"What do we know?" Rossi asks as he, Bedelia, and Emily walk over.
"Police think it was a botched robbery." Hotch says.
"Where's Morgan?" Emily asks.
"He's not answering his cell." JJ says.
"I'll call him again." Spencer says, walking a bit away.
~ ~ ~
"They can't give me an update." JJ says, walking over.
"Morgan's phone just keeps going straight to voicemail." Spencer says, pocketing his phone.
"Where the hell is he?" Emily questions.
~ ~ ~
Derek walks over.
"She's been in surgery a couple hours." JJ tells him.
"I was at church, my phone was off." Derek says.
"There's nothing you could have been doing here." Spencer says.
"The police got any leads?" Derek asks.
"I spoke to the lead detective. He doesn't think we'll get anything from the scene." Hotch says.
"Penelope Garcia?" A nurse walks out.
"Yes." Hotch says.
"Yes." Emily echoes.
"The bullet went in her chest and ricocheted into her abdomen. She lost a lot of blood. It was touch and go for a while, but we were able to repair the injuries." He explains.
"So what are you saying?" JJ asks.
"One centimeter over and it would have torn right through her heart. Instead, she could actually walk out of here in a couple of days, and I'd say that's a minor miracle."
Bedelia lets out a deep breath, feeling the pain in her chest lessen.
"She needs her rest. You can see her in the morning." He walks off.
"Thank you." JJ tells him.
"David and I will go to the scene. I think the rest of you should be here when she wakes up." Hotch says. "I don't care about protocol, I don't care whether we're working this officially or not. We don't touch any new cases until we find out who did this.
+++
A nurse leads the five into Penelope's room. JJ kisses her on the cheek, sadly smiling.
"Hi. No tears." Penelope says. "I'm afraid if I start crying I'll come unstapled."
"How are you feeling?" Derek asks.
"Oh... confused... stupid, and... in pain." Penelope says.
"Are you up for some questions?" JJ asks.
"I never saw it coming. He seemed... deliciously normal." Penelope says.
"You know him?" Spencer asks.
"You were right." Penelope tells Derek. "I shouldn't have trusted it."
"What are you talking about?" Derek asks.
"It's that guy I told you about. The one I met at the coffee shop." Penelope says. "I wanted to believe he was interested in me."
"Forget that." Derek says.
"I let my guard down." Penelope says.
"Do you have any idea why he would have done this?" Emily asks.
"Did he threaten you? Did he want something?" Spencer asks.
"I just thought he liked me." Penelope says, her voice cracking. Bedelia winces, blinking her tears back.
"Okay. Um... we're gonna-- we're gonna come back in a little while." JJ says.
"We need a name." Emily says.
"James Colby Baylor." Penelope states.
The others leave, but Penelope keeps JJ back for a few moments. Emily goes off to call Hotch.
Derek runs his hands over his head before hitting a whiteboard.
"We need to stay calm." Spencer says.
"Don't tell me what to be." Derek orders.
"Do you remember anything she said about him?" Spencer asks.
"No." Derek shakes his head.
"I just talked to Hotch. They think he used a revolver." Emily states, walking over.
"Who the hell uses a revolver?" Derek asks.
"Someone who doesn't want to leave shell casings behind as evidence." Spencer says.
"What about witnesses?" Derek asks.
"None so far. And he staged it to look like a robbery." Emily says.
"Which means if he's smart enough to use forensic countermeasures, odds are the name he gave Garcia is probably bogus." Spencer says as JJ walks over. "What did she say?"
"She made me promise not to talk about her like a victim." JJ says.
+++
Bedelia, Spencer, and Derek are outside of Penelope's room. Emily went back to the BAU to help the others.
"I asked her to go out last night." Derek says. "But she was pissed at me. She blew me off."
"So you ended up in church?" Spencer asks.
"Yeah. What does it mean? On one hand, if she'd gone out with me, she would have never got shot. On the other hand... what are the odds that the first time I pray in 20 years, she's on the table?" Derek asks.
"She's asking for you." The nurse says, walking out of Penelope's room. They go into the room.
"Hey." Derek softly greets, holding her hand. "How are you feeling?"
"Good news, bad news. The morphine's wearing off." Penelope says. "When I was in the ambulance, I could hear the song Heroes playing in my head. I kept flashing in and out of consciousness. Everything was really bright. And I remember thinking, "Is David Bowie really God?"" The three let out short and soft laughs, exchanging sad looks.
"We have a, uh... we have a sketch artist coming in." Spencer tells her.
"I'm still a little hazy." Penelope says.
"It's okay. Anything you tell us will help." Derek says.
"Yeah." She whispers.
"This guy say what he did for a living?" Derek asks.
"He said he was a lawyer." Penelope answers.
"Did... did people know him where you went?" Spencer asks.
"He said he wanted to show me a place." Penelope says. "It was half an hour away."
"You drove together?" Derek asks and Penelope nods. "What kind of car?"
"White. 4 door Sedan. American. It smelled new." Penelope says.
"Rental car maybe?" Spencer asks.
"Maybe. I don't know. I don't look at things like you guys do. I don't see danger--"
"Okay. Take it easy. Take it easy." Derek says. "What else can you remember?"
"He smelled good." Penelope says.
"Did he seem nervous?" Bedelia asks.
"I thought he was just afraid to kiss me goodnight." Penelope says. Derek wipes a tear away.
"Hey. You sure you're up for this?" He asks and she nods.
"I could hear him walking. He leaned over me and I held my breath so he'd think I was dead."
+++
"Penelope, I know it's gotta be hard to keep reliving this." Derek says. She's out of the ICU and now they're in a different room.
"I just don't know what else there is to remember." Penelope says.
"Let's start with behavior. That's all-- that's all profiling really is, just noticing behavior." Spencer says.
"Sweetheart, any details you can remember will tell us who he is." Derek says. "Okay?"
"Mm-hmm." She nods.
"All right, so let's go back to when you first arrived at that restaurant." Derek says. "Was he nervous?"
"No. The opposite, actually." Penelope says, recounting of when they got to the restaurant.
"So he was trying to impress you by showing you how he can take charge." Derek says.
"I guess so." Penelope says.
"Tell me about his watch." Spencer says.
"It's a fake Rolex." Penelope states.
"You sure about that?" Derek asks.
"I know my knockoffs." Penelope says.
"Clearly he was playing with it, through, cause he wanted you to notice. I mean, he wanted you to think that it was real." Spencer says.
"Garcia, are you okay?" Derek asks, noticing her start to get freaked out.
"I'm feeling really exposed." She says.
"You're doing just fine. Just fine." Derek assures.
+++
Derek is holding the small mirror for Penelope while she applies lipstick. There's a knock on the door and they all look up as Hotch walks in.
"Hey." Penelope says.
"How are you feeling?" Hotch asks.
"You know, I've had better dates." Penelope says.
"What's going on?" Derek asks, standing up.
"We found an encrypted file on your computer. Are you involved in something that I need to know about?" Hotch asks.
"No." She says.
"Hotch, what's going on?" Derek asks.
"Could this be connected in any way to whoever shot you?" Hotch asks.
"I don't think so." Penelope says.
"Is this really necessary?" Derek asks.
"Yes." Hotch tells him. "The password." He looks at Penelope.
"Gilman Street." She says.
"Thank you."
"They don't honestly think Garcia's a security risk, do they?" Spencer asks.
"I don't know. We've been ordered by internal affairs to stop working the case." Hotch says.
"What?" Bedelia asks.
"And until this is cleared up... you've been suspended. I'm sorry." He tells Penelope.
"Right." She mumbles and he leaves. Penelope starts to pull the wires off.
"What are you doing?" Spencer asks.
"I need to get out of here." She says.
"Whoa. Whoa, whoa. Please, baby." Derek stops her, sitting on her bed. "Listen to me. We're gonna get it straightened out. I'm gonna find out who did this to you. I don't give a damn what I.A. wants me to do or doesn't want me to do, but right now you need to rest."
"But... one of the last things I said before he shot me was, "Everything happens for a reason." Derek, if I lose faith in that, then nothing in my life makes sense."
"I get that." Derek says.
"No, you don't." She argues.
+++
"So they offered you a job?" Spencer asks after Penelope finishes briefly explaining how she got into the BAU.
"Mm-hmm." She nods.
"Like Frank Abagnale. The bureau figured if you can't beat 'em, hire 'em." Spencer says.
"Yeah, something like that." Penelope says.
"Garcia, what's on the encrypted file?" Derek asks.
"I'm required to keep a record of everything the team does. And after my system got hacked and Elle got shot, I just didn't want anyone else to be able to get at you." Penelope says.
"We'll talk to the doctor, see if he'll clear you to leave." Spencer says before he and Bedelia walk out.
+++
"What's going on?" JJ asks as she, Bedelia, and Spencer go into Penelope's apartment.
"I don't know. This guy's getting seriously bold, and I can guarantee it's not over." Derek says.
"You okay?" JJ asks Penelope, sitting in front of her.
"I don't know what he wants from me." Penelope says.
"Could you know something about him?" Spencer asks.
"I don't know." Penelope says.
"Maybe you have something he wants?" Bedelia suggests.
"I don't know who he is. I'm so scared." Penelope says.
"I know." JJ frowns as Bedelia rubs the tech's back.
"Hey." Emily walks in, Hotch and Rossi following. "Did you get a look at him?"
"Nothing solid." Derek says.
"Garcia, we need to get you back to the hospital." Hotch says.
"No." She shakes her head.
"You know what? You should still be there. We need to get her someplace safe." JJ says.
"I feel safe with all of you." Penelope states.
"We can take you to the BAU." Hotch says and Penelope nods. JJ gets up, looking at Penelope as she stares into space.
"Garcia?" JJ asks.
"You okay?" Spencer asks her.
"When we were at dinner... they wanted to seat us by a window, but he insisted on sitting at the worst table in the place." Penelope says. "And he sat with his back to the corner."
"Detective." Hotch says. "Can you clear the room for just a minute?"
"I got a dead cop downstairs. I consider this part of the crime scene." The detective says.
"I know. Just a couple of minutes." Hotch says.
"Do what you gotta do." The detective says, he and the other detective walking out.
"Tell us about the car." Spencer says.
"Why?" Penelope asks.
"Just go with him." Derek says.
"You said it was white, 4 door, American, what else?" Spencer asks.
"That's it. It was just a car." Penelope says.
"No, come on, think. Anything. Go back." Derek says.
"The seatbelt was buckled behind his back. Why does that matter?" Penelope asks.
"It wasn't a rental." Derek says. "It was for surveillance."
"Agents don't wear seatbelts. They need to get out in a hurry." Bedelia says.
"All right, let's cut the shit." Rossi states, walking over and sitting in front of Penelope. "You need to be straight with us. Right now. Look at me, not them."
"I'm not hiding anything." She says.
"You got shot. Most people get shot for a reason." Rossi says. Penelope looks at Derek. "Eyes here!"
"Rossi." Bedelia gives him a look.
"Ease up, Rossi." Derek says.
"You got a roomful of people here willing to believe that an FBI agent has tried to kill you. We need to know everything you do on company time that we don't know about. What?" Rossi asks, seeing her look.
"Come on, man." Derek says.
"It's nothing bad." Penelope mutters.
"Spit it out!" Rossi yells.
"It's nothing bad! It's just-- I counsel victims' families and they know where I work, so sometimes they ask me to look into cases for them." Penelope says.
"What does that mean?" Rossi asks.
"It just means that the cases, the unsolved ones, I tag them, so whoever's investigating them knows that the FBI considers them a priority." Penelope admits.
"You're not authorized to do that." Hotch says.
"I know. I was just trying to help." Penelope says.
"But whoever's working those cases thinks you're watching them." Emily says.
"I just wanted to put pressure on them so that they don't slide." Penelope says.
"How many cases are we talking about?" Hotch asks.
"I don't know. Seven, eight maybe." Penelope says. "I need to get into my system."
"You can't. You're suspended." Hotch says.
"Wait a minute, Garcia. On your date, you said this guy was pressing you to find out if you were working murder cases." Derek says and she nods. "Hotch, we gotta look at those files."
"I told you, I'm sick of this fuckhead being in front of us." Rossi says.
"Dave's right. We'll go back to the BAU. Morgan, Davis, Reid, Prentiss, you stay here and make sure no one forgets to log out of the system. Garcia should not have access." Hotch instructs before he, JJ, and Rossi leave.
~ ~ ~
Penelope is in her bed and on a laptop. The four can hear her typing away and quietly talking.
"What is she doing in there?" Derek asks.
"Do you really want to know?" Emily replies.
~ ~ ~
"Those are all the cases I flagged." Penelope states as Derek pulls papers out of the printer.
"Okay. Everybody take a copy. We need to see if any of the agents overlap in all of the cases." Derek says, passing out the copies.
~ ~ ~
"There aren't any agents working on these cases. But the same deputy was a first responder at 3." Emily says.
"What's the name?" Derek asks.
"Jason Clark Battle." Emily answers.
"What are the cases?" Spencer asks.
"Uh, all three were drive-bys, at close range, shot with a revolver." Emily says.
Penelope gets on her computer, the four looking at the screen as she types the name in. Information and a photo show up.
"Is that him?" Bedelia asks.
"Yeah." Penelope answers.
"He's been honored twice as a hero." Emily notes.
"So why is he stuck at deputy?" Penelope asks.
"Because even to his superiors, something was off about him." Derek says.
"Makes sense. The showy clothes, the subtle bragging. He presents himself as a prominent attorney when he's actually just a deputy sheriff." Spencer says.
"Underappreciated in the world and overappreciated in his own mind." Derek says.
"I don't understand." Penelope says.
"We think you might've just stumbled upon an angel of death." Bedelia says.
"I thought those are nurses who put people out of their misery." Penelope says.
"Yeah, that's one model." Spencer says. "The other is someone who puts people at risk in order to save them."
"So he shot them so that he could save them?" Penelope asks.
"Yeah, and when he couldn't, he made it look like a random murder." Bedelia says. "It's how he was able to be the first responder."
"It's called hero homicide complex. It's most commonly found in firemen who set fires in order to save the day." Spencer says.
"Garcia. You flagged these cases. He thought you were onto him." Derek says.
"I wasn't." She says.
"But you're the only person in the world who was gonna make the connection. In his mind, he had to eliminate you." Emily says.
~ ~ ~
"Deputy Battle, please. Okay, what time is his shift over?" Derek asks. "No. No message. Thank you." He hangs up. "Okay, he didn't sign out to a location. His shift is over at midnight. Until then, I do not want this guy knowing that we are onto him."
"Why? What's the profile say?" Penelope asks.
"He'll keep getting bolder trying to cover his tracks, and if that doesn't work, he'll die shooting." Spencer says.
~ ~ ~
"Okay, that's funky." Penelope comments.
"What's going on?" Spencer asks.
"He just logged into my system." Penelope says. "There's a link up on my screen."
"Maybe it's a mistake." Emily says.
"No. He's good, he's not careless." Penelope says.
"Could he be trying to show you something?" Spencer asks.
"He could be baiting me." Penelope says.
"What do you mean?" Bedelia asks.
"If he's with internal affairs, and I follow his lead, whosever login I use could lose their job." Penelope says.
"What's your gut say?" Derek asks.
"He's a hacker. We have a code." She says.
"Do you trust it?" Bedelia asks.
"I have to." Penelope says.
"Do it. Make contact." Derek says and Penelope does so. Security footage pops up and they realize where it is.
"It's the BAU." Emily says, looking at the bullpen.
"God, that's him." Penelope says, seeing Jason in the footage.
Derek calls Hotch.
"Hotch, it's Morgan. He's in the BAU. Deputy sheriff, mid-bullpen, just past my desk. Got him?"
"I got him."
"Don't let him know we're onto him. He's a classic narcissist with a hero homicide complex, and he's spiraling. If you let him know we're onto him, he's gonna start shooting." He says before they hang up.
Given the angle of the screen, they can only make out Hotch's legs walking over to Rossi's office. Jason continues to stand by the desk where a guy is on the computer and one of the guys from internal affairs is sitting on the desk.
"We gotta slip somebody in behind him." Derek says.
"Can you get us the cameras outside the bullpen?" Spencer asks. Penelope starts going through different cameras. Everywhere else is empty until they find JJ working in her office.
"Oh, my girl." Penelope mutters.
Derek immediately calls her.
"Come on, JJ, pick up." Derek mumbles. They watch JJ pick up her phone and look at the caller ID before answering. "JJ, it's Morgan, listen to me. Listen to me very carefully."
Penelope goes back to the bullpen footage and Derek hangs up with JJ. Jason looks over at where Hotch and Rossi are pretending to go through a file.
"He knows they know." Emily states.
"This is crazy. We gotta get over there." Derek says.
"I'm going with you." Penelope says.
"No, you are not." Derek counters.
"You do not have time to argue." Penelope says, getting up.
+++
They're at the BAU and JJ shot Jason through the glass doors, killing him. Derek pulls the cover over Jason.
"It's really over?" Penelope asks.
"Yeah. It's really over." Derek nods. "Now can we please get you back to the hospital?"
"I..." Penelope looks over at the internals affair guy who is talking to Hotch.
"Oh, don't worry about your reinstatement papers. He'll sign them as soon as his hand stops shaking." Emily says. Penelope looks back at JJ and goes over to her while the others disperse.