His Undercover Lover

Chapter One

Chapter One

Penelope was staring up at the stars when Derek found her.  

“You okay, Baby Girl?”

She turned and offered him a sad smile. “I will be,” she assured him.

Derek stepped closer and put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her to him and as she rested her head on his shoulder, he kissed the top of her head.

The gathering (Penelope couldn’t really call it a party) was breaking up now and everyone was saying their goodbyes, sharing final memories of Erin Strauss and calling cabs. The bittersweet evening was over.

“You know, funerals are to say goodbye to someone,” Penelope mused, “but I don’t feel like I said goodbye. I don’t feel a sense of closure.”

“No one does; that comes with time.”

Penelope sighed and pulled away from Derek. “I didn’t even know her that well. I can’t even imagine how Rossi-”

Derek knew that Penelope’s heart was more easily hurt than the rest of the team and it was one of the things he loved about her; that despite heartache, she had never become at all jaded and as well as facing her own grief at losing a friend, albeit not a close one, she felt pain for everyone else on her team.

“Hush,” he said, placing a finger over her lips. “Rossi will be fine, we all will.”

Penelope nodded and offered him another sad smile.

“You want to share a cab?” Derek asked, unwilling to let her go while she was still upset.

“I don’t want to be alone tonight,” she admitted.

That was another thing, she wasn’t afraid to say how she felt or ask for what she needed.

Derek smiled and pulled her to him again, kissing her forehead.  “Your place or mine?”

“Yours.”

“Really?”

Penelope nodded. “Your place reminds me of you and you comfort me. I need comfort right now.”

Her words healed a tiny bit of his own pain at the loss, just knowing that he meant so much to someone like her made him feel ten feet tall.

“Mine it is, Mama.” He looped an arm around her shoulders and guided her towards the house. “What do you say we watch some cheesy movies and drown our sorrows in enough margaritas to float a small boat?”

“Sounds good,” she said, wrapping an arm about his waist.

The team were all on leave for another day, so getting up for work wasn’t an issue. They would be back in the office the day after but on light duty, and not cleared for active duty until they had all been seen by and declared fit by the department shrink.

Penelope never really understood why they made the profilers see a shrink; sure they had issues, like everybody does, but they also knew the right answers to give to fake being healthy. Besides, if the shrink was any good, they would surely be a profiler, right? It was like asking a student to evaluate the knowledge of their teacher.

Still, it would probably be another week before they could be back at work full time. She never understood why, at the time when most people arguably needed the most distraction, they were always given time off? And that wasn’t just at the FBI; it was like you were abnormal and not grieving properly if you didn’t take time off work. Penelope found that distraction was an excellent coping mechanism for any kind of heartache and the deeper the pain, the more work became a necessity. She knew Morgan felt the same way.