Disclaimer: I own nothing of this brilliant television show.

Sorry about the delay! But Penelope is okay and will be okay, so you have nothing to worry about :) Some more emotional stuff before we wrap this story up! We've got some flash backs in this chapter featuring all the girls. Hope you enjoy :)

"Dad?" Tala said anxiously into the phone. "You hear something yet?"

"Yeah," Derek said, leaning back in his chair. "She's going to be okay. The bullet got into her lungs, but she's going to be fine. They fixed her up."

"Thank God!" Tala said in a choked voice on the phone.

"Yeah. I know." He sighed. "Tala baby, I need you to get some sleep," he said. "It's late and you haven't had a decent night's sleep in a while. Grandma Fran is going to bring you in the morning." He heard her start to protest, but he cut her off. "I need you to get some sleep, Baby. She isn't even awake right now. She won't be for another couple of hours anyway."

She sighed. "Alright, Dad," she murmured. "Good night."

"I love you, Baby Doll," he said.

"Love you, too," she yawned, hanging up the phone.

Derek stuck his phone back in his pocket and rubbed his forehead. The doctors were going to let him in to Penelope's room any minute now and he wanted to be ready for that exact moment. As he put his head in his hands, a voice called his name.

"Derek!"

He looked up to see JJ and Rossi hurrying towards him. Rising from his seat, he let JJ wrap him in a hug and hold him tightly. He pulled away and Rossi clapped him on the shoulder. "How is she?" he asked.

"She's going to be okay," Derek said raggedly. "The bullet went into her lung, but they were able to get it out and repair the damage." He felt JJ loosen her muscles under him and he added, "Penelope's going to be fine." He released JJ and looked at both of them. "They should be on the way to let me go see her."

Rossi shook his head. "I can't believe this happened again," he said tiredly. He rubbed his face. "After Battle shot her I thought it would be over finally."

"There's a name from the past," Derek muttered.

The three of them sat down in the waiting room and began the waiting game. As soon as a man appeared in the doorway with a white coat, they all looked up. Jumping to his feet, Derek sprinted across the room and stopped in front of the doctor. "Doctor! Is she still doing okay? Can I see her yet? Is she comfortable or -"

The doctor nodded and held up his hand to stop Derek's frantic speech. "Mr. Morgan, your wife is still doing fine. You may absolutely see her." He looked over at JJ and Rossi. "However, at this time she is asleep and I would like to keep it to one visitor only. Just you, Mr. Morgan."

Derek turned to his teammates and nodded. "I'll see you guys when they're letting people come in," he said. "RIght now I've got to see my wife."

JJ nodded. "Of course," she murmured, her and Rossi watching as Derek followed the doctor out of the room.

XXXXX

"Your wife is through here," the doctor said as he led Derek into Penelope's hospital room. She was hooked up to several machines and breathing normally. "If you need anything, let a nurse know."

"Thank you," Derek said raggedly, sitting down in the chair next to his wife's bed. He took her hand and placed his lips gently on her skin. "Hey Baby Girl." He blinked at her motionless form and rubbed his face with his free hand. "They told me you're going to okay. You have to wake up soon for me, Baby. If you don't, I'll go crazy. Our girls won't be able to go on without you. I can't raise them on their own. I wouldn't know what to do.

"Do you remember when Tala said her first words?" He paused to laugh and rub his face. "I couldn't get her to say anything, but you, Baby Girl, you got her to talk."

"Will you talk for Daddy , Baby Doll?" Derek begged Tala. For hours she'd been making all sorts of noises and he was hoping she would actually say something this time. He was sitting on the ground of their living room cross legged with his ten month old daughter on his lap. "We need you to say something! You're just like your Mommy in everything else, we've gotta make you talk just as much as her too!"

Penelope entered the room and sat down next to Derek on the floor. She grinned at them and cooed to her daughter. Tala started squealing uncontrollably with happiness and began to crawl towards her mother on the floor. Penelope lifted Tala into her arms and kissed the top of her head. "What's going on, Hot Stuff?" she asked, her eyes meeting Derek's. "You sound frustrated."

He laughed. "Oh, I'm just trying to get our Baby Doll to talk. She hasn't said a word. She just keeps gurgling." As if to prove his point, Tala let out a small gurgle.

"Well, let's see if we can get her to talk," Penelope said, looking down at her daughter. "Baby Doll, you wanna try talking for us? Pwease? Mommy and Daddy really want to hear their pretty girl's voice."

Tala looked up at them with big blinking eyes and grinned. She started waving her hands in the air and she pointed at Penelope. "Ma - mama!" she yelled happily. "Mama, mama, mama!"

Penelope nodded. "Right, Tala!" she cried. She pointed at herself. "I'm Mama!" She pointed at Derek next. "Do you know who this is?"

The baby cocked her head to the side. "Dada?" she asked.

A smile spread over Penelope's face and she kissed the top of Tala's head. "That's right," she murmured. "That's Daddy." Her eyes met Derek's and the light in her eyes lit up the whole room. He felt the love between them radiating between them and sighed happily.

Leave it to Penelope to get their baby to come out of her shell and blossom with speech.

Derek laughed with the memory of their daughter's first words. "Man, we sure had a victory dance that night," he said, moving a lock of her hair out of her face. "You were so happy when she said your name! Tala couldn't stop saying your name after that. She looks up to you, Baby Girl. You've always been her idol. She just doesn't know how to deal with this - this thing going on. She's so worried about you right now. I practically had to force her to stay home."

He was silent for another few minutes, unsure of what to say. But when the quiet became too overbearing and the still form of Penelope too depressing to look at, he decided now was as good of time as any to reminisce over old memories with his wife. "Do you remember when Lindy wrote you that poem when she was in third grade for Mother's Day?"

"Daddy, I need your help with something," Lindy said bluntly, entering the study. He was working on a case file when his eight year old daughter entered the room. Looking up, he rubbed his forehead.

"Do you need me to help you with it, sweetie?" he asked as she sat down on the couch with her green spiral notebook. "I'm working on these case files right now. But I bet your Mom could help you with it."

She looked at him bluntly and muttered, "Dad, it's for Mom. Did you forget that Mother's Day is this weekend?"

Derek blinked several times. Shit. He had forgotten. Thank God for his resourceful child.

"You forgot," she said, seeing instantly the reaction in his eyes. "You'd better start remembering stuff like that, Dad. Just wait...one day you'll forget her birthday. Then you're really screwed."

He snorted. "Your mother was born on July seventh," he said. "I'm not going to forget her birthday. Trust me." Lindy smirked. He grinned after another moment and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. "What do you need help with, sweetie?"

"I wanna write Mom a poem," she said decisively. "But I don't know what to write. So I thought I'd ask you."

Derek sighed. "Alright then," he said. "What's the plan?"

Several days later on the weekend, the whole Morgan family was gathered in the living room of their house, all three girls crowded around Penelope. "Happy Mother's Day, Mom!" Tala said, throwing her arms around Penelope's neck.

"Oof!" Penelope grinned brightly and hugged her oldest daughter tightly after she'd gathered her bearings. "Thanks Tala." She kissed each of her daughters' heads.

"Here Mama!" three year old Soraya cried, holding out a small pink piece of paper. "Lindy wrote you this! It's pretty!"

Penelope looked up. Lindy blushed and nodded. "It's, uh, it's a poem. We started learning to write them in class. Daddy helped me with some of it it. I couldn't do it right by myself."

"Oh, honey, thank you!" Penelope murmured, pulling Lindy into a tight hug. Her eyes met Derek's momentarily and he winked at her. She kissed Lindy's forehead. "Will you read it for me?"

"And let's not forget when you found out you were pregnant with Raya," he laughed, tears filling his eyes at the thought. "She was a huge surprise! I remember when I got home and you told me..."

Derek entered his house after a long week of a case in Seattle. He had missed his family immensely. The long cases always were like that. "Girls! I'm home!"

"Daddy!"

Tala and Lindy came thundering out of the living room and ran straight into his arms. He grinned widely, dropping his go-bag on the ground in the middle of the hallway and picking up both his daughters at once, kissing the tops of their heads. "Hey, you little monsters! Did you behave for your mother while I was gone?" He set them both back on their feet and fixed them with teasing stern glances.

"Of course not," Tala said sincerely before bursting out into a fit of giggles.

"Derek?"

He looked up over his daughters' heads to see his wife standing nervously in the kitchen archway. A smile covered his face once again as he looked at his beautiful wife. Although something was off about her at that moment. She looked...nervous, exhausted, shocked. Instantly he became concerned and looked back down at his daughters. "Alright girls," he said with a clap of his hands. "Why don't you go start setting the table for dinner? Your Mama and i are going to have a little private time."

Lindy pouted, but Tala merely rolled her eyes and took her sister's hand. "C'mon, Lindy," she muttered. "Let those two be gross for a few minutes."

Once the girls were gone, Penelope went towards Derek and let him wrap her in his embrace. He kissed her deeply and cupped her cheek in his hands. "You look awful, Baby Girl," he murmured against her cheek. "What's wrong?"

"Derek, I really -" She groaned. "God, I hate having to do this!"

"What? What is it, Penelope?" he asked, suddenly losing all humor. "What's wrong? You're really worrying me here!"

She shook her head. "Derek," she whispered. "I'm pregnant again. And the scary part is is that this should not have happened! I mean, come on! I'm past age forty! Shouldn't this have stopped by now?"

"Baby, you're forty one," he teased.

"Derek, this is serious! I'm pregnant again!"

"Yeah, this is serious! Seriously awesome!" He sighed, seeing her bite her lip. Moving closer to her, he pulled her towards him and kissed her. "Baby, what are you so worried about?"

Her lower lip trembled. "Derek, don't you think I'm a little old to be having more babies? What if something went wrong?"

"Baby Girl, it's going to be okay," he murmured. "Forty isn't that bad to be having another baby at."

She pouted. "I'm forty one."

He laughed and kissed her forehead, then her cheek, then her lips again. "We're having another baby," he whispered. "And I couldn't be happier."

"Me neither," she whispered. She cupped his cheeks. "I love you," she added fiercely. "I always will."

"I love you, too," he said.

After spending hours at Penelope's bedside, just talking about memories from their past, her eyes finally began to flutter open. He sat forward in his chair, anxious to hear her talk. "Penelope?" he murmured. He stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb, hoping she would say something, anything to let him know that she was in there. "Baby Girl, are you feeling okay?" She nodded quietly, trying to sit up some. He shook his head. "No, no. Don't try to sit up. Just stay like this."

"How long have you been sitting there?" she croaked.

"Since you got out of surgery," he said. "I was in the waiting room while it was going on." He sighed. "The surgery was long. You've been out for hours."

Her eyes widened. "Where are the girls?" she asked in a panic. "Are they okay?"

He nodded. "They're okay," he murmured. "Scared...but they're okay. Tala wanted to stay, but she was exhausted so I sent her home with my mom and Lindy and Soraya."

"They're okay?" she asked with tears filling her eyes.

"Yeah, they are," he whispered. "Keith is in custody and Kyle is dead. It's over, sweetheart. We'll be okay."

Tears trickled down her face. "Can you come closer, Derek?" she asked in a hushed tone.

He nodded and moved his chair as close to her bed as he could. They were silent for several minutes. After awhile, he finally took her hand. Holding her hand gently, he murmured, "I love you, Penelope. I always will."

She squeezed his hand softly. "I love you, too."