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"Baby girl!" Derek burst into her office only a few minutes after the plane had landed. He had most definitely broken almost every traffic regulation he could think of on his way from the airport to the FBI headquarters.
Penelope turned around in her chair and gave him an overdone smile. But Derek could see that it was fake. "Hey, gorgeous! Do you need my help with the paper work?"
"N... No, actually I just wanted to make sure that you're alright. So... um... are you?" he softly asked, walked over and knelt down in front of her. Of course, he could have sat down on the empty chair but he figured she'd maybe rather listen to him if his position was a little more submissive.
"I'm fine." she snorted and tried to turn away from him. Why couldn't he simply leave her alone? Was it not enough that her relationship was over because of him?
"Please, Penelope" Derek begged and turned her chair around so that she was facing him again, "tell me what happened!"
"He dumped me." she said in a low voice. "Or maybe I dumped him, I'm not sure about that. Anyway, I hope you're happy now."
"What... Sweetness, why should that make me happy?" he frowned at her.
"Wasn't that what you wanted?" Penelope shrugged and looked down.
Okay, good. He couldn't deny that he never liked Lynch - let alone the idea of them being together. Him holding his baby girl at night, kissing her, touching her... He clenched his fists and then shook the thought off as well as he could. This wasn't the time for his jealousy.
Then Derek reached out and cupped her cheek with his hand gently caressing her skin with his thumb. "I never wanted to see you unhappy." he softly assured.
This statement just brought new tears to her eyes and she looked down again. Even after three days she couldn't stop crying. She never wanted to break his heart.
"Baby, what did he do?" he softly asked. "You know, I'll hunt him down and kill him if he hurt you."
"He's only two floors down." she sniffled. "And he didn't do anything. It was all my fault."
"Why don't you just tell me what happened?" his voice was so low that it was almost a whisper.
Penelope sighed, then she sniffled again. "Kevin proposed." was all she said.
"Oh?" Fortunately he was at least able to keep the rising jealousy out of his voice. It took him a moment to put the pieces together. When he'd finally figured out what had happened afterwards it drew another "Oh." from his lips. "You... declined." he concluded.
She nodded. "I... I simply couldn't marry him. I never thought he would propose at all."
"But... I thought you were happy." he carefully said.
"I thought so too." Penelope started to sob again. "And I know I... Maybe I should have said yes. But marrying him would have meant betraying him - and myself as well, I guess."
Derek just frowned, sighed and gave her a concerned look. He had absolutely no clue what she was talking about.
"He said it himself." she added. "I can't marry him when my heart belongs to someone else." Penelope bit her lower lip, she couldn't believe she just said that. Slowly she raised her head and locked eyes with him.
Derek thought he couldn't believe his ears. Had she just told him that she loved him, that she was IN love with him? He could clearly read in her eyes that her words had applied to him. Smiling he reached out and cupped her cheek with his hand again. "And I thought you didn't want me." he whispered.
"For the big bad profiler that you are you can be really stupid." she replied voicelessly. "I always wanted you, only you, since the day we met."
Now grinning like mad Derek leaned forward in an attempt to kiss her.
"Don't!" she whispered and turned away from him.
"But... I thought you wanted this too." he said in complete confusion.
"Of course, I do." Penelope closed her eyes in a desperate attempt to hold back the new tears that wanted to spring to her eyes. "But you don't. You know that, I know it... I'm simply... not at all your type."
"Baby girl, look at me!" he softly commanded and waited for her to lock eyes with him again. Caressing her cheek with one finger he answered: "Don't think I just want you because I'm jealous of Kevin. I was jealous of him because I want you. I know, I was a fool not to make a move on you. But to be honest I was scared."
Now it was Penelope who gave him a quizzical look.
Derek smiled at her: "I was scared because I never felt this way before. And I was scared that I might hurt you ‘cause that's the last thing I want to do."
All she could do was nod. This couldn't be true. It simply couldn't.
"Trust me" Derek said in a low voice, "I don't want to hurt you."
"Just don't break my heart." she whispered.
"I promise." Derek nodded and leaned closer again. When he felt her whole body stiffen he pulled back and gave her another concerned look. After all it had only been three days since they'd broken up. "Baby, if I'm going too fast..."
"No" she quickly interrupted him, "no. It's just... I've been waiting for this moment for so long and... I can't believe this is really happening."
"Then let me show you that it's real." he smiled and crossed the short distance between them to gently let his lips touch hers.
This kiss was so much different from every kiss she'd ever gotten. It was soft and gentle and just perfect. Slowly she raised her hand to let her fingers follow the line of his jaw while she tilted her head and parted her lips to deepen the kiss.
Derek's heart skipped a beat when she willingly kissed him back. Her lips were so soft and she tasted of cherry - probably from her lipstick - and a slight touch of coffee. She was so sweet, so soft... and her touch sent thrills down his spine he'd never felt before. He couldn't think of a single kiss that had ever felt this perfect.
"Wow!" Penelope gasped when they finally had to break the kiss for air and leaned her forehead against his.
"Yeah, wow!" Derek smiled. His hand slid to her neck and started to knead it gently. He shivered when she moaned in response to his touch. "Do you think... we can do that again?"
"I don't think we should." she whispered. "I mean, fraternizing in my office..."
"I talked to Rossi." he replied. "He said he was okay if we... fraternize."
She pulled back a little to look at him: "You were pretty confident, right?"
"No, actually... he said that when I told him I wanted to go back to Quantico." he smiled at her. "I didn't plan on anything I just... wanted to be here and make you stop crying."
"Oh." she smiled back and caressed his cheek. "You wanted to come here even though you were on a case?"
"Oh, doll face, do you really think I care about anything when I know that you're sitting here upset and all in tears?" he smiled. "I can't stand to see - or even hear - you cry."
She grinned and replied playfully: "Then I guess you're allowed to kiss me again."
He didn't need to be told twice. His hand still on her neck he raised to his knees and pulled her closer. The kiss was a little more passionate this time - and it was getting really hot after a few seconds. She was the only woman in the entire universe who could kiss him like that - in a way that made the whole world around him stop revolving!
"You know, I thought about all this and you're right. I understand that you can't marry me but we can still..." Kevin froze in the middle of the sentence when he saw the scene in front of him. He'd expected pretty much anything when he'd burst into her office but not what he had to face now. Derek Morgan was kneeling in front of Penelope, practically between her legs. And apparently their clothes were the only thing that kept the two of them from actually having sex.
They jumped apart and Penelope stared at him in shock. "Kevin!" she gasped.
"I'm... sorry." he muttered and quickly turned to leave. "I shouldn't have come here."
"Kevin, please, wait!" she wanted to jump up but Derek held her back.
"Let me talk to him!" he softly commanded.
"No, I have to talk to him." she objected, new tears springing to her eyes. "I broke his heart -twice now. I... I'm not the kind of girl who breaks hearts and I didn't want to... I have to... do something."
"Please, sweetness, trust me!" he insisted.
A little unwillingly she nodded and Derek hurried out of the office. She followed him but stopped in the doorway and watched as he caught up with Kevin at the door to the stairway.
"Kevin, hey... um..." Derek wasn't entirely sure what to say so he said the first thing that came to his mind. "I'm sorry."
"No, you're not." he snorted. "Oh, well, maybe that I interrupted you."
"Seriously, I... " Derek stuttered. "I didn't want to step into your relationship - which doesn't mean I'm not glad that... well... Anyway, I... just wanted to say thank you."
This however startled Kevin and he blinked at the taller man in front of him.
"I know that you took good care of Penelope." he took a deep breath to swallow the jealousy that was rising in his chest. "And I know that you were good for her... to her."
He just nodded not sure what to say in return. He'd loved to just punch the man in front of him - which wasn't a wise idea since he was physically inferior.
"You... made her very happy, I know that." Derek added. "And I know that I'm just lucky that in the end she decided on me."
"You better treat her right." Kevin finally said. "She only deserves the best."
"I know." Derek smiled.
Kevin took a deep breath and eyed his opponent up. "I'm serious. Don't break her heart ‘cause she wouldn't survive that. She loves you more than anything else in the world."
Derek raised both his eyebrows at him.
"Did you honestly think I never noticed?" he laughed dryly. "But Penelope was sure you'd never share these feelings so... I thought I could make her forget about you - which was pretty senseless with you around the whole day long."
"Yeah, I know... I was giving you a hard time." Derek mumbled. "It took me too long to make a move and if you... anyway..." He put out his hand for Kevin.
Kevin hesitated for a moment, but finally shook it. "Just make her happy!" he said and then he left as fast as he could.
"I'll do my very best." he nodded at the other man's back. Derek quickly hurried back to her office and pulled her into a tight embrace.
Penelope sighed with relief. She still felt sorry for Kevin and somewhat guilty. But she also felt happy that Derek had finally made a move on her. "If you break my heart" she whispered as he started to nibble on her neck, "I'm gonna delete your existence."
"Uh huh." he smiled against her skin.
Pulling back a little to look at him she frowned: "I can do that."
"I know." he nodded and his smile widened. "But I'm not afraid of that ‘cause I'm absolutely not planning on breaking your heart, ever."
But her face remained serious. "Can I ask you something?"
Now it was Derek's turn to frown. "What's wrong?"
"That night... when you stayed with me and... helped me change my clothes..." she looked down and mumbled: "Why didn't you look at me?"
He was startled for a moment. That had been the problem? Boy, women were really hard to understand!
"I didn't want you to feel embarrassed." he replied. "And... I didn't want to rip your stitches."
Her head shot up and she stared at him.
Smiling he let his finger run along her collarbone. "I wasn't entirely sure that I would be able to keep myself from... taking advantage of you. Seeing your bare back had almost been too much for me to take. Your skin looked so soft and tempting..."
"Oh." she whispered and blushed a little. She suddenly felt terribly stupid.
But Derek just grinned and leaned down to breath into her ear: "Do you want me to show you what would have happened if I'd looked at you."
She shivered with pleasure and her eyes fluttered shut. "Y... Yes..." she gasped.
"Good" he smiled and leaned in to nibble at her neck again, "and I will eventually. But at first I want to take you out... dinner... dancing... the whole program."
"You know, you don't need to... I mean, we could skip that and... you could just come over to my place tonight." she offered. She knew that she had to offer something to make him stay with her. It had always been this way - even with Kevin.
"Why rush?" he whispered. "We have a whole lifetime ahead of us."
Or maybe she was wrong about that and he was different. Maybe he would stay anyhow.
The end