Penelope & Derek’s Matchmaking Service
Prompt: The reader and Reid both have a crush on the other person but are too scared of ruining their friendship to tell the other person. Penelope decided to give them a little push and drags Derek into her mischevious scheme.
A/N: This was an idea that popped into my head because I could definitely see Morgan and Garcia meddling in their coworkers love lives. I’m not opposed to making a part two of this, so let me know if that’s something that you would want. Also, anyone who can catch the subtle F.R.I.E.N.D.S. reference that is in here somewhere is my favorite person ever. Enjoy :)
Note: (Y/F/C) = your favorite candy
Penelope sighed in frustration as she watched you and Spencer alternate staring at each other. It was almost painful the way that neither of you actually caught the other doing so. It was like some form of fate caused you to look away a second before Spencer decided to look up. Derek noticed her standing in the doorway. “Hey Baby Girl,” he called and walked over to her. She muttered a “hello” before huffing and crossing her arms. “Whoa whoa whoa, what’s the matter gorgeous? Those processing systems in that big brain of yours hung up on something?”
“How does it not drive you crazy?” she mumbled and Morgan raised an eyebrow at her.
“How does what not drive me crazy?”
“The two of them!” she whisper-shouted and spun around walking off toward her lair. Derek rolled his eyes, but obediently followed her down the hall.
“Gonna need a little more information sweetness,” he told her, leaning against the doorframe.
“Oh c’mon, do I need to spell it out for you? (Y/N) and Spencer. The way those two are pining after each other it’s both sickening and sweet at the same time. I’m not even a profiler and I can tell that they are head over heels. I mean I know (Y/N) is because she told me one night when I got her super drunk with the intent of forcing the information out of her, but that is beside the point,” Penelope explained as she pulled up the bullpen’s security video feed and maneuvered the cameras so they were facing you and Spencer’s desks.
“Do you do this all the time?” Morgan asked standing behind her chair.
“Only when we don’t have a case or anything else to do,” Penelope defended, “You would not believe how boring it gets in here and you people never come visit me!”
“But why- you know what nevermind. Just please tell me that you don’t mess with the cameras in my office.”
“My vision, you are the object of my affection but for the most part my attentions have been focussed on my current OTP as you never do anything interesting in your office.”
“Forgive me for actually doing work instead of making googly eyes at my coworkers.”
“Of course I’ve noticed. The whole team has noticed. The only ones in the dark about it are the two of them,” Derek chuckled. Penelope smiled as she watched the two of you. You had gone over to ask Spencer something, but he had been so focused on his work you’d startled him and he’d almost spilled his coffee all over himself.
“They are so cute,” she sighed, “Derek I want my OTP to be together!”
“Somehow I don’t think we get a vote or have the power to make that happen,” he replied, kissing the top of her head. Penelope suddenly perked up.
“What are you talking about?” he asked as she spun her chair around.
“What if there was a way that we could force Reid’s hand and make him admit something or ask her out?”
“Baby Girl, Reid has specifically told me that he doesn’t want me messing with this. You think I haven’t tried to get him to make a move?”
“He told you that, but he never told me,” she chirped, turning back toward her computer and started typing away. She pulled up a website for custom floral arrangements and started clicking on various options.
“Creating something that all of you men hate. Competition,” she replied, patting the side of his face. A few more minutes of meddling the order had been placed, ready to be delivered tomorrow morning.
“Why do I get the feeling I’m going to be the one he blames for this?” Derek sighed shaking his head.
“Ha, do not worry my vision. If all goes bad, we pretend like it never happened,” Penelope told him.
You walked into the bullpen the next morning smiling happily as you carried two cups of coffee. You glanced around looking for Spencer, before nonchalantly setting one of the cups down on his desk and arranged the mountain of sugar packets you’d also brought into an orderly pile. You quickly scurried back to your desk and sat down, trying to look casual as you waited for Spencer to arrive. “No coffee for the rest of us, I’m genuinely hurt,” Derek teased, as he sat down on your desk.
“Hey, the only order I remember is Spence’s because it’s the easiest thing ever: a large black coffee and then just bring the whole container of sugar to him,” you replied trying to casually look around him.
“Uh huh,” Morgan muttered, clearly unconvinced.
“Good morning,” Reid said as he walked over to his desk past the two of you.
“Hi, Spencer,” you chirped, “I stopped for coffee this morning and brought you some.”
“Thank you so much, you would not believe the morning I’ve had. How much do I owe you?”
“Don’t worry about it,” you replied tucking your hair behind your ear.
“Well, thank you. Did you know that coffee was banned three times in three different cultures: once in Mecca in the 16th century, once when Charles II in Europe banned the drink in an attempt to quiet an ongoing revolution, and once when Frederick the Great banned coffee in Germany in 1677 because he was concerned people were spending too much money on the drink,” he rambled. You smiled and shoved Morgan off of your desk, so you could actually see Spencer.
“Well, I didn’t know that, but I do know that banning coffee should be a crime,” you giggled. Reid smiled back at you and opened his mouth to say something but suddenly went pale. “What’s-”
“I have a delivery for a Miss (Y/N) (Y/L/N),” a man said cutting you off.
“That would be me,” you replied, turning around. “What can..I..do..” you stuttered as you came face to face with a huge vase of lilies and red roses.
“Sign here please,” the delivery man said, handing you a clipboard and setting the vase down on your desk. You scribbled your signature down on the form and handed it back to the man. “Have a nice day,” he said walking away.
“Yeah, you too,” you muttered still too focussed on your flowers.
“Oh my god, those are gorgeous,” JJ mentioned as she walked over to your desk.
“Who are they from?” Emily asked, joining the two of you.
“I have no idea,” you replied, pulling the card off the side of the vase.
“Read it,” JJ urged leaning in closer. None of you noticed that Spencer had unconsciously leaned closer to the group as well trying to listen.
“Nothing can ever compare to your beauty, but these flowers are certainly a nice way to compliment it. I hope these make that lovely smile of yours appear on your face, signed your secret admirer,” you read out loud and closed the card.
“Oooh, this is interesting,” Emily said nudging your shoulder.
“Any idea who it could be?” JJ asked.
“Not a clue,” you replied, sitting back down in your chair, “I’m not seeing anyone and no one has asked me out recently.”
“Anyone who you hope it is?”
“Yeah, but considering he hasn’t shown the slightest sign of interest I’m pretty sure it isn’t him,” you mumbled. Unbeknownst to you, Spencer had wandered away into the break room fuming. This happened every time he’d finally work up the courage to ask you out on a date or flirt with you at all something would happen. Morgan would come interrupt, Hotch would suddenly announce that you had a case, or in this case, some jerk would write you poetry and send you flowers. He downed the rest of the coffee that you had bought him and started making another cup.
“You ok, Pretty Boy?” Derek asked watching Spencer stir the coffee quite angrily.
“Just peachy,” Spencer growled.
“Ya know, you could just ask her out. (Y/N) has no idea who sent her those flowers,” Derek casually mentioned.
“Ha yeah right, I’m reasonably certain she’d rather have fancy flower man whoever he is,” he grumbled.
“Fancy flower man? Really Reid, that’s the best you can come up with?” Derek asked trying not to laugh.
“I have plenty of other vulgar things I could call him so don’t push it.”
“Hey, I’m not the one encroaching on your girl, but I would recommend you do something about it before you loose her to fancy flower man.”
“You think I should what?”
“Well, you’re her friend. I’m pretty sure you can find a way to top the giant array of flowers that he sent her.”
“I definitely could,” Spencer muttered, deep in thought, “I need to get to work but first I’m going to get Garcia to figure out who sent those to her.”
“Uh,” Derek stuttered, trying to come up with a way to divert him, “Why does it matter who it is? You should be more concerned with your plan to woo her, you can worry about who it was later.”
“You’re right. I’m going to take my lunch early. I need to go get a few things,” Spencer said and quickly rushed back to his desk to grab his wallet. Derek sighed in relief, happy that he’d managed to redirect Reid’s thought process, and made himself a cup of coffee. Your sudden presence in the break room caught his attention. “And where are you going lady of the hour?” he asked sipping his coffee.
“I’m grabbing another sugar for my coffee and then I’m going to get Garcia to find out who this admirer person is.” Derek did a spit take and started coughing. “Whoa, you ok?”
“Yes, yes, I’m fine. But maybe you should just let this play out? See if he reveals himself to you?”
“Derek, I just want to know who it is so I can tell him I’m not interested. There’s only one guy who’s attention I want and he seems to not really care.”
“Sweetness, Reid is a great guy just a little awkward and shy when it comes to ladies, you might try being a bit more obvious about it,” he teased. You furrowed your brow and slowly turned your head toward him.
“How did you know I have a crush on Spencer?”
“I’m a profiler and I’m really good at my job.” Derek replied.
“Yeah sometimes I forget what we do for a living.”
“And the fact that Penelope can’t keep her mouth shut,” he muttered quietly to himself. Just not quiet enough.
“I’m going to kill her!” you growled and stormed off toward Penelope’s office.
“No no no, wait!” Derek shouted as he chased after you. You tore the door open and walked in.
“Hello my lovely, what can I do for you today?” Penelope chirped. You narrowed your eyes at her before flicking her on the side of the head.
“OW!” she shrieked. “What was that for?”
“I cannot believe you told Derek that I like Spencer. I told you that in confidence and you swore you wouldn’t tell another soul,” you fumed.
“Technically you told me that while you were drunk.”
“But you know I tell my chocolate thunder everything, so you should’ve expected this.”
“Ugh, my life is over,” you whined. “Spencer is still acting weird and now some stranger has sent me flowers. Can you make yourself useful and tell me who sent those at least?”
“I take offense to that comment!”
“Who told shared a secret that she swore she would take to the grave?”
“Fine,” she muttered, “but I already know who sent them. I looked it up earlier.”
“It’s uh, Brian in payroll,”
“Mhm,” she mumbled, twisting a piece of hair around her finger.
“Uh huh, does Brian in payroll have a last name?” you asked crossing your arms.
“Yes, yes he definitely does.”
“Well, I can tell you that it is most certainly not Morgan or Garcia.”
“Penelope,” you groaned. “Why would you do that?”
“I’m just trying to spice it up, you know force our dearest doctor’s hand.”
“Yes and in doing that you’ve managed to scare him. He took off fifteen minutes ago,” you grumbled flopping down in the chair beside her.
“Aw, sweets it’s gonna be ok.”
“Hey look on the bright side, at least you got some bitchin flowers,” she said trying to lighten the mood. You lifted your head and glared at her.
“(Y/N), you need to get back to your desk and take a look at this,” Derek said as he walked into Penelope’s office.
“And you! You knew she was going to do this and you didn’t stop her,” you growled and stalked over to him, poking his chest.
“As upset as you are right now, I really think you should just go back to your desk. You might like what you find,” Derek replied pushing your hand away. You narrowed your eyes at him.
“If this is another part of this BS plan you two have going on, I’m going to kill you both,” you grumbled, stalking down the hallway.
“What are you doing?” Penelope whispered at Derek, as they followed you.
“Just watch,” he replied with a smug look on his face. You were expecting to see yet another bouquet of flowers that the two of them had sent to you, but you certainly weren’t expecting this. Your desk was scattered with various pieces of paper and rose petals. A large white teddy bear was sitting in your chair with a bouquet of gardenias nestled in its arms and a bag of (Y/F/C) tucked in beside it. You stood rooted in place out of surprise until Derek gave you a slight nudge. You walked forward and picked up one of the pieces of paper. You smiled as you recognized Spencer’s handwriting and started reading. It was a poem by Christina Rossetti, one of your favorites actually “I loved you first”. You had talked about this with Spencer months ago, when you both discovered your shared love of poetry. From the looks of it, he had managed to write down all of your favorite poems on these little notes (probably including a few of his own favorites) and put them all over your desk. You plucked the bouquet of gardenias out of the bear’s arms and smelled them.
“Red roses traditionally symbolize love and passion while gardenias’ symbolize pure, secret love which more accurately displays how I feel about you,” Spencer mumbled from behind you. You immediately spun around and dropped the bouquet back in your chair, before throwing your arms around his neck and crashing your lips into his. He seemed to be stunned for a few seconds, before kissing you back and wrapping his arms around your waist. Hoots and hollers came from all around the office, mainly from Penelope and Emily. You separated a little breathlessly and rested your forehead against his. The pair of you were smiling from ear to ear. “Please tell me this isn’t a dream,” he muttered closing his eyes.
“Nope,” you replied popping the “p”, “I’m real.”
“So I take it you like me too or else I think you’ve been sending some very mixed signals.” You chuckled and kissed him again.
“Does that answer your question?” you asked, after you’d pulled back.
“I think it does, and to think I had a whole speech planned out to make you at least go on one date with me,” he replied scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. You just shook your head and smiled at him.
“That’s so sweet, but how on earth did you have time to set this up? I couldn’t have been gone more than fifteen minutes,” you said, turning slightly to look at your desk,
“14 minutes and 23 seconds actually, but I’ve had the notes sitting in my bag for about a week now,” he told you.
“Ok, that’s enough, back to work all of you,” Hotch said, commotion having finally drawn him out of his office. There was a collective “sorry” muttered from around the office, before Hotch turned his attention to the two of you. “Do we need to have a conversation or can I trust that this isn’t going to affect work?”
“I think we’re good,” you answered.
“Good, now I need to call Dave and inform him that he owes me twenty bucks as do the two of you,” Hotch chuckled motioning JJ and Emily. The two women groaned slightly before reaching for their purses.
“Wait, what?” Spencer asked raising an eyebrow, keeping his arms wrapped around your waist.
“To make a long story short, we started a pool going for how long it would take the two of you to get together after three months of watching the two of you flirt. I had yesterday, Hotch had today, Rossi had tomorrow, and JJ had next Monday,” Emily explained as she walked up the stairs and handed the money to Hotch, who gladly pocketed it and went back in his office to presumably call Rossi who was off on vacation time.
“I cannot believe this! How many people in this office are invloved in our love lives?” you cried in frustration, even though you were smiling.
“Wait, who else is involved in our love life?” Spencer asked, looking down at you confused.
“And that’s our cue to run chocolate thunder,” Penelope muttered, as she took off running dragging Derek along behind her. You shook your head and laughed, all irritation suddenly vanishing.
“Wonder what that was about,” Reid thought out loud, as you unwound from his arms and moved all his gifts out of your chair.
“Don’t worry about it, just remind me to tell Brian from payroll to send her some flowers,” you told him. He looked very confused but just shrugged and kissed your forehead. You grinned up at him, knowing that this was the start of one of the best times in your life.
