Ok Criminal-Minders, this is officially the last chapter that will be posted here… we move to the Dark Knight Fandom for 3 chapters hoping to rally the Criminal Minds/ Dark Knight lovers before we land at our home in cross-fic land. The next 3-4 chapters will be Bruce's Memories and then we begin to solve the case! I consider Bruce's memories the most romantic and angsty part of the story before we hit the case and save our hostage. Thank you so much for giving this a try if you haven't followed yet FOLLOW! and for those who are following… You Rock!

"Baby girl, slow down."

"I need some air Derek,"

"Unfortunately, air isn't up next," He took her handkerchief and blotted her eyes, "what's going on? How do you know Bruce, Lucius, and Alfred?"

"It's along story,"

"Should I go get popcorn," he teased.

She smiled, "There's that smile I Love," he said making sure her face looked good as new.

There's that face I love.

"You may not after you hear about my past,"

"Your chocolate Thor isn't going anywhere,"

"Thank you – I guess we should gather the group,"

He took her hand and kissed it- and led her to the conference room.

Bruce walked into the room adjacent to where Penelope had taken her team. He hit a button and the wood panel; the wall slid to the left; he entered a combination into the remote, which made the dark tinted glass transparent.

"Hi guys," she said sheepishly as she took her place next to Derek closing the circle, "I don't know where to begin," she said as the team looked at her bewildered.

Derek rubbed her back, "Where ever you want, Baby Girl."

"Well I guess it started when I was 11. There was a new family that moved into the neighborhood." Her cadence sped up in typical Penelope nervous fashion, "The Lapiers- they had a son, Jack—he was 14 -cute blond boy – happy. We became fast friends – best friends. Like he was a staple out our Sunday dinners. He walked me home from school when bullies were bothering me, we would go on adventures at the lake, - he was awesome. His father was a mailman and a local comic. I was too young to understand at the time but his dad got involved with the Falconie, a local crime family in 'Sisco proper. They brutally murdered Jack's family - they beat them and then burned them by gas explosion. Jack was at my house—we were camping... well fake camping in my backyard. We smelled smoke… Jack ran into the house trying to save them but it was too late. A beam fell on his leg and he almost died. When we lived together - he would have the worst nightmares - he would wake up screaming – he could still smell his family burning," she said sadly.

"He was hospitalized for his burns… for a month or so - and I visited him religiously. After he was released, Jack went to live in a boys home. We wrote letters but when my dad bought a new house. Jack moved from boys home to boys home – so we eventually lost touch. "

"Problem children, always get moved," JJ said.

"Behavioral problems are normally the cause," Reid added

"I never asked—when it came it Jack I never asked a lot of things he was a blind spot for me. But now that I think about it—his love of bombs must stem from how his parents died. He killed Falconie in Arkham by gas explosion."

Penelope continued, "Like I said we lost touch until the night my parents died. It was thanksgiving holiday weekend and I was testing my independence—I snuck out to see a concert at the Pit. I was reckless then—I drank, I experimented with things I shouldn't have because I was tired of being the baby of the family... I was like an only child since my stepbrothers were either at grad school or the service. Where was I – I snuck out and headed to the Pit – a cool bar with live bands. At the Pit, I had too much to drink and I went out for air."

She shook her head.

"I went out back and I was attacked. Two men tried to," she said with tears welling up in her eyes.

"They attacked me. They would've raped me if it weren't for Jack who stopped them. I didn't recognize him... it had been like 8 or 9 years but he saved me that night. He took me to his apartment and stitched me up. We talked until the morning, when he brought me home… police officers were waiting for me. See my parents discovered that I left and they went out looking for me and they were hit by a drunk driver."

"My fault," she whispered as she shook the hair out of her face and continued.

"That night, I officially became an adult. My brothers blamed me for my parents death, hence the reason you never met them. If I just stayed home they wouldn't have went looking for me and they would still be here." She tried to shake off the guilt but it was still in her heart.

"After the funeral I was left with nothing, my dad had a 2nd mortgage on the house and a bunch of financial things I didn't understand. Basically I was poor and returning to Caltech. I was like on autopilot and Jack became my navigation system because – I." she said as she got choked up.

"It's ok kitten," Rossi said.

"I went to Caltech but couldn't afford it after the spring semester. I started writing financial hacking programs to sponsor my education. Stealing from the people who had more than enough—I mean they didn't even notice it – this is how I justified it. But I couldn't get rooted I was mourning my parents and the loss of my brothers and I was so lonely and I couldn't confide in anyone but Jack. I was living a double life riddled with guilt and it was eating at me. Jack kept on checking on me. When he discovered how I was paying for things he couldn't understand why I wasn't taking more doing more with my hacking talent—but I wasn't trying to become this thing you know—I just wanted to be comfortable. For example, I created a program that would shave an 8th of a cent off of corporate stock sales for company x. Jack couldn't understand why I didn't take a quarter off every transaction – but I didn't need hundreds of thousands—I just need 35K a semester."

"I finished the spring semester and that following fall – by the anniversary of my parent's death—I unraveled. I didn't really have friends because I couldn't trust anyone with my secret -I became this cocky bitter kid- School was too easy and not fun… so I decided to go full hacker. I went to 'Sico with the money I'd acquired and tried to live. My hacker persona was the Black Queen and my tag was Happy Happy Meow Meow. We did a lot of illegal things—but all computer based—never physically hurt anyone, a few years later, I met a young girl named Holly Diaz, who became my instant soul sister. She was a 16-year-old runaway and I thought if I could save her I could save me. If that makes sense. She became my family and inspired me into being who I am now."

"Before Holly, we lived in this dilapidated house in the heart of the tenderloin on Hancock Street. We being- Jack and I- we were and item - he was my everything, family, lover, best friend - everything. I kept on writing code and Jack took odd jobs, or so I thought – we eventually became a group of 15 – hipsters. I continued to write skimming programs; we were like the 99% -we stole from the 1% - kept a fee to keep us up & running and then gave the rest to organizations that needed it. Jack rallied us—lead us and - we were known as the Hoods… like Robin Hood. It felt good to finally have a family again. The years flew by – but when Holly came into the picture she became a mirror reflecting all that was wrong with this life we had. It wasn't a good environment for Holly. She was impressionable and we weren't setting a good example. So, I started thinking exit strategy – which slowly became a riff between Jack and I. During this time, I was a criminal – stealing with the hoods—I just want to be explicitly clear."

"Then I met Lucius. Lucius Fox and I met several times at Mallories – a hot dog stand, I would help him with programming code for a company called Applied Sciences. He would give me impossible to solve problems and I would fix them by our next meeting. He would always offer me a job but – we were so anti-establishment that I couldn't take a real job—Jack would flip. But Lucius is persistent and when I decided Holly needed a better environment – I caved and worked for the company. Holly and I moved to a small apartment in a semi-nice area. I never told Lucius about the hoods because –he would've … because that part of me was over. I stopped building programs for them —Jack was super smart with computers too and if he had questions he would ask but I stopped physically making them. I wanted Holly to go to Brown on her own merit ...not because I stole money or fixed her scores… not that she needed my help."

Penelope smiled remembering Holly, "she wanted to go to Brown," she said wistfully.

"But Jack hated the fact that I moved—I was changing evolving and things between us became harder—he became violent—not towards me but he had an anger in him that I didn't notice before. But I could see it in the way he hated Holly. He acted as if she was breaking us up – but it was his obsession with the hoods and Batman."

"While all of this is brewing, my life is becoming more normal—Jack and I broke up and I threw myself into work - Lucius gave me more responsibility—I think I was promoted twice in one year. But I would backslide and sometimes help Jack tweak code. It was always hard for me to saying no to Jack– I felt that I owed it to him—no I loved him and I just wanted him to be happy."

"Through a mob restructuring—crime wave— the Falconies became the head mob family and Jack wanted vengeance. When the hoods started robbing the mob - the city became a scary place. The DA wanted to take everyone down - the hoods and the Mob and he could've cleaned the streets—if they let him. As I said Jack became violent and he started killing people at the time we didn't know because it seemed like mob hits. Upon reflection, the idea that it seemed like mob hit – ate at him and he became bolder and brazen. See Batman was getting all this praise for cleaning up the city and you had the Hoods who kept most of the non-profits afloat in Gotham - receiving no credit. It killed him - the lack of recognition was something he couldn't reconcile."

"You guys would say he evolved but we didn't know it. The DA figured it out –Harvey, realized that they weren't mob hits but he didn't know who it was. The vigilante (Batman) and cops tried to stop the mob and the hoods but Jack killed Harvey Dent, the DA, and Rachel Dawes, the ADA. Every member wore a mask so his or her identity was protected. The press called them the circus because of the clown mask but Jack claimed the name the Joker"

Reid added, "The Joker was a prolific serial killer, in addition to killing the DA and ADA he killed the heads of the 4 mob organizations and their immediate cronies, 12 people in bank robberies, and 8 police officers and of' course his self appointed rival the Batman. While in Arkham he confessed to the sexual and murder of 3 women."

Reid added quickly, "He became like a psycho quad-fecta, sexual sadist, arsonist, murdering psycho-path, thief."

Penelope nodded grimly, "See, the mask gave him power and made him brasher … however towards me it made him normal Jack. The dual identity gave him stability and he was the old Jack. The man I loved but I was with Bruce, kinda," she paused, "it was a confusing time for me until the attempt to blow up the golden state bridge."

She took a deep sigh, "Bruce Wayne, you know the recently resurrected Wayne, and I were a thing—When I was working for Applied Sciences -I meet Bruce. We dated kind of but I was not over Jack. In my world all was ok – I mean my biggest problem was my love life – which seemed like nothing. Jack nonetheless hated Bruce because he was everything we were against this opulent lifestyle and disregard for the poor or so Jack thought... But Bruce was everything you read in the paper plus a dash of super smart geek – I mean he would attend Charlie and I's, Saturday hackathon."

"Charlie?" Aaron asked

"Charles Reese was my office bestie. We both were managers in the computer development division at Applied Sciences. Lucius would give us uncrackable problems and we would spend the month cracking it. Bruce had everything that would make anyone happy but after Rachel died—he became this somber soul… who appreciated a good Saturday Hackathon."

"Anyway the night Jack chose to blow the bridge—was the night of the first CES, which brought the dotcommers and San Fran's elite into the city. Jack wanted them to experience the tenderloin- the real Gotham- and he was going to trap them there with the underbelly of the city rising to feast on the fat cats. Ultimate chaos."

"As you can see the bridge is still standing but 67 people died that night – and that was when I realized that Jack was the Joker. The vigilante died saving the city and Bruce was injured – almost beyond repair—broken back, ruined knees, concussions. Alfred brought Holly to safety. I felt so responsible – the programs I gave him helped him create this insanity and at the end of the day he wasn't Jack anymore he was just the Joker."

"I felt like an unlucky penny, and you know I hate that saying, but – I made sure Holly was all set for Brown and I was planning to jump off the grid. Bruce came with me—well, I went with him and a two-month excursion turned into 3.5 of the best years of my life. We lived simply but we had a life… a beautiful life. I taught computer science in Paris. Bruce left Lucius in charge of Wayne Enterprise and Bruce ran the philanthropic arm of Wayne Enterprise remotely. It was one of the best times in my life and I discovered Garcia—I no longer wore black—I was happy and loving life for the first times since my parent's death."

She smiled, "we were truly happy – until Francisco found us in Paris."

"See, Jack and I always visited my parent's grave together on the anniversary of their death. I couldn't go because my adult students made it into a techno fair for their app. They won 3rd place and when we came home the Joker was waiting for us – well me. Jack always had a knack for planting words, ideas, and images in your head and letting them grow until the consumed you—like placing a puzzle in your head and challenging you to solve it. He did something like to Bruce and I and from that night - we started to drifted apart."

"Two months later, I went to visit Holly for her midterms and she wasn't there. Turns out she didn't enroll for classes that semester. I tried to find her but she was off the radar. Bruce and I went back to San Francisco. I couldn't find Holly but I found Jack —and so did the mob. They discovered who was robbing them and they almost killed him - beat him within an inch of his life and then cut him so he looked like the mask he always wore."

"He was officially all joker—all the time."

"I mean we all know what the joker did to this city 4 years ago. He took Holly and broke her like Frank Breitkopf broke Jane."

"Jack was responsible for the fires in the warehouse district. I followed Holly to a warehouse and he set it up to be like this weird fun house. He gave me a choice to save Bruce or Holly—couldn't save both only one and before I could decide he blew the building. I never forget what he told me—Sweet P, I've been teaching you this lesson since we were kids… save yourself. Holly was dead and Bruce was assumed dead… we never found the body. I fell off the grid again and I spent the following year looking for him and never found him- Alfred confirmed his death - So I was pretty freakin surprised to see him today."

"After he was declared dead I allowed the CIA to find me. They were waiting to take me in since I was co-conspirator—Lucius kept that from happening and I was able to choose a division. I chose the BAU because even thought I didn't have the stomach for it, y'know all the gore, I couldn't let Holly and Bruce's death be in vain. I had to work for the good guys and put men like Jack away forever."

"That's how I came to the BAU. I realized when I was shot that the CIA never told you guys about me and I couldn't bear explaining the past then and I'd hope I'd never have to. I preferred the short version of the story 'a really good hacker on a very short list," Penelope took a deep breath, "I should've told you and I'm sorry. You guys are my family and I never wanted you to find out like this – on a case."

"Which is why you never work on the Northern California for cases," Emily said.

She nodded.

"That was part of my deal… 2 years and no Northern California cases. That's the story of me—but I haven't told you completely the story of Jack."

"Jack's has this uncanny ability to transform into a chameleon. He can be this violent psychopath or this normal creature. I think I was always immune to his charm because I knew him since elementary school. But he could charm you – seduce you even with the scars. Dr. Quinn helped him escape and he killed her… just because."

"Once the Batman died he lost his purpose—Jack thought he and Batman were destined to do this dance forever and when he killed him – he turned himself in to the Asylum… I drove him. I knew he was unstable but I didn't know how much and I always regretted that I didn't take his mania more seriously."

She sighed, "If I did maybe those 67 people would be alive today. Maybe Holly would," she began but couldn't even finish the thought.

"Jack is going to love the attention this case gives him and he will lap it up like a mad dog. Even if he isn't involved—he will insert himself. The fact that Bruce Wayne needs him and the FBI needs him will make his decade."

"I know I jumped around and jumbled the story but feel free to ask me questions."

Reid began, "according to this document he turned Holly into a broken version of you. He dyed her hair, surgically altered her appearance, and then based on her journal –"

"I know - became a bigger monster—100% sexual sadist"

"Was he always like that?" JJ asked hesitantly.

"No, I mean – when we argued he would get worked up but he never attacked me or hit me. Well… yes, the reason Holly and I moved to suburbia was because he shook me and I fell and Holly—Holly was from a dysfunctional abusive family and seeing that dynamic between us made her have a panic attack—which freaked me out and is one of the reasons why we left. Then there was the last time we were together – he was waiting for me in my apartment – I hadn't been home in a week because Holly and I were staying at Bruce's. When I came home he was waiting there and he scared the bejesus out of me. He grabbed me and we wrestled - I thought in that moment that he was going to physically hurt me – I think that was the only time I was scared but he started crying."

"How did you not know?" Erin asked, " I don't mean to offend you but they," she paused, "he was so prolific at the time."

"I don't know… he was sweet -Once I moved out – I wasn't involved in his everyday. He often blamed my moving to his spiraling out of control he said I grounded him – that he needed me to remain balanced but I just thought those were – I don't know what you say to get the girl back. Once I knew about the mob robberies – that's when I started bringing him to Gotham General—because I was worried about him – and it was more about avenging his parents death then economics. I know I should've turned him in—but… I could sympathize at the time – if I could find the drunk driver who killed my parents – I would want revenge… not a bombing & burning type of revenge - but I could relate at the time. I would want them to spend the rest of their lives in prison."

"He made you his anchor," Rossi said, "often during the evolution of the psychopath they have an anchor— it could be a parent, picture, song or something tangible. This anchor, they need it to keep the worlds separate. It is inevitable that the desire will consumes them. Forcing the unsub to get rid of the anchor—rarely do they keep them. Unless.."

"They haven't given in completely to the desire," Reid finished.

"During that time there were 7 unsolved cases that were similar to Holly's death—since he transformed her into your image maybe he was substituting them for you. The part of him that was ready to let you go couldn't justify actually doing it," Emily added without looking up from her I-pad.

"Or maybe like Frank – his belief in his love and Penelope - kept her safe," JJ added.

"This is the creepy part where I normally hang up the phone," Garcia said with a slight chuckle.

"We have to visit him and see what his cell is like, who is he obsessing over now. That should be our first priority," Hotch said firmly

"I think it's a copycat—the videos were too similar they wanted us to look in the direction of the Joker—could be a distraction," Derek added.

Penelope was relieved that they weren't judging her for her past – they truly were her family, she thought. She played with the pendant as the team created the plan.

Hotch watched her play with the pendant and felt like she need some reassurance.

"We should head back inside," he said and the team started to head for the door.

He walked up to Penelope and said, "I don't speak for anyone else but your past does not change who you are to me and how important you are to this team. You are an important members of this team," he paused and gave her a tight-lipped smile "of superheroes."

"Thank you, sir" she said.

The rest of the team chimed in but Derek hung back, waiting to be last.

"We should head back," Reid said checking his watch.

"Derek," she called and he turned to her as they filtered out.

"I should have told you and I'm sorry. You came with me and visited their graves for 3 years and I should have introduced you to Lucius. I was just scared."

"Scared of what?" he asked softening to her.

"Scared that you wouldn't see me the same – I loved a psychopath turned sadist and pyromaniac who killed my people—my person"

"I love you no matter what baby girl…he kissed her forehead, "let's head back."

"Thank you"

"For what - Always being my rock—I love you."

"Right back-at-cha," he said holding her hand.

Bruce listened to her recount their life and memories over came him- He'd remembered how they met – and quickly she became his everything. He loved her on sight he thought… dancing with his grandfather's top hat. He loved her at that moment… he just didn't know it then.

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