Disclaimer: I own nothing.

So I had a lot of time on my hands at school where I should've been studying, but I wrote instead :) So here's the next chapter SUPER soon after the first one. Sorry about the cliffhanger too!

The team was still sitting in the waiting room when the nurse who'd wheeled Penelope into surgery again came out to them with an unreadable expression on her face, even to the profilers. All of them rose from their seats and worriedly crowded around the nurse. They were all eager for an update on Penelope.

"How is she?" Rossi demanded. He crossed his arms over his chest, something he did when he was getting defensive or upset. "Did anything –"

The nurse held up her hand to halt his upcoming speech and said, "She had another massive bleed occur, but we were able to fix it." She sighed and her face finally formed an emotion that represented a grim line. "I can't sugarcoat this for you all. Ms. Garcia has been through an extreme trauma. The odds of her survival are fifty-fifty right now. We really don't know at this point what's going to happen with her."

Reid's voice broke through and everyone was shocked to see he was irritated with the nurse. "How can you not know?" he demanded. "I mean, there must be some logical explanation for what caused her to bleed again. Are you people doing your jobs properly?"

"Reid," Hotch warned, shooting him a stern glance. "That's enough."

"No!" he went on. "I won't accept this!"

The nurse just shook her head, having dealt with people yelling about not accepting her updates in the past. "I'm sorry," she said solemnly. "I'll be back when we have any more news for you." She repositioned her facemask and disappeared into the restricted OR area once again. Hotch turned to Reid and gave him a hard look. "You cannot verbally abuse those people," he said through gritted teeth. "They're doing every possible thing to save Garcia. We have to put our trust in them. Fighting isn't going to do anything to help the situation."

Reid bowed his head, ashamed at his outburst, but didn't say anything. Emily put her hand on his back in an attempt to comfort him. She knew how he felt because they were all feeling the same way. They'd been awake nearly seventy two straight hours and were worried to death.

Fran came towards them from the direction of Morgan's room with her face full of sadness. "Mrs. Morgan, how are you feeling?" JJ asked.

She looked at the exhausted team members and said gently, "You all look like you need some sleep, a hot shower, and a good meal." She took JJ's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Why don't you all get some rest? I'll call and update you when they tell me anything." Noting their hesitant faces, she added, "Thank you for helping them. I'm eternally grateful. Please…let me help you now." She looked at them, the desire to take their burden away for them.

Hotch nodded. "Thank you, Mrs. –"

"Fran. Please." She smiled kindly at them all.

He gave her a rare smile and corrected himself. "Fran, thank you," he said. "Let us know if you need anything."

She nodded and watched as they went off and sat down in the waiting room to await more news of Penelope.

XXXXX

"We've fixed the bleed and she's stabilizing," the surgeon reported to the OR. "This girl is one hell of a fighter."

XXXXX

Derek was still holding Penelope's limp body and crying when he heard her gasp back to life. She sat bolt right up and he grasped her face, pulling her towards him so he could look her directly in the eyes. His were bloodshot and filled with grief as he squished her cheeks together to examine her face closely.

"Derek?" she said with an odd voice because he had her cheeks meshed together. "Hot Stuff, what's wrong? What happened?" She pushed his hands down from her face to smile. "What's going on?"

Before responding, he pulled her into a rib-shattering hug. "Don't you ever do that to me again, Penelope Garcia!" he bellowed into her hair. "Don't you even think about it." He pulled her into a toe-tingling kiss that when he broke it, she was breathless.

"Not that I didn't enjoy that, Sugar, but what on Earth was it for?" she giggled. He looked at her with wide eyes for a second she thought he might be frozen with shock. "Derek?" she said, shaking his shoulders roughly. "Hot Stuff, you're scaring me. Say something, please."

His voice came out as a croak. "You don't remember?" She shook her head in confusion. "Baby, you – you died! There was blood coming out of your mouth and you stopped breathing!" More tears spilled down his cheeks and her heart broke into pieces. "I thought I'd lost you," he murmured against her hair. "I won't go through that again."

"You'll never lose me, Derek," she said against his chest. "Not in a million years will I let that happen."

XXXXX

Fran looked up to see Penelope's surgeon followed by a nurse coming towards her. She stood hastily and rubbed her hands together anxiously. They arrived in front of her and held out their hands to shake hers as they'd not met yet. "Hello, Doctor," she said quietly. "Please? How is she?" Though Fran had never actually met Penelope, she was important to Derek and therefore she was important to her now.

The doctor smiled with relief and said, "Your son's girlfriend is a fighter, that's for sure. There were several times we almost lost her, but we brought her back. It's amazing." He patted her arm and added, "You can go see her now if you wish."

She nodded excitedly and said, "Let me text her team and I'll go right back to find her." The two nodded and Fran pulled out her phone to hurriedly text Hotch, saying Penelope out of surgery….Doing better. Let me know when you're on your way back.

Sighing, she put her phone in her bag and returned to Penelope's room to sit by her bedside. She remained still on the bed, unmoving and bruised. There was a tube sticking out of her throat to help her breathe. Both she and Derek were relying on machines to keep her alive and it frightened her. She sat down next to Penelope's bed and took her hand. "I know my son loves you very much," she said to the still form of Penelope. She took a deep breath to stifle a cry. "I know that because when he talks about you his face lights up. He comes alive and I know it's because he found someone he loves. You. So you both have to come back. You have to, to get married and give me the grandbabies I've always wanted from him. Please, Penelope. If I lose him I don't know what I'll do." She rubbed tears from her face and said, "And if he wakes up and you're not here, I don't know what he'll do."

XXXXX

For what felt like hours Penelope and Derek sat wrapped in each other's arms. They just talked about anything and everything. She reminded him of all the times she'd spoken dirty French talk to him and how many times they'd flirted on the phone. They talked about all the times they'd worried about the other and how many times he'd wanted to tell her how he truly felt.

"You know Baby Girl," he spoke softly in her ear, "I never wanted the first time we made love to be on a counter top. Most definitely not in a bar bathroom." He laughed bitterly. "I promise you that the moment we get back to the real world, I'm going to treat you the way I've always wanted to and make you feel cherished and beautiful all over." He kissed the side of her face and rubbed the side of her arms. "I'll make it up to you."

She laughed and rubbed his cheek, her fingers running across both his smooth skin and his beard. "Oh Baby Boy, don't you worry," she teased. "I'll let you ravish me anywhere you want to. If you wanted to take me against a lamp post I'd let you do it. That's how good it was with you."

He grinned. "Good of you to compliment me, even if my behavior was rather roguish."

"Derek," she whispered. "How are we going to make it out of here? Are we going to be stuck here forever?"

"I don't know," he said honestly. "We will make it back though. I'm not going to let us stay here forever."

She let out a deep sigh and settled against his body even more. Her eyes began to feel droopy and exhaustion started to settle in over her. She started to see shadows blur her vision and she yawned long and loud. "Derek, I'm so tired," she said. "I'm going to take a nap. Will you hold me while I sleep?"

He kissed the top of her head and said, "Til the day we die." And together they stayed wrapped up together, falling into the deep sleep that overcame them.