"Preston, get your nose off the glass," Helena teased.

The sofa was against the wall, a picture window just above it. He was kneeling on the couch, looking at the view over the ocean. "She's been out there for almost two hours," he said worriedly.

"Has she moved?" Helena asked.

He nodded.

"Honey…then she's fine. She just needs some time alone."

"No, she doesn't," he argued. "She needs to come in and be with us."

Helena laughed. "I didn't know I married such a worry-wart," she teased. She walked over and sat down next to her husband, resting her head on the back of the couch so she could look up at him. "Preston, have you never had your heart broken?" she asked softly.

He sighed as he turned around and sat down next to his wife, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Never," he confirmed.

"I don't know what happened, but…if she's here because her heart was broken, it was pretty bad, Preston. In all the years I've known her, Penelope has never run from something. So for her to do that…"

"I'll tell ya what," Preston said angrily. "I ever see that bastard in a dark alley, I'll kick his ass."

Helena threw her head back in laughter. "You will not," she told him.

"Oh, I will," Preston muttered.

"Preston Michael Garcia," she scolded. "That may be the only man your sister ever loves. I forbid you to kick his ass."

Preston sighed. "Baby, you keep forbidding me to do stuff, and I'm not gonna have any fun," he whined.

"As your wife, it's my right to make you miserable." She laughed as she stood, then reached her hand out for his. "Let's go get supper started."

Preston groaned as he stood, then rested a hand on his wife's belly as he leaned down to give her a soft kiss. "How ya feeling?" he asked.

She grinned. "Plump."

"Lucky for you, I'm into plump."

___

"You look ready to pop!" Penelope said as she walked into the house a short while later.

Her sister in law grinned at her. "Is that a polite way of telling me I look fat?" she teased with a grin.

"You look gorgeous," Penelope told her as she gave her a hug.

"Thanks," Helena said with a laugh. "But I would have believed fat more."

"So when are you due?" Penelope asked, changing the subject. Helena was far from fat.

"Three weeks to the day," Preston chimed in with a grin. "Two more Payton's and Preston's to run rampant."

Helena rolled her eyes. "We are not naming them Payton and Preston."

Penelope laughed again, leaning her elbows on the butcher-block island. "What are you naming them?" she asked.

"We're still undecided," Helena said. "I like Andrew and Alec."

"And I like Harley and Davidson," Preston teased.

"Over my dead body," Penelope said.

"Thank-you!" Helena said, throwing her hands in the air.

"I like Alec. But I don't care for Andrew. I like Luke."

Helena grinned. "And I like it more every time he says it."

Ten years ago, you would never have been able to convince Penelope that her youngest brother would one day be an adoring husband. But the fact was staring her right in the face. As was the fact that he and his wife were experiencing their first pregnancy together. And while she certainly didn't begrudge them that, she was envious. Her own biological clock had been ticking for some time now—another reason she supposed she'd been so quick to settle.

Penelope sighed as she forced herself to focus on the present—she needed to let the past go. And that included what had happened with Rick, and with Derek. Sitting out there on the cold beach, the Santa Ana's blowing in her face, she'd come to a realization. What had happened with her and Derek hadn't been entirely his fault. He'd been up front with her from the beginning. But she'd stuck around, hoping he'd change his mind. It was her own fault she'd fallen so hard for him.

___

Prentiss stood in front of the white board in the BAU room. "Let's go over this one more time," she said gravely. She picked up the dry erase marker and wrote on the board. "First—you broke up with her because you didn't want to get married."

Derek nodded, his hand clasped together on the table in front of him. "Right."

"Oh! Then she met Rick," Reid chimed in.

Prentiss wrote furiously. "OK," she said.

"Shortly thereafter, he proposed to her," JJ said.

"Right, right," Prentiss said. "And she accepted." Her eyes darkened. "Then Morgan broke up the wedding."

Derek sighed. "I thought we decided that was a good thing."

"It is," Prentiss said, not willing to let it go just yet. "But it would have been better if you hadn't waited until her wedding day to tell her Rick cheated on her."

Derek rolled his eyes. "Then you went on her honeymoon," he said.

Prentiss nodded. "Where she had rebound sex."

Derek forced himself not to say anything. Penelope had told him she hadn't sex in Barbados, but he wasn't about to share that information with the others. Emily was still a little miffed, and he didn't want her anger to be redirected towards Penelope. He'd take it on himself for as long as he needed to.

"Then she came home and…Derek seduced her," Emily concluded.

"I didn't seduce her!" he argued.

"Well, you sure as hell didn't push her away!"

"If you'd slept with her before, you wouldn't have pushed her away, either," Derek muttered.

"That good, huh?" JJ asked.

Derek nodded. "No comment," he said. He'd said enough.

"And then she left," Reid said. "Has anyone talked to Hotch yet?"

"He's not talking," Derek said.

"OK, so now that we have all the facts, it's time to make a plan," JJ said.

Prentiss put the marker down and took a seat at the table. "So, do you have a plan?" she asked.

Derek shook his head. "Not yet. Hey," he said, as if a thought had just occurred to him. "Why were you and JJ carrying guns at the wedding?"

"Will said it would make him hot to know that JJ was packing underneath her dress," Prentiss said.

"Emily!" JJ said, eyes wide.

"Oh, what? Like no one here has ever had sex before?" she said.

All eyes turned to Reid. "Two words, he said. "Lila. Archer."

Derek nodded. "Nice."

"Focus, please!" JJ said.

"She wasn't your first, was she?" Prentiss asked, ignoring JJ.

Reid shook his head. "Nope. And…no more questions," he said, his face darkening.

"Second?" Prentiss pressed.

"No more questions!" Reid said.

"But—"

He lifted his eyebrows. "You wanna be the third?"

Prentiss' eyes widened and she turned to Derek. "OK, what's the plan?"

"I think I should go to California," he said.