Chapter 1

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"I still don't know why I am here," She mumbled out for the umpteenth time and her two companions, co-workers, and friends sent each other knowing glances and smirks.

"Because this town in Alaska is so remote, they don't have the internet connection for us to reach you all the way back at Quantico," Luke Alvez was the one to speak and Penelope Garcia narrowed her eyes at him as she listened. "So, bringing you down with all the equipment to set up a network made more sense."

"Oh, now I remember," Penelope hissed out. "It's because of you, 'newbie'," She said using a name he had not heard in years, and it brought a genuine smile to his face and made Tara Lewis laugh as she watched their interaction with the same amusement as she always had. She thought that often times watching them was like watching some cheesy 80s romantic comedy where the main plot was will or won't the main characters ever hook up. "I am here because you darkened my doorsteps during, the Sicarius case and 'you' talked me into coming back, that's why I am here now."

"Oh please," He playfully scoffed at her even as the huge smile never left his face. "You know you missed the job. Also, you could have left after we solved the Sicarius case well over a year ago, yet here you are. That's on you Chica, not me," She sneered and then poked her tongue out at him and at his very true words.

"I only stayed because I saw just how lost you all were without me," Penelope stated.

"Now, that's the true gospel," Tara finally chimed in as Luke nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, the remote Garcia's were not as awesome or efficient as you," Luke said and Penelope couldn't stop the giggle that erupted. It always tickled her pink when he spoke about the other Technical Analysts hired to replace her when she left the BAU. Especially the knowledge that Luke specifically never tried to learn their names.

"I still cannot believe you never learned their names," Penelope teasingly chastised him.

"Well, there were three of them," He began to defend. "And none of them were really memorable. I mean we only ever spoke over the phone or facetime. Also, they were so slow compared to what we were used to," He waved his hand at Penelope and Tara then nodded in agreement at this assessment. "None of them inspired me to want to get to know them," Luke ended with a slight eye roll as he leaned back more comfortably in his seat.

"Although, Rachel, did try her damnedest to inspire you," Tara spoke out and Luke chuckled and he let his head fall back against the head rest as he hoped Tara would not go on. Penelope looked intrigued as she noticed Luke's reaction and the amused look on Tara's face. "Her name is Rachel Jamison she was the most competent of the three and she had a major crush on Agent Alvez. She still asks about you when I see her about at work," Tara answered the unasked question she could see on Penelope's face. Penelope had to quickly swallow down the pang of anger and jealousy at this news. She knew she had no right to react that way. She had her chance but she herself had put an end to whatever could have happened romantically between her and Luke. And it had been evident that there was something happening between them long before the one date they had gone on. The tension between them had been palpable and almost tangible, electrical even and it had scared her. She had convinced herself that Luke's interest in her was likely fleeting whereas her feelings were growing deeper with each day they were around each other. She believed that if she didn't put a stop to things she would get burnt badly once he found a woman more at his level of hotness. And her leaving the BAU to start a new job and then the pandemic had been the perfect excuses to cut off contact with him after their date, even though he continued what he had assured her and the others was just a platonic pursuit of her for a year and a half after their date with texts, calls, and a lot of facetimes. Then they became fewer and fewer until he had stopped reaching out, and even though she had mentally told herself it was for the best she had been devastated emotionally. Once she was back working at the BAU and with him full-time she had been tempted to ask him about it but had never worked up the nerve. So, they just feel back into their comfortable song and dance with each other, but with much less animosity and name calling from her side.

"Well, there's no accounting for taste," Penelope proclaimed as she stood from her seat and made her way toward the back of the private work jet to go to the bathroom. Luke stared after her with a smirk on his face. "Stop looking at my ass Luke Alvez," She called out to him never even turning around to face him, and he snapped his eyes up to lock onto the back of her head as the smile instantly fell from his face. And his face held a look of surprised horror to her words.

"I'm not, it's just that I rarely see you wearing jeans and a sweater, and you look nice in them," He defended as she disappeared into the bathroom without a reply.

"Dude you were totally looking at her ass," Tara said to him with a knowing smile on her face, and she arched her brow as she waited for him to try to lie and deny it. Luke pushed his tongue to his cheek and smiled as he looked at his friend.

"All right, I was, but it looks really good in those jeans, right?" He admitted and Tara nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it really does," She chuckled along with him just as the plane jarred so strongly that they both nearly fell out of their seats and a muffled yelp from Penelope could be heard from the back. "Shit, that was some strong turbulence," Tara hissed out as she rubbed at her right elbow that had been banged hard against the armrest. Luke nodded as he stood from his seat and made his way to the cockpit, just as Penelope made her way up from the back. He paused to regard her.

"Get buckled in," He spoke this to Penelope as he pointed at the seat she had been occupying. She gave a curt nod and hurried to her seat and attempted to pull out the belt to buckle it, while Luke went to go speak with the pilots. The plane violently jerked again and felt as if it was being smacked about and both Penelope and Tara cried out in fear this time. Then they seemed to be falling forward and they locked their now panicked eyes onto Luke, who was now running back up the aisles from the cockpit. Instead of moving back to the seat he had before which was right across from Tara's he rushed and planted himself into the seat right beside Penelope and reached over to get her buckled in securely, and then he buckled himself before he finally spoke.

"We're going down, brace for impact!" He yelled as he reached over and placed a hand at the back of Penelope's head and forcefully pushed her head and upper body forward, and as far down into her lap while he did the same, as did Tara. And then they all wrapped their arms around their heads. Tara closed her eyes and silently prayed, Penelope's softly cried, while Luke spoke words of comfort to her. And then everything went dark.

There was no pain but there was a very loud ringing in the ears as well as something very bright, almost blinding which made her screw her eyes more tightly shut to try to push it away. Then came the mumbled noise that seemed to have sounded so far away at first, but then grew louder as if it was getting closer and closer.

"Penelope," She finally registered the noise wasn't really just noise, but was Luke's voice. "Open your eyes," He commanded. "C'mon, baby, please open your eyes," She wasn't sure if it had been the urgency she heard in his voice or the terms of endearment but she slowly opened her eyes and locked them onto his. She could see the instant relief that washed over his face and she hadn't even been bothered when he had swooped in and placed a quick smooch upon her lips in his elation.

"What happened?" She asked as she felt his arms around her helping to steady her as he now made her sit up and, propped her upon something that was very cold against her back.

"We crashed," Luke answered as he let his eyes rake over her as his hands touched her in places that he wouldn't have normally dared to venture without her permission, but given their situation she fully understood it wasn't anything remotely sexual about his perusing and assessment. She had a cut on the right side of her head, near her temple that had started to bleed a little and was already bruising to a purplish color.

"Oh my God!" Penelope exclaimed as her eyes now focused on their surroundings and found that they appeared to be outside in the snow but then upon closer inspection she realized they were actually still in the plane but it had been ripped open and exposed them to the snowy elements outside wherever they had landed. "Tara, where's Tara?"

"I don't know, I was closest to you, so I wanted to make sure you were okay first," Luke stated.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," She shoved his hands away. "Find Tara," She said and he gave a curt nod and then crawled through the rubble and debris in search of their friend. He moved in the direction he assumed had been where their seats were and within seconds, he heard a pitiful moan. Luke knew it was Tara and he hurried to the pile of jet seats, splintered wood, and twisted metal.

"Tara!" Luke called out to her. "If you can hear me I'm gonna need you to speak up or if you can't speak, make some kind of noise, so I can find you," He didn't have to wait long before he heard her banging. And he knew she was buried under the wreckage and he began to dig. He jumped, startled when Penelope suddenly appeared at his side where she too started digging. Within a couple of minutes, they had uncovered where Tara lay. She had been pinned, actually skewed in a corner of the plane. Luke instantly knew it was bad, and that where she had been impaled through her body she didn't have long. And he could see it on Tara's face that she also knew it. But Penelope however, was completely oblivious as she tried to move more things so they could better assess Tara. Luke stilled her by placing a firm hand upon hers.

"What? What are you doing, why are you stopping?" She questioned him in a squeaky and panicked voice. "We need to get that pipe out of her."

"We can't Pen," He spoke to her with sad eyes as he used a nickname he had taken to calling her only ever when they were alone.

"What do you mean we can't," Penelope spat out at him in disgust as she viciously yanked her arm from his grasp. "We have to help her, Luke!"

"You can't," This time it was Tara's near breathless voice that spoke out. "This pole … [wheeze] … in my body … [wheeze] … is the only thing that's keeping me alive … [wheeze] … right now, but not … [wheeze] … for very long," She panted out through very labored breaths and then she coughed and sprayed out blood from her mouth and down over her white blouse.

"No," Penelope sobbed out as her tears poured from her eyes and she hugged herself and rocked a little where she was kneeling. "No, please, please."

"I'm sorry … [wheeze] … Penelope," Tara struggled to speak now as her own tears flowed as did Luke's from where he kneeled at Penelope's side with his head bowed and eyes locked to the snow-covered ground where he watch large droplets of his tears make holes in the snow. "You guys have to go … [wheeze] … get to safety …" Penelope vehemently shook her head to this idea. "Penelope, listen to me … [wheeze] … I don't have long. I am … [wheeze] … going to die, but you … [wheeze] … you're going to live. And you and Luke … [wheeze] … are gonna get your shit … [wheeze] … together. You're going to get married … [wheeze] … have some beautiful babies … [wheeze] … and you better … [wheeze]… name your first daughter after me," She coughed again as a laugh bubbled out along with more blood. Luke had lifted his sad wet eyes up to her at these words and cast her a kind, comforting smile. "Tell, Rebecca … [wheeze] … I'm so sorry … [wheeze] … and that I … [wheeze] … I love … [wheeze] … [wheeze] … [wheeze] …

Luke clamped his eyes shut to block out Tara's now dead eyes and frozen gaze, and Penelope crumbled against him in her despair. Her head fell against his lap as she continued to sob in abandon. Luke fisted both of his hands into the hot pink puffer vest that she wore and clutched her to his body, and together they cried and mourned the loss of their beloved friend.

Chapter 2

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He wasn’t sure how long they had sat there, but they had shifted their positions some. Now he sat with his back leaned against some broken seat, his legs outstretched in front of him, and with her curled up next to him, her head in his lap. He was sure he was on the verge of falling asleep until her voice pulled him back to full consciousness.

“We should bury her … and the pilots too,” Penelope spoke out in a whispery voice. After getting over the initial shock of Tara’s death Luke had moved to the cockpit hoping to find the pilots alive and to see if the E.L.T. had been activated so someone would know where they had crashed. He had been nearly devastated to discover that the two pilots he had gotten to know pretty well over the past year had both perished and the emergency location transmitter had been destroyed. He knew no one was likely to come looking for them because they wouldn’t know where they were. Also, he knew anyone just finding them in the Alaskan Denali mountain would be impossible. They would have to try to walk out to find help.

“We can’t,” Luke replied with a sigh as he kept his eyes closed. When he felt her lift up then he slowly opened his eyes because he knew she would be outraged by his words, and think them to be callous. So, he hurriedly explained his reasoning. “We can’t waste the energy digging graves and moving bodies, Pen. I know you are starting to feel the cold and dampness deep down in your bones. That’s the start of hypothermia because we are out here in the open in the snow and cold. We have to do everything we can to conserve our body heat, so we just can’t exert ourselves and energy to bury our friends. If we had crashed at a lower altitude and in a warmer climate, I’d have already started but not here. I’m sorry sweetie, but we can’t,” He was a little surprised but also pleased when she just silently nodded her understanding and then leaned back beside him and dropped her head to his left shoulder.

“So, how long do you think we will have to wait for the others to find us?” She meekly asked and he closed his eyes once more and let out a heavy sigh before he spoke again.

“The sun’s pretty low in the sky right now. It’ll be dark in a couple of hours. So, we will bunk down here for the night,” He began. “The cockpit is half buried in the snow but otherwise fully intact. Its door will offer us shelter from the elements and any wildlife that might be out here. I know the idea of being in there with two dead bodies is not appealing but we have no choice. So, we’ll lock ourselves in there for tonight, and tomorrow we’ll search the crash site for our things and try to salvage whatever we can that might be useful and walk out at first light.”

“Walk out? No, no we have to stay here,” Penelope argued as she lifted and shook her head at his idea. “That’s like the first rule they tell you for when you get lost, you stay where you are.”

“Yeah, and in normal circumstances, that’s a good rule, but we are not in normal circumstances,” Luke replied. “We crashed somewhere on top of Denali mountain in the Alaskan winter, and no one knows where we are. We can’t stay here.”

“But … but these planes have a location beacon right, so-” Her words were cut short when he grasped the damaged E.L.T. and dropped it beside her.

“It was never activated,” He said. “I heard the pilots sending out a mayday when I went to the cockpit right before we crashed, but without this transmitter, they wouldn’t even know where to start looking for us. I am sure they will send out a search team but, unfortunately, we have had the luck of crash-landing on the largest mountain in the country. We cannot sit here and hope they will find us, because it’s highly unlikely that they will.”

“But you don’t know that for sure, Luke,” She protested. “And how do you know for sure that the transmitter isn’t transmitting?” He leaped more forward and upright in his frustration, more at their situation than her nagging, but it had gotten the better of him at this point. He yanked up the E.L.T. and shoved it into her lap.

“Look at it!” He yelled at her and she visibly flinched and recoiled back some. “It’s destroyed, Penelope, and as handy as you are on your computers, I didn’t know you were also good at repairing electronics, but hey, if you think you can fix it, do it! Otherwise, if ‘you’ can’t fix it, because I sure as hell can’t, NO ONE WILL EVER FIND US IF WE STAY HERE!” He instantly hated himself and regretted his harsh words and behavior when he saw her face crumble under the weight of what he was telling her. He moved to console her and she made a defensive blocking move with her arms as if she were shielding herself from being struck. “Oh God, Penelope, I’m sorry,” He spoke more gently to her as he reached for her, grasped her arms, and pulled her into his embrace. “I’m so sorry, baby,” He spoke calmly as he gently rocked her and she welcomed his closeness as she buried her face into his chest and sobbed. “I’m not mad at you, I’m just … I’m just scared. I’m just so fucking scared right now.”

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[The Next Morning]

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Luke had gotten them up at the break of dawn to search the site, his logic had been the earlier they started the more daylight they'd have to walk to safety. They had found all of the luggage still secured in the tail of the plane, which had broken off and landed a good 20-25 feet from the rest of the plane. Luke got excited when Penelope found two first aid kits because both were stocked full of many things, he knew they could use not just to patch them up if they got hurt but all so things that he could start a fire with once they got to drier ground.

“Is that a snowboard?” Penelope asked from where she stood putting on more layers of her clothes as Luke had instructed her to when they had found her suitcase. “You, snowboard?”

“Yeah, and I was actually looking forward to hitting some trails on this very mountain, just thousands of feet lower,” Luke answered as he strapped the board to his backpack, which he had emptied of his clothes and stuffed full of things he thought would help them.

“It could probably get us off this mountain faster huh?” She pondered. “So, do you have an extra board? I have never snowboarded in my life but I am a damn fast learner,” She added on and for a split second his eyes lit up because she was right snowboarding would get them down the mountain faster. Then he thought about the fact that they didn’t know the terrain and they might fly over a ledge, off a cliff, or into some gorge they hadn’t seen. And as he stood there looking at her with her hope-filled eyes he knew that even if he had brought an extra board, which he hadn’t, he would never risk her life on it.

“No sorry, I only brought one,” He answered honestly and said nothing of his fears, as he didn’t want to scare her more than he knew she was already.

“Then why are you taking it?” She questioned as she lifted her left hand and rubbed it up and down her right arm. “Are you planning on using it?” He could see what was running through her mind it was written all over her face. In reply, he pulled the board from the strap he had just secured it in, knowing he could just easily slide it back in now that he had the straps how he needed them to be. He then stood up from where he had been crouched and walked over to stand before her. And then without saying a word he bent over, buried one end of the board in the snow, and then easily dug up the snow and flicked it away. “Oh, it’s a makeshift shovel,” She finally realized as she nodded, and he did as well.

“Yeah, we can use it to make a snow cave to sleep in if we can’t find any other shelter,” Luke said as he stood up before her now. “Penelope, I would never … EVER, leave you behind,” He said this and lifted his right hand and placed it on her left shoulder. “Not ever,” He reiterated as he lifted his gloved hand and stroked at her hair. They stood there for a second watching each other, him trying to relay with his eyes his feelings and convictions and her trying to determine if there was something more behind his words and his eyes. She had always felt that things he would say to her had a double meaning and even though sometimes her brain would tell her ‘Yes, girl, that’s exactly what he is saying’, she would never fully believe it. That was because mostly his words came across like he was flirting with her or saying that he was attracted to her, but she wouldn’t accept that as fact. She thought he was breathtakingly gorgeous, and even a level higher than her chocolate Adonis, Derek Morgan. She knew he could and probably did have any woman he could ever want, so why would he ever want her? But sometimes, like now, with the things he would say to her and the way he would look at her, he would leave her wondering what if.

“Right, right…Uhm, ‘I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy’,” she recited with a big smile and Luke’s smile also spread wide across his face at her words. “That’s from the Army Ranger’s mission statement, right? I hope I got it right I tried to memorize it after I found out you used to be an Army Ranger,” She confessed as he looked at her in surprise that she had even bothered doing that and he was truly touched by her effort.

“Yeah, that’s right, but it doesn’t really apply here,” He said with a kind smile as he jammed the end of the board he still held into the snow and then reached out both of his hands to snap close the jacket she was wearing over the puffer vest and three sweaters. She had wanted to put on more and had more clothes than she probably even needed for this trip, but he had told her not to overdo it, because they needed to try to stay as warm as they could, but not get overheated. He told her that sweating could be deadly for them. “I’m not in the Army anymore,” He continued speaking as he closed the last snap. “And that’s not the reason I would never leave you,” He let the words linger as they both stood there, toe to toe scanning the other’s face; him gauging whether she understood what he was trying to tell her, and her again pondering if there was something more behind his words. Both were too scared to just come right out and say or ask what they wanted. “C’mon, we should start our journey,” He spoke as he dropped his eyes from hers, grabbed up the board again, moved back to his backpack, and stuffed it back in. He then lifted the backpack and slung it on his shoulders and latched it around his waist. When he looked over at her he saw she was looking into the plane and at Tara’s body, which they had covered with some extra clothing they had decided not to take with them. Luke bowed his head, sighed, and then walked to stand on her left side. He placed his right arm around her back. “I don’t want to leave her either, but we have no choice,” She nodded at his words.

“I know and I know you said we can’t bury her but…” She swallowed the sob that wanted to escape and then turned to look at him. “Could we put her body in the cockpit so no wild animal comes along and drags her off to…” She clamped her eyes shut to the thought as her fresh tears spilled out.

“Yeah, sure, we can do that … yeah,” Luke affirmed as he hugged her slightly and then stepped around her.

“Thank you,” She whispered and she moved behind him to help.