TITLE: Dinner Plans
AUTHOR: Angel
PAIRING: Penelope Garcia/Derek Morgan
PROMPT: 06 - Pain
RATING: PG-13
WORD COUNT: 1,755
SUMMARY: Penelope makes dinner plans for Derek.
WARNINGS: None
NOTES: Thanks to Christine for the encouragement.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, nor am I making any money from them just borrow them from time to time.

***

Penelope Garcia hurried to the store after work and picked up the ingredients for the dinner she would make for Derek Morgan. She went to see Agent Hotchner and requested to leave the office early and since she had some overtime from the team's time in Seattle, and no pressing cases he let her.

She had planned the meal while she was working and figured that if Derek arrived at seven, she should head out at two, so she would have plenty of time to go to grab the ingredients and then get home and do all the cooking, with a little bit of time left before Derek arrived.

Turning off her babies for the night and locking the door, Garcia hurried to her car and went to prepare for her dinner with Derek. Since she only lived about twenty minutes from the office, she decided to stop by a less busy store near the FBI building than wait until she got closer to home.

Pulling into a parking space at the front corner of the store, Penelope grabbed her purse and cell phone and walked in to grab the ingredients for the most important night of her life, so far. She was just at the produce section when she realized that she remembered hearing that Derek was allergic to a fruit. Not wanting to make a fresh homemade pie that would make him sick, Penelope decided to call him real quick and ask.

"This is Morgan," he said.

"Hi Peaches, I'm trying to decide on what to make for dessert and I remembered hearing somewhere that you were allergic to a fruit but I can't remember which one. Care to enlighten me so you can actually eat my dessert?" Penelope said cheerfully.

"Awww Garcia that's sweet of you." He said with a smile. "I'm allergic to blueberries. So what dessert are you gonna make?"

"That my little analyst you will have to wait and see." She responded with a laugh.

Before Derek could respond there was a gunshot at the front of the store and the echoing scream of another customer.

"Garcia, was that a gunshot?" he asked in concern.

Penelope was scared, she couldn't see the front door from where she was, but she could hear shouting and the shriek of a woman before everything went quiet.

"I'm at Gumble's grocery store, on the corner of Madison and Olive." She said quickly her training kicking in, "the store is being robbed. I only see two people with guns but there could be more."

Just then the phone was plucked out of her hand and then she felt the hard metal of the gun as it was pointed at the back of her head.

"To the front of the store." The unknown man demanded. "Now!"

Penelope knew that the authorities would be there soon so she would do what she was told until Derek and her team were able to get her and the rest of the hostages out safely.

Letting the gunman lead her to the front of the store, Garcia didn't say anything. She didn't want to upset the young men any more than they obviously already were. A small part of her hoped that her conversation with Derek had not been overheard, but she wasn't going to hold her breath.

Her fears were realized when she heard the man behind her say, "this one was on the phone with someone when I found her. I think she was telling them to call the police."

"That's fine. They won't get here before we leave so it's all good." The second man said as he held a gun to the cashier's head and watched her as she filled up the bag with money.

The man that was next to Garcia shoved her down on the ground hard and she felt an instant pain in her left ankle along with hearing a snap. Fighting back the tears at the pain, Penelope said a quick prayer for the authorities to arrive soon. She had a dinner to make and she was looking forward to it!

A few moments later they heard the sirens and then the police cruisers pull up in front of the store. Being able to look outside she was relieved to see the two black SUV's that pulled up behind the cruisers and gave a quiet sigh of relief when she saw that it was her team that got the call.

Assuming that as soon as the call was disconnected Morgan would have went to Hotchner and informed him of what was happening.

Thankfully the robbers were just kids and the sight of the FBI frightened them enough that after an hour they started having second thoughts and after the second hour when the sharp shooters pulled up they walked out of the store and dropped their weapons, begging for leniency.

As soon as the men were taken in to custody Morgan and Hotchner entered the grocery store followed by the paramedics and the local authorities.

Because it was not classified a federal crime the FBI had no jurisdiction, but due to the fact that an agent had been taken as a hostage they officer in charge allowed Morgan and Hotchner to go to their agent.

Penelope was still sitting on the floor where she was originally pushed but she had pushed the shoe off of her injured ankle to hopefully keep the swelling down. She hoped her foot was just sprained but she had a horrible feeling the paramedics would tell her different.

Giving a sigh of relief when she saw Hotchner and Morgan enter the store and make their way to her, she tried to give them a witty greeting but it didn't have the usual pizzazz behind it.

"What took you guys so long?" She said with a false smile, "I have a dinner to cook and not a lot of time to do it in."

"Hey, we came as soon as we heard." Derek replied. "Although if you would have gone to the store closest to your place, I dare say your evening plans would have been put on hold."

Hotchner looked down and saw that her foot was already swollen and starting to bruise so he motioned for the paramedics to come over and check her out. When the young man was poking and prodding both men noticed the tears that sprung to Garcia's eyes from the pain.

"I think to be safe we need to take you to the hospital and get an x-ray." The paramedic informed them.

"Morgan why don't you go with her while I find out what's going on here." Hotchner said.

"Is that really necessary?" Penelope asked. "Can't you just wrap it and let me get home?"

"Come on Garcia, it's better safe than sorry, if it is broken then we need to find out now rather than later." Morgan said.

Sighing she reluctantly agreed to go and have her foot x-rayed, knowing that her plans for the evening were ruined.

Three hours later Penelope Garcia was in Morgan's car, on her way home with her leg in a cast from her toes to her knee. When the robber pushed her down she had slipped on a flyer and her foot twisted in an unnatural direction, causing her ankle to snap.

The doctor told her that for the next two weeks she was to stay off her foot and if she did that then she could do limited outings as long as she used her crutches, and then after another two weeks, if she was healing properly he would give her a walking cast.

When Derek pulled up outside of her house and stopped the car he got out and hurried over to her door and helped Penelope out of the car.

"Take it easy Garcia," he said as she started to weave slightly.

Putting her hand to her head and trying to balance on one foot she said softly, "It must be the pain killers. My head is spinning."

Derek didn't want to chance Penelope tripping or injuring herself again so closing the door he swung Penelope up in his arms and walked up her porch.

When Derek picked her up in his arms Penelope gave a shriek and hooked her arms around his neck and held on.

At hearing her shriek Derek grinned sheepishly and said, "I don't want you hurting yourself on the way into your house."

Later Garcia would blame the drugs but at the moment she sighed and laid her head on Derek's shoulder.

"Keys?" he asked softly as he walked up the steps to her front door.

"hmmm?" she said groggily.

"Keys to unlock the door?" he asked with a smile.

Taking her hand from around his neck she flipped open her purse and grabbed her keys from the pocket she always put them. Derek maneuvered over so she could unlock and then open the door to allow Derek to carry her in.

Carrying Penelope over to the couch, Derek gently laid her down and then hurried to put a pillow under her casted leg. He knew that it would not be long before she succumbed to the drugs and sleep claimed her.

"Can I get anything for you Penelope?" he asked softly, sitting on the table beside the couch.

Penelope didn't hear the question though, as soon as Derek laid her on the couch her body decided it had had enough and gave in to the blackness that the pain medication was causing.

Derek sat on the coffee table watching Penelope sleep and gave in to the urge to reach out and run his fingers through the blonde hair. His phone rang a few moments later and he picked it up after the second ring.

It was Hotchner. He just wanted to check up on how Garcia was doing and ask Morgan if he was willing to stay with her until she woke up, and then they would be able to make arrangements from there, depending on what Garcia wanted to do.

Derek smiled and readily agreed to the arrangement, asking what would happen with the cases he was working on. Agent Hotchner informed him that any case files would be couriered over to Garcia's home so he could work on them there.

After a few more moments of talking, Morgan ended the call and pulled an afghan over Penelope tucking her in and moved over to the recliner to wait for her to wake.

***