Part 10: The End of the Beginning

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Ignoring the blood and the pain in his left arm Dave rushed to Penelope's side and reached out for her. She screamed and swung the gun at him which he deftly reflected.

"Are you hurt?" he demanded.

She stared at him through tear filled eyes. "You're alive?"

He nodded but still frowned at her. "Answer me damn it! Are you hurt?"

"No," she replied shaking her head. She sat up and wrapped her arms around him. He pulled her close and buried his face in her hair as relief poured through his bones. In just a short period of time she had come to mean more to him than just a colleague or friend and he wasn't letting her go.

He helped her to her feet and moved them away from the Congressman and the potential for more danger.

"Is it over?" Penelope asked through her tears.

"Yes, it is, Kitten," he assured her. He pulled back and lifted her face with a gentle hand. Smiling at her, he swiped the tears away before lowering his head and kissing her. He swallowed her sigh as she settled into his embrace and kissed him back.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Hotch breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that Penelope was alright but kept his weapon trained on the man lying a few feet away. Morgan ran up to the scene and kicked the man's gun away. The man was groaning in pain and holding both hands over the bleeding wound in his abdomen.

"You shot a United States Congressman," he groaned. "You're going to jail for the rest of your life!"

"And you shot a Federal Agent," Hotch stated coldly.

"It was self defense," the Congressman said defensively.

Both Hotch and Morgan chuckled. "You fired first Agent Rossi didn't even have his gun drawn," Hotch argued. "We were watching you."

"You were?" the Congressman asked lamely as he lay on the ground.

Hotch shook his head and frowned. "Keep an eye on him Morgan. I'll call for EMS."

The younger agent nodded and kept his gun pointed at the man. "You have a lot of explaining to do," Morgan said dryly.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Dave leaned against the front of the car and scanned the parking lot as a paramedic bandaged his arm. The once empty parking lot was now filled with fire trucks, ambulances, police cars and black SUV's. The Congressman had been strapped to a litter and carted off to the hospital. True to her word Garcia was unhurt save for a few bumps and bruises. She was standing with the team about fifty feet away.

The paramedic finished tending to Dave's wound, told him to go to the doctors then cleaned up his trash and walked away. Pulling his shirt back on, Dave started to walk over to the team when he caught sight of a blonde headed she-devil slithering in his direction. Strauss was on-site and she was pissed.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" she shrieked when she spotted him. "You shot a United States Congressman! Do you want to go to jail besides losing your job?"

He sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. He was not looking forward to dealing with her over the top theatrics. He could see Penelope's concerned face as the entire team turned to watch the show.

"He shot me first," Dave pointed out not correcting her on the fact that he didn't shoot the Congressman.

"I don't care if he pissed in your Wheaties! This is the last time you will ever carry the badge of the FBI," she screamed angrily. "The BAU is finished as well. You did a great job of ensuring that none of your friends will have jobs either."

"Leave them alone," Dave replied menacingly.

"Oh I do not think so," she retorted. "They did not follow the orders of their direct supervisor which resulted in the shooting of a Congressman. There will be hell to pay and it shall be paid in blood!"

At this point the team converged on them.

"Director Strauss," Hotch began. "Let me explain."

"It's all my fault," Penelope wailed.

"Let me handle this," Dave told them.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Sylvia climbed into the front seat of the car and slammed the door. Her boyfriend put the car in gear and squealed the tires as he drove out onto the street. He drove them back to his house where they spent the evening watching television. He attempted several times to get her to talk about the handprint on her cheek. But she stubbornly refused to release any information about what had transpired at her house. She fell asleep lying on the couch with her head on his lap dreaming of faceless women lying at the bottom of a cliff.

She awoke hours later sweating and trembling from a dream wherein she was being chased by a faceless attacker through the woods. She was running up a hill and tripped over what she thought was a fallen tree limb but had turned out to be the leg of a dead woman. She sat up on the couch; her boyfriend put an arm around her shoulders and asked if she was okay. She nodded and pulled out of his embrace. After stumbling to the bathroom she washed her face and brushed her hair then returned to the living room.

"What's going on?" E.T. asked somberly. "You were upset when I picked you up and now you've been having nightmares."

"It's nothing," she assured him with a shake of her head. "Family problems, you know?"

"I keep telling you," he growled. "You can move in here. I'll take care of you."

She sat next to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I know. But I want to finish school first and if Daddy's paying I have to stay at the house."

He let out a deep breath. "Speaking of your Daddy, if we want to keep him happy I better get you home."

"Okay," she agreed reluctantly. She gave him a quick kiss before they headed out to the car.

They pulled into the driveway and Sylvia leaned over for one last kiss before jumping out of the car. She had barely reached the front door as she heard E.T. squealing out of the driveway.

'Yeah, that will make Daddy happy,' she thought. She unlocked the front door and when inside. The house was quiet as she suspected it would be. She started to head up the stairs when her Mother's voice called to her from the front room.

"This should be interesting," she muttered as she trudged into the room. The lights were off as she entered the room and she could not see anything. "Mother?"

She heard movement behind her and started to turn around. Something dark and thin fell over her head suddenly there was a sharp pain at her neck. She reached up and clawed at her neck; something rubbery was pressed against her throat cutting off her air. She twisted and struggled knocking into a table causing it to crash to the floor. The pressure on her neck wouldn't let up.

"I won't let you do it," a voice whispered in her ear. "You're not taking my boy away from me you little bitch."

Her last thought before darkness invaded her mind was 'How did my Mother get so strong?'

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Handle this!" Strauss screamed on the verge on histrionics. "You can't handle a simple order to mind your own business."

"That's because he had higher orders," another voice cut in. They all turned around to see Dave's friend Jack standing there.

"Director Fickler," Strauss crowed. "This is why I have been pushing for the disbandment of the BAU. David Rossi and his band of merry men think they are…"

"Can it, Strauss," the Director ordered. She closed her mouth and stared at him.

"Jack," Dave said respectfully as he reached out his right hand.

"David," Jack replied. He took Dave's hand in his own and shook it. "Come talk to me."

Dave and Jack walked away from Strauss and the team to a quieter area of the parking lot.

"Jesus Dave," Jack said quietly.

"I know," Dave replied. "I tried to keep it to myself but everything just kind of exploded. I really tried to keep the team out of it."

Jack snorted. "Yeah, I'll be having a chat with Strauss about that. I told her not to send the team after you and she did it anyways. So I guess she can't hold the "not following orders" over you."

Dave smiled. "What's going to happen to the team?"

"You got your man, right?"

"Not yet," Dave replied solemnly.

"What do you mean?" Jack frowned.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"What's going on down here?" Owen asked as he flipped on the light to the front room. He stared in horror as he saw his daughter lying on the floor and his wife standing over her holding a phone cord in her hand. "Chloe, what did you do?"

His wife turned slowly and looked at him. "I had to protect Brian," she said softly.

"By killing Sylvia!" he yelled. He rushed to his daughter's side pushing Chloe out of the way. He placed his hand on Sylvia's abdomen unsure of what to do. He glared up at his wife. "I told you I was going to take care of the situation."

"Ha!" She screamed. "You want to send Brian away. I can't let you do that. I won't let you do that."

"If Brian really is killing those girls then we need to get him some help," Owen explained quietly. "Now you have ruined everything."

"You're just mad because your perfect little girl is gone," Chloe said bitterly.

Owen breathed in a deep breath and tried to remain calm. He could see his entire life crashing around him. His daughter was gone, his son was about to be gone and his wife apparently needed help as well. His mind shifted into rescue mode, he needed to do something to save the rest of his life. If his family was gone it would do him no good to lose his job as well.

"I'm going to bed," Chloe announced as she tossed the phone cord onto Sylvia's limp body.

Owen stared at it. By all rights, he should call the police but that would just tear everything down at once. The police would want to know why Chloe had killed their daughter and that would lead into an investigation into Brian. If he did this right, he could control how the events played out.

After Sylvia had left with her boyfriend, Owen had researched the murders that Sylvia had referred too. It had not taken him long to come to the same conclusion that Sylvia had; it was a strong possibility that Brian was responsible for the deaths of those women. He sighed knowing he had to do something to protect the public as well as his family.

He stared at the face of his youngest child and choked back a sob. She wasn't perfect, but she had been pretty damn close. She deserved better than what was about to happen but now he needed to protect the living members of his family. He picked her up and carried her lifeless body out the back door and put her on the back seat of his car. He covered her with a blanket before running back into the house to change.

Fifteen minutes later, the Congressman pulled his car into the park located down the road from his house. He wasn't certain where to place her body, so he pulled into the first lot and parked next to the curb. Silently he sat and stared out the window for a few minutes at the playground in front of him.

Sylvia had always loved coming to the park when she was little. She would spend hours playing on the swings, climbing the monkey bars, and sliding down the multi-leveled slides. In the summer time, the lake would be open for swimming, Sylvia and her high school friends would lie on the grass sunning themselves between dips in the cool water.

Owen swiped at the tears running down his cheeks, she had so much life yet to be lived, this whole situation was ridiculous. He carried her across the grass, past the play area and into the wooded area where she could be seen from the picnic area. Gently he laid her on the ground and half-covered her body with leaves and twigs. He only hoped it wouldn't take too long for her to be found.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Holy crap," Jack swore softly. "This whole family is fucked up."

Dave chuckled and nodded. "They really help put your own life in perspective, don't they?"

"No kidding," Jack replied as he slowly shook his head. "So, Mom killed Sylvia because Sylvia was going to expose her brother as a monster. Is that right?"

"Not only that, but Mom had an unnatural affection for her son," Dave informed his friend.

Jack squinted at him. "What does that mean?"

"From what I could gather, Owen Mathers was not the father of Brian. I think Chloe favored Brian because he reminded her of the man she could never have."

"Who was his Father?" Jack questioned.

Dave shrugged. "I never got that far. Does it matter?"

Jack shook his head. "Not anymore. So what happened to Brian?"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Owen drove slowly out of the park; he drove past the driveway to his house he continued slowly up the road looking for the entrance to the cabin. Once he spotted the entryway he turned into the trees and approached the cabin. There was a light on inside. As he pulled to a stop Brian stepped out on the porch and approached the car.

"What are you doing here?" Brian asked sounding surprised.

"There's been an accident," Owen sighed. "Sylvia is dead."

Brian frowned. "What kind of accident? Did she and that loser boyfriend have a car accident? Is she okay?"

Owen shook his head and swiped at the tears threatening to roll down his cheeks. "She's dead. Your Mom…"

"What? What do you mean she's dead? What happened," Brian demanded.

Owen opened the door to his car and got out. He leaned against the door after closing it and peered at his son. "What are you doing out here?"

Brian shrugged. "Just hanging out."

"By yourself?" Owen pressed.

"Yeah," Brian responded balefully.

Owen took a deep breath and really looked at Brian. "You're not here by yourself all the time though, are you?"

Brian shrugged.

"You need to tell me what you've been doing up here Brian. Things are about to get really complicated and I need to know the truth," Owen stated. "Your Mom killed Sylvia."

"You're lying," Brian snarled.

"I wish I was," Owen said sadly.

"What the hell?"

"Sylvia thought that you were doing something illegal up here, she told your Mom and I about it," Owen explained. "She told us about the dead girls."

Brain stared at the ground and said nothing.

"Did you kill those girls Brian?" Owen asked in a whisper. "I need to know."

Brian looked up at him. "What did Momma do?"

"She strangled your sister. Wrapped a phone cord around her neck and held it tight until she was dead."

Brian began crying tears flowed out of his eyes and down his cheeks. "She shouldn't have done that."

"No, she shouldn't have," Owen agreed. "But she thought she was protecting you."

Brian swiped at the wetness on his face. "I can't help myself," he said in a strangled whisper. "I see these women and something inside of me just takes over. I don't know why."

Owen reached out and pulled his son in his arms. "I'm going to help you," he promised. "You have to trust me and do what I say."

"I will," Brian nodded as he settled in his Father's arms.

"Get in the car," Owen ordered gently. "We have to go home and talk to your Mother."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"After that they hashed out the entire story between the three of them," Dave explained. "Brian agreed to go to the hospital and get some help though I think the whole situation was too much for Chloe to handle. I get the idea that she should have been placed in an institution a long time ago."

"Well, she'll be going there now," Jack stated.

They stood in an amiable silence for several minutes.

"I bet you weren't expecting this when you asked for my help," Dave said with a soft chuckle.

Jack smiled sadly. "I've learned over the years to not have expectations."

"If there is any fallout, I'll take the blame," Dave announced.

Jack shook his head. "No. I promised that I would protect you and I am keeping that promise. That includes your team as well."

Dave dropped his head and thought for a minute. "Thanks," he said at last. "Can I ask you for a favor?"

Jack grinned. "You can ask."

"It's about the fraternization policy," Dave began as they walked back to where the team was waiting.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Aaron stood back from the group watching them and the pair that stood talking in the distance. Sometimes he forgot that Dave knew people of influence, people who had been in the business a long time. He sighed as he figured out why Dave had gone off on this trip through the past.

Strauss was also watching the pair. Her arms were folded across her chest, foot tapping against the asphalt as she waited for her next chance to strike. Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose trying to ward off the headache that was building. Sure as the sun was going to rise, Strauss was going to be all over his ass for the rest of his days at the bureau.

"You've really done it this time David," Strauss said vehemently. "I want your badge."

"Bite me," Dave chuckled. He walked past her and put his arms around Penelope pulling her close. Aaron silently wished that Dave would not aggravate the woman.

"Director Strauss," Jack cut in. "You and I will be talking tomorrow."

"Sir," Strauss began. "Agent Rossi has made the whole FBI a laughing stock with this fiasco!"

"Agent Rossi was following orders," Jack growled. He glared at her. "It is nice to know at least one of my people knows how to do that."

"What are you saying?" she asked timidly as she drew back a step.

"You will find that out tomorrow," he said shortly. He turned to Dave and held out his hand. Dave took it and they shook hands. "Thank you for all your work on this case. And good luck with your new girlfriend."

Dave grinned. "Thank you Director. You know I am always at your service."

Jack smiled and turned to Strauss. "Come on Erin, it's late and you and I have an early meeting."

Hotch watched as Jack Fickler led a protesting Erin Strauss away from the team. He moved closer and joined group.

"What the hell just happened?" Morgan asked.

"David Rossi saved the day again," Hotch announced.

"Does this mean we're okay?" Spencer asked.

"We're going to be fine," Dave stated assuring the entire group.

"What about us?" Penelope asked quietly.

Dave looked down at her and smiled. "Us? We're better than fine. Come on, beautiful you and I have a lot to talk about."

"Let's all go home," Hotch suggested.

They climbed into the black SUV's and headed for home.

The End

Author's Note: So this story is finished but fear not my peeps I have further plans. There will be a follow up to this story in which you will see the progression of Dave and Penelope's relationship as well as a new mystery to be solved. Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed and favorited this story. I appreciate each and every one of you. Sunny