A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting! There was a major snowstorm in my area that knocked my internet connection out. Also, there was a typo in the last chapter! The planchette was supposed to spell out "ask Penelope" but the letters were deleted off for some reason. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
"What?" Derek cried. "You're the one who wanted to keep playing!"
Penelope tried to grab at the board, but he held it in place. "You're not burning it yet. You have to tell us about Catherine first."
She stopped trying to fight him. "Derek, I've never told anything about her before," she said in a scared voice. "It's always been a family secret."
"We are family," he said firmly. "Now tell us."
Penelope had always known she couldn't keep her a secret forever. Eventually the team would find out about the Catherine who destroyed her life as she knew it. They were profilers, after all. Besides, she did want to fess up to Morgan and Reid, who were still looking at her expectantly.
"It's a long story," she said honestly. "But my father...he had an affair when I was six. The woman's name was Catherine Blake."
She launched right into her tale, not giving Derek or Reid a chance to say anything else.
Penelope knew he was up to no good.
Her father's allusive behavior had been going on for weeks now. He was working "overtime" later and later in the evenings, and when he did come home, all her parents did was fight.
It was like they'd always hated each other. Penelope sometimes wondered if they'd ever been in love because she could hardly remember it. After all, she was just a kid. Even she knew that their fights were escalating and her father had a secret.
In fact, he had a major secret.
She was the one to catch him. Penelope was supposed to be at a clarinet lesson, (her mother's idea,) but had decided to skip. She really didn't like the clarinet all that much. Besides, she would much rather sit at home reading a book, thank you very much.
Their neighbor dropped her off at her house after she'd fibbed about not feeling well. "Don't worry, my Mom's home," Penelope had said convincingly to the older woman.
She hated to lie. She really did. Her mother was at a ball game for one of her brothers, and she was pretty sure all her siblings were with her. Maybe her father was home.
Penelope found the side door unlocked. She opened it, yelling for her father, but heard no answer in return. Then she heard a noise upstairs.
She headed up to her parents' bedroom, thinking maybe her father was home after all. Sometimes he liked to watch TV in there.
It was then, when Penelope pushed the bedroom door open, she'd found her father in bed with another woman.
Later on, Penelope would find out that the red headed vixen's name was Catherine.
"They liked each other a lot," Penelope said. "So much so that my parents inevitably got divorced about a year later. After I seen them fooling around, it was hard for my mother not to find out. I just...I couldn't understand why Dad was with this other woman who wasn't my mother. So I blabbed."
Derek, who had been silent during her story, suddenly spoke: "Baby, I am so sorry," he said. "Really."
He reached for her hand in support.
"After they divorced, my father and Catherine got married," she explained. "She was never the nicest to me or my brothers, so we didn't go there all that often. Eventually I lost all contact with my father, as you know. I didn't see him again until I was seventeen. And you guys know the rest."
That they did. Derek knew of the fatal crash that killed both her parents when she was eighteen. They had been out looking for their rebellious teen that night, and it had taken Penelope years to come to terms with it.
"Why would the ghost tell us about Catherine?" Reid asked. "How would it even know?"
"It's the supernatural," Penelope said. "They can know things about us that no one else does."
"Maybe we should stop playing," Derek piped up. "Otherwise there isn't going to be any secrets left between us."
Penelope and Reid looked at him. "What's your secret?" Reid asked. "You've cancelled your gym membership now that your relationship is over?"
Penelope giggled. "You're secretly a soap opera junkie?"
"Very funny you two," he said. "There's a reason it's a secret. My lips are sealed."
The planchette started moving again, even though none of them were touching it anymore. It simply spelled B-A-B-Y G-I-R-L
"Baby Girl?" Penelope said. "Your secret is about me?"
A/N: Review! Let me know your thoughts and hopes for what happens next!