Erin's eyes fluttered open slowly as she stretched. She could feel a warm, heavy, weight around her waist and, turning her head, she saw that Penelope was still fast asleep, a tiny smile on her lips. It was then that Erin remembered that they had come upstairs to talk when she had almost fallen asleep at the table. She knew that they had talked for a little while longer, but she couldn't really recall what had been discussed.

Unable to help herself, Erin leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to Penelope's lips. Her cheeks twitched a little as her smile grew, but as Erin continued to watch, she slept on. Sighing a little, she lifted Penelope's arm and turned onto her side so that she could more easily touch the woman. Reaching out, she dragged her finger down the woman's nose before tapping it against her lips. And when that failed to wake her, she pressed a quick kiss to her cheek before letting her head thump down on Penelope's chest, listening to her breathe.

"Are those all the good morning kisses I'm going to get?" Penelope asked groggily as her fingers started to rake through Erin's hair.

"Were you awake all this time?"

"Guilty. I wanted to see how far you'd go. Besides, I'm not really Sleeping Beauty." Erin laughed lowly before letting out a contented moan as Penelope started to scratch her scalp. "Do you like that?"

"Yes," she whispered out as she snuggled in closer.

"Good." Penelope wrapped a piece of hair around her finger, tugging on it gently. "Erin?"

"Yes?"

"I danced around this all night, but…do you forgive me? Can you forgive me?"

The questions gave her pause, and she bit her lip a little as she mulled over her decision. There was a part of her that was still smarting from the way Penelope had treated her, but she knew that it was only because she cared about her deeply. The tugging on her hair became slightly more frantic, and that was the only way that Erin knew how anxious Penelope was about her answer.

"Yes, I can and will forgive you. Because I think that there is something here between us that needs to be explored, and if I were to shut off the communication now, we would never be able to recapture this feeling." The grip on her hair relaxed and Erin smiled a little, knowing that she had made the right decision.

"Thank you." Penelope's voice was fragile, tender, and Erin knew that they had been really close to coming apart at the seams.

"You're welcome." They sighed in tandem, and Erin contorted her body so that she was now looking up towards Penelope's face. The smile on her lips stole Erin's breath away, and she felt her lips respond in kind. "So, do you want to go down and make breakfast?"

"Maybe in a little bit. But I'd really like to stay in this happy bubble for the moment. And maybe find out a little more about you?"

"What else is there to know? You've managed to find out all my deepest secrets yesterday, so that we could be prepared for the future."

Penelope nodded a little. "Yeah, I know some secrets about you that could be detrimental should they come out. But I still feel like there's so much about you that I don't know. And I'd like to find some of them out. Like, I couldn't help but notice you had a Ben Bova book sitting out on the coffee table. Are you a sci-fi reader, then? What's your favorite book?"

"Well, at least you're stating slightly easier this time," she joked as she sat up, once more crossing her legs in the lotus position as she regarded Penelope. "You are not allowed to tell anyone, but yes, I am a closet sci-fi fan. It started Ray Bradbury, and his story 'Kaleidoscope'. There was something about it that fascinated me, and I quickly read everything that he had published. From there, I sort of lost myself in the worlds that the authors created."

Penelope nodded as she also sat up, bringing her knees to her chest as she continued to gaze at Erin. "I always assumed that you would be a fan of Jane Austen and the classics in general. There are hidden facets to you, and I rather like that. So, besides Rossi, am I the only one who knows about this little secret?"

The amused smile that danced on her lips told Erin that she had amused Penelope, and she shook her head. "You're the third person who knows. Not even my husband found this out about me."

"Ah!" Penelope rested her chin on her knees and then drew in a deep breath. "All right, you managed to dodge the favorite book question. Let me guess, books are like children, you can't pick your favorite?"

Erin nodded. "Yes. There are books that I love for different reasons, and I turn to certain books depending on my mood. Though I do, generally, turn to C S Lewis for a number of reasons."

"Narnia?" Penelope asked, excitement coloring the word as it slipped from her lips, and she hated to shake her head. "You don't like the Narnia series?"

"I do, but those aren't the books I normally turn to. The Problem of Pain, The Four Loves, Til We Have Faces, those have all helped me beyond measure. Narnia was what I read to my children when they were young."

Penelope gave her a soft smile as she leaned forward and touched Erin's knee. "My mom read them to me, too, when she noticed I loved fantasy of all sorts. Though she would mutter about lion Jesus every time we reached the last book."

Erin tried to stifle the giggle that rose from her stomach, but it was a losing battle, and she fell back against the mattress to stare up at the ceiling. "Some of the imagery was a little heavy handed. You know, I always identified with Susan."

She surreptitiously glanced over at Penelope, trying to gauge her reaction to that statement. She saw that a quick flash of sorrow passed over her face, and she reached out her hand as she closed her eyes. Penelope took hold of it, threading their fingers together and squeezing lightly before stretching out along her side, curving her body to fit around Erin's. The comfort of her body allowed Erin to relax a little more, and she sighed a little.

"Now that you say that, I can see how you would. You would be a Susan."

"And you'd be a Lucy."

"Yeah." Erin turned suddenly to look at Penelope and then she was closing the distance between them, kissing her softly. "You do have the nicest kisses, Erin," she sighed out as she slung her arm around Erin's waist and pulled her closer. "Now, is there anything you want to know about me?"

There were a million little things that Erin wanted to know, but the first thing that came to mind, the one that concerned her the most, that she knew would be the biggest hurdle to any future they might have, if they had one, was what she blurted out. "What are your true feelings for Agent Morgan?"

"And you certainly don't pull any punches, do you?" Erin blushed as she shrugged a little. "It's perfectly okay, I'd want to know the same thing if I were you. Derek and I are the best of friends. Once upon a time I thought there might be something between us, but we ended up being ships in the night. I could never be the woman he wanted me to be, and he could never be the partner I needed him to be. And I suppose that that worked out perfectly, since it means that my heart is free for, well, for someone else."

The tender hesitancy in Penelope's voice caught her a little off guard, and Erin nodded, feeling her heart lurch in her chest a little. "You'll have to be careful with my heart, even if it is free. I've found that it's particularly fragile these last few months."

"God, I know! I've hurt you how many times in the course of this investigation? And yet, you're still reaching out to me. I'm going to try to be a little more careful from here on out, but I can have a careless mouth."

"And I can have a ruthless tongue." Their eyes met, and she sighed as Penelope gave her another quick kiss. "You can't even think about doing that at work."

"I know, and that will be so hard! How did you and Rossi manage to keep things professional?"

She blushed, thinking back to some of their more heated moments. "There are a few places in the building that don't have cameras watching. The bunker is one of them, and there's still a cot." Penelope squeaked a little as her mouth drop open, and Erin shook her head quickly. "Don't even say what you're thinking. It happened three times, and each time I was certain we were going to get caught. We're not taking any chances."

"Yes, Erin."

It was then that she realized she had already begun to think of her and Penelope in an exclusive relationship, and that made her pull away a little, really taking in the way that Penelope looked at her, and she wondered what they were getting themselves into.