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Then they heard someone clear their throat and say some things never change.

She groaned a bit and whispered, "crap we have to try harder next time—I remember nothing."

Derek laughed and turned to the team and Jackson.

"The good news is that I fibbed and I can go home on Wednesday—the amazing news is—I'm a karaoke rock star!"

"Please do tell?" Jackson said intrigued.

"The silver lining of this whole torture –kidnapping ordeal is that I can sing and play pitch perfect. The damaged to my Vagus nerve over corrected my hearing so I can play and sing. Which means I can kick you arse on the mic."

"Fibbed?" Rossi asked.

"Just a tiny white lie we don't have to get into right now. So where are we with the third unsub?"

They explained how they believe it is Leif Cornell Westinghouse. He is virtually untouchable because he has a steel tight alibi. Elle and her team are working the case and the BAU has been working remotely. They explained how they hoped she would be able to identify the third unsub when she woke up.

She noticed a tall attractive blond man standing outside of her room. He was wearing all black except for a blue t-shirt that matched his eyes. "Who is that?" she asked aloud. Hotch's wife joined him and she gave him a hug.

"I would not let him around my wife, Hotch," she teased.

Emily smirked to hide her inappropriate chuckle. JJ refused to look at Emily because she would bust out laughing on principle and she knew it wasn't a laughing matter, she thought, only Penelope.

Derek looked up and saw Stella outside talking to Beth, "That's Stella, he is a professor at University of Penn. You guys teach a class."

"You don't like him," she asked, "I mean you have a funny look on your face."

"Nah, he's cool. I'll be right back," he said as he walked out the room.

"Ok, so does Pete's still have karaoke nights?"

"I should be home on Friday. Saturday you guys should come over for dogs and beers! It should be warm during the day at least that's what my iPhone says – I can't believe all the apps on this thing. Fran will you stay with us for a couple of days till I get my bearings?"

"Most definitely."

"Great and I totally want to go shopping," she said smiling.

"So what did you guys do today?"

It was weird to watch this Penelope be so full of life and energy—not like she wasn't before but she seemed like she was going to bust out a cartwheel at any moment. Everything was so new and exciting for her. She has this child like quality, Reid thought.

Derek greeted Stella outside of her room.

"Stella,"

"Derek, Hi, how is she?"

Derek looked at him and was wondering what the fuck was he supposed to do. He had to accept that he could not remove him from her life. Penelope isn't in love with him and she never was- she called him a symptom of a problem. He looked into the room and saw his animated wife – at that moment, he vowed never to let a symptom like Stella arise again.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come but I thought – maybe we could let the past be in the past—I've moved on." Derek was still looking at him and like clockwork the images from the DVD popped into his head and he felt himself get hot under the color. God, this was going to be hard.

"She is fine but her memory has huge holes. She hasn't recovered her memories from University of Penn., yet but she will," he continued, "We want to keep her around faces she should know because you never know what may trigger a memory."

"Oh," he said dejectedly, "Well could you give her these," he said passing him a bouquet of snap dragons and a small box, "I'm really sorry – I just –"

Derek interrupted him, "You really helped us and you have always been a good friend to her. She knows about the kidnapping and everything. with that said, we've been trying to keep the conversations light and easy."

"Come on," he said gesturing to the door.

Stella came in and she smiled at him and said hi!

Some of the folks cleared the room and only Derek, Emily, and Stella remained

"I just wanted to come down and check in on you," he said as he passed her the bouquet.

"These are gorg! Thank you so much," she said

"So Stella," she liked to use stranger's names in a sentence right away. It helped her retain the new names, "how is the class going?"

He smiled and sat at the edge of the bed. She continued, "Derek, told me we teach a class together at Penn."

He updated her on all of her classes including his. Franklin, your department chair, told them you were sick and they made you this. They made her a voice activated espresso machine. He set up the machine and showed he the magic of her students.

"Ask for a drink," he told her, "I think I set up right- you're normally the mechanic in duo."

"Latte, please"

Like magic the machine started making her a latte with two sugars.

"Amazeballz!" she screeched.

"Do you want one?" she asked Emily and Derek and they passed.

"Come on guys—it's science and lifestyle merged into one- where's Reid? He would appreciate this."

"Tell them that I love it! So how long have we been friends?"

"Four or five year." He said still amazed by her memory loss.

"So, do we hang out – like double dates, do you have kids? Do you karaoke?"

Emily laughed and Penelope asked "what?"

"No but you, Beth, and I, run together sometimes. Check out the farmer's market – crack of dawn Saturday morning stuff."

"That is the one thing I can't wrap my mind around—is running. I was so anti-athletic. It must be something I picked up to lose the baby weight or something. Maybe we can join you guys when my rib heals. Derek, do you still run?"

"Yeah,"

"Well I don't want to hog all of your time," he said getting up, "I am so happy you are well" he said.

"I should be back home in 2 days—stop by ok," she said opening her arms up beckoning him for a hug.

"Ok," he said for the first time feeling nothing but relief and friendship towards her.

"If we are home by Saturday you should come over for hot dogs and beer. "

"Will do," he said smiling at her knowing he wasn't welcomed.

Derek walked him out of the room. "Don't worry," Stella said, "I won't show up on Saturday—when she get's her memory back she will laugh at that."

Derek stuffed his hands in his pockets and said, "you can if you want" he paused for a few seconds and continued, "you are her friend."

They continued to talks while Sarah, Desi, Fran, and the team watched.

"Is that the guy she was –" Desi and Jackson say at the same time.

"Yes," Beth said

"He's hot—she knows how to pick'em?" Desi said looking at Jackson, "two for two I don't include Derek in the hotness math"

"How is Derek not killing him," Sarah said

"Because he isn't insecure about their love anymore," Reid said matter of factly.

"He helped us with the case and he truly cares about her," Rossi said.

"But Derek is—" Desi said.

"Let it alone," Fran said, "your brother was really upset about it and if he can let it go - so should we. Just drop it."

"But," Desi protested but then Sarah nudged her and she dropped it.

Derek patted him on the back and said "See you Saturday if all goes well and bring Jenn."

"What was that?" JJ asked as she returned from the caf with Penelope's brothers.

"Penelope invited him over for beer and dogs, not a big thing," Derek said, "More importantly can we pow-wow with Straus tomorrow – this guys is still out there and I think the safest place for her to be is in a hospital. She wants to go back to work and do all of these seemingly normal things but I can't let her out of my sight till we get him. She not taking the kidnapping seriously because she is more concerned about her memory loss than the psychopath out to get her and on top of all that I'm trying not to scare her so – we need a game plan."

"I'll set up a conference call with Elle's team tomorrow," JJ said.

"Great."