Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Everything belongs to their rightful owners.
AN1: So, I have never written a criminal minds story before, but I had this idea, so I hope you like. I don't plan to address every episode, just some, plus adding a lot of 'between' type things, BUT If there is a specific episode/storyline you would like to see me address in this universe let me know and I will do my best to include it.
2004- Quantico Virginia
Ever since Aaron Hotchner walked into the interrogation room she was in Penelope Garcia knew that things were going to change, and ever since he said that he was from the FBI Behaviour Analysis Unit, Penelope knew that what she believed was true, the universe has a sense of irony.
It has been two weeks since that moment, and ever since things have been changing in a hurry, and once more Penelope now finds herself back in the city she lived in until she was five, and visited frequently after that.
In the office that is now hers Penelope is getting started on making it less like all the other offices, and more her own, as she starts to do that she hears footsteps, and so she turns around, expecting to see Hotchner, but instead she sees someone she recognizes, but hasn't seen in many years, Jason Gideon.
"Sir?" Penelope asks, honestly not sure what else to say.
"Do you remember me, Penelope?" Gideon asks, not sure if she will as it has been a long time.
"Yes." Penelope answers, with a nod, "You're his best friend." Penelope says, both of them knowing exactly who she is talking about.
"I am." Gideon confirms, "You haven't seen him in a while, have you?"
"Not since after he missed their funeral over eight years ago." Penelope admits, knowing that Gideon will know what that means as he sent her his condolences, "He calls, a lot, I say enough so he knows I'm alive, then hang up." Penelope admits, actually having a specific cell phone dedicated to just those calls, and the reason she does that is because she knows that if he doesn't know that she's at least alive then he will use his old connections to find her, "Sir, I would appreciate it If you didn't tell him that I work here now." Penelope admits, not overly sure if Gideon will agree.
Hearing the request Gideon truthfully isn't completely sure what to do, but then he thinks about Stephen, and what he would want Rossi to say if Stephen asked him what Penelope is asking now, "I won't tell him." Gideon finally decides to say, "Unless there is reason to." He adds, clearly making a promise.
"Thank you, Sir." Penelope says relieved.
"Welcome to the BAU, Agent Garcia." Gideon says, before heading to the door.
As she watches her father's best friend walk away Penelope realises something, and as she does, even though she knows she might be crossing a line, she decides to say something else,
"Sir." Penelope says, and Gideon turns around, "Unlike me with my Dad, Stephen will talk to you if you call." Penelope reveals, knowing that for a fact as Stephen Gideon is still her friend, they still talk.
Looking at Penelope, digesting her words Gideon just nods before leaving, leaving Penelope to set up her office.
October 30th, 2007.
Three years have passed since Penelope started to work with the BAU, and ever since she started she feels like she understands her father a bit more, and she has realised that with this team, doing this job, is where she belongs.
As Gideon, recently retired Penelope knows that they are getting a new member of the team, and though she knows that the agent is a he, and that he is starting today, Penelope has no idea who he is and truthfully, she is very much looking forward to meeting him.
In the round table room, the new agent that Penelope is so eager to meet, David Rossi, is sitting with the team he just meet hearing information about the new case, realising just how much things have changed. As JJ starts to brief the team the door opens and second late,
"Oh my god." A voice, that Dave could never forget, but never expected to hear says, and so he turns seeing just what he was suspecting when he does.
"Penelope." Dave says, completely shocked, as Hotch starts to say,
"Technical analyst….."
"Dad." Penelope says, sounding just as shock, then before anyone can react she turns and heads out of the room.
"Penelope." Dave says, getting up and hurrying after his daughter.
For the second Dave leaves the rest of the room are in a state of complete shock.
"Did she just say…" JJ starts to say, before trailing off.
"Yeah, she did." Morgan confirms, sounding completely confused.
"I thought both of Garcia's parents died in a car accident." Emily comments.
"Her Mom and Step-Father did." Morgan reveals, "I've never heard her speak about her biological father." Morgan explains, not understanding why Garcia wouldn't tell him.
"I think we just found out why." Ried comments, and everyone else in the room have to agree with him there.
After leaving the round table room Dave continues to follow his daughter, repeating,
"Penelope." as they both walk, but his daughter doesn't stop she just keeps walking.
"Penelope, talk to me." Dave says as he and Penelope walk into Penelope's office, Dave closing the door behind him as they do.
"Okay." Penelope says, turning around to look at him, "What are you doing here, Dad?" Penelope asks.
"I'm coming out of retirement, re-joining the BAU." Rossi explains, taking a step forward.
"Of course, you are." Penelope says, not nearly as surprised as she should be.
"You joined the FBI?" Rossi asks, surprised as he did not know that.
"Huh, I guess Gideon kept his promise." Penelope realises, then before Dave can asks she keeps talking, "I was recruited three years ago." Penelope explains, not wanting to get into that particular story with her father at the moment, "I've been the BAU's technical analyst ever since." Penelope explains, "And you know what, I understand now." She reveals.
"Understand?" Rossi asks, not overly sure what his daughter is talking about.
"All the missed birthdays, and Christmases, weekends, school events, I understand." Penelope reveals, "I now understand more than ever before how important this job is." She admits, "But the one thing I still can't understand is how you could miss their funeral."
"Penelope…." Rossi starts to say.
"I've tried Dad, I really have, but I still don't understand how you could miss that. I don't understand why you weren't there when I needed you the most." Penelope says, looking upset, but then before Rossi can respond the door opens and Hotch walks in.
"Is everything okay?" Hotch asks, looking between Penelope and Rossi, reading their body languages as he does.
"Everything's fine, Sir." Penelope says.
"Dave, we're going to be leaving soon, but if you want to take time to get situated you can start on the next case." Hotch offers.
"You should go, the job always comes first, right?" Penelope says, and as she does Hotch and Rossi both recognise her tone of voice, "This is everything I found about the case, Sir." Penelope says, walking past her father and Hotch, handing Hotch a file as she does, forcing herself to seem more together than she is.
"Are you alright, Dave?" Hotch asks, once Penelope leaves.
"That was the first real conversation I've had with my daughter in almost twelve years." Rossi reveals.
"I didn't know Penelope's your daughter." Hotch admits, feeling like if he did know he was recruiting Rossi's daughter three years ago he would have told him, especially considering the circumstances.
"I'm not surprised." Rossi says, looking around the office, and as he does he realises that it is certainly one of a kind, just like his daughter.
"You can take some time, Dave, get situated." Hotch once more offers, as he is reasonably sure that he didn't hear the offer the first time.
"I didn't come back to spend time getting situated, I came back to work." Rossi reveals, "And I know Penelope. It would be best if I give her some time before trying to talk to her again." He reveals, knowing that if he knew Penelope was working for the BAU he would have come back sooner.
"Okay." Hotch says, with a nod.
While Rossi and Hotch are in Penelope's office Morgan, Ried, JJ, and Emily are in the corridor between the ballpeen and elevators, and because of that they see Penelope hurry out of her office and into the women's bathroom, and the second they see that Morgan goes to follow but Emily puts her hand on his arm.
"We've got this one, Morgan." Emily says, referring to her and JJ, and the two of them follow Penelope into the bathroom, leaving Morgan and Ried standing alone, both seriously tempted to follow despite Emily's words.
When JJ and Emily walk into the women's bathroom they know right away that Penelope isn't okay, as she is standing by a sink, splashing water on her face. When they walk in Emily checks to make sure they are alone, before locking the door, while JJ walks over to Penelope and puts her hand on her friends back.
"JJ, Emily." Penelope says, turning to look at her two friends, sounding surprised, as she puts her glasses back on.
"Do you want to talk?" JJ asks.
"He's my Dad." Penelope reveals.
"We kind of realised that." Emily admits, "What we didn't realise is why you're not okay." She admits, walking over to Penelope and JJ.
"It's okay if you don't want to talk to us, but if you do we're both here for you." JJ offers.
"JJ's right, we're always here PG." Emily assures her.
"Almost twelve years ago, Dad missed my Mom's and step father's funeral." Penelope reveals, causing JJ and Emily to exchange looks, "He had missed things before, and I can't count the number of weekends he had to cancel at the last minute because of this job, but that was different."
"You couldn't forgive him." JJ realises.
"No, I couldn't." Penelope explains. ;
"Have you talked since then?" Emily asks, her instincts telling her that the answer is no, but she's not completely sure.
"He showed up after, and we fought. I basically told him that I didn't want to see him again." Penelope admits, "He calls, a lot." Penelope admits, "I say enough so that he knows I'm okay, then hang up." She admits, as she does both JJ and Emily put their arms around her.
"You going to be okay?" JJ asks concerned.
"I don't know." Penelope admits, "When I was a kid Dad was my hero. When he had to cancel a weekend, or missed something important, I would always forget about it the next time I saw him, even if I was upset at the time, because I always wanted to spend more time with my Dad, but when he missed their funerals, I couldn't forget, couldn't forgive." Penelope admits.
"That's understandable, Penelope. You Mom and Step-Father just died, you needed him and he wasn't there, plus you were grieving." Emily comments, understanding why Penelope would have reacted the way she did.
"I wasn't expecting him to be here again." Penelope reveals, "But I should have realised that he'd come back to the BAU eventually."
"You going to be able to work with him?" JJ asks curious.
"I don't know Jayje, I don't know." Penelope admits and as she does both Emily and JJ squeeze Penelope with the arm they each have around her, both wishing they could do more to help their friend.
It has been a few minutes since Emily and JJ went to talk to Penelope and ever since then Morgan and Ried have been waiting in the corridor, and as they wait longer it has become clear to Reid that Morgan is becoming increasingly impatient.
"Whatever's going on, I'm sure JJ and Prentiss will find out, and help." Ried tells him, but before Morgan can respond the door to the bathroom opens and both JJ and Emily walk out.
"What's going on? How is she?" Morgan asks as he hurries over to JJ and Emily, Ried right behind him.
"She's dealing, and honestly pretty okay considering." Emily admits.
"Rossi's her dad, but they haven't really talked in almost twelve years." JJ explains, doing so because Penelope said that they can explain to Ried and Morgan the basics of what is going on, if she hadn't then she wouldn't be talking right now.
"Why not?" Ried asks curious.
"He wasn't there after Garcia's mother and step father died, he missed the funeral, and she couldn't forgive him for that." Emily explains.
"I really don't blame her." Morgan admits, "What do you honestly think?" he asks, looking at Emily as he knows that she would have realised things that Penelope may not have intended to give away.
"She's hurting, and shocked that he's here. It may take her some time to get used to Rossi being here, but I think she's going to be okay." Emily reveals, and truthfully Morgan is very glad to hear that.
"I need to talk to her." Morgan says, starting to head to the bathroom where Penelope is, but before he does Ried says,
"Morgan, we've got to get to the plane." Ried tells him.
"Garcia needs some time. I think it's important we give her that." JJ reveals, and quiet reluctantly Morgan nods and the four of them head to the plane.
After JJ and Emily leave her Penelope spends about five more minutes in the bathroom, purposely waiting for enough time to pass for her father and the rest of the team to leave. Once she is sure enough time has passed Penelope heads back to her office, even though she doesn't know how she is going to deal with her father she does know that she can do her job.
A few hours later the team, minus Penelope are on the jet on their way to Texas, and from the short time they have been on the jet Rossi has realised just how much the job has changed.
As the team discuss victimology, everyone noticing that Rossi isn't really talking, a call from Penelope comes in to the computer.
"Hey, Guys." Penelope greats, purposely not looking to where her father is sitting.
"Hey Baby Girl, you good?" Morgan asks, not planning on changing the way he and Garcia talk just because Rossi is her father, though he notices that from the second he spoke Rossi gave him a look.
"Always, my Sweetness." Penelope responds, not overly sure if she is telling the truth, and not caring that her father is hearing how she and Morgan speak to each other.
"Have you got something for us?" Hotch asks, honestly hoping that he's not the one who will have to explain Morgan and Penelope's relationship to Rossi.
"A list of Michelle Colucci's clients. She designed office space. Mostly big corporate remodelling plans." Penelope explains.
"No private clients, one-on-one contact?" Hotch asks.
"Doesn't look like it, no." Penelope answers.
"Thanks, Baby Girl." Morgan says.
"Yeah." Penelope responds, before ending the call.
After Penelope hangs up the call Rossi finds himself more interested in the way Penelope and Morgan talked, and the reason behind it than the case, but he also knows that, considering the state of his relationship with his daughter he doesn't have the right to ask, not yet anyway.
It has been a few hours since the team were on the Jet and even though he has been trying to focus on his daughter Rossi's mind keeps turning back to his daughter. For twelve years Rossi has been wanting to make things right with her and while he now thinks he might be closer than ever there is also a part of him that things that he may be further than ever before and so while waiting for a fax to come in Rossi pulls out his phone and dials Penelope's direct, 'from the team' number that Ried gave him, as he figures that chances are she will answer that number, even if it is him calling.
"Speak and be recognized by your empress, mortal." Penelope answers.
"Penelope?" Rossi asks, not overly surprised that she answered her phone like that, though he is surprised that she would answer her work number like that.
"Dad." Penelope says, surprised as she is pretty sure her Dad didn't have that number.
"Do you always answer your work line like that?" Rossi asks curious.
"Of course. It was only a bad thing once, when it was Strauss on the other end." Penelope reveals, and honestly that doesn't surprise Rossi, "Which reminds me, did I meet Strauss when I was a kid? She seems familiar." Penelope admits, as that is something she has been really curious about for a while, but she felt like she couldn't ask Strauss.
"Yeah, you did." Rossi confirms, "'Several times actually, when you were between nine and eleven, before your Mom changed your last name." Rossi explains.
"Huh, that makes sense." Penelope says, and as she realises that it is the most civil conversation her and her father have had in a long time she decides to turn things professional, "So um, I already started processing the footprint information on Michelle Colucci…." Penelope starts to call.
"I'm not calling about that." Rossi reveals.
"Then what are you calling about?" Penelope asks, "I wouldn't think you'd want to talk about us over the phone."
"You're right about that." Rossi admits, "The BAU's old cases, the open ones, they're on computer now?"
"Most of them, some haven't been yet, but the majority have been." Penelope says, rather glad to talk to her father about work rather than their relationship, "Do you want me to find an old case of yours?"
"If you can, it's from twenty years ago." Rossi admits.
"That's easy. It won't be a problem." Penelope admits, "What's the case?"
"Galen, Diana and Richard Galen. They had three kids." Rossi reveals, and because of that Penelope is rather sure that it would have been one of the cases that hit her father hard.
"Okay. I will get back to you superfast." Penelope assures her father.
"There's no need for that Penelope, if you could just put a file together." Rossi requests.
"You sure? It wouldn't be a problem, I could just send it through." Penelope reveals, recognising the signs of her father acting strangely.
"Not necessary. I'll look at it when I get back." Rossi reveals, "And Penelope, if you don't mind, let's keep this between us for now."
"Sure Dad." Penelope says, confused, but guessing that this case means something to him.
"Thanks Kiddo." Rossi says, gratefully, "When this case is over do you think we could talk?" Rossi asks.
"I've got to go Dad, I've got another call." Penelope says, lying and Rossi recognises that, "Bye." She says, before hanging up.
Once she hangs up the phone Penelope takes a deep breath, and instead of going straight back to her work she opens her top draw and pulls out two framed pictures, one from when she was five, and the other from when she was fifteen, and instead of leaving them in her desk she pulls them out so that she can look at them while she works.
It has been a couple of hours since Penelope talked to her father and ever since she has been working both on the case and on the file her father wanted her to put together for him.
As she works Penelope hears footsteps and because her team is in the field she turns, and honestly nothing could have prepared her for the sight of Strauss standing at her office door.
"Ma'am." Penelope greats, sounding nervous, "How can I help you?"
"By explaining why Agent Rossi followed you through corridors yelling your name." Strauss reveals, as she has heard rumours and even a couple of agents came to her with concern, "If there is a problem, I can help." She says, as she knows that if there is a potential problem then she may have a reason not to let Rossi come back.
"There's no problem Ma'am." Penelope says, suspecting that she knows what Strauss is trying to do, and even with everything going on she knows what she has to do and so she takes a deep breath, "Agent Rossi is my father, Ma'am." She reveals, causing Strauss to look shocked.
"You're his Penelope." Strauss says, sounding just as surprised as she looks, as while she knew Rossi had a daughter named Penelope, even meet her, and knew that her mother changed her last name when she was about twelve, with Rossi's permission, in fact she happens to be one of the few people who know BOTH the reasons why Penelope's name was changed, but despite that she never put the connection together, never realised that Penelope Garcia and Penelope Rossi are the same person.
"Yeah. I believe we've meet before." Penelope comments.
"We have." Strauss confirms, "Are you going to have an issue working with your father?"
"I'll be fine working with him." Penelope reveals, as while she doesn't know what the state of their personal relationship is, and she doesn't know what she wants it to be, she does know, after the thinking she has done over the last few hours, that they can work together.
"Okay, if things change, let me know." Strauss says.
"Yes Ma'am." Penelope says, and Strauss leaves.
Once Strauss leaves Penelope turns back to her computer, and she does her eyes glance down at the pictures she got out of her draw earlier, and after a few minutes of staring at it Penelope goes back to work, her eyes glancing down at her pictures every few minutes as she does.