Penelope hummed happily as she stirred her coffee in the break room. The team had gotten back late last night, and she had spent a very good evening with Derek. She knew that it wouldn't be possible for her to have ended up pregnant that night, but a small part of her heart wished that it would be so. Still, the sex had been great that evening, and she was left with a grin on her face that couldn't be dimmed by anything that morning.

"I think that I saw her head into the break room a few minutes ago, Agent Blake."

The sound of Anderson's voice caught her attention, and she stiffened her back a little as she prepared herself for whatever Blake had to say to her. It couldn't possibly be anything bad, since she hadn't snooped into her background, or done anything that would be untoward. Still, from the way Anderson had spoken, she knew that the woman wasn't in the best of moods, and she didn't want to rock the boat too much. Though her smile was now dimmer, she still tried to put extra oomph in her expression. "See, there she is! No need to worry."

He met her eye with those last words, giving her a wide eyed expression before shrugging and backing out of the break room. Her tongue darted out to wet her too dry lips as she slid her eyes over to Blake, trying to read her mood by her body language. A tiny gasp slipped out of her mouth when she saw the protective way the older woman was curving her hand over her stomach, and her eyes flew back up to Blake's eyes. The woman gave her a tight nod before drawing in a deep breath.

"We need to go to your office and have a long talk this morning. I've already informed Hotch that we'd be late to the briefing, most likely, and he said that he'd push it back to eleven, since we don't have very far to fly today. Shall we?"

Penelope knew that she couldn't say no, so she nodded and left the break room before heading up to her office, Blake following closely at her heels. Anderson gave her a sympathetic look as she passed him by, and Penelope patted his shoulder to comfort them both before going up the stairs. After punching in her code, Penelope opened the door and stepped inside, knowing that Blake wouldn't change her mind that late. Sure enough, Blake pushed her way on through to head over to Penelope's sofa and sank onto it softly, still cradling her stomach.

Penelope knew that she couldn't whip out her phone this time, since that would make things far too obvious, so she settled for taking a seat on the opposite end of the sofa, looking at the older woman with her eyes opened wide, trying to appear as innocent as possible. "What did you need to talk to me about, Alex?" she asked, feeling like her last name was too impersonal in that moment.

"Just what sort of game have you been playing at, Penelope?"

"Game?" she asked, hoping that she sounded convincingly confused. "Why would I play games with you? I like you!"

Blake let out a long suffering sigh as she shook her head. "I know that you like me, but I also know from Erin and JJ that you like to push boundaries and achieve your ends in ways that won't hurt others, much. I'm pregnant, Penelope. What did you do to make this happen?"

She rubbed her lips together nervously before shrugging. "I don't have the right equipment to get you pregnant, plus, I think that Derek would be very upset to know that I was sleeping with someone else when we're a couple."

"That is not what I mean, and you know it. Quit trying to play language games with a linguist, honey, you won't win."

Penelope looked down into her lap as she shrugged. "I honestly haven't done anything other than organize the yoga class, make smoothies for all of us, and had friend outings. Maybe Fate just decided that you needed to have a baby in the autumn of your life?"

She dared to glance back up at Alex, seeing that she was staring at her, a hard expression on her face. "And how do you explain JJ being pregnant, too?" the woman bit out, and Penelope tried to act shocked at that news. "Two of our group ending up pregnant at the same time is a little too much of a coincidence, don't you think?"

Again, Penelope shrugged. "The yoga classes may have gotten things a little more relaxed for everyone. And if you two really are pregnant, maybe that means I'll have my own precious one to love on sooner than later. This could be an incredible blessing for all of us?"

Blake seemed to deflate as she closed her arms around her stomach, staring down at her nonexistent bump. "It's a blessing I don't know that I do want, Penelope. Erin and I are in our fifties, so by the time this child gradates high school, I'll be seventy. If I live that long. They deserve the best possible parent, and how can I be that when I'll be so old?"

"You won't be old, you'll be experienced. And besides, you have to keep up with the health standards for this job, so you're definitely healthy. How far along do you think you are?"

"At least nine weeks. Why?"

"That tracks with how far along JJ is. Do you want me to add a prenatal supplement to your smoothie, too? I did with Jayje, even though I wasn't entirely certain she was pregnant, because I wanted her to be as healthy as possible."

There was a long pause before Blake let out a deep sigh and reached out to Penelope. It was easy to clasp her hand tightly, trying to offer support to the woman in that small way. "Yes. If I'm going to carry this baby to full term, I'll need every in that I can get."

She nodded, giving Alex's hand a few squeezes. "And when do you think that you'll inform Hotch and Erin? I mean, the only other pregnancy we had on the team was Henry, and JJ didn't tell anyone until she was well into her fifth month. Hotch wasn't too pleased about that, let me tell you."

"I have an appointment with my doctor next week, and will know then how far along I am. I, I want to wait until I'm in the second trimester, since I have had previous losses."

"Of course, that's completely understandable! Oh, this makes me so happy, you have no idea. A little baby genius to spoil!" Blake gave her an affectionate eye roll before squeezing her hand tightly. "I promise, I won't tell anyone else until you give word, but just know that I will do everything in my power to make certain that these next seven months pass as smoothly as possible for you! It's great that our yoga class is so low impact, since that means you'll get to stick with us until almost the end. Can I hug you? I know that you don't like a lot of physical touch, but…"

That got Blake to laugh, and she nodded as she rose to her feet, allowing Penelope to wrap her up tightly in a warm hug. It took a few moments for Blake to return the embrace, but it was a wonderful feeling to finally get her to lower her walls for just a moment while they hugged. "Is everything okay, ladies?"

She looked over Blake's shoulder to meet Hotch's eye, giving him a firm nod. "Perfectly fine. Blake just had a few questions for me to look up, and it was entirely good news. I take it that you have the briefing material for me to collate?"

"Yes."

"Excellent! I will get right on this, so we can hopefully start the briefing as soon as possible. See you both in a jiffy!" she sang out as she released Blake and gently pushed her towards the door. The woman gave her a grateful smile before leaving her office, and then she was taking the file from Hotch's hands and sitting in front of her computers, getting right to work in order to get him to leave. And once her office door was closed, she pulled out her personal phone and made a note on the day she assumed Blake had gotten pregnant, based on her nine week estimate, feeling a little overwhelmed at the idea that three of her friends were pregnant, and it was almost a certainty that her interventions had had something to do with that.