Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Hey guys! I'm so sorry about the delay in publishing this. I'm very busy with school and the newspaper right now, so finding writing time is hard. I'm still committed to getting this one done for you guys, and I have the whole thing plotted out, so when I get time I'm going to get these out. Thanks for your patience!

***A quick note on the timeline: things are different from how the early show years work, so the details in Penelope's stories she tells are AU (i.e. the dating, Reid, etc.)

"Tell me everything," Penelope coughed, rubbing her split lip. Her chin was resting against her chest, and she tried to raise it up to look at Elia. As her mother's hand reached out, Elia grasped it gently. Tears filled her eyes, and she moved closer to her mother's side.

Holding up her sweater, she wrapped it around Penelope's sagging shoulders. Her mother was shivering violently from the frigid air. Cold was an understatement for describing the temperature of the abandoned slaughterhouse, and every woman Elia had seen since arriving was in nothing but a satin shift. She hoped desperately her sweater might warm her mother some. She felt sorry for the others, but her mother was her priority.

Penelope attempted to shake her head. "N - no," she stammered. "You need it."

Elia shook her head vigorously, holding the sweater around Penelope's shoulders. "No," she insisted right back. "I don't." And it was true. She would rather see her mother feel some semblance of warmth than watch her shiver. To try and heat her blood up, Elia wrapped her arms around Penelope. Her mother was shaking, her skin ice cold and dry to the touch. Elia didn't want to think about how long it had been since the last time her mother had been warm. And based on the way she was tense at the physical contact, she didn't want to know how long it had been since someone had touched her without hurting her.

After a moment of silence, she readjusted the sweater on her mother's shoulders. Looking at Penelope from the corner of her eye, she tilted her head to the side. "You said to tell you everything. What did you mean?"

"I want to know about your life," Penelope murmured. Her body was still tense, and she was shaking in Elia's arms. "What do you do for fun, what do you want to do when you go to college, what…" Her voice trailed off as she trembled more violently. Adjusting her position, Elia managed to wrap her arms tighter around mother. A small, barely audible laugh bubbled out of Penelope's mouth. She wriggled slightly to remove the sweater, but Elia refused it.

"No," she croaked, tearful. She didn't want her mother to be cold any longer and seeing her trying to shake her help off broke her heart. "Keep it. Please."

Penelope shook her head. Her hair fell down the side of her face, the tips of the strands tickling Elia's forearm. However when Elia's arms tightened around her, she settled somewhat, as if recognizing her embrace from somewhere. Did it remind her of Derek? It was the only explanation. Elia's arms had never been around her.

"Tell me," she whispered. "Please. I want to know." Her fingers rested on one of Elia's wrists, coiling around it like wire.

Choking on tears, Elia breathed in deeply. Her voice was shaky as she spoke. "Anything," she murmured. Her voice came out scraggly, sounding like it was being dragged through a field of broken glass. "Anything you want."

A smile entered Penelope's voice. "It'll be nice to hear what really happened. I've thought about you every single day, but it's all my imagination. And now I get to hear it all."

"Dad did everything right," Elia whispered, her thoughts drifting toward Derek. The last time she had spoken with him, they were yelling at one another in the middle of the precinct. She didn't want Penelope knowing that and worrying; she forced her voice to remain calm. "He always told me the reason he knew how to understand me so well was, how he could know what to do to fix things when I was sad or upset, was because he knew you so well."

Penelope smiled against Elia's chest. "We did know each pretty well," she whispered.

Tears streamed down Elia's face, and she sniffled before continuing. "When Aunt JJ had Liz, she —"

"JJ and Will had another baby after Henry?" Penelope asked.

"Yep. They had two," Elia explained. "Liz is ten, and Ingrid is six." She rubbed her tear-stained cheeks with her shoulder. "When Liz was born, Dad could tell I was having a bad day. I was really jealous because JJ was about to have a baby, and Dad warned me she was going to be busy with the baby so she wasn't going to be able to spend as much time with me. So when she had Liz, the principal called me out of class. Dad was waiting in the hall for me, and we spent the rest of the day together."

When Elia paused for a moment, Penelope spoke. Her voice was barely audible. "What did you do?"

"We went to get lunch and then to the beach. It was the middle of winter, but we went anyway and had a snowball fight." Elia smiled at the memory; it was etched in her brain by the sound of the waves and the freezing wind blowing from the day. "I remember him telling me that he knew I was frustrated that JJ was going to be busier, but no matter what she would always love me. In the end, I told him that I was okay if JJ was busier, just as long as he was never too busy for me. And he's always been here. Always." As she held her mother, the memory of her day at the beach with Derek tore at her heart, poking at her with tiny needles that were causing her to bleed all through her body. Was she ever going to see him again? A lump rose in her throat, and she choked on a cry.

Her mother patted her hand. "What is it?" Penelope murmured. "I want to hear more."

Swallowing hard, Elia managed to say, "I'm never going to see him again, am I?"

"Listen to me," Penelope began. She began to sit up so she could look Elia directly in the eye. Her mother's hands cupped her face, and she rested their foreheads together. Elia began to sob. Staying strong and holding her resolve wasn't working the way she wanted it to. Everything was crashing down on top of her, dumping her emotional baggage all over the concrete of the slaughterhouse. "You are going to see him again. He won't stop until he finds you. I know it. I know him."

Shaking her head, Elia sobbed harder. "He never found you!" she wept. "He looked and looked, but they kept you from us too well."

"Things are different when our children are the ones missing," Penelope told her. "He could function while I was gone because he had you. If he loses you…he would never recover. It's all he's going to do until he has you back."

Elia looked at her mother directly and saw the sincerity glistening behind her differing eyes: one swollen, purple lid and one fading yellow bruised lid. Her body began shaking uncontrollably, and she bit her lip. In the mere blink of an eye she'd known her mother, she was baffled at the amount of strength she was displaying. For the entirety of Elia's life, Penelope had been locked up in sex rings. She couldn't fathom what she had gone through, but she never would have guessed she would be this resilient. Her mother was the strongest woman she was ever going to meet; the fact she was sitting here proved that.

"Do you hear me?" Penelope murmured, wiping the tears from Elia's cheeks with her frozen hands. "You're getting out of here."

With trembling lips, Elia nodded. "What about you?" she asked quietly. "Why don't you say we're getting out of here?"

Penelope leaned forward and kissed Elia's forehead. The gesture, so obviously filled with her maternal love and desire to protect her, brought fresh tears to Elia's eyes. "Because you're more important," Penelope said. "My life doesn't matter anymore; yours means everything."

XXXXX

"Guys!" Reid cried, rushing back into the precinct. Dawn was creeping over the city, and the whole way back from the hospital Reid refused to divulge the information about who Lilith was. Now that they were back and reunited with the team, Derek wanted to know who the woman who had taken his daughter was emulating.

Derek's fists clenched into tight balls, and he glared at Reid. "This one here wouldn't tell me who this bitch is reminding him of," he spat.

"There's a reason for that," Reid returned evenly, going to the head of the table. He looked around at the rest of the team.

Rossi arched a brow, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. "What is it? What did you find out?"

"When we were talking with the physician who oversaw Samantha Todd's case, she told us how it went," Reid explained. "There's some history to them as well that we need to know; it's how I figured it out. As a child, Lilith had extreme pressures put on her to be beautiful and in control at all times. Well, this came into play later in Samantha's death. Lilith was fluffing her mother's pillows when Samantha started coughing blood. The blood landed on Lilith's hand, and she was mesmerized by it." He raised his brows. "Anyone see where I'm going with this?"

The whole table was staring at him incredulously. "No idea, Reid," Sanders said. "Spit it out." Her voice was impatient.

Before Reid could continue though, Rossi spoke up frantically. "Oh God," he said. "Tell me this isn't who I think it is."

"Who the fuck is it?" Derek demanded.

"Erzsébet Báthory," Reid explained. "She was a Hungarian countess in the seventeenth century who is hailed as the most prolific female serial killer of all time. Some say she may be the most prolific serial killer period. She had a list of over six hundred victims."

Sanders frowned. "Lilith Todd has only killed twelve girls."

"It's not the amount of victims that she has killed that is the worst part," Rossi growled. "It's the fact that Erzsébet Báthory killed six hundred plus girls, most of whom were virgins. And she…" He paused, choking on the lump in his throat. "She bathed in their blood. She thought it would keep her youthful."

Reid bit his lip. "The Blood Countess rumors are just that: rumors. There's no verifiable proof she actually did that. The legends keep her infamy alive, but there's no proof she bathed in the blood of virgins."

Derek felt sick to his stomach as he stared at Reid. "Regardless of if the rumors about a dead Hungarian countess are true or not," he began with a shaking voice, "this woman is draining the blood of virgins and using it as a beauty product."

"The problems with her mother must have left her unstable enough that when she coughed blood on her it triggered her desire to look younger even more," Hotch said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Her mother's death was the stressor that caused her to kill, and once she started, the desire to look youthful took over and made it impossible for her to stop. And the fact that she has complete control over her victims is an added bonus for her."

"Her mother couldn't have been a virgin, though," JJ remarked. "Why not just kill all women, virgin or not?"

Reid shook his head. "Virgin blood in mythology and rituals is said to be quote-on-quote pure," he explained. "She could have taken one girl, and after finding out the victim was a virgin she realized she liked the look the blood left on her skin better. It's also possible she heard the legend about Countess Báthory and decided to emulate her."

Derek looked from team member to team member, observing their varying expressions of concern. His own face was stricken with fear at the thought of his daughter in the clutches of a woman who wanted her blood. He rubbed his face, anxiety racing through his blood and shaking his limbs. Wringing his trembling hands together, he cleared his throat and blinked.

How could this have happened? he thought to himself as he stared blankly at the faces of his BAU family. First Penelope had been taken, gone without a trace for seventeen years; now Elia was gone, taken by a maniac.

And he was useless to them. That small fact paralyzed him to the point he felt his limbs would harden to granite. His daughter's life was rolling on a Super 8 behind his eyelids. Memories of her as a child, toddling excitedly toward him as he reentered the house after a long case, memories of her getting help from JJ to pick out Homecoming dresses, memories of her concentrating on studying for the SATs.

Was he going to see Elia again, not just as a wisp of a memory in his mind?

As Derek stared at them all blankly, unmoving, he could faintly make out the ringing of the phone. Hotch leaned forward to press the speaker phone on. "Go ahead, Gregory," he said.

"Everyone hold onto your seats because I have just found some interesting information!" Gregory chirped.

Derek's head snapped to the phone. His eyes narrowed, and his palms began to sweat uncontrollably. Coughing, he sank into a chair and put his head in his hands. "What did you find, Gregory?" he choked out.

"Well…" Gregory drawled.

XXXXX

Penelope and Elia were huddled close together, attempting to stay warm in the biting arctic temperature of the slaughterhouse. She had no idea what time it was or how long it had been since Lilith had given her Elia, but none of it mattered. Time was nothing but a word to Penelope now that she had her daughter within reach. Merely the sound of Elia's voice was enough for her to forget everything of reality. After two decades of nothing to go on but her imagination, having Elia there made her feel more alive in a way she hadn't felt since she was taken from her.

After assuring Elia she would see Derek once more, Penelope proceeded to ask her everything about her life. Derek had raised their daughter beautifully. Everything Penelope was hearing was that her husband and her daughter were inseparable, like the only person each of them truly trusted was one another.

"He doesn't like any of my friends," Elia murmured. "It's frustrating, but…" She was quiet a moment. "But it doesn't matter because he's my best friend." She laughed softly, as if pausing once more before saying more.

However, she didn't say anything. Penelope tilted her head to the side. "What? What is it?"

"I was just thinking that I'm going to make him like Kyle," Elia giggled. Glancing over at her mother and her raised eyebrow, she added, "He's a boy…that I like."

Penelope smiled. "Oh?" she asked. It didn't surprise her that Derek didn't like their daughter dating a boy, no matter how sweet he might be. She always knew he would spoil their children. When they were told Elia would be their only child, she knew the spoiling would only intensify and his already protective nature would become more fierce. "Tell me about Kyle."

Elia stubbornly shook her head. "Enough about me. I want to know about you."

Penelope blinked. "Why do you want to know about me?" she asked.

"Well…you're my mom," Elia said simply. "Aunt JJ or Uncle Dave will tell me something every now and then, but they don't know you like Dad does." Her face became forlorn, distant and lost in thought. "He goes into a funk for a few days if I ask something, so I don't."

Staring ahead blankly, Penelope felt her muscles relax for the first time in many years. What did she tell her daughter? There was nothing that came to her brain. So much of her was forgotten, scattered across the country in all the places she'd been. The only parts of her she had kept firmly in place were the memories of Derek, her BAU family, and baby Elia. All thoughts of herself were faded like the corners of an old photograph.

Elia's fingers entangled with Penelope's, drawing her back to reality. Her head jerked in the direction of her daughter beside her at the squeeze of her daughter's hand. "Please tell me something," Elia said. Tears swam on the surface of her eyes. "I don't know you at all."

Swallowing hard, Penelope nodded. "Okay," she managed. Thinking back into her past, flipping through it like a history book, she tried to remember any happy memory she could. One in particular jumped to mind. "I've got something." She took a deep breath, calling the memory to her tongue. "I didn't join the FBI voluntarily; I was actually caught hacking, and instead of throwing me in jail, Hotch gave me a job. When I was in the interrogation room in San Jose —"

"You were in California?" Elia interrupted excitedly.

Penelope nodded. "I grew up there. And I learned to hack there. I got good at it, and I got caught. And when I was in the interrogation room and Hotch was telling me what my options were, the door opened and this…" Her voice trailed off as her lips quirked into a small smile, a true smile that hadn't graced her face in years. The memory of the first time she laid eyes on Derek was somehow making her feel warmer in the icebox of a building.

"This what?" Elia murmured. Penelope had been silent too long for her daughter's taste. She was impatient to hear the story.

"This guy entered the interrogation room," Penelope breathed, picturing the scene clearer than she had in years. "He had my bag with him after they'd taken my phone and computer away from me. Hotch told him he could unlock my hand from the handcuff, and after Hotch left, he unlocked me." She paused. "And I was super bitter, so I called him Eyebrows." Another pause; she had to laugh. The sound of her laugh was foreign to her; it had been so long since she'd heard it. "I called him Eyebrows, and I asked him if there was a 'Men of the FBI' calendar with the whole thing full of him. And, of course, he didn't respond. He looked at me and welcomed me to the team.

They were quiet for a long time before Elia spoke. "You met Dad in an interrogation room?" she breathed in fascination. "Like a real interrogation room where he will scare the shit out of criminals?"

Tears filled Penelope's eyes. Holding it together as best she could, she nodded. "And that's not all. There were a couple of weeks before I actually started working with the BAU, and to really leave everything behind, I dyed my hair back to its original blonde and got a new wardrobe. I became an entirely different person. And on my first day at the BAU, I was getting my things gathered and ready to go to my new office…and someone yelled out, 'Gomez!' Well, I thought they might have been talking about someone else named Gomez, so I kept on walking. But then…"

She stopped to force her voice out of her throat. Scalding tears trickled down her cheeks. Could she say this? Would she be able to get these two simple words to leave her mouth?

"What did he say?" Elia murmured, breaking the silence. Her fingers squeezed Penelope's hand, wordlessly stating she understood the pain.

Taking a deep breath, she bent her head and whispered the name: "Baby Girl." She sniffled. "He didn't recognize me because of the hair, and no one remembered my name."

"He called you Baby Girl?" Elia asked in amusement. "In front of everyone?"

Penelope nodded. "In front of everyone," she confirmed. "And he didn't even care. And he never cared any day after that. He kept calling me that, and we started dating a month later." She turned her face sideways to look at her daughter. Her face was stained with tears, and she pushed a strand of her hair out of her eyes. She touched Elia's cheek. "Four years later…we had you." Despite her tears, she smiled.

Elia, too, smiled. She leaned her head against Penelope's arm, and rested there. Penelope kissed the top of her daughter's head.

They sat together in the slaughterhouse, staying close for warmth. Elia wanted to hear stories about Penelope and Derek's life together, and Penelope told her everything she could think of. Whispering the stories did her some good; she hadn't dwelled on these stories in so long that letting them roll off her tongue provided her a feeling she didn't think she would ever have again: happiness.

"He had already waived them, so your Uncle Spencer and I went through that whole afternoon for nothing," Penelope giggled, remembering the day her husband forced her and Reid through an unnecessary workout. It was the year before Elia was born, and Reid was brand new to the BAU. She'd been pissed, but after they'd gotten home, Derek and she had had fantastic makeup sex. She didn't mention that detail to Elia, but it certainly popped up in her head.

"That jerk," Elia laughed. She sighed wistfully. "He had a sense of humor, though?"

Penelope nodded. "A great one," she murmured.

"He never laughs now," her daughter responded. "He pretends to, but you can tell it's fake." It wasn't easy, but Penelope attempted to imagine Derek like that, the sparkle gone from his eyes and his voice hollow. She could barely see it. Before she could say more, Elia added, "He won't have to pretend anymore, though."

Frowning, Penelope looked in Elia's eyes, the ones identical to her own. "What do you mean?"

"He's getting you back." Elia's amber gaze was unyielding.

Wiping her runny nose, Penelope smiled with trembling lips. She opened her mouth to say more, but before she could say anything else, a rattling sounded from across the cage. Her gaze shot upwards, and her blood ran cold at the sight of Brutus, Fynn, and worst of all, Lilith. She stood with her arms crossed, a devilish smile gracing her blood-red lips. Ignoring the pain in her arms, Penelope tightened her hold on Elia.

"Hello, ladies," Lilith purred as Brutus opened the cage. "Getting to know one another, I see."

Frantically, Penelope crawled forward on the concrete and pushed herself to her feet, positioning herself in front of Elia. "Stay away from her!" she snapped, standing in front of Brutus, Fynn, and Lilith defiantly. Brutus' face remained its usual stoic expression, but Fynn grinned wolfishly, his face showing he was ready to torment.

"Mom," Elia whispered, her hand touching her shoulder. She'd risen to stand beside her.

"Mommy's little clone gave away her sweater," Fynn noted in a snarl, cocking his head to the side. "How sweet." He stepped closer to Elia, so close he was able to sniff her hair. "It's too bad she's a virgin…I would have loved to get a piece of this." Elia's eyes went wide, and she looked ready to shrink backwards into the corner of the cage.

Bristling, Penelope moved to stand in front of Elia. She glared at Fynn. "You're not touching her," she hissed. "At all."

Fynn chuckled and looked away briefly. Quick as a flash of lightning, though, his arm shot forward, and he backhanded her.

"Mom!" Elia gasped as Penelope fell backwards into her arms. Stars briefly filled Penelope's vision, but she forced them away to stand back in front of Fynn. Her daughter tried to hold her back, but she pulled out of her grasp, keeping her body in front of her.

"Ooh, kitty's getting back on her feet awfully fast," Fynn laughed.

Lilith rolled her eyes and went forward to slap Fynn's arm. "Enough." She crossed her arms and glared at her henchman. "You can play with Penelope later. Right now, we have a job to do."

Her eyes flicked to Elia, and Penelope felt her blood run cold. No! This was too soon. Veronica had been here for three days before Lilith took her and she was never seen again. Was she out of time to plan her daughter's escape?

She grasped Elia's hand and shook her head desperately at Lilith. "Leave her alone," she croaked. "I'm begging you, Lilith. Don't do this to my baby!" Tears streamed down her face. "I'll do whatever you want. I'll stop fighting, I'll fight more. Whatever you want!"

"Oh, my dear darling Penelope," Lilith purred. "Nothing you do will keep me from your daughter. She's far too valuable. Your bonding is touching to me, and the fact your husband has clearly remained miserable and told your baby who her mother is oh so romantic." Her eyes flashed. "But your happiness doesn't matter to me. Your beloved Derek's misery will amuse me more than anything; Elia belongs to me now."

Penelope's boiling rage reached its maximum level, and without thinking, she lunged forward toward Lilith. Her nails raked across her left eye. The soft flesh of the woman's flawless face split as Penelope's nails came away with skin beneath them. Lilith screeched, but it wasn't one of pain; the scream was full of rage. When Brutus shoved Penelope backwards, she was able to observe her handiwork. A grin of satisfaction lit up her face as she stared at the marred flesh of Lilith's once perfect face. A demonic look covering her face, Lilith clutched her eye with one hand and pointed to Elia. Penelope stepped in front of her daughter, trying to protect her. She knew it wouldn't work - Brutus and Fyn would easily toss her aside - but her defensive instincts were kicking in.

"You bitch!" she hissed. "You just made this worse for your precious baby!" She threw her glance to Brutus. "Take the girl!"

"No!" Penelope cried, holding both her arms out. Like she predicted, Brutus shoved her aside and grabbed Elia. Her daughter made no sound as she was dragged out of the cage and into the hallway. Fynn remained behind, grabbing Penelope from behind and locking her arms behind her back. He thrust her forward to the side of the cage that looked into Sally's, and her face was squished against the chainlink. Sally was huddled in the farthest corner she could possibly put herself, shaking with fear.

Fynn leaned in to Penelope's ear and hissed, "You little girl is going to get a lesson in how we work...and you're going to watch helplessly. You can't save her from this."

Penelope squirmed in his grasp as Elia was taken into Sally's cage by Brutus. Her bruised face ached as it was shoved into the chainlink, and she watched in horror as Lilith shot forward to Sally's corner. Grabbing her by the hair, she yanked the young woman upwards by the scalp. Sally yelped in fright, tears streaming down her face as she whimpered. Lilith dragged her frightened captive to stand in front of Elia. Elia's eyes were wide as she struggled soundlessly in Brutus' grasp.

From the pocket of her dress, Lilith brandished a razor sharp blade. A flash of the overhead fluorescent light danced across the blade and a scream escaped Penelope's mouth. Who was the knife meant for? Lilith's eyes shot to Penelope. A lethal glint entered her eyes, and a wicked smile covered her face. Penelope could swear her teeth looked like fangs from the angle she was seeing her from.

"The cold hard truth of what is going to happen to your daughter is coming soon," Lilith screeched maniacally.

"No!" Penelope wept as Lilith raised the knife to strike.