door.

"Where are you going?" Penelope let her arms drop from Luke's waist to give JJ her full attention.

"Oh, I'm just going to go get all the scrapbooks I made for when I finally got the two of you together. I've been planning your wedding for two years, and I'll be damned if it ends with chips in a bowl that Layla probably already licked." JJ swung the front door open and strolled out as she heard Layla's voice calling out to her.

"I like the salt!"