Chapter 1
They sat in the waiting room silently, hoping and praying that their colleague and friend made it through the surgery. Derek couldn't get the image out of his mind; Emily, their Emily, lying on the ground with a wooden steak through her body. He knew that that was an image that would haunt him forever, whether Emily lived or not.
When they heard footsteps that all assumed that it was the surgeon coming to give them another update. Instead, there was an older woman standing next to a teenager who undeniably looked like their friend who was currently fighting for her life. The teenager was no older than sixteen but the sad and hopeless expression in his eyes made him look older. His brown eyes, identical to Emily's, were red rimmed and held unshed tears. The woman who was standing beside him whispered something in his ear, to which he nodded and walked towards a chair in the corner of the room where he sat down.
Everyone was stunned speechless. After a few moments Jennifer Jareau, JJ to her friends, stood up and spoke to the woman. While JJ was speaking to the woman, everyone else turned their attention to the teenager. There was no doubt in their minds that he was Emily's, even though his nose, mouth and jaw weren't hers. He took a book out of his backpack, The Narrative of John Smith by Arthur Conan Doyle, and quietly read. When JJ had finished talking to the woman she began to walk over to the teen but stopped when she was called by a man wearing blue scrubs, Emily's surgeon. She disappeared around the corner with the surgeon. No one really noticed that JJ had gone; all eyes on their friend's son that they never knew existed. Penelope took a deep breath, finally snapping out of the trance that the others were still in, and walked over to him. She watched him for another few seconds then sat down in the chair next to him. Another few minutes passed with Penelope trying to think of something to say.
"I'm Penelope, Penelope Garcia." She finally blurted out. The teenager looked up from his book and into her eyes, and if Penelope didn't know any better she would have thought that Emily was looking at her. "What's your name?"
She waited for him to respond and just as he opened his mouth to respond, JJ walked back around the corner with an expression that none of them had seen before. Immediately, Penelope felt an sob rack through her body. "She never made it off the table." JJ stated with tears in her eyes.
Penelope watched as Spencer stood up and began to walk away when JJ stopped him. All Penelope heard over her sobs was Spencer say, "I never got a chance to say goodbye" before JJ wrapped him in a tight hug. While watching the encounter, Penelope didn't notice that the teen had stood up and disappeared around the corner where JJ had just returned from. When Penelope noticed panic began to set in and mix with her grief.
Rossi noticed that Penelope was beginning to panic and immediately was out of his chair and walked to where he knew the boy would be. Of course, the legendary profiler was correct. He found the teen sitting outside of an OR that Emily's lifeless body was in, quietly sobbing with his head buried into his knees. Rossi sent a text message to Penelope and several seconds later, she and Derek were there. Penelope sat down next to the boy, like she had done only minutes earlier, but closer than before and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. It wasn't long after the others were there and watched as Penelope attempted to comfort the grieving teenager.
