I do not own Criminal Minds or any of these characters! What a pity :)

Takes place immediately following the events of the season 4 episode "House on Fire"

This is my first fan fic. I have no idea where this is going to take me but wanted to see what you thought of my first chapter and then will take it from there. I saw this episode last night and just couldn't leave it where it ended. Penelope was so great in this episode, I just knew there deserved to be more to it. I hope you enjoy. PLEASE R&R! Thanks!

Penelope stood in front of her desk staring at the 36 faces that stared out at her from her office walls. Thirty-six photos that to the unknowing eye appeared to be happy, smiling, innocent portraits of this adventure we call life. But she knew better. Penelope knew all of their dirty little secrets and the skeltons that each one of these people had hidden deep inside of their closets; things that should have never had to have been brought to the light of day for all to see but had….and all because of her. It was not something she was proud of, or something she even knew if she would be able to deal with in the long term. Sure, Penelope had only done what had been asked of her and, in the end, Hotch had praised and thanked her for her work…but was that enough? She was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted and the tears began to fall as she collapsed back onto her chair, unable to take down the pictures that stared accusingly back at her.

Paperwork finally finished, Derek Morgan ran his hands over his bald head and sighed. It had been a long couple of days for the whole team trying to track down the serial arsonist who had killed 36 people in the miniscule town of Royal, Indiana. The sight of the handprints burned into walls of the movie theatre where 31 citizens had died trying to escape would haunt him for a long time to come. BAU cases were never easy but this one seemed especially horrid.

Looking around the office, he noticed that the others were finishing up their paperwork as well. Everyone was tired but it seemed as if they were lingering, like no one wanted to be alone with time to process the experience they had just all gone through.

"Hey guys, how about we go have a drink before going home? I know I could use one", Derek asked the rest of the BAU team.

Emily was the first to respond, "Great idea Derek, I'll go round up Hotch and Rossi and see if they want to come. I think JJ already headed home to be with Henry, though."

"I'm in too", chimed in Reid.

"Great, I'll go get Penelope, from what Hotch said earlier, she probably needs a drink more than any of us." With that said, Derek headed towards Garcia's "lair". He knew that this case had been especially tough on the tech and he was especially worried about his 'baby girl'. Still, he had waited to go see her after Hotch had told him she probably needed a little time alone to de-process from the events of the past few days. So, he had held back, given her a little space but was now ready to see his favorite member of the BAU team.

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