Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds

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Later that day Fran sent everyone bar Hotch, Derek and herself back to hers with Desiree. Penelope needed support but not an overwhelming amount; she chose the boss for the pure reason was he needed to be there, to see that their tech hadn't ran from them, that she was in fact alive. Derek needed to be there, he had only got Penelope back she knew the idea of leaving would make him think she would be gone when he got back. Fran stuck around because at that moment, Penelope needed a mother like figure, whether Penelope was a fully grown woman or not made not difference. She was after all Penelope's safe haven.

They all sat around in Penelope's room while she slept an uneventful sleep, although they all guessed it would only be a matter of time before the nightmares came and haunted her. The nightmares that would make her relive the 4 months, make her feel each and every beating, make her smell the room she was in, make her see it, see him, make her taste the stale air that came with basements mixed with the taste of her own blood. For now though they were happy with the peace that Penelope was experiencing.

They all sat in their own world of thought, her brother, her brother did this, was all that kept swimming through every vessel of their brain. That had to be the ultimate betrayal, they thought to how Penelope must have felt waking up and coming face to face with her captor, only to realise the eyes staring back are the same shape as her own, the same shade, the eyes of a family member.

Derek kept replaying Penelope's words, 'I was coming back to you', he wiped an occasional tear, that proved her love for him, she had questioned her relationship with Kevin one too many times and that night when Derek decided enough was enough he couldn't bat away his feelings, Penelope needed to be told once and for all her worth in his life. So he did it and she disappeared.

Hotch continued to stare at the face of Penelope as she slept. He knew something terrible had happened, he just felt it, his intuition went into over drive, but never did he imagine this. This was a monstrous severance, with the pure intent of giving her what she deserved. His eyes traced the bruise on her neck, her brother had done that? Her brother, he felt his fists clench at the very thought.

Fran found her eyes darting from Penelope's face, to her neck, to her chest, to any part of her body. The trauma she had been forced to endure at the hands of a supposed love made it a very hard thing to get her head around it. Penelope had laid in a basement for 4 months, receiving beating after beating, being starved to severe extents, all because she walked out on her family.

All of them looked from one to other, the actions of Antonio Garcia earlier proved just why Penelope had walked out on her family, neither of them blamed her, all of them vowed to help her.

'I think we need to find the location of Antonio's house.' Hotch said. 'I understand Morgan if you don't want to come but I need to know just how far she truly walked, I need to go there.'

'I'm coming.' Derek said with a definite tone of voice. 'I need to go there too.' Hotch just nodded his response, got his phone and left the room.

'Baby how you holding up?' Fran asked concern, the effects of this on Desiree were immense, Fran could only imagine what Derek was keeping in.

'I don't know... I guess I'm ecstatic, overwhelmed, loving the fact she's kind of home but hating to see her like this.' He looked at his mom. 'I'm scared.' He finally admitted.

'I thought so... but what's scaring you?'

He looked at Penelope. 'The day after I told her I loved her, I thought she had ran... then at work she didn't turn up and I thought that verified it, then we asked Lynch where she was and he said he hadn't seen her since that night, since she finished with him. When we got to her place, Esther was there, the door was open her purse was there, she wasn't. We went into her apartment and she was gone. That scared me, and then your phone call scared me, the words Penelope's Alive, scared me, I didn't know if I was hearing something I didn't want to and now this, everything.'

'Derek she's back.' Fran said, knowing that wasn't truly everything.

'I'm scared of losing her.' Finally Derek said with so much unambiguous tones that anyone would have a hard time disbelieving it.

'You're not going to lose her.'

'It's happened so many times... I'm scared that if I blink she'll be gone.'

'I think if Penelope has a choice she will stick around... she's in love with her best friend too remember.'

Derek smiled at those words. He sat up right then stood. 'I need to get a drink, what do you want?'

'Just get me a water please.' Fran said knowing full well that Derek was on the verge of a mini episode of emotions. He needed air to breakdown and air to recover. 'Don't be too long.'

'Do you seriously think I would?' He said with a smile, as he was walking out Hotch was coming back in, Derek asked him what he wanted to drink and then he left, Hotch took his seat back.

'Everything okay?'

'Yeah, we have an address, we going to head off when Rossi and Reid get here.' Hotch answered a little apprehensive. 'Everything okay in here?

'Yeah, having a mother son chat about Penelope here.'

'Is he okay? I mean he hardly spoke on the plane here, and the way he went for Penelope's brother...'

'... his afraid that's all.' Hotch nodded, knowing exactly what Derek was afraid of.

When Derek got back he found Rossi and Reid sitting in the room now, he passed the drink to his mom and looked at them. 'You got the address?'

'Yeah, we were waiting for you.'

'Let's go then.' Derek said finishing off his drink and through the cup in the bin, he kissed his mom and took a look at Penelope before following the other 3 men out of the room.

Fran had transposed her worries into reading a book, and so far it was working. She had been reading when she heard an intake of air. She looked up and smiled.

'Hey.' She said as she put the book in her and lap and leant forward. 'How are you feeling now?'

'My headaches still here but I have only a throbbing pain through the rest of me.' Penelope said tiredly, she looked at Fran. 'Where is everyone?'

'Don't panic... I sent them home to get some rest, so they can be on top form.'

'What about you?'

'Penelope Garcia I am not leaving this seat to leave you alone... I am perfectly fine here, so here I will stay.'

'Thank you.'

'No problems... I'd do it all again.' Fran then gained the mother eyes. 'Penelope why didn't you tell us it was your brother?'

Penelope reached up and pulled the mask down. 'I was scared too.' She closed her eyes. 'I was scared of what he would do... but... but everyone getting here, I felt that no one could hurt me if you're all here so I went against him.'

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It had taken the men just under 45 minutes to get to the place. They had gone passed Derek's mom's place to time how long it would have taken in the car for the general route.

'32 minutes is long in a car.'

'So what we saying... normal person walking it would be say 48 maybe 50 minutes?'

'Possibly...'

'So Pen walking it would be slightly more than 64 minutes give or take?'

'Well from what your mom and sister said about how she stumbled a couple of times I would say its fairly likely.'

They all exited the SUV and stood looking at the house, it was of big sizing and there was several ways into the basement from the outside. They looked around the outside, with the help of some local police and then they made their way inside. They looked around the house finding family photo's mainly of 4 men, and some where the girl was evidently Penelope. Derek picked up one and looked at it but put it down when an image of her in the hospital bed flashed in front of his eyes.

He looked at Hotch and nodded, they made their way to a door and opened it to find steps leading down. They turned on their flash lights and headed down the steps. Reid's flash light caught a smear of blood on the wall and they knew things could only get worse from here.