"Anyway, I just want to make sure I have this straight. Um, Tynelope is a thing, and that drives Luke crazy?"
Penelope wanted to shake Elias Voit until his head popped off, but instead, she repeated this mantra in her head: take a deep breath, breathe easy, in through the nose and out through the mouth, take a deep breathe, and don't get yourself fired. He might deserve it, but we don't condone violence.
She wanted tell him off so badly her chest ached from how hard she was shaking in her seat. She couldn't see Luke's face to read it - if he felt the same way as her - but she presumed he was bottling his rage as well as she was. Protocol mandated they not engage in prisoner transports but this man had already plucked her last nerve.
As Voit very obviously leaned back to try and get a glimpse of Luke's pissed off expression, grinning to himself, Penelope's deep breathes turned into rapid inhalations that only calmed when Tara placed her hand on top of the tech analyst's. Rossi met her gaze and gave a slight nod before rising from his seat and approaching Voit. Penelope preoccupied herself with her thoughts, but the damage was done. Those other thoughts were all of Luke, this was going to be a long jet ride.
-Garvez-
Penelope startled at the sound of the deadbolt locking in her security armed door behind her. It had been another trauma-filled day trying to track down Gold Star - now known to be a program - yet what she was really focused on was the nagging thoughts in the back of her head that Voit had placed there. Words that kept repeating in the back of her mind: there is a vibe, and that drives Luke crazy, why is that enough Luke?
The two went on one date and mutually agreed it wouldn't work out. It was mutual. The more Penelope's stomach twisted in knots as she unloaded her laptop to her table the more she questioned - was it mutual?
Then the bomb scare, it's always a damn bomb scare to put her feelings into perspective. Her feelings were a mixing bowl of pain, longing, fear, and regret. What if that bomb hadn't been disarmed? What if she lost him and everyone else out in the field today? It would be the second time she had nearly lost a man she loved in secret to an active bomb.
The scene replayed in her head over and over again…
"Come on Luke," Penelope pleaded into the wire. I love you, she wanted to cry. She wanted to scream, she wanted to make Voit regret ever stepping foot into their lives for putting Luke into this position with a bomb. She worked her hardest, her fastest, to find some kind of way to disarm it. Then the thought came to her - a jammer. Thankfully, that was enough to save the day - at the expense of Rebecca's phone as a reluctant sacrifice. But Luke was safe, and that thought helped her to breathe again.
-Garvez-
Penelope was a blanket nest and a box of tissues deep into The Notebook when there was a knock at the door. If it was Tyler again, she was going to lose her mind. She already had a stressful day dealing with Voit's antics and terrified her team was about to be blown to smitherines, she was not in the mood to deal with Tyler Greene on top of it all.
But when she disarmed her system and opened the door, it was not Tyler Greene standing before her, but one Luke Alvez.
"Are you okay?" Luke immediately asked upon seeing her red rimmed eyes and sniffles.
"I was watching the notebook."
"Pen - why are you watching it right now?" Luke raised his eyebrows and leaned against the door frame.
"I need to feel my feelings. Sometimes I watch sad movies when I want to cry but the PTSD is making it so I can't, you know, effectively processing what I'm feeling." She scrunched her nose to move her glasses back up. "Besides, what are you doing here so late? It's like 2 a.m."
As he ran a hand over his hair, Penelope knew he was anxious. She had a way of reading Luke like the back of her hand, she knew when he was stressed, anxious, or triggered - and apparently that went both ways as he questioned her movie decisions.
She signed and let him in, closing the door and rearming. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know how much more of this I can take," he admitted, dropping his body onto her couch and covering up with her blanket nest to her dismay. Penelope made a brief stop to the kitchen and brought back the pastries she had made earlier that evening and held one out for Luke to take a bite of.
"I want to pop that little weasel. You know I hate violence but that doesn't stop me from imagining that little twerp getting bonked on the head with one of those fuzzy mallets," Penelope concluded, taking a bite off the otherside of the pastry. A half-smile graced Luke's lips as he glanced his dark eyes over to her, and she quickly looked back to the paused scene on the TV to avoid the heat rising to her cheeks. She would never admit it to anyone else, but she loved when he looked at her like that, like she held the stars and planets in her hands.
They both debriefed before leaving work that Voit's comments were nothing more than antics trying to get under their skins, but she can't help but admit a little that it worked. Since the comments he had made on his little taste of freedom, she had done absolutely nothing other than try to distract herself from the overloading thoughts of Luke Alvez's potential feelings for her. She even considered avoiding Luke until Voit was back in his cell so he couldn't play off their - what did he call it? 'Vibe.'
"Are you and Tyler still a thing?" Luke asked while studying Penelope's facial expression, but Penelope was still lost in her thoughts and Luke was certain she hadn't heard him.
"I'm sorry- what? Oh no - of course not. Nothing is going on between me and Tyler. That ship as lo-o-o-ong since sailed. It's practically to Greece by now," she said rather unconvincingly before audibly sighing and leaning back into the throw pillows. "I can't deny the incredible chemistry between him and I, you know this - but that chemistry is remaining purely professional and for consultation purposes only. I thought we agreed not to listen to Voit's taunts?"
After a moment of silence Penelope sat back up. Her nerves were making it difficult to sit still. The air between the two of them was charged with a feeling she couldn't quite place and that was driving her insane.
"Penelope Grace Garcia" Luke started. Penelope's heart fluttered at the sound of her full name from his voice, but this time he refused to meet her eyes. "He doesn't deserve you."
"I know," Penelope agreed after a long pause. Why did the room feel so hot? She stood up quickly. "So, if you wanted to stay tonight I have some extra blankets and pillows."
"You're changing the subject. You do that when you're nervous." Luke called her out. Penelope froze in her tracks.
"Why are you bringing that up?" She narrowed her eyes at him and spoke quickly. "I'm not nervous, well I am nervous - but I'm always nervous. I'm an anxious individual, Luke, you are already aware of this."
Penelope opened her mouth to protest as Luke walked swiftly to her kitchen, filling her kettle with water and starting it on the stove. He pulled out her favorite ceramic mug and current favorite herbal tea packet.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm easing your nerves. Come here," Luke ordered in a playful tone and gestured her over and motioned for her to turn around. She worried he was deflecting his own nervous energy away by acknowledging her nervous energy. Something she always admired about Luke was his empathy and eagerness to help those he loved, but she noticed quickly that he could be dismissing of his own feelings. That was when she decided she would look out for him while he was looking out for everyone else.
When she finally agreed, he placed his hands at bend of her shoulders and applied pressure. Penelope nearly moaned at the feeling of his hands on the knots in her shoulders from working at her computer all day everyday.
It wasn't like Luke Alvez hadn't ever given her a shoulder massage before, but between the tension of their feelings put openly into question and the immense stress they have all been under lately, it just felt different. The entire feeling of her apartment felt different and the air between them felt different.
When his hands ceased action, the pair lingered for a moment, Luke's hands dropping slightly lower on her back with fingertips brushing against the fabric of her pajama t-shirt sending shivers up her spine. For a moment Penelope couldn't breathe - the tension suffocated her.
"Why did you come here so late?" Penelope whispered.
"I had to see you to know everything was going to be okay." Luke's voice was barely audible. He brushed her blonde curls over one shoulder and drifted his fingertips across the sensitive skin of her neck. Then he clarified, "When I see you, you make everything okay."
She turned to face him with her gaze lingering to the bow of his lips and studied that curve she already had memorized for years. He leaned in close enough she could smell the mint on his breath. Heart thundering in her ears, every worry suddenly seemed irrelevant, and all she wanted was to feel his lips pressed to hers.
The kettle screeched, bringing them both into full awareness of their actions. Luke stepped away quickly to pour the hot water into the cup and turn off the stove. Penelope watched the way his jaw clenched almost like he was upset, and she wondered to herself: what the hell just happened?