Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Thanks for the reviews on this so far! I took a small break to write the next chapter of "Hate To Love You" where Penelope kicks Jackie's butt :) So that's what the delay was for. Please sit back and enjoy :) Penelope and Derek are still going to be rocky, but not nearly as bad as the first five chapters. Just to let you know!

Tala had never been more pissed in her life. She'd taken her sisters outside so they wouldn't have to be cooped up in the stuffy high school office. That and she want to get away from the confrontation that was going to take place regarding her fight with Ashley Jenkins. It didn't surprise her that it was Ashley would be the one to start in on her about her mother. The whole Jenkins family were a lot of racist assholes, and they had nothing but crap to say about Penelope.

"Hey Tala, is what I'm hearing true about your mom?" Ashley called across the locker room to Tala. "She's shacking up with the new trainer?"

All Tala did was ignore her. She wasn't in the mood to get in a fight with Ashley. But despite all of her anger at her mother and her desire to ignore the jeers of her classmate, she couldn't control the fury that was boiling beneath her skin. She couldn't control it. It was coming and there was nothing she could do to stop it. No one was going to insult her mother. No matter how angry she was at her, no one was going to attack Penelope.

"I wonder how that feels, knowing your mother left your father," Ashley pondered aloud.

Another girl snapped, "Lay off, Ashley!"

"I'm just saying..."

Finally Tala herself snapped. Slamming her locker shut, she turned to face Ashley and stalked towards her. "Really?" she said in a low voice. "What were you just saying? I'd love to hear it."

Ashley smirked. "Well, I was just saying that your mother is a slut who left your father to shack up with the new school trainer," she sighed like she was exhausted and ready to yawn. She tilted her head to the side and added in a snicker, "Please. Do tell me how big of a slut your mom is. Is Kyle Roberts the only man she's fucking or is there a list of other ones?"

The anger that had been boiling beneath the surface consumed her and Tala launched herself at Ashley, hands poised to grab her. Remembering a offensive maneuver JJ had taught her when training her in self-defense, Tala grabbed Ashley's arm and twisted it. Ashley let out a scream of pain and several of the other girls gasped in shock.

"Say one more thing about my mother and I'll break your other arm," Tala hissed. Before she could leave the room, though, a fist slammed into her lips.

All she did in response was laugh.

"Tala?" Soraya asked, skipping up to her sister who was sitting on a bench outside her school. The seven year old sat next to her sister and looked at her curiously.

"What's up, Raya?" she asked.

"Why do you hate Mom so much?" Her eyes were wide as she waited expectantly for the answer.

Rubbing her eyes, Tala shook her head. "Raya, I don't hate Mom," she muttered. "I'm just mad at her. Really, really mad."

"But you always yell at her," Soraya argued. "Did you know that she cries all the time? I think it's not just that she misses Daddy. I think she misses you too."

Ruffling her baby sister's hair, Tala nudged her with her shoulder and smiled. "For being seven years old, you're shockingly perceptive." But internally she sighed. When she truly sat down and thought about it, she really did miss her mom. They'd once been closer than any two people could be, but now, since she'd so ridiculously kicked Derek out she'd wanted to be as far away from her mother as she could possibly be.

"I still think Daddy will come home," Soraya murmured, leaning her head against Tala's shoulder.

Tala didn't respond to it. She felt it was pointless.

As she and Soraya were waiting for their parents, Tala caught sight of Lindy talking to a man by the side of the road. The man looked like he was harassing her sister and she didn't know how to get away. Frowning, she stood up and said, "Raya, I need you to wait here, okay?"

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking confused.

"Just stay here," she said firmly. "I'll be right back."

Quickly she made her way towards the scene and put her hand on Lindy's shoulder. "Er hi," she said to the man who was staring at her with a maniacal expression on his face. "Can we help you?" She made sure to step in front of her younger sister and shield her from the stranger.

"I was just asking this young lady for directions," he said with a toothy grin. He gestured to a van with no windows parked by the curb that was still running. "I'm on a road trip, you see."

Tala nodded with nervousness. "Okay," she said slowly. She gulped. "Well, we'd better be going. Have a nice trip." Pushing Lindy in the direction of going back to where they had been sitting, the stranger suddenly grabbed Tala by the wrist.

Shocked, she tried to yank it away. "Let me go, you creep!" she cried.

"Let go of my sister!" Lindy shouted, beating her delicate fists against the brute of a man's arm. "Let her go!"

The man smirked. "Quit struggling," he snapped.

"Hey! Leave them alone!"

Tala's face shot in the direction her seven year old sister's voice had come from. Soraya had come running towards them. Her eyes grew with fright and worry. "Soraya!" she cried. "Run and get help!"

Soraya hesitated for a moment, but turned to run anyway. However, before she made it anywhere, a man with a ski mask leapt from the other side of the attacker's van and snatched Soraya in his arms, covering her mouth to keep her screams silent.

"No!" Tala screamed. Looking around the deserted sidewalk, she prayed someone might come if they heard her yelling. "Someone help! Help us!"

But it was to no avail. The man not wearing a ski mask grabbed both Lindy and Tala by there arms and shoved them inside the van. Soraya was soon thrown in and she landed on top of her sisters. She was crying and Tala tried to open the van's door again, but it had been locked. Rising to a kneeling position, she began to bang her fists against the chain link barrier between the back and the driver and passenger seats which the two perps had slid into. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded in a screech. "Let us go!"

Ignoring her, the one not wearing a mask hissed, "Now we have two others. I only wanted the older one!"

"Did you not hear me?" she shrieked.

"Well, you did this wrong this time," the one in the mask muttered. "If you had let the other two go, they'd be running to tell Mommy and Daddy who had taken their eldest daughter."

"Who the hell are you freaks?" Tala hollered. "Answer me!"

The men groaned simultaneously. "Told you she was a screamer," the masked one snapped before slamming the plastic shut so that they couldn't hear her.

Groaning, she wished her phone had been in her pocket and not in her purse that was still sitting on the bench in front of the school. Tala turned back around and saw the looks on her sisters' faces. Soraya was weeping uncontrollably and Lindy had silent tears running down her cheeks. Pulling both of them into her arms, she murmured, "Don't worry...Mom and Dad will find us."

She just prayed that they would be able to work together in time to find them before something worse happened to them than just being taken by two strangers with a creepy van.

XXXXX

After their first friendly encounter in the empty classroom, Derek and Penelope headed towards the exit of the school. On the way out, he felt the most intense urge to grab his wife's hand, but he had to remind himself he needed to keep things platonic until they helped Tala first. It would just confuse their children.

"I can start asking around about counselors for her," Penelope said, pulling her sunglasses over her face as they exited the building. Derek held the door open for her and she murmured, "Thank you."

As they walked into the sunlight, they looked around for any sign of their daughters. Derek furrowed his brow. Penelope looked around worriedly. "Girls!" she called. "Tala? Lindy? Raya?" With anxiety on her face, she said, "Maybe they went to the car?"

Derek looked around until is eyes fell on a bench where there was no sign of his children, but their backpacks were. Running over to the bench, he hollered, "Penelope! I need you over here!" Hurriedly he began to rifle through all three of the bags. In Lindy's and Tala's he found their cellphones.

Not a good sign, considering his daughters always had their phones on them.

She came running over. "What is it?" she asked hoarsely, wobbling on her feet in her three inch heels. Her face went white with fear when he held up their daughters' phones. "Derek..." she murmured, her eyes filling with tears. "Please tell me they weren't —"

Putting both his hands on her shoulders, he said, "Penelope, I need you to call the police. I'm going to call Hotch, and let him know what's going on. Can you do that for me right now?"

Biting her lip to keep from crying, Penelope sniffled and nodded. "I'll call them immediately," she whispered,

Moving some of her hair out of her face to get a closer look at her face, he murmured, "Okay." But no matter how calm his exterior was, he was feeling like his world had tipped off its axis. He had no idea what to do. His mind was racing and his blood was cold. And anger was not his most prominent emotion wasn't anger.

It was fear. Pure unadulterated fear had found him.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he swiftly dialed Hotch's number. "Hotchner," his boss answered.

"Hotch, man," he said with a hoarse voice. "We've got a problem."

"What is it?" Hotch asked, instantly concerned.

Derek couldn't speak for a moment. His vocal cords were paralyzed. When he finally spoke, his voice was ragged. "Hotch, we had a meeting at Tala's school today and the girls went outside. We're outside and the only sign of them anywhere are there backpacks with their phones and wallets in them." He took a deep breath to try and calm himself down. "Hotch, they're nowhere to be found."

"You're positive that Tala didn't just take off to cool some steam?" Hotch asked.

"Why would she take her sisters with her? Why would she leave the bags containing their phones and money without one of the other girls watching them? I know Tala...she wouldn't do that."

"Alright, I'm on my way," he said. "Have you called the local PD yet?"

"Yeah, Penelope just called them," Derek said unsteadily. Hotch's silent on the other end of the line made him pause. "What's on your mind?"

"Are you and Penelope going to be able to talk your hands off each other's throats for the time being?" he asked cautiously.

Derek sighed. "Yes, Hotch," he said. "We're having a good day today. Right now what's going on between us isn't important. We need to find our daughters."

"I'm out the door now," Hotch said.

XXXXX

"Mr. and Mrs. Morgan," one of the police officers said, coming up to them. Hotch and Rossi were speaking with the head detective and had told Penelope and Derek they had to stay out of the way for the time being. For that time period while they'd been exiled outside of the investigation, Penelope had grabbed Derek's hand and refused to let go.

Both Penelope and Derek leapt to their feet and rushed to the officer who had spoken. "Officer," Penelope murmured, still clutching Derek's hand. She wiped her eyes. "What's going on?"

"Well, there's no sign of your daughters within a two mile radius and no one saw anyone take them," the officer said sympathetically. "We need to get to the station and get an Amber Alert set out for them."

Penelope started crying harder and Derek put his arm around her shoulders. "Let's go then," he said. "We'll meet you at the station."

"Look for Chief Hernandez when you get there," the officer said. "He'll get you and the rest of your team set up. Agent Hotchner said he'd called the rest of them in to help with the case."

Nodding, Derek started to lead Penelope towards his car. She was leaning against him and sobbing. "Hey," he murmured. "We're going to find them. It'll be okay."

"Why would someone take them?" she wept. "This should never have happened to them! We never should have let Tala leave that room!"

He opened the passenger side door and helped Penelope inside, steadying her hands so she could buckle her seat belt. Touching her cheek, he said, "You've got to breathe, Penelope. Breathe..." He watched her exhale and inhale deeply. "We're going to the station and we're going to find the bastards who took them." He cocked an eyebrow and said. "You better now?"

She nodded shakily. "I'm okay," she said hoarsely, wiping her eyes. "You're right, we'll get them back."

Kissing her forehead, he shut the door and went around to the driver's side to get in himself. But before he opened the door, he noticed an envelope sitting on the windshield.

Picking it up, he ripped the envelope open and three photos fell out into his grasp. There was one of each of his daughters, taken with a polaroid camera from different times fairly recently. One was of Soraya as she left her school for the day; the second was of Lindy sitting on the front porch of their house with a book in her hands; the final one was of Tala as she kicked a goal on the soccer field.

Feeling his blood run cold, Derek's mouth dropped as he realized something: the man who'd taken his daughters had his eye on them for a long time.

There'll be more on the unsub in the next one! Hope this one was okay...Derek and Penelope are on the mend, unfortunately in light of some awful events. PLEASE REVIEW! I'd love to know your thoughts or guesses on what's going on :)