Chapter 127
AN: Thank you so much for the support. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, leave a review. So, this chapter was complicated to write because of the jumping back and forth, so I hope you enjoy.
A little while has passed since the case in Miami and while Penelope and Emily have made some progress in their packing they still have a lot to go. As the have a new case, the team, except for Reid who is still teaching, are in the roundtable room, being briefed by Penelope.
"It's time to get our tinfoil hats, my fine furry friends, because we are on our way to Roswell, New Mexico, aka ground zero of conspiracy theorists because of a certain alien crash… I mean weather balloon," Penelope says, and Emily has to hide a smirk as while she doesn't agree she knows her wife's passions and she loves it when Penelope talks about things, she is passionate about.
"The Sheriff there has had two suspicious deaths over the last forty-eight hours," Emily explains. "Both victims were members of the truther movement," Emily explains.
"Yes, which is a group of conspiracy theorist who share their out-there beliefs online with each other. No judgement here," Penelope says. "Let's look at our first victim, Bryan Behar. He believed that the fluoride they put in our drinking water is a mind-control agent meant to keep us docile," Penelope explains. "He died by drowning. People drown all the time, you say, I say not in their own aquariums," Penelope says, putting the image on the screen.
"So, the MO matches his conspiracy. Is that a coincidence or a choice?" Matt asks.
"That depends on victim number two," Rossi says.
"Uh-huh," Penelope says, putting the next picture on. "That's Carl Lee. He's a JFK conspiracy nut who was shot once in the throat," Penelope explains.
"As anyone who saw the Zapruder film knows, that's where the fist bullet struck Kennedy," JJ explains.
"Carl Lee we can definitively classify as a homicide, but the drowning death…. That could have another explanation," Luke realizes.
"That's why we'll be treating this as an equivocal death investigation. Wheels up in twenty," Emily says, and as everyone gets up to leave Emily walks over to Penelope. "I'll see you when I get home," Emily says to her wife before kissing her. "I love you," Emily says, when they break apart.
"I love you," Penelope responds, and once she does Emily leaves.
A little while later the team are on the plane on their way to New Mexico and Penelope has called in to give the team more info.
"It looks like two of our victims were talking by encrypted text," Penelope explains to everyone. "It took a while to break, and their conversation was short, but it's context made my perfectly shaped eyebrows go, "Huh"," Penelope explains. "Carl says to Bryan, 'I think I'm close to finding out who it is,' to which Bryan says, 'Maybe we should go to the police,' and Carl says, 'what good would that do?"," Penelope explains.
"Well, that could be motive. Whatever Carl was close to finding out could have killed him and Bryan," Matt theorizes.
"At first glance, yeah, but we're talking about conspiracy theorist here, and a lot of them suffer from association fallacy," Luke says. "Let's say you thought Lyndon Johnson had JFG killed in order to esculat the war in Vietnam…" Luke starts to say.
"That's ridiculous. Everyone knows that…" Rossi stars to say.
"Non, no. We're not getting into that again," Emily says to her father-in-law, as she has heard Rossi speak on this particular subject many, many times. "Go ahead, Luke," Emily instructs, to Luke's confusion.
"Uh, my point is, that if you thought the government could do that, then you were likely to believe that they'd brought down the towers on 9-11. Pretty soon you're down that rabbit hole and you see everything as a plot," Luke explains.
"So maybe these guys weren't into anything. Maybe they just talked themselves into a group delusion," JJ suggests.
"Okay, we should investigate that when we land," Emily realizes. "And since the police are mentioned so prominently on the text they might know what the victims were looking into," Emily explains.
"The Chicago Mob, right? Killed JFK," Matt says to Rossi, knowing that because he has heard Rossi's theories many, many times before just like Emily.
"He gets it," Rossi says, sounding glad.
"No, don't get him started, Matt. You know better," Emily tells him, "Next, he'll be showing you the YouTube clips which you damn well know," Emily says.
For the next day the teamwork the case, until it has become clear that the best hope they have to catch the killer is to deliver the profile to the truther community. As the team have profiled that it would be better to do it on the Truther's own turf the team have gathered them in the local hall the night after they arrived in Roswell.
"The unknown subject we're looking for is a male, most likely in his twenties based on the two victims so far," Emily explains. "But before we go any further, we need to be clear. Age is the most difficult variable to predict. He could be in his forties," Emily explains.
"A very fit forties," Rossi adds.
"So, our point is, the profile is a guide only," Emily explains. "It's an investigative tool, and we need to stress that. All we have is a series of deductions, but one of those deductions is that the unsub knew his victims personally which is why we're delivering the profile to you, because you also knew the victims," Emily explains. "So, our goal is not to make you uncomfortable or suspicious. Normally we wouldn't even give the profile this early, but you are our best chance at discovering the identity of…" Emily starts to say, and as she does one of the truthers puts up their hands. "Yes?" Emily asks.
"I have a question for you Agent Rossi," The man says.
"Go ahead," Rossi says.
"Why did your last book suck so bad?" the man asks, and several of the truthers laugh at that.
"Uh, well, we're not gonna talk about that now," Rossi says.
"Really? That's all I want to talk about. I mean, you even consider that Tommy Yates was a patsy?" The guy asks.
"Look, we get it, okay? You have no reason to trust us. We're the FBI and you are the official community of the Roswell, New Mexico truthers," JJ says.
"Thanks for not calling us conspiracy theorists," Melissa, the only women in the group, says.
"Well, we know you don't like that term. While we don't agree with your opinions, a lot of people do," JJ explains. "Like how September 11th was an inside job, or how vapor trails from jets are poisonous or how lizard people are secretly running the government," JJ says.
"Ah-ah-ah! Confirmation from the FBI. You all heard it!" the guy who was so excited to criticize Rossi's book says; sounding oh so happy.
"No, no, see that's specificically not what I was…" JJ starts to say, but she realizes that there is no point. "Okay, we need your help to stop a killer who is hding in this group. That's why we are having this here in this Legion Hall and not at the police station," JJ explains. "We didn't want you to feel surveilled," JJ explains.
"What did you put in my pocket?" One of the men says, as he pulls a gun.
"Gun! Drop it! Drop it!" Matt yells as the rest of the team yell other things, and they all pull their gun.
"Al right, everyone calm down," Emily says, attempting to de-escalate the situation. "What's your name? I'm Emily," Emily says as she pulls her badge and shows the man as she points her gun. "Emily Prentiss, it says right here," Penelope explains. "The reason I'm asking is so we can have a conversation,"
"Doug, I'm Doug," Doug says.
"Great, Dough. Let's just take a second, let's think through the logic of this," Emily suggests, as she has one objective and that's to de-escalate the situation and make sure everyone walks away in one piece.
"I..I didn't do any of this!" Doug exclaims.
"We're not saying you did, but you're making things worse with a gun," Emily explains.
"The reason we asked you here, the only reason, is to listen. That's all, okay? So just listen," Tara instructs.
"listen. Put the gun down," Emily says.
"I know a false flag when I see one, you bitch!" Doug says before using the gun to kill himself.
A little while later the team have retuned to the police station and attempted to all the truthers, but all of them, except for Melissa, have asked for a lawyer. Even though Emily is not completely thrilled about the idea Tara is going to have a conversation with Melissa, that will be recorded for their podcast, so that they can get the answers they need.
"Say something, we need to make sure the levels are good," Melissa requests.
"I'm Doctor Tara Lewis of the BAU," Tara says, and as she does Melissa reaches over and turns off the recorder.
"No, say something interesting," Melissa requests, as she resets the recorder. "Tell me how you feel about the truthers," Melissa requests. "My audience could use a sense of the FBI's bias against us," Melissa requests.
"I got my PhD by taking a theory, testing it, and then proving my results," Tara explains. "Now, proving my results means I take those results and I turn them over to other scientists to see if I can replicate them, and if they can't, then my theory was wrong," Tara explains. "See, that's science. A consensus of evidence that we call the truth. What you do is different," Tara explains.
"Oh, no, it's not," Melissa argues.
"Yes, it is," Tara says slightly forcefully. "Because your theories are unprovable. Give me one," Tara requests.
"Uh, President Obama wasn't born here. He was born in Kenya," Melissa says.
"Perfect, that's perfect," Tara says, the sarcasm all too clear in her voice as she feels completely done, she hates these kids of theories. "So, I show you his long-form birth certificate, and then you would respond that it's been faked because that's how deep this conspiracy goes, and then that because your argument against any evidence I provide," Tara explains. "It's a cognitive trick that keeps you from having to admit that life is messy it's random," Tara says. "Not everything fits an easy explanation that a conspiracy gives you," Tara explains.
"All right, then. Well, let's talk about the murders. When did you first hear about them?" Melissa asks.
"Yesterday, when we were invited in," Tara explains, and she proceeds to tell Melissa about what happened in the roundtable room the day before.
"Back up," Melissa says, preventing Tara from explaining more. "What's that term you used? Equivocal something?" Melissa asks confused.
"An equivocal death investigation. It's an investigation where we consider all options," Tara explains. "It could be a murder, but it could also be a suicide or an accident or even natural causes," Tara explains.
"Are you saying these murders weren't murder? Is that the FBI official position?" Melissa asks.
"I'm saying we let clues guide us to a deduction. We don't jump to conclusions," Tara says, and she explains what else was said by the team in the roundtable room the day before. "But as we were flying here our technical analyst uncovered something unusual," Tara explains.
"Right. Your technical analyst that would be Penelope Garcia?" Melisa asks, to Tara's surprise, though Tara also knows that she said Garcia, and not Prentiss or even Rossi as Garcia is the name collected to Penelope for anything related to work.
"Yeah," Tara confirms, wondering just how much Melissa knows.
"I looked up your whole team before coming in here," Melissa explains.
"Why did you do that?" Tara asks interested, as while she can guess some of the reasons, she would like to know Melissa's actual reason.
"Because I'm a naturally suspicious person who wanted to get a feel for your methods," Melissa explains. "Specifically, the illegal surveillance that the FBI is willing to resort to to frame innocent men and women," Mellissa comments.
"As I said, the FBI doesn't frame anyone, and we certainly don't do anything illegal," Tara explains.
"Well, I guess that depends on what Garcia found and how she found it, so what did she find?" Melissa asks, and Tara explains what happened on the plane, but as she does Melissa gets hung up on one particular detail. "Okay, stop right there," Melissa instructs.
"What?" Tara asks confused, as she is pretty sure she has said nothing that should make Melissa angry.
"You guys have a jet?" Melissa asks, sounding beyond shocked.
"Yes,"
"A jet?" Melissa asks.
"Yes," Tara says simply.
"Black helicopters surveilling the American people. No, no, that ridiculous, but a little branch of the FBI has it's own private jet," Melissa says, sounding beyond shocked as she really cannot believe this.
"Okay, one, I never said the FBI doesn't have black helicopters," Tara explains. "And two, when people are being murdered, we had to respond quickly," Tara explains, causing Melissa to scoff.
"A jet. I can't even," Melissa says, sounding completely disbelieving as she cannot believe that the BAU has their own jet. "Sorry, where were we?" Melissa asks.
As Melissa is still shocked about the fact that the BAU has their own jet Tara explains the rest of the conversation that occurred between the members of the BAU on their way to Roswell.
"So, I'm sure when you flew in, they showed you Carl and Bryan's police record," Melissa assumes.
"They did," Tara confirms. "And what we saw was four years of reports that both men were convinced someone was watching them, but despite his best efforts Sheriff Bowman was never able to find any evidence of stalking," Tara explains.
"Oh yeah, coz he tried really hard," Melissa says, sounding sarcastic.
"You know what was much more interesting was what we found when we walked the crime scenes," Tara explains and she proceeds to explain what happened.
Over the next few minutes Tara explains what happened at the crime scene and she is able to get through the entire explanation without Melissa interrupting.
"And that brings us up to tonight," Tara explains. "Ballistics confirmed that the gun that killed Carl was the one that Doug used on himself. All evidence points to Doug Downey as our killer, except…" Tara starts to explain.
"Except you don't have anything tying Doug to Bryan's drowning," Melissa realizes.
"Melissa, I've been as transparent as I can possibly be. Is there anything we've missed?" Tara asks, and Melissa sighs.
"On thing, but you didn't miss it, you covered it up," Melissa reveals. "Specifically, that the sheriff made us all walk through a metal detector," Melissa explains.
"What?" Tara asks shocked as she did not know that.
"Don't pretend you didn't know that, and don't pretend you don't know why," Melissa says angrily. "Someone in Law Enforcement planted a gun on Doug, because what was it that he was saying earlier tonight?" Melissa asks, and both Tara and Melissa remember Doug's last moments.
"Melissa, that doesn't make any sense," Tara says.
"You tell me what's more believable… a missing gun in a wacky compartment or that police planted a Bodyguard 380, a very popular firearm in law enforcement, on Doug. Then, they call their friends all the wain Quantico and you guys get on your fancy jet and come out here to make sure the cover-up's complete," Melissa says.
"That's not what happened," Tara says, trying to remain calm, even though she is becoming angrier.
"Am I your unsub? Yes or no?" Melissa asks, wanting a straight answer.
"You are a person of interest, just like every other truther in this building tonight," Tara explains.
"That's a yes," Melissa realizes. "Which is why I'm recording all of this, to show the world exactly how far the FBI is willing to go to cover up the truth," Melissa says.
"Okay. Let's take a moment," Tara says as they are getting so far away from what is helpful. "I think we've gotten off track," Tara says.
"No, no, no. we're uh, we're right where we need to be," Melissa says. "See, I wanted the brilliant science of Behavioral profiling to provide an answer for all of this, I really did," Melissa admits. "But right now, from where I'm sitting this crazy conspiracy theorist is the only one making sense," Melissa says.
Over the next couple of hours the team work to make sense of what has occurred, including discovering why the metal detector didn't work, and after another conversation with Melissa Tara walks out of the interrogation room, across the police station, and to another conference room where she starts to screen.
Having seen her friends actions Emily is feeling more than a little concerned and so she heads directly to where her friend is.
"You want to talk about it?" Emily asks curious.
"No," Tara answers, as she really doesn't want to do that.
"It's okay to tap out if you want," Emily assures her friend, in a kind voice, as she doesn't want Tara to do anything, she is not able to do.
"No," Tara answers. "Emily, I can do this," Tara assures her friend and boss.
"Has she said anything that points to her involvement in the murders? Have you gotten any answers out of her?" Emily asks curious, and from the look on Tara's face Emily knows the answer. "Maybe it's time to change up the strategy," Emily says, having an idea.
Over the next couple of hours the team continue to work the case, which has lead to the entire team being back in the Legion Hall, in the early hours of the morning, recreating what occurred earlier.
"So, you were there and I was here," Tara says to Emily.
"Right," Emily confirms.
"And then he was screaming at you, 'I know a false flag when I see one, bitch,', and then bang," Tara says.
"No, that's not right," Emily says. "He said all those things, but not to me, he was looking at you," Emily explains.
"No, no, if someone made eye contact with me and called me a bitch, I'd remember," Tara says.
"Maybe he wasn't looking at either of you," Matt suggests. "He was looking between you," Matt explains.
"Uh.. JJ, you were posted over there, for line of sight," Tara realizes.
"Yeah," JJ confirms.
"Okay, then there's only one other women in the room he would have been talking to," Tara realizes, and as she does it's like everything makes sense to her. "It all started with Carl's text. I'm close to finding out who it is', he was talking about Melissa, as in, 'I'm close to finding out who she's cheating with,', "Tara explains.
"She was cheating with Doug?" JJ asks, trying to make sense of Tara's line of thinking.
"Yes, and when she found out Carl was onto her, she killed him," Tara explains, feeling like it makes perfect sense.
"Whoa, slow down there, partner," Rossi suggests.
"Think about it, it's the oldest motivation in the book, sex," Tara explains. "Melissa is cunning and manipulative, and she is a psychopath, and a good one," Tara explains. "I mean, she sat there while I laid out this entire case, she did not tip a thing," Tara says. "Now, Doug prints were on the gun because of the suicide, but with Carl Melissa could have used gloves and…" Tara starts to explain, but as she does she notices the looks on the others faces. "What? Why is everyone staring at me?" Tara asks, feeling confused.
"Tara, I want to believe that," JJ says. "An arrest would relieve a lot of tension on this case, but…" JJ starts to explain.
"But we don't have the evidence, and without the evidence, we're no better than the truthers," Luke explains.
"No better than the truthers," Tara repeats, as the words cut her deeply. "Melissa…. Thinks that Sandy Hook was staged," Tara explains, the horror all to clear in her voice. "I was there… that day, and I counseled those parents, and I saw… I saw those kids," Tara says, her voice breaking. "So, the day that I lose to someone like her, that's the day I quit," Tara explains.
"It's biased thinking, and if we allow it to color our profile and the arrest falls apart, we'll be a stain on the Bureau," Emily explains.
"Okay, so what, we just… we just just back of Melissa?" Tara asks as she really, really doesn't want to do that.
"No, we back up our profile," Emily says. "You have a theory, Tara, now prove your results," Emily says to Tara as she trusts Tara's instincts, they just need the evidence to act on it. "Now, once we're inside Melissa's house, what are we looking for?" Emily asks.
"Well, maybe she cleaned up Carl Lee's crime scene. The gun's accounted for, but the missing bullet and casing aren't," Matt explains.
"Great start," Emily says approvingly. "What else?" Emily asks, looking between the others.
A while later, as part of their plan to try and knock Melissa off her feet so she gives something away, Emily is walking into the Interrogation room where Melissa is.
"What's going on? Who are you?" Melissa asks, as soon as Emily walks in.
"I'm SSA Emily Prentiss of the BAU," Emily explains. "Melissa, you're gonna want to take a seat," Emily says as she sits down.
"Oh god, someone died, didn't they?" Melissa asks, as she sits down.
"What makes you say that?" Emily asks.
"You guys have had me waiting in here for ours while your team tracked down Bob Orci. What happened?" Melissa asks.
"Are you recording this? You should," Emily says, and Melissa once again press record on her phone. "Agents Simmons and Alves landed at Bob Orci's at 3:37am," Emily explains. "The were very surprised by what they found, Emily explains, and she reveals that she and the sheriff were already there.
"Wait, so you got there before them, how?" Melissa asks shocked as she didn't think that was possible.
"By helicopter," Emily explains. "Not the Bureau's Helicopter, this one belongs to the police force," Emily explains.
"What?" Melissa asks shocked, once again feeling disbelieving.
"There's been a push," Emily explains. "Police forces across the country have been purchasing military grade hardware," Emily explains.
"Yeah, like grenade launches and tanks," Melissa comments, in an annoyed tone.
"Roswell doesn't need a tank, it needs a helicopter," Emily says in a matter of fact tone of voice. "People get lot in the desert. Sometimes an FBI agent like me needs to get to a cabin in the middle of nowhere as fast as possible," Emily explains. "Based on your warning the sheriff and I landed a mile away and we came up with a plan," Emily explains before proceeding to explain what happened at the cabin.
"Organic tomatoes," Melissa says shocked, after hearing the explanation that Bob gave.
"Yeah," Emily confirms.
"ANFO stands for ammonium nitrate fuel oil," Melissa explains. "Fuel oil," Melissa stresses. "You can't grow anything with it," Melissa points out.
"We pointed that out to Bob, he said it must be why his tomatoes kept dying," Emily explains. "We searched the whole compound anyway. There was no bomb, but Bob Orci had quite the story to tell," Emil explains, explaining what Bob told her, and the conversation they had.
"So it was Carl's copy. Doug didn't bring it with him?" Melissa asks, trying to make sense of everything. "Why would Doug put page seventy-six over Carl's throat?" Melissa asks, interested in knowing the explanation for that.
"He didn't," Emily explains. "Only Carl's fingerprints and DNA were on that page, Doug never touched it," Emily explains.
"You've lost me," Melissa says, sounding confused.
"Ever been shot before? People do weird things when they're shot," Emily explains. "Carl was slipping into shock, meaning he had some vague awareness that he was gonna die and his brain was short-circuiting," Emily explains.
"So, that clue that seemed so important four hours ago, it means nothing?" Melissa asks, not understanding how that could be possible.
"Life is messy, random," Emily explains. "That's why I sent Agent Jareau back to the first crime scene We needed to take a look at it again without any preconceptions," Emily explains. "And when she saw the cleaning supplies, she had an idea. Specifically, what happens when you're not careful how you clean your aquarium?" Emily asks. "So, she had Garcia do some research," Emily explains, because it has been so long since she has called her wife by that name it feels extremely strange for Emily to do so, and she proceeds to explain what her incredible wife discovered.
"Were veering dangerously close to bullcrap territory," Melissa comments.
"We could call it murder. If the profile was Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, we could arrest the piece of coral I guess," Emily comments, "Or, we could just accept that life is…" Emily starts to say.
"Messy, Random, yeah," Melissa says, sounding disbelieving.
"Yeah, until it's not," Emily says.
"What does that mean?" Melissa asks, sounding confused.
"Well, that seemingly unimportant book, there was one additional detail Bob Orci told us about that I forgot to mention. No, I didn't forgot, I was holding back for dramatic effect," Emily admits, and she proceeds to explain.
"We were waiting. That's not a crime," Melissa confirms.
"So, why hide it?" Emily asks, even though she has her own experience with hiding a relationship.
"The truther community is small, and we're gossipy," Melissa admits. "Also, we're already convinced agents like you are watching us. So, Carl and I covered our tracks. So well in fact that the great and powerful Garcia is not going to find them," Melissa explains.
"I believe you," Emily says, though she wouldn't count her wife out.
"Which is why we had to rely on old-fashioned profiling to figure out the next part," Emily admits. "And it started with a question you asked first. Why would Doug kill himself for no reason? So we reconstructed Doug's suicide to see what we missed," Emily explains as she explains what she, and the rest of the team, were doing, before Emily walked into the interrogation room.
Hours later, the case is over, having gotten help from the rest of the truther's community the team were able to arrest Melissa. Feeling incredibly glad to be home Tara is arriving back at her apartment and just as she puts her go-bag down on the table her phone ring. As she sees Stephen's name on the caller ID Tara can't help but smile as she presses answer.
"Hey," Tara answers.
"Hey," Stephen responds. "So, Rossi messaged me, she said that you had a difficult case," Stephen reveals, as unknown to him Emily told Penelope. "I was wondering if you were up for some company," Stephen admits.
"Yeah, I'd really like that," Tara answers, and just as she does her doorbell rings and so she goes and answers it, revealing Stephen who is holding her favorite bottle of wine and food that smells like her favorite food. "What would you have done if I said I didn't want company?" Tara asks curious.
"Left the food and wine on the doorstep," Stephen admits. "You okay?" Stephen asks, in a gentle voice.
"I will be," Tara admits, and once she does Stephen walks a couple of steps and hugs her.
Over the next couple of weeks, the team works a case on a manmade lake, which effects Emily who has also cut her hair to shoulder length. It is nine days to Christmas and as they have a rare weekend Penelope and Emily, with help from the entire BAU, Stephen, and Will, are moving into their new house.
Having just put a box in the main living area Emily walks outside, past Matt, Stephen, Will, JJ, and Reid who are bringing boxes in. heading straight to the van Emily finds Tara collecting more stuff.
"Hey," Emily greats as she walks towards her friend.
"Hey," Tara responds. "You know, I've got to know, how did you fit all this stuff in that tiny apartment?" Tara asks curious.
"I'm not entirely sure. Some of it was in storage," Emily admits, knowing some of the stuff that was in storage was the new future they brought after she and Penelope got married. "Thanks Tara, for helping, I know you have better things to do on your weekends," Emily says to her friend.
"These days my weekends are usually spent with Stephen, it's the one time we both actually have time, and he was always going to be here to help so even if you didn't ask I would have likely been here," Tara admits.
"I'm still grateful," Emily says, meaning that.
"Um, Emily, speaking of Stephen, he said that if we don't get a case you and Penelope are hosting Christmas morning and he invited me to join," Tara explains. "Is that okay?" Tara asks, as she wants to be sure of that.
"Of course, it's okay," Emily assures her. "I'm thrilled to have you, and Pen will be too," Emily admits, knowing that, and now that Stephen and Tara are together Emily decides to give a warning so that Tara isn't blindsided. "You know, I know you saw it a little last year, but holidays tend to be the time where Pen and Stephen slip back into their old 'us against the world' mentalities," Emily explains.
"Is that ever hard for you? Being on the outside of that?" Tara asks curious.
"Sometimes," Emily admits, something she has never done before, because Tara is in the position she is in. "It doesn't matter how long we're apart of the BAU, we will never understand what it was like to be the children of the founders," Emily admits. "Matt was around back then and not even he fully understands," Emily admits, knowing that while Penelope has told her things, she knows she doesn't know everything. "Pen and Stephen, what they have, for lack of a better term is a dynamic that was forged in fire," Emily admits, pain in her voice. "They clung to each other to survive all the trauma of their childhoods," Penelope explains. "Pen is the love of my life, so while might be difficult sometimes for me to be on the outside of that dynamic they share I'm also thankful for it because they need each other; they always will, it's why they are both okay after everything they've been through," Emily admits.
"Stephen hasn't told me what happened to his mom," Tara admits. "I know she died when he was young, but I don't know the story," Tara admits. "Do you think he will ever tell me?" Tara asks, clearly not asking for the story but rather Emily's opinion about whether she thinks Stephen will tell her himself.
"One day he will," Emily admits, believing that.
"Are you two just talking or actually helping?" Luke asks, walking towards Emily and Tara, both of whom just roll their eyes at Luke's dramatics.
While Emily and Tara are downstairs Penelope is upstairs and after she tells Matt, JJ, Stephen, Will, and Reid where to put the boxes they are holding she heads back to the room under the stairs where Rossi and Morgan are.
"Good your back," Morgan says seeing her. "You might want to get Emily, Baby Girl, we should be painting this room tomorrow," Morgan explains as he and Rossi are working to covert the old utility room to a secure area where Penelope can set up her equipment.
"That's incredible, but when I messaged you, I didn't mean you had to come right away and get it done just as quickly," Penelope tells her best friend, though she is grateful.
"I wanted too, consider it an early Christmas present," Morgan comments.
"It's one hell of a present," Morgan says, looking amused.
"I'll go get Em so you can explain what decisions we need to make," Penelope says, before heading out of the room.
After a day of moving, and a day of the entire team helping Morgan and Rossi with renovation works, the entire BAU, Kristy, Stephen, Will, Morgan, and both the Simmons and Jereau kids are sitting around the living room near the kitchen of Penelope and Emily's new house eating pizza. While the room has all its furniture and everything is moved in both Penelope and Emily know they have a lot of unpacking in front of them.
"So you have two living room, a converted attic space, and four other bedrooms, and you're really going to put a fold out couch in front of the stairs that lead upstairs?" Stephen asks disbelieving, clearly teasing.
"Yep," Penelope and Emily say together, as that couch was where there relationship begun so even though they got some new couches it means too much to them to get rid of, and where they put it seems like a good place.
"I should be more surprised than I am," JJ say amused.
"Thank you, all of you for all your help," Emily says, sounding incredibly grateful. "We couldn't have done it without you," Emily admits.
"You never have to thank us, that's what family does," Matt assures Emily.
"I'll toast to that," Penelope says, and that's exactly what they do.