A Perfect Kind Of Christmas
Chapter 6

Derek Morgan smiled as he locked up his house which he was leaving dormant for the next few days as he was returning home to his family. As much as he loved his life in Quantico, Virginia, Chicago was his home and there was always something very right about returning, especially for Christmas. With his trusty old age pup Clooney in the safe hands of the LaMontagne household for the holidays and everything turned off inside he threw his bags into the backseat of his black SUV and drove away from his home.

There was one place subconsciously he knew he needed to pass, although Penelope had left for California several hours earlier he would still go out of his way to check that her apartment was alright. He didn't know why he did it. Maybe he did. Maybe he just wouldn't admit it to himself. With ease he glided down the dark roads which were illuminated by sparkling Christmas lights, the snow had cleared and he would be long gone before it would be returning for the Christmas shower which the weathermen had predicted.

As he reached Garcia's road he slowed down until he was barely going above 10mph. He glanced up at her window and frowned as he could see all the lights were glaring through the curtains illuminating the morning gloom. He brought his car to a stop on the opposite side of the road and waited before entering. Penelope was an ecofreak, there was no way she would leave all her lights burning while she was away. Camouflaged in the shadows he sat in wait for any movement, he had plenty of time until his plane and he hated commercial flying so avoiding the busy airport would be preferable.

Fifteen minutes had passed and Derek was about to pull out his emergency key in order to make sure everything was ok inside when he saw a figure pass over the light. A snarl escaped from his mouth, someone was in his Baby Girl's apartment uninvited, oh would he give them a shock when he entered. He took his gun out of his glove compartment and crept quietly towards the apartment building, the cold air bit into him and he could see his breath clearly in front of his face. He inserted the first key into the lock and silently hurried up the stairs to Garcia's floor. He heard noises from inside her apartment as if the TV was on, a distraction, so no one would hear the intruder inside. He slipped the key inside and burst the door open.

He was met by a high pitched scream.

Derek frowned deeply at the scene in front of him. There sat in fluffy Christmas pyjamas with tears streaming down her face was Penelope.

"What the hell Garcia!?" he cried angrily.

She stood up, paused the screen and faced him wiping her face furiously, "I could ask you the same thing! This is my house!" she snapped.

"I was driving past on my way to the airport and I saw all your lights on so I was worried, why aren't you in California?" he asked.

'Oh no' Penelope thought. This was it, she was going to have to tell the truth. Fresh tears fell behind her red glasses, she sat back down on the couch and looked back at the projector which she had been watching before she was rudely interrupted.

"When I was little we had really nice Christmases" she began distantly her head not in her living room any longer as she began to delve deep into her memory to a time of Christmases from long ago, "the first Christmas I remember was just me and my Mom, I don't remember a Christmas with my biological Dad I was only a baby. I was five and she had only just met my step-father so he didn't spend the day with us, we were staying in an apartment right on the California coast, I remember how warm it was that day. We had gotten a plastic tree from the corner store, it was only small but we had made all our own decorations, it was beautiful. Being five all I wanted to do was open presents but my Mom took me by my hand, it must have been so early in the morning and she walked me down to the beach and we watched the sun rise. She told me that it was a sign that Santa had returned to North Pole and he had delivered presents to all the children of the world" Penelope paused and took in a breath, "we had Christmas dinner on the beach that year and I got a bear, Sunshine I called her after that morning. That was my favourite Christmas. It was our perfect kind of Christmas" she looked at her Mom's smiling face paused on the screen and a large tear fell from her eye, "I lied Derek, I haven't been home for over twenty years. My only loyalty I had was to my Mom, and she's gone. I used to spend Christmas Day with Kevin, last year I spent it with Rossi because he felt sorry for me, and I wasn't having that again"

Derek was speechless, he could not believe she would not tell him that she had nowhere to spend Christmas and his heart broke thinking of Penelope alone last year, thank goodness Rossi got through to her. His initial thought was to bring her to Chicago with him but on 23rd December there would be no flights left, he had seen Home Alone. There was only one option.

"Penelope. Listen to me right now. Go into your room and pack up whatever you need for the next few days-"

"-Derek I won't take pity" she interrupted shaking her head.

He put his finger to her lips, "I'm not doing this out of pity, I'm doing it out of love and friendship, now do as I say" he said insistently as he went out into the corridor and made the hardest phone call. He took a deep breath and dialled the number.

"Hello?"

There was a pause as Morgan gathered his courage, "Mom, it's Derek"

"Derek baby are you at the airport? Are you on your way home? Everyone is so excited to see you, you haven't been home since that unfortunate business with Beauford all those months ago but we won't talk about that. Oh you'll get to meet Laurence, that's your Sarah's new boyfriend, it seems pretty serious, what's your girlfriend's name again? Susanna is it? Anyway I'll be nice to have a full house again-" she babbled innocently.

Morgan's heart sank deeper and deeper, "-no Momma, I need to talk to you. I've just found out that Penelope is alone for Christmas…"

There was a moment of silence. Morgan couldn't bear it, he thought his mother was going to cry, "Derek Morgan you better be ringing me to tell me you're staying there to look after that poor girl. I see you every Christmas and I have your sisters and Laurence and whoever the heck else wants to come over, you need to be with your Baby Girl, you can come over for New Year just don't you dare feel bad, you just give her the best Christmas, ok?"

Derek stifled a smile his Mom always knew the right thing to say, "yes Ma'am"

"Just give your old Momma a call to tell her you love her, oh and Derek, do me a favour and dump that nitwit Suranna cause if this isn't the perfect opportunity to tell that girl you love her then you never will"

And with that Fran Morgan hung the phone up on her son. Derek walked back into the room and was surprised to find Garcia fully dressed with a large suitcase packed up next to her watching her projector again. Morgan sat beside her silently and put his arm around her before glancing round and realising that her tree was now half empty, he assumed that there were some decorations that had to spend Christmas with her. The two of them sat for over an hour watching Penelope's 10th Christmas. She had gotten a bike and had spent most of the film riding around on it.

Eventually the film came to an end and Morgan wiped Garcia's tears away, finding that even his eyed had watered a little as he felt his Baby Girl's pain, before turning off the projector, "come on" he said holding his hand out to her, "let's go and have another perfect kind of Christmas"