A/N: Thanks for the reviews and alerts guys! So, a day in the office after a non-date date on Valentines...

I do not own Criminal Minds

Garcia rushed into her lair and frantically scurried to start up her systems. She was twenty minutes late, and she hoped Hotch would forgive her. It's his fault she has a hangover from the sake last night. But she had a search she had to run right away for one of the other teams that were out in the field. Luckily it took only a few minutes and she heard they were on their way to getting the guy. It's odd in a way. Technically she has three teams right now. But only her team, her family, felt like that. Perhaps it was because she did only half the work for the other teams, splitting it with two other analysts who had work of their own in other areas of Quantico. Budget cuts were really muddling things up.

So, it took a while. It was forty five minutes into the work day when she heard Morgan's knock on her door. "Come in." she yelled over her shoulder, finishing up some work she needed for Hotch by the end of the day.

"Hey baby girl. Oh. Who got you these?" he asked as she turned around to look. How could she have missed the large floral arrangement and box of chocolates sitting on top of her filing cabinet?

She instantly reached for the card in the arrangement of hot pink roses and Peruvian lilies in a clear square vase. She ignored Morgan's light teasing as she opened the envelope and read the card. It simply read: I always fulfill expectations.

She had to bite her lip from shrieking happily and humorously. Who knew Hotch had it in him? She was more than surprised and a tad confused, but she wasn't going to let that ruin the high of getting presents.

"So who they from baby girl?" Morgan read the card over her shoulder. "expectations?" he asked with a raised brow.

She had to think fast. The truth would not be good right now. Either people would think it was a funny little joke but out of place or that something was really going on. Either way, Derek was likely to confront Hotch physically if he thought there was a possibility it would hurt her in any way. And that's to say nothing of what the team would think, tease at, turn her whole life into one big romantically inclined profile. No thank you.

"It's a little inside joke between a friend and me. Candy for Mr. Dark Chocolate?" she opened the large purple heart shaped box with metallic floral designs and notice about forty Lindt truffles inside. Her favorite.

Derek took one appreciatively, noting out loud that whoever this friend is will be popular with the team today. Penelope took the hint. It's a sort of an unwritten rule in an office. Gifts of chocolate, cookies or other sweets sent to the office are to be shared. She smiled at Morgan and followed as he returned to the bullpen.

"Ooo. What do we have here?" JJ asked as she plucked one of the white chocolate truffles from the box.

"Just a present from a friend. I must share with the family. Emily, take two dark ones, you like them the most of anyone." Of course, Emily complied and handed Reid a random chocolate to try.

Little by little everyone grabbed a few as they stood around her, trying to get the identity of the gift giver through gentle interrogation. Even Reid wanted to know and went on a long but adorable rant on how the tradition of giving chocolate on Valentine's began. He mentioned that flowers were more traditional, however. Morgan spoke up. "Well, this person got her those as well."

"Oh really, what were they?" Rossi asked as he joined up and snagged a milk chocolate truffle.

"Hot pink roses and Peruvian lilies. Any significance to that Reid?" Morgan asked with a wink to the girls who each rolled their eyes.

"Actually yes. I assume the Peruvian lilies, otherwise called alstroemeria after the Swedish botanist credited with introducing them to Europe, were pink as well. Overall they mean deep friendship and devotion. Being pink and combined with the pink roses one could construe the meaning of the bouquet to convey feelings of deep affection, thankfulness and tones of friendship. Normally pink roses are used to show gratitude, grace, and etcetera. But hot pink is more poignant, usually meaning the giver wishes to convey a greater depth of emotion. Though, perhaps he or she just knows Garcia's like of bright colors."

Through it all Garcia could not help letting her gaze wonder to JJ, looking for signs of that little revelation Hotch let slip last night. She couldn't believe that he knew something and that he told her. He was a better secret keeper than even Emily. Yet his trust in her… she tried to save her flattery to examine later, alone.

"Aww, that's really sweet. Thanks for the explanation." She gave Reid a little kiss on the cheek.

"Hmm, friend who is grateful, and showing deep affection huh? Anything we should know PG?" Emily winked her tease, but meant it. No one just sends flowers and candy after Valentines day, with those emotions, and isn't interested a little bit. She just hoped it wasn't Morgan, she really did not want to see them together at all. They were perfect in their relationship as is, flirty but brother and sister like nonetheless.

"It's nothing really." She was flush, she was going to give something away soon if she didn't try to keep it together and change the subject. "Do you guys have your fill? I want to give Hotch a have it."

They waved her on her way, none the bit curious or suspicious of her visiting Hotch, though Prentiss and Rossi each felt a little bad. The group always seems to forget Hotch in the nice, fun things. It's sort of out of sight out of mind when the gift sharing comes around when it comes to him. They shared a look of agreement on the matter as they watched Penelope walk up to Hotch's office.

She knocked on the open door.

Hotch had been watching the whole exchange from the corner of his eye through the window. She seemed very happy, her old self again for those few minutes down there sharing his gift. He was surprised to see her come up though.

"Can I come in?"

"Of course." He gestured for her to take a seat.

She pulled up one of the chairs in front of his desk a little closer and crossed her legs at the ankles before holding the box to him. "I saved you one of each flavor, two of the milk chocolate since those are your favorite."

He graciously took a milk chocolate and popped it in his mouth. "I didn't know you kept track of such things."

"Why not? You certainly seem to, especially in your attempt at meeting expectations. Though I would say you exceeded them." She really, really tried not to blush. "You really didn't have to Hotch." She was failing at the no blushing thing.

"I know. I wanted to." He needed to change the subject before she asked why. "So, I hope you don't mind…" he started but didn't finish.

"Mind what?" she pulled out a candy for herself and leaned in a little.

"Well, after I got home last night I called Jack and talked to him about the spelling bee."

"Oh good. How did that go?" she felt so bad for poor Jacky poo. It must be hard having a dad that can't make it to things. She remembered that time Hotch was in the field and Jessica was sick and so the school called Penelope to pick up Jack when he began to run a fever. She had to work, but took him to rest on her sofa in the office and provided him with plenty of games to entertain him between naps. He was such a precious kid, a mini Hotch that looked up to his dad like a personal super hero. Frankly, she looked at the man just the same.

"Well, first he was mad at his teacher for telling me. So I had to spend about ten minutes explaining why she had no choice. Finally it took me reading from the teacher's manual to convince him she had to for her job."

Penelope bit out a short laugh. "That kid is going to be a big shot prosecutor someday, just like his dad."

Hotch chuckled. "That's the truth. So, finally with that settled I talked to him about how I am going to try to do my best to be there. I explained I made time for it but that I can't control when the bad guys do bad things and that if someone is in trouble I might have to go. He told me 'that just makes bad guys even more bad daddy.' I swear I could hear the tears roll down his cheek."

It got to Penelope too, she had to hold hers back. "Oh Aaron. I wish I could make things better for you guys. Too bad my oracle skills are only aimed at the past."

They sat in silence for a bit. Neither knew what to say. Finally she spoke again. "I hope you told him about my offer."

Hotch let out a long breath. "You don't mind if I did?"

"You did right?"

"Yes."

"Good. Why would I mind? I offered. Actually, I was afraid you would think I would be stepping on your toes with it."

"No, of course not. Not too many people would ever volunteer for that sort of thing. I can't tell you how grateful it makes me."

When she could summon the strength to look back up she saw he really meant it. "Thank you sir. Truthfully, I would love to go to these types of things whenever he has them. I might never get a chance at kids of my own, so I'll take any 'Aunt Penelope' moments I can get." Why did she say that? She didn't need a pity party from Aaron Hotchner, nor did she want him thinking that if anything would happen between them (which she highly, highly doubted) that she was going to demand kids from him.

He studied her quickly. He never knew she wanted kids before, but she was fantastic with them. He asked himself how a man never scooped her up before. She was such a good person. Caring, honest, loyal to a fault. And beautiful. She wasn't a skinny thing, and he rather liked that. His tastes in women were diverse but he remembered occasionally wishing Haley would gain a little and get some curves. Sex with her during the middle of pregnancy was the best they had in his opinion because she was getting more plentiful in the places Garcia already had it down pat. Was he leering? He hoped not.

"You can come anytime. But trust me Penelope; you'll have your own someday."

She was blushing from the assurance and she knew it. Deciding to ignore it for the time being she forged on. "Great. So Jack took the offer well?"

"Oh yeah. He was excited, especially when I explained that you would record it for me and act as my representative."

They both chuckled at the innocence of childhood.

Morgan looked up and caught an odd smile on Hotch's face as he talked with baby girl. It was nice, refreshing after years of hardly seeing that anymore. No one could get to that man like Penelope and everyone knew it. JJ had once made a wayward comment a year or so ago about the weird subdued chemistry between the two. Derek laughed at himself. While all that is true, there's no reason to read anything more into it. JJ and Reid? Well, something was up when it came to those two.

"Guys, we have a case." JJ called and everyone snapped to, headed for the conference room while she walked towards Hotch's office to get him and Garcia.

"Conference room in three Hotch. It's a hot case. Need you there too Pen, I think you might actually have to come into the field for this one."

Penelope nearly had a panic attack and was thankful JJ had left the office the second she was done talking. Only Hotch had to see the look on her face. How was she to do that with all the other work she has?

"If we do need you I will talk to Strauss and lighten your caseload to just us for the rest of the week. Alright? We are enough to handle."

Flowers, chocolate and a reprieve. "Yes, please sir. I just don't want to be overwhelmed and make mistakes." She looked at her feet in shame to admit that.

Hotch walked to where she was standing and placed his hands gently on her shoulders to reassure her. She looked up to his face as he stood arm's length from her.

"Garcia, don't feel bad about this. You take on a lot and I need you in top shape. Never be ashamed of that."

"You do the same sir." She pointed out. What's fair is fair.

He sighed. "True, but I'm a bit of a masochist when it comes to this job."

She laughed. "No, you just care."

He looked at her thoughtfully for a minute before taking his hands down to his side and suggesting they get a move on.

"What do we got?" Prentiss asked as she unwrapped the last of her truffles and popped it in her mouth.

JJ motioned to the screen. "Here are some slides the Dallas PD sent. This case is a little off from our usual."

"How so?" Reid asked, trying to make out the details of the murder sites pictured on the screen.

"Because we don't have actual victims yet. All we found are the kill sites. Five of them."

She handed them each a print out of a floor plan which hand labeled the locations of the kills in the house's layout. "Dallas PD got a tip to check out this abandoned house. When they did they discovered the sites and a large computer system that is impenetrable, functioning on its own closed systems according to the field office techs. Which is why I think we need Garcia."

Hotch asked a few questions to JJ about the timing of these findings. The response he got back was worrying. "The CSU on site said there were definitely five killings to take place, all within approximately a week of one another dating back almost six weeks from today. But they also found a small amount of freshly spilled blood. DNA analysis dictates all victims were women and semen from a sole male has been found at each site."

"Oh Lord Jesus." Garcia felt like she was going to vomit.

"Alright. We may have another potential victim about to meet the same fate. I want wheels up thirty. Garcia, I think you should come along as well. And if you can, try to see if the owner's of the abandoned property are active in the area. The unsub may be familiar with them, understand that he has almost unlimited access to a venue of privacy. And call the techs at the field office, see if you can find a way to establish any sort of external connection or ability to copy everything relatively quickly." He looked to everyone. "If this is the kill site he will most likely return there to do the deed and it would be beneficial to corner him."

With that everyone filtered out to grab their go bags and ready for the odd case ahead. Hotch waited for everyone else to leave, thankful that Garcia trailed behind the others on her way to the door. He reflexively reached his arm out to stop her progress and in the process ended up snagging her close to him by the waist.

She could feel her eyes wide as she looked up at him, her chest pressed into his. She could feel her pulse and was almost sure his was speeding along as well.

They stared at one another for a moment. Each wanting what they knew was wrong when a life was on the line. So, Hotch settled for a quick explanation. "I just wanted to let you know I appreciate you coming out with us Garcia." Lame, and he knew it.

"I-uh. Thanks. I like field work, sometimes." And she would like it if he would just lean a little closer and let his lips do a totally different kind of talking.

He wanted that, so badly but it would have to wait until a different time, if she even wanted him that way in real life and not just in her dreams. That was something he hadn't fully considered before. And he hadn't considered he was considering her that way and had been for some time now. He licked his lips subconsciously, and aware of the action once it happened and how it might insight something, he pulled his lips to make contact with her forehead. And in that moment it solidified it all for Penelope and himself. Each knew there was a possibility there they, independently at least, needed to explore.

Garcia pulled herself away with an offering of a sweet smile before turning and letting it falter on her way to the lair. She hated that he did that, and she feared he was just playing a game. And she hated that she could consider he would ever do that to her when she trusted him implicitly. Was her self-esteem really that low? Apparently.

But worse than anything, she hated how that chaste contact lit up part of the board she tried to keep very dim. The sex and attraction she could deal with. But the tenderness of the companionship, that kiss? It was spurring into something far too real for her to deal with right now. And she knew the reason behind that fear of real intimacy with him was because deep in her heart, she had always wanted it that way with him and never dared hope until today.

How will they deal with their nerves and the situation while in the field? We'll find out in the next chapter.