A/N: Well we've reached the end of this angsty story. I hope you guys don't hate me too much for what I put them through but if you've read my other stories you already know I make them work for it I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it Thank you so much for your reviews they are truly appreciated.
For 2 hours, Emily and JJ tried to convince Penelope that she needed to call Derek and work things out. Penelope understood all that they were saying and even agreed, but she was scared and that feeling was so strong that it blocked all possibility of a conversation happening tonight. Emily and JJ finally gave up and decided that she would do things her way and in her time.
"Has anyone called Hotch?" JJ asked.
"Why would we call Hotch?" Penelope asked.
"Pen we have to let Hotch know what happened tonight." Emily said.
"My personal life is none of the Bureau's business." Penelope protested.
"Pen, Derek hit Kevin. They are both employee's of the FBI. We need to give Hotch a head's up. Just in case Kevin goes to Strauss." JJ explained.
"OMG this never ends!!! Can Derek get in trouble? Please tell me he can't get in trouble. I don't think I could take that." Penelope said panicking.
"I'm sure Hotch and Rossi will know what needs to be done. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'd worry more about the news getting to Hotch without as much as a warning from us." Emily said. They all nodded in agreement and Emily proceeded to give Hotch a call.
Derek got off the floor and decided that he would shower. There was nothing he could do right now to get things straightened out. Going to Penelope's was only going to make things worse with Kevin being there. As he stepped into the shower he heard he cell phone ring. He quickly ran to pick it up thinking it might be Penelope.
"Pen?" He answered never bothering to look at the id.
"Morgan? It's Hotch."
"I guess you've heard. How much trouble am I in?" Morgan asked.
"Depends, I don't have all the details. Care to fill me in?" Hotch asked.
Derek explained everything that had happened at Garcia's apartment. Hotch listened without interrupting. When Derek was done telling him the story he said "Hotch I'm not apologizing to that asshole! I'd do it all over again if I had to."
"Morgan, he hasn't gone to anyone with this…yet. If he does, it would be your word against his with Penelope as the only witness."
"NO! Hotch I won't put her in a position where she has to lie for me or go against me. I won't do that! I'll resign first." Derek yelled.
"Morgan, it's not going to get to that. She can tell the truth. You were both off Federal Property and off the job. You'll probably both walk away with warning at its worst. Besides, I can have Rossi talk to Strauss; she seems to have a soft spot for him." Hotch said.
"You don't understand Hotch, it's lose lose for her, I don't want her in that position. He'll give her hell for not siding with him or not having her priorities in place." Derek said.
"He won't be going anywhere near her Morgan." Hotch assured.
"You think? He's with her now. After everything he said tonight and everything that happened she took him into the apartment and told me to go home." Derek said feeling the anger build up again.
"Derek, the only people with Penelope right now are Em and JJ." Hotch said. "What makes you think he's there?"
"What? Hotch, are you sure?" Derek asked.
"I just got off the phone with Emily. She told me that Penelope called them after she kicked Kevin out. Em said she was freaking out about it. Well not about Kevin, but about you. Derek have you not spoken to them at all tonight?" Hotch asked.
"No I haven't. I figured she was pissed at me. I was about to over until I realized that Kevin was probably still there and I didn't want to make things worse." Derek said.
"You need to call her Morgan. She's freaked out." Hotch said.
"Hotch I'm headed over there. I don't want to do this over the phone." Derek said.
"I'll call Rossi and make sure he's ready in case Strauss gets involved. And Morgan?" Hotch said.
"Yea?" Derek said
"I would have given anything to see him go down. I heard it was a hell of a punch." Hotch said with a slight smile on his face.
Derek smiled and said "I thought it would have felt better than it did though. I didn't enjoy it as much."
"Don't do it again, now go." Hotch said.
Derek quickly got dressed and ran out the door. All he could think of was getting to his Baby girl. The rest would all have to fall into place. His priority was getting to her. He pulled into the parking lot of her building 10 minutes later. He ran inside the building and pressed the button to the elevator. Not willing to wait, he grabbed the stairs two at time reaching her floor in no time flat. He ran to her door and knocked.
Em and JJ were sitting on the couch waiting for Penelope who had gone to take a shower. Hotch had already called Emily and gave her the head's up about Derek coming over but hadn't had the chance to tell Penelope yet. JJ got up to open the door and let Derek in.
"You're out of breath. Did you run here?" JJ asked
"Just up the stairs. She had to live on the 4th floor right?" Derek said out of breath.
"Where's Pen?" Derek asked waving at Emily.
"She's in the shower. She figured that would help her unwind a little." Emily said.
"Can you guys give us a little privacy? I need to talk to her and I really don't want an audience." Derek asked.
"Depends. We talking good talk?" Emily asked. "She's been through hell tonight Derek."
"I'm talking Forest." Derek said and gave Em the say it all smile Morgan style.
Emily smiled. Looking over at JJ she said "By George I think he'd got it!"
"It's about damn time!" JJ said.
They both hugged Derek and headed towards the door. Before closing the door Emily looked at Derek and said "Don't go doing anything stupid, focus on that Forest."
Derek smiled and said "I got this."
Derek sat on the couch. He was nervous and the more time passed the more nervous he got. He couldn't help but laugh to himself about that. He was never nervous around women. He'd feel better after the initial shock of her seeing him there. He hoped.
"Derek? What are you doing here? Where are the girls?" she asked all confused.
Derek stood up from the couch and took a deep breath. The sight before him more than he could handle at the moment. There she stood, her hair wet and loose, wearing a t-shirt that he recognized as his own. "Focus Derek, don't fuck this up." He thought to himself. "I asked them to leave us alone, they said to say good night and call them tomorrow." Derek explained.
Penelope was quiet. There he stood the one and only man that had the ability to make her knees go weak by his mere presence. She had loved him for so long and knew she always would. He was the one thing in her life that she knew she'd never attain no matter how determined she was. "Did they call you and ask you come over?" Penelope asked.
"Hotch called me, he wanted to find out what happened." Derek said. "I decided to come over after my conversation with him."
Penelope started to walk over to the couch and stopped when she got near Derek. "Derek I'm so sorry about tonight, I understand if you're mad about how I reacted but I wanted to explain why I did what I did." Penelope said.
"Why don't we sit? Let's talk about it." Derek said as he grabbed her hand and guided her towards the couch.
"Derek I know it looks like I chose him over you but I didn't. I wasn't mad at you I was nervous. I know you can get into trouble for hitting him. I didn't want you in a position where he was going to push those buttons again. He's spiteful and he knows his way around things." Penelope said.
"Baby, if you know how he is, why are you still with him?" Derek asked wanting to hear the answer and at the same afraid of what she might say.
"I'm not. I kicked him out after I made sure he was ok. I didn't want him going to the police or filing a complaint with the Bureau. I was afraid he'd call while you were still here. I wanted to make sure you were home before he left and that he couldn't start anything with you again." She explained.
"You two broke up then? Is there any chance that you two will get back together?" He asked.
"NO! I never should have gone out with him in the first place." She said.
"Baby, how come you never told me that you and he would argue about the team and about me?" Derek asked.
Penelope looked down but Derek placed his finger on her chin and forced her to look at him. "Baby, I need you to look into my eyes, I need to be able to read you." Derek said.
"I was afraid." She said in a voice that was barely audible.
"Of me?" he asked.
Penelope nodded. "Derek, every time something happens in my life, you try to fix it. I was afraid that if I told you how he felt you'd want to fix it. He wouldn't be happy until you were totally out of my life and if you knew that you'd want to walk away. I was afraid you'd stop being my friend because he didn't like it. I didn't want to lose my best friend." Penelope said her voice cracking towards the end.
"Baby girl listen to me. No matter what happens you will never lose me. I need you to believe that." Derek said as he looked into her eyes. "You told me your friendship to me was unconditional and I need you to believe that it works both ways. I'm not going anywhere."
Penelope nodded. "Can I ask you a question?" She said
"Shoot." He said.
"Why did you come here tonight? I mean you said you spoke to Hotch and it was after that you decided to come." She asked.
Derek took a deep breath and stood up. He knew it was now or never. She had been honest and upfront with him on everything he asked and she deserved the same. He turned towards her and paused. He tried to gather the words he wanted to say. After a few seconds he walked back to the couch and sat down next to her, grabbing her hands in his he said "Pen, what I'm about to say may or may not come out right but bare with me."
"I was so happy to see you today when we all met at the bar. Between the time we were away and the fact that dealing with the locals was so hard, you were my ray of sunshine. When Kevin showed up I noticed something in me changed and I couldn't figure out what. I didn't understand it. When he left I glad and again I couldn't understand why. He makes you happy and I should be happy about that right? But finding out that you were having problems and that you didn't tell me about them and then having Em talk to me about trees and forests made me mad. Problem was I had no clue what I was mad about. The rest of the night was a mini battle with myself. Pretty much a vicious cycle. "He said. He noticed the confused look on her face and said "I know I'm not making sense here... "
He stood back up and paced the living room trying to find the right words to say without sounding like a blithering idiot. Penelope watched him but kept silent.
"Baby what I'm trying to say is I've having all these feelings that I just couldn't make sense out of because I wasn't facing them. I was pushing them away and excusing them as if they meant nothing. I wasn't seeing the forest. It wasn't until after I faced all these feelings that I realized what it was all about. When I finally started asking myself why it all became clear to me." He said and with that he walked back to her and kneeled on the floor, looking up at her eyes. "Baby girl I was scared. I was scared I'd been replaced by Kevin. I was scared that would become you're priority and you'd push me away. I was scared that I'd already lost you and I didn't know how to change that. Baby I'm in love with you and I'm afraid I've lost my chance." He said his voice deep and raspy.
Penelope's eyes filled with tears. "Are you sure?" Penelope asked not able to believe what she had just heard.
Derek smiled; grabbing her chin and leaning in towards her he said "I've never been more sure of anything in my life."
"I feel like I'm dreaming and any minute I'm going to wake up." She said.
"This isn't a dream baby girl. I've been an idiot and I let fear stand in my way. Please tell me you feel the same." He said.
"Derek I've been in love with you for as long as I remember but I never believed anything would come of us." She said.
Those were the only words Derek needed to hear. He placed his hand behind her head and pulled her into him. The kiss was very gentle at first, he wrapped his other arm around her and together they stood up. Wrapping her arms around his neck, the kiss deepened and stopped only when they both needed to come up for air. They stared into each other's eyes in silence. They're bodies so close they were almost one. She could feel him harden up against her thighs and the thought of her doing that to him turned her on.
"Mmmm you really are happy to see me." She said coyly as she slowly lowered her hand to touch his hardness.
Derek let out a deep growl as he felt her hand against him. "You're killing me here." He said.
Penelope grabbed his hand and started walking towards her bedroom as they reached the door Derek stopped and asked "Are you sure about this? I don't want to rush into anything."
Penelope smiled. "Baby if you call waiting 5 years to make love to you rushed, I can't wait to see what your definition of making love to me all night long is." She said giggling.
Derek laughed. He grabbed her and pulled her close to him and started to place gentle kisses on her face working his way down towards her neck. He nibbled gently and placed his hand on one of breasts; Penelope moaned and dug her nails into his back.
"Baby take me to bed." She managed to say breathlessly.
Derek nibbled her neck some more and gently bit down. "Ohh Derek." Penelope said out loud and that brought a smile to Derek. "What's your rush baby, we have a lifetime." He said.
Undoing his belt and pants, she pulled them down and wrapped her hands around his shaft. "I have a hard on to take care of baby." She said as she grabbed his lower lip between her teeth and whispered "A girl does have her priorities you know."