Title: Waiting
By: Slashylassy
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: Morgan and Garcia
Rating: completely work-safe
Warnings: MAJOR spoilers for "Lucky" and speculation about "Penelope". Also, this is my first CM fic and a bit maudlin.

***

More than anything Derek Morgan hated the waiting. In the past fifteen hours since Penelope's shooting, Morgan had been almost thankful the team had something to do, namely track down the bastard that put the bullet in his baby-girl's chest. And track him down they did, and Hotch had been smart enough to recognize the uncontrollable rage and hatred that coursed through Morgan's veins. Hotch had sent Morgan to the hospital before the man could kill the unsub.

Now Morgan paced the minuscule waiting room feeling useless and helpless and impotent. His Garcia was fighting for her life somewhere beyond those grey metallic doors. The surgeon had updated him once, saying that the operation had gone as well as it could under the circumstances and now the next twenty-fours were crucial.

Morgan had gone in to see her once, just after they'd settled her in her bed in ICU. He entered the room slowly, almost afraid to look at Penelope, He raised his eyes and saw all the machines and tubes, heard all the beeps and clicks of those machines, breathing for his baby, keeping her asleep, keeping her pain-free. She was pale, of course she was always pale, but her usual luminous, pearl-like pale had been replaced by a deathly pallor, the faint blush of health gone and a sickly grey hue remaining.

Morgan had stroked her hand and brushed a blonde curl off her forehead before he pressed a gentle kiss there. Unbidden, Father Marks' words rang in his ears.

"He never gives us more than we can handle."

Morgan drew a shaky breath. He lowered his eyes to Penelope's delicate hand almost completely covered by his larger darker one. Unshed tears trembled on his lashes.

"Dear Lord. This, this. . . . I can't handle," he whispered.

***