JJ and Emily both stared.

Penelope was known for delivering out-of-the blue updates, but they hardly ever came this early in the day. Not even when they were on a case. This was going to be another roller coaster.

"A hit?" JJ parroted. "On June?"

Emily pressed, "Well? What is it?"

Penelope beckoned for them to follow. "Come see."

They promptly followed Penelope out of the bullpen and to her office. It was back its usual operating level of organized chaos than it had been the last time they had last seen it. It meant that Penelope would be able to focus."

"Okay." she pointed to a picture on her screen. "This is present-day June McCann."

And Penelope enlarged the picture to let her companion have a good look. June was older here, and it was plain to see that she had ben a head-turner (in the best of ways) when she was younger. Her face was kind. Warm, even. Her eyes were a deep hazel shade that in some way looked like they had seen more than most people do in a lifetime. Where had she been? June's blond hair, now greying in some places, had even been styled in a way that both kept it out of her eyes and suited her aura of kindness. And her smile... one could get lost in it with great ease.

Emily gave Penelope a pat on the shoulder. "So she's alive. Please talk to us about her."

Penelope called up the basic information report. "She's in her sixties now, and is actually in the fair state of Maryland."

"What? Where?"

"Silver Spring." This quaint town was only a half-hour away from them.

Penelope and Emily both looked over to JJ. The ball was back in her court. All she knew was that her stomach had just completed a rather unpleasant loop. The last thing she had been expecting to hear abut June McCann was that she was relatively nearby.

JJ cleared her throat. "How long has June been in Silver Spring? I thought that she would have stayed in Louisiana because of whatever kind of life she'd had with Senior, Hurricane Katrina be damned."

Penelope checked. "According to these records, June has been in this parts at least since 2000. She moved up here to care for her parents because they were old and suffering from dementia. It took both of them by the end of 2002."

"Then where was she after she left Will's dad? Her departure was in the seventies."

"It looks like," Penelope scanned the screen again as she sped-read. "June was in a place called Springhill. Anyone heard of it?"

Emily shook her head. "Not me."

"I have." admitted JJ. "Springhill is way to the north, closer to Arkansas."

"Why do you know?"

The reply was very casual. "When Will and I were dating, we did a lot of road trips. One was to see Rage Against The Machine. They were playing at a concert house just outside town. We stayed at a hotel in Springhill."

Emily and Penelope gaped her. They knew all about their friends' unorthodox dating style, but even after all this time, JJ remained tight-lipped about some areas in that part of her life. Nothing had even come out on their girl nights. But it was news to both of them that JJ liked rock music in the vein of Rage Against The Machine.

She rolled her eyes. "What? I've liked that band since I was fourteen. My husband seriously digs Def Leppard, and even Joan Jett."

"You guys are so interesting…" Emily said in amusement.

"So says the lady who has not only seen my favorite band, but also Green Day in concert?" JJ sassed. "Multiple times?"

"Hey! Why do you know that?"

JJ smirked. "Fitzhugh talks."

"Maybe too much…" Emily grumbled.

Penelope laughed at them. "I am staying out of this…"

JJ relented and brought the conversation back to the right lane. "So far, we know that June is in Silver Spring right now. Before that was the town of Springhill. I bet her place of birth is New Orleans."

Penelope didn't even have to go back to the top of the report for this one. "You are totally correct. June was born there. It's one of the first things listed."

"Good. Are there any records of June having more family?"

"Yep. She's a mother to this man." Penelope called up a picture of an unassuming but pleasantly handsome gentleman. "He's called Chase McCann, and he works at a practice in Silver Spring."

"How old is he?" JJ asked.

"Thirty-nine."

JJ tried not to blanch as she began working out a certain arithmetic problem. "When was Chase McCan born? Early eighties?"

"Gold star for JJ. His birthday was on January second." Penelope continued to consult the screen. "His father is listed as one Arthur McCann… Oh, that's bad… This report goes on to say that he passed away from stage four neuroblastoma. June cut out of Springhill just six months later."

"That is unfortunate." JJ sympathized. "All the same, I'm glad that Chase and my husband aren't brothers. I don't think Will would respond well."

Penelope sighed. "Now I want to call my brothers."

Emily just said nothing. She remembered Will's wistfulness when expressing the wish for his own sibling.

A subject change was due. "What area of Silver Spring does June reside in?"

Penelope hesitated before answering. "A place called Goodacre Knolls, but…"

She sighed again as a new window popped up. They were met with an image of a slightly mundane living care facility. A sign in the foreground bore the name 'SUNNYSIDE ACRES' in large peeling letters.

"That's a care home." said Emily in surprise. "Do the records list why she's there?"

"Yeah. Parkinson's. We've hit a dead end."

Emily shook her head. "Not exactly. JJ, Will, and I dug up more clues about June yesterday—including a photograph."

Now Penelope was feeling the surprise. "Oh? Just what part of the equation is this?"

"That facet will be revealed at the ten o'clock meeting." Emily said cryptically. "It also turns out that Senior was well-read because in addition to Paradise Lost, we also found For Whom The Bells Tolls. We even learned that he wasn't the deep thinker in that relationship."

JJ handed Penelope the copy of For Whom The Bell Tolls. "Check out what June wrote on the inside cover."

Penelope found the quote and read it.

Then she looked back at her friends. "Is this real?"

JJ bobbed her head. "Oh, yes."

"Then did June have an affair with Senior?"

"And we've arrived at the million dollar question." JJ told her. "This isn't a dead end. Luckily."

Penelope was totally drawn in, despite the early hour. "Go on."

JJ handed her the beach photograph. "Em found this."

"Oh, man." Penelope murmured as she took in what she was looking at. "And so the plot continues to thicken. I won't throw stones at anyone yet, but I have a bucket of them on standby. Just say the word."

"Your loyalty is appreciated. Never change."

Penelope winked at JJ. "So not an item on my agenda."

"You can scan that photograph into your systems like you did the other one. While you do that, listen to this."

JJ read her the other quote.

Her voice was very pleasant, but as she heard the words, Penelope felt very lulled and at ease… like she was about to wander off a path in favor of something very beautiful. It took her a moment to snap out of it.

"Wow." Penelope busied herself with returning the now-scanned photograph. "That was really, intense. Beautiful, too. It sounded like a love letter good-bye."

JJ carefully stored the beach photograph when Penelope gave it back to her. "Emily said the same thing, except she also called it devastating."

"Then Senior and June must have really loved each other. You don't wish for more time unless you really love the other person. I know that from firsthand experience." Penelope gave a shaky sigh as she had fleeting thoughts of her parents. "It also seems that June was quite young when this all went down—probably in her mid-twenties. I wonder if she had been significantly younger than Will's mother. Sometimes age can be an appeal that way."

"It certainly is with my dad and Hannah. Listen to this."

"Another quote?"

JJ nodded and read from a piece of paper,

"'I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,

Taught by the heav'nly Muse to the venture down

The dark descent, and up to rescend…'"

Penelope shuddered. "Whose hand was that in?"

"Senior's." JJ handed handed her the paper. "Keep that. I copied it down from where it was written in Paradise Lost."

Penelope took the paper and set on her desk, poising her fingers on her keyboard. "And the passage about wishing for more time was also from that. Right?"

"Yes." JJ and Emily said together.

"Copy that…"

JJ and Emily watched as Penelope plugged keywords into her search engine, achieve the results needed, and then then store everything in a separate file folder—all in record timing. The speed was incredible. Penelope was amused when she saw her friends watching her in surprise.

"What good is an information hunt if I don't have a place to put everything?" she chuckled. "I've saved everything you've shared so far, and a summary of the information about June into a private file folder that's already uploading to my personal cloud server."

"Smart." JJ praised.

"Is there anything else that either of you need?" Penelope asked her companions.

"We decided with Will that we would talk about including everyone else after we spoke with you today about the new clues." Emily informed her. "What do you think?"

Penelope was a little surprised that the buck stopped with her, in spite of having an equal say in the mystery solving. "I think we should get on that soon. Excluding Rossi, Spencer, Tara, Luke, and Matt feels wrong, especially now that we know all that we do."

JJ backed her up. "I was thinking the same thing."

"Then we're better united than divided. Our team always does extremely well, but we always do our utmost best when coloring outside the lines altogether."

Emily added, "We're back on the regular schedule next week. Unless God laughs and gives us another plot twist."

Penelope felt that this was a deal-sealer. "I'm all in. Let's tell them everything at our briefing."

"I like your confidence. Will you prepare something on June, like you normally do for cases?"

Penelope nodded. "Absolutely."

"Good. Thank you."

Penelope bobbed her head in acknowledgement before turning to her other friend. "Jayje? How are you?"

"I'm excited, worried, and curious. The biggest outcome I want is for Will to at least have some closure." JJ exhaled noisily. "The resemblance between him and his father was there, but not immediately apparent. He must have inherited his mother's looks. I only know because we've been looking through old photo albums lately."

Half-joking, Penelope said, "What if we find Will's mom? Or she finds us?"

"Then we make sure that the LaMontagnes are sitting down." Emily said seriously. "It would be the least that we we could do."

Penelope sobered up. "Totally. Of course."

"Thank you."

JJ checked her watch. "PG, it's almost nine. Emily and I are going to leave you in peace."

"I understand."

When they went back to the lobby, JJ turned to her partner. "I have to go down to the mail room now."

"Because you need to dispatch that kind word about the restaurant host." Emily recalled. "Take your time."

So JJ exited.

Before Emily could do anything like even return to the bullpen, she found that her phone was ringing. A smile crossed her face at the sight of whose name was on her screen.

"Good morning, Ace." Emily said in greeting.

Virginia's voice was warm in her ear on the reply. "Good morning to you, too, beautiful. I figured you're probably at work by now."

"That would be correct. I'm actually standing in the main lobby of my floor."

"Hm." Virginia mused. "So there is another space that you occupy besides your office."

"Very funny." sassed Emily. "I guess you'll have to come see it some time."

"Sounds fun to me. I was also calling because I know the importance of what today is. How are you?"

"My heart is heavy, but not as heavy as I thought it would be, had I not already met you and Zion." Emily said honestly. "The universe has been looking out for us in all kinds of ways."

"I should say so. How is the baby?"

Emily rested a hand in the small of her back as she felt her offspring perform small flips. "They're making like an acrobat just now. Did Zion do that when he was on the inside?"

Virginia chortled. "Saying yes would be an actual understatement. When he was bigger, he kicked and moved so much that I thought there were two babies in there. It was just one overeager baby prince."

"Amazing."

Virginia did her best to keep off memory lane. "Hey, does anyone on the team other than your partner know about the baby?"

"No." Emily confessed. "Actually, I'll be telling them today around ten. What do you think?"

Virginia's heart flipped. "I think it's a great idea, and that we really need to meet your team."

"It won't be hard to put that on our to-do list," Emily sighed. "But I so wish that I could see you and Zion tonight. Damn your social obligations."

In a conversation from the previous morning, one item that Virginia had relayed was that her publicist had pushed her into a party where she would be able to do some networking.

"The life and times of a best-selling author can seem so ridiculous. Parties have never been my thing. Save me."

"I wish I could." Emily told her. "You'll just have to take me along to the next one so that I can keep you on your toes."

"And you're on." decided Virginia. "Anything interesting happening at the FBI?"

For one wild, fleeting second, Emily had thought of telling Virginia about the June McCann issue. Couples shared things with each other. And… Virginia was not a stranger to professional investigating. But Emily still stomped on these thoughts. It was too early for any more abstract thinking.

Virginia tried again. "Emily? Are you there?"

"Yes, Ace." she said quickly. "I was just thinking about something else for a second. Everything is all good. There isn't much happening over here, which is unusual because we're always on the go. Bench time has given all of us a strong case of cabin fever."

"Like the time that my sisters gave me the chicken pox—they were toddlers, and I was just trying to survive high school. All three of us were cooped up for ages. It was also dead winter."

"And why doesn't that surprise me?"

"Because you're beginning to get used to my crazy childhood anecdotes." Virginia checked the time on a nearby clock. "I have to go. There's a long day and night ahead of me."

"Keep your head up, my love." Emily said fondly.

"So long as you keep yours up." Virginia's tone matched hers. "I love you."

Emily grinned. "I love you."

They hung up.

And Emily found herself sighing. There were only so many reports she could write, read, approve, or file before she ran out of things to do in an official capacity. Woe-betide if she had to resort to reading old case files. Again.

How to kill an hour?

She would think of something. Eventually.