Disclaimer: I don't own any of Criminal Minds :( Now the weeping begins.

Here's the eleventh one in this little story! Thank you much for the reviews...you're all very kind :) This one is out now and another "Beauty and the Morgan" is on the way!

Day 3 of the Search

JJ came into the conference room with her cell phone and motioned for the team to listen in. She pulled it away from her ear and pressed the "speaker" button. "Everyone, Lynch is on the line," she said. "And he's got some news that we need to hear."

"Can everyone hear me?" Lynch asked.

"Everyone's here, Lynch," Hotch said. "What did you find? It took an awfully long time to find something for that license plate."

"See, the reason it took me so long was because the plate wasn't from South Carolina," he said. "So I thought I would try jumbling the letters and numbers to see if they formed anything for South Carolina. But then I thought, 'Hey! What if it was North Carolina the tip meant?' And guess what?"

Blake nodded. "It's North Carolina where the plate was from," she said.

"Correct, Agent Blake," he said. "There were a few plates that matched it exactly in that sequence. I need more identifiable information to narrow things down."

"Lynch, what we need you to look for are families that had any contact with wolves," Hotch instructed. "Cross check for people who worked in zoos, at conservation parks, et cetera. As soon as you find people you think match, go through the video footage and see if any of the people match on the tapes."

"On it," Lynch said. "I'll get back to you soon."

XXXXX

Penelope woke up after another sleepless night in Derek's arms. She turned in his arms to face his still sleeping face. He looked so peaceful and so different when he had a face covered in stubble. Her fingers trailed up and stroked his face. She could hardly take her eyes off him. Tears filled her eyes and she felt the devastation of everything crash down on her. Her daughters, her distance from Derek. She felt tears slide down her face. As she lay in bed, her fingers started tracing patterns on the back of his neck. "I'm so sorry Derek," she murmured. "I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to hurt our daughters. I will do everything I can to get them back." Suddenly his eyes opened and she paused. "I'm sorry," she said, taking her arms from around him and moving away from him.

He shook his head, pulling her towards him again. "Don't be sorry," he whispered.

Penelope tensed in his arms, but eventually relaxed. "We need to get them back," she sniffled. "I can't stand not having them here with us. I want our babies back."

"I want them back too," he murmured.

"I can't stand even thinking about Tala strapped that chair," she cried. "And Lindy and Raya...what's happening to them? They're just little girls. I swear I didn't know I pissed anyone off enough to have them take them, but when I find them, I won't rest until I've destroyed them."

As Derek was looking at her, he saw the dangerous glint in her eyes and that she was serious. Placing his hand on her cheek, he shook his head. "That's not who you are, Penelope," he said. "You're a mother. You're gentle. You don't hurt people."

Her lower lip trembled. "But what if I'm not those things?" she whispered, terrified. "What if I'm really capable of things like hurting people? I would do anything for the girls...what if that -"

He put his finger to her lips. "Stop," he murmured. "I know you're not like that. I know you."

"I'm scared Derek," she whispered. "I'm so scared we're going to lose our girls." She paused. "The same way I lost you."

He shook his head. "You never lost me, Penelope," he whispered. "I've been waiting for you. I'll continue to wait for you as long as it takes. And if someone like Kyle makes you happy, then I'll back off."

Taking his hands, she kissed his palm. "He isn't," she said softly. Tears continued pouring down her cheeks.

"Who is?" he asked, a forlorn look in his eyes. "Because I'll -"

She didn't give him a chance to finish. She grabbed his face and kissed him softly. Though it wasn't an incredibly hungry kiss or passionate, there was more feeling and love in it than any kiss they had shared in all their years of dating and marriage. He was speechless afterwards.

"You are," she said fervently. "I want us to be a family again. It's all I want. If you will lessen your work, I'll let up. I can't stand being apart from you. Just like I can't stand being apart from our girls."

"And we'll have them back," he said confidently. "I'll find them no matter what. Even if I have to break the law."

XXXXX

So far it had been longer than the past two days since Keith had come to take Tala to his makeup studio. Maybe he was giving her the day off.

"How come he took us?" Lindy asked pulling her knees up to her chest while leaning against Tala. "Why would he want us?"

Tala kissed the top of her head. "He's a sick, evil man," she said.

"He's like Assef," Lindy grumbled.

Tilting an eyebrow up, she asked in confusion, "Who?"

"A character in The Kite Runner does...some really bad stuff," she said with a stony expression. "He's the epitome of evil. But he was fake. This man is real."

Tala nodded but didn't say anything. She just stared ahead into the darkness. Coming out of the small bathroom in the corner of the prison, Soraya came hurrying back to her sisters' sides and clung to Tala. "Tala," she whispered hoarsely. "Are we going to die? Is that mean man going to hurt us?"

Wrapping both her arms around her baby sister, Tala shushed Soraya. "No! I won't let him lay a finger on you.

"But how?" Soraya asked desperately. "You're not as big as Daddy and you don't have magic computers to work on like Mama."

"I will always keep you safe," Tala vowed. "And I'm going to find a way to get you out of here if it's the last thing I do."

Soraya's wide eyes looked up at her and she sighed. "I'm scared, Tala," she whispered. "I want Daddy and Mama. I miss them. Daddy would keep us safe. He's strong and would be able to beat up anyone who tried to hurt us."

"Dad's looking for us," Tala said firmly. "Him and Mom."

"Are they working together do you think?" Lindy asked unsteadily. "They've been so awful to each other that I don't know if they'll work together."

Tala was quiet for a long time after that. She was hoping Penelope and Derek were working together to find them. It would be hell in they didn't. But if they were, maybe there would be a chance of her family reuniting. The latter was the one she wanted. If there was one thing Keith was right about, it was that she loved her family more than herself. She would do just about anything to see them back together. Her mother and father had always been her foundations. Many teenagers were ready to run from their houses and get away from their families, but she loved her family. And while she did long for independence, she never wanted to lose contact with her family. For the umpteenth time since she had been imprisoned, she began to think about times from months ago.

"Mom!" Tala cried, running into her house after she got home from school. "Mom, check this out!"

Penelope, who had been working from home that day, looked up from her laptop at the kitchen counter and smiled at her oldest daughter. "What's up, baby?" she said.

Tala grinned and slapped an envelope down in front of her mother. "Check this out!"

Smiling, Penelope picked up the envelope. "Ooh! Your ACT scores are in!" she exclaimed, ripping the seal off the envelope. She raised a brow at her daughter and started humming a drum roll. She pulled the sheet of paper holding her daughter's scores on them. What she saw made her eyes go wide and her mouth drop open. She looked up at Tala. "Honey, this...this is a perfect score! You scored a perfect score on the ACT! And you're only sophomore!" She rose from her seat and pulled her daughter into a tight hug. "Baby, this is wonderful!"

Tala hugged her mother back tightly and said, "I know! I'm so excited! I can't wait to tell Dad! When is he getting back from the case?"

"He'll be home tonight," she said with a smile. "The case finished up just a few minutes ago. The team will be wheels up in twenty minutes." She kissed her daughter's forehead and added, "Oh, baby I'm so proud of you. And I know your father will be too. This is...it's fantastic."

"I learned from the best," Tala said with a grin.

Later in the evening around seven in the evening, Derek walked in through the front door and called out, "Girls! I'm home!"

Immediately Soraya and Lindy came running towards him with grins on their faces and open arms. "Dad!" they cried simultaneously.

He picked up Soraya first and kissed her head, then Lindy. "Hey girls," he said. "Where are your mom and Tala?"

"Mama and Tala are in the study," Soraya reported, saluting her father and pointing the direction of their designated study. "They said they had a surprise for you."

Derek frowned and kissed the tops of his daughters' heads again. He headed down the hallway towards his and Penelope's study and opened the door. "Knock, knock," he said, poking his head in before going in completely. Both his wife and eldest daughter were sitting behind the desk and oohing and ahhing at something on the desktop computer. When he entered the room, Tala jumped to her feet and grabbed a piece of paper from the desk and rushed towards him. She shoved the paper towards him.

"Dad!" she yelled happily. "You need to see this!"

"Hug first, paper in a second," he said, opening his arms for her to come into them.

Huffing, but smiling, she hugged him tightly, then shoved the paper towards him again. "Look at this!" she said.

Derek smirked at his daughter and looked at the paper. His daughter's ACT scores. When he saw the bold 36he grinned widely and pulled Tala into a bone crushing hug. "Tala, this is wonderful! Baby Doll, I'm so proud of you!" His eyes met Penelope's and she smiled and winked at him.

They must have done something right.

"Tala?" Soraya asked, gently poking her sister in the arm. "Are you okay?"

Tala hadn't even realized that there were tears running down her cheeks. Her happy memories of her family and her parents were making her cry. She missed her family being whole that much. Snapping out of it, she looked at her sister and nodded. "Yeah," she murmured. "I'm okay. I just miss Mom and Dad."

"Really?" Lindy asked. "You really miss Mom?"

Tala nodded. "I really do," she murmured. "I miss Mom a lot. I feel terrible for how I treated her. The first thing I'm doing when we get home is giving her the biggest hug in the world."

Lindy smiled. "I know you would miss her at some point," she said. "You two are like best friends. You can barely go six minutes without talking. I'm surprised you lasted six months."

Tala felt tears filling her eyes again and she sniffled. "I love you guys," she murmured, pulling both of them close to her. "You know that right?" She looked from Lindy to Soraya.

"We know," Soraya said. "We love you too."

XXXXX

Keith groaned when his brother entered the makeup room and started in on him. "What the hell are we going to do with the two younger ones?" he stormed. "Have you even thought about that?"

Keith merely grunted.

"Well?" He groaned. "You know, I don't even know why I bothered taking pictures of them. It's not like you would have been interested in them anyway."

"You know? Taking them is good," Keith said, observing his pictures of his former girls. "It gets revenge on Penelope even better. We'll take everything from her. She'll regret ever dropping you for that brute Derek Morgan."

His brother paused for a moment and seemed to think about it. "You know," he began, "you're right. At first I thought them being in the way and having to take them was a problem. But you're right. It takes a greater toll on her happiness. You're actually did do something right."

Keith frowned. "Humph," he said. "I guess I did."

In chapter 12 the unsub will be revealed :) I'm also coming out with another Beauty and the Morgan soon.