“Miss Garcia? Do you have a spare towel?”

“Yeah honey, hang on a second.”

Penelope pushed herself up from the couch, padding to the linen closet. She had to admit, she most definitely hadn’t expected a house guest, but she knew Emily was uncomfortable leaving Leah by herself. When the blond had seen the pictures in the young woman’s e-mail, she understood Emily’s worry. So when Emily had asked if she’d keep an eye on Leah while they finished up the case, Pen didn’t think about any danger or anything other than her friend and the sixteen-year-old currently finishing up a shower in her bathroom.

She knocked on the door, passing the terry cloth through the crack. “Any particular movie choice?”

“Um… Mindless?” Leah called back. “I’m really not in the mood for anything action adventure.”

It went without saying that horror was out. Pen could sympathize. She hadn’t been able to handle any movie where someone pulled a gun for almost a month and a half after her shooting even with Derek sitting next to her. “Mindless it is. Romantic comedy.”

Leah’s head poked out of the door. “Oooh, Sydney White?”

“We can do that,” Pen said with a laugh. She should have known Leah would have a movie in mind. Emily often did the same thing.

Pen moved back to the couch, checking her laptop in the process. Usually, she wouldn’t bring work home with her. Her insomniac tendencies would keep her up while the cross referencing of all of the victim’s names finished. This time, however, she had a young charge, who probably wouldn’t take well to the cramp in her neck should she catch her sleep on a desk. Emily probably wouldn’t be impressed either and Pen both knew and understood Emily’s worries. So, for the first time in a long time, she logged on from home to continue the work she’d started. And so far the search had come up empty.

“Movie in?”Leah asked, coming out of the bathroom towel drying her hair.

“Not yet.” The blond watched the young girl as she searched the DVDs. Leah hadn’t stopped moving since Emily had left. The only emotion Pen had seen was when she’d been on the phone with her ‘aunt’ talking about where she was going to stay. It had taken Emily twenty minutes to both calm her down and convince her that leaving Quanitco-slash-Washington for Seattle was a bad idea. Leah had curled herself in a corner for half an hour before demanding to help, but unfortunately for her, there wasn’t much she could do.

“Talked to Aunt Em?”

It was the twelfth time Leah had asked.

“Nope. Want to call?”

It was the same answer Pen had given each time.

“I don’t want to bother her.”

They’d been dancing this particular dance all day and Pen sighed. “You know, I doubt our girl is going to be bothered by it sweetheart.” She held out the phone. “Call her. You’ll probably help.”

That was enough for Leah to almost snatch the phone from Pen’s hand. She dialed the number without having to look and started pacing the minute she pressed the phone to her ear.

“Agent Prentiss.”

“Am I interrupting, Aunt Em?”

“Hey, sweetie, no, of course not. Just hang on a half a second, okay?”

Leah took a deep breath as she heard Emily leave voices fading in the background.

“Okay. How are you doing?”

“Are you sure I’m not interrupting? I can wait, if you want to call back.”

“No, no, honey,” Emily reassured. “Now’s fine. You didn’t answer my question.”

Leah sighed, smiling at Pen as the older woman left the room. “I wish I was there.”

Emily sighed. “I know, Lee, but we talked about this. You’re safer in Virginia.”

“But Aunt Em-“

“No arguing,” Emily interrupted, though her voice was gentle. “You need to stay safe. I promised Liz and David you’d be safe. I swore to Agent Spring you’d stay across the country.”

“I want to be with you.” She hated how she sounded like she was six and not sixteen. This whole situation had her so terribly off kilter. All she wanted right now was to cu rl up in Emily’s arms and cry like a child. But Emily was on the opposite coast. Emily was the one constant in her life since he had taken it from her and though she loved Liz and treated her like a parent, it was Emily she inevitably turned to when times got rough. Leah didn’t think they could get rougher than this.

“I know you do, sweetheart, but this really isn’t a good place for you.”

“Why did he have to come back and ruin everything,” Leah asked rhetorically, her voice hitching. She could feel tears pool in her eyes again and cursed herself. She’d sworn she’d be strong the last time she was on the phone with Emily, vowed to herself that she wouldn’t cry anymore. “I’m scared.”

“I know.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“I know,” Emily repeated. “We need you to hang in there.” There was a pause. “Has Pen found anything?”

“I don’t know,” Leah admitted. “She won’t let me look at the laptop.”

“Laptop? Where are you?”

“Miss Garcia’s apartment,” Leah replied.

Emily actually laughed on the other end of the phone. “Wow. Leave it to you to get the insomniac out of the office.”

“Aren’t you an insomniac?”

“Something like that,” Emily agreed with a small chuckle. “Le, you need to hang in there, okay? We’re going to find him.”

Leah’s breath was shaky as she inhaled. “I know.”

“I’ll be back before you know it,” Emily promised. “And I’ll take a week off and we’ll head around DC okay? Wherever you want to go.”

“I want to go to Mexico,” Leah said on a sigh.

Emily chuckled. “Maybe some other time. Oh, hang on a sec.”

Leah heard soft voices on the other end of the phone. Someone was talking to Emily, a male by the sounds of it. She wondered if it was Mr Hotch. He’d seemed to keep a close eye on her Aunt Em. And she was right, he wasn’t as scary as she’d thought.

“Can you do me a favour, sweetheart?”

“Is it going to help with the case?”

“It is. We’re going to go by your school tomorrow, make sure no one saw anything odd. Can you give me your friends’ names and your teachers?”

“Uh… Well, there’s Dani, that’s short for Danielle, uh… Danielle Hunter. She’s my best friend.”

“Right, the one you mention in your e-mails.”

“Yeah. And there’s Cait Short and Justin Farr. That’s my close group of friends.”

“What about boyfriends?”

Leah blew out a breath. “You know there’s no one.” Still, she knew how this worked. Any detail was key. It was what Emily had said before she’d left. “Jamie Caddy’s been hanging around my locker lately and Geoffery Losh. He’s a transfer student from England. He sits beside me in English.”

“How ironic.”

It got the laugh out of Leah she was sure her aunt was looking for. “I can e-mail you my class schedule so you don’t have to go through the secretary. She keeps up to date on all of the latest privacy laws. I don’t think Agent Spring could even get through to her.”

“That would be a huge help.”

There was a pause and Leah knew what was coming next. “You have to go.”

“I do,” Emily agreed. “We’re going to do our dinner briefing and then probably see about some shut eye. It’s not going to do any of us any good to be exhausted while doing this.”

“Um… You’ll call tomorrow?”

“First thing,” Emily promised.

Leah knew she’d make good on it. Emily hadn’t made a promise she hadn’t been able to keep. “Goodnight Aunt Em. Love you.”

“I love you too, Leah.”

Leah hung up, a smile touching the corners of her mouth. Emily had never let her forget who she had been and Leah would probably credit the older woman for who Annabelle was too. Emily had reassured her on a constant basis that Leah still lived inside her and she could be Leah as well as Annabelle. And Leah had every confidence Emily could find the guy who was responsible for the death of her biological parents.

She just hoped it was before too many more people were killed.