Derek bounced his leg up and down under the table. He stared at the back of the counselor as she fussed about on the desk. Finally she turned around and sat down across from him. She opened his file on her desk.

"How are you today, Derek?" she asked, smiling sweetly.

"What's it to you?" he said, grumpily. He wasn't happy that he was being forced to see a therapist but he wasn't surprised. It had been a hell of a week, what with Carl being arrested and him hiding out in a clinic for a few days. He would have found it weird if they hadn't made him see the counselor but that didn't make him any happier about it.

"Sorry." said Derek. "I never like having to see shrinks."

"That's perfectly alright." said Jackie. "How about if instead of seeing me as a shrink, just talk to me as you would talk to a friend."

"Okay.." said Derek, playing along. "What would that entail?"

"Whatever you want. Let's just talk about whatever's on your mind."

"If I don't make varsity football in the spring, I'm gonna kill myself."

"Okayyyy, want to talk about that?" said Jackie

"I'm kidding, I'm not gonna kill myself, don't call the police." said Derek

"Interested in any girls lately?" said Jackie.

"Yeah, there's one...Jennifer Jareau."

"Ahh. Acid Girl." said Jackie.

"That's the one!" said Derek, grinning.

"Tell me about her."

"Well, she's athletic like me. She might be faster, I'm not sure, but everyone's talking about how she's gonna be the first freshman to make varsity soccer. And she's smart as hell, she got perfect grades before she came here. She's from Chicago, too, but she's from a group home in the South Loop. I want to invite her to my house over the weekend but my mom will be so annoying about that, with questions and everything. Maybe we'll do that later. We sometimes even fall asleep together in the same bed! After I shower, we watch movies in her bed and we always fall asleep."

"Do you always shower first?" asked Jackie.

"What?" said Derek.

"Do you shower first? Before you get in bed with JJ?"

"I- I mean I guess. But so what?"

"Do you shower after practice, too?"

"Yeah, because I'm gross and sweaty." said Derek, rolling his eyes. "What is this, a hygiene intervention?"

"I'm just curious why you would shower after practice, which must be around 5 or 6 in the evening and then again before you go to bed. Do you feel dirty?"

"No.. I..I mean yeah but-" Derek started, then paused. "I just like to feel clean when I'm with JJ. Is that a crime?"

"Do you think JJ thinks you aren't clean?" asked Jackie.

"No." said Derek.

"Do you think you're dirty?"

"A little, I guess" said Derek.

"Why do you think that is?" asked Jackie. Derek stared at his hands.

"I always feel dirty," he said, in a small voice.

"Let's talk about that." said Jackie.

Derek looked up from his hands and stared at Jackie. This was going to be a long hour.

Friday Afternoon

"What crazy thing do you thing Penelope has planned for us?" asked Spencer, looking nervously at the rest of the BAU. The five friends were walking down a crowded city street, towards the regional bus station. School had let out an hour ago. Penelope had left first thing in the morning, as she had no classes on Fridays.

"My dad is a carpenter. He's been hard at work all weekend on our house!" she had told them on Thursday night, in the BAU room. "I'm going early on Friday to add some finishing touches and some pizzazz!"

"Wait, wait, wait." said Aaron, holding up his hands. "Our house?"

"Well, its technically a garage. We have a second garage out back that we don't use, since we build the front one. My parents agreed to let us turn it into our house! My dad has been working on it all week! And tomorrow is the big unveiling. Emily and Derek, you guys are coming, too, right? We have a guest room, of course."

"I- well…" Emily started.

"Great!" squealed Penelope. "Tomorrow's the day!" She put on a deep, TV announcer voice. "BAU:House Edition."

"Penelope, I can't wait!" said JJ, her eyes sparkling.

"Wait you shall have to do." declared Penelope. "Until the 4 PM bus to Springfield tomorrow afternoon!"

That was where the BAU found themselves the next day, waiting in line to board the bus.

"I would be extremely surprised if it wasn't something ridiculous and over the top." said Aaron. "In other words, something perfectly Penelope."

"Amen to that," said JJ, swinging her extra bag into the overhead compartment. JJ, Aaron and Spencer had all brought an extra bag of things to move into their "house." JJ hadn't known what to bring so she just brought a couple of changes of clothes. It looked like Spencer had brought a cardboard box of books. Figures, she thought.

"How about you, Spence. Excited to have a place to live?" asked JJ

"I suppose." he said, slowly. "I hope there isn't any...living animals there. I wouldn't put it past Penelope to have a llama living inside." Everyone laughed.

The bus rolled its way down long winding highways and the BAU quickly tired of its endless scenery of cornfields. They quickly fell asleep, exhausted after a week full of kidnapping siblings, missing persons reports and acid burns. Finally, Derek woke up to the voice of the driver, shouting

"Springfield, Illinois! Final call for Springfield Illinois!"

"Guys, wake up!" he said, urgently shaking his friends awake. The BAU hurriedly grabbed their bags and climbed down the bus. They were in a small town bus station, barely a room. It was miniscule compared to the enormous bus terminal they had just left in Chicago.

"Hello, children!" chirped an excited Penelope, standing by the exits. "Come along, come along!" The BAU eagerly left the bus station and found themselves in a quaint little town, on what appeared to be the main street.

"Welcome to Cornhull, Illinois, just outside of Springfield and don't let the name fool you, there's more here than corn." They passed a street full of charming shops and stores. The roads were cobblestone.

"There's so much space," marveled Derek, who had never left the crowded city before.

"Uh huh." agreed JJ, another born and bred city kid.

They turned onto a long street with a white house at the end.

"This is the Garcia Mansion." said Penelope, gesturing. "Greetings, parental units" she waved at the couple on the porch.

"Welcome, kids!" called Penelope's father. "I hope you like what we did with the garage." The whole BAU waved back.

Penelope led them to the backyard, where a green garage was waiting. "BAU" was painted on the garage door in silver paint, the letters in swoopy cursive. Penelope opened the side door and showed them in.

"Welcome to paradise."

JJ caught her breath as she walked in. "Oh my g-"

Aaron's mouth dropped.

Across the back of the garage, a wooden wall had been put up, with four doors. Each door had a little sign; Jennifer Jareau, Spencer Reid, Aaron Hotchner and Penelope Garcia. Along one wall was a little kitchenette, with a mini-fridge, a hot plate, a toaster oven and a sink. In the center of the room was two sofas facing each other with a coffee table in the middle. A table and chairs was pushed against one wall. In one corner, was a bathroom with the door closed. In the other corner there was another room, with a sign on it that read "Emily and Derek".

Penelope opened each door as she started to give the grand tour. Everyone had a bed, a dresser, a mirror and shelves. Emily and Derek's room had a bunk bed for them if they wanted to sleep over and drawers under the bed. The kitchen cabinets had been stocked with coffee and cereal, there was milk in the fridge. A large photo of the BAU hung on the wall over the table.

JJ dropped her bag on her new bed. She had never had her own room in her life. She turned around slowly in a circle, envisioning what it would look like when she hung up all of her soccer posters. Foster home after foster home after foster home, she had never felt as good as she felt this moment. This room was hers. No one else's. It had been built for her.

Aaron stared into his room. In his mind, he was envisioning his old room at home. His square of foam on the floor, covered in an old quilt. Sean crying in his laundry basket while Aaron scavenged the kitchen, searching for anything edible to give his baby brother.

"Penelope." said Spencer, with tears in his eyes. "It's perfect. Its-"

"It's the first home I've ever had." said JJ.

Aaron nodded. "I feel you."

"Welcome home." said Penelope, smiling.

Authors note:

Here's some background for this chapter.

I'm a soldier in Israel. In Israel, everyone has to join the army. It's a tiny country (about half the size of New Jersey, you can cross the entire country in 6 hours) and also, the army is a defense force. This means all of the army is stationed on the borders and within, no deployments to different countries or anything like that. Because of this, soldiers go home to their parents almost every other weekend. That's where they wash their uniforms, get some real food, and sleep in their own beds. This is a problem for soldiers like me who don't have any family or anywhere to live off base. We're called "Lone Soldiers" and weekends off base suck for us. A lot of Lone Soldier are homeless, stay in shelters or live together in really crappy apartments off base. Its hard to find an apartment when you're on base most of the time, without internet or anything. A lot of Lone Soldiers try to find excuses to stay on base longer than we have to, because we don't have anywhere to go home to. Even when we have places to live, its hard to maintain them alone. We come home from crazy weeks in the field, or in combat, and there's no food in our fridges, ants everywhere, laundry machine is broken and we can't call the repairman on the weekend, you get the idea.

Anyway, I just moved into this amazing place called "Benji's House". Its a place for Lone Soldiers to live when they're off base and its free and run by volunteers. They bring us food, cook for us on the weekend. They wash our uniforms when we get home from base, clean our rooms, basically its paradise. Before moving there, I was sharing an apartment with a ton of people in a neighborhood near Tel Aviv, our running water wasn't drinkable, and we didn't have anywhere to wash our uniforms (which are pretty terrifically gross because when you're in combat, you wear the same uniform 24/7, sleeping and everything). We would take turns washing out the dirt from our uniforms in the shower. I didn't even have a bed, I slept on a mattress on the floor in the living room with three other people. Now I live in this amazing place, I have my own room with a bed, I have meals cooked on the weekend and clean clothes every time I go back to base. Its an incredible feeling, having your own room for the first time. The house Penelope made for them was inspired by where I just moved, and how having a nice place to live is such a luxury and I'm so lucky to have one.

Thanks y'all!

Review please and give me any ideas you have for how to continue with this story!