Summary: Alternate Ending to Lucky/Penelope

Garcia: Wow, you are some profiler. You could tell how 'wrong' he was from what little I told you.

Morgan: Garcia—

Garcia: I wonder if it was that he was too handsome or too interested in me that tipped you off on how 'wrong' he was?

Morgan: Garcia, I—

Garcia: Just 'cause you wouldn't cross a crowded room to hit on me does not mean that a more perceptive, less superficial guy wouldn't. Hey Derek, you want snappy? You suck!

I tried to call her back immediately after she disconnected but her line was busy, and I threw my phone on the desk in frustration, but it was only a few seconds before I picked it up again and redialed. Still busy… Six minutes, fourteen phone calls later, I reached her. She didn't want to be reached.

"Morgan, has no one ever told you to wait a week before ringing a girl who hates your guts?" she snapped, by way of a greeting. "A week, Morgan. That means I get Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and 13 hours of Monday before I have to hear your stupid cocky voice again, damnit!"

Sensing that contact was about to terminate again, Morgan called out the only thing he knew to get her to hesitate. "I love you, baby girl." It worked. "You need to let me explain—"

"I don't need to let you do anything!" she replied feistily, but she didn't hang up.

"Yes, yes you do," Morgan vented, slamming a hand down on the desk in front of him. "You're going to regret hanging up on me if you don't listen, Garcia. You might think now that you won't, but you're gonna wonder what I would have said. If you listen, though, and you don't like what I have to tell you, you're only gonna feel more justified in hanging up on me, right? Make the decision for yourself, baby girl, if not for me."

Garcia hesitated on the other end of the line. "You got a laptop handy?"

Ten minutes later Morgan had hooked up a laptop belonging to the local PD to Garcia's feed, begging it on the pretence of official business.

"Okay, now, girl, look at my face. You could tell if I was lying to you, you know you could, so trust me when I tell you that I would cross far more than a crowded room for you," Morgan said emphatically. "I would cross oceans for you, and I wouldn't need a lame excuse like a computer crashing either, it'd be solely because I wanted to see you and hear your voice. So don't you compare me to this guy you just met. Don't you dare. He may want you because you thinks you're hot, Garcia. I think you're beautiful."

"You've never said, you've never lifted a finger to that end," Garcia rebutted, tears of fury springing to her eyes. "I'm not some expensive gift you can put on fucking lay-by until you're ready to buy it, I'm a person, for Christ's sake, and I can't sacrifice any and every meaningful relationship I might have ever had just waiting for you! I'm done waiting for you!"

"Then don't," Morgan replied, shaking his head violently, voice thick with emotion. "Baby girl, every time I flashed that arrogant, cocky smile I was telling you that I loved you. Every damned day of my life. I don't wanna know what I'd do without you... Don't wait. Tell me you love me too."

"I love you," Garcia whispered, and he could see the tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. "Come home soon so I can kick your ass over this, okay?"

Morgan smirked a little, replying, "There's nothing I'd like better, baby girl.
She giggled, a look of impossible happiness fighting its way through the tears. "Save me a spot in your heart, and don't go meeting any other hot guys while I'm out of town, okay? …Oh, and Garcia. No matter how pissed off you are at me, don't get that guy's number out of the trash."

Garcia smiled guiltily. "I just called him…"

"Uncall him," Morgan replied simply. "When I get home I'm taking you out."

"Mmm, or you could just take me home with you…" she counter-suggested evocatively. "Skip all that business…"

"No way, baby girl," Morgan cut in, chuckling to himself. "I'm going to do this right from now on. I'll call you."

"You'd better."