My life is currently a disaster zone. Medical issues are taking time everyday. Physical therapy all the time. Gah! I am searching for a place to live with the zero money in my pocket, while still living with my ex. It's super great! Gah! Anyway, I haven't had time to update much of anything. I will update my other stories (Cash, Signals, & Manor, not Fog yet) in the next couple days too. I know I haven't gotten back to a lot of you and I apologize. I haven't even logged on in quite some time. But so many of you have reached out and I appreciate it so much! I genuinely do! Thank you.

Luke was in the kitchen making breakfast while Penelope got ready for work. She came down the stairs barefoot, half limping on the way down, holding her shoes in one hand, and holding the railing with the other to steady herself. Rounding the corner to the kitchen, she found Luke shirtless, standing in front of a bowl of fruit he'd pulled out of the fridge. He spun around. "Hey, Beautiful. Sleep okay?"

She half-heartedly threw a shoe towards him. It landed just a couple of feet in front of her. "Shut up. My brain, my legs, and my feet are already done for the day. Can we figure this out early so I can just come back and sleep and possibly ice my-well maybe not ice it, but it's sore." She sat down as she rambled like her normal self.

He was chuckling as he set the fruit down in front of her. "Don't wear any underwear today. Maybe that will help. It will certainly help me." He ran his fingers across the table as he made his way to her side, putting his hand lightly on her throat as he held her head back, bending down to kiss her. He only planned on a nice good morning kiss, but almost immediately it started escalating.

When she heard herself moan, she finally pushed him off. "No. We cannot. I literally cannot right now. Everything hurts."

"Okay, but tonight?" He innocently raised his eyebrow at her as he sat in the chair next to her.

"Oh yeah, definitely." She smiled as she grabbed the glass of water he'd set in front of her.

They heard the front door opening. They both were startled, but he quickly assumed it was his Nita, confirmed by her loud greeting. "Mis ninos, donde estan?"

"We're in the kitchen, Ma."

"Wait, why is she coming in the front door?" Penelope was confused.

"She's coming back from the hotel."

"Why was she at the hotel?"

"She stayed the night there in hopes that I would tell you how I felt." He was smiling at her, almost embarrassed.

"You made her go to the hotel?" she asked incredulously.

"Nope, that was what her and Prentiss schemed up last night when they were leaving." He was leaning over her again.

"Oh my God! Emily knows!" She pushed his chest lightly.

"Chica, I think everyone knows. It was Suzanna who told me to tell you I was in love with you. Derek and I talked it through the other day too. The rest of the team have probably discussed it more in depth than we have." He tipped his head to her, telling her she should just accept that fact now.

"Oh my God! Everyone knows! Nita knows?" Her eyes were wide.

"They don't know what we did last night." He leered at her again.

"I hope not! Wait, they helped her scheme to get us to be here alone?"

"Looks that way, and, by the way, if she was here, why on earth were you so loud?" He leaned in close to her as he asked the question.

"Oh my God! I didn't even think about that." She put her head down in her hands, elbows on the table. She could've definitely embarrassed herself and never been able to look Nita in the eye ever again.

Nita rounded the corner, glancing between the two of them, "Dios mio! Thank goodness, you have told her." She walked to him and kissed him.

"How do you know I did?"

"I can see it in your eyes. Tus ojos son muy reveladores." She grabbed Penelope's face and kissed it. "Also, where is your shirt?"

Luke grabbed the button up he'd put on the back of his chair, swinging it over his shoulders but letting it hang open. Nita walked back down the hall. Luke and Penelope could hear her voice in the distance. "They've talked to each other! Can you believe it?"

Both of them were now laughing as they heard multiple footsteps approaching. "I'm glad something good came out of last night," Emily said as she came around the corner.

"Wait, is she serious? You two actually talked? To each other? I don't believe it." Derek put his hand over his heart.

"Please tell me the whole team isn't waiting in the hallway with cake and balloons," Penelope muttered putting her hand to her forehead.

Both Emily and Derek chuckled at her. Luke was still calm as ever, refilling his glass with water.

"If you're ready, everyone else is at the office already." Emily still had to keep the team on track, even when she was enjoying her new found knowledge.

"Yup, ready." Penelope stood up. "Oh uh." She sat back down, trying to put her shoes on and finding it hard to do so. "Umm, I'm going to need a minute." She took a sip of her water, not wanting to embarrass herself.

"Sure. Alvez, come with me. Morgan, wait for Garcia, and drive the other car in." Emily nodded at Luke. He began buttoning his shirt as he followed her out of the kitchen but not without running his hand over Penelope's back before exiting.

Nita had gone upstairs, but as she was coming back down, she stopped Luke in the hallway. "Mijo, can you fix my phone for me? I tried to do the picture thing, and it-" She waved a hand and handed him her flip phone.

"Sure, Abuela. I'll look at it." He put it in his pocket and kissed her goodbye.

"Mijo." He stopped to listen to her. "Estoy muy orgulloso de ti y tengo mi anillo cuando estés listo para ello." He nodded shyly at her and then followed Prentiss out of the door, shutting it behind him.

"You didn't hear that," Luke said, knowing that Emily was very fluent in Spanish.

"Course not."

She got in the passenger's side. Her face impassive, she waited for Luke to get in and pull away from the curb. "But just one question, what does the ring look like?" She smiled out the window. She couldn't resist.

Nita had returned to the kitchen, fussing over the mess she claimed Luke made with the knives, even though it looked like there was only one missing. She made Derek sit down and eat something while Penelope went upstairs to get different shoes. Penelope shuffled back in wearing very low kitten heels. "Wow." Derek leaned in as Nita was occupied putting things in the fridge. "That rough, huh?" He smirked at her.

"Oh, you have no idea." She exhaled.

Derek somehow wasn't expecting the straightforward, very honest answer. He couldn't hold back his laughter. Nita turned to them smiling, trying to decipher what was happening. "Funny jokes?" she inquired.

"Oh no, it's nothing. We should get going, though. I will see you later." Penelope went to her and kissed her goodbye. She walked through the hall towards the door.

Nita tipped her head at Derek. "I don't know if they want children, but, if they're going to go at it like that, I think they better figure it out."

Derek was shocked once more, but it immediately turned to amusement at the words coming from the seemingly innocent woman. He raised his eyebrows at her conspiratorially before sauntering down the hall.

Penelope was stopped near the door, holding her purse and seemingly in a daydream. "Ready to go?" Derek asked her.

She dazedly turned her eyes to him. "Hmm hmm." He opened the door, letting her walk out first.

After silence in the car, Derek pulled into a parking spot. As she went to undo her seatbelt, he put his hand to stop her. "What can possibly be wrong now? You were all exhausted sunshine a few minutes ago, and now you're a zombie."

"I'm seriously fatigued. I think I slept thirty minutes in between-" She leaned against the door and put her hand to her forehead. Derek laughed and shook his head at her as she got out of the car and made her way inside.

….

Derek entered the room where the team was gathered. As soon as Emily's eyes caught him, she began speaking. "Okay, so Alvez went through the same mugshots we showed Nita just in case he recognized anyone, but no luck."

"Right, so once again why and how does the unsub know about us?" JJ put in.

"I think Luke was onto something yesterday," Emily added. "When you were saying what you don't have in common with Hotch and Blake," she encouraged.

"Right, I was just thinking. What if we weren't just the first of the team to get targeted? What if we were the only ones? This guy had enough of a plan to get to us. He would have to figure that as soon as the second person got the envelope, that we would know it was about the team, so, if he wanted us all on our toes, why wouldn't he plan in advance to target all of us?"

"So, there is something that this guy has against you, Blake, and Hotch," Rossi stated.

"You never worked on the same case, even at different times. What about a personal thing?" Derek asked." Was there anything you participated in that someone could know you from? Hotch used to do those triathlons. Anything like that?"

"Not really. I wasn't socializing much except with my partner Phil, and he's never worked with Blake or Hotch either," Luke answered.

They sat in momentary silence when there was a beep from the phone in the middle of the room, and then Penelope's voice filled the room. "Hey, Superheros. I have a weird little thing that might be nothing."

"What is it Garcia?" Emily put her hands on the table, leaning over it and listening to her.

"I obviously tried to figure out how someone could make the connection between Luke and Suzanna. If it's not someone you've always known, then how would they know you dated when you were teenagers?"

"So what did you find?" Matt queried.

"That's just the thing. Nothing. Luke doesn't have any social media, so there's no connection that way. You've never called her cell, and your high school yearbook has you in one picture with her, but there were also twenty others in that photo from a field trip you were on. There is nothing easily found to make the connection unless they were asking around."

"And none of the people we talked to said anything about strangers asking about you." JJ turned to Luke.

"So how does this guy know to approach her of all the people that were in the neighborhood?" Tara questioned.

"Okay, who was in Blake's pictures? Just her and her husband? Makes sense. She lives with him, works with him, and they've been married for years, not hard to figure out," Derek was stating.

"Yeah and Hotch, Jack is his son. Easy enough," JJ agreed.

"What about Hayley's sister? Why her? Not as easy of a connection, and they hadn't been around her lately since they were in witness protection for so long, and they didn't move back here right away," Rossi said.

"She used to watch Jack all the time," Reid said.

"That was before Alvez was part of the team. How long has this guy been watching?" Rossi asked.

"And that still doesn't explain why just us," Luke said.

Everyone took a breath. "What are we missing?" Emily's frustrated tone was the only voice in the room.

"What about the footage from outside of Mirasol's? The family didn't have their own surveillance, but there is a camera on the corner near the subway station," Reid said.

"Yeah, I know, but the footage I found doesn't even have Suzanna in it," Penelope informed them.

"So either she got her dates mixed up-" Simmons started.

"Or someone is only letting us see what they want us to see," Tara finished.

"Could explain why there was no overlap in any other footage. It's pretty odd that no one else showed up twice, considering the places she goes she sees the same people."

Everyone sat back, trying to take in the information. "Could you tell if the footage was altered?" Simmons asked.

Penelope's voice came through the speaker again. "It wasn't. There was some missing, but that's not always a red flag. The city has so many cameras. Sometimes things aren't kept as long from less active areas."

"We were trying to figure out how someone was so easily able to take photos without being noticed but -" Derek started.

"We need to look at this differently," Reid continued the thought. "Instead of him choosing those spots to not attract attention, we need to see if it was about him being on surveillance. He probably studied where the cameras are, and, in a city like this, that's not easy to do."

"Okay, we're going back to these locations. Reid, you have a list of where the cameras are in each place?" He handed Emily a sheet. "Let's see how easy it is to avert being seen. Garcia, Reid, Alvez, go through the footage again at the times Nita was there. Check the foot traffic, and compare them to other days. Let's see if there was a reason those days were erased. Let's go." Prentiss finished instructing them, and they all followed her lead.

…

Emily pulled out her phone. "Okay, we're at the corner across from the church again, but, standing here, there doesn't seem to be an overt amount of foot traffic, but it's not a sparse street either. There's a bodega and a pizza shop half a block up, both of which are busy and not just on Sundays."

Reid, Luke, and Penelope were on the other end. "Wait, you said there was a pizza shop and a bodega right next to each other?" Spencer questioned.

Rossi was listening to the speaker from Emily's phone. "Yeah, Murphy's pizza, was that one-"

"Yes. Murphy's pizza was one of the places that got robbed a couple of weeks back, the same night as the bodega next door," Spencer recited the information.

"Right, the police wouldn't think too much of it. Quick snatch and grab, no injuries, and it made sense they were next door to each other so, easy enough," Luke stated.

"And that would definitely be footage they would keep. The police would have requested the footage to see if the suspects were on it," Penelope said.

"Yeah, I remember reading the report though. There were no witnesses besides the two workers, and the camera footage wasn't found," Spencer said.

"Not found? How is that even possible? I assume the police responded immediately," Rossi added.

"They did, but with no injuries the request for footage would've been made the next day or two, whenever the paperwork was filed," Spencer answered.

"Right, unless it's ongoing, there's not usually a rush on it. A quick robbery, with no injuries…" Luke mentioned.

"So then where did the footage go, and why wasn't that investigated?" Prentiss asked.

"Probably chalked up to coincidence, or they might have a tech team investigating discrepancies or glitches. New York's system is intense. There are cameras everywhere, but they're undermanned as far as having them constantly monitored. Remember, I've gone through this before here. Just because there's a camera doesn't mean anything." Penelope reminded them of their case years ago where the surveillance only took them so far.

"Of course but still no one would've seen the connection?" Emily said in disbelief.

"Honestly with such a large system, this is probably no where near the first camera to not give them what they needed." Penelope shrugged at the two people in the room with her. Luke put his hand on her shoulder.

"Okay, we're heading back in. I'll call the others and see if they've got anything." Emily disconnected.

"This makes no sense. Either they are the luckiest petty thieves in history, or they are too sophisticated to just be petty thieves." Luke scoffed and put his fist down on Penelope's desk as he gazed over her shoulder at her computer screen.

"Right, it doesn't particularly make sense. If you are advanced enough to hack a city's system, why on earth would you do so in order to rob a pizza place for their petty cash?" Reid was scrunching his face as he pondered.

"What if it is truly a coincidence?" Penelope asked hopefully, even though she knew it was just her optimism shining through.

Spencer shook his head. "I'm going to go talk to Director Logan and see if he's already coordinated with the local P.D." Luke nodded at him as he left the room.

Luke saw Penelope worrying her lip as she stared at her screen. "Hey, don't do that."

"But Luke, I-"

"Penelope, I meant what I said before, you're doing your best. We all are. We just don't know what we're looking at yet."

"I know I just - I've done nothing useful, and I-"

Luke spun her chair around and loomed over her face. "Mi carina, I told you to stop. Did you not hear me?"

"I did."

"So you're choosing to ignore my request?" He leaned in close to her face.

"I didn't mean to. I'll stop. I promise." She bit her lip as she remembered that she knew what it was like to kiss him now.

"Yes. You will," he said decisively. He pulled away when he heard Spencer's voice filter through his head.

"Uh guys, I think this is a bigger problem than just a robbery." He cleared his throat. He had seen Luke standing over Penelope, and he was not planning to acknowledge it.

"How so?" Luke took a few steps back so he could face both people in the room.

"The robbers spilled a box of pasta at the bodega."

"Okay, so they're clumsy bad guys?" Penelope said with an arched eyebrow.

"There was pasta at the pizza shop, too," Spencer said.

"Yeah, it's a pizza place," Luke said casually.

"True, but they only sell pizza slices, nothing else. No reason there would be pasta there," Spencer answered.

"What the hell does pasta have to do with anything?" Penelope questioned him.

"A signature," Luke said in realization, and Spencer nodded at him.

"Excuse me, a pasta signature? Are they rejected contestants from the cooking channel?" she asked in disbelief.

"No, there's a crime family. One of the guys is called Vinny 'Pasta' Leon." Luke held up his hand as Penelope opened her mouth to question him. "I don't know why."

"But this could be why there was never any further investigation. The store owner never followed up with the police, and he claimed his interior surveillance was a non-working system. It was just to deter crime," Spencer explained.

"So in reality, the police didn't bother because the people who were robbed were reluctant because this was a bigger threat than someone stealing the cash box?" Penelope asked.

Luke was nodding, and Spencer glanced between him and Penelope. Luke sat on the edge of her desk. "Why though?"

"That, I don't know. But it explains why someone would bother erasing surveillance," Reid explained.

"True, but what in the hell does that have to do with my grandmother? Furthermore, even if my abuela managed to piss off a crime lord, then why the hell would that same unsub go after a college professor?" Luke shook his head.

"So wait, this can't be related then, can it?" Penelope's eyes were steeped in worry.

"It doesn't make sense, but the likelihood that it isn't…" Spencer shrugged.

"What the hell is this?" Penelope was staring at Luke.

"Not a clue, Carina," he answered as he ran his hand over his hair.

"Director Logan was going to bring in the files he received. I'll go see if he put them in the conference room," Spencer said quietly before retreating.

"Luke…" Penelope said in fear.

"We'll figure it out. Everyone will be fine."

"Promise?" she asked in such a small voice.

Luke came close to her again and kissed her forehead. "I promise."

"I love you." Penelope said it shyly as if she hadn't spent the entire night before in a bed with him doing all sorts of things she never knew she wanted to do.

"I love you too," Luke said back to her. "You know what you're going to do tonight?" He leaned over her, pushing her chair back and placing his hands on either side of her on her desk.

Her eyes immediately darkened, and she tried not to bite her lip as peered up at him over her glasses. "What am I going to do for you, sir?"

Luke smirked. He was definitely loving that the game they had been playing was now something that he knew was never just a game after all. "You're going to -"

"Uh, guys, if you just shut the door next time, I'll know to wait a few minutes, and I won't have to awkwardly keep interrupting like this." Spencer gave them an almost smile as he set a couple of files on her desk.

Penelope's eyes went wide, as Luke spoke, "Will do." He cleared his throat and held his hand out for one of the folders. "Let's do this."