Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
AN: And sorry for the wait for this update! it's my first week with a new position at work and I have way more of a work load than I am normally used to. I've been having to bring my work home so writing had to be put on the back burner for a bit.
Luke walked in to Emily's hospital room and the woman motioned for him to close the door behind him.
"We have figured out the unsubs motive for kidnapping Rebecca and the girls prior to her." Emily said as she watched the man's reaction closely. "They are wanting the men that broke the women's hearts to try and save them."
Luke shook his head. "How did I break her heart? The girl has been stalking me the past 6 years."
"About that..." Emily said trying to choose her words carefully. She could already see Luke becoming irritated. "Rebecca told me her side of what had happened. Why didn't you tell Garcia that you had slept with the girl."
Luke looked up at his boss in surprised. "I didn't know she remembered. After the cops showed up at my house, they made it sound like she hadn't remembered what had happened. They said she was accusing me of putting the bruises on her. I just thought it was another attempt to ruin my life."
"She's in love with you Luke." Emily explained calmly. "She thought you two would work out. Did you give her that impression."
Luke looked down at his hands and nodded. "I had started to like her after a while. Thought that was just part of her game. I should have just talked to her. It's a bit too late for that now."
Emily nodded, understanding that the man had clearly moved on, even if he still had carried a grudge against Rebecca. "Would you be willing to make a press conference. Ask the men to release her. Make it seem like you are worried about her."
"I am worried about her." Luke almost demanded. He sighed and sat back in his chair. "I'm sorry. I should have been here."
"We can't both be blaming ourselves about this." Emily said with a sad smile. "You had your reasons for staying away. No one is going to blame you for any of this. She just happened to pick the worse time to explain all this too me. I want you to talk to JJ about how to go about the press conference. She had been informed of the situation but the others don't know. We will get her back."
"Garcia has been saying that since she I told her what happened." Luke said with a slight smile.
"You should come clean about that night with her and what I just told you." Emily said with a slight smirk. "She won't forgive you if she finds out from someone else."
Luke groaned as he got to his feet. He had left the woman with JJ as the two women where watching the bar footage to try and get an ID on at least one of the unsubs. He knew JJ could keep a secret, but she was very open with Garcia. There could be a chance JJ had already let something slip by accident.
Luke walked out of Emily's room and went down the hall towards the waiting room where Penelope had set up her computer. He walked in to see both girls watching the bar footage on the computer. Penelope typing away on the keyboard as she ran a background search as well. He couldn't help but smile as her eyes squinted at the screen and her eyebrows scrunched together in concentration. He couldn't help but stand back and watch her for a few minutes as she and JJ threw around a few ideas on what to search for. Penelope glanced over her shoulder and spotted him in the doorway. She jumped causing JJ to reach for her gun, her protective instinct in full swing.
"Why must you always stare you creeper!" Penelope growled at him. "Next time sneeze, or cough, hell fart for all I care. Just make some sort of noise before you give me a heart attack."
"And miss that cute expression you get when you're surprised?" Luke said with a slight smirk. "I think it's worth the risk."
Penelope rolled her eyes and looked at JJ as if making a point. "See what I have to put up with. This is the Newbie I get. I have never seen the one the rest of you seem to get. Tell me Luke, why do you insist on annoying only me?"
"I save it for the best." Luke teased and JJ held back her smile as she watched the interaction between her friends. Why they couldn't see the attraction between them was beyond her. Even Reid had picked up on it and the poor boy was a bit notorious for missing things like that.
"I actually came to find JJ." Luke said sending Penelope one of his best smiles. Penelope rolled her eyes and pretended to gag as his flirtatious attempt. Luke chuckled and turned towards JJ. "Emily said you know about Rebecca and I."
"Emily told you!" Penelope said in shock. "You mean this whole time I could have given you the information I found, but I didn't because I thought you didn't know and I wasn't going to say anything about it because that's Luke's story to tell, not mine."
Luke put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a little squeeze, silently telling her that he appreciated her keeping his secret. "What do you have for us Chica?"
Penelope turned back to her computer and a few seconds later she brought up the pictures of two men and a complete search history shshe had done on the both of them. "Meet the Fanagans. Todd Fanagan, the man at the bar and Logan Fanagan, his younger brother. Grew up in town in the foster system after their mother had been killed by an intruder. Police report says that the boys where up stairs when the intruder broke in to an open window in the parents bedroom. according to the father, he was woken up by the intruder. He asked how much he loved his wife over his own life then shot her when the father didn't answer. a week later the father took the boys into the local police station and told the officer he couldn't take care of them anymore."
"So that's why they wants the men to save the victims the take." JJ said shaking her head. "They want the men to do what their father couldn't."
"So you know where the boys could be now?" Luke asked and Penelope rolled her eyes at him.
"Of course I have done a search already, Newbie." Penelope reply. JJ gave her a warning look to be a bit nicer. But Penelope ignored her friend. She knew Luke expected it from her. Treating him any different would keep him in his head, and she knew at the moment, he didn't need to be locked up in there. "I am coming up completely empty to any thing and everything that ties the boys to this town. The foster family the boys stayed with moved shortly after Logan turned eighteen and moved out of their home. A new family has moved into the house a couple years ago and have been remodeling the old Victorian into its former glory. And back in September the house the father had passed away. The police found the body. they think he had been dead for quite some time. as in years. the body was severely decayed. the house he lived in was demolished a few days after the body was found. Neither of them seem to have a job. And there is no housing record for either of them."
"Their father still lived in the same town?" Luke said in shock. "That had to be the trigger. Growing up knowing their father was just a few blocks away. And in a small town like this they had to have seen him a lot. his death could have been a trigger."
"If the father had been dead for that long, what if the boys where living in the house?" JJ suggested. "It would explain why they have no housing record. Another trigger could be from their home being torn down."
"Emily wants me to do a press conference." Luke said looking nervously at JJ. Penelope reached over and took his hand. He seemed to calm instantly by her touch. "Maybe by showing that I care, they'll reach out to us. Then we can nail their asses to the wall."
"I don't think just showing you car is going to work, Luke." JJ said calmly. "I think they want what their father couldn't do. They want the men to put the women's lives before theirs. You need to convince them that you'd do anything to get Rebecca back."
Luke took a deep breath and looked over at the concerned face of Penelope. She was still holding his hand. Letting him know that she was there to support him. Luke nodded and turned his attention back to JJ. "I think so."
"Then I'll go get it set up." JJ left the other two alone and the moment the door closed, LukeLuke let out a heavy sigh.
"Are you sure about this?" Penelope asked watching the man closely. Luke shook his head and Penelope brought him into a hug. He tensed for a second before he realized what she was doing, then let himself melt into her arms and held her tightly to him.
"Thank you Penelope." Luke whispered in her ear. "I don't think I could have gotten through this with out you."
"No need to thank me." Penelope whispered back to him. "I'm always here if you need me."
Penelope felt him tighten his hug atat her words and she smiled to herself. She never thought in a million years that being held by him would feel so good to her. Even when she knew her mind should be more supportive, it was slipping into naughty thoughts. like what the man would feel like naked up against her. Her imagination not having to do much work from seeing him naked only hours before. But soon the man was going to be going on life TV and proclaiming his love for another woman. Even if she knew it wasn't true, or at least she hoped it wasn't true, the thought of it was taring her heart into pieces.
Luke finally pulled away and looked deep into her eyes. "Remind me that I owe you dinner after this."
"You don't owe me anything." Penelope said and Luke smirked at her.
"Just shut up and let me wine and dine you." Luke said and chuckled at the shock on the woman's face. "You deserve to be pampered with everything I've put you through. So get those beautiful fingers back to work and know I will not take no for an answer."
"Well then it looks like you have yourself a date, Newbie." Penelope said with a flirtatious smile as she took a seat and got to work on her computer. Luke watched her for a few minutes with a smile on his face.
