Chapter 133
AN: Please let me know what you think of this chapter.
Two weeks have passed since Barnes reassigned most of the BAU, and even though no one likes their new roles they are starting to settle in, and everyone hopes that they will not be in the new roles much longer.
Feeling like she would much rather be with her team, even if she was working paperwork in the BAU, Emily is following behind an Agent known as Odenkirk, as he breaks open a motel room door to reveal a fellow FBI agent and a sex-worker; the FBI agent being tied to the bed.
"FBI?" The sex worker asks shocked.
"Your client is Agent Douglas Rudy," Emily says, sounding annoyed.
"Isn't that right, Dougie Boy?" Odenkirk asks. "Uh, hey, you got the key to these things somewhere?" Odenkirk asks, referring to the handcuffs that are securing the agent.
"You set me up!" the Sex worker says angrily.
"No! I swear!" Agent Rudy says.
"No, he didn't set you up, sweetheart. We're OPR," Odenkirk explains.
"What the hell is that?" the OPR asks.
"The FBI version of internal affairs," Odenkirk explains. "Now, we got wind that Doug here had an affinity for hookers… no offence," Odenkirk explains.
"You're both under arrest. Put your pants on, Agent Rudy," Emily says.
"Come on. I can't help it what turns me on, and my wife, she isn't into this kind of thing," Rudy explains.
"Well, somehow I don't think your wife's gonna have any trouble wanting to beat the crap out of you after today!" Odenkirk says and Rudy and the Sex worker are arrested. "Ha! There you go. See, look at that. We cuff you for free," Odenkirk says as Rudy and the sex worker are taken away.
"Let's go, let's go," One of the officers says, as Rudy is taken away.
"I should've took some pictures for the guys back at the office," Odenkirk says, to Emily's annoyance.
"You didn't have to kick it in," Emily says.
"What do you mean? I think that's pretty impressive for a man my age, don't you think?" Odenkirk asks, I a flirty tone of voice, as he runs his hand along the door.
"Ohh," Emily scoffs, feeling more than a little disgusted, as she heads out of the room. "The manager gave us the key. So now we're gonna have to reimburse the motel for the damage," Emily says annoyed.
"Relax, Prentiss. For a rouge agent, you're pretty uptight," Odenkirk and Emily angrily turns to look at him.
"Where did you hear that?" Emily asks angrily.
"Might have been a little something I saw when I took a look in your file," Odenkirk explains.
"You what!" Emily asks angrily.
"You must have really pissed off AD Barnes. To get busted from BAU chief all the way down to rank-and-file OPR. Rest of your team get the shaft, too?" Odenkirk asks, and Emily just turns and walks away from him, feeling furious as, as far as she is concerned, he just crossed a line.
Like her wife Penelope would much rather be at the BAU, instead she is at the cyber crimes unit unpacking the box of the things she keeps on her desk; the box she has been avoiding unpacking since she started at Cyber Crimes.
"Well, you guys, it's happening. I'm moving in finally," Penelope says to her various figurines. "I know. It has taken me a while, but I've been through all five stages of grief," Penelope says, as she puts the items that matter to her around. "Sometimes I'm still there, you know? I'm pinballing. Bargaining again and then denial, and anger and... yeah, you're right. It's not linear," Penelope says to one of her items. "You guys get me," Penelope says, putting a figure down and picking up the picture of her and Emily from their wedding. "You get me," Penelope says, looking at her wife.
"Excuse me?" One of Penelope's co-workers Anita says. "I think the boss wants to talk to you," she explains.
"Thank you," Penelope says, before getting up and heading to the boss's office, rolling down her selves in the clothes she doesn't like wearing, as she goes.
"Settling in okay? Everything good?" Penelope's new boss asks her.
"Oh. Well, in full transparency, I… I guess good is a gross overstatement, but I think good is a goal, and with a little time and a lot of hard work, I think I can up level to…" Penelope starts to say, but then she notices the look on her bosses face. "I'm working really hard. Look, I got myself a whole new wardrobe. This is so not me," Penelope explains.
"You gotta get rid of all that junk on your desk," Penelope's boss explains.
"What?" Penelope asks shocked. "Oh, no, that's not junk," Penelope says, believing that.
"Three personal items,"
"You have a policy about how many items we can have on our desk?" Penelope asks surprised.
"We do. And it applies to everyone, including transfers from the BAU," Penelope's boss explains. "Pick three, then get back to work. I just sent you a new case," the boss explains. "The defendant, Adam Jefferies, was arrested and charged with fifty-three counts of identity theft. All of his hard drives were seized. I want you to go through them and pull any evidence that may support the identity theft charges," Penelope's boss instructs.
"Okay. Can I ask a question?" Penelope asks.
"What is it?" Penelope's Boss asks.
"What happened to the case that I closed yesterday?" Penelope asks.
"The suspects you identified are all Russian nationals living in Russia. The United States doesn't have an extradition treaty with Russia," he explains.
"So, they just get away with it?" Penelope asks shocked.
"No. you shut down their operation," he explains.
"They could just start another one," Penelope notes.
"That's why we have to be vigilant,".
"Wait, so this whole place is like a giant game of whack-a-mole..." Penelope says, as she makes the gesture. "The game where they have the mole, but it's a case, not a mole? Is that…" Penelope starts to say.
"Get back to work," Penelope's boss says and so she heads back to her desk, and that's exactly what she does. As Penelope works, she finds something horrific, that is extremely far from good.
Hours after she arrested Agent Rudy Emily is standing on her back deck, with Tara, both of them drinking wine.
"Who knew there were so many dysfunctional partners in the Bureau?" Tara asks, as she just finished explaining to Emily about her day.
"I'm learning the hard way," Emily admits. "I had three stakeouts with Odenkirk last week," Emily explains.
"I know how much you love those," Tara says sarcastically, as she knows that Emily really hates that.
"And it's one thing to be out in the field with him but sitting with him in a car for hours on end. He smells like dirty tightie whites dipped in sweat," Emily explains.
"Aghh!" Tara says, looking disgusted. "Barnes really knows how to punish you. I mean, sticking you with him. A not so-subtle reference to what happens to agents who transgress," Tara comments.
"And there is no dirt on Barnes in the OPR database. She is squeaky clean," Emily explains.
"You pulled her file?" Tara asks amused.
"I thought maybe we'd get lucky," Emily admits, and they both laugh.
"So, what now?" Tara asks, with a sigh.
"I don't know what our next move is," Emily admits, desperately wishing she did.
"Well, we have got to think of something," Tara admits. "I don't know how much more of this assignment I can take," Tara says, and as she does Penelope and Tara hear the sound of the front door open, and so Tara and Emily exchange looks, and head back inside, though the open double doors.
"I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!" Penelope exclaims, as she walks in, not just carrying her handbag, but also a bag of food.
"Pen?" Emily asks concerned.
"This job, there's no conclusion! No outcomes! Just shot one thing down and then another fifty pop up," Penelope says angrily, as she puts the food down on the bench. "At least at the BAU we know we're saving lives. This is so removed, it's so clinical… I hate it!" Penelope says, sounding frustrated.
"Oh Babe," Emily says, walking over and hugging her wife, hating to see Penelope so upset, so frustrated. "If it helps Tara and I have really bad days too," Emily explains, holding her wife close, as Tara starts to unpack the food.
"It doesn't," Penelope admits, as she and Emily break apart. "We really need to get the team back together," Penelope admits.
"Yeah, we do," Emily confirms, as she kisses her wife's cheek. "Come on, Babe, let's eat, forget all about our horrible days," Emily suggests.
"I really like the sound of that," Penelope admits, and the two of them walk over to where Tara is unpacking the food and the four of them proceed to have a enjoyable dinner together during which the FBI is never brought up.
The next morning, as he left before she did the night before, Penelope is in her boss's office showing him the horrific photos that she found.
"Uhh… what am I looking at?" Penelope's boss asks confused.
"I found these in a Dropbox file on a hard drive belonging to Adam Jeffries," Penelope explains.
"What do these have to do with our case?" he asks.
"Nothing," Penelope answers.
"Then why am I looking at them?" he asks confused.
"You see those three photos are of the same women, yes?" Penelope asks, not liking that she has to break it down.
"Yes,"
"Okay, well, the digital files had times stamps," Penelope explains. "Those three photos were taken last week within a seventy-two-hour period, and this photo is of a different women… that was taken two days ago," Penelope explains.
"And?" he asks, not seeing the big deal.
"Don't you see?" Penelope asks, getting up and walking over to the other side of the desk, but then as she sees the lass than impressed look on her Boss's face Penelope stops herself. "Look. Uh… sorry. He takes a candid photo of a women out in the world…. Happy, healthy, unsuspecting," Penelope explains. "He then abducts her, he puts her into captivity for three days, during which time he takes another picture of her in captivity, then he kills her and takes a third picture when she… dead," Penelope explains. "So then, you know what this photo means, yes?" Penelope asks, referring to the candid picture.
"What do you think it means?" He asks.
"I think it means that she's our unsub's next victim," Penelope explains.
"And you believe these are real?"
"You don't?" Penelope asks shocked.
"The violence looks photo-shopped, and the women, they aren't underage," he explains. "So, what you found on that hard drive is not a cybercrime,"
"Look, if you feel strongly about it, maybe you can refer it to another unit. Maybe it's the kind of thing the BAU is handling these days," Penelope's Boss says as he hands Penelope back her files.
As she leaves her bosses' office Penelope heads straight back to her desk, and prepares everything to send to JJ, and, Emily, as this is something that she cannot let go off.
Hours later, night has fallen, and Barnes has refused to let the BAU take the case Penelope found and so she and Emily have called the entire team to their house. As the rest of the team sit around the main living area, Emily is standing in front of everyone, in front of the TV.
"Thank you, all of you, for coming. I've missed this, us," Emily says, as since the night after they were reassigned the only members of the team, she has seen is Penelope and Tara, and she has missed the rest. She has also missed the entire team being together. "Before we do this, I need to be sure everyone understands what we're getting into," Emily explains. "We have been told not to investigate this case. If we do, we are violating director orders, and eventually Barnes will find out," Emily says. "So, if something goes wrong or we don't catch this unsub, she will shut down the BAU and most likely fire us all. No more reassignments," Emily explains, looking between the members of her team as she speaks.
"You know what? Even if everything does go right and we do catch our unsub. I mean, the same thing could happen," JJ admits.
"Right. Barnes would try to spin it, label the BAU a rouge unit that needs to be shut down," Matt explains.
"Right. So, if anyone has doubts, no shame, no judgment," Emily explains.
"The BAU started in a room just like this one. If this is how it goes out, so be it," Rossi says and as he does Penelope smiles and nods as she remembers that room.
"We're all in," Reid says, as everyone around the room look like they have no intention of not being apart of this.
"Okay, let's talk victimology," Emily says, and Penelope connects her laptop to the TV, something that is relatively easy to do due to the network she set up, so that everyone can see everything.
"Since we don't have any leads on our victims identities, Pen's been drilling down on the e-mails that contain the photo attachments," Emily explains.
"Right, so, this is darknet, so they're encrypted, but the digital files had time stamps," Penelope explains. "I was able to narrow down their point of origin to the great DC area," Penelope explains.
"So, we're gonna have to focus our profiling on the photos," Emily explains. "The first three are of the same women. They appear to be complete three part series, depicting her in three different states, before, in captivity and postmortem," Emily explains, from where she is standing behind Penelope.
"The before picture is a candid photo, which suggests the woman were comfortable with the unsub," JJ realizes.
"We have only one captivity photo. It was taken over forty-eight hours later," Rossi realizes.
"But it's in a different location," Tara notes. "It's a darker, enclosed space. The victim is disheveled and appears disorientated and traumatized. Now she's only wearing this white satin negligee," Tara says.
"The third photos posed and appears to be postmortem," Reid explains. "In this case, the fatal wound, a single bullet to the chest, is clearly featured. It's also been cleaned up a little bit. There's no extraneous blood, and it's almost pretty," Reid explains.
"So, he's displaying his work for those who will appreciate it, the people our Dropbox owner Adman Jefferies were selling to," Emily says.
"Okay, and then there's the fourth photo, it's of a different woman. It's the first in a new series, the new victim," JJ explains.
"The fourth photo appears to be taken seventy two hours ago. If the unsub's pattern holds, it means she's about to die," Luke explains.
"JJ, Luke, Tara, dig into the before photos. Pen already ran them through the Bureau's hotel database," Emily explains.
"Based on background details, it's extremely likely that they were taken at a high-end hotel in the area," Penelope explains.
"We'll map them out and start canvassing first thing in the morning," Luke says.
"Good," Emily says, with a nod. "Dave, Matt, head out to the prison and see what Adam Jeffries can tell you about how these ended up on his Dropbox," Emily instructs.
A little while later, after working for a little while longer, the rest of the team have left leaving Penelope and Emily, who are cleaning up the dishes and cups the team left, at their house.
"This situation is horrific, and we really need to help those women, but it nice for us to all be back together," Penelope admits.
"Yeah, it is," Emily admits. "This is either going to be the end of the BAU or the beginning," Emily admits.
"I know," Penelope says, with a sigh. "But this is the right thing to do," Penelope says, knowing that.
"Yeah, it is," Emily confirms, and the two of them continue to clean up before heading to bed.
The next morning, even though they had a late night, both Penelope and Emily are up early, and eating some of the breakfast that Penelope made.
"You really called in sick?" Penelope asks amused, as she and Emily eat their breakfast and drink their coffee.
"Trust me, after two weeks with Odenkirk I deserve it," Emily says, as even though she took the day off so that she could focus on the case, not dealing with Odenkirk is an advantage.
"From what you said I'd believe that," Penelope admits. "I should go, I'm going to see what else I can find," Penelope says, standing up.
"Be careful," Emily says, and Penelope goes to pick up her plate. "It's okay, I've got it," Emily assures her wife. "I'll see you later, I love you," Emily says.
"I love you too," Penelope says, and after she and Emily exchange quick kisses Penelope heads out.
Getting to the front door Penelope opens it and on the other side she finds Reid who is clearly about to knock.
"Welcome, Boy Wonder," Penelope says to him. "There's breakfast in the kitchen if you're hungry. I'll see you later," Penelope explains, walking past Reid.
"Thanks Garcia," Reid says, as he heads into the house, while Penelope heads to her car.
A little while later Reid has enjoyed the breakfast that Penelope made and he, and Emily, are in the main living area, staring at the pictures of the victims that are on the TV.
"It's dark. A garage, maybe?" Emily suggests, sounding uncertain.
"But the ground doesn't look like poured concrete," Reid notes.
"Could be a basement in an old building," Emily suggests.
"What if she sitting next to? Is it a crate?" Reid asks, and Emily zooms in a little.
"Or a wine rack," Emily realizes. "It's not just a basement. I think it's a wine cellar," Emily realizes. "There are a lot of big old homes like this in areas like Clarendon, Kalorama, Potomac manors. I grew up in houses like this," Emily explains.
"Well, if that's the case, the unsub could be a person of resources… money, maybe even prestige," Reid explains.
Hours later, after a day of working the case from multiple angles JJ and Emily are at the house, in the living area, when Penelope hurries in and goes straight to where she knows she will find her wife and friend.
"Okay, I have news," Penelope says, as she sits down next to her wife, giving her quick kiss on the cheek. "I have… I have copious... copious news," Penelope explains. "First the backstory. That Dropbox that I found the first four photos on I kept it active because I thought maybe we'd get lucky," Penelope explains. "I also fashioned it with every tool and trap I know for capturing IP addresses," Penelope explains.
"So, did we get lucky?" JJ asks curious.
"No. I mean yes, but no," Penelope admits. "Uh, there's been a new drop of photos. I just sent to your tablets now," Penelope says, and both Emily and JJ check. "They include a series of captivity and postmortem photos of our second victim, we were too late," Penelope explains, guilt in her voice. "And it's even worse than that," Penelope admits. "There's a whole new series of photos of a third victim we didn't even know about, plus one new candid photo," Penelope explains.
"He's already got his fourth victim," JJ says, sounding horrified.
"Did you find the IP address?" Emily asks her wife.
"No, I'm sorry," Penelope says, hating that she wasn't able to do that.
"Okay, any good news?" JJ asks.
"No. I mean… okay, this might be helpful," Penelope says, as it is definitely something, but she isn't sure if it is good. "I did a search of cases involving D.C. high-end hotels, and I found a bunch of articles regarding the death of someone named Tracy Ferguson," Penelope explains.
"Wait, I think I remember that," Emily admits, as she thinks back.
"Mm-hmm. You probably do," Penelope says. "She was in a bunch of headlines, mostly because her father was George Ferguson, the DC power broker," Penelope says. "Anyway, she was twenty seven. She was found in a suite at the Montclair hotel, and she was wearing a white satin negligee," Penelope explains.
"Like the one the unsub dressed his victims in for the captivity photos," JJ realizes.
"Exactly," Penelope says.
"Okay, so Tracy Ferguson could be our unsub's first victim," Emily realizes.
"Did they investigate?" JJ asks curious.
"They did," Penelope says, knowing that they are about to get into complicated territory.
"Good we need those files," Emily says to her wife.
"That's where it gets sticky," Penelope admits.
"Pen?" Emily asks her wife being able to tell that there is something that Penelope is nervous about talking about.
"The case was sealed at the time. In order to unseal it, you need special permission from the lead investigating agent," Penelope explains. "The DC field agent in twenty ten who was in charge of that case was Linda Barnes," Penelope reveals, to the horror of both Emily and JJ.
After working with JJ for a while both Penelope and Emily went to bed. it's once again morning and Penelope and Emily are moving around their kitchen.
"Maybe I should stay home too," Penelope suggests.
"Pen, no the best way you can help is by being on the inside," Emily says. "We you doing your thing if we want to have a chance at saving this women," Emily admits.
"Okay, when you need something, just call," Penelope says. "I love you," Penelope says to Emily.
"Love you too," Emily responds, and the two of them kiss, and then break apart. Once Penelope and Emily break apart Penelope heads out while Emily finishes unpacking a box and then gets to work.
A while after Penelope left the house JJ has attempted to get Barnes to release the files, and after what happened she is calling Emily.
"JJ, what have you got?" Emily asks, as she knows what Emily was trying to do.
"Emily, hey, uh, so I talked to her," JJ says, and from her friends' voice Penelope can tell that she is upset. "She, uh, she knows I put the BAU on the case. And she fired me," JJ explains, her voice breaking.
"JJ, I'm so sorry," Emily says.
"No, Emily, I'm fine. It's fine," JJ says, even though she is not completely fine. "Look, she's not gonna give us access to the case, but I got something. There were seven other people in the hotel room the night Tracy died," JJ explains.
After hanging up with JJ, Emily, who is with Reid and Rossi, has tried, multiple times, to call her wife and with every unanswered phone call Emily feels herself becoming more and more worried.
"Hello, what's up?" Penelope asks, finally answering her phone.
"Finally, Pen, are you okay? We've been trying to get ahold of you for twenty minutes. Can you talk?" Emily asks.
"Yes, I'm okay, I can sort of talk," Penelope explains, glancing over to where her boss is. "Did JJ get the file?" Penelope asks.
"No but we don't need the whole file anymore," Emily says. "All we need are the crime scene photos. Can you hack just the photos without raising flags?" Emily asks her wife.
"You mean like a surgical strike?" Penelope asks. "Yeah, give me a second," Penelope says, as she starts to type. "Okay. I'm in. what am I looking for?" Penelope asks.
"We're not sure, but there were seven men in the room with Tracy on the night that she died," Emily explains. "
"And we're hoping somebody left something behind," Reid explains.
"Uh, let's see. I see an open bottle of wine," Penelope reveals. "Uh, it's not just any bottle of wine. It's a bottle of Chateau Anjou from 1981," Penelope explains.
"That's extremely rare," Rossi says as JJ arrives at the house. "We should be able to trace the sale of a bottle like that," Rossi notes. "Kiddo, can you run a search to see if one was sold at auction?" Rossi asks his daughter.
"On it," Penelope says, and then she gasps.
"Pen?" Emily asks concerned.
"Oh! I gotta… oh I have to… I have to call you back," Penelope says, and she drops her phone so that it is hidden.
"Pen? What's going on? Are you okay?" Emily asks concerned, as Penelope's coworker walks up to Penelope's boss and distracts him by getting him to go back to his office to answer her questions.
"Guys, check this out, there is a missing persons report," JJ says, as she turns up the TV. "Her name is Jessica Mayhew. Her father is US Senator Alfred Mayhew. He's talking to the press," JJ says, and those at the Prentiss house watch the news conference, during which they see Barnes.
"Barnes is there talking to the senator," JJ says.
"Optics like this are right up her alley," Rossi says.
"Jessica Meyhew is our unsubs next victim," Emily realizes, feeling worried about that, but also about Penelope.
"She looks a lot like Tracy Ferguson," Reid notes.
"And like Tracy, she's a high-profile of the DC elite. Call girls, even expensive ones, weren't satisfying him anymore," Emily realizes. "He needed someone with a pedigree, someone more like Tracy," Emily realizes.
"Em, guys, I found our Chateau Anjour," Penelope says, to Emily's relief. "It was sold at auction to Kevin Pack. Oh. Kevin Peck is George Ferguson's stepson," Penelope realizes.
"That's our unsub," Rossi realizes.
"Let's go," Emily says, as she, Rossi, Reid and JJ all stand up.
"Sending his last known to your tablets," Penelope says as the team hurry out of Penelope and Emily's house.
A little while after they left the house Rossi and Emily are in the car together when Penelope calls in.
"Pen, what have you got?" Emily asks her wife.
"I've got some background on Kevin Peck. Looks like his parents were never married, Dad wasn't around, and his mom married George Ferguson when Kevin was thirteen," Penelope explains.
"The Washington power broken," Emily realizes.
"Correct. The gossip rags were not kind. She was a former stripper," Penelope explains.
"So, Tracy was his daughter from his first marriage," Emily realizes.
"She was nineteen when he remarried," Penelope explains.
"That would make Tracy six years older than Kevin," Rossi realizes. "He could have had a crush on her," Rossi suggests.
"I think it was more than that," Penelope says, as she reads what's on her screen. He was head over heals for her. There's all kinds of photographs of them from like various events all over the DC area," Penelope explains.
"Look at that body language. He's all over her, and she's pulling away," Emily notes, looking at her tablet to see what Penelope sent her.
"According to Tracy's MySpace page, she was not fond of her stepmother," Penelope explains. "She referred to her as, quote, 'the white trash gold-digger who moved into my house,'" Penelope explains.
"Well, if that was her attitude and he was smitten with her, he might have felt she was too good for him," Rossi notes.
"Her substance abuse couldn't have helped things," Emily realizes.
"The drug use spiraled out of control a few years into the marriage," Penelope explains.
"So, if Tracy's drama ate up the whole family's attention, it's possible Kevin went in the opposite direction, playing the role of the obedient child," Emily explains.
"Yeah, that does make sense," Penelope realizes. "His stepfather was quiet fond of Kevin. He set up a trust fund for him that Kevin had access to when he turned eighteen," Penelope explains.
"I be that changed how Tracy treated him," Rossi assumes.
"It seems to have," Penelope admits. "According to bank records, Kevin was putting thousands of dollars into Tracy's account," Penelope explains.
"Thanks Babe," Emily says, before hanging up.
After Emily and Rossi hang up with Penelope they go to Kevin's house, and after finding it empty they realized that it is all connected to Tracy and so they go back to the hotel where it started. At the hotel Matt and Simmons are able to arrest Kevin and Jessica is saved.
Feeling very proud of themselves Emily, JJ, Reid, Rossi, Luke and Matt are exiting the hotel and watching as Jessica is taken away by an ambulance. As they watch Kevin get taken away by the police and Jessica get taken away by ambulance Jessica's father, Senator Mayhew arrives.
"Is she alive? Is she gonna be all right?" Senator Mayhew asks, sounding terrified for his daughter.
"Senator, she's going to be fine," Barnes assures him.
"Her abductor gave her an overdose, but she should be all right," Matt explains.
"You said this was the work of the BAU. Is that right?" Senator Mayhew asks, Barnes.
"Yes Sir," Barnes confirms.
"Thank you. All of you. You saved my daughters life," Senator Mayhew says to the team.
"It was a team effort," JJ says. "Glad we were here," JJ says.
"So am I. look, I know there's been talk about shutting down your unit, spreading profiles out into the field offices," Senator Mayhew says.
"That's just one option to increase efficiency," Barnes explains.
"I think that's a mistake," Senator Mayhew says.
"Understood," Barnes says.
"When I return to the senate, I will personally ensure that the BAU is funded and staffed to full capacity. But in the meantime, don't you think Agent Prentiss should be reinstated as unit chief?" Senator Mayhew asks, and it is clear that it is a rhetorical question.
"Consider it done," Barnes says, giving Emily just the opportunity she needs.
"Senator, does that mean that I have hiring authority?" Emily asks.
"Within reason," Senator Mayhew replies.
"I'm only asking because Assistant Director Barnes terminated Agent Jareau when she asked questions about the Tracy Ferguson case. That was the case that allowed us to identify the unsub," Emily explains, doing so in a delicate way.
"You have full authority. Staff the BAU any way you see fit," Senator Mayhew says.
"Thank you, Sir," Emily responds, trying to hide her overwhelming joy.
"Linda, I'd like to see you in my office first thing tomorrow," Senator Mayhew says, before walking away and the team head back into the hotel, feeling thrilled.
A while after Emily was given full hiring authority night has fallen and Penelope, who has given her unicorn to the coworker who helped her and changed into her regular clothes, is walking into the BAU, carrying the box of her belongings, just like the rest of the team.
"I couldn't wait until morning!" Penelope says, sounding excited.
"Oh, you weren't the only one," JJ says, from her desk, where she is putting her stuff back onto.
"You look great," Reid says, as he knows how much Penelope hated those regular clothes.
"I feel great," Penelope says excited. "You guys we really did it," Penelope says, sounding excited.
"Ohh, I wish I could have been there to see Barnes' face when the senator showed up," Tara explains, a little disappointed that she didn't get to see that.
"I thought she was gonan melt like the wicked witch of the west when he said Emily could hire whoever she wanted," Matt admits.
"You think she'll back off for good?" Luke asks, looking up at the catwalk where Emily and Rossi are.
"The director called me. He said Barnes was told to keep his hands of the BAU," Emily says, excited.
"And so, we live to fight another day," Rossi says, sounding thrilled. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're back!" Rossi says excited as he and Emily hi five. After quickly handing the box she is holding over to Luke Penelope hurries up to the platform, and once she is close enough Emily pulls her into her arms and the two of them kiss.
Not long after the team returned to the BAU they are all sitting around the roundtable celebrating and eating takeout.
"It's so good to be back," Reid comments.
"It really is," Tara confirms, and as she does Penelope and Emily exchange looks, and an understanding passes between them.
"So, because tonight is a night of celebration Pen and I have more good news," Emily reveals, and everyone looks at the two of them in interest.
"Over the last few weeks Em and I have put completed applications to become foster parents, we're waiting for it to be approved," Penelope explains.
"That's incredible," Reid says, sounding thrilled.
"You're going to be great parents," JJ says, knowing that.
"I second that," Matt says, also knowing that.
"Congratulations," Luke says.
"I would like to raise a toast," Rossi says. "Hector Xtravaganza said "Blood does not family make. Those are relatives. Family are those with whom you share your good, bad, and ugly and still love one another in the end. Those are the ones you select," Rossi says. "This team proves that every day, and Penelope, Emily, I know that you will prove that with any child you take into your care. You're going to be incredible mothers, that any child will be lucky to have in their corner, I know that, and if there is anything I can do to help let me know," Rossi requests. "To Penelope and Emily," Rossi says.
"To Penelope and Emily," the rest of the team repeat.
"Thanks Dad,"
"Thanks Dave,"