Premise- Morgan and Garcia. His life could end at any second and all he can think about is her and what they never had.

Note-This fic takes place after the season five episode 23 Our Darkest Hour, except that what happened to Derek at the end of the episode is slightly different in this story.

The storyline for this fic is inspired by a storyline that was on the American soap opera General Hospital in 2003. Anything italicized is a dream. Strong T rating for sex and violence.

The Road Not Taken

Morgan and Garcia

Chapter One

She was always there for him.

Even though there was absolutely nothing she could do to help him reconstruct a bomb that didn't stop Penelope Garcia from spending half the night with Derek Morgan at the BAU. This had happened a few times before in the five months since she had started working there.

He wasn't about to complain about her hanging out with him while he worked. She had a way of keeping him turned on at all times.

A certain energy about her that exhilarated him.

She was a Goddess, he told her that often. Garcia was the BAU's tech analyst and every day since she had joined their team Derek came to work with a huge smile on his face and pep in his step. No matter what he faced out in the field she had a way of bringing that smile back again over and over.

When they spent nights together like this they would talk and talk. He never shared himself, his past and his dreams, with any other woman like he did Penelope. Before he met her he didn't want to settle down but she changed all that. She changed him.

Now all he wanted was her.

They flirted constantly about hooking up, running away together, getting married, having babies, but before all that having wild, crazy, hot, intense, knees buckling sex. And he wanted that. He wanted it all.

"Baby girl, I know you must be tired. You don't got to stay here with me. I appreciate very much you hanging out this long but you should get home to your nice, warm bed, Angel, and get some rest. You know we got another case starting in the morning and around here it don't pay to be dead on your feet when trying to do your job."

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Hot Stuff?"

He waggled his head at her. "Never ever, ever."

She smiled happily. "Good. Because a chocolate God like you would be hard to give up. You know I have a really bad sweet tooth."

"Anytime you wanna take a bite, I'm right here and I ain't going nowhere."

I'll never leave you, Penelope, he thought to himself, as he stared deep into her twinkling brown eyes, while she sat next to him at the table.

"Oh, you're not? Mine for life? Good!"

He laughed. "Glad you like that idea."

She ran her hand over his arm, making sparks tingle all through him. He looked at her hand stroking his bare forearm. He loved it when she touched him. He couldn't explain why she was so different for him but he just knew she was.

"I love that idea, Hot Stuff. It makes my motor purr to think about you forever being a part of my...sex life." She smirked.

He blushed. "Garcia, you're crazy! But I don't know how I survived without you for twenty eight years before you came into my life."

"Very poorly, I assume."

"Yeah," he said, with a small grin playing on his lips, as he looked back at remnants of the bomb on the table and the model he was trying to reconstruct. "That's pretty accurate."

She chuckled softly. They talked more about work, their lives and places they wanted to visit when they got enough money and time off. Derek's cell rang.

"Ohhh," Penelope dragged the words out "a call at 2:34 in the morning. That can only mean one thing. Some woman somewhere is jonesing for your beautiful God body in her bed."

"Or someone died."

She grimaced. Derek looked at the phone and then set it back down. "No case."

"So what's her name?"

Derek sighed. "It doesn't matter. I'm not calling her back."

"She'll be heartbroken."

"She'll get over it."

"Maybe tomorrow night you can make all her dreams come true."

"Yeah, maybe. That depends on a few things though."

"If the new case we're starting in the morning takes you far, far away to fight evil?"

"Yeah," he looked at her and smiled a little, before raising his hand and holding her chin "and if you got rid of that noose around your neck yet."

"Charlie is a not a noose. He's a hottie who has a crush on me. And I don't think he's gonna go anywhere anytime soon. He's quite taken with this tech kitten."

Derek let go of her face and focused on his work again. "Hmmm. Well then that settles that, Garcia. I guess I'll call her back since I can't have a Goddess in my bed. Second best will have to do for now. But don't think I like it."

"If a big strong stud like you doesn't like something I would think he'd take measures to rectify the situation."

His head whipped to the side. Her eyes were wide.

He asked "That what you want?"

She licked at her lips. "Charlie is hot for me. But my heart races only for the biggest hero in all the world. I don't know how I did without him for twenty seven years before he first called me Gomez."

Derek's eyes lit up. This felt like more than teasing. He took her face in his hands, leaned close and rubbed his nose against hers. "Baby girl...you're more than I deserve but all I'll ever want."

"Derek," she whispered his name.

Like lightening flashing his mind filled with all these images: dancing at a bar together, walking through the park with his puppy Clooney, seeing her across the bullpen as she walked to her office, the sound of her laughing in his ear as they talked on the phone, the way her bare legs looked when they peeked out under her skirts and the way she wore the sexiest heels he had ever seen.

He leaned over and caught her lips in a kiss. And he knew he'd never kiss another again.

(If you want a lover

I'll do anything you ask me to.

And if you want another kind of love

I'll wear a mask for you.

-x-x-

If you want a partner

take my hand

or if you want to strike me down in anger

here I stand

I'm your man.) (I'm Your Man by Leonard Cohen)

XXXXXXXXXXX

May 2010

"We should have waited for backup," Detective Matt Spicer said to SSA Hotchner and SSA Prentiss when they arrived at the crime scene.

Local police and ambulances were already there. Lights and sirens filled the air. Just then a gurney came out of the house with SSA Morgan on it. He wasn't conscious.

"I'm sorry your man got hurt," Detective Spicer said, guilt obviously plaguing him. At the end of the driveway, two ambulances waited. One was for SSA Morgan and the other was checking out Detective Spicer's daughter and sister.

Matt and Derek had placed a call to the local PD before entering the house but didn't wait for them to respond. The unsub managed to get the jump on Derek and knock him out. Matt found his daughter and sister handcuffed to a bed, he was unaware of Derek being injured at that time, and then the unsub came in the room before Matt could free his family.

This unsub was a sadistic and liked to play with the minds of the people he was there to kill. He was mentally torturing this family when the local cops showed up, stormed the place and after a struggle between Matt and the unsub he was taken down. That's when Derek was found laying on the kitchen floor next to the dead body of the homeowner.

Matt had been the one who insisted on going into the home before back up arrived so it was Matt now who blamed himself for the FBI agent's injuries.

Aaron Hotchner looked grim as the gurney rolled past him. He said to the detective "Second guessing won't change things now. You did what you thought was best in the heat of the moment."

The weight of the world was on those two men standing there that night. One blamed himself for the torment his family had gone through, and the injury of a fellow law enforcement officer. And the other worried for his friend and colleague, and knew he had a call he had to make that was going to be painful and heart wrenching.

But she had to know what had happened.

XXXXXXXXX

Penelope hated being out of contact with her team. It made her nervous as hell. They were out in San Francisco for this case. Rolling blackouts were causing havoc out there.

She would be glad when her team of brave crime fighters were all back home safe and sound again.

When her office phone rang she startled and snatched it up. "Derek?"

There was no reason to think it would be him more than anyone else but in times like this she always thought of him first. Needed to hear his voice the most and reassure herself that he was okay.

"Garcia," Hotch said heavily.

"Oh, hello, sir. Did you get the baddie?"

"The unsub was apprehended by LEOs before he could kill his last hostages."

"Oh, good! That's a relief. So are you all heading home to me now? Too bad its so late. I could sure use a celebration at the bar tonight. I've been climbing the walls here since you all were out of contact. But all's well that ends-"

"Garcia."

"Yes, sir?"

"Morgan was injured tonight. He's already in transit to the hospital. I won't know more for a few hours. He wasn't shot or stabbed though. It's a closed head injury...Garcia, I'll get back to you when I know something else, all right?"

"Ummmmmm..." Tears filled her eyes and her face felt very hot. She spoke fast. "Is there anything I can do? Someone I should call? What can I do to help him? Tell me something to do."

"Pray."

"Right! Okay...Boss man, please call me as soon as there's any word about my noir hero."

"As soon as I know anything you'll be my first call, I promise you that, Garcia."

"Thank you, sir." She clicked off the phone and dissolved in tears.