Penelope kicked the side of her desk in frustration as she looked down at the broken bracelet in her hands. She had been gifted it in Erin's will, much to her surprise, and she was truthfully heartbroken and unbelievably angry that she had gone and done something so stupid as snag the clasp on the corner of her desk, tugging it with enough force that it had ended up snapping on her before she had realized it. The longer she stared at the bracelet, the closer she came to tears until finally, she allowed herself to burst into sobs, missing Erin incredibly in that moment. Which she knew was a bit ridiculous, seeing as how she had been gone for seven years now, but it still felt like yesterday. A part of her wondered if that was because of the manner of her death along with the unexpected gift, as if Erin had cared for her more than she had ever realized.

And that was how Dave walked in on her, shoulders hunched, bracelet clasped tightly to her chest, sobs still tearing from her throat as her legs shook and her lungs burned. "Kitten, what's wrong?" he asked as he came over to her side, letting his arm come to rest around her waist as he guided her over to her sofa, helping her to sit down before cradling her close to his chest as they rocked back and forth. She knew that he was trying to soothe her, and truly, it touched her, but all she could do was associate him with Erin, which made her cry all the harder. "You're going to make yourself sick if you keep crying so hard, Penelope."

The softness in his voice took her aback, as the tone wasn't one she was accustomed to hearing from his lips. That had been a tone reserved for Erin or Caroline or, until they had broken things off, Hayden. Not her. She had never been deserving of that gentleness. It seemed that that musing was enough to start lessening the force of her sobs, and she burrowed closer to him, rubbing her cheek against the soft fabric of his suit coat as she tried to pull herself back together. "I did something really stupid, Dave," she said quietly as she pulled away from him a little so that she could look down into her palm at the broken bracelet. "I can only hope that the jewelry store can fix this, otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do."

He cupped her hand with his, looking down as well. "Is that the bracelet that Erin left you?"

Penelope thought that she could hear a note of reproach in his voice, and she hurriedly closed her hand, pulling it tightly to her chest as she got to her feet and walked over to her desk once more, wanting to put space between them as her heart shattered into even smaller pieces. "It was a mistake!" she cried out, feeling like she was crawling out of her skin as she imagined the look he was giving her.

"Come here, Kitten. Let me fix it."

"What if you can't?" she cried out, looking up to see that his face was pained, but there wasn't any anger there. Maybe she had imagined that sound in his voice, maybe her reaction had shown him her grief, but she knew that something had shifted in those few moments. Tilting his head to one side, Dave patted the empty spot next to him, and she let out a deep sigh as she trudged over to the sofa once more and took a seat, allowing him to take hold of her hand and pry open her fingers before fishing the bracelet from her palm.

"This doesn't look too badly damaged, Kitten. It looks like you just pulled the clasp off the end of the chain. Any jeweler worth their salt will be able to fix that in ten minutes, easy. Now, because we both need a change of scenery, let's go see about getting this repaired for you." She closed her eyes as she nodded, feeling her breath catch in her throat once more when he brushed his lips against the side of her head before helping her to stand.

"I need to get my purse…" she started to protest, but he shook his head and took firm hold of her elbow, guiding her from the office and leading her down the stairs to the elevators. It was easy to curl into his side and let him protectively sling an arm around her waist as they waited for the elevator to come. "How am I going to pay for the repair?"

"I can cover it. You know that I have more money than God at this point, and not enough years to spend it. And I miss her, too, Penelope, so if I can do anything that will help preserve her memory, I will. That was one of the reasons that Hayden and I split. She found that she couldn't live with the ghost of Erin's memory in my house."

Penelope rubbed her lips together as she nodded, stepping onto the elevator and watching as Dave pressed the button for the ground floor before he came up to her side once more. Resting her head on his chest, she took a few long, deep, breaths as she thought of a way to reply to him. "Do you miss her as much as I do, even after all this time? Because there are moments when I think I catch a glimpse of her in the hall, and I have to check myself before I call out her name and embarrass myself. Hotch is gone now, so is Alex, and everyone else here didn't like her the way we did. Sure, your love for her ran deeper than mine, but I still did love her in my own way."

"I know you did, Kitten. She told me about how you tried to take care of her in the mobile command unit during the bank heist, and how she was so touched that someone younger than her had tried to play mother hen. It was a bright spot in the horrible day."

"I knew that she was fresh out of rehab and that too much stress might send her into a tailspin. It was the least I could do, honestly. And it wasn't until we were alone that I really got to know her and her quirks. And I know I didn't really talk about our friendship a lot at work, but it was really nice to have someone to talk to, who understood what it feels like to be left behind and wait on word from one of you that everything is all right." She bit her lip sharply, trying to stem the appearance of new tears, welcoming his hand on her hip, squeezing softly as he tried to comfort her. "Seven years, and it feels like yesterday. When will I learn how to lose people, and not let it hurt?"

"When you find the answer to that question, please let me know what it is. I still find myself devastated by James's death, and he's been gone longer than you've been alive, Penelope." Those were the words that broke her resolve, and she allowed herself to cry a little, curling in closer to him as the elevator came to a stop. "All right, we need to get off now, dear."

That was a new blandishment from him, and it felt very right to hear him call her that. Still, she didn't want to rock the boat too much, so she just nodded and took hold of his hand as they made their way over to his car. Like the gentleman he was, Dave helped her up into the passenger seat, and she didn't comment on the way his hands lingered on her hips before he went around to the driver's side and climbed behind the wheel. It was a quiet drive out to the jeweler's shop, and Penelope used the downtime to text Emily, letting her know where they were, just in case she needed anything from them, before she turned her phone on do not disturb and slipped it back into her pocket. "Do, do you think that we could get something to eat after this? I need some time to really decompress, away from work."

"Seeing as how we're not out on a case today, I think that would be all right. If Emily raises a fuss, I'll smooth things over with her." Penelope nodded as she closed her eyes, trying to think happy thoughts so that she wouldn't spend the whole day crying. After all, people were probably already talking about her little display when Dave led her out of the bullpen. "Kitten, you didn't make a fool of yourself. We all have our breaking point, and you reached yours today."

"I'm glad you think that, but I still feel like I made myself look stupid. Gideon called me that once, when I made a mistake, and I was half expecting you to react the same way. Because I am, you know."

She listened to him sigh a little, and she dared enough to open her left eye a tiny bit, focusing on his face to see how he had meant that sigh. His face was a mix of emotions, but the overwhelming emotion appeared to be sadness. "I don't say this lightly, Penelope, since Jason and I were close, once upon a time. But he could be a real bastard, just like me. I, I tried to grow out of it, but he never did. And he was truly good at deflecting his wrong actions onto someone else when he knew that he was in the wrong. I'm assuming that he was under a lot of stress when he called you that?"

"Yeah."

"Then you should never have taken it to heart. Which I know is easier said than done, but in all the time I've known you, the last thing I would ever think of you is stupid. You're more intelligent than I am, and you know how to find quickly and decisively that which you don't know. You are an integral part of our team, and Erin recognized that from the moment you joined the BAU. Even if you did fluster her quite a bit on her first time out in the field in many, many, years."

"Hotch said that that was her first time!"

"He wasn't with the BAU when she joined. She did have a little bit of field time, but when she fell pregnant with Karen, well, her ascent up the ladder of power was fast tracked. I didn't have that much of an issue with that, since she was always a good leader, but Jason didn't take that well. I think that was why he ran her down to Hotch quite a bit. Again, I could never get him to back off Erin, but I did try. Some fences just aren't mendable."

She nodded in response as she turned a little so that she could more easily watch him as he drove. Surprisingly, they reached the jeweler that he used in a quick amount of time, given the traffic that they had to contend with, and Penelope let out a small squeak of surprise when he took firm hold of her hand, leading her inside and over to an older man standing behind one of the cases. "What can I do for you, David?" the man asked as he raised his head and gave them a knowing smile. "You have a new lady on your arm, is it that serious already?"

Penelope blushed deeply as she looked at Dave for help, and he chuckled lowly as he shook his head. "No, we're not serious yet. I actually need a rush repair, and I'm hoping you have the time."

The man nodded, stretching out his hand, and Penelope watched Dave drop her bracelet into the palm. "Oh, this is a simple fix, and I'll make certain to strengthen the connection so that this won't happen again. Take a look around to see if there's anything that catches your eye, this shouldn't take longer than twenty minutes."

"Will do, Wolter."

The man disappeared into the back, leaving them alone with the other clerk, and Penelope began to feel a little out of place amongst all the brilliant baubles, knowing that they were most likely forever out of her prince range. "I take it you brought Erin here?" she finally asked, needing to make small talk.

"Yes, we were thinking about promise rings for each other."

"Oh." She swallowed thickly as she drifted over to a display of necklaces, finding her eye caught by a sparkling sapphire.

"Do you like that?"

"Of course I do, who wouldn't? But there is no way I could ever justify making such a large purchase, not with my current job, or any job I might want to have. I'm not a famous author after all," she teased, watching him quirk an eyebrow at her in response. "No, Dave, don't even think about it!"

"Think about what?" he teased back as they looked at the rest of the jewelry that was in the cases before she took a seat on the bench to wait, scrolling through her Tumblr feed as a way to pass the time. A few minutes later, Dave took a seat next to her and she rolled her eyes a little as he peeked over her shoulder to try and see what she was looking at. "What?"

"It's rude to look at someone's screen without asking permission first. Have I taught you nothing about good technological etiquette?"

He chuckled as he shrugged a little. "It's not like I can see much without my reading glasses, Kitten. And I am hoping that there's nothing bad there."

"I may follow a few spicier blogs, yes, but I know enough not to be on Tumblr at work, not even on my phone, because that would be inappropriate. Though I do appreciate your concern." She winked at him before turning her head and kissing his cheek quickly. He smiled in return, and something in her heart twinged, wondering if this was what it was like to wake up and realize that feelings had changed. From the way that he was looking at her, it appeared as though he was wondering the same thing, and she gave him a tender smile before turning her head back to her phone, suddenly not wanting to look at him, as if he could see through to her soul.

"Penelope…" he started to say, only for his name to be called out by Wolter. They both rose to their feet and made their way over to his side, and she found herself not really paying attention to the words they exchanged as she tried to think about all the ways that she could pull herself back from this situation. She didn't want to dishonor Erin's memory, even if she did feel things for David that went beyond mere friendship. And if she was honest, those feelings had been building up inside her for a few years now. "All right, Kitten, let's head out to lunch."

Blinking a few times, she focused on him, finally nodding slowly. "That sounds great." Mentally, she kicked herself for sounding so vacuous, but he didn't seem to take much notice of that as he slipped his arm around her waist and led her from the shop. "Where did you want to head out to?"

"I have the perfect place in mind," he replied as he once more helped her into the car, handing her the bag. It was heavier than she would have thought it to be, and she frowned a little when she peeked inside to see that there were two boxes there.

"David…"

"You sound a lot like her when you say my name like that. And I wanted you to have something pretty to wear. There hasn't been much of a reason to buy a lovely woman lovely things lately. And you are lovely, inside and out. Allow an old man to be sentimental?"

She took a long breath as she smiled. "As long as you let this lovely woman into your life?" Hesitantly, she licked at her lips, not knowing what his response would be to that brazen question. Penelope needn't have worried, as Dave's face relaxed into a tender smile. "I don't want to replace Erin in your heart, and I don't think you want to replace her in mine, but I want try an us."

"I think that I would like that very much, Kitten. Very much indeed." Leaning over, he kissed her softly, and it was everything that she had been anticipating without really knowing that she was. Sighing a little, she deepened the kiss, wanting to allow this moment to linger as she felt her heart flutter with the blossoming of new love.