Disclaimer: I don't not own Criminal Minds
While waiting for the officer to drop off the laptop, Pen had paced the waiting room more than ten times. She had bought a coffee and chocolate bar, devouring them quickly. Every time she paced past Desire's chair she looked up tears, streaming down her face. Pen had bought the teen a chocolate bar too, but she was slowly picking at it. She knew that Derek's mom was going to be here soon and Pen didn't know if she could handle seeing the older woman in pain too.
"Mama!" Desire stood up, throwing herself at the older woman who had just walked into the room. Fran Morgan slowly ushered her daughter to sit back down, whispering soothing words to her to get her tears to stop flowing so fast.
Pen wished she still had her parents to do that, but right now wasn't the time to be thinking about herself. One of her best friends, her best guy friend, was in touch and go surgery, her other friend just fainted for a reason still unknown. With all of this stress there was no doubt she was going to need to start dying her hair real early. She did always like the color red…
"Darling, you have to sit down." Fran's voice pulled her out of her thoughts to see the woman standing before her, only a couple inches shorter, thanks to Pen's bright kitten heels. Pen let her lead her to a chair, not wanting to argue with her. From what Derek had told her, the woman might not look it but she could scare anyone.
A young officer came rushing into the waiting room, quickly scanning it before rushing to Pen handing the laptop over. "Sorry, the traffic was bad getting over here."
"Thank you," Pen said. Opening the laptop, she opened it to the internet before the young officer was even out of the room. Fran sat in wonder watching Pen search many different websites, pulling any information on Victor Prentiss that was out there. After a few minutes Fran went to sit by her daughter and let Pen work.
Nothing was heard in the room except the fast clicking of the keyboard. Derek's older sister came in after driving the long drive from the small town where she now lived. She didn't waste time going straight for her mom and sister. Pen looked up to see the poor family clinging to each other. They couldn't lose Derek, they already lost too much. A ping from her laptop got her got out of the daze and she smiled slightly before calling JJ.
"Please say you found something!" JJ answered, sounding exhausted.
"I found more than 'something'. I found the best information out there in the digital world!" Pen couldn't help but hide the smile on her face. "I think I know who this guy is!"
There was a moment of silence as JJ waved the detective and FBI agents over to her. "Okay, Pen you're on speaker with Will, the FBI, and me."
"I normally would ask who Will is, but I'll wait for later. Jay, you're going to need to get on a computer, I'm gonna email you the info!"
"Okay," JJ looked at Will who motioned to a passing cop who hurried off to fetch a laptop.
"Goody, I'm going to send you a picture of the guy who I think is our guy since you saw him." The normal life in Pen's voice was coming back just a bit.
Everyone waited in silence until the cop came back with a laptop. JJ wasted no time opening her email. JJ opened the new message to see the man who shot her friend. Her mouth wasn't able to form any words. She looked up at Will, who'd been hovering proactively over her side. Will looked at the picture before taking the phone.
"That's him," Will answered for JJ, who looked like she just might throw up.
"Well that, my sweet southern angel," Will couldn't help but smile, he looked over to see JJ smirking a bit but her face was still pale, "is Gary Davis. He worked in Prentiss Investment as a lower paid accountant. From what I can see he used to run the numbers to see where and when the company should put their money."
"Used to?" Gideon asked, wondering how his tech people missed this.
"Yes, sir, he was fired three months ago for messing up big time. It looks like he told them to put a lot of money in a business and within a week that business crashed like that poor plane in LOST."
"How did you find him?" Elle had looked herself but didn't find anyone suspicious, and by the picture this guy looked like a normal guy.
"I looked back in Victor's law firm but soon found that was a dead end. They mostly dealt with petty business disagreements and most who work or worked there were old. So I checked into the investment company. At first I thought it was going nowhere either but then I thought there had to be a lot of bad stuff in this guy's life that he would shoot…. That he would hurt anyone." Pen's voice got timid and quiet for a second. "After finding who had been fired in the last six months, I looked through that list until I found our man Gary, who was the perfect candidate for Mr. Super Evil. After he lost his job due to his error, his wife left him for another man, another math man that worked with Gary for years. To make matter worse, his ten year old girl got hit by a car a week before he lost his job. She died in the hospital four days ago."
It made sense to Gideon that this was a man who lost everything, his job, his wife, his daughter. He had nothing else to lose. Gary was going after the man who he deemed responsible for all of this, Victor.
"Does he have any other family members, brothers, sisters, parents?" Elle was going to call the techs back at Quantico when this was done and yell at them. If a random girl can find more than people who are supposed to be the best, they have a problem.
Pen looked up to see Dave walking in the room, "Um… let me check…" Looking back at her computer, she quickly checked. "Aw, this is super sad and if this man hadn't shot my boy I would feel for him." Looking at this man's life made the hair on her arms stand up, his whole life was crashing around him quickly. "His sister, who he raised after their parents got killed in a drunk driving accident, was killed in a drunk driving accident herself the day after her niece died in the hospital."
Dave sat down near the tech, looking at the screen, trying to fill himself in. The random screens filled with small letters only got him more lost. "So he lost everything and he blames Victor. Why did he beat the crap out Derek and shoot him?" JJ asked finally, talking again. The urge to throw up was now replaced with a rage to hurt this man, no matter how bad his life was.
"Beating him up was most likely to make sure he couldn't stop him, maybe to give him power he felt he didn't have. Shooting Mr. Morgan was not what he planned at first, he just wanted Victor. He saw how it affected Emily and he knew that she was the only way he was going to get Victor home." Elle stated.
Gideon looked back to the mansion, running a hand over his head. "So we gave this guy what he wanted. He has Victor in there and no one else to stop him."
The feeling of dread in JJ's stomach all came rushing back. "Aaron." His name came out as a squeak.
"What?" Gideon looked at the blonde, who was now shivering with fear.
"Aaron is in there! He will protect them or die trying. That's how he is, but he…he can't die Haley needs him… they need him." JJ peeked over to where Haley was standing alone, sipping water.
"They?" Pen wondered before it clicked. "Haley's pregnant! I thought she looked glow-y when I saw her last!"
"Yeah, she told me today." The young couple had been trying for a while, the news seemed to be the best news for both of them.
"That makes everything much more complicated," Will mumbled, feeling for the woman. He knew how it was being raised by a single parent, he didn't want that for anyone.
Silence filled both ends of the call, no one knowing what they were going to do. "Pen, I'll call you back once we know what we are going to do." JJ didn't want her bubbly friend to hear them make a plan that would possibly end one of their friend's lives.
"Okay, call me when something happens! Dave is here so I think our girl is fine, that's one less thing you have to worry about." Dave gave Pen a sad look when she hung up. "We found out who the guy was. That's good, they are going to get everyone out and Derek will come out of surgery perfectly fine with only a small wound! You're here, so Emily must be fine or you wouldn't have left her side!"
Dave looked down at his shoes, kicking the linoleum floor. "They made me leave, I don't know how she is." To see a girl who was like a daughter to him hooked up to the machines and lying still tore a hole in his heart. "They wouldn't tell me what's wrong since I'm not family."
"Why does everything have to go wrong today?" Pen sat the laptop in the empty seat next to her and turned toward Dave, who looked lost. "Why did he have to cause this much pain? I get it, he lost everything, but why does he have to take them away from us!" The tears Pen had been fighting all day finally made an appearance on her face, making her makeup smear slightly.
Dave grabbed the blonde's hand, squeezing it, hoping to stop her from making a big scene. "Shhh, kitten you need to breath." She met his eyes and curled into his side, crying harder than before. "He will be fine, he's a fighter." Dave hoped he was right. He saw how much Emily loved the boy, she couldn't stand to lose him. The thought alone had put her in the hospital. "And we both know Emily. She is just making a big deal out of nothing like she always does."
The normally cool headed ex-cop wanted to drive back to the mansion and beat the man responsible until he was in as much pain as Derek and Emily. Pen crying into his shoulder and Emily in the room down the hall were the only things stopping him. All he could do now is hold Pen and stay strong for her. He had to let the FBI agents do what they were good at and pray for the best. He bowed his head and sent up a silent prayer, hoping that the day would have a happy ending. He hoped that the feeling in his stomach that told him it wasn't going to happen was wrong. As time ticked by slowly, ignoring that feeling got harder and harder.
Quick thanks to everyone for reading this far mean a lot to me. Only a couple more chapters! It would mean a lot if you left a review.