Penelope took a deep breath as she tugged on the hem of her sweatshirt. They had woken up early, entangled in each other, and it had been so hard to pull away from Alex and not kiss her before they got out of bed. That was only a momentary slip, though, as her brain immediately went to the op that they would be carrying out shortly, and she had stripped down quickly to change into fresh clothing, not bothering to brush her hair before roughly pulling it back into a ponytail and waiting for Alex at the door.
That had been thirty minutes ago, and now they were getting ready to trek through the woods and back to Erin. Alex had the bag with the clothes they had picked out for her, a determined look on her face as she stepped out of the car. "We will see this through to the bitter end," she said as she took hold of Alex's free hand and she nodded, allowing Penelope to pull her into the dark of the woods. It was difficult to follow the makeshift trail they had left for themselves the previous day, but they were racing against the sun by that point, and so she continued forwards, trying not to stumbled over roots and plants as they went along.
Finally, they came to the edge of the woods, and Penelope stopped abruptly, staring at the dark house. It was so ominous, to see the hulking presence of the old farmhouse there, and she shivered a little as they began to slink forwards, trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible, using only hand motions to guide them as they went. Finally, they had reached the back of the house, and the first thing they checked was the window they had opened the previous day. It opened just as easily, and Penelope again lowered Alex down into the basement before slipping her the bag.
It was an anxious ten minutes, then, before she heard Alex scratch at the basement doors, and Penelope slowly cracked one open, Alex pushing her way through once the space was wide enough before helping her to quietly close it once more. "Car?" she mouthed, almost soundlessly, and Alex nodded, gripping her hand tightly as they jogged back to the woods. She didn't look back to see if Alex was on her heels, trusting the way she held her hand as they tried to avoid the same hazards they had faced going in, and they were successful upon reaching the car while only stumbling two or three times, though Penelope had heard Alex hiss in pain at one point.
"Are you all right?" she asked anxiously, as she pulled out her phone and turned it back on, waiting for it to wake up before she turned on the flashlight and carefully looked at Alex's face. There was a nasty looking welt across her cheek, and she sighed as she ran her thumb lightly over it. "I should have been more careful. I'm sorry."
"It's all right, it will heal. The better question is if you have service out here. I know that it was spotty yesterday."
Penelope nodded, finding it easy to slide back into professional mode as she looked at the upper left hand corner of her display, allowing her shoulders to slump slightly in relief when she saw that she did, indeed, have a few bars of service, and she handed the phone to Alex. "You call, Alexandra. You're technically the agent, I'm just an analyst."
The woman nodded and dialed 911, stepping closer to the car so that she could recline against it, and Penelope worried her lip between her teeth as she listened to the conversation Alex was having with the dispatcher, noting that she rattled off her badge number at one point, which seemed to gain her more credibility, as the tone of the conversation took on a decidedly more tense tone after that. "We'll need a ride to the house, since we've left our own vehicle about half a mile away from the property. All right, we'll do that. Thank you."
Alex ended the call, handing the phone back to Penelope as she let out a deep sigh. "Well?"
"The tactical team will be here as soon as possible, but it will still take around ninety minutes for them to arrive."
"Oh," she breathed out, feeling herself deflate a bit as she collapsed against the car herself, letting her head thump back against the window as she began to cry. "How, how was she this morning?"
"Freezing. The basement isn't heated, and the blanket Gideon gave her is paper thin. But he left her alone last night. Erin doesn't know why, but I'm grateful for the reprieve." She nodded and scooted closer to Alex, resting her head on her shoulder as she took a few deep breaths. "A part of me wonders if he's on the run, if there was something that we missed in that basement which tipped him off to the fact that we had hunted Erin down. We can't allow him to get away with his crimes, Penny!"
"I know, darling," she replied as she turned a little, wrapping her arm around Alex's waist as she took a few deep breaths. "I take it that we're going to be following the police cars the rest of the way down the road?"
"That was deemed to be the best idea, yes. That way we can take care of Erin while the police do their work. I told them that it would be necessary to take her to hospital, so that they can catalogue her wounds before we brought her back to the hotel room. Other than raping and torturing her, Gideon has been surprisingly magnanimous towards her. I think that he was keeping her feed and hydrated so that he could take his time breaking her."
"Oh god, that makes it even worse." Alex nodded as she turned herself, enclosing Penelope in a tight hug before taking a few, long, shuddery, breaths. "We have to keep it together now. She needs us to be strong for her, even if that will destroy us in private."
"I know. All right, one of us should probably turn the car around so that we can easily pull out and follow after the police."
"Yeah." Penelope pulled out the keys and handed them to Alex, not feeling up to driving in that moment. As the woman quickly turned around, Penelope checked her messages, seeing that there was a new one from Hotch, telling her that he had told Dave, but he didn't believe him, so there was going to be an awkward conversation once they got home with her. We're waiting for the police to arrive, and then we're going to be following them in. Wish us luck, and that Gideon is found in the house, since there appears to no sign of him in the house since the day before yesterday. I'll talk to you soon, Hotch. Pressing send, she then slipped the phone back into her pocket before getting into the passenger seat of the car and curling up as she watched Alex carefully.
"We're so close…."
"And yet so far away. I cannot wait to hug her, when she's ready. Thank you for believing me." Alex nodded as she reached across the seat and took hold of Penelope's hand, threading their fingers together as a tense silence descended over them as they waited for the police to arrive.