Penelope Garcia putters around in Dave's large and very functional kitchen packing up the leftover party flavors in one bag and some of the leftover food in another. Most of the food had been eaten and she made certain Dave had a few servings of everything but knew he wouldn't be able to eat it all by himself.
She pauses for a moment and sighs as her eyes well up with tears. To say she was disappointed would be an understatement. She really likes Dave and wants to see him happy and as much as he protests that he likes to be alone, she knows better. If he really likes being alone why is he still dating random women every off day from the BAU? She knows it isn't just for the sex, the man is lonely. All his life he has been searching for that one special person.
She put all her beliefs and magic into him finding that person tonight. But it doesn't look like that happened.
"You need some help?" Dave asks.
"No," Penelope says quickly. She thrusts a bag at Kevin. "Kevin is just taking the last of it out to the car. I'll be out in a minute."
She and Kevin trade looks for a second before he accepts his fate and heads out of the kitchen.
"Have a good night," Kevin mumbles as he walks past Dave.
Penelope watches Dave as he watches Kevin leave. She turns away quickly as Dave turns back to her.
"Thank you, Kitten," he says softly. "For everything."
She blinks the tears away then turns to look at him with wide eyes. "You're really not going to tell me? You don't have to name names; just tell me you didn't spend your birthday alone."
He takes a deep breath. "I had a good time with all of you. Thank you, Kitten."
She sighs, barely holding back a sob. Her voice cracks as she speaks. "I'm sorry. I really thought she, or he, would be here."
"It's okay, Penelope," Dave assures her. He places a hand on her arm and squeezes. "Like I told you, I'm okay with being alone."
She shakes her head. "I just…"
Dave leans over and kisses her on the temple. "Good night, Kitten."
"Good night," she replies wistfully. Something familiar stirs inside her. She fights the urge to lay her head on his shoulder, wrap her arms around his waist and hold him tight. Instead, she nods. "I better not leave Kevin out there too long. He'll fall asleep in the car and I won't be able to wake him until morning."
"Really?" he questions.
"The man sleeps like a rock," she utters her voice barely disguises her disdain. "If a bad guy came in the room, I'd have to fight them as Kevin wouldn't wake until his eight hours were over."
Before getting into the car, she takes one last look at Dave standing in the doorway. He looks lost as he stares out at her. That desire to stay pulls at her again. 'Maybe,' she thinks. 'It's the aftereffect of the magic cake.'
With one last wave and a smile, she climbs behind the wheel and starts the car. She glances at Kevin and notes that he is already dozing off. "No sleeping in the car," she reminds him loudly.
He jumps and sits up straight. "I'm awake."
She laughs. "Sure, you were."
He grins. "I am a little tired. Which is weird, I literally haven't done anything for twenty-four hours. How are you feeling?"
She thinks for a moment then glances at him. "I'm a little tired too. And sore. I feel like… well, I guess that I sat for too long."
"You want to stay at my place tonight?" he offers. "I know my bed isn't as comfortable as yours, but it is closer."
"I guess we can do that," she agrees. She shifts in her seat. Now that she has said it aloud, she realizes that she actually feels like she had a day of marathon sex. Her girl parts are sore, a good kind of sore.
She drives to his place and parks in his spot since his car is at her house. They grab the bag of food and head inside.
"Oh hey," Kevin says as he holds his hand out towards Penelope. "I grabbed these on my way out from Dave's."
Penelope stops pulling the food out of the bag and takes her phone and the two micro-cameras from him. She looks up at Kevin and grins. "Ho, ho! Now we can see if Dave is telling the truth."
"That was pretty sneaky of you to set up cameras in his house. You're lucky he didn't catch you," Kevin warns.
"You're telling me!" She looks around for a moment. "Damn! I left my laptop at home. We can't watch the video."
"Can we watch it later? I have to be at work by ten," he whines.
"Of course," she says placatingly. She fights the urge to roll her eyes. "I forgot you had to be at work. Are you sure you want me to stay?"
"My car is at your place," he growls.
She holds a hand up defensively. "Don't get grumpy. You go on to bed. I'll put the food away and join you in a few minutes."
He nods and heads for the bedroom. "I'll leave a t-shirt on the pillow for you."
"Thanks," she says absently.
She unlocks her phone and finds an unread message from Dave. Clicking it open, she sees that he sent her a picture. She opens the picture and frowns.
"Why would Dave send me a picture of a frozen lake?" she wonders aloud.
The next morning, Penelope drops Kevin at his car before pulling into her spot, gathering her stuff, and heading to her apartment. She opens the apartment door and steps inside. She kicks the door closed behind her as she carries her stuff across the room and dumps it on the kitchen table.
She lets out a breath and looks around the room. Her gaze travels around the room. A frown mars her face as her mouth drops open in surprise.
"What the hell?!" she mutters. Her apartment is clean; dishes done; trash taken out – she peeks into the bedroom. Yep, all her clothes are put away.
"Something hinky happened here," she says aloud.
She grabs her phone off the table and pushes the speed dial button.
"Hey PG," JJ answers. "How's it going?"
"I think I've been burgled," she replies hastily.
"Oh my God! What happened?!"
"Someone cleaned my apartment."
There's silence over the line.
"JJ? Are you still there?"
"You know that most burglars don't go in and sweep the floors, right?" JJ questions carefully.
Penelope groans. "Yes, I know. I just… I don't know what to make of this. Like the dishes are done, my clothes have been put away…"
"You sure you didn't do that before you left Friday night?"
Penelope sighs and rubs a hand over her eyes. "No. I'm not sure. The whole being frozen thing kind of has me disoriented."
"I can imagine," JJ sighs. "Does it look like anything is missing? Was there any damage to your door or a window?"
"I don't know." Penelope scuttles around the apartment checking the front door and all the windows. "No, everything seems to be okay."
"You probably just forgot that you cleaned before the party," JJ says reassuringly. "I'm sure you knew you were going to be gone for a bit and wanted to come home to a clean house."
"You're right. I'm a little discombobulated. I didn't sleep well at Kevin's place. His bed is too lumpy," she groused.
"Well, take a nap," JJ suggests. "Come over later for dinner if you want. Emily is coming over. We're making homemade pizzas and watching chick flicks."
"Ooh, count me in," Penelope coos. "I'll bring dessert!"
"See ya later!"
They hang up and Penelope sets the phone down again. She wanders into the kitchen, puts bread in the toaster and makes herself a cup of coffee. She grabs the toast, a piece of fruit and her coffee and takes it back to the table.
As she eats, she receives a text from Emily.
Emily: JJ says someone broke into your house and cleaned it. Can you send them to my place?
Emily attaches a picture of her closet clothes lay in a pile on the floor.
Penelope: I would but I don't know who did it.
She then starts a group chat with both Emily and JJ.
Penelope: Speaking of more weird things; Rossi sent me a picture of a frozen lake. Did he send it to you guys too?
JJ: Nothing here.
Emily: I've got nothing as well.
Penelope: What the hell?! What does it mean?
Emily: Could be a metaphor for something.
Penelope: Like what?
Emily: I don't know.
JJ: Could be a correlation about all of you being frozen in his livingroom.
Emily: That's got to be it.
Penelope: Yeah, it just seems weird that he would send that to me.
JJ: There's no explanation with it?
Penelope: None at all.
JJ: What time did he send it?
Penelope: 3:46am
Emily: Hmmm, I say we analyze this later after dinner.
Penelope: Sounds like a plan. See you both later.
Penelope opens the picture again and looks at it closely. There's nothing special about the picture, nothing that would scream, this is why I sent it to you.
"Ooh! Ooh!" she says excitedly. She fumbles through her purse and pulls out the two micro-cameras. "Let's see what the two of you captured."
She carries the micro-cameras across the room to her laptop which sits on the coffee table. It takes her scant minutes to set up the laptop and the readers for the micro-cameras. She plugs in the first one and taps the keys on her computer.
"Oh, what the heck!"
The tape on the reader is blank. The timestamp shows that it never recorded anything. She unhooks it and plugs in the second one. She checks the timestamp first. It has about eight hours recorded.
Penelope squeals in excitement. "Time to find out the truth," she says triumphantly. She goes to the beginning of the recording. The picture shows her setting the camera up in one of Dave's bookcases. She runs through the first couple of hours in high-speed, slowing it to normal speed at 11:55pm.
Several people walk past the camera; Hotch and Haley, Father Jimmy… then a large group and suddenly the camera begins to tilt. It falls over facedown on the shelf. The picture disappears; however, the sound continues to record. She can hear everyone talking, including herself.
"Oh hell!"
All the sound on the recorder stops except the low gong of the grandfather clock. Penelope holds her breath as she listens to the sound reverberate through the speakers. After twelve gongs, all is silent and then she hears the muffled sound of a man's voice. And then a woman replies.
Penelope screams. "He lied to me! He said he was alone."
She rewinds the recording and listens again. She can't make out what either of them are saying. The pair in the recording only speak for a few seconds and then the recording goes silent.
"Who was that?" she asks. Eyes-wide, she stares at the gray, grainy picture. "Why did you have to fall over!"
She jabs at the eject button dejectedly. "I'll just have to run you through the voice recognition program at work."
Her computer pings as she receives a new email.
"What is this?" she asks. She opens her email and sees that she has several unopened messages.
She opens the most recent message from the bowling alley.
Good morning Penelope,
I'm sorry to report that your birthday boy, David Rossi, did not come into the alley at any time on Saturday. I triple checked the registration list and credit cards. Sorry, I couldn't send you any pictures. I have attached the registration list in case his "soulmate" was the one who registered. If you find a familiar name, let me know and I will pull the video footage.
Hugs,
Chrissy
"Well, damn," Penelope frowns. She opens the attached document and scans the names but none of them were familiar. "Let's see if any of the other places I asked were able to get a picture of Dave and his soulmate."
She checks the emails from Toby's Dinner Theater and the massage service; each report as disappointing as the last. The next email came from Topgolf National Harbor. As she clicks it open, she realizes there is a video attachment.
Hi Penelope,
Your friend and his soulmate came in. They seemed to be having a lot of fun. I think you are going to be extremely surprised when you watch the video. You HAVE to call me after you see this.
Brad
"Oh my God," Penelope whispers excitedly. She clicks on the attachment and waits as the video loads.
Once it has loaded completely, she takes a deep breath. "Time to see who you are hiding, Super Sneaky Agent Rossi."
She clicks play and watches a very clear picture of herself and Dave smacking golf balls and laughing. Mouth wide open, eyes glued to the screen as she watches Dave stand behind her and show her how to hold the club properly, then another shot shows him kissing her – very thoroughly. Her heart races as her body reacts to the image. 'It's like watching a dream,' she thinks.
"This can't be real, is it?"
She looks around the room, her eyes darting from spot to spot, certain that she is asleep.
"Oh my God! I can't… What the hell!"
Springing to her feet, she runs to the bathroom. Kneeling in front of the sink, she pulls the panel that covers the front of the cabinet. A small hidden compartment opens. Penelope reaches in and grabs a book she keeps in there. She closes the lid to the toilet and sits on it as she breathes heavily.
"If anything ever needs to be written in a diary, this is it," she tells herself.
She grabs the pen, flips open the book to the last entry and begins writing.
Dear Dia…
Her frown deepens as she reads the previous entry:
Dear Diary,
David Rossi and I had sex. YES! THAT DAVID ROSSI! I know I told Kevin that Dave was my free pass, but I didn't think it would really come true. As it turns out, I'm Dave's soulmate! According to the legend I'm not going to remember this day. But now I have record of it. Oh! And note to self, grab the micro-cameras from Dave's house and check the feed. The proof should be there. By the way, the sex was AMAZING! 3 33 David Rossi is as talented in bed as he is out of bed. The things he can do with his hands, and his tongue and his… other parts of the body are freaking unbelievable. If I had more time, I would go into detail so I could relive every moment. My body is literally humming right now. Oh Damn! He wants to come in and shower with me. The day is early – there may be more entries!
PG
"OH! MY GOD!"
