Thank you to everyone who nominated me in the 2012 Profiles Choice Criminal Minds Awards as "Best New Author" found on the "Chit Chat on Authors Corner" forum.

I was so shocked to have received the PM I told everyone in my office who would listen, and now everyone is sure I'm a Criminal Minds freak, which of course I am.

If you would like to vote, simply send your ballot as a PM to "2012 Profilers Choice Awards" page. (Again found on the CCOAC forum) =D

Thank you again for voting!

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds, because if I did, Rossi would wear a lot less clothing.

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"Wow…" Penelope breathed into the dark, a spoonful of Mocha Almond Fudge suspended in front of the bright light of her computer screen.

Before her, stared the full jacket of one, David Anthony Rossi, former Seargent Major in the United Sates Marine Corps, with more Honorable Mentions, Purple Hearts, Stripes on his uniform and an impressively long success rate among both public and supposedly-buried special forces missions.

These were precisely what Penelope Garcia was after, sitting alone in her fully dark apartment on a Friday night after what even she considered to be a hairs-standing-on-the-back-of-your-neck spooky case. After three weeks of profiling, chasing down leads and eventually catching up with a former AWOL Marine with severe PTSD that ended in suicide-by-cop, or, Agent Rossi, in this case, Penelope was burning with curiosity at the Italian Lethario's history. When she'd heard Rossi over the ear piece, live in the action, actually empathizing… genuinely… with this psycho killer she'd been knocked for a loop.

"Adams. Listen to me, son. I was in Mumbai, too, I was in Snakepit, son. I saw the school blown to bits, I heard the children screaming, I was two clicks out, kid, there was nothing I could do. I heard it… I was there. Blood… so much blood, more than I ever thought I'd see in a lifetime, poured down us with the ashes and debris… Even the shrapnel was covered in it…" Penelope couldn't recall the rest, she couldn't even imagine how contorted in pain his face must have been, because she could hear the anguish in his voice as it caught, and she knew he was crying.

"No. No no no no no NO!" She stood abruptly and put her hands over her ears, willing the sound of Agent Rossi crying.

Backing away slowly from her computer, she turned on the light in her small kitchen and braced her arms on the counter, glancing only once at her now ominous laptop. She wanted desperately to read the file…. The one that was entitled "Snakepit", and had been thoroughly washed from both multiple federal-level government agencies, but that she had been able to track through the oh-so-lacking-security server of Interpol. Interpol, that still confused her. It was obviously big… Bigger than one or two marines… Multi-national?

Tears she hadn't realized were streaming down her face dropped unceremoniously onto her bare skin, and rolled down her chest underneath the low-cut bed time shirt she was wearing. "Rossi…. Oh my god…. What happened to you?"

An overwhelming desire came over her, as if she were drowning and needed air. She needed him, she needed him now, in her arms, safe, where she could see him, hear his breathing…. Safe. With lightening speed Penelope raced across the room to her cell phone and yanked it off the charger so fast, the wall plug came out and started a sparkler effect on her wall, catching the sheer maroon window coverings catch, and before she could process what had happened her entire window frame was ablaze.

"Oh no! Oh no! Nooooo" Without question, she saved the laptop first, then her cell phone. Running out her apartment door, she only remembered too late she wasn't wearing shoes as she fumbled with the cell phone for 911.

"Damnit, Rossi!" Of course, this was his fault.

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As everyone who occupied her indoors apartment building evacuated, Penelope stood in shock, hugging her laptop to her chest and stammering apologies to every resident who walked by. Thankfully, half the cities Fire Department units had showed up due to a boring night on tour, and the fire was mostly contained to her apartment and some of her corridor's hall way. The elevator also was totally non-functioning, and the Fire Chief was shouting orders to break into it, make sure no one was stuck.

An SUV skidded to a sideways stop in front of The Mews apartments and didn't stop running before an armed, pajama clad man came running up and started shouting her name.

Penelope hadn't heard at first, slightly mesmorized by the ladder bucket being elevated to the 6th floor and a hunky young volunteer came climbing out with a kitten in his arms.

"Awe… oooohh!" Penelope thought it might be the sweetest thing she'd ever seen. "Yay kitty!"

"PENELOPE!" David Rossi grabbed her from behind and swung her around to face him, quickly glancing up and down her entire body and patting her arms and back for burns or injuries. "Are you okay? Are you burned? Is anything broken? Why aren't you with the EMTs? We should go to the hospital, right away." He was frantic, bossy and… pissed.

"Dave… I …. What are you doing here?" She couldn't process why he was here, nothing was registering. She hopelessly looked around for the rest of her team, as she was not used to seeing him without them.

"ARE. YOU. HURT?!" Rossi shook her arms slightly.

"N..no, I'm fine.. I'm fine… I got out. I… I'm fine." She now noticed his hands strongly, very strongly, gripping her arms.

Following her eyes to his hands clutching her probably too tightly, he gentled his grip but didn't let go. He glanced over her, head to toe again, to make sure she was okay, and noticed she wasn't wearing shoes in the wet grass.

"You're going to catch a cold without shoes, get in the truck, now." He gently turned her around, and attempted to shrug off his coat to wrap around her, but without relinquishing his grasp on her arm this was a difficult task. Practically shoving her in the SUV, an awkward climb because she was equally resistant to let go of her laptop, he finally shook the jacket off and threw it over her knees, wrapping the arms around her legs and covering her feet he began to rub heat back into them. "Jeez, Pen, your feet are frozen."

Garcia looked down at him with the same look of slight shock and confusion she knew she must have been wearing all night, even before the fire. Here he was, in the flesh, the man who was a James Bond and War Hero.

"Agent Rossi, what… what are you doing here? Where is the rest of the team? How did you…" She almost didn't want to know. Did he have them under surveillance, like he did his whole team in Bosnia?

"Never you mind." David reached over her body and turned the heater on full blast and closed the SUV door before he said something to the fire chief and headed back around to the drivers seat.

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The Rossi/Garcia pairing has really been growing on me! Please let me know what you think =) Rather written in haste, not much time for editing. Hope that's alright.