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The prompt was To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell. by Gabriel García Márquez.
"Are you kidding me?" Derek snorted and threw the book back on his desk. "I don't read stuff like that."
"Read it!" Emily repeated. "It's good, trust me. You will like it."
"You won't make me read a love novel." Derek replied and rolled his eyes.
"Well, it's either that or joining JJ, Garcia and me in our love movie marathon in Garcia's office tonight." she grinned. "We're locked up here, as you know."
Derek suspiciously eyed the 368 paged book and considered the options he had. He couldn't leave the building for obvious reasons. There was a terrible storm hitting Quantico and for the next couple of hours they were locked here in the headquarters of the FBI.
Sighing Derek took the book and flipped it open. He hated love novels. And a book with the title ‘Love in the time of Cholera' was definitely a kitschy one. On the other hand, it couldn't be worse than watching at least five love movies in a row.
"Good boy!" Emily grinned at him and triumphantly sashayed to Garcia's office.
Derek sighed again. This was the evening Derek and Penelope had planned to watch ‘I am legend' - a pretty good action movie from what the reviews had told them. They always went out on a Monday night together unless the team was on a case. They went to the movies, to the theatre or simply hit the town. One week Derek was allowed to choose the location and the next was Penelope's turn.
But the storm had thwarted their plans and now he was forced to read this damn love novel while Hotch, Reid and Rossi were playing skat in Hotch's office and the girls watched a bunch of kitschy movies. This day had started bad and it was only getting worse.
Much to his own surprise Derek was soon so absorbed in the book that he forgot about the storm and being locked up in the office. He just wanted to know how the story ended. He found himself pissed at Fermina neglecting the sweet and intense epistolary romance with Florentino and in a way he felt sorry for the latter longing for love his whole life long seeing the girl he so desperately wanted married to another man and consoling himself with affair upon affair never being happy.
In the end he decided that the story was way too sad for an actual love novel. It had taken the protagonists fifty years to finally get together - and then they had to leave everything behind because some moral standards banned them from loving each other since Fermina was a widow.
Derek sighed as he put the book back on the table and he was surprised that he had not only read the book in one go - even though 368 pages weren't that much - but that he'd actually enjoyed reading it.
A glance at his watch told Derek that it was still more than a hour before they were allowed to leave the building again. So he decided to get himself another coffee. While heading for the break room he heard familiar laughter coming from the office and he found himself smiling at that sound.
Whistling he walked into the break room and filled his mug with some more coffee. He smiled to himself as he remembered how Penelope had once told him that you could never have too much caffeine running through your veins. It had been one of their Monday evenings and she had drunk her hundredth coffee that day or so.
Although the past hours hadn't been as bad as Derek had feared they would, he'd still have rather spent this evening with his baby girl. Watching a movie with her was just so much fun - especially when it was an action or even better a horror movie and she buried her pretty face in his shoulder when it got too scary.
They should most definitely go and watch the movie the next day! Derek had been so grateful they weren't on a case on this special evening and now it had been spoiled by a stupid storm. Not being able to spend this evening with her because he was on a case was different. Then they were so occupied with work that they barely knew what day it was anyway. But being here with her unable to have their special just-the-two-of-them evening simply seemed so unfair.
He heard her laugh heartily again when he left the break room. Derek could practically see her; how she threw her head back while she laughed, the adorable dimples on her cheeks, the perfect teeth behind her ruby lips, the crinkling of her nose and the pigtails she wore today dancing up and down with every movement of her head.
Maybe it was the fact that he was a profiler that made him pay so much attention to every move she'd ever made that now all he needed to do was close his eyes to have a perfect picture of her in his mind - almost as clear as if she was right in front of him.
The realization hit him when he returned to his desk and his eyes fell upon the book. He, too, was wondering why everyone else seemed to miss the sweet little gestures that made his goddess so adorable. She was most definitely beautiful and seductive and so not like ordinary people. Penelope was special... no, she was unique. He would never find someone like her again, ever.
Derek thought about Penelope just the way Florentino had thought about Fermina. And suddenly he realized that he and the protagonist had even more in common.
Derek was going to end up like Florentino in the novel longing for the one girl he didn't dare approach for the rest of his life, probably seeing her eventually get married to someone else. But unlike Florentino he still had a chance. Penelope wasn't like Fermina, she didn't deny what they had. All he needed to do was finally make a move and he wouldn't have to wait fifty years.
Fermina and Florentino had wasted almost their whole life before they eventually were happy together. This wasn't going to happen to him and Penelope, he would make sure it wasn't - and he needed to do it now before he could change his mind.
Derek ran up the stairs and ripped the door to her office open without even considering knocking beforehand. "Baby girl, there's something I need to tell you." he burst out ignoring the two grinning women.
She frowned puzzled and looked at JJ and Emily who shrugged pretending they didn't know what was going on. Then Penelope nodded, got up and left the room with him.
"I guess he understood the message." JJ giggled. "How did you make him read the book?"
Emily just shrugged: "I told him it was either the book or a bunch of love movies with the three of us."
Grinning widely JJ asked: "And do you think he will finally dare make a move?"
"I'm pretty sure he will." she giggled. "Fifty wasted years is a rather gloomy prospect."
"I just hope she'll believe him when he finally tells her that he wants her." JJ sighed.
Emily stood up, grabbed her arm, led her to the door and pointed at the scene in the otherwise empty bullpen. "I'm pretty sure she will." she chuckled.
JJ covered her mouth with both hands to swallow the shriek that escaped it. Derek was leaning against his desk, both arms wrapped around Penelope's waist and Penelope leaning against him, both arms wrapped around his neck - and they were lost in a passionate kiss.
"I told you it would work." Emily grinned.