Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters. Some "guest stars" are based on or named after people in my life while others are totally made up, as are some places and events.

Chapter 16

Penelope reached her hand out to grab her phone and her heart plummeted when her attacker swatted the phone off the nightstand, then climbed on top of her, straddling her. He moved the knife away from her throat before grabbing her wrists and pulling them behind her back. His hands were huge and easily encompassed and subdued both of hers in one of his. She cringed when she felt his other hand stroke her head before lifting strands of her hair and sniffing them loudly. "You're so pretty and you smell so good," he cooed in her ear. "Like strawberries." He traced a large finger over her cheek. "It's even softer than it looks," he sighed.

Penelope and her attacker both froze when they heard the unmistakable click of a keycard as the lock accepted it. Penelope opened her mouth to scream but her attacker grabbed a handful of her hair, pushed her face into the pillows and held her in place. She kicked out wildly as her air was cut off.

The door opened but was stopped short by the bar guard. "Baby Girl, it's me. Let me in," Derek called through the crack.

Penelope continued to struggle and moved her head furiously, ignoring her burning scalp. "Derek, help!" she screamed as her attacker lost his grip on her hair. She immediately felt his weight leave and heard a bang as Derek kicked open the door.

"FBI, don't move," he yelled. He saw Penelope scramble off the bed and her attacker ignoring his order and continuing to try and open the window. Derek ran over and grabbed him and ducked when the attacker swung his fists blindly. Derek kicked the attacker's knee from his crouching position, then tackled him as his leg gave out. "Stay down," he yelled. The man elbowed Derek on the ribs and limped toward the splintered door. Derek tackled the attacker and hit him on the face until he stopped struggling. He checked his pulse and determining that the attacker was just knocked out, he pulled out his handcuffs and cuffed his hands behind his back.

"I finally got her to sleep," Derek said from the hallway. The hotel management had helped move their things to a new room while the LEOs took his and Penelope's statements and the EMTs checked her over.

"Good," Hotch said. "How is she?"

"Scared. Pissed off. The EMTs said she's OK. He pulled her hair and pushed her face into the pillow so she wouldn't scream and cut off her air but it was only for a few seconds. He bruised her wrists, too."

"We'll be there in a couple of hours. Get some sleep if you can."

They rest of the team all returned to Traverse City shortly after dawn. They decided to let Penelope and Derek sleep some more and went to their respective rooms to rest.

Derek woke up a short time later to the sounds of keys clicking. He rubbed his eyes to clear the sleep and cobwebs away and saw Penelope turning on her babies.

"Sweetness, come back to bed," he said.

"I can't sleep, D. I want to get this done and go home." Her voice cracked a little. "Sorry if I woke you."

"Hey." He scrambled out of the bed and over to her. He gathered her in his arms and she wept against his shoulder. "You're safe now, Baby Girl," he murmured.

"What if you hadn't been there, Derek? I would've... You... You would've found me dead on some beach!" she cried.

"But I was there! I knew something wasn't right and came back to you," he soothed. He kissed the bruises on her wrists.

"My hero," she sighed. "I may not be a field agent but I do know that... he... was watching me. He was at the café every morning and at the little park next to the hotel." She shuddered. "He was there last night during the false alarm."

Derek gritted his teeth as kissed her head. He felt her relax and saw she had fallen asleep again. He picked her up from her chair and brought her back to bed. He fell into a fitful sleep with his arms holding his love close to his heart. Something was still bugging him and he was going to figure out what it was before something else happened to his Baby Girl.

"He couldn't have done this alone. He doesn't have the discipline, patience, or smarts to pull off this kind of forensic countermeasure," Derek said as he paced about the sheriff's department conference room. He had just left Penelope in JJ's capable hands in their room.

"I might have your answer," the sheriff said as he joined them. "The hotel just sent over the surveillance footage from last night."

"Send the footage to Garcia," Hotch ordered. The sheriff nodded and left.

"Hotch..." Derek warned.

"Morgan, Garcia needs this. She thinks she needs to prove something to us, which she doesn't. She needs to prove it to herself."

Derek sighed and nodded as they waited for Penelope to call back.

"Hey, Mama. Whatcha' got for us?" Morgan greeted and switched the phone to speaker a little while later.

"Hey... during the evacuation someone snuck in and stole the extra keycard from the front desk. He kept his back to the cameras and it appears he knew exactly where they're kept. He didn't hesitate or anything. He was in and out; he was there and gone in twenty seconds," Penelope said. "I also ran his dimensions through my newly-updated Digital Perspective Analysis Rendering software. The person who stole the key card is not the person that is in custody."

"We've IDd the perp that broke into the hotel room" the sheriff announced as he entered the conference room. "His name is Fred Watters. He lives with his brother outside of town."

"Do you know the brother? Could he be an accomplice?" Reid asked.

"Yes, I do know him and yes, he could very well be helping his brother," the sheriff growled.

"What aren't you saying?" Derek asked.

"His brother is Buddy Boles."

Kate paused. "Boles? As in..."

"Deputy Boles," the sheriff finished for her. Derek flinched at Penelope's audible gasp.

"That would definitely explain the sophisticated forensic countermeasures,' Rossi said.

"When is his next scheduled shift?" Hotch demanded.

The sheriff hesitated. "I suspended him for the duration of this case. I don't believe his altercation with Agent Garcia was his first quarrel with a woman but it was the first I could prove. Nobody would make a formal complaint so there was nothing I could do. I was planning on terminating him after you all left. Harassing a federal agent is unacceptable and I will not put up with that kind of behavior in my department."

"Damn," Derek swore. He could be anywhere. "JJ, Garcia, do not leave that hotel room."

"I just sent you all everything I've found on him," Penelope announced. "I'm running his dimensions now and... he's a match. Address has been sent to your phones."

"Let's go," Hotch ordered.

"You did great work, Garcia," Hotch praised. "Your profile helped determine that Boles was a willing participant in the abductions and murders. We had more than enough to arrest him on the spot. The toes we found in the freezer and the boat slip information were enough to link both of the brothers to all the murders." The team was on their way back to Quantico after wrapping up with the LEOs.

"It just doesn't seem right," Penelope mused as she knitted a new hat for baby Michael.

"What's that?" Derek asked.

"There's not much justice. I mean, Boles helped his mentally-challenged brother kill all those women and we may never know why. Fred is trapped in his own mind. He hasn't said a word after you all told him his brother was dead and we all know he's not competent enough to stand trial. Boles had killed himself before you even got to their house with no explanation as to why they did it."

"We don't always get the answers we want, even if the UNSUBs talk," Rossi said. "We got two killers off the street, one of which was a crooked cop."

"Boles killed himself because he knew he wouldn't last long behind bars. He didn't want his fellow deputies to arrest him, either, and he didn't want to give any of us the option of killing or wounding him. Killing himself was like one last slap in the face," Derek explained.

"He had every intention of blaming his brother and letting him take the fall for all the murders. He made a mistake with targeting you and he knew it as soon as Fred was caught. He let his ego get in the way like a typical narcissist," JJ added.

"Do you think Fred will ever talk?" Penelope asked.

"Maybe." Reid mused, thinking about Adam and Amanda Jackson. "With medication and therapy, he could, but who knows what kinds of things his brother said to him to make him stay quiet?"

"I think you'll be just fine traveling traveling with us," Hotch said as he and Penelope reviewed the case the next morning. He gave her the files that were to be put into the BAU's records and VICAP.

"Thank you, Sir, but it's just until Montgomery and and Ford are caught. I love you guys but I like being in my lair."

"I'll never be able to convince you to take the profiler classes, will I?" Hotch flashed her one of his rare grins.

"Nope, " she grinned back. "You may have reeled JJ in but not me. I'm a computer nerd and I'm OK being behind the scenes. You guys stick to the profiling and I'll stick to information."

A/N: Wish us luck. Putting in an offer for a house this week. It's everything we're looking for: country, acreage, size, and it's closer to Hubby's work. It'll literally cut down 2/3 of his commute. Plus the price is right.

Pita(so ready to leave this hellhole)Cake