Penelope had spent a lazy Sunday catching up on her games and email, trying to take Aaron's words to heart and not worry about this copycat and how he was stalking their team, trying to insert himself into the cases they were working, as if he wanted attention in a way that was less than healthy. But there were times when her brain drifted back into work mode, and she found herself wondering if they would catch him before he took another life or before the press caught wind of the fact that they had a very gruesome fan.
Still, she had woken up to a good morning text from Aaron, and that was enough to put a smile on her lips as she got ready for her day, a happy song on her lips as she drove in to work. It was a breeze to get through security that morning, and she frowned a little as she pulled out her phone and took a look at the display. "Are you kidding me?" she said softly as she made her way over to the elevator. "I'm how early? How could I have looked at the time this wrong?"
Shaking her head a little, she got on a nearly empty elevator and rode up to the sixth floor, still berating herself for not paying better attention to things. Almost kiddingly, she blamed her promptness on Aaron, since he had sent her the early morning text. "I'll have to talk to him about his morning habits," she murmured as she stepped out of the elevator on her floor.
Penelope's hand had just touched the handle to the bullpen doors when she heard a commotion to her right. Looking down the hall, she could just see the door to Erin's office, and felt her eyes narrow when she saw Blake standing in the doorway, aggressively leaning in, everything about her posture screaming anger and irritation. "I keep telling you, Erin, you need to leave this alone! We are not making amends, not ever!"
Blake's voice was shrill and loud, and Penelope could only imagine how Erin was reacting. A small crowd was starting to gather near the office so that they could listen in on the drama, and Penelope frowned deeply as she stepped away from the bullpen and made her way over to the growing crowd, pushing her way into the middle of them, and taking a long look at those who were there. "Don't you have something better to do?" she hissed as she shoved the two people in front of her apart and turned to look at the group. "Go on! Make yourselves useful!"
Though most of the group split up and headed off to their various offices and departments, but there were a few who lingered, shooting her dirty looks for having spoiled their fun, and she glared at them a little more fiercely before shooing them off with her hand. Shaking her head a little, she made her way over to the women and coolly slipped in between Blake and Erin.
"I could hear you all the way down by the bullpen. Even if you don't care about how that looks for Erin, you should be worried about how it looks on you, Blake. You've only just come back to the BAU, after all."
Blake fixed a steely look on her, and Penelope made certain not to blanch, not to give any quarter, as she returned the look. "Just remember, Erin, I'm not the one who started this," she said flatly as she turned on her heel and stalked over towards the bullpen. It was only when the woman was inside the other room that she turned and faced Erin, taking in how white her face was, how labored her breathing.
"I know that you probably want to escape right about now." Erin gave her a small nod. "Do you trust me?" Another tiny nod. "All right, follow me." Penelope headed towards the stairwell, making certain to keep watch over the few people who were in the hall still, checking to see if they were watching them. There was only one lingerer that she really worried about, but a cutting look from her sent that person scurrying away, and then she was waving her hand to Erin, encouraging her to scurry over and join her.
"Where are we going?" Erin asked as the door closed, and Penelope took a deep breath as she pointed up. "Up where?"
"The roof. It's a private space, where we can talk without worrying about being overheard. Plus, the cool air will do wonders for putting some color back into your face." Erin gave her a wry smile before starting up the first flight of stairs.
What had seemed like a good idea when it came to her head turned out to be horrible, as he feet started to ache by the third set of stairs. "You can take off your shoes, you know," Erin called out from one flight above her as she paused once more to stretch her toes.
Penelope nodded as she reached down and pulled off her heels, quickly bounding up to where Erin was waiting for her, and together, they climbed the final few sets before Penelope pushed open the roof door and propped it open with the cinder block near it. "It appears that I'm not the only one who has had this idea," she softly said before drifting over to the center of the building.
"I think a lot of people come up here to smoke, or at least, they did back when smoking was the thing to do." Erin reached up and scratched the side of her nose. "I promised myself that I wouldn't cry over things. And I've managed to do that today," she said lowly as she clasped her hands in front of her torso.
"Why was she coming for you so hard? I don't get the issue she has with your wanting to make amends. It's part of your recovery."
Penelope went to touch Erin's upper arm, only for the older woman to flinch away. "Sorry, it's not you, I just don't want to be touched right now. And part of my recovery also means that I have to be okay with people not accepting my amends. I just, I really thought that I could fix things between us, since so much time has passed since the incident. But I guess, when you try to ruin someone's career, that forgiveness can never be found."
"Oh, Erin." Penelope stopped herself from reaching out for her, her hand hovering in midair for a moment before it dropped down to her side. "I suppose that I will just have to work a little harder on being nice to her, and see if I can get her to relent a little." She turned away from Erin to stare out at the horizon, only to feel the woman hesitantly clasp her hand moments later as she stepped closer to Penelope.
"I haven't let very many people this far in. Even though I've been seeing David for months now, I've held you all at arm's length because that seemed like the best course of action, just in case I had to make a decision like before."
"May I ask what decision you had to make? I don't know very much about the past of the BAU, only what I needed to know to fit in with the team when I first started."
Erin drew in a deep breath as her fingers tightened their hold on Penelope's hand. "There was a case that Alex and I worked some years ago, before almost everyone who is a member of the current Alpha team was attached to the BAU. Back then, I was a unit chief, just like Aaron, and I was in charge of a rather large case. Alex and another member of the team, John Curtis, were working on a linguistic analysis of the unsub, since he had been extremely vocal in his correspondence with the local news stations. Well, their hypothesis closed in on a suspect, only it was the wrong one. And…I had to make the choice to fall on my sword or allow them to take the blame for their wrong claims."
"And you chose to let them take the blame."
Erin nodded as she bit her lip. "It totally discredited their work, and they were both summarily kicked out of the FBI. I know that Alex was able to pick up her academic career, after a few months of laying low, but I never heard what happened to John." She took a deep breath and then looked into Penelope's eyes. There were unshed tears there, and she didn't comment on that, knowing that it would embarrass her. "So, now you know about this cancer that I've kept inside all these years. Oh, David knows, too, but other than him, and maybe Aaron, no one else knows this."
"And I won't breathe a word unless you tell me that it's all right." Erin gave her a grateful smile before letting go of her hand. Her posture remained open, and so Penelope did what felt natural to her and hugged her tight. "And now that it's not your burden to carry alone any longer, I can help, in whatever way you need." Erin nodded against her shoulder, and Penelope let out a little sigh as she caught sight of Aaron standing in the doorway to the roof, watching them. She gave him a small shake of her head before motioning him away with a waggle of her fingers, knowing that Erin would never forgive her if she let another person see her suffering.