Twelve hours by little_profiler
Summary: An unsub is abducting young women, dresses them up as brides and then buries them in a bunker where they only have twelve hours to live. And his next victim is going to be one of them.
Categories: General Characters: Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner, Derek Morgan, Dr. Spencer Reid, Emily Prentiss, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, Penelope Garcia
Genres: Drama
Warnings: Violence
Challenges: None
Series: Oneshots, Twelve hours
Chapters: 12 Completed: Yes Word count: 19898 Read: 57522 Published: May 24, 2008 Updated: May 24, 2008
Story Notes:
One of the two longer stories that weren't beta-read.

1. Chapter 1 by little_profiler

2. Chapter 2 by little_profiler

3. Chapter 3 by little_profiler

4. Chapter 4 by little_profiler

5. Chapter 5 by little_profiler

6. Chapter 6 by little_profiler

7. Chapter 7 by little_profiler

8. Chapter 8 by little_profiler

9. Chapter 9 by little_profiler

10. Chapter 10 by little_profiler

11. Chapter 11 by little_profiler

12. Chapter 12 by little_profiler

Chapter 1 by little_profiler
“How long has she been in there?” Hotch asked after having taken a look through the little bull’s eye in the inside of the small bunker.

“Presumably one year.” Sheriff Logan replied. “Mr. Porter paid two million dollars “ but this guy never told him where he buried his wife.”

“Is he already informed?” Hotch wanted to know and stepped back allowing the CSI team to open the door.

“Yes” Logan nodded “he is… relieved I guess. He’s finally able to bury her.”

“So you assumed she was dead?” this time Morgan was posing the question.

“We didn’t give up hope until…” the Sheriff sighed. “…until we found his second victim, buried in a bunker similar to this one only half a mile from here.”

“Does that mean Mrs. Porter was the first victim?” Hotch looked at the now opened door. On its inside there were bloody scores, obviously from Mrs. Porter’s finger nails.

“No, she wasn’t.” Logan replied. “But… well, we hadn’t heard of this guy for almost ten years. When we heard about the abduction and the call we thought it was a copycat. Mr. Porter was our prime suspect until we heard about the second abduction.”

“How many victims?” Morgan simply asked.

“Three until now” was the answer. “twelve ten years ago.”

“Twelve victims and then what?” Derek Morgan frowned and crossed his arms above his chest. “Serial killers do not simply stop killing.”

“Maybe there was some… major happening.” Reid suggested. “Statistically…”

“Maybe he was in jail.” Morgan interrupted him fishing his handy out of his pocket and walking away.

“Garcia?” he heard the familiar voice.

“Hey Pen, I… um… check out all guys who’ve been in prison here in Chicago for the last ten years.”

“Seven names” she responded. “One of them is dead, two are back in prison. The other four are…”

Derek took down the names and addresses she gave him. Thanked her and hung up. He missed their bantering, their flirting, hearing her calling him pet names. Of course, he’d never admitted that. After their spat they’d talked only if necessary. She avoided him most of the time when they were both at the bureau “ but he called her whenever he was on a case, silently asking her forgiveness which she refused to grant him.

“We have four names.” Morgan told the rest of the team. “Maybe he never was in prison and stopped killing for other reasons but it’s a start.”

“Definitely” Hotch nodded. “Prentiss, you and Derek screen those guys. Be careful, maybe one of them is the killer!”

“Yeah, thanks for the warning.” Derek mugged. Then he and Emily left.

Hotch stepped inside the bunker taking in the scene in front of him. There was barely more left than Mrs. Porters skeleton. The bunker was small, yet gave enough place for a small person to stand in it, maybe taking two or three steps. “How long can someone survive in here?” he asked.

Spencer Reid took a look inside the room, frowned for a couple of seconds and then said: “Twelve hours.”

The Sheriff looked at him in confusion. How could he be that sure? He had simply looked inside the bunker, not measured a single wall nor had he seen him calculating something.

“Believe me” Hotch almost smiled pointing at Spencer. “If he says twelve hours there’re no more than ten minutes difference to the exact time.”

Spencer smiled shyly. Although he knew how much his colleagues appreciated his intellect he was always slightly embarrassed by such compliments.

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“Well” Morgan sighed. “At least we know that prison term was not the reason for this killer to stop. All four men have cast iron alibis.”

“What else could be a reason for a serial killer to stop killing?” Hotch posed the question to everyone in the room.

“Well, statistically…” this time it was Hotch’s phone that cut him off.

“Hotchner?”

“Sir, I found an interesting report from a local hospital dated ten years ago.” Hotch’s glance told Morgan who was calling.

Damn it! he thought. A few months ago she would have called you instead and your bantering would have made even Hotch smile.

“What’s it about?” he asked.

“A young girl” Garcia replied “aged seventeen back then. She had a black eye, a laceration at her forehead and a mild concussion. The carbon dioxide level in her blood was almost deadly according to the doctors.”

“What was her name?” Hotch wanted to know feeling some kind of excitement. They had a trace, maybe a victim that survived.

“Sorry, Sir, the file only says Jane Doe.” she answered. “She refused to tell them her name.”

“Thanks anyway.” he murmured. “We have a surviving victim.” he informed the others. “At least I assume that. Ten years ago a seventeen-year-old girl was treated in the local hospital for a concussion and a carbon dioxide intoxication. We don’t know her name but maybe someone in the hospital can remember her and help us create an identikit picture. JJ, I want you and Emily to talk to the staff.”

“Yes, sir.” they both nodded and left the room.

“Alright, so what do we know so far?” Hotch asked the two men.

“He attacks his victims in parking lots or even at their homes.” Morgan answered. “He beats them down and when they’re unconscious he buries them in that bunker. He’s built them on his own, buried them at least one meter under the surface making sure no one will accidentally find them. There are microphones and loudspeakers which means he cannot only hear their agony “ they can hear the pleasure their torture gives to them.”

“That means he has to be in a radius not exceeding twenty miles I guess.” Garcia said over the phone.

“You guess?” Hotch repeated.

“Sorry, Sir, I’d need some more information on the technology he uses to be sure. I mean, if he manages to use satellites then he could be practically everywhere.”

He sighed again. “Considering he has buried the victims in a radius of about ten miles I don’t think that he’s everywhere. He’s definitely here in this area.”

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He was sitting in front of his computer with the headphones on listening to what was spoken in this tiny room the police had given the team of the BAU. Not that there weren’t files on his computer he’d wanted to hear much rather than this conversation. Files with lovely names such as Julia, she’d probably cried the loudest of all of them. But this was too important. He needed to find out what they knew. The bunkers wouldn’t tell them much, they hadn’t ten years ago and they wouldn’t now. But he had made a terrible, inexcusable mistake and they knew about it. This girl had been smart, much smarted than he’d expected. She had been able to flee from the bunker “ he still wasn’t sure how she’d managed to do so. But she’d done it. For ten years he hadn’t dared to act again, taking pleasure only from the records saved on his computer. But one year ago he had known all records by heart, had known exactly who of those girls had screamed the loudest or hadn’t screamed at all. Who had wished him to hell and who had simply prayed. Who had been crying and who had said which last words. Those records couldn’t please him any longer, he needed more, needed something new. And when he first met Mrs. Porter he’d known that she was perfect. She was strong and smart, he knew she would not give up, try to fight “ and she had not disappointed his expectations. Her screams had echoed in his mind for days, leaving a satisfied, comfortable feeling. He’d been unable to stop again after this experience. And now those BAU agents were close in on him thanks to that annoying tech girl they had left in Quantico. He wondered what they would do without her. They were constantly praising her skills so he was quite sure she would not be easy to replace. He had never left the state before, never crossed the borders of Chicago to abduct a victim. They’d all been from this area, he had known all of them pretty well before he’d finally decided for or against abducting them. But maybe this was the time to consider making an exception “ and having a little holiday in Quantico.
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Chapter 2 by little_profiler
“We’ve got the identikit picture.” Derek said handing it over to Hotch. “JJ’s giving it to the press. Hopefully somebody will recognize her.”

“This is quite possible since she was already seventeen years old.” Spencer said taking the picture from Hotch. “She shouldn’t have changed that much during the past ten… oh my God.” Spencer’s face went pale when he looked at the picture, his last words barely more than a whisper.
“What’s wrong, boy?” Morgan frowned looking at the young agent’s pale face.

“Do you know her?” Hotch assumed.

“No” Spencer whispered. Then he cleared his throat and added a little louder: “I don’t think so for the woman I know is only twenty-three but… say look so similar… I… I think I have to phone someone.” He dropped the picture on the table and fishing his phone out of his pocket left the room.

“Wow” Derek ran a hand over his head. “Who would have thought our little genius had a little girlfriend.”

“Don’t jump to that conclusion.” Hotch warned. “Maybe this young girl’s just a friend of Spencer.”

“Honestly, Hotch” Derek grimaced. “do you really believe he has friends outside the bureau?”

He shrugged: “He obviously has, right? He’s even got her phone number.”

Derek furrowed his brow looking at the young agent who was pacing the other office talking into his phone, his hands gesturing heavily. It didn’t look like he was talking to his girlfriend, did it? Derek felt a little upset. Spencer was his best friend, he always considered himself his only real friend. So if he had a girlfriend he would have told him, right? There was no reason for him keeping that from his colleagues and friends.

Spencer returned, frowning on his own now, not saying a word. He stared at his phone for a moment and then put it back into his pocket.

“Are we going to meet your lovely girlfriend?” Derek asked looking at him full of expectation.

“Lara’s not my girlfriend.” he replied, still obviously deep in thought.

“But you wish it was different, right?” Derek teased.
Finally Spencer’s eyes jerk up to Derek’s staring at him for a moment. “No.” he simply said. “We are friends, that’s all.”

“Ooooh” Derek grinned at him. “You’re in love with someone else! Who is it?”

“Derek” Hotch saved the youngest agent from having to answer. “I think we’ve other fish to fry! Sheriff Logan just informed me that two hours ago another woman was abducted.”

“Damn.” he sighed, running his hand over his face.

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She was pretty, not like the other women he’d have. Her hair fell over her shoulders in long golden locks, her full lips were bright red and she was wearing a black skirt and a bright pink shirt. Her tread was fast and confident and it seemed she was smiling at everyone all the time. A very cheerful person. What would she be like in that bunker with only a couple of hours to live? Would she scream, cry, stay calm? Hopefully not the latter. It was no fun when he couldn’t hear anything of his victims. Would it break her swinging mood to be buried alive? He definitely wanted to find out.

He stared at her while she was getting into her car, followed her when she left the parking lot. He waited in front of her apartment house the whole night, watching her through the window. She closed the light curtains and he could see her shape through it while she undressed. Every movement was full of energy. She switched off the lights at three a.m. and he was waiting patiently the few hours her flat was dark thinking about what it would be like to beat her down. Would she fight him? Oh, he hoped so. It was more fun when they were defending themselves. He imagined her lovely voice shaking with fear, begging him to let her go, begging for her life, screaming for her friends to rescue her “ and slowly fading away while the carbon dioxide level in the bunker became deadly. At eight a.m. she left her house again, driving back to work with an amazing amount of energy for someone who had slept only about four hours. Her energy, her fun-loving nature thrilled him. She would definitely fight him, fight for her life “ and at the end he would finally break her. Facing the death broke them all sooner or later.

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“Hey, Spencer” the young girl greeted in a low voice.

He got up, almost ran to her and hugged her for a few seconds. “Can you have a look at something for me?” he asked leading her to the table.

Insecurely she sat down next to him and looked at the four smiling faces, two men and two women. She nodded and then took the picture from Spencer, staring at it for a few seconds. She slowly laid it down on the table and looked at Spencer.

“Do you know her?” he asked softly.

Lara hesitated for a moment studying his eyes. Then she simply nodded.

“You know, Ms Raven, this is really important.” a young blonde said smiling at her.

“This guy who buries his victims in a self-made bunker.” she replied looking at her hands. “I know. He’s back, right?”

“He is.” Hotch nodded. “That is why we need your help. Who is this girl on the picture?”

Silence filled the room for at least three minutes. Then she finally raised her head and met Hotch’s eyes. “My sister.”

“Can you tell us where she is?” Emily asked softly.
Lara shook her head.

“Ma’am, this is really important.” Derek added. “A young woman is missing and she only has another six hours to live.”

“I’m sorry” she answered looking straight into his eyes. “but I don’t know where she is.”

“You two are not in contact with each other?” Hotch raised an eyebrow.

“We are” she negated. “it’s just… she is phoning me every time. I don’t even know where she lives. This guy… made her kind of paranoid. She thinks that he… wants to have her back or something.”

“She’s afraid he’ll try to kill her again.” it was more a statement from Derek than a question.

Lara nodded and explained in a low voice: “He’d attacked her in a mall, knocked her out and when she woke up again she was buried alive with only a couple of hours to live.”

“How did she manage to escape?” JJ asked.

“I don’t know” she shrugged and looked at the beautiful young woman. “She never talked about what happened in that bunker.”

“The first victims were only a few centimeters beneath the surface.” Spencer explained. “Maybe that’s why she managed to open the door and escape.”

“And that’s definitely why he’s now burying them one meter deep in the earth.” Derek added.

“How” Lara looked at the four other agents before her eyes met Spencer’s again almost looking daggers at him searching for an answer. “How could she help you?”

“She’s seen him.” Spencer answered. “I mean, she must have seen him. It would help us having an identikit picture of him so that we can give it to the press. No one else knows who he is.”

She took a deep breath and then said: “There is a drop where I can leave a message when I need to talk to her. Maybe I can convince her to… cooperate. But I can’t promise anything.”

“Please try anyway.” JJ smiled. “The life of a young woman depends on that.”

Lara nodded again and stood up. Gently caressing Spencer’s cheek she whispered: “I’d wished we would have met again under better circumstances.”

“Me too.” he smiled, stood up and led her out of the room.

Derek smiled watching his young friend and co-worker giving Lara a gentle kiss on the cheek. Maybe she wasn’t his girlfriend, but they were definitely to gentle with each other to claim to be not more than friends. On the other hand, there really didn’t seem to be something sexual between them. It was more like his relationship with Penelope “ well, the one they had before that stupid fight about something so unimportant he honestly wasn’t able to remember. His heart sank at the sight of what he had lost. It was true, you didn’t recognize how important something is to you until you loose it. Maybe after this case he should try and talk to her. He should apologize for… well, for whatever he’d done wrong. But they definitely needed to talk. Maybe… Hopefully there was a way for him to get his best friend back. They’d been too close to simply throw all that away. Maybe he should bring her flowers, or even better some chocolate. Yeah, chocolate was a good idea. Chocolate and one of her favorite frappuccinos. Maybe then she would finally give him audience.
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Chapter 3 by little_profiler
“This wasn’t him, was it?” Sheriff Logan asked and gave Hotch a puzzled look. “I mean, this is not the same… um… MO, right?”

Hotch furrowed his brows and looked at the body. “It was him.” he answered. “But something went wrong.”

“Are you sure?” Deputy Miller looked up from his notepad first at Hotch and then at the body. “Where’s the bunker he usually builds?”

“That is what went wrong.” Derek replied. “Maybe he abducted Mrs. Jenkins before he was able to finish it.”

“Didn’t you say he is well organized.” the Deputy frowned. “So how could this happen?”

“Mr. Jenkins testified that they wanted to go on a holiday tomorrow.” Spencer said and looked at Hotch.

He nodded and added: “That means he observes his victims before he abducts them.”

“Observes them?” Logan raised his eyebrows. “How long?”

“We can’t be sure about that.” Spencer replied. “But he observes them long enough to know about their daily routines. He picks out the best moment for the abduction. He follows them probably and waits until he thinks the time is right.”

“Okay, so he abducted Mrs. Jenkins because she wanted to go on a holiday.” Miller took down notes. “Why didn’t he wait until she came back? I mean, wouldn’t it have taken quite long to build this bunker anyway?”

“It depends on how far he’d already come.” Spencer shrugged. “Maybe only the door was missing so he couldn’t close it.”

“Well, he buried her alive anyway.” the coroner said and got up leaving the body for his team. “She breathed some of the soil.”

“So we know he’s observing his victims.” Logan sighs. “How do we know who’ll be next? I mean, there isn’t any connection between the victims, is there?”

“Not any we found yet.” Derek answered watching the coroner’s assistants wrap the body in a body bag. “Except the fact that they all lived in Chicago.”

“We’ll tell Garcia to check all police reports” Hotch declared. “and those from the hospitals, too. Maybe they were all reported a crime to the same police officer or something.”

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“Why exactly does he dress the women up as brides?” Garcia asked after she’d received the photos of the crime scene.

“We don’t know.” Hotch answered. “But it’s probably part of his fantasy.”

“Nice fantasy.” she murmured.

“The white dress probably signifies innocence.” Reid suggested. “Maybe his fantasy is that he… is cleansing them of their sins.”

“Yeah, or maybe he just likes the dress.” Derek shrugged.

“Were you able to locate her when she called?” Hotch wanted to know.

“Yes” Derek could hear her triumphing smile. “she’s been only two miles away from the police station close to a motel.”

Hotch took down the address Garcia gave him and handed it to Derek: “Emily, you and Derek check this motel and try to find Mrs. Raven.”

They both simply nodded. Hotch handed Derek the note. The latter took it, read it and passed it to Emily who was frowning. Derek could tell from her face that she was thinking the same he was. If this woman didn’t want to be found why was she so unmindful?

“Thanks, Garcia.” Hotch looked at the phone on the table. “You should go home now.”

“Sir, I just received the photos and it takes a while to analyze them so I’d better…”

“Garcia” he gently interrupted her. “it’s late and you’ve been up for at least two days now. Go home and try to sleep, at least a little. We’ll go to the motel now and leave the rest for tomorrow. Mrs. Jenkins died about five hours ago, we can’t do anything now.”

“Sir, I really…”

Hotch interrupted her again: “This was no request. It was a command. Go home, Garcia. We need you fresh and rested tomorrow.”

She sighed and Derek could have sworn he heard her shake her head. “Yes, Sir, I’ll shut everything down and go home.”

“I’ll tell the security guard to check whether you went home or not.” Hotch threatened her. He knew as well as anyone else on the team that Penelope was an insomniac and stayed up for nights on every case. But she needed rest as much as the rest of them even though she usually denied that.

She moaned. “I’ll go home right now.” she promised. “Good night.”

“Good night.” he couldn’t stop the edges of his mouth from rising slightly and hung up. “Derek, Emily, before the two of you get to our hotel, ask the receptionist in the motel whether she’d seen Mrs. Raven.”

“Yes, Sir.” Emily nodded and left with Derek.

“Do you think she’s there?” Spencer asked.

Hotch simply shook his head. “I don’t think she is or ever was at this motel. She has a drop and her phone number is concealed. So she’ll probably not phone her sister from the place where she’s hiding. Anyway, it still is the only thing we have.”

“So we basically have nothing.” he sighed.

Hotch tried to give him a comforting glance: “Not until we can figure out what all of these women have in common. If he observes them that means that they are not occasional victims. He must have met them anywhere.”

“So the only question is where.” he murmured.

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He watched her leaving the building and smiled. The bridal dress laid neatly at his back seat. He couldn’t wait to see her in that dress. It was the most beautiful dress for any woman in the world, so pure and innocent. Simply white, untouched. Oh, she would look so beautiful! He followed her car to her apartment house where he’d spent the past two nights watching her. But he had waited long enough, watched long enough. It was time to act. But not right now. He still had to wait until she would switch off the lights and go to sleep. But this would be the night he’d finally put his plan into action. He couldn’t wait any longer. He wanted to see the fear in her beautiful dark and always cheerful eyes. He wanted to see her breaking at death’s door, wanted to hear her swearing, damning him, finally screaming and crying. Moreover it was definitely too exhausting to commute between Chicago and Quantico every day. He couldn’t believe it had been that easy to take the minds of these profilers off his real target. They would spend hours worrying why he had buried Mrs. Jenkins without a bunker.

At one a.m. she finally switched her lights off. He smiled grabbing the handkerchief and the chloroform. He already knew that she didn’t have an alarm so it should be easy to get inside her apartment. She’d fed the dog she was sitting but left him in the other apartment. That would turn out to be a bad mistake. He smiled at this thought slowly going up the stairs towards her apartment. It didn’t take him long to break the door. Carefully he made his way towards the bedroom. Slowly he opened the door.

She was lying on the bed, breathing constantly, calmly, obviously sleeping. Her long, curled, golden hair was spread over the pillow framing her peaceful face. For a moment he just stood in the door watching her. Finally he approached the bed reaching out his hand for her. She woke up, looked at him in shock and wanted to scream. But his fist hit her hard before she could react. He lunged at her, trying to put the handkerchief soaking with chloroform above her mouth. She fought him, squirming and writhing beneath him. She managed to claw him, to hit him with her fist. She even managed to get off the bed. Running out of the bedroom she threw a lamp in his direction that almost hit him. He smiled. Her fighting spirit exceeded all his expectations.

He caught her up in the living room, grabbing her hair, pulling her head back and throwing her at the wall the next moment. She fell to the floor and gasped in pain. Then she grabbed the first thing she could reach which was a fragment of the broken lamp. Attacking him she stabbed the fragment deep into his arm. She felt dizzy and stumbled as she got up.

He cried out in pain and pulled the fragment out of his arm. He noticed her stumbling towards the door. In a fast movement he blocked her way and smiled, finally seeing the expression he’d been craving for from the moment he first saw her on her face: fear. She tried to beat him again, but because of her dizziness he was faster, grabbed her and pressed the handkerchief on her mouth. She tried to push his hand away, tried to fight him, managed to claw him another time before she finally passed out.

He looked at the traces of blood that were scattered across the floor of her living room, his and hers equally. He never would have guessed that she’d be that strong, that combative. Now he could still less wait to see her breaking. To break that strong will of hers would be his greatest triumph.

Smiling again he slowly undressed her. Then he got the bridal dress he had hung at the coat rack and dressed her. He took his time, no need to hurry, watching her in the white dress. He wiped the blood off her face and looked at the wound on her forehead where her head had hit the wall. It had stopped bleeding so it shouldn’t cause her too many problems “ at least not enough to be unconscious while the air was running low. Finally he picked her up and carried her to his car. They had quite a long way ahead of them.
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Chapter 4 by little_profiler
“Listen” Hotch sighed. “you are the only person who can at least give us a hint about the unsub.”

“And you think THAT will make me talk to you, right?” she said and hold up her cuffed hands.

Hotch frowned and darted a glance at Derek: “You attacked two of my agents and hurt one.”

“Dayana, please.” Lara begged and looked her sister in the eyes. “I know it’s hard but…”

“You don’t know anything.” she shouted at her and then looked back at Hotch: “And you do neither! I can’t help you, even if I wanted to. And now… let me go!”

“I can’t” Hotch tried to stare her down. “your attack will have consequences.”

She smiled and stared back at him. “I don’t think so.” her voice was low but confident.

“Dayana, please don’t.” Lara looked at her in shock. “You already have enough problems. Please don’t do that!”

The smile on her face disappeared and she gave everyone an expressionless look. Then she suddenly jumped out of the chair and knocked Hotch down with a targeted kick only a second before she grabbed Derek, took the keys out of his pocket and got rid of the handcuffs.

Emily and JJ pointed their guns at her.

“Drop your guns” she said and tightened her grip around Derek’s throat. “or I’ll break his neck.”

“Dayana, please, let go of him!” Lara begged.
Hotch got up and rubbed his jaw. “Now I know why you don’t really hide.” he murmured.

“After he’d almost killed me I figured it is a good idea to know how to defend oneself.” she replied in a smile. “Which doesn’t mean I want to appear in every phone book.”

“Emily, JJ, drop your guns!” Hotch commanded.

“But, Sir…” Emily started to protest.

“Agent Prentiss” he interrupted her and gave her a look that told her he didn’t want to discuss his order. “drop your gun!”

Unwillingly Emily and JJ laid their guns on the table and stepped back.

“Now, please, Mrs. Raven” Hotch turned to the young woman again. “let go of Agent Morgan.”

“So that you can shoot me the second I let him go?” she snorted.

“I promise we won’t.” Hotch replied calmly. “And I know it was a mistake to cuff you, not only because you obviously have advantage over us but because you’ve already been through too much. I promise you can go and we won’t bother you again.”

Dayana studied the expression on his face and finally loosened her grip around Derek’s neck.
“Thank you” Hotch gave her a smile. “I’ll walk you out.”

He left the room under the puzzled looks of Lara and his four co-workers and followed by Dayana who gave her sister a triumphing smile.

“I’m so sorry” Lara’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “Did she… hurt you… again?”

“No” he said his voice full of anger. “I’m fine.”

“What was that?” Emily almost shouted and took back her gun. “He can’t simply let her go. Not after she attacked us… twice!”

Spencer looked through the windows of the office that was now their briefing room and shrugged: “I guess he wants to make her talk.”

“Who’s that?” Dayana asked shortly after they left the room and pointed at a young man who held a little girl in his arms. He looked a little lost sitting in a chair at a free desk.

“This is John Porter.” Hotch explained.

“The husband of the first… new victim.” she nodded. “I read about her in the news. Who’s this girl?”

“Her daughter” he replied. “Jessica, she’s seven years old.”

“Can I” her voice had changed suddenly, seemed more gentle. “Can I talk to him?”

Hotch frowned. This didn’t seem like the best idea. “Sure.” he said.

She slowly walked over and looked at the man for a while. “Mr. Porter?” Dayana finally asked softly.

The man looked up, a little puzzled, and it was obvious he had cried a lot lately. “Who are you?” he wanted to know.

“I…” she started but she wasn’t sure what to tell him. “My name is Dayana Raven. I’m… I just wanted to tell you how… how sorry I am for what happened to your wife.”

“Thanks.” he whispered and gave her a sad smile. “It’s good to know that everyone here does his best to catch this bastard “ or her best in your case.”

She smiled back at him but didn’t answer.

“You know” he continued. “although I knew she… was probably dead I… I didn’t really believe it until they found her. There was still… a spark of hope I think. Now I just wish that whoever did this to her will be jailed soon. I… I want to be able to sleep again.”

“I understand.” she whispered and then looked at the little girl on the man’s lap. She was asleep and had snuggled up at his chest. “And again I… want to tell you how sorry I am.”

He looked into her eyes and said quietly: “This is not your fault.”

This sentence was like a stabbing in her heart. This was her fault. She should have talked to the police, to anybody at least. She hadn’t even told her sister. No one had asked her about her injuries and the carbon dioxide intoxication so she’d felt save. For almost ten years he hadn’t made a single move and she’d thought it was over. But it wasn’t. He was still out there. He was still killing women. She didn’t know very much but maybe it could really help to stop him if she told them what she knew.

She went back to Hotch and looked at him. His jaw was slowly turning red. “I’m sorry” she whispered. “about beating you I mean. I… it was wrong to attack you. I simply… I don’t know.”

“You wanted to show us you don’t need any help.” he said softly and frowned. “You wanted to show us that you’re not afraid, not of us and not of him. And you are right, you don’t need to be afraid and you don’t need our help. But we need yours.”

She nodded and looked straight into his eyes. “So, what can I do?”

“Come back with me into the office and tell me anything you can remember.”

She tried to smile. “I fear it’s not much.”

“Anything can help.” he reassured her. “We need to get as much information as we can.”

“I’ll try.” she promised.

Hotch smiled slightly and led her back into the room. “Mrs. Raven changed her mind.” he said and offered her the chair she’d been sitting on just a few minutes ago.

“Finally.” Derek murmured.

“This is the right decision.” Lara smiled.

Dayana smiled back at her sister: “I know. I just hope I can… tell anything helpful.”

“He abducted you in a mall.” Hotch started.

“True” she nodded. “I was… My stepfather had forbidden me to go there and meet with my friends but… well, I was seventeen. We split up at about five p.m. I guess and I went back to my car. I remember I couldn’t find my key and searched my bag for it when suddenly someone grabbed me from the rear. He pressed something on my mouth and I passed out. When I woke up I was buried in that bunker.”

“How did you manage to escape?” Emily asked.

“I… I shouted at him, begged him. When I felt I was running out of air I… simply destroyed the window. The dirt flew inside and then… I was able to open the door. The bunker wasn’t buried very deep.”

“Well, now we know why he changed that part.” Derek added.

“Did he talk to you?” this time it was Hotch who asked her.

Again she nodded. “He welcomed me and told me that I had about twelve hours to live. Afterwards he just tried to scare me. He… told me what it would feel like when I’ll die, when the air runs low and I’ll slowly asphyxiate. He also told me about his former victims, how they’d react, if they screamed or cried or shouted at him. He told me what they said to him and… how he watched them dying.”

“Have you ever seen his face?” Hotch wanted to know.

“I’m sorry” she whispered. “but no. As I said he attacked me from the rear and chloroformed me. When I woke up I was already buried in that bunker.”

He nodded and tried not to look too disappointed.

“When he attacked you” JJ said softly. “did you recognize something… a special smell or a noise maybe?”

Dayana frowned obviously trying to remember. Then she said: “It smelled like… vanilla I think, but the flavor was somehow… artificial. And smelled like vanilla and… alcohol I think. I don’t remember exactly what the second aroma was but it was something chemically. As I said I don’t have much to tell that could help.”

“Thank you anyway.” Hotch said. “Maybe this will help. What you smelled probably was his after shave. Spencer, call Garcia and let her check all after shaves that smell like vanilla.”

He nodded, fished his phone out of his pocket and left the room.

“How should that help?” Derek asked. Great, even Hotch recognized that something was wrong between him and Penelope. Well, it wasn’t hard to guess if he’d just heard a single call between them. There was none of their usual bantering anymore, no single word that was not work-related.

“I don’t know.” he sighed. “But maybe… maybe this flavor is something special. An after shave you can’t just buy in every shop.”

“Yeah, fat chance of that!” he murmured.

“At least it is a trace.” Hotch sighed again.

Spencer stepped back into the office, frowning and staring at his phone. “She didn’t pick up.” he said.
Hotch gave him a puzzled look. “How often did you try?”

“At least ten times.” he answered still staring at his phone as if it had an answer for him.

“I’ll try her mobile phone.” Derek got his phone out and dialed the number he knew by hard. The phone rang, once, twice… ten times. He hung up. “She doesn’t answer.”

Hotch frowned more than ever before and took in a deep breath. “Spencer, call the security and let them search the building for her! I’ll call the receptionist and ask if she’d come to work.”

“She wouldn’t stay away without telling anyone.” Derek declared.

Hotch gave him a concerned look: “Exactly.”
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Chapter 5 by little_profiler
The first thing she felt was the incredible headache. Then there was the sickness. And finally she realized that she was not lying in her bad. It was hard to remember what had happened. She was sleeping “ astonishingly enough “ and suddenly something woke her. There was this… man who… attacked her. She fought him and then she passed out. Where was she? What had he done to her?

Unwillingly she opened her eyes to find out where she was. But it didn’t help. Wherever he’d brought her it was dark. She couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face. She tried to get up. The floor was hard and the room seemed empty. She fumbled around in the darkness but couldn’t feel anything except the cold metal. The room was rather small and one side seemed to be the door. There was a bull’s eye in it and she wondered if it was still dark outside since not a bit of light came through that little window. She tried to open the door but it was locked.
All of a sudden a blinding light came on and she blinked for a few moments.

“Welcome to your new home.” a voice said and from its sound it was clear that it came through a loudspeaker. This was not good. “It will for sure be your last one.”

This was not at all good. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around. In front of the small bull’s eye she could see something that made her blood run cold: damp, loamy dirt. This was definitely far from good.

“Why don’t you talk to me, little girl?” the voice asked and then laughed sardonically. “Okay, if you don’t want to talk, I’ll take over that part. Here are the facts: You’re in a bunker and the oxygen will be enough for more or less twelve hours. More if you stay calm and less if you… well, if you act like the last victims. But I think you already know that. What you for sure don’t know is that one of my… guests managed to survive almost thirteen hours “ while Mrs. Porter didn’t even survive ten hours. So I think it’s up to you.”

‘Yeah and one of your victims escaped.’ she thought but she didn’t answer. She knew what he wanted, he wanted to see her will break, wanted to see her freak out. She knew that he could hear her, see her as well. The forensic people had found three cameras in the bunker where they’d found Mrs. Porter. She knew exactly what he wanted but she wouldn’t give it to him. He wouldn’t break her, she wouldn’t let him. She smiled when she finally spoke.

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Two and a half hours earlier:

“What do you mean she didn’t show up?” Hotch almost shouted at the man on the phone. “Did you check her apartment?”

“No, Sir.” the man replied a little puzzled. “Why… should we have?”

“Let me think about it.” he answered sarcastically. “Maybe because one of our FBI agents was late for work without any excuse. Let a team check her apartment… immediately!”

“Yes, Sir. Of course, Sir.” the man stammered. “I’ll arrange that instantly.”

“If I were you I would pray that nothing happened to her.” he murmured and hung up.

“She still doesn’t answer her phone.” Derek said and closed his own mobile phone. “What happened?” he looked at everyone in the room.

“We’ll find out.” Hotch promised and tried to sound confidently. Although Derek’s profiling skills were too good that he wouldn’t recognize Hotch was as concerned as he was.

“Maybe it was an emergency in her family.” JJ said nervously drumming her fingers on the table.

“She would have taken her phone with her.” Derek said and stood up to pace the room. “No, something happened to her. I know that.”

“Her flat’s only twenty minutes away from the bureau.” Hotch sat down hoping it would make Derek do the same. But it didn’t. “The team will phone us as soon as they arrive there.”

“Twenty minutes.” he said in a low voice running his hand over his head. That was too long, much too long. What could have happened? Had someone attacked her? Why should anyone? Well, he knew too well that there were many reasons for criminals to attack a woman on her way home. They saw things like that every day and all of them knew that this could even happen to them “ and that only made things worse.

The twenty minutes seemed like hours. Derek kept pacing the room periodically looking at his watch. None of them spoke. They all stared at the triangular hands-free kit on the table until it finally rang.

“Hotchner.” he picked up only half a second later.

“This is Agent Henriks.” a male voice said. “We’ve reached Ms Garcia’s apartment. She… she’s not here but it looks like the scene of a fight.”

Derek’s heart stopped beating for a few seconds. He stared at the phone unable to formulate one of the thousand questions that ran through his brain.

“What does that mean?” Hotch wanted to know.

“There’s blood on the floor.” the man answered.
Blood! Derek breathed deeply and once again ran his hand over his face.

“The sofa’s overthrown, a lamp is broken as well as some vases. And there is a handkerchief on the floor.” he paused. They heard him move and then snuff. “Chloroform.”

“Chloroform?” JJ burst out.

Hotch pressed a button so the other agent couldn’t hear their conversation anymore. “That doesn’t necessarily mean it was our unsub.” he explained. “If he really abducted her he couldn’t have taken a flight for obvious reasons. And by car it would take him at least twelve hours. There is no reason for him to run such a risk.”

“She’s been chloroformed and abducted.” Derek objected. “How much evidence do you need? This sick bastard has Penelope and we have twenty-four hours from the point of abduction to find her.”

Hotch frowned and pressed the button again. “Agent Henriks, get the traces of blood checked. We need to know if you find any other DNA than Agent Garcia’s “ and make it fast.”

“What happened?” he asked a mixture of confusion and concern in his voice.

“We don’t know exactly.” Hotch replied. “But if our assumption is right we only have about fourteen hours left to find out.”

“I understand” Agent Henriks said. “this case has first priority now. We won’t work on another one until Agent Garcia’s found.”

“That’s what we expect from you.” Hotch answered and hung up.

“I can’t believe this.” Derek whispered, finally sat down and buried his face in his hands. “Why her? Why Penelope? Why did he drive twelve hours just to get her?”

“We don’t know.” Hotch softly replied. “But we’ll find her. We still have fourteen hours.”

“How can you know?” Derek asked.

“When I sent Garcia home it was around midnight in Quantico.” he said. “She went home after that. I called the security guard to check it. Let’s say he abducted her right after she went to sleep. Now it’s ten o’clock. We are one hour behind Quantico. If we proceed on the assumption that he abducted her around one a.m. that gives us another fourteen hours.”

Derek set the alarm in his watch and said: “That would mean he didn’t reach Chicago yet.”

“What can we do?” JJ’s voice was almost not audible.

Hotch nodded. “At first we’ll check on that flavor Mrs. Raven mentioned. Maybe… maybe we’ll find something. Derek, you check all property markets if anyone had bought material for such a bunker recently. JJ, talk to the police officers and brief them about the new situation. Tell them to block all the roads that lead into the city, to check all cars that want to pass. As Agent Henriks said this case has first priority. All other things can wait until we found Garcia.” he commanded.

“What if” Spencer burst out and took a second to calm down. “What if Mrs. Jenkins wasn’t found in a bunker not because he wasn’t able to finish it but because it was meant for… someone else.”

“You mean for Penelope.” Derek snarled.

“Yes.” the young man whispered and looked down.

“So he planned to abduct her?” Emily asked.

“We already know that he observes his victims before he abducts them.” Hotch replied. “But he usually waits until he has finished the bunker before he abducts the women. He never abducted two women in such a short interval.”

“So you think the bunker he built was usually meant for Mrs. Jenkins?” JJ looked at him in shock. “And then he changed his mind… because he suddenly wanted Penelope?”

Hotch nodded. “He didn’t take a long time to observe her. Maybe that means that we were close in on him. And he obviously wants us to find her “ or at least to search for her. And that’s exactly what we’ll do now. This is a game and we’ll win it! Go to work!”
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Chapter 6 by little_profiler
The light was definitely too bright. Her eyes were burning even if she kept them closed. But the silence was even worse. She couldn’t here a single sound in that empty bunker except her own breathing. She knew she needed to stay calm and save as much breath as possible so that the team had as much time to find her as she could give them. She sweated which didn’t help her save a lot of oxygen. This room was definitely too small to survive very long. She wondered what it would probably feel when the oxygen was running out.
Don’t think about that! she commanded herself. They will find you! They won’t give up and you shouldn’t either!

She tried to think about something else. She tried to remember every good moment in her past “ but all she could think of was Derek. They’d had that stupid fight, she couldn’t even remember what it had been about. During the past weeks they had kept all their calls merely work-related. No bantering, no pet names, not even a simple ‘glad to hear your voice’. She’d missed all this, she’d missed him, their friendship, the bond between them. Maybe she’d never get the chance to tell him how sorry she was, to tell him how much he meant to her. She fought back the tears she felt arise. She didn’t want to let him see her crying. She would not give him what he wanted. She would not satisfy his perverse fantasy.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

He couldn’t believe it had been that easy. With a triumphing grin on his face he looked at her on the screen of his computer. She was strong, stronger than he’d expected. But it was only four hours she’s spent in there and she wasn’t running out of oxygen yet. She was sitting on the floor, her back against one of the walls, her head leaned back and her eyes closed. She was sweating but her face didn’t show the slightest fear “ not yet.

His smile widened when she put on the headset. “Hey, sleeping beauty, how are you feeling?” he asked.

She didn’t answer, didn’t open her eyes, didn’t show the slightest reaction to his voice. Normally he managed to frighten the women with his words.

He frowned and then asked: “Do you want to hear about the woman I built this bunker for? Well, she was an easy target “ too easy to be exact. I seen lost my interest in her when I saw you. But, well, you know, my mother taught me to finish everything I start and I had watched Pamela Jenkins for weeks so I figured it would be unwise to leave this business unfinished. Of course, I couldn’t bury her in that bunker for it was reserved for you. So I simply buried her without a bunker.” he laughed out loud. “I think it kind of freaked your co-workers out why I did that. Do you know they already recognized that you are my guest?” he got up from the chair and started wandering through his house. This was too exiting to sit. The headset had been the best idea he’d ever had. When he buried the women close enough to his house he could stand in front of their soon-to-be grave while he talked to them or in his house. Or he could even walk to the place he’d buried them and tell them that he was approaching them. They had all begged him to let them out. He’d even heard them pounding against the door of the bunker while they screamed for help.

“They blocked the road.” he laughed again. “I even talked to one of the police officers. We joked, had a little small talk about this abduction case and then he wished me a good day and I simply drove by. He had no idea you were in my trunk the whole time. They gave up waiting about an hour ago finally realizing that I had somehow managed to sneak in unnoticed.”

She still didn’t answer and it started to annoy him. “You know, I really have to go back to work. It’s not good if they start to wonder where I am. We’ll continue this conversation later.”

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Derek stopped reading the file a fifth time and rubbed his eyes. They were burning. He’d been reading too much and gathered too few information. He took a look at his watch, only eight hours left. Time pressed and they still had nothing, not a single clue. They had analyzed the traces of blood the team in Quantico had found in Penelope’s apartment. It hadn’t been only her blood “ fortunately. But the other DNA hadn’t been stored in the database. Otherwise the unsub would surely have removed his blood from the crime scene. He never left any fingerprints, though, so these probably were in the database which reduced the number of suspects to… a few thousand?! He sighed. That was not a bit helpful.

They had had blocked all the roads but didn’t find anything. That meant if he brought her to Chicago he had been able to sneak in past all the police officers. So that had been pointless. They had even browsed through the area he had buried at least three of his victims “ nothing.

The knock at the door made him almost jump out of his seat. He turned and gave the visitor a puzzled look. His mother was standing in the doorway smiling at him.

“You didn’t come home for lunch as you promised so I thought I’d better bring it over.” she held out a box at him.

“Thanks” he said and propped his head in his hands.

Slowly Fran stepped closer and put the box on the table. “Another victim?” she asked looking at the files that were spread over the whole table.
“It’s Penelope.” he whispered.

“What?” Fran almost fell on the chair next to her son. “Derek, what… can we do? I mean, if there’s anything…”

“We don’t have a single clue where she is.” he explained. “But as soon as we have a trace of her I’ll call you. You can help scan the area.”

“Which area?” she softly asked.

Derek picked a photo out of one of the files and handed it to his mother. “He buries his victims alive in that bunker.” he said.

“My God.” she whispered and stared at the picture in her hands. “I’m… so sorry. Why did he… take her?”

“We don’t know.” he sighed. “I mean, Emily and JJ were much closer… Not that I want them to be his victims, I’m just saying…”

“I know” Fran interrupted him. “I know you don’t want any member of your team to be in danger. And I know that you’re worried about Penelope. I also know what a great profiler you are and I am sure you will…”

“We had a fight.” this time he interrupted her. “Before we all went on this case we had a fight and… I don’t really know what the last thing was I said to her. But it was for sure something mean, something that hurt her. I never meant to hurt her.”

“I know.” Fran repeated. “And I’m sure Penelope knows that as well.”

Derek just shook his head.

“What was it?” Fran wanted to know.

He raised his head and gave her a puzzled look.

“What was the fight about?” she asked more precisely. “What was the last thing you said to her?”

He shrugged and dropped his head again: “I can’t remember.”

Fran waited for a few seconds and finally put her hand around his shoulder. “You can’t or you don’t want to?” she asked.

He gave her a said smile. “Both I guess.” he whispered.

“What was this fight about, Derek?” Fran asked again.

“It was stupid” he replied, his voice still barely audible. “so stupid. We fought about… a wedding.”

Fran frowned: “Say that again.”

“Not our wedding, of course.” he sighed. “Pen teased me about all the adventures I had with women and… well, I blamed her for that saying it was none of her business. I don’t know she… she took that comment very serious and we ended up in the worst fight we ever had. And in the end she said something about that we… maybe never were real friends. As I said it was stupid.”

“You are friends” Fran tried to cheer him up with her smile. “you’ve always been. You know that and Penelope does as well.”

“I just” he sighed and buried his face in his hands. “I never told her how much she means to me. I didn’t even apologize. For weeks we haven’t talked to each other. I missed our bantering, I… just missed phoning her. And now… I… maybe I’ll never get the chance to tell her how sorry I am, how much I want all we had back. How much I wish we’d never had that stupid fight.”

“You will tell her all that.” Fran reassured him. “You will find her, save her.”

He slightly shook his head and whispered: “What if we don’t?”

“Look at me, Derek!” Fran commanded. The tone in her voice had changed from a soft and comforting one to a mother-like one.

He did as he was told and looked straight into his mother’s eyes.

“I don’t want to hear you say that! You shouldn’t even think that! Penelope is your best friend and you can’t give her up.”

“I don’t” Derek quickly asserted. “I would never give her up, I would never let her down. I’m just… scared about her. I can’t loose her.”
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Chapter 7 by little_profiler
“Hey” Lara greeting and slowly stepped inside the room. “any news?”

“Unfortunately not.” Spencer sighed and gave her a tired smile. “I fear we’re running out of time.”

“Why exactly do you brief a civilian about the state of affairs in this case?” Derek snarled and fretfully looked at the younger agent.

“Lara’s not only a civilian.” Spencer objected. “Maybe she can still help us “ or her sister at least. So I thought it would not be amiss…”

“Oh, sorry, I forgot that she’s not just any civilian but your little girl friend.” Derek said sarcastically.

“Lara is not my girl friend.” Spencer put emphasis on every single word and gave Derek the angriest look the latter had ever seen on the young man’s face.

Lara started to feel uncomfortable and whispered: “I’d better wait outside.”

“No” Spencer almost shouted at her. “call your sister and ask her if she can come over and have a look at some files, will you? Maybe she’ll remember something.” He gave Derek a challenging look.

“Of course.” Lara quickly responded and almost ran out of the room.

“Derek, what’s wrong?” Spencer frowned in anger and concern equally. “They can help us.”

“I’m sorry” his tone was still sarcastic. “I just think that we should not let every civilian out there help us work our cases. We can’t even be sure that she is trustworthy.”

“She is.” he snarled.

Derek dropped the file in his hands to look at him: “Don’t you think you are a little biased towards her since you’re obviously in love.”

“I am not in love with her.” again he said that sentence very slowly stressing every word.

Derek snorted: “Where exactly do you know her from?”

Spencer hesitated, looked at Derek, back to the files on the table and again at his co-worker. “I…” he started but suddenly seemed even more nervous than usual. “I… know her from… rehab.” his voice was barely more than a whisper.

Derek dumped down the file and stared at him. “Rehab?” he repeated. “What exactly are you talking about?”

“Well” he nervously scratched his head. “after… Tobias had abducted me… I… kind of…” he cleared his throat and tried to speak a little louder. “For a while I kept taking the dilaudid.”

“You did what?” Derek almost jumped out of his seat as he shouted at him.

“Gideon found out.” Spencer went on without looking at him. “He promised me not to tell anybody if I… stop and have an ambulant therapy. That’s where I know Lara from.”

“Hang on” Derek started to arrange all the information he’d just gotten in his head. “does that mean this girl’s a junkie?”

“No, she’s not.” he replied in a low voice. “She was the only one in that therapy who wasn’t forced to go there. And besides if she’s a junkie, I’m too.”

Derek frowned and thought about what he’d said. Then he finally asked: “Is that all? I mean, you two are… quite close I guess.”

“She relapsed once.” he answered quietly. “And that kind of… discouraged her. She… she… One evening I was driving home and… well, I saw her standing on that bridge. She wanted to commit suicide.”

“So you saved her life?” Derek still stared at him.

“I don’t know” he shrugged. “I just talked to her and then I… I took her to my house. Not what you think” he quickly added. “I mean, nothing happened.”

“You’re much too kind, you know that?!” a barely visible smile crossed his face.

Spencer decided it was wiser not to apply to that comment. “Whenever I think I… need to take the drugs again, I call her and vice versa. We’ve talked sometimes the whole night since then and… I don’t know why but it helps.”

“It’s good to have someone who knows how you’re feeling.” Derek concluded.

Spencer opened his mouth to answer something but was kept from it when Hotch and Emily entered and disheartened sat down at the table. “Nothing.” Emily sighed. “We questioned every hospital, every damn doctor in Chicago. There were seven persons who had injuries obviously arising from a fight. But everyone of them had been in Chicago when Pen was abducted.”

Derek threw the file back on the table and ran both his hands over his face. “So we still don’t have anything. We’re running out of time and we still don’t even know where to start.”

Lara carefully knocked on the door and stepped back in. “Dayana will be here in about ten minutes.” she explained. “She said she doesn’t believe it’ll be helpful but she’ll have a look at the files nonetheless.”

“Thanks.” Derek tried his best to give her a smile although he absolutely didn’t feel like smiling. “And, well, I’m sorry that I’ve been so… harsh earlier. I know you just want to help.”

“I understand.” she smiled. “This is not easy, for none of you. But I promise Dayana and I will do our best to help you find Agent Garcia.”

“I’m not sure our best will be enough.” Derek murmured.

“Derek, we’ll find her.” Hotch tried to build him up.

“Oh, I don’t doubt that.” he answered cynically. “I just doubt that we’ll find her in time.”

“Derek…” Hotch started again.

He interrupted him by showing him the countdown on his watch: “Four hours, Hotch, four goddamn hours!”

“Garcia’s smart.” Hotch gave him a cheery smile. “She knows what to do in a situation like that. She’ll save as much oxygen as possible to give us more time to find her.”

“How much could that possibly be?” Derek sighed.
A little helplessly Hotch looked at the young genius across from him.

“Well, if she stays calm and breaths slowly… one hour I guess.” Spencer shrugged.

“I don’t doubt her intellect.” Derek replied sadly. “But she is simply not trained for situations like that. She won’t be able to stay calm forever.”

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Penelope took another shaky breath. Bit by bit she felt the carbon dioxide level rise and the oxygen level decline. She was afraid, although she still managed to keep this feeling under control. She simply didn’t want to die. She hadn’t even told Derek how sorry she was about their stupid fight. She had simply overreacted. But it had hurt so much hearing him say that his life was none of her business. She’d just wanted to hurt him as well and finally she’d achieved that. She’d seen the hurt in his eyes when she told him she doubted they ever were real friends. The truth was she’d never doubted that. She knew they were friends. Well, at least they had been before that stupid fight. Just because she’d been looking at bridal dresses. Just because he’d asked her about it and she’d teased him about not even knowing what a relationship means “ mainly so that she wasn’t in the dilemma of having to tell him why she was looking at this dresses. She didn’t want anybody to know that she was hopelessly romantic, from time to time dreaming about her own wedding. It was silly but it was fun anyway. They’d fallen out with each other because she didn’t trust him enough to tell him about her girlish dreams. The last thing she said to him had hurt him and now maybe she would never be able to take that back, to tell him how sorry she was. She’d considered calling him when she’d finally decided that it was time for her to apologize. But than she hadn’t dared to, had persuaded herself that it was better to talk to him face-to-face. So she had decided to apologize right after the team had returned to Quantico. Now she regretted that decision. If only she’d called him and told him how sorry she was, how much their friendship meant to her… how much he meant to her. If only she could hear his voice one last time.

She was going to become insane in here. This bunker was so poky and it seemed to become narrower every time she opened her eyes. So she concluded it was better to keep them shut. She had to stay calm, had to save her breath as long as possible. Derek wouldn’t give up until he found her, saved her. She knew he wouldn’t. He would find her. She tried to remember every single moment they’d spent together, every phone call they’d made, all their flirting and bantering. Finally she stopped shaking and smiled slightly. She couldn’t give up, she would survive at all costs. She needed to see him again, talk to him again. She couldn’t just leave him.
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Chapter 8 by little_profiler
Dayana put the file down and languidly rubbed her eyes. She buried her face in her hands and tried to breath deeply. This was exhausting and not a bit helpful. During the past three hours she’d seen so many pictures of bodies and these bunkers and read so many autopsy and other reports. She was tired and at the end of her tether “ as well as the rest of the team. They all went through the files and all the evidences over and over again. Agent Prentiss was questioning the relatives of all victims again while Agent Hotchner still examined every man that had gone to a doctor with bruises and cuts during the past twenty-four hours. Lara kept serving them with coffee.

“Maybe you should have a little break.” Lara suggested and handed her sister another cup of coffee.

“We don’t have time for a break.” Derek said pointing at his watch, the timer said fifty minutes.

“She won’t be any helpful if she collapses.” Lara said and angrily looked at him.

“Well, too bad” he shouted at her. “she hasn’t been helpful at all!”

“Derek!” JJ gave him a censorious glance.

“I’m sorry.” Dayana sighed. “I really wish I could do anything. But no matter how often I look at those pictures or read that reports I can’t remember something I didn’t tell you yet.”

“I know.” Derek sighed. “It’s just… so… annoying. I feel… helpless.”

She looked at him and gave him a tired smile: “Me too.”

“Anyway” he frowned. “we can’t give up. Penelope still has fifty minutes, maybe more if she stayed calm. Can you look at this file, please?”

Dayana took the file from him and asked: “What’s it about?”

“You” he answered. “They set it up when your stepfather reported you missing.”

Frowning she opened the file and looked at the missing person’s report. She read it briefly and then paged forward. The next page was a report about finding her car empty at the mall, the keys having slipped under it, a handkerchief with chloroform found. She slightly shivered at the memory of that smell, the feel of the damp material on her face, the grip of his hand round her neck. She quickly banished this thought and turned the page. The next was the report from the hospital where she’d gone after she’d managed to escape that bunker. A concussion, carbon dioxide intoxication, but all in all she’d been lucky. At least luckier than all the other women. She cringed at the thought that there could have been photos of her body in that file as well. She’d really just been lucky.

“Look at the photos.” Derek suggested. “Maybe that’ll help.”

She nodded and took out the pictures with shaky hands. The first one was a photo of her when she’d been sixteen. Her stepfather had certainly given it to the police when he’d reported her missing. The next picture showed the mall, then the parking lot and finally her black car. It had been a present from her stepfather for her seventeenth birthday. As if that had helped to erase all these years before when he’d been hardly a good father for her and her sister. She looked at the car and the sudden flashback took her by surprise. She gasped and let the photo drop at the table as if it was a poisonous reptile or something.

“What’s wrong?” Lara asked and gave her a concerned look.

“I…” she started still stunned by the memory that had just come into her head. The man grabbing her, attacking her. His body behind hers, his hands grabbing her throat and her mouth at the same time “ and the reflection of that scene in the black metal of the car. “I think I saw him.” she whispered.

“You did WHAT?” Derek immediately jumped out of his seat.

“I just remembered that I… When he attacked me I saw the reflection in the car. I… I think I saw his face, well, the reflection of it at least.” she explained.

“Can you describe him?” Derek suddenly seemed excited. It was a hint, the first and only one they had.

“I… I think so.” she nodded.

“Common, we mustn’t loose any more time.” he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room. “Where’s the sheriff?” he shouted at a puzzled young deputy.

“I… um… he left about half an hour ago. I’m not sure where he went. He… you know, he sometimes just patrols.”

“Listen.” Derek placed both his hands on the desk and leaned over it to stare at the deputy while he hissed: “You better get me the sheriff as soon as possible.”

“Agent Morgan?” Dayana asked in a low voice.

He didn’t react, didn’t even seem to notice her words, as he continued to stare the frightened man down. “Or you get me someone who can draw an identikit picture. Can you arrange that for me?”

“Yes, Sir.” he whispered.

“Agent Morgan!” Dayana said a little louder.

“What is it?” he asked, turned to her and froze. Her face was pale, even her lips had lost their color and she stared at a picture on the wall.

“Who’s that?” she whispered and pointed at the picture.

Derek followed her finger with his eyes and his blood ran cold. “That’s the sheriff.” he swallowed hard. “With the mayor. I think it was when he got his bravery medal for saving a young girl from drowning.”

“Not those two” she said in a low voice. “the man in the back.”

Derek stepped a little closer and looked at the blurred person a few inches behind the sheriff and the mayor. His eyes widened and he turned to look at her.

“That’s him.” she whispered.

“Are you sure?” he stared at her in shock.

Finally she took her eyes away from the photo and looked at him. “Absolutely.”

Derek turned once again to the deputy and pointing at the picture on the wall shouted: “Give me the address of this bastard, now!”

“I, Sir” he stuttered. “I can’t just give you the address of one of our…”

“This guy has killed sixteen women by burying them alive and letting them smother. One of our agents is buried out there slowly running out of air.” he seized him by the collar, pulled him to his feet and shook him. “So you better give me his goddamn address or I’ll screw it out of you!”

“You can’t do this.” he squeaked.

“I can” he snarled. “and I will. I don’t worry about the consequences, believe me.” he raised his fist threatening him to beat him.

“Okay” the voice of the young deputy was almost higher than Derek would have thought humanly possible. “I’ll…look it out for you.”

He finally released him and levelled his lapel. “You’d better find it really fast.”

“Derek, what’s wrong?” Spencer and JJ were standing in the door to the office and looked at him equally in shock, concerned and confused.

“We have his name.” he said. “And in a few seconds we’ll also have his address.” he ran his hand over his head and added: “We briefed him about the case, about our progress, about everything we found out. We told him about Penelope! Damn we let him through the road block and Penelope was certainly in his trunk!”

“Derek, who is it?” JJ wanted to know.

He didn’t answer but fished his phone out of his pocket and dialled a number. “Hotch” he almost shouted into his phone. “we have his name and his address.” he turned and took a slip of paper from the still shaking deputy and read the address to Hotch.

“Call Emily, we’ll meet you there.” Hotch said. “How did you find out?”

“Dayana remembered he saw his reflection when he attacked her and then she saw the picture on the wall. You know the one where the mayor hands the sheriff the bravery medal. Deputy Miller’s standing in the back.”

“Deputy Miller.” Hotch sighed. “Damn we gave him all information he needed to always be a step ahead of us.”

“I know” Derek replied in a low voice. “we even told him about Penelope and her marvellous skills of finding almost anything with her babies. If we hadn’t…”

“There’s no time to blame ourselves now.” Hotch interrupted him. “We have to hurry!”

Derek hung up, called Emily and informed her about the news. Then he ran back into the office and grabbed his jacket from the chair. It was already September and getting cold outside. The five of them jumped into the black SUV and Derek switched on the sirens.

“You’ll stay in the car while we enter the house.” Derek commanded over his shoulder. “I don’t want one of you being hurt. But as soon as we know where to search for Penelope we’ll need your help.”

“We’ll need all help we can get.” JJ murmured.

Derek nodded, fished out his phone and dialled another number. “Mom” he said. “we found the unsub… I mean, the killer. We’re on our way to his house.” he listened for a while and then answered. “Thanks, mom, as soon as he told us where to search we’ll definitely need your help.” Another pause and then: “Believe me, I’ll make him tell me.” he gave his mother the address and told her to stay at least half a mile away from the house until he called her.

“I reached the sheriff.” Spencer said and hung up his own phone. “He’ll send us all his deputies to scan the area as soon as we… well, have some more information about the actual area.”

“My mom and sisters will help, too.” Derek explained. “We’ll find her.”

At that moment the alarm of his watch beeped.
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Chapter 9 by little_profiler
Half an hour had past before they finally reached Deputy Miller’s house. Derek didn’t wait for the Hotch and Emily. He didn’t wait for the police units either. He jumped out of the SUV, pulled his gun out of the holster and kicked in the front door without hesitation, without a single warning.

Deputy Miller was sitting in front of his laptop and almost jumped out of the seat when his front door was kicked in. He stared at the tall, muscly FBI agent and reached out for his own gun next to his computer.

“Don’t even think about it.” Derek hissed and stepped towards him. “Where is she?” he took Deputy Miller’s gun and pointed his own one right between the man’s eyes. “Where is Penelope?”

He smiled triumphantly and glanced at his watch. “Twelve hours and thirty-seven minutes so far. She is running out of time… or out of air that is.” Miller slowly turned to his computer and pressed one of the keys. The black screen changed revealing what he’d been looking at before they arrived.

Derek froze when he saw her image on the screen. She was sitting in the small metal bunker, her head leaned back against the wall, her eyes closed, her mouth slightly opened. She was sweating and suddenly coughing. Derek sighed with relief, she was still alive.

“But I must admit, I’m impressed. None of my guests had ever survived to stay that calm and survive that long. But anyway I don’t think you’ll make it in time. She is obviously running out of oxygen in there. I think in about ten minutes she will loose her conscious and then after another…” he was interrupted in the middle of his sentence when Derek’s fist hit his face. The force of that punch tossed him out of his chair and he landed hard on the floor.

Derek grabbed him, pulled him to his feet and threw him against the wall. Bracing his forearm against his throat he shouted at him: “Where did you bury her? Answer me!”

“Derek!” JJ shouted at him. She and Spencer had stayed in the doorway, their guns pointing at Deputy Miller, just in case.

He didn’t answer, didn’t even turn to look at them. He punched Miller again, even harder this time. Miller’s head flew back against the wall and his lip burst open. Blood ran down over his chin. “Where is she?” Derek shouted again and raised his fist to hit him again.

“Agent Morgan!” Hotch’s voice stopped him. “Let go of this man.”

Derek’s hand sank a little but he still didn’t turn to the floor. “I’ll beat the shit out of that bastard!” he hissed and raised his fist again.

“Let go of him!” Hotch shouted.

Derek stared at Miller for another minute and then finally let him go. He was beside himself with anger and desperately wanted to beat this bastard until he forgot his own name.

Sheriff Logan arrested Miller and led him to the patrol car.

Derek sat down in front of the computer and moved the cursor. Nothing happened. “Damn” he whispered. “Pen would know what to do now.”

“Maybe I can help.” he heard a voice coming from the door. He turned and looked at Dayana who was raising her brows in a questioning look. “I don’t know much about computers but… at least a little.” she shrugged.

Derek looked at the screen. Penelope was coughing again. He sighed and got up leaving the seat for Dayana.

The young woman’s fingertips flew across the keyboard and she frowned slightly. The screen changed and she was scanning some files briefly. “That sounds interesting.” she murmured.

“What?” Derek wanted to know and looked over her shoulder.

“This folder’s named ‘semper mea’.” she explained pointing at the screen.

“What’s interesting about it?” Derek frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It’s Latin and means something like ‘forever mine’.” Spencer replied.

Dayana opened the folder and her blood ran cold. There where dozens of audio files in there all named after one of the victims.

“Open that one!” Derek commanded and pointed at a file named ‘Penelope’.

She nodded and did as Derek had told her.

“I know that you can hear me.” the familiar voice said. “And I know what you want from me. But I’m not giving it to you. I know that my team will find me, they’ll come and save me. And until then I’ll save as much oxygen as I can. So I won’t cry, I won’t scream and I won’t talk anymore. You like my voice? Well, then remember it well because this is the last thing you are going to hear from me.”

Derek drew in a shaking breath feeling worried, terrified “ and proud. She was so strong. Her voice hadn’t shown the least fear or concern, just certainty.

“Um… I guess that’s how he communicates with them.” Dayana said and handed him a headset.
Derek put it on immediately. “Penelope” he asked softly. “Do you hear me?”

“Derek?” the familiar voice replied.

“Yeah, I’m here, baby girl.” he was relieved to hear her voice. “We’re in the unsub’s house. You can’t be far from here. We’ll find you… soon.”

Hotch stepped behind Dayana and asked: “Can you trace the signal of the camera or that of the microphone?”

“I’ll try it.” she said, her fingers once again flying over the keyboard.

“Derek, I’m so sorry.” Penelope whispered. “I never wanted us to fight… we were so close and… I didn’t want to fall out with you.”

“Save your breath, doll face.” he said in a low voice. “You can tell me all this after we found you.”

“Will you… stay with me… on the phone I mean?” she asked.

“Of course, sugar.” he answered.

“Good.” she drew in a deep breath and coughed again. “I just… don’t want to be alone when I…”

“Don’t talk like that.” he interrupted her in shock. “You won’t die. We’ll find you!”

“Not in time.” she replied calmly. “The air in here isn’t enough for more than another fifteen or twenty minutes. You’re not going to make it fast enough. I’m going to die, I know that “ and you know it, too.”

Derek let his head fall down and fought against the tears that wanted to spring to his eyes. She was wrong, she had to be! Derek was not willing to believe that!

“It’s okay.” she said softly when he didn’t answer. “I know you did your best.”

“No, it’s not okay.” he almost shouted at her. “Listen to me now, Penelope! I am not willing to give up “ and you shouldn’t be either.”

“I don’t want to give up.” she answered, her voice still calm and low. “But there’s nothing we can do anymore. Just… promise me to come to my funeral, will you?”

“No” he replied brusquely. “No, I won’t. Because you definitely do not have any permission to die, do you understand me?! We will find you “ and you will live!”

“Okay, the bad news: I’m not able to locate one of the signals.” Dayana said.

Hotch sighed dispirited. “Any good news?” he asked.

“Well, kind of.” she shrugged. “He doesn’t use a satellite to communicate with her. That means she’s somewhere in the vicinity of three hundred miles.”

“That’s too much to search within fifteen minutes.” Spencer claimed and looked down the next second. That had not been helpful.

Dayana turned to Derek and commanded: “Ask her what she can see in front of that bull’s eye! Maybe that’ll give us any clue.”

“It’s damp and loamy.” Penelope answered. “And the earth is somehow… yellow.”

Derek repeated what Penelope told him and Dayana frowned.

Lara leaned over and pressed some keys on the keyboard. “She’s somewhere in this area.” she pointed at the screen which now showed a map. A red square depicting the area.

Dayana raised her eyebrows and added: “That’s a field of nine square-miles.”

“How do you know she’s there?” Hotch asked.

“This area once was used for arable farming, not very successfully. They tried almost everything to make the soil here utilizable for agriculture. This was somehow an area for experiments. They tried all kinds of fertilizers they knew at that time and on a particular field they tried a special sort of soil they’d imported from China. It was said to be very rich of nutrients and therefore convenient for agriculture.” Lara explained.

“Wow” Emily said. “now I know why you stand so well with Reid.”

“Well, I” she blushed slightly and awkwardly cleared her throat. “I studied history.”

“Lucky us!” Hotch gave her a smile.

“Baby girl, we’re on our way.” Derek said into the headset. “We know where you are. Hang in there just another few minutes! We’re on our way.”

They ran out of the house, ordered the other policemen as well as Derek’s mother and sisters to follow them. Dayana had printed the map so that they knew where to start.

“Okay, it’s a field of nine square-miles.” Hotch explained. “That means three miles due North and three miles due East from this point. Look for loose earth, everything that looks as if it has been dug over recently!”

“Penelope, we’ll find you in a few minutes.” Derek softly said while everyone started to search the area carefully so that they won’t miss something in the dense undergrowth that now covered the former fields. Due to the fact it was after midnight it was so dark they could hardly see their hands before their eyes.

“I’m… so tired.” she said.

“You have to stay awake.” he begged her. “Please, goddess, just a few minutes.”

“I’m so sorry, Derek.” her voice almost wasn’t audible.

“Penelope, don’t… don’t fall asleep!” he shouted.
She didn’t answer.

“Please, baby girl, talk to me!” he unsuccessfully tried to keep the worry from his voice.

She remained silent.

The next minutes seemed like hours for him until he finally heard one of the policemen shout: “Over here!” He ran as fast as he could and immediately leapt at the point where the undergrowth was brushed aside.

He was digging in the loamy, dirty ground with both his hands as fast as he could. Penelope had passed out only a few minutes before they had found the possible… grave. Minutes! She didn’t even have a goddamn second!

Hotch and Logan were running to him, each one a spade in his hands digging as fast as they could while Derek kept doing the same with bare hands until they finally scraped over the metallic surface. He hurried to brush the dirt away and ripped the door open. He got in, pulled her out, laid her lifeless body on the ground all in what seemed to be one single movement. He checked her breath. Gone. Checked her pulse. Gone. Immediately Derek started CPR, pumping the blood through her body, pressing life into her lungs. It seemed like an eternity, he didn’t want to give up, couldn’t let her go even if he wanted to. There was still some life in her, he knew that. She wouldn’t give up that easily. And he wouldn’t either.

Everyone was standing around them, watching the scene. JJ was shaking, slightly pacing back and forth. Lara held Spencer’s hand.

“Derek” Hotch said softly. “it’s… over. We did our best but… it’s too late.”

“No, it’s not!” he objected and continued CPR.

“Derek, let her go!” Hotch whispered.
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Chapter 10 by little_profiler
“Derek, let her go!” Hotch whispered.

“No!” he shouted at him. “She’s still there, I know it.”

“Derek, he’s right.” Fran gently placed a hand on her son’s shoulder.

He shook her hand off and hissed: “I won’t give up. She’s still here.”

As if to prove his words she finally started to cough, arching her back, her hands blindly fighting him.

Derek clasped her in his arms, holding her tight, slightly swaying her back and forth. “It’s okay, baby girl.” he whispered. “We found you, you’re alive. Everything’s going to be okay.”

She held him tight as if her life depended on it, forcefully sucking in deep breaths.

“Where’re the medics?” he shouted. “She needs oxygen.”

A young man stumbled through the undergrowth with an oxygen tank in his hands. He slipped next to the two agents and put the mask over her mouth.

“Breathe, sweetness!” he whispered gently stroking her hair. “You’re save now, you’re save.” He noticed that she shivered and pulled off his jacket without relinquishing his hold on her. Gently he wrapped her up in it.

“We have problems getting the litter here.” the young medic explained between pants.

Derek looked at him and then lifted Penelope up. “You carry the tank!” he said and carefully walked through the undergrowth.

Penelope leaned her head against his shoulder, her arms around his neck, and deeply drew in the pure oxygen. Gradually her shaking subsided.

Derek laid her down on the litter and took her hand in his the next second.

“Sir, you have to stay out.” a medic commanded.

“Yeah, like hell I will.” he said not taking his eyes off Penelope. He had to make sure she would be okay.

“We can’t let you drive with us.” the medic stated. “This is not allowed.”

“Is there any medically important reason you won’t let him drive with you?” Hotch asked.

“No.” the man replied in confusion. “But…”

“SSA Aaron Hotchner, FBI.” he said. “You’ll let this man drive with you!”

“Agent Hotcher, we can’t…”

“This was not a question.” Hotch interrupted him.

He hesitated, then finally sighed and nodded.

They all watched the medics freighting the litter into the ambulance, Derek jumping in and sitting down next to Penelope without ever letting go of her hand.

“Derek?” she murmured.

“I’m here, baby girl.” he reassured her and gently stroked her hair. “I promise I’m not going anywhere!”

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

“Hey there, sweetness.” Derek smiled when he entered the room. “How are you feeling?”

“Alive.” she said. “My head aches and I’m still a little dizzy. The doctors say it’s due to the concussion. They want me to stay overnight.”

“That’s definitely a good idea.” he pulled up a chair to the bed, sat down and took her hand. “I promised we would find you.” he smiled, gently stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. “And I’m glad we could hold that promise.”

“Me too.” she whispered. “Thank you.”

For a long time they simply smiled at each other, holding the other one’s hand.

“Hi, Pen.” JJ greeted. Their four co-workers carefully stepped closer.

“You look good.” Spencer stated.

“Yeah, especially with the cut and the bruise.” she replied.

“Nothing could ever disfigure that beautiful face of yours.” Derek smiled and gently caressed her cheek with his other hand.

“Flatterer.” she murmured and looked down to hide that she was blushing.

“I’m so proud of you, baby girl.” he stated in a low voice.

Penelope raised her head and looked at him almost in shock. “Really?” she whispered.

“Of course, I am.” he smiled. “You fought him, you fought for your life. And you really kicked his ass!”

“He almost killed me.” she reminded him and dropped her head sadly.

“That’s the good thing about it.” Derek put his hand under her chin to make her look at him again. “Almost doesn’t count. You managed to survive almost thirteen hours. You stayed calm, saved your breath. You were so incredibly strong and brave. And moreover, you are alive and he is in prison and will stay there for the rest of his goddamn life. That means, you won, mama, you won. And I am very, very proud of you.”

She smiled fighting back the tears that sprung to her eyes.

“We all are.” Hotch declared and stepped closer. “And we’re glad you are back.”

“Thank you, Sir.” she smiled sheepishly. “I… I’m glad you didn’t give up although the time had… well, run out.”

“I’d never have abandoned you, goddess.” Derek stated.

“I know.” she whispered and squeezed his hand. Then she looked back at the rest of the team and smirked a little. “So, you missed me, huh?”

JJ couldn’t help but smile. This was so absolutely Penelope, still joking and teasing. “We can’t do our job without you.” JJ replied.

“You proved that wrong.” Penelope objected pointing at herself.

“It would have been much easier if we’d have your sublime skills to provide us with the information we needed.” Hotch smiled.

Penelope blushed deeply at his words. This was one of the few moments she’d ever experienced when she didn’t know what to say.

“It’s true, mama” Derek said in a low voice. “we wouldn’t be able to do our job as good as we are doing it without you and your babies.”

“You know, they do all the work.” she shrugged. “I’m just… typing.”

“No” he chuckled. “it’s definitely more than that. Believe me, I tried the ‘just typing’ thing. Didn’t work at all!”

“How did you find me?” Penelope finally asked, mainly to change the topic. She didn’t want to hear any praising of her person any more “ not that she didn’t enjoy it.

“Dayana Raven helped us.” Hotch said. “The thirteenth victim, the girl who survived. She remembered that she saw Miller’s face when he attacked her.”

“Miller.” she murmured. So that was the name of that bastard.

“Deputy Miller to be more precisely.” Emily added. “That was why he always was one step ahead of us. The police officers let him through the road block not even asking him what he’d been doing out of Chicago.”

“Okay that’s how you found this guy but… how did you actually find me?” she asked.

“It turned out that Dayana has some computer skills, too.” JJ explained.

“Of course, they are not nearly as formidable as yours.” Derek added.

“Ms Raven found out that you must be within a vicinity of three hundred miles. And your description of the soil gave us the final clue we needed.” Hotch said. It was obvious he was relieved about the fact that Penelope was save now. He kept smiling, just slightly, but smiling.

“Dayana’s sister Lara turned out to be as ingenious as our little know-it-all.” Derek smiled pointing his head in Spencer’s direction.

Penelope smiled at the obviously embarrassed young man: “I always thought you’re the only one with such an intellect in the whole wide universe.”

“I’m not.” he quickly responded. “I mean, statistically…”

His five co-workers gave him a puzzled and equally expectant look after he’d stopped his speech right at the beginning of his sentence. They’d all awaited lots and lots of numbers from him now.

“Well” he murmured and looked down to the floor. “I guess that’s not the moment for any statistics.”

“Good boy!” Derek teased.

“Excuse me” a young nurse stepped into the room and gave everyone an apologizing look. “It is very late and Ms Garcia needs some rest. Moreover, the visiting hours are over.”

“Lady, I’ve had enough rest for a couple of weeks, believe me!” Penelope screwed her eyes.

“I understand.” the nurse replied quietly. “But I can only allow one of you to stay here overnight.”

“I’ll stay.” Derek immediately declared and smiled at Penelope.

She squeezed his hand once again, telling him that this was exactly what she’d wished for.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, Garcia.” Hotch smiled at her. “At least try to sleep a little.”

“I’ll make sure she does.” Derek promised.

Spencer, JJ and after a moment of hesitation also Emily hugged her co-worker and left the room.
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Chapter 11 by little_profiler
“What the…” Penelope’s eyes widened when Derek entered the room and she almost spilled her juice. She quickly placed the cup on the locker next to her bed.

Derek was carrying a huge bouquet, a box of quite expensive chocolates and a little teddy bear. “An apology.” he smiled.

“Apology?” she burst out. “For what?”

“First of all for being late.” he gave her an excusing smile. “I wanted to be back before you wake up. You… shouldn’t have been alone.”

“I’m fine.” she smiled back. “And well, I figure it’s getting better.”

Derek placed the flowers with the vase he’d gotten from one of the nurses on the desk and the teddy bear in front of them facing Penelope. Then he handed her the box of chocolates. “You know, that was the first thing I wanted to do when the case was over and we were back at Quantico. But considering the new circumstances I… thought it would be in order now.”

“You don’t need to apologize.” she reassured. “I mean, everything’s fine between us, right?”

“Yes, it is.” he nodded. “But… I don’t want what happened to you to be the reason for this. I want to reconcile with you because I apologized and you accepted it and not because you had to… go through all this.” he looked down, took a deep breath and looked back into her eyes. “You deserve an apology. I never meant to hurt you, baby girl. You are an important part of my life and I’m very glad about it. I didn’t mean it when I said my life was none of your business because it is. I just… wanted to tease you back and…”

“I know.” she interrupted him gently, a single tear running down her cheek. “I just overreacted. I didn’t mean to hurt you either. Yes, I wanted to hurt you because your words hurt me and I’m so sorry for this. Of course, we are friends and I’m very glad about that. You are important to me, too, and I never wanted to spoil that.”

“You didn’t spoil anything.” he carefully brushed her tear away and smiled at her. “So that means you accept the apology?”

She nodded and whispered: “As long as you accept mine.”

“No question about that, mama.” his smile grew wider. “So I guess we’re still best friends?!”

“Forever.” she replied and pulled him into a close hug.

For a long time they just sat there, holding each other. Then finally Derek broke the silence and softly said: “I’m sorry I teased you about looking at bridal dresses. I had no right to do so.”

“Believe me, I’ll never look at them again.” she sighed. “I’ve definitely had enough of them.”

“That’s somehow a real shame.” Derek replied. “You’d be the most beautiful bride.”

“Maybe in the very distant future.” she shrugged. “How long are you going to stay here?” she suddenly changed the topic.

“Well, I’m not sure about the others but I’ll stay a couple of days, I guess.” he replied. “Hotch considered it a good idea if we take a few days off.”

“That’s great.” she smiled.

He smiled back at her and then asked playfully: “If we are fine again, does that also mean there’s a chance you share the sweets with me?”

She chuckled. “You are the only one on this planet I’d ever share them with.”

“Lucky me.” he grinned and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

Penelope ripped the box open and held it out to him.

Derek smiled, took a piece of chocolate and fed her with it.

She eagerly took the chocolate from him sucking the traces of it from his finger and they both laughed. That was definitely the most perfect apology she’d ever gotten.

“So, what did the doctors say this morning?” Derek asked after they’d finished almost half the box. He made a mental note to buy more of these as soon as he’d have the chance to do so.

“They’ll release me this evening.” she answered without looking at him.

He beamed: “That’s wonderful news.”

“Yeah, I guess.” she shrugged.

Derek frowned. He knew Penelope didn’t like hospitals so she should be more than happy to be released that quickly. But she obviously wasn’t. “What’s wrong, angel?” he asked.

“Well” she continued looking at her hands. “you know I didn’t come here with intent so I… don’t have anything with me. I tried to book a flight back to Quantico but they wanted my badge which is… well, at Quantico. And the motels are all fully booked or much too expensive. So I… basically don’t know where to go.”

“Don’t worry about that, sweetness.” he cupped her chin with his hands and made her look at him again. “You can stay with me and my family.”

“No.” she objected quietly. “I can’t just invite myself.”

“You don’t.” he reassured. “I invited you, remember?”

“Isn’t that somehow the same?” she softly asked. “I mean, this is not really your house. It belongs to your mother and I’m rather sure she planned some nice family evenings for the few days you’ll stay. And I don’t want to invade your privacy.”

“You don’t invade anything, sugar.” he smiled. “You’re a part of my family, whether you like it or not!”

“Nonetheless you can’t decide that over your mom’s head.” she declared.

“You are always welcome to my house.” a warm voice suddenly said.

Penelope and Derek both jumped a little. “Mom” Derek smiled. “how long have you been standing there?”

“Not long.” she assured. “But long enough to find out what you were talking about, though.” She stepped closer and handed Penelope a little potted rose.

“Thank you.” she whispered and smiled at Fran.

“You can stay with us as long as you like.” Fran smiled back. “I assure you, we’ll all be glad to have you with us. Besides you know Des and Sarah and I know you get along really well.”

“That’s true, but…”

“Didn’t you learn anything yet, goddess?” Derek gently interrupted her. “You can’t win an argument with me. Do you really think it would be any different with my mother? I have to give in to her every single time.”

“Okay” Penelope whispered and smiled a little uncomfortably. “thank you, that’s really… very decent of you.”

“Decent?” Derek laughed. “Since when do you rant like that, mama?!”

She smirked: “I figured I should behave a little as long as your mother’s around.”

“You shouldn’t worry about that too much.” Fran grinned, an expression Derek had hardly ever seen on his mother’s face. “I heard the two of you talk on the phone.”

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“Thanks for the meal.” Penelope smiled at Fran. “It was delicious. And thanks again for taking me in. I’d really be lost without you. I just hope I’m really not a burden…”

“Stop thanking me, Penelope!” Fran gently interrupted her. “I said you’re always welcome to this house and I meant it.”

She opened her mouth to thank Fran again, but considered it not the best idea and simply smiled at Derek’s mother. During the past years she’d learned to cope without all this family stuff. Her parents had died years ago and she wasn’t really near to her brothers. It was pleasing to have Derek and his family caring for her.

“Well then, let’s hurry.” Des smiled and stood up to clean the table. “The film will start in twenty minutes.”

“What is it this time?” Derek screwed his eyes. “Titanic part three?”

“There is no part three.” Des threw her napkin at him. “There isn’t even a part two. No, it’s ‘The holiday’.”

“Really?” Penelope beamed. “I love that movie. Let me give you a hand.” she got up but had to cling on to the table when she started to sway a little.

Derek immediately leapt from his seat and wrapped his arms around her to stabilize her. “You okay, mama?” he softly asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” she reassured. “It’s just… I still feel a little dizzy due to the concussion. The doctors said it would last a few more days.”

“You’d better lie down for a while.” Derek suggested.
“I don’t need to, really.” she smiled. “I’m fine. It was just the moment I got up.”

“Derek’s right.” Fran smiled at her. “Go and take a seat on the couch. We’ll be there in a few minutes. We can handle the dish.”

Derek led her to the sofa and sat down next to her. He zapped through the programs until he finally found what he was looking for. The film was about to start.

Only a minute later Fran, Des and Sarah came in with a huge bowl of popcorn they placed on the low coffee table. Derek’s sisters sat down on the smaller sofa and Fran made herself comfortable in the big armchair.

They all watched the movie almost in silence, just laughing here and there. Derek had put his arm around Penelope’s shoulder and she’d snuggled up to his chest. About halfway through the movie Derek leaned back so that they were lying arm in arm on the sofa. That was definitely more comfortable for both of them. He smelled the aroma of her freshly washed hair and the new clothes he’d bought for her. Luckily he’d guessed her size quite well and even more luckily she really seemed to like the skirt and top he’d picked. Derek kept stroking her cheek until he was no longer able to keep his eyes open.

“Wasn’t that nice?” Sarah smiled.

“Shush!” Fran whispered and pointed on the other couch.

Derek lay on his back, his arms holding Penelope tight who was snuggled up to his chest even more than she’d been a few minutes ago. They were both sleeping deeply.

“You think we should wake them up?” Des whispered smiling brightly at the scene in front of them.

“No.” Fran answered in a low voice and spread a blanket over the two of them. “Let’s just leave them here.”

As quiet as possible Fran and her two daughters left the living room. They switched off the TV and all the lights.

Penelope smiled and snuggled a little closer to Derek. She’d still been awake but absolutely unwilling to get up loosing this warm soothing embrace she found herself in. She’d been afraid to fall asleep due to the unnecessary, absurd fear she might find herself in that bunker again when she woke up. But in his arms she felt absolutely safe. Penelope was glad Fran had decided not to wake them up.

Derek put his arms a little tighter around Penelope and sighed with relief. He’d woken up shortly before the movie ended and had feared he’d have to let go of her. He didn’t want to. Well, he was rather sure he wouldn’t have been able to even if he actually had wanted to. He needed to make sure she was still with him, safe, alive. He needed the warmth of her body against his assuring him his worst nightmare hadn’t come true, telling him they’d made it in time and he hadn’t lost her. Derek was glad his mother had decided to leave them here. Smiling he drifted back to a deep and calm sleep.
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Chapter 12 by little_profiler
“Are you really sure you want to go home?” Derek asked and glanced at the woman in his passenger seat. “I mean, you could stay with me for a couple of days.”

“Derek, my flat is a mess.” she sighed. “I have so many things to do. And besides, avoiding my flat doesn’t help me get over this.”

“I know.” he murmured. But it would definitely help him. During the past four days she’d been safe at his mother’s house “ and he had been able to stay with her. Now she would be alone again in her apartment “ and he didn’t like the thought of that. It was probably overanxious to assume that this would happen to her again. But nonetheless that risk remained and that frightened him.

They drove the rest of the way in silence. Derek walked Penelope up the stairs to her door.

She frowned while she unlocked it. She could have sworn this… Deputy Miller had broken her door. But there was no evidence of that. When Penelope stepped inside and looked at her living room, she froze in complete shock. She remembered the fight too well, the broken lamp and vases, the couch, the blood on the floor. But her living room looked as neat as she liked it to be. “What the hell…?” she murmured.

Derek leaned in the doorway and smiled sheepishly. “I had some cleaning staff do that while we were in Chicago.”

Penelope turned to face him and whispered: “You did that… for me?”

“Most definitely, goddess.” he smiled. “Well, as I said I couldn’t do it on my own for I wasn’t here but I think the staff is quite good valuable. And by the way, you have an alarm system now. I… had it installed yesterday. They’re really fast in fulfilling orders.”

“I… thank you.” she stammered, still completely stunned. “I… I wanted to have such a system installed myself. I… I’ll pay for it!”

“Like hell you will.” he objected.

“Derek, I can’t…”

“What did I tell you about arguing with me, sweetness?” he interrupted her.

Penelope opened her mouth to answer something but shut it immediately when she saw the unflinching look on his face. “Thank you.” she whispered. “I… I think you’d better go home now. Clooney’s certainly waiting for you.”

“He’s fine.” he replied. “I asked one of my neighbors to have a look at him.”

“Good.” she sighed. “I was… you know, worrying that no one would care for him. Good to know you have an emergency plan “ just in case.”

“I asked her when Gideon brought you in Tobias Henkel’s house.” he explained. “She’s not really an emergency plan. I mean, she’s seventy-three.”

“Wow, I hope she’s able to handle him. He can be really hoydenish sometimes.” she smiled.

“Well, he’s actually behaving much better when he’s with her than when he is with me.” Derek chuckled. He admired the old lady, she was really tough.

“Anyway, go home now. He’s waiting for you.” Penelope insisted.

Derek frowned and looked at her as if he tried to read her mind. “Are you sure, sugar?” he softly asked.

“Of course, I am.” she answered and lead him out of her door. “Go now, Derek, I’ll be fine!”

“Okay.” he murmured unwillingly stepping outside in the corridor. He didn’t want to go, didn’t want to leave her alone. But if she didn’t want his company any longer… Before his brain could stop them, the words bubbled out of his mouth: “What if… what if I won’t?”

“Come again?” she gave him a puzzled look.

“What if I won’t be fine leaving you alone tonight?” he stared at her, looked down on the floor, raised his head and looked past her then finally back into her eyes. “Maybe I can’t stand the thought of you being alone. Maybe… maybe I have to make sure you’re really fine. What if I just need to spend this night on your couch to make sure the alarm system works, to make sure you have a good night’s sleep, just to make sure everything’s alright.”

She smiled and blushed slightly at his obvious concern about her. He cared for her much more than she’d ever thought possible. “Well” she finally replied in a very low voice. “I guess in that case I would ask you how many pillows you want.”

He smiled back at her as she finally let him come in.

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When Derek woke up it was still dark outside. He wasn’t sure what had roused him. A sound maybe? He got up and checked the door, it was still closed. Everything seemed to be fine. But still his concern didn’t dwindle. He knew it was inappropriate but he had to check on her. So he walked to her bedroom and carefully opened the door.

His blood run cold when he looked at the bed. Penelope was gone and the sheets were drenched in blood…

Derek was rudely awakened from this nightmare by a fearful scream that came from the bedroom. He jumped up and ran to the door, stepping in without even considering to knock. Penelope was sitting in her bed and he could see the panic in her eyes. He hurried over to her trying to pull her in his comforting embrace.

But she fought him, beating his chest with her fists, screaming.

“Baby girl, it’s me.” he said calmly. “Everything’s fine, it’s just me.”

At the sound of his voice she immediately stopped fighting him and pulled him as close as possible. She buried her face in his chest and sobbed. “I… I thought I saw him standing in the doorway.” she sobbed harder.

Derek pulled her a little closer, stroked her back and whispered. “He’s not here, sweetness, but I am. I’m here.” Finally she was giving these feelings free rein, finally she cried. He was more than glad he’d insisted to stay with her overnight.

After a few minutes Penelope seemed to have calmed down. She drew in a shaky breath and explained: “I saw him standing there the last time I woke up. I… He attacked me and I thought he’d kill me or… rape me or something.”

Derek clenched his fist at the thought of that. If anyone on this earth should ever dare to do that to her…

“I clawed him and he let go of me.” she continued. She needed to tell him what had happened that night. “I ran as fast as I could. I… don’t know exactly but I think I screamed for help. I threw things at him and tried to get out of the door. But he grabbed me and dashed me against the wall. I was afraid I would pass out. I felt so dizzy and I could hardly see anything. He grabbed me again and I stabbed him with something. I think I really hurt him, he… was holding his forearm and… I thought that was my chance to escape. But I was so dizzy and he was faster and then he put this handkerchief above my mouth. When I smelled the chloroform I knew it had to be him and I knew what… what was going to happen.”

“I swear I’ll kill him for what he did to you.” Derek mumbled.

“I… I was so scared.” she whispered.

“I know, darling.” he softly replied. “So was I.”

“I almost freaked out in there. When… when the air ran out I… I…”

“You were amazingly brave, even if you did freak out the important thing is that you didn’t show him.” he tried to put as much encouragement in his voice as possible. “You did a good job out there, mama. I hardly believe I’d been able to stay as calm as you did.”

“Thank you” she replied. “for everything.” she sobbed again. She wasn’t able to hold back these tears any longer. She was grateful Derek was there to hold her. Otherwise she’d gone mad for sure. She clung to him and wept freely.

Derek pulled her onto his lap to hold her even tighter and gently swayed her back and forth.

Penelope cried for what seemed an hour holding Derek who was stroking her hair, her cheek, her back and assuring her everything was alright. Finally she calmed down again but she didn’t let go of him. She didn’t want to pull away from his warming, comforting, calming embrace.

“I’m so glad you’re here.” she finally whispered.

“Me too, baby girl.” he answered equally voicelessly and stroked her cheek, carefully brushing away her tears. “Me too.”

“Don’t go away, Derek” she sobbed. “please, don’t leave me alone! I need you.”

“I won’t” he promised. “I’m not going anywhere.” Derek laid back on the bed pulling Penelope with him, tugging them both in.

“Thank you.” her voice was barely more than a whisper. “I… I just…”

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else now, goddess.” he assured her and kissed her hair. “I just want to be there for you and hold you “ the whole night through.”

The End
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