When Carly left for Florence, Italy, my relationships with Sam and Spencer fell apart. When my mother died at the hands of a deranged serial murderer, I fell apart. At the grandly imposing age of seventeen, I swore that I would have my revenge on the man who was the current terror of Seattle. I was convinced that this wouldn't be as difficult as it could have been; after all, my mother had appointed "Terrence" my legal guardian until I turned eighteen, and no one was as easily fooled or intimidated as T-Bo. Besides, he worked all the time, anyway, which left me - computer geek turned stalker of a murderer - free to do as I wished.

However, no one knew of my sudden obsession with this man. I quickly became very adept at basically leading a double life. On one hand, I went to school, talked to my friends, and acted like I was healing from my mother's demise. I even managed to convince the school guidance counselor of this, and, unlike most of the teachers at my school, that man is actually good at his job. On the other hand, I bought a gun from a man on the street after managing to convince him that I was actually twenty instead of a "measly" seventeen. I taught myself as much computer code and knowledge as possible. Finally, I tracked the murders and leads on the case with my computer using the help of some majorly illegal hacking into federal databases. All without getting caught.

Or so I thought. See, the thing is, I never counted on someone like Penelope Garcia coming along.

"This... whoever he is, is driving me crazy!" Penelope Garcia told Morgan, throwing her hands up in the air.

"You mean that you can't find him?" Morgan asked in confusion, watching Penelope anxiously pace her lair.

Garcia huffed, even stomping her foot a little bit. "No! Of course I can find him; I already have, thank you very much! He's some amateur hacker from Seattle. Freddie Benson somebody. He doesn't even know that I've caught onto him yet."

"So, are you going to tell the director or someone?"

At the perfectly normal suggestion, Penelope gave him a frustrated glare. "Hot stuff, you know that's not how I work."

"Baby girl..." Derek looked at her as if he was reproving a small child. "The new director won't like that."

Penelope rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because Rossi would totally be surprised by whatever technical actions I take."

"Director Rossi." Derek corrected her.

That earned him another eye roll from the moody technical analyst. "He still is and will always be just 'Rossi' to me, and to this entire team. And don't try and tell me any different, because we both know better."

Derek sighed. "Someone has been PMSing..."

"Derek Morgan, I am not!" Penelope gasped.

"Well, then what's going on?"

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Don't lie to me, Beautiful."

Penelope huffed and flopped down into her rolling chair. "Have I told you that I really hate profilers?"

"Yes," Derek laughed. "You have. Now spill the beans, Princess."

A weary sigh from Penelope and then, "I'm just really tired. What with everything that's been going on, and then the shifting within the team because of Rossi taking Strauss' job, and just this whole year. It's all just catching up on me, that's all. See, when you and the rest of the team are out in the field, you have each other to lean on and work off of. Except for a few minutes here and there during the day, I have me, myself, and I, alone all day in this dark room. And when I get that call from one of you guys, it's a lot of pressure to give results right now, and some days, even that little bit of extra pressure is enough to make it all almost too much."

"Aw, Baby Girl..." Derek came over behind her and began to rub her shoulders. "Do you want me to say something to Rossi for you? If you want an assistant or something, I'm sure that he could make it happen for you."

"No." Penelope whimpered and closed her eyes, thoroughly enjoying Derek's massaging. "It would really just help my stress level if I could find this Freddie kid and get him off of my back and out of my system."

"Well, why is he interested in the case in Seattle?" Derek asked curiously.

"I haven't checked, but I think that he's the son of one of the victims."

Derek thought for a second before saying, "Is this a case that the team should be looking into? I mean, if this kid is trying to go after his mom's killer, he could get himself killed."

"We haven't gotten an invite to help with the case, and until we do, our hands are tied. Those are the rules, and you know that."

"Yeah, I do." Derek agreed. "But there are things that can be done to get the ball rolling in our direction, I'm sure. I'd bet that Rossi has connections. How about I talk to him and see what can be done about everything?"

Penelope shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat, handsome."

"Just promise that you won't be mad at me?" Derek asked hesitantly, the wheels still turning in his head as he worked a particularly hard knot out of Penelope's shoulder.

Penelope opened her eyes and turned warily towards him, asking suspiciously, "Why would you make me mad at you?"

Derek kissed her on the forehead, deciding to take his leave before she asked too many questions. "Because I want what's best for you."

The next morning, Derek made his way up to Strauss' old office - what was now Rossi's office - and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Rossi called out.

Derek poked his head in before the rest of himself followed. "Hey, fatcat! How's it going for the new boss man?"

Dave smiled warily. "I'm adjusting. Now, what do you want, Morgan?"

Derek smirked. "No fooling you, huh?"

"You forget," Rossi leaned back in his chair and assessed the man before him. "Not only am I your new boss, but I am also still a profiler, and I am still your friend. So, what do you want? And, just out of curiosity, does it have to do with the fact that you finally noticed that Penelope has hit a rough patch?"

"Yeah..." Derek sighed. "Anyway, there's this kid that's been tormenting her - technologically, anyway. Everything is related to a serial killer case in Seattle. If we could go there and catch the killer, then that would be taking away at least one of Baby Girl's problems."

"Fine," Dave shrugged. "But I don't go on cases anymore, so how does this involve me?"

"We haven't been invited onto the case, and I thought that you might be able to help with that problem."

Dave's eyes clouded with thought. "Seattle, huh?"

Derek nodded.

"Let me see what I can do."

"Thanks, Rossi."

Okay, I know that I'm working on another story right now ("A Wildcat Goodbye" for the High School Musical fandom), but this is a project that I promised Challenge King a couple of weeks ago, and I'm just now in the position to start on it. Hopefully I will be able to go back and forth on posting chapters for this story and that one. Please review and make my day! Thanks, everybody!:)