Penelope stopped at a red light on her drive to work, squinting at the suddenly fuzzy object. She pulled her glasses down and then pushed them back up, but her vision still wasn't as sharp as it should have been. She blamed the lack of focus on new glasses as the light turned green.

She and Hotch arrived in the parking garage at the same time, and he waited for her as she gathered her belongings from her car so they could walk to the elevators together. He held the elevator door allowing her to enter first. Once they were in, he watched as she stared at the elevator buttons too long and then selected the wrong floor.

"Garcia?" he asked concerned.

"Yes?" she answered, unaware of what she had done.

"You pressed the wrong floor, is everything all right?"

She pulled her glasses off her face and held them out to him, "I think they got my prescription wrong on these new glasses; everything's a bit fuzzy."

"That will make for a long day. Do you have another pair?" he asked as he pressed the appropriate button.

"I have few pairs in my office; I'll change them before the briefing," she answered as the elevator door opened to their floor.

Hotch grabbed her elbow and steered her away from the glass door she was about to walk into, "Please make sure you do, before someone gets hurt."

She laughed as she walked away towards her office.

Penelope sat in her office with the three pairs of glasses she had found in her desk. She had tried all three pairs and still she couldn't get her vision clear. It seemed to her, her vision was even worse since her drive in. She rubbed furiously at her eyes and tried all the glasses again. She put on the pair that she thought helped the most, and made her way to the conference room, laptop in hand.

She realized she was the last to arrive, and apologized, then grabbing the remote from the table and going to start the briefing. When she realized she couldn't read any of the buttons on the remote, trying to stay calm, she turned to JJ, "J.J. would you mind helping me out today? I'm really not feeling well." J.J. gave her a concerned look before taking the remote and going to the board.

Penelope opened her laptop and fired it up from memory, the keyboard nothing but a large blur. Panicked, she put her head down and pretended to type furiously as the briefing went on. Her mind began to race and her fingers tapped the keys furiously. She was so consumed with her fake typing that she didn't notice the briefing had stopped and all eyes were upon her.

"Penelope," Derek stated as he put his hands over hers, stilling her typing.

"Huh?" She looked up from the screen.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Sorry, I was just…." Her heart was beating incredibly loud in her head, and the edges of her vision began to have an odd floating look.

"Penelope?" Hotch made his way over to her side of the table and sat down next to her. "What's going on?"

She paused, thinking about what she should say, when the room went completely dark. She let out a small panicked yelp, her hands lunging out blindly. Hotch took one hand and Derek the other.

"Why did the lights go off?" she asked, panic coating her voice.

A deafening silence filled the room, as everyone exchanged horrified glances, as the room was only dark to Penelope. Derek squeezed her gently before leaning in to talk, "Baby girl, I need you to stay calm and listen to me. Something has happened to your vision and we need to get you to the hospital."

Tears streamed nonstop down Penelope's face, as well as J.J's and Emily's.

Trying to maintain his composure, Hotch spoke, "Derek and J.J. get her to the hospital. The rest of us, unfortunately, need to work on this case."

Everyone watched as Derek helped Penelope to stand, then taking her by the elbow. JJ came around taking Penelope's other elbow. Penelope allowed them to lead her, not speaking a word.

Emily came up to them as they neared the doors. She wiped Penelope's tears with a tissue, "Everything will be fine, P." She tried to sound convincing, but her voice betrayed her.

Penelope gave a slight nod of her head, before JJ and Derek began to walk with her again.

"Keep us posted guys," Rossi called out as the door shut. They sat a few minutes in silence, before three pairs of eyes fell on Reid questioningly. Reid knew they wanted to know if he had any ideas as to what could be going on with Penelope.

"The fact that her vision didn't return and she lost vision in both eyes truly concerns me. I'm hoping she had a stroke, because the only other cause I know of would be a brain tumor," Reid informed them sadly.

JJ and Penelope sat in the back as Derek drove.

Derek gripped the wheel tightly, his knuckles white as it seemed every light was red. The only sound in the car was Penelope and JJ sniffling from crying.

JJ pulled her friend into a tight reassuring embrace.

"Emily's right, everything is going to be fine, we will be at the hospital soon. I'm sure they can figure out what's going on."

"I'm so scared," Penelope whispered as she moved herself even tighter into JJ's arms.

"I know you are, and you have every right to be, but Derek and I are right here, and we'll be by your side every step of the way," JJ assured her.

"JJ is speaking the truth, baby girl; just let someone tell me we can't stay with you, they'll be sorry." Derek made eye contact with JJ in the rearview mirror as he spoke, the two of them exchanging a nervous look.

"We're almost there baby girl," Derek informed them when he saw the hospital sign, "We'll have answers soon."

Penelope wanted to believe that everything would be fine, but deep down she had a terrible feeling; a feeling that life as she knew it was about to change drastically. She had remained quiet on the ride from fear that speaking her thoughts out loud would seal her fate.