Hotch did however noticed how much time Penelope didn't spend in the bullpen, and at lunch she would either be with the girls or the other Unit. She spent more and more time being loaned out to them, which Hotch was guessing was no accident. She had never really denied the other teams of her time, but lately, she had been pulling a lot of over time, and most of those over time was to the other BAU Unit. He couldn't really begrudge her of that time, seeing as it was hers to give, but a part of him worried that she would succumb to their wanting her to cross over to their side, regardless of her loyalties to them.

Penelope loved spending time with Chris and Rita. Chris and Rita had become the limited few who got a window to Penelope without the reservations. Something she seldom revealed to anyone but Em, JJ, and at one stage Derek. One evening while the team was in Palm Beach Penelope had remembered the story about Chris' little sister. She found herself going through a few searches and found the case file. It was sadder to read it on the file than to hear it, if even it were possible. Penelope discovered that body was never found. Despite her better judgement she began to cross reference the data from the case as well as missing persons found.

"Hey Garcia, we're done. We broke the case, we're just finishing up and heading home."
"That's great. I'll see you guys when you get back." She replied distractedly.
"Penelope are you okay?" Hotch asked.
"Yes sir, thank you." She replied hanging up going back to what she was in the middle of.

That evening she was still in her office when the team arrived. Just as Em and JJ headed for Penelope's bunker Hotch had stopped them and asked to see her first. Curiously they watched him head for Penelope's office.

"Penelope…" he said worriedly from the doorway as she sat there with files spread out on her desk, tears streaming from her eyes. Penelope looked up and wiped her tears,
"Sir, you're back."
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Can you please close the door behind you?" Hotch obliged and closed the door behind him and took the seat next to Penelope. Not knowing where to start Penelope took a deep breath.
"A few weeks ago Chris told me about his sister." Hotch knew that Chris and Penelope had gotten close in the last few months, and they had an amazing rapport, so he wasn't completely surprised that Chris had shared that part of his life, even though he knew that with the exception of himself it was only Rita who knew about what happened all those years ago.
"You guys were at Palm Beach and while I was doing searches for the case, I thought I'd take a look at Chris' little sister's case, and I know I shouldn't have, but he just loved her so much that I thought maybe I could find something that I don't know could close this case for him. I didn't realize that the story got worse. I didn't realize that he lost his parents only a couple of weeks later at a car accident and that he had to live with his grandmother."
"He's had a tough life, but Grandma Rose was great. She truly loved him Penelope. With the exception of his parents, Grandma Rose couldn't love him more."
"I'm glad. Sir, did you know that they never found his sister's body?"
"I did Penelope."
"Sir, a few weeks later a little girl was found in California, she had no recollection of where she came from, the hospital confirmed that she must've suffered severe blows to the head, and though they had healed she had marks all over her body. They did tests on her and found that she wasn't raped but definitely beaten, they weren't sure how she got to LA, because she couldn't remember. They ran her pictures through and no one ever reported her missing, sir she didn't die." Hotch gasped,
"The little girl was placed in a foster home, sir here's her file." Hotch opened the file and understood why she was so upset.
"Have you spoken to Chris?"
"Sir, with all due respect I haven't had much a chance to breathe let along run over to the adjoining building to share these news. I don't want to talk to him about this unless I am absolutely sure"
"I can understand that. What do you need me to do?"
"I was hoping for a couple of days off, to run this in my head. To run DNA samples just to be sure."
"Of course, anything else."
"How do I tell him Hotch?"
"You'll find a way, if you need me to, I can be there."
"I may have to take you up on that. Do you mind if I slip out of here? Can you cover for me with the girls? I'm not really in the mood to rehash this, I mean, I knew you were the only other person aside from Rita and myself that knew about Chris' little sister."
"Why don't you get your gear together now and I'll walk you out the back way, and let them know you've gone home early."
"Okay, thanks." Penelope gathered her belongings together, as well as the files she needed and headed out with Hotch undetected.
"You call if you need anything, and keep me updated with what you find."
"I will. Thanks Hotch."

Penelope managed to get out of Quantico without being intercepted. When Hotch came back from Penelope's office JJ and Em stood up to head to her office.
"She's gone for the day. She had an errand to run. She said she'll check in with you girls later on tonight." Derek looked up at Hotch worriedly, all of them were acutely aware that there was more to it than what Hotch was saying.
"Just give her a couple of days, everything will come out eventually. It's nothing bad. Really. She's fine. She just needs to sort out a few things and she'll be back." The girls looked at Derek accusingly,
"Ladies, this has nothing to do with Derek." Hotch said sensing that they were about to blame Derek.
"It really doesn't." He said assuring them. The girls nodded in acknowledgement and dropped it. They knew that Pen would check in later that night.

"Mags, what are you doing here so late?" Chris asked as she knocked on his office door at midnight.
"I dropped by your place and you weren't home so I took a guess that you would still be here." She began distinctly nervous,
"What's up?" he said worriedly.
"I don't know where to start. When I started this, I didn't know what I was going to find, and I know I shouldn't have, but I thought maybe I could help somehow, and then it was like opening Pandora's Box, I'm so sorry."
"Mags, sweetheart. Calm down. Whatever it it's okay." Chris said standing up walking over to her and draping an arm around her leading her to the couch in his office.
"I just wanted to help, I didn't expect any of this…"
"What is it honey?" Penelope thrust the files in his hands as she stood up and began to pace. Confused Chris opened the file and his heart stopped as he realized what file she had given him,
"I can't believe this," he muttered looking up at her,
"There's more…" she said pointing to the other pile.
"Oh my God."
"That's what I said." She replied stoically as she leaned herself against his desk.
"How?"
"I don't know."
"So it's true?"
"It seems that way. I made them do the test over and over again, and its true" She answered. Chris looked up at her with tears in his own eyes to match hers and crossed the distance between them taking her into his arms engulfing into a huge hug.
"Thank you."