Disclaimer: Not Mine.
A/N – This is mainly a Penelope chapter. This is where I worry I get in the weeds. While the story is mainly supposed to be JJ/Emily friendship and JJ/Hotch – Emily/Derek I keep finding that in order to tell that story the other characters tend to jump in now and again. I hope you enjoy.
Chapter Eight
"Oh my stars! Are you kidding me, Derek Morgan?" They had just returned back from their latest case and Derek had hunted Penelope out to give her the news knowing the longer he put it off the more probable she would hear it from another source and end up pissed at him.
"I would not kid you about something like this Baby Girl." He smiled at her stunned expression.
"Emily Prentiss is pregnant and you Derek Morgan are the baby daddy?" She repeated.
Derek nodded. "That is correct. Emily is pregnant and I'm the father."
"How did that happen?" Garcia wanted to know.
"The usual way." He replied saucily.
"Oh you." Standing up she went over and gave her friend a hug. "I'm so happy for you." She pulled back to look at him. "We are happy, right?"
"Oh Baby Girl, you have no idea how happy we are." Morgan moved to an empty chair and dropped into it. "We still have some stuff to work out."
"Uh, I guess so. Your baby mama is overseas. Derek, Emily can't have the baby in England." She stated emphatically. "How will we visit the little tyke?"
Derek sighed in agreement, not surprised that Penelope zeroed in on his biggest hurdle. "That's one of the things we need to work out."
Not wanting to push the issue Garcia moved on to a new topic. "Who else knows?" She wanted to know.
"Well, my mom and sisters, JJ obviously, Emily just told her parents." He smiled as he recalled the conversation they had regarding her telling her parents and their surprising reaction. Rather than the lecture she had expected her mother had been elated and promptly burst into tears. "Oh, and Hotch."
Garcia frowned at the last name. "Wait a minute, Hotch knows?" She glared at Morgan. "Why did Hotch know before me?"
Leave it to Penelope to take affront at that. Morgan shook his head. "I did something stupid and he came to talk to me and it just came out." He explained.
She looked at him for a long minute before acceptance finally kicked in. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. Maybe." She stared at him for another moment. "What about Reid and Rossi?" She would not be happy to be the last one told.
Luckily Derek knew a little of how her mind worked. "I haven't said anything yet."
"This is just so huge." Garcia gushed. "I guess that's why Emily wanted JJ over at Interpol with her?" That request at least made sense to her now. As did her Chocolate Adonis' despondency a few weeks ago; she may have her own issues but she hadn't been blind to his. She just didn't have the ability to reach out to him.
"Yeah, she and Jay are pretty close." He shook his head, "I'm really glad she's there for Emily."
"Me too," Pen conceded. "But I really miss her and my little peanut." Her face expressed her sadness.
Morgan squeezed her shoulder. "This was a good thing for JJ, too, Pen. She really needed to get away from here."
Penelope looked at him curiously. "Why, what do you mean? Everything is going to work out with her and Will. They just hit a rough patch. JJ needed some time away to put things back into perspective."
"She wasn't happy, Pen." He shrugged. "It was a really hard decision for her not to marry Will." He was sorry now that he was so wrapped up in his own issues that he didn't reach out to the blonde that sat across from him.
"Right, I know it was. Like I said, one of the reasons she went to Interpol was so she could work some stuff out. I don't have any doubt they will reconcile when JJ returns." The look on Derek's face indicated that he disagreed with her assessment.
He watched her for a minute. "Baby Girl, when are you going to tell me what happened with Lynch?"
"Nothing to tell Sweet Cheeks, that is a story best left alone. Besides, I don't want to talk about Kevin Lynch, why are we talking about Kevin?" She asked curiously.
He pulled her over to her seat and made her sit down and knelt in front of her. "Because I think your desire to see JJ and Will reconcile is more about you and Lynch than it is them."
"No it's not," she vehemently denied. When Morgan didn't respond other than to raise a brow at her she conceded. "I just want my family happy. My little Gumdrop isn't happy. Don't you think they'll get back together?" She pouted.
"I'm not going to speculate about JJ and Will, Pen." He wouldn't meet her eyes.
Penelope's eyes grew wide. "Oh my god, you know something!" She waited until he looked at her. "You honestly don't think they're going to get back together because you know something you're not telling me."
Morgan shook his head. "Pen, JJ asked Will to find another place to live while she was gone, that says over to me, not I need space."
Penelope looked confused for a moment. "Why do you know this and I didn't?" Her face reflected her hurt.
"Because every time you talk to JJ you refuse to listen to what she's telling you. Or you listen then interpret it however you want it." He replied honestly.
"That's not true." She frowned.
Morgan pulled the analyst into a hug. "Baby Girl, you know I love you, but you haven't been yourself. Even Hotch is aware of it. He asked me to talk to you."
The idea that their esteemed leader specifically asked Derek to speak to her knocked her for a loop. "Jinkies." She sat down heavily in her chair pulled her troll into her hands and began to fuss with it. Not looking up she sighed and blurted out. "Kevin was going to propose, I wasn't ready."
"What is it with you BAU girls?" Morgan asked seriously. They were all a touch commitment shy.
Garcia sighed again wishing she had an answer. "We might struggle with a few issues." She looked up at Morgan sheepishly. "I was embarrassed, I just reacted badly." She winced at the memory. "Then he started dating again so freaking quickly and it made me mad." She growled. "I mean, really, I didn't say I never wanted to get married, I said I wasn't ready right now." Tears pricked at her eyes. "Men are so stupid."
Morgan chuckled. "When it comes to women we have a tendency to be." He reached across the space that separated them and grabbed one of her hands. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
Garcia shrugged. "Emily was leaving, JJ was dealing with Will, and you had something going on." She squeezed his hand. "It's not like I could talk to Rossi, Reid or Hotch about it either."
"Pen, you could have talked to any of us." He scolded. "I don't know if it makes me angry or sad that you didn't think you could."
"It just seemed like we were all falling apart," she admitted, "And I didn't want to talk about it." Her eyes grew wide. "That's what you meant about listening. JJ tried to talk to me and I just wanted things to go back to normal so I wasn't listening to what she was saying."
"There's my smart girl." Derek winked at the analyst. "What about Lynch? Have you tried talking to him?" He watched as she nodded sadly. "Do you want me to talk to him?"
Garcia looked completely stunned by the mere suggestion. "No!"
"Sweetie," Derek argued, "I can tell you from very recent firsthand experience that talking helps. He doesn't know what's going on in that beautiful head of yours if you're not talking to him."
She smiled over at him, her heart filled with happiness. "When did you get so wise?"
The smile erupted over his face. "Well, I am a dad now."
Garcia giggled. "Oh, you."
~~~CM~~~CM~~~CM
After her conversation with Derek she couldn't stop thinking. Maybe she should have tried harder, maybe she could have explained better what was going on in her head. And she definitely should have fought harder when he walked away from her.
"Penelope?" Kevin Lynch was walking down the hallway to his apartment when he stopped short. Penelope Garcia was the last person that he expected to be waiting for him outside his door.
"Do you think maybe we could talk?" The usually flamboyant technical analyst requested somewhat shyly.
"Talk?" He managed to squeak out.
She nodded, finding some confidence deep within her. "Yeah, talk; there are some things that I need to say that I think you need to hear."
"O-kay." He stood in front of her awkwardly. "I mean, yeah, sure." Even though she'd broken his heart he could never imagine a day when he wouldn't want to hear whatever it was that Penelope Garcia had to say. He looked over to see her frowning at him.
"Are you going to open your door or did you want to talk in the hallway?" Penelope asked, worried that she was close to losing her newly found nerve.
He blinked owlishly. "What?" He looked around and realized that he was still standing outside his door. "Oh," he shook his head sheepishly, "Sorry, I got distracted." He pulled his keys from his pocket and quickly unlocked the door. "Come in, please." He held the door and waited for her to enter.
Once inside his apartment her nerves really took flight, she wondered how she allowed things to go so wrong, so quickly and was scared she was going to let it happen again. Screwing up her last resources of courage she blurted. "When I said I didn't want to marry you I didn't mean ever. You took me by surprise, Kevin, and that scared me and I freaked out."
Kevin's brow furrowed, "I don't understand."
Penelope's expression softened as he stood adorably confused in front of her. "I miss you." She confessed. "I handled your badly handled proposal," she looked up at him and winced, "Bad." She shrugged.
"I was pretty nervous." Kevin conceded. "I really bungled it."
"So did I." Penelope sighed deeply. "And I keep screwing up."
"That's not possible." Kevin argued.
"It is." She walked over to the couch and flopped down on it. "Derek told me that I need to talk to you and actually listen." She looked up at Kevin again. "I got relationship advice from Derek Morgan." She groaned.
Kevin gave a lopsided grin. "Well, it sounds like pretty decent advice."
Garcia shrugged. "I know!"
"I'm not actually dating you know, I know you think that I am because I've been places with other women, but they weren't dates per se, they were just," he stopped and looked at her. "They were just outings with friends. I wasn't ready to date. I don't want to date anyone but you."
She managed to choke out a strangled, "Kev" before he continued.
"I should have told you that. But I was too stupid and hurt to." He pushed his glasses up and took several steps closer to the woman on his couch.
Penelope's eyes filled with tears. "I've been alienating my friends because I'm not handling our breakup well." She confessed.
"Maybe if we fixed what went wrong with us you could fix your other problems?" He suggested as he knelt in front of her. "I don't like being without you Penny."
It was the right thing to say as the blonde analyst launched herself at him.
Later as they lay tangled on the floor with one another she caught him up on everything that was going on.
"Derek and Emily?" Kevin shook his head. "I have to admit, I'm relieved. I always expected that he had an infatuation with you."
"You silly goose." Penelope reprimanded, "I told you there was nothing between us."
"Well, I know how wonderful you are so I just assumed everyone would love you like I do." He grinned over at her. "We're good, right. We're going to be okay."
"Oh Sweet Cheeks, you bet your bottom we are." She leaned in and placed a soft kiss against his lips. "Just in time too, I'm going to need help getting Emily and JJ back where they belong."
Kevin shook his head. "Penny, you know that you shouldn't interfere in your friend's lives."
"Oh pish posh, it's practically expected of me."
Thank you for reading. And thank you to all those of you that leave me comments, I truly appreciate them. They inspire me to keep at this. I hope you're still enjoying the ride.