memento vivere - supernatural & criminal minds

chapter 40

Chapter 40
No Good Deed

Penelope was escorted to her apartment by her two unofficial bodyguards, both of whom still blamed themselves despite her wishes. Police officers would take shifts stationed outside her apartment until the case was closed. Even so, Penelope entered the courtyard with an air of unease. She stopped at the steps. A dark stain streaked the cement. Blood. Her blood.

Jude climbed the first step so the shadow of her trench coat covered the stain while Morgan led Penelope inside. When they entered Penelope's purple-walled, eclectically decorated apartment, Morgan stopped in the doorway. "This is...well, I would expect nothing less."

"You should be flattered," Penelope smiled weakly, one hand still pressed to her stitches. "Not many people get invited in off the grid."

"Then how'd Wesson get your stuff?"

"I have a key," Jude said over her shoulder. She ducked beneath the faux-stained glass curtains to Penelope's bedroom to grab her pair of fuzzy pink slippers. "You jealous?"

Morgan rolled his eyes and turned to scan the apartment. He pointed to the vintage camera on the small table beside the couch. "Super-Eight?" Penelope nodded as she used Jude for balance to put on her slippers. Moving slowly to not overexert herself, she shuffled to the camera and switched it on. A home video reel was projected on the back wall. In it, little Penelope sat on her mother's lap flipping through a comic book.

"I always imagined myself fighting crime," Penelope said wistfully. She seemed to hold herself a little tighter. "My parents were hippies. I think it horrified them. I was eighteen when they died. Drunk driver." To Jude, she said, "At least I know the guy who did it is in jail. You don't even know who killed your dad."

Jude set a hand on her arm. "We don't compare grief, Pen." Morgan found a stack of papers on a shelf and held them up. They contained a list of names and a calendar with a few dates highlighted in pink. "She volunteers once a week counseling families of murder victims."

Morgan angled his head at Penelope. "Baby, you don't get enough of this stuff at work?" He glanced at Jude, who merely shrugged. She was not authorized to speak against putting herself in mentally taxing situations. It was quite literally her job, in two cases.

"I look at crime scene photos all day long. I can't know those families are out there trying to cope and not do something to help," Penelope explained. She was so unyielding in her kindness. It made the wound in her abdomen all the more unfair. "Thank you for bringing me home. You should go get some rest, we all need it."

"Damn right," Jude called over her shoulder, brushing past to get to the bedroom. "I'm borrowing pajamas."

"For what? You can leave, I'll be fine. I've got my goon squad parked out front."

"And?" Jude shrugged. "I'm not going anywhere. You're getting a new roommate until we find this guy."

"Two roommates," Morgan corrected. "This couch is gonna be my new best friend until we fix this."

Penelope looked between them - Morgan reclined on the couch and Jude with her pilfered blue silk pajamas under her arm - and raised her hands in surrender. "Fine, I yield. Judy, you're sleeping in my room with me. Don't argue." Jude closed her mouth. "I'm not putting you on an air mattress."

"Now I'm jealous," Morgan joked. Jude blew him a very mature raspberry and slipped into the bathroom to change. Penelope was already asleep when Jude joined her. She spent at least an hour watching the blurred ceiling fan. She turned her head to see her gun on the nightstand. Its presence was reassuring, but she hated that it had become such a common accessory for her. At least the decorative wards around her apartment were unassuming.