Maria DeLuca & Derek Morgan
Maria asked good questions. Derek couldn't help thinking the answers weren't what he wanted to admit, but he was a member of the BAU. Behavior Analysis was literally his day-to-day, nine-to-five, and he wouldn't be much of an analyst if he couldn't even profile himself. It was all about facing the truth of who someone was rather than trying to hide from it. Derek Morgan was man enough to admit his truth.
"I'm scared."
Tilting his head back, Derek took a deep breath in before looking back at Maria, "The person I want to reach for more with is the best friend I've ever had. She means more to me than my own life. I'd give up anything for her. When we're home? It's easy to compartmentalize the way I feel for her into a Friend Zone for lack of any better way to say it. We do important work back home. We love our jobs. We make a difference. If we were to give in to trying for more than friendship together, we would lose our jobs, the world would lose our skills, bad people would potentially get away with doing really bad things since we wouldn't be there to lend our hands to stop them. There's too much to keep us away from more at home. Here? We ain't got any of that. Except our friendship. What if we lose that because I push for more?"
Derek would rather have Penelope as his friend than not have her at all. He felt sick at the thought of a life with no Penelope Garcia in it.