"What's going on, Erin?" Penelope asked her lover of two months as she sat up and stretched.
"Another person went missing this morning. A Marshal Mann from New Mexico. His fiancée was worried about him, he didn't come back from his appointment with his witness. WitSec is already relocating the woman, but there's no trace of the marshal." She leaned back against Penelope, sighing. "This is the fourth kidnapping of a federal agent in as many weeks. They want the BAU to get involved."
"Well that's good, right? Shows they're taking this seriously." Erin shrugged. "What aren't you telling me?"
"They've been finding notes at the crime scene, talking about how the federal agencies are full of liars and proud speakers and that the Lord will judge them by removing their lips and tongues. And there have been other verses quoted, all full of violence towards liars and braggarts." Erin shuddered and cuddled closer to Penelope. "I'm scared, love."
"Oh, honey lamb, we're safe here. I won't let anything touch you, I promise. You are mine." She dropped a soft kiss on her lover's shoulder.
"That's not what I'm afraid of. Or, I'm not just scared of that. I'm scared of slipping again, of taking another rink."
"That wasn't you, honey lamb. That was Curtis forcing you to drink." Erin shook her head and lifted her lips. Penelope bent to kiss them, sighing softly.
"I know you'll try to keep me clean, but this is so much bigger than the bank heist, than what Curtis did to me, and I just feel like I'm going to fall back into the lying arms of alcohol."
"We talked that out, all three of us," she replied, thinking about that dinner they had shared with Rossi the week after Erin had returned to them, alive and fragile and searching for answers. "That was the night we found our spark."
"I remember. Dave was a bit shocked when I chose you over him. A little bit of a blow to his Italian Stallion persona." They both laughed, and Erin climbed out of bed. "But we have to get a move on. I have to meet with the Director in an hour and then brief your team."
Penelope nodded and went over to the closet. "Wear your maroon suede skirt, okay? I love how you look in it." She pulled out a pink flowered dress and then went over and pulled fresh underwear out of the dresser drawer she'd claimed as hers for their overnights together. As she dressed, she watched Erin, loving every moment she saw.
"You never get tired of watching, do you?" her honey lamb asked as she shimmied into a pair of hose.
"No. You're beautiful, and I love beautiful things. Not that you're a thing, but you know what I mean, right?" Erin nodded as she pulled on her blouse, quickly buttoning it. "We almost lost you to Curtis, and now, I cannot keep my gaze from you. I love you. Am I coming home with you tonight?"
"I wish. The girls are coming for supper tonight. And they don't want me with you."
"Oh." Penelope sat heavily on the bed, trying not to cry. "I see."
"No, you don't." Erin sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her waist. "I'm going to tell them tonight that you and I are an exclusive couple, and if they have a problem with it, too bad. I care for you darling, more than I expected to this soon in our relationship. I don't want you to think that I think of you as some casual lay. My girls are going to react poorly to that news, and I don't want them to hurt you right now."
Penelope turned into Erin, hugging her tightly. "I love you," she whispered before kissing her passionately. "Will you at least call me tonight, so we can talk before we sleep?"
"If you think I would miss that, you're crazy." They stood and Penelope followed Erin into the bathroom, standing next to her as they did their hair and makeup. "One second."
Penelope watched Erin jog back into the bedroom and listened as she rummaged around in her jewelry box. "What are you doing, honey lamb?"
"Getting this for you." Erin stood behind her and draped an opal necklace around her neck. "I'd bought this for myself years ago, and now I want you to have it. I want you to wear me close to your heart."
"Erin," she said lowly, touching the pendant. "Thank you." She turned and hugged her lover tightly. Erin kissed her sweetly and then pushed her away to smile at her.
"After tonight's dinner, I want to try a live together dry run. I want to stay with you for two weeks."
"What if I want to stay here with you?" They began to go downstairs and Penelope smiled. "I suppose it doesn't matter as long as I'm with you. But are you willing to give up your children for me?"
"My son doesn't mind us together, honey," she said as she picked up their purses. "My girls will come around." They made their way to the garage and Penelope took her purse from Erin's hands.
"I'll see you at work." Erin nodded as she got in her car and drove off. Penelope took a deep breath as she started her own car. This was becoming too real, too fast. She liked her independence, didn't want to settle down, and yet Erin was offering her stability and the prospect of a future together. "I love her," she murmured as she backed out of Erin's garage and closed the door. "And it is just a trial run. Maybe we can make it work." A dreamy smile curved her lips and she drove to work with a wonderfully light heart.
Humming lowly, she made her way up to the bullpen and found Erin standing outside her door, talking to Alex. Their relationship had become much better since she had returned from her medical leave, yet Penelope was still a little hesitant about accepting her fully, even though Erin seemed to have made everything right between them. "Morning, Garcia," the woman said warmly.
"Morning, Alex. Let me guess, I'm the last one here." Erin nodded and she sighed. "Well, you were the one who distracted me this morning. Oh, and to answer your question? Yes. My place for two weeks and then your place for two weeks."
Erin's smile took her breath away and she fell in love with her all over again. "I'll pack while we're talking tonight. But we have to focus on this case right now. I'm just waiting for you to get the pads out and then we'll head over to the war room." She nodded and punched in the code for her office, letting them both inside.
"How are we going to go about this case? The latest kidnapping happened in New Mexico."
"I don't know, Alex. And that is why the Director is looking to us to solve this mystery. It doesn't just affect our agency. NCIS has lost a member as well."
"I saw that they'd taken Agent McGee." Penelope sighed. "I'm not going to like this case, am I?"
"Probably not, dearest." She reached out for Penelope's hand and she clasped it tightly before letting go to pick up the iPads. "Let's get this started, then. We have seven days before someone else goes missing."
Together, the trio went to the war room, and Penelope took a seat between JJ and Reid. He looked vaguely perturbed as he flipped through the photos of the crime scenes. As Penelope watched, he seemed to focus in on something in one of the pictures, but the look was gone before she could comment on it.
Hotch shut the door as he entered, approaching Erin at the front of the room. "All right, I don't have to tell you that time is of the essence in this case. We are behind this unsub in a major way and have no leads on him. Erin?"
"Thank you, Aaron. Like he said, our clock is ticking. So far, we have Marshal Mann with WitSec, Agent McGee from NCIS, Agent VanNoord with Homeland Security, and Agent Cornelius with the Department of Fish and Wildlife."
Reid interrupted her. "That's an anomaly, isn't it, Ma'am? I mean, the other three are tasked with protecting our country."
"Agent Cornelius was the first to be taken. There might be some significance to this, or she may have just been the unsub's practice run. There's really no way of knowing at this point. However, the pattern was set with the first abduction. The unsub always quotes Psalm Twelve, verses two and three. He follows it up with other verses of violence from the Old Testament. Other than that, we have nothing." Erin took a seat and Penelope listened to the theories being bounced around the room.
Reid was surprisingly quiet as the others talked, looking slightly bored. "Is everything okay?" she whispered lowly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a slight headache. I'll be fine after I take some aspirin." She nodded, still worried about their resident genius.
Erin caught her eye and stood, and so she followed suit. "Penelope and I are going to be in her office if you need one of us. There are a couple of searches I need her to start running." Hotch nodded absently, not looking up from his iPad. Alex smiled at them as they left, though she noticed the kind gesture didn't mask the fear in her eyes.
Once the door to her office was closed, her lover wrapped her in a tight hug. "What is it, Erin?"
"There's something about those pictures that frightens me, Penelope. I hadn't seen them before." Her words were strained, and Penelope rubbed her back gently. "I don't know why, but they just fill me with dread." She clung to her tightly, and Penelope wondered how she could lift this feeling from her shoulders. "Hold me, for just a little bit longer?"
Penelope nodded, reaching up to bury the fingers of one hand in Erin's hair. This deep well of insecurity had surprised her at first, but Erin had told her that was why she drank. "For as long as you need."
"Come to supper. Stay with me. I don't want to let you go."
Her answer was quick and decisive. "Yes, of course I will." She let go of Erin and led her over to the sofa. "Now, just sit there and stay with me. If you're overseeing this case, you need to be close."
Erin nodded and drew one leg up to her chest, wrapping her arms around it. "Sounds wonderful, Penelope. You don't think I'm being a ninny, do you?"
"No. This case gives me the willies, too. I mean, if they can get a drop on seasoned federal agents, none of us are safe. We have to stick together." She bent and kissed her lover softly before going over to her map. "All right, so Marshal Mann was taken from Albuquerque, McGee was taken here in DC, VanNoord was where again?"
"Miami. He was down there checking out a problem with something. I guess it is still considered classified, even though we're looking for him. And Agent Cornelius, she was taken from her post at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park in Michigan."
"There's nothing here on the map to connect these people. They are all over the country. And gender doesn't connect them…"
"Race, either. VanNoord is African American, and Cornelius is Asian American." Erin looked up at her map and her brow furrowed. "Something about that looks very familiar, though, for some odd reason."
"If you see something, it'll be news to me," Penelope said, pulling up search engines on her computer and beginning to run cross-checks on the missing, hoping to find some connection between them financially. "Erin?"
"Yes, Penelope?"
"We will find them right?"
"I hope to God we do."