"Talk dirty to me, Ms. Garcia."

She had been anticipating this call all morning, and a soft smile spread across her face. "You can call me Penelope, Erin. I, that is, we are looking for you. Just Blake and myself. The others think I've talked myself into believing something that isn't true, so, she was the only one who would help me. Do you know who has you?"

"No, he never shows me his face. But his voice, I feel like I know it from somewhere. I have to go, I can hear him coming. He doesn't know, yet."

"I understand. I'll be waiting for tomorrow's call."

"Of course. I love you all."

Those soft words tore at Penelope's heart, and she tried to stop the tears that came to her eyes as she set the phone aside. A soft knocking on her door caused her to look up into Blake's eyes. "Come in."

"Did you just get another call?"

"Yes. It's her, and she is being held captive somewhere. By a man that she knows. She hasn't seen his face, but recognizes his voice. She told me she loves us." Her eyes welled up as she bowed her head, turning from Alex. "She loves us, all of us, and we did nothing to protect her."

Alex knelt in front of her, reaching out to clasp her hands. "Was she able to give you any clues about where she was being held?"

"No. She heard him coming back." Blake nodded hesitantly, and Penelope leaned forward, wrapping her arms around her neck. "What if he really hurts her before we can save her? What if, after she reached out to us, we're too late? I couldn't bear it if we had this thin silver cord of hope in our fingers only to have it snapped."

"I know, Penelope, I know." Blake rubbed her back. "But we know that she is out there, we know that we have that thin cord in our grasp. You know, William Blake wrote this poem, entitled Auguries of Innocence. One of the things that always stands out about it in my mind is his words on joy and hope. How finely woven they are, making up the clothing of our souls. And that beneath every sorrow we have, there is that bright, shining, glimpse of hope."

"That sounds so lovely, Alex," she whispered, nuzzling her face against her shoulder. Taking a deep breath, she finally pushed herself away from the woman, trying to smile at her. "Derek's going to know I've been crying. What do I tell him?"

"Tell him you read a sad story on the internet. Or that there's a particularly rough case you're working on for one of the other teams. I don't think he'd understand this, do you?"

Penelope shook her head. "You have a point there, Alex. He, he's hurting her. She sounds terrified. How can I sleep well, knowing that there is someone out there hurting her? Rossi is going to be so upset that I didn't figure out how to rescue her sooner, you know."

"No, he won't. He'll be grateful that you found her." Alex reached out and squeezed her shoulder softly. "Now, have you tried to do a trap and trace on the calls?"

"No. I never know when she's calling, it's been at a different time each call. If I had some inkling of when she was going to phone, I could put one in place. I'm floundering here, and I wish that it could be different."

The woman nodded sympathetically. "Why don't we go out to lunch today? You could use a break here, get your mind off the sadness for a little while. I, I could use the company as well."

"That would be really nice, Alex. And you could tell me some stories about her, from before. I didn't start with the BAU until after the Amerithrax case, so I really only now a tiny part of her history."

A small smile passed across Blake's lips and she grinned in return. "And I can tell you about that Christmas party in the office, where Dave and Erin almost got caught."

"What? They were a couple before, too?"

"Uh huh. Between wife number one and wife number two. She hadn't married Alan yet."

Penelope grinned as she smacked Blake's arm. "You've been holding out on us! I need to have all the details, now!"

"That, my dear, will have to wait until lunch. I think you can hold out for another hour or two, don't you?"

She shook her head and pouted a little. "Please?"
Alex laughed a little. "No."

"Fine. We head out to lunch in exactly forty five minutes. Yes, it will be early, but I need to hear that story!" Penelope stared Blake down until she nodded and she grinned in triumph. Standing, she hugged Blake quickly before settling in front of her computer screens once more in an attempt to focus on something that morning.

It was a rather difficult task, she soon found out, as her mind swirled around with thoughts of Erin and how to save her and the promise of hearing a story about her. Finally, though, it was time to head out, and Blake knocked on her door. "Ready to head out?"

"I was ready a while ago," she replied, going over to her side. Together, they went over to the elevators, and as soon as the doors were closed, she turned to Blake. "Alex, spill. Tell me the story."

"Fine. So, Erin and I were both fresh out of the Academy, and beginning here. Dave was on everyone's radar, but he became infatuated with Erin. They danced around each other for months, and it was easy to see that Erin was quickly falling in love with him. We were both young, in our twenties, and she was still as open to read as a poster. She didn't learn to conceal her heart until afterwards."

There was a small tinge of sadness in Alex's voice, and Penelope reached out, clasping her hand softly. "He hurt her, didn't he?"

"Oh, yes, but not until later. This is a happy story, though, so let's focus on that." She cleared her throat a little and took a deep breath. "So, we were having our Christmas party, and I noticed that Erin and Dave had slipped away. It was a little obvious what they were planning on doing, especially since the punch had been spiked. Erin's inhibitions were always lower when she had been drinking…"

"Did you two..?"

"Maybe. I don't really like to speak about that time, we both ended up hurting each other. So, I decided to go looking for them, to make sure that they wouldn't be caught. I ran into Director Shepperd, well, he was just an AD at the time, just as he was about to head into Dave's office. I could hear the sounds behind the doors, but he seemed to be a bit oblivious to them."

"And?"

"Once he had gone, I knocked on the door and then opened it. Her dress was rucked up around her hips and they were still…together. It was hot, I'm not going to lie. And then, she looked at me and smiled. It was breathtaking. I nodded and backed out of the room, letting them finish, and we went about our lives. I'm glad they're getting their second chance."

"Well, third really," Penelope answered as they stepped out and began to walk down the hall and out the door. "So, tell me more about her." Alex nodded as they turned in the direction of the café they liked, smiling widely. "I want to know everything I can about her, so I have things to talk about when she calls."

"Then I will give you everything I know."