This is a different approach to Penelope moving on from Luke that was less raw than Fog. This story discusses some mental health issues so if that's not for you then beware.

Luke was supposed to bring the girl he was dating to one of the BAU family get-togethers. Penelope didn't even realize he was still seeing the girl. She had met her at that first date, but, hell, when Luke had to leave like that, she sort of assumed that the woman would run for the hills. It might have been the first time he left her alone at a dinner table, but with this job it certainly wasn't going to be the last.

Their group outing was postponed when they got another case, and, for that, Penelope had been grateful. She was more upset about the turn in events than she had any right to be. She sort of assumed, eventually, when things were calm, she and Luke would just find their way to each other, but she had been dead wrong apparently. She had severely misread the signals.

So when Derek called, upset about his own life, she told him they would take a little time together to set each other straight. The reset. She needed to clear her mind, but that was hard to do when the object of her affections was smack dab in the middle of her everyday life. She knew that on the next night out she was going to have to see him with the woman. For that, she needed to get the hell away for a few days so she could maybe take the time to talk some sense into herself.

She asked Emily for the week off and apologized for it being short notice. When Emily didn't ask for a reason, Penelope knew that she was too obvious. It didn't matter. At least she wasn't utterly devastated; she was more confused. He never dated, but he chose now? And if now, then why not her? She thought she was the one he looked at. She shook it off and went to gather her things, but she decided to say bye to everyone before she left.

She walked into the conference room where they were all gathered together, which was convenient for her, "Hey everyone, I just wanted to say bye."

"Where are you going?" Luke asked, confused.

"I'm going on vacation with Derek. He was arguing with Savvie, and he went to his mom's. I don't know. Whatever. Derek's dramatic. It'll blow over. All I know is, I was planning on seeing them both, but that's not happening now, so Derek and I are going to Vegas to get drunk. Hopefully neither of us sleeps with a stripper and comes back pregnant."

She elicited a laugh from the entire team. She was confused, a little sad, maybe slightly angry, but she wasn't so far gone that she wasn't herself.

"We got a case, but don't worry. I already asked Lynch to cover for you." Emily smiled at her.

"Oh great," Penelope rolled her eyes. "Make sure he doesn't mess up all of my stuff."

Kevin walked in wearing a nice button-up and a casual but classy blazer over the top. His nerdier glasses were replaced with a fashionable, dark navy, wooden pair that a hipster would wear, and his hair was cut in a close-cut, professional manner. Penelope rolled her eyes. He had taken his new role seriously, which was good, but annoying. He looked really nice, a lot slimmer in the tapered and cut ensemble. He was never chunky; he was just broad shouldered, but his ugly Hawaiian shirts did nothing for his figure, which he apparently figured out and corrected. He did look good, she admitted, until he spoke. "There is no rhyme or reason to your stuff." He set his laptop on the table.

"Good thing that isn't your problem then. Seriously, don't mess with my stuff." She put her hand on her hip.

"Whatever, Penelope. I won't touch your stuff. Why exactly do I need to drop everything I'm doing to be here? You seem perfectly healthy to me." He said, taking a seat.

"Vacation."

"Last minute vacation? Sure." He shook his head as he opened his laptop. "Look at me, head of the entire Tech Department, and I still have to drop everything, so you can run to Derek." He said without looking at her as he was pulling up files on his computer.

"Yeah well, they offered it to me first." She crossed her arms.

"Well duh, you're better than me. Doesn't change the facts, kid." He let his mouth turn in acceptance.

Penelope rolled her eyes again. "Well, I don't want to hold up the case." She turned to the knowing faces in the room, except for Matt and Luke who were just figuring out what this exchange meant. "I'll see you all next week."

Kevin grabbed the remote, put his hand in his pocket, and presented the case. Afterwards, he set the remote down and handed Matt and Luke, his card. "That's my cell. Otherwise I can be reached in Pen's office. You know where to find me. I one hundred percent will not be moving every single figurine exactly one inch to the left in the meantime." He smiled at JJ who giggled, as did everyone except Luke. They knew Kevin wasn't so bad, and they knew that him and Penelope actually talked it all out, but the two did enjoy giving each other a hard time anyway. What else were exes that weren't trying to be friends to do?

"Tara, you've still got my contacts from that consult we did?" She nodded with a smile and Kevin exited while they were still chuckling at his announcement.

But Luke was fairly unconcerned, maybe intrigued, but that didn't matter right now, "Why is Garcia taking vacation really? She didn't find out about Derek until today, and I know she was talking about it last week before we got called out on that double homicide." Luke asked as the group was still gathering their things.

Everyone exchanged glances before letting Emily answer, "She just has some personal issues to work through." Emily said with a tight smile.

"Yeah, her and Derek having stuff going on at the same time, they're killing two birds." JJ also gave a tight smile.

Luke glanced around as everyone gathered their files and tablets, exiting before he really came to a conclusion. He turned to Matt, who was the last one left. "Am I missing something?"

Matt shook his head, "Just let it go. I'm sure she'd come to you if she thought you could do anything." He said placatingly before leaving Luke to contemplate by himself.

….

They had been working the case for a couple days. Luke hit the button for Penelope's office, and, as he heard the line click on, he opened his mouth before thinking, "Gar-sorry, Lynch. Just habit."

"No, I understand. She is memorable." Kevin stated.

"Yeah, uh, I didn't realize - well being newer to the team - well my point is, I see that you knew her well." Luke glanced over to Matt who was driving. He was grateful that he was the only other agent in the car. He had been dying to ask Kevin about Penelope, but, if he called him out of the blue, it would be obvious, even to the man that didn't really read signals all that well. This was his opening, Simmons or not.

"Well, we dated for a few years, but she was never really in it. She cared more about Derek than she ever did about me. Don't get me wrong, I like Derek. He was even in my corner a lot of the time, but she was never mine. I know that was partially because of him," Kevin said nonchalantly.

"Oh uh, sorry. Didn't know." Luke said in the kindest voice he could muster, hoping it encouraged more sharing. Matt gave him a quick side-eye but said nothing.

"Yeah, how could you? It's been years. Looking back, I know how wrong it was, pushing her to get married. She didn't want to, but I just felt like it was one way to make her mine, even if only on paper." Luke could practically hear the man shrugging his shoulders. "I really don't have any grudges. We get along. Penny's too nice for all that drama. But seeing the same thing you used to argue about still happening, and the man doesn't even work there anymore. Well, it's annoying. Don't worry. I already sent her an apology gif." Kevin laughed.

"That's nice. It's hard to hate her."

"It is. However, I'm still moving the figurines. That's never not funny," he told him laughing. Luke saw Matt smiling. "Hey wait, sorry. I was talking about me and Penny. Did you need something?"

"Oh, I was just calling to see if you could send that map from earlier to my tablet but with the indicators Reid sent you."

"Sure thing. No problems, Boss." Kevin joked and then hung up.

Luke set Matt's phone down on the middle console. He'd had it on speaker, though he didn't know why. He got some interesting info out of Kevin, but nothing about why she was really gone.

He glanced over at Matt who was shaking his head, unamused. "Seriously," Luke asked, "what is it that I'm not understanding here, Matt? She's been so, I don't know what the right word is, but she's not been herself. I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't know what's happening, and it's driving me crazy. Is it a secret?"

"Look man. Normally, I'd be gung ho to get in the middle of this, but at this point it seems moot and also like a betrayal to her. So all I'll say is that I'm pretty sure you could figure it out if you really wanted to, but I don't think you do."

"What? That's ridiculous. I just said I need to know. She's my friend, and I feel helpless."

Matt shrugged "Yeah, buddy. She sort of does too."

….

"We always sit here and try to decide who is the prettiest, and tonight it's definitely that guy." Emily was explaining to Luke's date who finally made it out with them when they were finally free from cases.

"He's so pretty. Holy crap, he's like a model, but a muscular, non-broody model." JJ added.

"Where is Garcia? She needs to see this. She will know exactly how to put our thoughts about this into words." Tara said, causing all the men on the team to laugh at the three, well, four women.

As they were still ogling, they saw a very cheery-eyed Penelope walk up to the man and kiss him.

"Or she's already seen him." JJ said in disbelief.

"Well then." Rossi raised an eyebrow, nodding to Matt and Spencer as they saw Luke's eyes darken.

Penelope indicated the table and held the man's hand as they walked over to it.

"Everyone, this is Nicky."

"Wait, Nicky from high school?" JJ asked excitedly.

"The very one." Penelope assured her.

"High school sweethearts, sort of. She went goth; I went pro athlete." Nicky laughs, "Paths diverged."

"Anyway, he just moved here. He's a civil rights lawyer now. The firm that recruited him is based here."

"Well I didn't just move. I've been here for six months already, but this one kept blowing me off." He kissed her temple, "But sudden change of heart, I'm not complaining."

"Well not anymore." Penelope poked at his stomach.

"Wow, that's awesome. So we'll see more of you?" Emily asked.

"Sure yeah, if Gracie here let's me."

"Gracie?" Luke questioned.

"Mhmm, there was another Penelope at our school who was rotten and awful, so this one decided to go by her middle name in protest." Nicky explained.

"Whatever, didn't you date her?" Penelope asked.

"Slept with her once after prom."

"Right, that's what I meant." Penelope chuckled as she glanced at her coworkers. Everyone was laughing except Luke.

"I'm going to leave soon to check on my mom. You can have my seat." Spencer said to the couple still standing at the head of the table.

"Actually, we have to leave too. We were planning on staying, but he has a work function. He found out last minute that the Senator he needs to talk to will be there, so we've got to go. Sorry, I know I've been back for weeks and still haven't managed to go out with you guys. I'll make it up next time. Drinks on me. Also, there's a fancy shindig maybe you all can join us at. I'll text you all about it. See you at work." She waved goodbye, and Nicky nodded with a beaming smile. The two left, hand in hand.

"Well he's-" Emily started.

"Really hot." Luke looked over to his date in disbelief at the words that just came out of her mouth. She lifted her shoulders in slight apology.

JJ and Matt gave each other pointed looks as they sipped their mugs of beer.

At the end of the night, Luke was waiting outside with JJ. The others had departed, and, since he was waiting for his date to come back from the bathroom, he told them he would stay with her until Will arrived.

"JJ, you've heard about this Nicky guy before?" Luke asked her. A few more beers and whiskeys than he meant to have, made him less discreet while gathering intel.

JJ let out a small chuckle in disbelief before turning to him. "Yeah, just during girl talk, when we dish about people we've dated. She mentioned him getting in touch when he was moving here, but she wasn't interested."

"She seems interested to me. She seemed more than interested." Luke scoffed. "Did she suddenly run out of excuses?"

JJ shook her head. "Well in a sense, yes," Will pulled up to the curb. Luke stepped forward to open the passenger's side door for her, greeting Will briefly before watching them drive away.

"Shall I drive you home? I only had two, and you had more than that." He spun around when he heard the voice.

"Uh yeah, I guess so. Sorry about that. Wasn't in the plan. I was going to drive myself, but I guess it was a harder week than I thought." Luke smiled at the perfectly nice woman who had been so patient when it came to never really being able to plan ahead or keep said plans.

When she pulled up in front of his house, he leaned over to kiss her which she returned. Before the kiss escalated, she placed her hands on his chest to stop. "Look, I like you, but I'm a little apprehensive here. I think I'm just confused and, well, I think I just don't understand. Something is off with you. At first, I thought it was just the whole getting to know you phase, but I sort of feel like you're holding back. Am I just reading into things?" She squinted as she asked, completely unsure of what the answer would be.

Luke sat back in the seat. He was holding back, but he didn't really know why. This woman was nice, successful, fun enough, but he was pretty apprehensive himself. "I just haven't done this dating thing all that much. I think it's going to take me some time to really get used to things. If you don't mind going slow, I hope I can sort of learn as I go."

She nodded, "Okay, I guess that's fair enough. Well, the going slow thing will be forced upon us anyway. I know your friends were mentioning something this weekend, but I have a medical conference, so, even if you're in town, I won't be. But they also were discussing that text Penelope sent after she left, about the dinner that they all might go to next weekend. I gave JJ my number because she said she'd text me the dress code if you wanted me to come."

Luke laughed. "Well, at least you know I'm understanding. I'll go to the dinner if they're all going. Good night, and I guess since we're going at a snail's pace, if we don't make it to that, I'll call in a few weeks to make plans." He watched her nod and then leaned in to give her a quick parting kiss.

….

He felt like shit the next morning. He wasn't as young as he used to be, and drinking a few whiskeys after his beers wasn't his best move at forty. Luke had decided that he needed a break from everything. His mind was racing, but somehow all the thoughts coming to him felt incoherent. He called Emily to ask if he could stay home for a few days, but only if they didn't have a case. If they got one, he'd come right in. She agreed. He spent the next three days eating take out he rarely ate and drinking alcohol he rarely consumed. He slept and watched movies. The only thing making him get up was Roxy. He still took his girl for her runs, but later in the day, and he had an even harder time keeping up with her.

On the fourth day, when Garcia called and told him there was a case, he wasn't sure if he was relieved or ready to fake his own death. He made an appointment with his therapist for the next week. He usually only saw her monthly. Deciding he shouldn't wait, if his PTSS or depression was taking another swing at him, he wanted someone to hold a mirror up and tell him.

When he got into the BAU, he glanced at all the people staring at him as he put down his backpack. "What?"

Reid, JJ, and Tara gave brief nods of their heads and headed for the conference room.

Matt was going to talk to Luke, but Rossi held up a hand and motioned for him to leave them alone. Prentiss was on the walkway, but, when she saw Rossi's actions, she gave him a nod.

"Son, come with me a second."

Luke followed in a daze, until he saw Penelope walk in, teetering in her heels that seemed higher today. "Look what the cat dragged in, or, hey, maybe the dog. Did Roxy do this to you?" She teased as she passed him.

Luke laughed, realizing he probably hadn't done that in the past few days, except passively at a few stupid comedies. Rossi tapped him on the back and lead the way to his office.

After shutting the door, he motioned for Luke to sit. "Are you okay, son? Something is wrong, and I think you need to talk to one of us about it. We're here for you. If you need one of us to do something, ask. We don't just say we're family because Penelope makes us. We believe it too." Rossi leaned back on his desk, waiting for Luke to speak.

He nodded. "Yeah something is wrong, but I don't really know what. I made an appointment with my therapist for next week. We should be back from the case by then."

Rossi blinked and tipped his head. "Alright, do you think you can go into the field? We all need to know you're at your best out there, and, right now, your shirt is wrinkled, your beard is unruly, and your shoes are untied." Luke glanced down at himself. "I think it's better if you still work, because staying at home and stewing isn't the best idea, but you need to stay here for this case. Your clothes in your go-bag are fresh, I'm assuming, so go to the gym downstairs, and workout for a half an hour. Then take a shower, put on clean clothes, and have Garcia fill you in while we're on the jet, okay?" Rossi grasped the younger man's shoulder, giving him a parting look before leaving him be.

Thanks for the support on everything. I'm behind on a lot of updating, I know. I am working on it. I took time out to write a couple one-shots. Meeting was just too good to pass up! Thank you for the reviews, fav, and follows, they do help with the motivation. Let's hope I don't lose power again, with the next storm coming along!

Thanks Bookdragon2013 for reading this through for me.