"Hey Jayje, Alex, could I see you two in my office a moment?" Penelope asked as soon as she saw that they were both there for the day. She was relieved when they both nodded and began to make their way up to her.
"What can we do for you, Garcia?" Alex asked as she entered her office, taking a seat on the couch.
"Well, Erin and I are going shopping tonight, and I thought we could make it a girl's night out. After all, we haven't been out in such a long time."
JJ smiled at her, nodding. "Will has Henry for the night, and Aaron could use the time with Jack. I'm in."
They both looked expectantly at Alex and she shook her head. "You two are incorrigible! Fine, I'll come with, too."
"Excellent!" Penelope squealed, grinning at them. "Oh, this will be so much fun! And here, I got you coffee this morning, just like you like." She held out cups to them, smiling at the easy way her friends accepted the coffees. "All right, I hate to dispense caffeine and then ask you to leave, but I have a lot of work to do if we're heading out tonight. You just have your own work to focus on. I have two other teams that need me."
They nodded as they turned and left her office. Once she was alone once more, Penelope turned to her computers and began a few searches that she'd been asked to complete before checking on the ones she'd left running over night, forwarding the data to the people who'd requested it before starting to go through her emails. It was easy to answer them, finding herself in the work groove quite quickly.
"Hey, Baby Girl. I didn't know if you'd have time for lunch, so I brought your favourite Thai order."
She turned to look up into her lover's face, giving him a small smile. "Thank you for this. I have had far too much to do to even think about eating. And I'd ask you to stay and eat with me, but I need to work and eat if I want to get out in time to have girl's night with my friends. Though I wouldn't say no to a kiss?"
Derek chuckled as he set the bag of food on a clear spot close to her before he leaned down and pressed his lips to her cheek. "Don't even push me for more, Penelope. We have no idea who might walk in at any moment. We're supposed to keep things under the radar when we're here, remember?"
Penelope nodded as she let out a soft sigh. "I know, I was the one who suggested that as an option when Strauss and Hotch met with us. Go, though, before I flout that guideline."
He let out another little chuckle as he nodded. She couldn't help but watch after him as he left her office, and she would have sworn that he shook his ass a little more as he walked. Shaking her head slightly, she opened the bag and took out her meal, glad that they had included chopsticks, since she didn't have any extra in her desk at the moment. As she ate, she continued to work, finding herself getting back in her groove, feeling confident that she would be finished by the end of the day.
A few hours later, Penelope heard a trio of voices chattering away as her office door opened. As she pressed send on the last email that she needed to send to one of her teams, Penelope turned in her chair to smile at her friends. "Right on time!" she exclaimed, pulling open her desk drawer to grab her purse. "I just need to shut my system down, and then we can head out. How did your days go?"
"Smoother than I imagined," Erin said first as she primly sat on the edge of Penelope's desk. "And I managed to get us a larger budget for next quarter at the budget meeting, so I am expecting your team to keep getting me great results with the least amount of drama possible."
"Us? Dramatic?" Alex teased, while JJ and Penelope giggled in response. Erin gave her a look, which caused Alex to join in their laughter as she shrugged. "You can't deny that we get results, though."
Erin let out a long suffering sigh as she looked at Penelope. "Do you see what I have to put up with, Penelope? At least I don't have to worry about shenanigans from you."
She could feel a guilty blush stain her cheeks as she shook her head. "You know very well that I can't engage in shenanigans," she said as they walked out the door. She made certain to flip her lights off and then locking the door before joining her friends at the bottom of the stairs. Anderson was still at his desk, and he gave them a wicked little grin as they walked past his desk.
"Have a good evening, ladies!" he called out, and Penelope gave him a small wave over her shoulder as she followed the others out into the hall. JJ pressed the down button on the elevators and then turned to face them.
"So, are we each driving tonight?"
"I was thinking that we could take my Range Rover. I just got it, and want to break it in a little," Erin answered. "I can either drop everyone off at the end of the night, or bring you back here to drive home."
"Or we could all spend the night at one of our places and ride in together tomorrow," Penelope countered, giving JJ a little wink.
"Ooh, I like that idea," her best friend said, looking expectantly at Alex. "What about you, Blake?"
"As long as we don't converge on my house, I would be up for that. James has been pulling sixteen hour shifts for the last week, and I want to let him get as much rest as possible. I think that we should end up at Erin's, since she doesn't have young children under foot, either. What do you say, Erin? Care to host us for the night?"
"As long as you don't mind a dry house for the night. I don't mind if you have a drink with our dinner, but I cannot have alcohol in my home."
They all quickly nodded in agreement, and Penelope noticed that Erin gave Alex a shy smile as they stepped into the elevators. As they went out to the parking garage, Penelope listened to the conversations happening around her, and she grinned happily as she caught hold of JJ's hand. "So, have you and Will talked about having more kids?" she asked as they got into the back of Erin's vehicle.
"We do want a little brother or sister for Henry, but I don't want it to happen right away. Why?"
"Derek and I are having a little trouble conceiving, so I am having baby fever a little." She met Erin's eye in the rearview mirror, seeing that she was giving her a tender look. She gave her a small smile before looking back at JJ. "Which gets to my other reason for getting together tonight. My doctor said that if I could perhaps find a way to relax and destress, that might up my chances of getting pregnant naturally, and I really want to go that route before having to take more intensive measures."
"And what does that have to do with us?" Alex asked, looking back at them over her shoulder.
"Well, Erin's already agreed to do this with me, so I hope that sways your decision. I want to take up yoga, with a private instructor. I don't feel confident enough to participate in a regular class, not when I'm trying to relax, so I'm going to find a private instructor for the two of us. But I'd really like it if we could do this as a quartet, when you're home, you know?"
There was a lull in the conversation after she finished speaking, and she didn't know if they would agree to accompany them. And then Alex spoke up once more, setting her heart at ease. "I think that might be fun. We need a way to bond outside just going to the bar. And I know that James would enjoy my newfound flexibility. What do you say, Jen? Want to join us?"
JJ glanced at her, and Penelope tried to give her the best puppy dog eyes that she had. "That's not fair, you know." She nodded, fighting the smile that threatened to ruin the look. "Fine, I suppose that I could give up a few hours of my life to do this with you three. But only if it's us and the instructor. While I might be good at fighting, I am not graceful!"
"I beg to differ, Jayje, but I promise that it will be private. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me!" She immediately broke out into a wide grin as she clapped her hands together a few times in excitement. And now that the first part of her plan was underway, she knew that once she was home, she'd have to start researching other natural ways to increase fertility, knowing that she had a one in three chance of getting a new little one to spoil, even if it wasn't meant to be for her.