The brief moment of humiliation came a few seconds too late. As the blinding colorful lights inside the nightclub shine against their faces, Penelope Garcia immediately covered her red, drunken face. "I didn't mean it like that," she waved her hands up in the air in front of them. "He's just unbelievably annoying at times."

Emily Prentiss laughed as she took a long sip of her martini. "Who are you talking about?" Her eyes scanned the nightclub, young active college kids were all over the dance floor. She has learned that she has gotten too old to be dancing like how they were. "Jennifer, do you know who she's talking about?" She exchanged smirks with her as they both teased Penelope as if they don't know what they're talking about.

Jennifer shrugged her shoulders while drinking her beer. "Absolutely no idea." The music in the nightclub started changing into one of those horrific loud EDM music. "Oh God, I forgot how music has changed so much over the years."

"You make us sound so old, JJ." Emily laughed. Her smile faded once she saw Penelope's scorn expression. "Sweetie, he's only annoying to you. JJ and I actually do find him pleasing to be with. He's a wonderful addition to the team." It's been months, exactly seven months since Luke Alvez has joined the team. With his background in the Task Force and his knowledge on how fugitives think, he has been such a helpful addition. There is no doubt that he belongs with the team. The fact Penelope still feels this sort of resentment can only because she misses Derek Morgan, her bestfriend. "And sometimes, he's always a good eye candy to look at." Emily admitted with a smirk.

Penelope rolled her eyes. "Derek is a hundred times better looking than Alvez."

"They both are," JJ said. "But don't you think Will is better?"

Emily lets out a laugh. "Ah, I keep forgetting that we have a married woman with us. No one can be compared to her husband."

"I admit that Alvez is definitely eye candy but it doesn't matter. He'll leave soon." Penelope said while finishing off her martini.

"Leaving?" JJ knit her eyebrows in confusion as she turned to Emily. "He's being transferred?"

Emily shook her head. "No. As Unit Chief, I would know something about it. As of right now, there is no information about transferring him anywhere." She looked at Penelope, eyeing her with a joking glare. "Don't think about doing anything within the system with your computer skills."

Penelope gasped as if she was offended. "Fine."

JJ laughed. "I have to get home. Will's been watching the kids for a week. Should get home so he can have his rest." She got up from the booth and groaned. "Wow. We must be old. I only drank twice and I can feel it already."

"Bye." Penelope waved. "What are we going to do now? Girl's night with only two people? Doesn't seem like it'll be any fun."

"Of course not." Emily got up and exhaled. "It's close to two in the morning, P. We have work tomorrow, don't forget." She grabbed hold of Penelope's arm to pull her up. "Come on, you drank less than me. You're driving."

. . .

Monday 8:00AM

"What do we have?" David Rossi asked as he walked into the conference room with a cup of coffee in hand.

Penelope turned the monitor on before she closed her eyes. "Local." Clicking on a button from the remote, five different images of five different people appeared on screen. "Each body were found a month apart from each other. Severely dehydrated and I don't know if you can tell the difference," she pulled up five different images of the victims. "Before and after."

Spencer Reid looked up at the screen. "Fragile and weak, skinny to the bones. Whoever did this didn't feed them." He looked at his own tablet, skimming through the images in a matter of seconds. "No torture, nothing. The only harm that was done is starvation?"

"That's rare." Emily pointed out. "Unsub doesn't get off on harming but watching the victims slowly die in a month?"

"This doesn't make sense," Spencer said. "An average person can only survive without food for two weeks before dying. Two or three days without water. If the Unsub is holding these victims captive, there had to be food or drinks assumed by the victims."

JJ nodded her head in agreement. "How long were they missing when they're bodies came up?"

"First victim, missing on June 8th. Her body was found near a dumpster on July 8th." Penelope looked at everybody as they went over the files. "Second victim, missing on July 10th. Found her body a mile away from the first victim on August 10th." She cleared her throat once she cleared the images off the screen. "You can guess the pattern for the other three victims."

Luke narrowed his eyes at the fifth victim. "And if my guess is right within this consecutive pattern," he glanced up with a displeased expression on his face. "We only have two days before he finds another victim."

. . .

Penelope groaned as she turned off the lights in the conference as she made her way down the steps. Why did she choose to wear such high heels on this chaotic day? When they have cases locally near them, it becomes hectic and almost exhausting for everyone. And considering that she is as helpful as she is with them, the team usually call her to run errands here and there. Which she doesn't mind but with these heels? She is going to definitely be in pain. "JJ, be safe." JJ and Luke are heading off to the most recent crime scene together. "I always hate it when you go near those places."

JJ smiled while pulling Penelope into a hug. "Don't worry, we'll be back in an hour or so."

Luke smirked. "No comment on me?"

"Listen to me very carefully, Newbie." Penelope walked closer to him, closing whatever distance they had within each other. "Goodbye."

JJ hilariously laughed as she gathered her jacket. "Come on, Alvez."

Luke chuckled and nodded his head. "See you later, Garcia."

"See you not." Penelope retorted. She turned around to see Spencer staring at her. "What? Why are you looking at me like that, boy wonder?"

Spencer shrugged his shoulders. "It's been exactly seven months, fourteen days and two hours since Luke Alvez joined our team. That's seven months, fourteen days and two hours since you've been resenting him." He looked at his friend, someone who he knows and understands so well after the many years of being colleagues. Penelope Garcia doesn't have an ounce of ability or will to hate or resentment towards anyone. "Or should I say, it's been seven months - "

"Baby," Penelope held her hand to stop him from repeating the dates again. "What are you trying to get at?"

"I don't know much of relationships but it has become obvious that you like him." Spencer smiled. "You probably liked him since first two weeks he was here."

Penelope glared at her good friend. "I love you, wonder boy but don't push my buttons. You're being unreasonable."

"Actually, a person can't be defined as unreasonable without reasonable facts." Spencer corrected her while taping the images of the victims onto a board. "With actual facts that I've gathered from the way you glance at him, the way you talk sourly at him but still smiles - it has become evident that you obviously like him." He turned back around to look at Penelope but he quickly cleared his throat once he saw her expression. "I'll shut up now."

Rossi walked over and briefly smiled at his team. Knowing very well if he said something, Garcia would give him the same angry expression. Choosing to save his own life, he simply sat down on a desk and study the images as they displayed. "Feels as though the Unsub is getting off on watching these people slowly die on their own." He held a pen in his hand, pointing out the victims wrists. There were visible tan lines and bruises on every single one of them. "Restraints. Which can only mean they were held against something during the span of their captivity."

Reid skimmed through the evidence folder. "No wires or ropes were found near the bodies on any of the victims. The Unsub probably cut it off before he dumped the bodies."

Penelope shuttered. "Yeah, I'm not staying for this." She walked by every other agents through the bullpen and straight into her safe heaven she calls 'office'.

. . .

Monday 11:37AM

"What time did the witness discover the victim?" JJ questioned as she checked out the dumpster.

"Close to midnight," The sheriff answered while taking off his sunglasses. "Poor woman was just there. Looks as if she hasn't gotten enough sun in days."

Luke walked over. "One month. No sunlight or fresh air in one month." He furrowed his eyebrows together. "A mile and half away from this location is where the fourth victim was found. This Unsub has to live nearby if he is dumping each body by a mile or so apart from one another."

JJ looked up at the surveillance cameras. "We're going to need those cameras and every single footage from the other dump sites. Our tech analyst can check them out in no time."

"We have our own computer guy in the local station," the sheriff suggested as he looked at the two agents. "He handles most of the cases involving necessary needs for footages. He's been helpful throughout the year. Maybe he can check those out."

Luke shook his head. "Our tech analyst is one of the best, no offense to your guy. It'll be better if you hand it over to ours."

"How good is this guy?" The sheriff asked doubtfully.

JJ smiled. "Real good." She opened the driver's side door of their SUV. "Not to be messed with."

"And she's a woman." Luke finished off before getting into the passenger seat.

"That was a first." JJ said as she backed the car from the alleyway and onto the streets. She slowed the car down in front of the traffic lights, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel.

Luke looked up from the folders. "What was a first?"

"Someone asking to take care of the footages instead of handing it to Garcia." JJ made a turn into the highway. "If she found out about it, she'll start wondering if her skills aren't up to par and start thinking of it as a challenge."

"Is she always that competitive?" Luke asked, curious on why everything must be taken as a challenge. Just a few days ago, he had watched Penelope, JJ and Reid screaming over each other during a game of cards. And if he remembered right, it was only a game of goldfish. He had only assume that because the three of them are so close, it's only understandable that competitiveness is easily contested between them.

JJ briefly glanced at Luke before slightly laughing. "Not always but on certain things where she knows she can do better on, she'll be competitive." She eyed him suspiciously with a small smile. "You've been curious about her a lot lately. This is like your eighth question about her that you've asked me."

"Of course I am curious," Luke defended himself. "It's been seven months and she's the one team member that I have no idea about. I practically have profiled all of you with the exception of Penelope Garcia." He opened a different folder, concentrating on the words he sees but he knew they weren't going directly to his brain. "What other reason would I be curious about her for?"

Gosh, that sounds awfully familiar, she thought to herself. JJ kept the other thoughts to herself as she remembered clearly that last night at the nightclub, Penelope was going crazy with twenty questions on Luke. If these two keep on denying their interest on each other, the team is bound to do something. If there is a possibility that they don't like each other, they certainly have a funny way of showing it. "I don't know," she finally answered him. "I don't know, Alvez."

. . .

Monday 10:09PM

Rossi walked back and forth around the bullpen as he continued to stare at the board. "Has Garcia found any connections between the five victims?"

"Other than the fact that they're all women, no." Spencer replied as he took a sip of his freshly brewed coffee.

"Oh, I beg to differ!" Penelope rushes over to the middle of the bullpen, stacks of printed papers in her hand. Handing them one by one to the members, she pointed over to the first victim. "Danielle Thomas, a highly respectable executive in a bank." Pointing over to the second and third victim, she looked at them. "Shonda Andrews, the youngest employee to be chief of design in magazine company. Holly Rhimes, who was up for her fourth promotion in the second year of working for a paper company."

"The Unsub clearly has a problem with women who are high on work rank," Rossi said once he saw what the other two victim's jobs were. "His ego must've been hurt in a work environment or someone in his personal life must've been earn a lot more than he did."

Emily walked over just in time. "He feels inferior to women and starves them to death as if they don't deserve it." She shook her head in a disapproving matter. "We need to find out who this Unsub is before he takes his next victim." Looking over at her favorite computer genius in the world, she hoped for only good news. "Please tell me you are narrowing down on who it possibly can be."

Penelope shook her head. "Nothing, I got nothing! These women were like work animals, it's no wonder why they were so respected and got so many promotions. Besides being at work and home, these girls really didn't live an outside life."

Rossi arched an eyebrow as he exhaled. "You know that saying, all work and no play."

"All work and death for these women should be more of an accurate saying." Emily stated. "We've been on this case for twelve hours now." Stretching her arms out as she yawned, she smiled at her friends. "Get some rest and be back here first thing in the morning."

JJ and Luke walked through the doors with take out bags in their food. "Dinner?"

Rossi nodded his head. "Finally, there's actual food besides those lame microwavable dinners." Cleaning up his desk to make some room, he helped JJ hand out the food. "It'll be better if Lewis and Walker were back from their training session."

"I know," Emily laughed. "They'll be back in no time."

Penelope watched silently as meat were taken out continuously from the bags and spread out for everybody. She was about to leave to get her own dinner when Luke placed a bowl of vegetable noodles in front of her. "What is this?"

"Your dinner." Luke simply said. "JJ informed me that you don't eat meat so I can only assume that this would be more of your liking." He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Only a nice gesture."

"I don't need any of your nice gestures." Penelope retorted before opening the lid and quietly eating the noodles. Noticing the glances from everybody else, she groaned. "I mean, thank you for the food...newbie."

Emily smiled as she ate her food. "You two are getting funnier each day."

"Funnier?!" Luke and Penelope exclaimed loudly.

Spencer blocked his ears while the chopsticks were in his mouth. "Same reaction, same denial."

"Same reaction, same denial?" Penelope repeated while glaring at Spencer, pointing her own chopsticks at him. "Boy wonder, if you keep on mouthing out nonsense. I won't go to the next comics convention with you."

His eyes widened. "If you don't go, I won't have anyone else willing to go with me." Spencer took a deep breath, deciding it's better to keep his mouth shut for the time being. The last time he went against Penelope's scary words, he ended up going to a book convention by himself and she didn't talk to him for days. It took him two cat plushy and a flowery pen to convince her to go on the last day with him.

JJ arched an eyebrow out of amusement. "I'll go to the convention with you. Henry has been so affected by the two of you that comics are the only things he's reading lately." How she made Penelope and Spencer the godmother and godfather of her children makes her wonder sometimes. "Be free and speak, Reid."

Spencer laughed when a chopstick was thrown in his direction to keep him from talking. "The food's really good. Where'd you get it?"

. . .

Tuesday 12:15AM

Emily stood by the doorway with her bags in one hand and a stack of folders in another. "Do you want me to wait out for you, P?"

"It's okay." Penelope smiled as she finished off the rest of her research for a different team of agents. "My car's up and working so you don't have to drop me off."

"Alright. See you bright and early tomorrow, P." Emily rushed out of the office and walked straight into the elevator.

JJ and Spencer bid goodbye to Penelope as they walked out of the office. For weeks, they've been carpooling together since he hasn't renewed his license in time and is still waiting for the new one to come in mail. Luke zipped his backpack and looked into Penelope's office. "Bye, Miss Garcia."

"See you later, newbie." She halted her steps around the computers and looked up to stare at Luke. "You know whatever nonsense the team is thinking of, it's not true. I do respect you as a member of our team. No other attachments."

Luke simply smiled. "Of course." If he were to be honest, he isn't sure that he can say the same. There's a lot of confusion on how he feels but he knows that for some reason, Penelope amuses him and keeps him level headed during work. It's hard to make him smile a lot while his head is always 100% into the workload but someway, somehow - she always manages to make him smile. "See you tomorrow."

Penelope focused on her computers since it was acting up a little earlier while they were eating dinner. It doesn't happen a lot but when it does, all she has to do is reboot the system and just wait.

"Miss Garcia, you're still here."

She jumped from the unfamiliar voice and turned around to see a janitor by her doorway. "Where's Mr. Smith?" The BAU's regular janitor Mr. Smith never takes vacation days off.

"Old man called the night off, heard he has a flu or something."

Penelope nodded her head slowly. "Alright. I'll be out in a few minutes, you can come back into my office later."

"No problem, I'll start with Hotch's office."

She looked at him confused. "Uh, it's not Hotch's office anymore. Prentiss actually is the new Unit Chief now." Penelope watched carefully at how the janitor stood frozen, almost like he was debating on what he is trying to say. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm perfect." His eyes glanced over at her rows of computers. "Problem with the tech stuff?"

"Just the normal rebooting system, happens every other month." Penelope answered. She turned to focus on the computers again. Typing some words into the computers, they quickly returned back to normal. "There's the beauty again." She exhaled deeply before turning them back off and collecting her bags. "I don't know if Mr. Smith told you but I'm not a fan of people touching my figurines or collectibles around the desk. So - "

The janitor smiled. "Don't worry."

"Alright, have a good night then." Penelope bid as she walked past him as he entered her office. "I hope Mr. Smith feels better, he shouldn't be getting a flu at his age. Maybe I should make him some - " she gasped when she felt a hand on the back of her head, slamming her against the door frame with an incredible amount of strength. With just one hit, she slid down the wall with blood trickling down her head. Before she could grab her phone, she screamed in pain when he stepped on her wrist. "What do - "

"Shut up." The mysterious janitor said before he held his leg up high and stomped it against Penelope's head.

. . .

Tuesday 9:40AM

Agents were walking in and out of the bullpen in a frantic mood. Papers were flying everywhere. Video footage of what happened to Penelope was being played on the screens throughout the building repeatedly. Hushed voices were heard to keep the media from knowing that the BAU's most prominent technical analyst was kidnapped inside their own building.

"What do we have so far?" JJ begged with tears brimming against her eyes. She glanced up at the screens, it hurts her to see Penelope being kidnapped like that. "What do we have?!"

"Nothing so far," Spencer finally answered. His mind was backtracking everything as far back as a week ago. Trying to remember if anything stood out that he didn't notice at first. "The kidnapper knew to hide his face from the cameras. As if he knew where our cameras were located in the first place."

Rossi ran a hand through his messy hair. Waking up to a phone call from Prentiss when she told him what happened to Penelope, he didn't have time to style or wear the proper clothes. This cannot be happening to one of their own, especially someone like Penelope - who doesn't have any training out on the field. "Why take Penelope? Who is this guy?"

Luke rushed over, being one of the last agents to arrive. His eyes widened and fearful as he stared at the screens for the first time. "What time was she taken?"

"12:30AM." Emily answered.

"Oh my God, fifteen minutes before I left." Luke said.

Emily closed her eyes briefly to think. "Fifteen minutes before we all left her alone in the office."

Rossi looked at them. "So this Unsub knew when to take action, he was waiting."

JJ glanced between the case board and the screens. "You don't think this is related to the case we are working on right now, do you?"

That's when everybody's mind clicked. It could be the only reason on why Penelope was taken. The Unsub probably thought they were inching closer to arresting him when he heard that BAU were taken over. But that was where he was mistaken, the team has no idea who the heck the Unsub is. Now, with Penelope gone, they're probably have a lesser chance to find out.

The doors burst opened so loud that everybody became silent and their attention adverted over to the one man standing in the middle of the bullpen. His eyes filled with anger and fear, His hands gripping tightly onto his jacket and badge. "Where is Penelope?!" Derek Morgan demanded to know as his eyes settled on his former team. That's when he saw the footage being played caught his attention and he immediately gripped onto an edge of a desk from shock. "Baby girl..." he muttered under his breath.

Luke stared at Derek Morgan, he has heard only stories about the amazing Agent Morgan from other agents. Most of the stories come from Penelope herself. He glanced at the other members, they were obviously as affected as anyone else in the room. Luke's eyes wandered over to Penelope's office, where forensic team are taking samples right now. Just last night, they were actually laughing and joking around while eating dinner. How did something as simple as that become into this chaotic mess? Feeling as though his heart is about to tear apart, he excused himself from the team. As soon as he was alone, he clenched onto the railing of a staircase. "Penelope, please be okay."