Note- The title of this story is from a Maya Angelou poem. This fic starts after season five episode 12, which was called The Uncanny Valley.

The song mentioned in this chapter reminds me of Morgan and Garcia. Its called Nothing On You.

It always makes me smile to hear it.

The end of this chapter has a little snippet of it but, if you are unfamiliar with it, look up all the lyrics. The guy is a former player who finds his ideal woman who he calls his Wonder Woman and she calls him Mr. Fantastic. No matter where he goes in the world he can not find anyone better than her.

The Phenomenal Woman

Chapter One

January 2010

"Thank you very much for the dance but I'm here with my girl so I'll have to turn down that drink offer. Good to meet you though." Derek flashed the stranger a big smile but then turned his back on her.

It amused Penelope how many women hit on Derek in any given night. She never really got jealous of it, when they were at the bar, because none of those women ever meant a thing to him. Years and years ago, she did feel some envy though.

Why couldn't she look like one of those rail thin models who he liked so much? That sinister, bitter, destructive thought used to whip through her head over and over back then.

Now though she just laughs when she thinks about how she was young and insecure in her twenties. He liked them? So what? He practically made a shrine to her. Besides it wasn't just about what Derek liked or didn't in Penelope.

Her self worth came from inside of her and, as good as his words about her beauty and brains made her feel, in the end it was only her who could make herself believe she was a true Goddess. In the last month she had became a born again believer.

It took one shocking moment (when Kevin proposed), a week of sobbing (after she said no), and one New Year's resolution that 2010 was going to be the start of her living her life without any fear. She was going to do all the things she put off before and stop worrying she had to find a man, settle down, and have a kid before she became a cat lady. She had enjoyed dating Kevin but if she married him it would have just been to ensure she didn't end up alone. Not because of their great passion and incredible bond. They were more like buddies.

Penelope knew she deserved more than just a buddy for her husband. She wanted a friend who also made her feel crazy sometimes, saner most of the times, and desperate for his touch and companionship always. Kevin didn't fill that description, no matter how much he had loved her and how patient he was with her conflicting emotions when they first hooked up.

Though it hurt her to hurt Kevin it would have been unfair to marry him when everything in her screamed it was a mistake. She would have been doing it for only wrong reasons and no right ones.

For now she was done stressing herself out over her biological clock ticking. She was still relativity young and she wanted to live life out loud. That meant dying her hair red for the hell of it one night in her bathroom sink after drinking some wine. And that also meant booking a trip to Europe, with Emily, for May.

Penelope made up her mind to start walking through life as a confident woman who didn't let fear control her anymore.

Maybe Kevin had helped her heal emotionally after getting shot and brought her to this place in her life. Maybe it was just her age that made her braver and wiser. Either way once she made up her mind to shed her fear it was like being released from shackles.

She was loving her new attitude. Nothing could bring her down. She felt like the sexiest woman in every room and the most pulled together. She was taking the wheel and driving the car now. Instead of just begging for a seat inside any old vehicle that would have her.

Hell with that.

She was amazing, she knew it, and she was gonna live like that from now on. Her red hair was her way of putting the people in her life and the world in general on notice that a new and improved Penelope Garcia was coming their way now.

She wasn't surprised when Derek asked her to get a drink as soon as he got home from Atlantic City. To say he had a visceral reaction to seeing her for the first time as a red head would be understating it by miles.

He sat up and took notice for damn sure.

That made her smirk. She still did like turning him on, even if her crush on him was long dead.

Sitting on a stool next to him she couldn't help but smile and tease him about the woman he had just shot down "I think you broke that young thang's little heart, handsome."

He smiled and looked down, in an aw shucks way, and Penelope had to laugh.

Derek knew he was damn good looking. He could have any available that he wanted in the whole world.- and get some others to leave their man for him without a second thought. Sadly he played so many games that he never had allowed himself to give his heart away to anyone fully. Derek needed to come into his own just as bad as Penelope did. But it wasn't something she could make happen for him anymore than she could make Hotch heal from losing Haley, make JJ decide that marrying Will wouldn't ruin them or make her feel claustrophobic, or help Emily find that man she wanted to have a baby with. In Emily's case she measured every man against a man she admired and all her dates came up short leaving her completely unsatisfied. In time each of her friends would hopefully fight through their demons and get their own version of some kind of happy ever after. Or they wouldn't.

Life made no promises.

For Penelope though she was not sitting around hoping and wishing for her life to get exciting again. Instead she was doing all those things she swore she'd get to some time: planning a trip back home to California for the end of summer, signing up to walk a 5k for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and taking a jewelry making class one night a week. It might take her three times as long as the other students to finish the class- because of work calling her away- but when she was there she enjoyed it and felt creative in a way she hadn't in a long time.

Life was looking up for her.

She always thought if her and Kevin ended that it would be his call and she would be devastated. But it was just the opposite. She felt free now. Not that she didn't love him for a while there but it was a friendly love and a dependency that she didn't need anymore. He deserved a better love and she deserved to feel like she could stand on her own two feet again.

For a few days after the break up Penelope considered calling him up and begging forgiveness. Accepting the ring he had offered. Marrying him so she would know what the rest of her life was gonna look like. Now she didn't wanna know that. She wanted to just enjoy the feeling of not knowing what lay ahead. What awesome surprises might be coming her way.

Instead of fearing never having a kid she decided she would adopt when she hit 38 if no Prince Charming had married her by then. That lifted the worry and fear right out of her heart about never being a mother. Should she go ahead with adopting then she would transfer to a different unit in the F.B.I., where she had stable hours, and be a single mom. It would be a big change in her life but an exciting one. Knowing she had a back up plan that she could love, and not just settle for out of fear, also helped to fuel her excitement.

She was in control of her destiny. No man ruled her world now. But one still did have the starring role in all her fantasies. Derek was hotter than any movie star on the big screen. So what was a girl to do but lust over him and have a million wet dreams about his gorgeous, dark, muscled body?

Penelope smiled. That was just natural. And she was not one to deny her baser impulses.

Derek's head jerked up when the song playing over the sound system changed. His dark eyes lit up when he told her "This is my jam."

The song playing was Nothing On You by B.O.B. featuring Bruno Mars.

"Well then, sug, lets get out there and dance to it. They must be playing it for a reason. And the reason," she flirted with him "is us."

"For real?"

Penelope was known for never dancing in public. Though she would shake her groove thing in her living room all the time.

"Would mama tease you?"

"All the damn time!" He chuckled.

She stood up and shot him a sexy look. "Try and keep up."

With that said Penelope walked out to the dance floor, shaking her body to the beat, and ignoring all the college girls around. In a way she felt bad for those girls because she knew that insecurity plagued many young women from puberty on. She wished she could tell them that they were perfect the way they were. But they would never believe it till they reached their own next level. She hoped each one got there and learned the incredible powerful feeling that came with embracing your own individuality. Finding acceptance in yourself from yourself and not from the world.

Dancing that night, Penelope had her brief moment of feeling exposed, but she just pushed pass it and found herself loving the feeling of moving to the music under the flashing lights.

Derek was watching her with a feral look in his eye that made her feel even sexier. She raised her hands to her newly red hair and ran them through her locks while her hips swirled to the beat.

Since she was out on the dance floor all alone she noticed several men watching her.

One even started her way but Derek bounded off his stool and intercepted him. After giving the guy a look that could cut glass he said "I know you saw that she's with me," in a voice that dared that blonde haired, blue eyed stud to take him on.

"All right, man. Its cool." The guy said as he backed off, throwing a smile at Penelope as he went back to his seat.

Derek moved in and soon they were dancing. Their bodies didn't touch at first but she eased closer and closer and closer and then his hands went to her hips. Soon they were being as dirty as they could in public.

Her skin flushed. A dreamy smile came to her lips. She was a damn lucky woman. And she knew it.

So was Derek Morgan though.

Cause he got to dance with his beautiful girl who was turning into a phenomenal woman right before his eyes.

(Everywhere I go

I'm always hearing your name.

And no matter where I'm at,

girl,

you always make me wanna sing.

Whether a bus or a plane or a car or a train,

no other girls in my brain

and you're the one to blame.

Beautiful girls

all over the world

I could be chasing

but my time would be wasted.

They got nothing on you, babe.

Nothing on you, babe.)