Luke and Penelope- A BAU Story

Chapter 1

I can hardly contain my excitement as I walk into the BAU offices for the first time after two weeks of sheer hell at Cyber Crimes. I look down at my box of colorful companions who are also super-excited to be back. I can't wait to enter my Batcave and arrange them on my desk again.

My heart skips a beat when the first person I see is Luke. God, how I've missed him! He's sitting at his desk, all tall dark and handsome, talking to Boy Wonder. When he sees me, he starts doing this weird celebratory clap/drumroll on his desk, seemingly just as excited as I am. He stands up and comes to take the box out of my hands. I only manage to smile at him, unable to say all the things I really feel at this moment. JJ embraces me in one of her sisterly hugs and for the first time in weeks, being surrounded by my BAU family, I feel content.

After settling in at our various desks, we all go out for a round of drinks at O'Keefe's. The past few weeks have been hard on the team and we need something to boost our morale. I'm sitting at the bar and my mind wanders back to the events of the past few weeks... First, assistant director Barnes, or the Wicked Witch, as I like to call her, removed Emily from our team. Then, after we went kind of rogue, the team was dismantled entirely. Rossi was forced into retirement, Reid had to become a college lector, Emily was reassigned to OPR and Matt, Luke and JJ stayed at the BAU under Barnes' command.

When I stumbled across a possible murder case while working at Cyber Crimes, I sent it to the BAU, but Barnes believed that there was no case, that the pictures of the dead women I found were fake, and she didn't want to investigate it. We decided to investigate it on our own- which could have made things even worse- but thank the stars, in the end everything worked out and now me and my furry friends are back together again.

"A penny for your thoughts, Penelope." I hear Luke's raspy voice next to me. I try to be my snarky self, but honestly, I'm so happy at this moment, that I don't want to ruin it with a sarcastic comment to the new guy. "I'm just thinking about what all of us have gone through the past couple of weeks."

"You know, Garcia, if it wasn't for you finding that case, the team might still have been apart." He says.

"Nah, we would have found another way to get the gang back together. We always do." He nods and wants to say something else, but Rossi interrupts us.

"Penelope! You'll appreciate this. Let me tell you about the movie I was working on these past few weeks."

After a night of catching up with the team, I'm finally walking up the steps to my flat. I'm still searching for a bigger place for me and Sergio, but just can't seem to find a place with the right ambiance. I flop down on my couch and pick up my new pig-shaped pillow, holding it against me. I put my legs on the coffee table and look at my bright violet high heels. Oh, how I've missed these beauties! It feels so good to wear some color again, after the dull neutrals I had to wear at Cyber Crime. I'm just starting to relax when my glittery cellphone rings next to me.

I almost fall and twist my ankle as I jump up in excitement when I see my Baby Boy's face light up my screen.

"How're you doin' Chocolate Thunder?" I ask in a sultry voice.

"Much better now that I heard your voice, Baby Girl." Derek replies in that hot, deep voice that gives me goosebumps all over. I'll never be completely immune to his charms.

"How's my little mini-Morgan doing?" I ask, excited to know every tid-bit of news about my godson.

I hear Derek whisper something and then I hear Hank's adorably squeaky voice on the other end.

"Aunty Penelope, momma taught me how to knit today. I'm making you a gween scarf!" he exclaims excitedly.

"Wow, that's awesome! I am totally going to wear it every day, munchkin! And when I come to visit, we can knit one together for daddy!" I hear Morgan laugh on the other end. Then he tells Hank to go watch some cartoons for a while.

"I am NOT wearing a scarf!" he laughs. "Now, as excited as I was to tell you that your godson apparently shares your love for knitting, Baby Girl, we're going to talk about the REAL reason I called you now."

Oh boy. I knew I was going to regret that semi-drunken phone call of the other night...

"Derek, in my defense, I was still going through the five stages of grief because of that wicked Barnes... Did I tell you how horrible she is Derek?" I start to ramble.

"Penelope" he says in that all to familiar tone. "Don't run away from the subject Baby Girl... Did you tell Alvez like I told you to?"

"Well... I was going to... Okay no I wasn't. Unlike you, my valiant Knight, I'm a terrible coward."

I hear Derek sigh on the other end. "Baby girl, if you don't tell him how you feel, how's he going to know?"

"But what if he doesn't feel the same way and I embarrass myself. I mean, I love myself, but I can understand that I'm not necessarily everyone's idea of attractive and that's okay. Besides, I just got back to the BAU, I can't leave again. And I'd have to because I couldn't do the walk of shame past his desk each morning."

"You don't have to worry about that, sweetheart. When I was there after Reid got out of prison, I saw the way he looked at you. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that that man was madly in love with you, and how could he not be with you being you. That's why I made you promise to be nicer to him and told you that I thought he was a good guy. I wanted you to know that you had my blessing, not that you needed it, but just incase you felt like you did. The thing is- with you being so stubborn and giving him the cold shoulder the poor guy could have gotten the wrong impression- that's probably why he went on that date with Doctor Lisa in the first place."

"So this is all my fault? That's what you're saying? It's my fault that I am going to spend the rest of my life alone? I'm going to have to get more cats."

"No, you're going to have to get more guts. You deserve all the happiness in the world, Baby Girl, but it's time for you to start fighting for it..."

Derek and I talk for a while longer and then we say our goodbyes. "I love you Baby Girl- always."

"I love you too, Chocolate Thunder. Hug Savannah and little Hank for me."

I only realize now that I must have been crying for more than half of the phone call. My eyes are wet with tears and when I go to look in the mirror, I see that they're all red and puffy.

I wish Derek still lived close by. I really need one of his hugs right now. Whenever I felt those strong arms around me, I felt like I could conquer the world. I guess that's why this whole thing with Luke upsets me so much. For a long time, I was madly in love with Derek Morgan- maybe a part of me will always be. Even after I made peace with the fact that we would always be just friends, I subconsciously always compared other guys to him. I never thought I would ever feel like that about a guy again. Then Luke Alvez, the rough, ex-army, ex-fugitive hunter walked through the doors of the BAU. When I saw him the first time, my heart raced like it never did before, not even that time Derek came out of my shower bare chested in just a towel. I felt more scared than I ever did in my life- which is saying a lot since I was once shot and left for dead. I knew I had to hide away my feelings and pretend to be unaffected by the new guy. I had to distance myself from him. That's why, for a long time, I never said his name. He would only be "new guy" to me, the guy who took Derek's place- in more than one way- and I vowed to hate him for it.

I still remember the day he officially became part of the BAU. It was the same morning I told him about my "boyfriend" teaching me fingering techniques- for my clarinet! Awkward... I honestly should see someone about my very chronic foot-in-mouth disease.

I decide to chase the memories away with a warm shower, after which I get into my silky sheep pajamas and climb in bed. Sergio, the cat I adopted from Emily after she "died", comes to snuggle next to me.

"Oh, Sergio, who needs a man when I already have you, the most handsome cat in the world, next to me?" I say, before I drift off into a deep sleep, for the first time in two weeks. Even though I have this obvious problem about my feelings for him, at least we are working together again.