Stalker

It was just a normal day at the BAU headquarters. Garcia bounced in, wearing a bright orange dress and purple bunny ears.

"Morning," Hotch said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Morning," Garcia said.

"Hey, what's with you?" Hotch asked, "no 'hey my sexy unit chief' stuff today?"

"I..don't feel like it."

"Penelope," Hotch chided, "I am a profiler. I am also your boyfriend and I can spot a lie a mile away. So tell me sweetheart, what's going on?"

Garcia sniffed.

"Hey, hey," Hotch soothed, "you can tell me."

"For the past month, I've had...strange things happening to me. You know when you're at the grocery store and you feel someone watching you?"

Hotch nodded.

"Well, I went to the store yesterday to buy stuff for dinner tonight, and I—I felt someone there. I know I did. And just like that, he was gone!"

"Why didn't you tell anyone about this?" Hotch asked.

"Because I thought I was crazy! And then, at my apartment, I heard a noise. A loud noise. At first, I thought it was a tree branch, but then I looked closley. It wasn't. Someone was messing with my window. And my door was jiggling and-"

Garcia started hyperventalating.

"Penelope, just breathe," Hotch said, "can you think of anyone who would do this?"

"No. No one," Garcia answered, "at first I thought it was some stupid kids and that they would go away. But it feels like everywhere I go, I have to look over my shouder."

"Penelope, it's gonna be okay. We're gonna find the guy who's doing this."

"You can't tell the team!" Garcia cried, "he could hurt you!"

"Penelope," Hotch reasoned, "we have to tell them. We're your family and families protect each other. And Morgan and I are gonna have to flip a coin to figure out who gets to punch him first."

Garcia chuckled.

"Hotch," JJ interrupted, "we've got a note. It's addressed to Penelope."

Without thinking, Garcia grabbed the note from her hands and read it. Her face went white.

I'll see you soon, Penelope.

Hotch grabbed the note and took charge.

"We need to run fingerprints on this—stat. Conference room right now."

Three minutes later, the team was gathered around in the conference room.

"We have a problem," Hotch started, "a note was addressed to Garcia this morning. It read 'I'll see you soon Penelope.'

Garcia was still crying and trembling.

"Babygirl, what is it?" Morgan asked.

"The note," Garcia whispered, "it's from my stalker."

"Stalker?" Reid asked.

"For the past month, I've felt like someone was watching me," Garcia explained, "I don't know. He's just there. Everywhere I go, it's like he's waiting for me—and I can't explain it!"

"Her windows and doors were tampered with as well," Hotch added.

"How long has this been going on?" Morgan asked.

"About a month."

"A month?!" Morgan exclaimed, "why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want the team to know," Garcia answered, "I thought it would go away."

"But it hasn't," Rossi answered.

"He knows where I work and everything!"

Hotch pulled Garcia closer to him.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do," Rossi said, "Aaron and Penelope will stay at my house until this is over. Morgan and Aaron will stay with Penelope. Reid and I will go to her house and see if there are any cluse there. JJ and Lewis, go find Kevin Lynch. He can help us dig into Penelope's past a little more."

"What? You think this is somehow connected to my old life?" Garcia asked.

"I don't know sweetheart," Hotch answered, "but we have to look at every possibility. Rest assured, we will find him."

Garcia rested her head on his shoulder and cried. Why did they feel that this was only the beginning?