#woe noise bomb be upon ye

[buttercup-barf]

hey did you know that the noise update is out now?

I did! I have not played it yet! I am grieving!

[hoffkk]

On the second day of Ficmas, hoffkk gave to me...

Two Silver Bells (A Garvez Fanfic)

*******

Penelope's fingers flew across her keyboard as she frantically dialed JJ's number for what felt like the umpteenth time.

"Come on... come on... pick up." She mumbled to herself as she fretted with worry.  She had called everyone on the team at least twice already, but no one was answering.  She had just been talking to Jennifer and listening in on Luke's conversation with the unknown subject a few seconds ago.  He had been trying his best to talk down the psychopath, but, like most psychopaths, he wasn't being very cooperative.  Luke pressed on anyway, trying to get the location of the third bomb the unsub had planted.  The rest of the team had tracked down the first two and disabled them just in time. However, judging by the loud noise that blasted through her speakers only a moment ago, they weren't so lucky with bomb number three, which the unsub must have had close by, but how close? Were they okay?  Were they hurt?  Were they... No. She told herself tersely. Don't think like that.  They're fine, perfectly fine.  But the truth was, she really didn't know if they were.  She didn't know anything, and the not knowing was killing her. Penelope's job was to know things. All things.  But all she knew right now was that there was an explosion, and that the communications were no longer working.

After a few minutes, the ringing completely stopped, and she couldn't get through period.  Completely frustrated, she gave her keyboard a loud whack. Immediately regretting her actions, she stroked her keyboard lovingly and said, "I'm so sorry, my precious. Mama loves you.  It's just been a bad day.  Then, to herself, she scolded, "Get it together, Garcia.  Breathe and believe."  

Penelope turned in her rolling chair to face away from her desk and took a few deep breaths.  She was somewhat calm when her phone pinged with a text message.  Whirling around at the speed of light, she grabbed her phone.  She couldn't help but smile as she saw the name flash across her screen: chocolate thunder.

Opening the message from Derek, there was a picture of one year old Hank in an elf outfit, sitting on Santa's lap.  The sight of her godson made her own grin widen even more as did the accompanying message: Merry Christmas, baby girl!  Oh, how she loved her big black twelve pack and his little mocha mcnugget. This was just what she needed.  Derek always did have a way of reading her mind and making her feel better during times of woe.

As she stared at the Christmas photo, Penelope got an idea.  She may not be able to talk to the team, but that didn't mean she couldn't help them.  Setting down her phone, Penelope headed down the hall to the storage closet and dug out the boxes of holiday decorations.  Some Christmas cheer perked her right up, and she bet it would do the same for the team too. So, Penelope got to work decorating. She started with her office then did the team's desks and offices as well.  

A half hour later, it was officially Christmas in Quantico and Penelope was back on her computer. She was in the middle of researching some eggnog recipes when her phone rang.  Hitting the speaker button on her phone, she immediately stopped and said, "Come, all ye faithful and please save me from this silent night with some good news."

"Hey, Penelope." Jennifer replied in an amused tone.

"Oh, my god, JJ. What happened?  Are you okay?"  She questioned rapidly.

"Yeah, I--" JJ began but was abruptly cut off by her frazzled friend.

"How's Luke?  Is he all right?  Tell me he's all right."  Penelope rambled.

"Well, actually--" Jennifer tried again to no avail.

"Because I swear if that fruit loop harmed even one hair on my luscious Latino Adonis, I'll--"

"Penelope!" JJ yelled, cutting her off this time.

"What?"  She retorted sharply, startled by her friend's outburst.

Jennifer cleared her throat and calmly replied, "You're on speaker phone."

"Oh." Penelope answered as a wave of embarrassment washed over her.  At least no one was around to see her wide eyes and flushed cheeks, and, with any luck, Luke wasn't anywhere near JJ right now.

"No worries, Garcia."  Interjected a familiar masculine voice.  "You're Adonis is a-doing just fine."

"Well, good." Penelope responded truthfully as she mentally kicked herself for having such a big mouth and no filter to go with it. It appeared luck was not on her side after all because Luke Alvez was clearly present and no doubt so was the rest of the team if the quiet snickering through her speaker was anything to go by. "Anyway, would someone like to catch me up on what the heck has been going on?  I've been sitting in the dark here for half an hour."

"Sorry about that."  JJ replied. "Things have been pretty crazy in Philly."

The whole team then launched into a retelling of the events before, during, and after the explosion, including how the bomb took out a cell tower and some power lines, making it impossible to get in touch until now.

"But everyone is okay, right?  No concussions or missing limbs?" Penelope queried only half joking.

"We're fine, promise." Jennifer swore.  "We're just boarding the jet and should be home within the hour."

"Good."  She nodded to the empty room.  "Oh, and BT-dubs none of you are allowed to make any plans for tonight."

"Why?" Luke question curiously.

"Well, JJ, my dearest gal pal,"  Penelope began, purposely ignoring Alvez.  "I may have covered the bull pen thoroughly in the holiday spirit, and, when you all get back, we shall drink some holiday spirits.  I figure we could all use some holiday cheer after this case."

There was a round of 'count me ins' then Emily spoke up, "Sounds good, Garcia, but I hope covering the office in holiday cheer doesn't require mistletoe."

"But of course it requires mistletoe."  Penelope answered matter-of-factly.  "Mistletoe is, like, the holiday decoration.  You can't have Christmas without it."

"Well, I'm sorry to inform you but mistletoe is against department policy."' Emily told her as she tried to hide the amusement in her voice.

"Seriously?" Penelope whined.  "Can't I just have one little thing of mistletoe?"

"Sorry," Emily said.  "If I let you hang mistletoe, HR will have my head... then yours."

"She's right, Pen."  Jennifer chimed in.  "Do you really want to end up the focus another sexual harassment seminar?"

"Hey," She defended, thinking back to the humiliating day when her nicknames for Derek Morgan were plastered all over the 'what not to do' slideshow presentation in the sexual harassment meeting.  "It's not my fault someone blabbed about my personal conversations with Morgan."

"Penelope..." Emily trailed off in warning.

Penelope sighed dejectedly and finally relented, "Fine, I'll take it down."

"Thank you." Emily replied.

"Well, you're not welcome."  Penelope told her in disappointment.

Luke spoke up then and said, "We better wrap this up.  It's almost time for takeoff."

"We'll see you soon, P." Prentiss told her.

"Fly safe, my lovelies." She retorted sweetly, all of her disappointment temporarily pushed aside.

"Bye, baby girl." Luke tossed back in a tone that told her he was wearing the biggest grin on his face.

Penelope, who was sitting back her rolling chair, suddenly sat ram-rod straight and stuttered, "Did he just-- Did you just -- oh no, you didn't!"

There was no immediate response, so Penelope called out, "Hello?  Luke?  Anybody but Luke?"

When the dial tone rang out, signaling the call had been disconnected, she spat, "Oh no, you did not just hang up on me!

Hitting the hang up button with a huff, she went back to her recipe search, all the while thinking about how to get back at Luke for the horrible infraction he had just committed.

*******

About an hour and a half later, everyone was gathered in the bullpen, laughing and drinking the best eggnog they had ever had.  Well, everyone but Luke.  Apparently, he had a mysterious errand to run.  At least, that's the message Emily delivered to her.  Upon hearing this, Penelope felt irritated.  First, he steals Morgan's nickname for her, then he ditches her party like it's nothing.  How rude!  The most annoying part, though, was that she was actually kind of missing his presence. How she could miss a jerk like him was beyond her.  Okay, maybe it wasn't totally beyond her.  After all, as much as Luke teased her, he was still a good guy.  He was sweet and smart, and funny (not as funny as he thought he was but still...) and not to mention total eye candy.

Suddenly realizing the path her mind was traveling down, Penelope quickly shook the thoughts away and returned her focus to the group.  Rossi, Matt, and Tara were talking about restoring old cars, while Reid and Emily were checking out some recent photos of JJ's boys.

"Ooh! Let me see!" Penelope called out excitedly.

She was scrolling through her friend's phone and checking out all the adorable selfies her godson had taken, when Luke finally rolled in.  Penelope tried her best to ignore him as he walked over all suave, looking like a hunk of burning love with his hair perfectly quaffed, chin perfectly scruffy, and wearing a leather jacket, fitted jeans, and satchel draped over his torso.

She was semi-successful until Luke began speaking.

"What's up, guys?"

When Penelope didn't reply, JJ said, "I was just telling them about my son, the photographer. He has apparently discovered the art of the selfie."

Luke moved closer to check out her phone as well, stepping between Penelope and JJ.

Penelope scoffed and rolled her eyes as she immediately took a step away from him.

"Everything all right?" He asked in response, knowing she was still peeved at him from before.

She had planned on ignoring him but couldn't help but respond, "You think you're so funny, don't you?  Well, you're not.  And for the record, you're also not Derek Morgan.  You may be similar with the beefcake build, darker complexion, and the sexy smile, but you are so far from his level of swagger and agentry."

"Agentry?" JJ laughed as she looked to Reid and Emily.

"Swagger?" Reid said just as confused.

"Shhh!" Emily retorted.  "I wanna see where this goes."

Reid and JJ shrugged as Penelope ranted on.

"So, I don't ever want to hear you using the phrase 'baby girl' again.  Got it?"  She questioned sharply.

"You like my smile, huh?"  He teased, tossing a wide grin her way.

"That would be all you heard.  Ugh! You're so infuriating!" She all but yelled as she turned around and began walking away exasperatedly.

"What are you doing?"  Luke called out to her.

Penelope looked back at him over her shoulder and responded, "Consider this me hanging up on you." then stormed off in the direction of her office.

*******

Minutes later, Penelope was checking her email when she heard a knock on her office door. Spinning in her chair, she found Luke standing in the doorway who still wearing that enticing leather jacket as well as his satchel.

"Come to torment me some more?"  She inquired.

"I actually wanted to apologize."  He said, surprising her.  "I didn't mean to upset you with 'baby girl' thing.  I mean, I wanted to annoy you, sure, but not make you mad."

Penelope stifled a smile and explained, "I appreciate your apology, but to be perfectly honest I'm not really all that mad.  It's just... that was just our special thing for when Morgan and I saw each other... and now I rarely see him, so it's kind of a sensitive thing for me." She paused a moment, then added,  "I also just like yelling at you."

"Noted." Luke tossed back with small smile.  "I'm kind of fond of it myself."

"You are?" She asked in confusion.

"Yeah, you're cute when you're angry." He clarified.  "Your cheeks get all flushed and your nose scrunches and you start making up your own words."

"I always make up words."  She argued.

"No, you use words creatively, stringing them together in a unique way, but you don't actually make them up until you get all fired up."

"Oh," Penelope's lips quirked upward at that, at how he noticed something so small about her. It made her wonder what else about herself he had noticed.

Neither one said anything, and it got quiet for a long moment as they continued to stare at each other.  His soft gaze and cheeky smile sent a chill through her body, something that seemed to occur a lot these days but only when Luke was around.

Feeling a little awkward about her reaction to him, she broke the silence and asked, "So, was there something else you wanted... other than my forgiveness?"

"Uh..." He sputtered for a moment as he came back to reality. "Yeah, actually, there is. But you do know that you never technically gave me your forgiveness?"

"Didn't I? Oh, well."  She said teasingly, not making any effort to do so now either.  "As you were saying, kind sir?"

Chuckling under his breath, he began to walk toward her as he dug into his satchel.  She made note move to get up from her chair or say anything else so he began to explain his real motivation for coming to see her.

"Well, I know you were upset about the mistletoe thing, so I got you a little something to make you feel better."  Luke told her as he pulled her prize from his bag.

Penelope 's look of bewilderment turned into one of shock as she took in the item in his hands.  In his grip was a candy cane striped head band with a long curved wire sticking out of the top, resembling that of a real candy cane, except for the end.  At the end of the curved wire were some green leaves tied together with a single red bow and two shiny silver bells.  Penelope stared in disbelief.  This was why he was late?  Because he got her a present?

"It's a mistletoe headband." He stated the obvious as he stopped in front of her.  "I figured this way you could take mistletoe with you everywhere you go... and not get in too much trouble for it."

"That is incredibly thoughtful, Luke.  I just don't really know what to say except that this little do-hickey is the coolest thing ever."  Penelope said as she beamed and poked the bells on the end, imagine the cuteness of the jingling as she shared a magical holiday kiss with a special someone.

"Allow me." Luke offered then squatted down to her eye level and placed the head band on over her bleached blonde hair that cascaded slightly over her shoulders in light waves, contrasting heavily with the red ugly Christmas sweater dress she wore. He let his hands linger for a moment as he stared into her warm brown eyes.

Penelope's heart began to race as she processed what was happening and wondered what he was going to do next.  She sat still and watched as he leaned forward and began to close his eyes.  She let her eyes flutter closed in response and waited.  A moment later, Penelope felt him press a tender kiss on her right cheek.  It was sweet and simple yet still made her toes curl in delight.

Pulling back, he looked her in the eyes once more and said, "Merry Christmas, Sweet thing."

She touched the spot on her cheek with her fingertips and smirked as she watched him walk away.  By the time he made it to the door, his words finally registered and she called after him, "Wait..." She stood up as he turn around with a cheeky grin.  "What was that?  What the heck was sweet thing?"

"I was trying out a new nickname for you, you know, since 'baby girl' is officially off the table."  He teased.

"Well, officially so is sweet thing." She informed him. "Off the table and into the trash. Keep trying though." She added jokingly.

"Challenge accepted." He said with a wink, then headed out the door and back down to the party before anyone on the team got too concerned about their absence.

Penelope bit her lip and cocked her head slightly as she watched Luke walk down the hall and out of sight.  He may not be the Mocha Chocolate Chip Frappuccino she's used to, but he sure is one hell of a Caramel Macchiato.  Smirking devilishly, she flicked one of the bells on her head band and thought to herself, "Oh yeah, Luke Alvez can jingle my bells any day."