"You're in a good mood this morning, Penelope," Anderson said as he stepped into the break room. She paused what she was doing as she looked over at him, arching an eyebrow upwards. "What? I can't point out when you're happy?"

"Not when you make it sound like a bad thing," she replied tartly, and he chuckled. "Seriously, Grant. Is it a bad thing to be in a good mood on a Monday morning?"

"It depends on why you're so giddy as to be humming that cheerfully."

She rolled her eyes as she leaned back against the counter and stared at him. "Well, Derek and I did have a good Sunday together, even if it's not the right time of my cycle to end up pregnant, by some miraculous chance."

Anderson nodded as he took a seat at the table, patting the spot across from him. Penelope let out a soft huff of breath before she turned and finished making her coffee. Once it was to her liking, she made her way over to the table and took a seat, staring at him. "Well, at least you're doing everything you can to make certain that your little miracle can happen, because even a miracle needs a plan. And speaking of planned miracles, it's been three weeks since you started your little yoga class and fertility smoothies. Have you seen any glimmers of hope in your friends?"

"Well, I have higher chances now of one of my friends getting pregnant, even if she's a few weeks behind, and I can only get her smoothies on class nights."

"All right, spill about this new little mark you have! Have I met her? Is she connected to someone in the BAU? How do you know her?"

She couldn't keep her giggles inside as she shook her head. "That information is for me to know and you to constantly wonder about. I have been sworn to secrecy about this relationship, and I will keep that until given the green light to let everyone know. Needless to say, I now have four women that potentially could have babies, and that means I have a greater likelihood for a temporary cure to my baby fever. But I am trying to relax enough so that the miracle will happen for me. I just have this feeling that if I focus on my friends, and on how being together is so good, then it will happen for me. I want to have a baby, and I sort of hate myself for making things harder on myself. If I hadn't gone digging into Battle, then he wouldn't have targeted me, and I wouldn't have nearly died."

Anderson frowned before reaching out to cover her hand with his. She felt her smile wobble a bit as she clasped his hand, giving it a firm squeeze as she tried to keep herself from crying. "I didn't mean to make your happy morning crater so quickly, Penelope. But also, you didn't make Battle shoot you. He was an evil man, with a god complex, who felt threatened at the scrutiny you were paying his victims. He was trying to cover his tracks, and you were in the way of his goals." His grip on her hand tightened, and she dipped her chin a little, feeling like she was pinned in place by the intensity of his look. "You need to talk to Morgan about this guilt you're carrying around. Have you thought that that might be a part of why you're having trouble getting pregnant? Because your guilt is weighing down on you, and that can add untold stress to a body."

"Oh! I didn't think of that," she murmured, shaking her hand free from his grasp so that she could wrap it around her mug and bring it to her lips, taking a long drink in hopes of putting some space between the tender moment and her feelings. "I think that I buried that part of my life until just now, actually," Penelope said as she set the mug back on the table.

"And I seem to recall that burying bad things can lead to negative health issues. While you're working on your yoga, maybe also meditate on letting go of a guilt which should never have been yours to begin with. And I'll send up as many positive thoughts and prayers for you. The others? Well, I'm just hoping that no one catches on to your little scheme, because you will have a lot of explaining to do."

Penelope giggled a little as she nodded. "I think that I've been playing it cool, when it comes to that. But I did hear from JJ's own lips that she and Will are now moving into actively trying for a new baby. She's just afraid that Hotch will have a coronary if he finds out that she's up the duff."

Anderson laughed loudly at that, shaking his head as he picked up his coffee and took a sip. "You are thoroughly incorrigible, Penelope Garcia. And for the first time, I'm starting to fear the idea of you having offspring. Because if they're as smart as you and as strong as Morgan, we could have a dictator on hands in twenty years."

The broad wink that Anderson gave her made her giggle once more, and she rolled her eyes as she left the break room and headed up to her office to check on the progress of her searches. She had just settled in when her office door opened, and without looking over, she said, "I don't want to hear another word about my potential offspring ruling the world, Anderson."

The rough cough told replied to her words told Penelope that Anderson was not the one who'd joined her, and she swiveled around in her chair to look up at Hotch. "I can see where he might think that would happen, but you're also too soft to raise a tyrant."

A bright smile wreathed her face as she nodded. "I like the sound of that, Hotch. What can I do for you?"

"I was just going to drop off the new case details for you to peruse. And…"

"Yes?" she asked as she took the file folder from his hand and set it next to her keyboard, looking at him expectantly.

"I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for bringing Jess into the fold so quickly. She really loved the yoga class, and the fact that you made her a smoothie to make her feel like she was just another one of the girls."

"She is! Oh, it was so nice to get to spend time getting to know her better following the class. I know that we kept her out a little late, but it never felt like a good time to let her go. If she hadn't said that she had to get up early to take care of Roy, I think we could have convinced her to stay. As it was, I had to sleep on the sofa, since Alex and Erin took my bed."

"Oh, to be a fly on the wall." She gave him an odd look, and he broke out into one of his soft smiles that turned her heart to water. "I still don't think of Erin as someone who can relax enough to do yoga, let alone spend the night, sharing a bed with someone who isn't her partner."

"She looks like a completely different person in yoga clothes. It helps me to think of her as a friend, not my boss, when we're in class." She grinned at him before patting the folder. "But I think I should probably get to work so that we can give the briefing at ten. Thanks, Hotch."

"Of course, see you in a few." Penelope nodded as she watched him leave the office, and then she let out a relieved little sigh, glad that she hadn't said something that could have incriminated her when she thought her boss to be Anderson.