The next two weeks rushed by in a blur of bodies, death, and casework. Every single person was so completely exhausted, Aaron wasn’t sure any of them could take much more of it. And if he was honest with himself, they were no closer to catching the guy than when they’d started. He’d wanted to keep it, and subsequently JJ, out of the media’s eye for as long as possible but as he looked over files late one night, running a hand through his hair, he had a gut feeling that it wasn’t going to be plausible for much longer.
The fact that he and Emily had gone through a major blow up a couple of days earlier didn’t help much either. He was at the end of his rope emotionally. Emily had distanced herself from him since the fight and while he understood why she did it, it was really grating on him. There were very little upsides to working with JJ when he knew Emily was off with someone else. Not that he didn’t trust Morgan with Emily’s life.
And he probably had gotten a little overprotective. He hadn’t given her any time to herself, hadn’t given her any kind of break from the job or from him. He knew her inside out and knew she needed a little bit of time to decompress. Aaron worried about his team and even more so about Emily. It was a reaction that he couldn’t help.
A soft knock on his door startled him out of his thoughts. He was partially thankful. He’d gone down a serious bunny trail from looking at the case. He sighed as he moved the files to open the door and got a pleasant surprise at the presence on the other side.
Emily was pulling at one of his old t-shirts as she stood almost awkwardly in the doorway. “JJ crawled in with Spencer.”
Which had left her all alone in her room. He stepped back and pulled the door the rest of the way open, letting her into the room.
She took one look around and shook her head. “You should be sleeping, Aaron.”
Something in his heart clenched when she said that. It meant she cared, even if she was still mad at him. He sighed. “I think I owe you an apology.”
“No,” she disagreed. “If anyone should apologize, I should. You were just doing your job, you were trying to make sure I was always safe.”
“I worry about you,” he said, his hand trailing down her arm.
“I know. I worry about you too. But-”
“We’re both agents. We’re both here to do our jobs.”
“And we’re too damned good at our job to let our relationship affect them now,” she agreed.
He ran a hand through his hair, displeasure more than obvious. She stepped closer, into his personal bubble, forcing her chin to tilt so she could keep eye contact. Aaron’s arm subconsciously wrapped around her waist, absorbing her warmth and the comfort of her presence.
“What are we going to do?” she asked softly.
“About us?”
“And about the case.”
Aaron pulled her against him, tucking her head under his chin. “We’ll be okay,” he said finally, after a few seconds of silence. They had to be okay. He couldn’t lose her, a scary thought he hoped to live to analyze another day.
“And the case?”
“I got a text from Garcia in Quantico. She has something.”
Emily’s eyes sparked. “And?”
“She says it’s too much to explain from Quantico. She wants to come here.”
“You didn’t let her, did you?”
Aaron looked down into her dark eyes the answer obvious. Who on earth could really argue with Penelope Garcia when she had her mind set on something? “She threatened to fly commercial if she couldn’t get the jet.”
“That sounds like Pen,” Emily said on a rueful sigh. “Derek’s not going to be happy.”
“Morgan’ll just have to suffer with the rest of us,” Aaron replied, pulling Emily a little bit closer.
Suddenly, she let out a huge yawn and met his eyes in embarrassment. “What? You’re comfy and safe. Now I’m sleepy again.”
“Then by all means,” he said, chuckling. “Let’s get you in bed.”
Penelope Garcia hadn’t slept a wink on the plane, nor had she bothered to even think about catching a little shut eye. She was already in the room the team was using when Derek Morgan stepped in. Part of her wasn’t surprised to see her white knight in first, but the majority of her was. “Good morning, Sunshine.”
It took Derek a few minutes to realize it was really her and the response she got hadn’t been what she had expected.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“What?” she replied with a pout. “You’re not happy to see me?”
“Not in the midst of a case like this. I thought you were staying in Quantico.”
“And then there was no way I was staying there when you all needed me here,” she answered, her nose tilting in the air slightly.
“Mamma, you were safe in Quantico.”
Penelope wouldn’t meet his gaze. She’d known, logically, that coming to Tuscon was a bad idea. The case was all about women, all about law enforcement, and she knew that there were now five dead women. There were other things that Spencer had let her in on during his few breaks in between briefings, interviews, interrogations…
For one thing, the guy concentrated on cops. They had yet to figure out why, but with two more victims “ Zoe Duyen, and Olivia Cole, the former from being drowned with a blow up doll for floatation device and the latter bleeding to death from internal injuries “ their time span was getting shorter and shorter. Not to mention that even Penelope saw it as their unsub escalating and escalating quickly. Zoe had been missing for a week. Olivia had been missing for five days.
Spencer had also had her look at the notes, not for hand writing, not for psycholinguistics, but to research where it could be possible to find anything that would have helped the guy translate Morse Code so completely. She’d shivered as she read the next two notes:
Feminism is a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians “ Pat Robertson
Outings are so much fun when we can savour them through the children’s eyes “ Lawana Blackwell
“I’m here now,” she told him frankly, not meeting his eyes. “What did I miss?”
Derek had a million things racing through his mind. While he was elated Penelope was there with him “ in the newly minted world of couples, it seemed “ it churned his gut to think that she could end up in the line of fire. Part of him knew it was a little bit of a stretch, especially since she was removed from law enforcement, but that didn’t seem to help the nerves now shooting adrenaline through him.
Nevertheless, he knew better than to argue with Penelope Garcia. And now that she was there, there was no use trying to get her to go back.
“Zoe Duyen was most likely killed for being a lesbian.”
Penelope nodded. “The quote makes sense now.”
“So does the blow up doll she was found with. She and her girlfriend Heather had been together for almost a year. They moved in together four months ago,” Derek told her, pulling out a chair.
She watched his movements out of the corner of her eyes, watching the cat-like grace he always exhibited. “Ouch.”
“Thing is, none of her colleagues on the hostage/crisis team knew. The only person Zoe had told was her best friend, Mari Gajijens.”
“At this rate I’m going to have to make tables to keep track of all of the names,” Penelope quipped. “What about Olivia Cole?”
“The guy beat her to death,” Derek said shaking his head. “Punched her in the lower abdomen until the pain made her pass out. Internal bleeding from those injuries were what killed her. We talked to her husband, Raymond. He said they’d been trying to have children and couldn’t.”
That made Penelope stiffen. From her job’s perspective, from the logic that her job used, she understood. But it didn’t mean it was any less disturbing to think about. Especially since it was something that some women simply couldn’t help. “Health issue?”
“Hers, yeah. They were looking at adoption before she was taken.”
Penelope nodded absently. “And you?”
“What about me?”
How perfectly Derek Morgan, thinking about everything else before taking a minute to consider that maybe he wasn’t okay. “How are you holding up? How is everyone else?”
Sometimes he forgot that she wasn’t in the thick of things with all of them. She kept in touch so closely that sometimes he forgot that she didn’t see. She heard, yes, but rarely did she get the first-hand chance to see the team’s reactions.
“Hotch and Em had a blow up,” he admitted.
“No!”
Derek nodded ruefully. He was a quiet cheerleader for the relationship, if only because it seemed to make the team work even better together. The tension had dropped substantially since they’d finally admitted they were attracted to each other and even Derek had to admit that Emily had some sort of healing touch when it came to their normally aloof boss.
“About what?”
“Emily wanted space, Hotch wanted her safe.”
“Ah. I always knew that was going to come into conflict,” Penelope responded with an all-knowing nod of her head. “Are they okay?”
“As of bed time last night, no, but I heard JJ crawl in with Reid last night and since Emily didn’t follow, I’m assuming she stayed with Hotch.”
Penelope grinned. “That’s my girl. What about you.”
“I felt a lot better when you were safely in Quantico,” Derek answered, honesty shining in his dark eyes.
It was enough to force Penelope to valiantly withhold a shiver. “I’m needed here,” she replied.
Derek sighed in annoyance, running a hand over his head. “Why can’t any of you seem to understand that we just want you to be safe?”
“Our job makes it so we’re never safe,” Penelope pointed out softly. “And mine rarely puts me in the line of fire.”
“You being here puts you in the line of fire,” Derek argued. His mind was racing with the fact that she was here, that she’d be walking the streets, that there was someone out there killing people.
“I’m going to leave this room to what? Thanks for being concerned Derek, but I think you’re overreacting.”
“I’m not overreacting.”
“You are,” she said. “How many times have we been on cases and we came out with it all in one piece.”
He knew she made a point and sighed as he stood up. “Baby Girl, your optimism is something I love about you. Coffee?”
He knew she didn’t drink coffee and so she wasn’t surprised that he didn’t wait for her answer. What did surprise her was how easily ‘love’ had slipped out of his mouth. Her entire body had stiffened at the words out of his mouth, much like it had when he’d originally told him he loved her.
She sighed, dropping her head in her hands. She had been teeter-tottering with their friendship-relationship since probably the day she’d met him. It baffled her mind that whatever they had was something that permeated their entire relationship. Their innuendo games, their ability to read each other, their commitment to their friendship… Derek had dropped everything to stay with her when Battle had shot her. She had wanted to do everything she possibly could to clear his name in Chicago.
And she had no idea of what to do now.