Penelope Grace Garcia lived a very simple life, according to the other people in her life. Her Teacher's Assistant, or TA, as he liked to be called both inside of the building and out, had told her repeatedly that she should loosen up on the very rare occasions that she would join the younger man outside of work. There was a constant undercurrent of talk about her personal life, she realized one day when she entered the break room and all of those around her went silent. She didn't question it, all of her life things like this had been happening to her, and she took the silence in stride. Instead, walking over to an empty table and pulling her lunch from the brightly colored bag she carried it in.

For as long as she could remember, Penelope had lived in the same small apartment, which was decorated much like her classroom in bright colors and odd figurines. She had, after spending thousands of dollars on education for technical studies decided that teaching was her true passion, and changed her major as well as transferring to a school on the East Coast. Deciding that, while she would always be a Cali girl at heart, she craved a change in the seasons. It was a major life change, she realized, but in the past ten years, she didn't regret a single thing about it.

It was a Wednesday morning when her Principal and close personal friend Emily Prentiss called her into the office, asking her to shut the door behind her without looking up from her paperwork.

"Good Morning, PG, how are you today?" Emily asks, her hand still working on her paperwork. Penelope knew that this was her mechanism, the easiest way that the introvert could continue to have hard conversations without making herself uncomfortable.

"I'm having a great day, I have a fun lesson planned for the kids this afternoon, and Michael is going to read them a book after nap time," Penelope replies while clapping her hands together in excitement.

"I'm giving you a new student," the other woman replies, putting her pen down and looking up at her friend with a soft smile. Penelope tilts her head to the side, unsure as to why a new student would be the cause of a private meeting. "His name is Anthony Alvez, son of Luke Alvez, they uh, just moved to town." Penelope continues looking at her boss, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Okay, I'll create a desk and a name tag for him, when does he start?" Penelope asks before turning in her seat to look at the door behind her. Mrs. Cunningham had her head sticking through the door, signaling that someone else had arrived.

"Right now actually, send them in Bea," Emily instructs the woman, coming around to the front of her desk and leaning up against the dark wood with a warm smile. The thought strikes Penelope as weird, seeing her normally introverted friend open up in this manner.

"Em," a tall man says, his voice gravelly and deep. Penelope watches as he embraces her boss in a warm hug, his eyes shifting over to her quickly. If she had allowed herself to live outside of the lines, just once, she would have thought to herself that this man was the most beautiful human being she had ever had the pleasure to set her eyes upon. "Thanks for doing this on such short notice,"

"Nonsense, you're family, where's my little man?" Emily replies, brushing off the man's thanks as she looks behind him. Penelope takes this time to turn further in her chair, her eyes falling on a small boy who looked to be around six years old. His eyes were wide and a beautiful shade of brown, his hair falling into his face but still neatly trimmed around the edges. Tilting her head to the side once more, Penelope smiles at the young boy, beckoning him further into the room.

"Hi Anthony, I'm Miss. Garcia," Penelope introduces herself while approaching the small child, her knees popping when she kneels down to be at eye level with him.

"Hi, M...Miss. Garcia," Anthony replies his eyes traveling up to his father who nods his head in approval.

"I'm Luke," the older Alvez man says, extending his hand in order to help Penelope into a standing position. She takes his head with a wide smile, nodding her head as he continued speaking, not hearing what he was saying instead, getting lost in the depth of his brown eyes, his strong jawline, the curve of his mouth as he started moving.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Alvez," Penelope says, pulling her tingling hand from his grasp with a quick smile. "I'm going to walk Anthony to class and get started if that's okay with you?" She looks to Emily who nods, and Penelope, doing what she does with every other child holds out her hand and proceeds to guide him out of the room. "What are some of your favorite things?"

"Superheroes!" Anthony exclaims, his voice getting smaller as he and Penelope walk further down the hall.

"I'm not sure this is going to work, Luke," Emily says turning to the man with a sad smile.

"It has to, Em" the man replies, sinking into the nearest chair and letting his shoulders sag, the life draining out of him. "It just has to."