Penelope sat at the end of the bar drinking an amoretto sour. She was going to wait to order a drink but it started getting late and she was nervous. He was late, he was never late. Well, she didn't know if that was still true. It had been quite a while since they had seen each other or talked even. She wondered if maybe he had changed. People change all the time, he wasn't exempt from that. What if this was really awkward? What if meeting here was a terrible idea? What if he was a completely different person? Just as she worked her mind into a partially panicked frenzy she saw him. He was walking towards her with that same old thousand watt smile. Everything she was just worrying about left immediately and was replaced with that feeling of comfort she always had when he was around.

"Hey!" he beamed as he slid onto the stool next to her.

"Hi." She smiled back; this was so surreal she thought.

Before either of them could say anything else the bartender came and took his order. Penelope smirked at herself; he still drank the same thing.

"What are you smirking at?" he asked as he caught her eye.

"Just happy we decided to meet up. You better have pictures of that adorable son of yours."

He laughed and pulled out his phone showing her a few pictures of Hank.

"OH MY GOSH, DEREK! He is the cutest little cupcake!" she exclaimed "When did he get so big?! How old is he now? Like ten?" she looked like she could barely believe her own words.

"Yeah, He'll be ten in about two weeks. He may be cute but is a handful." He said half joking half serious.

"Well he is your son. I'd expect nothing less. How's Savannah?"

"I don't know. She um- she left."

That news surprised her on a few different levels. The obvious one being that it sounded like a not so fun ordeal for Derek. The other one was his honesty about it. He just flat out told her, sure they used to share everything but after all this time he was still willing to be open with her. That surprised her.

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I didn't know." She wanted to grab his hand or touch his shoulder. Anything to show that she hoped he was ok, but she wasn't sure she should.

"I'm okay. It was a few years ago, Hank and I are okay." He tried to smile at her so she would know he was telling them truth but it didn't quite work. He was still slightly bitter and he knew it probably showed. He decided to take the focus off himself. "Are you still with Sam?"

"No, we were engaged for a while but in the end we decided to go our separate ways."

"It was a mutual thing?"

"Yeah, things just didn't feel right. Ya know?"

"All too well."

Derek sat in his car staring out the windshield. He had parked about ten minutes ago but if he was being honest he was scared to go in. He hated that it had been so long since he had last seen her. Five years was a long time. A lot changes in five years. He felt ridiculous; they were just meeting for drinks. He felt like a nervous teen before a first date, ridiculous. What if she was different, well she had always been different. What if she had changed? What if she wasn't the same Penelope he remembered? He looked at the clock and realized he was late. He walked into the restaurant and looked around for her. What if he didn't recognize her? Then he saw her, she was sitting alone towards the back corner of the room. When he saw her that ridiculous feel dissipated. He walked over to where she was and as soon as she looked over and noticed him he couldn't help but smile. They said hello and he ordered a drink. They made small talk for a while and as nice as it was he missed the way they used to talk. The pet names and completely inappropriate subject matters, but he felt like he had lost his right to try and jump back to what they had before. After all their small talk had dried up and both of them had consumed enough to feel a slight buzz he felt like he needed to tell her how sorry he was. There was this invisible emotional wall they couldn't seem to get past.

"Pen, I'm really sorry about us." He said looking at his beer bottle.

"What do you mean?" she asked, brows knit in confusion.

"I'm sorry that I didn't try harder to keep in touch." He felt terrible that they had drifted apart.

"Life gets busy. We both know that, probably better than anyone. It's no one's fault, it just happens sometimes." She told him gently. "Hey," when he didn't look up she put her hand on his shoulder. "It's okay."

He looked up at her and took a deep breathe. He didn't realize how much he missed all of these small aspects of their friendship. She had his back, he knew that but the years had made him forget just how much she looked after him, maybe even more so than he had looked after her. He forgot how much comfort she brought him, just a little thing like her hand on his shoulder made him feel so much better.

"We're okay?" he asked hopefully.

A broad smile spread on her face and she nodded. "We're okay."

Getting that out of the way seemed to make things a bit more comfortable. They both felt that they had a little more leeway, they didn't feel the need to tip toe or be too cautious. They could both relax and stop worrying.

"I've missed you." It was barely above a whisper but he heard her.

"Baby Girl, you have no idea." He replied with a grin.

AN: I think there will be 3 or so more chapters that I hope to get up soon! Thanks for reading!