Stand In The Rain

Thirty Three

When the team arrived at the airport, JJ rented cars for all of them, and she, Emily, and Penelope got one to themselves, an event that didn't happen often at all. And although they all knew the streets of New York well by now, Penelope drove them to P.S. 188 because she knew exactly where it was. She also walked them to the front office where they were greeted by a slightly distressed Asian woman dressed professionally, but looking like she was having a very long day. When she saw Penelope, she hurried over to her.

"Penelope!"

The woman in question had never really known a stranger and remembered this woman from when Estefani had introduced them during her last visit.

"Constance, hello!" Penelope gave her friend a quick hug. "We all came the second we heard about Polina, and the rest of the my team is all spread out, investigating. My colleagues and I here drove directly to P.S.188 from the airport just now."

Constance breathed a sigh of relief, as well as a professional manner as she extended a hand to JJ. "I'm Constance Chong, the principal here. Are you Agent Jareau?"

"Yes, and we spoke on the phone earlier." she replied as she shook her hand briefly and then proceeded to indicate Emily as she spoke next. "You clearly know Penelope, but this is my partner SSA Emily Prentiss, and she will be working with me while Penelope goes over the security footage."

"Do you some place quiet we can all go, and maybe talk to Polina's teacher?" Emily asked as she shook hands with their host.

Having noticed the expectant conditions of all three agents, it was a relief when Constance answered, "Yes, we do. She's actually in the conference room in the next hallway, and right next to that is the room where we keep all of the monitors and security hardware. Please follow me."

They did, and all that could heard for a minute or so was the sounds of four different pairs of shoes on the tiled floor, as well as the wheels on Penelope's pink roller bag where she kept her laptop and all its external hardware when she travelled.

They came to a stop in front of a huge pair of oak doors. They were closed, but this was clearly their destination.

Constance turned to her company, addressing them. "Polina is already one of our best and brightest third graders, but her sister is too uncomfortable staying at home without some kind of proper law enforcement, so we told her that she could stay here for awhile. Do you know the story about this family?"

JJ nodded. "We do. Is the baby with Sasha, too?"

"Yes, Luna is here, too, as is Polina's teacher, Estefani Garcia." she turned to Penelope. "I remember that she's your stepsister, but she's up here instead of her classroom because she saw the actual abduction happen, and it's also recess right now. She told me that she wanted to wait here with Sasha until you all came."

The trio of agents nodded in understanding, but especially Penelope, and they followed Constance in through the door and into a rather large conference room. One end of the room looked completely how a conference room should look, while the rest of the room had furniture, bookshelves, and plants that suggested a more casual area.

Against one of the walls by the Windows was a couch and Sasha could be seen on it, stretched out and looking exhausted from all of the crying she'd been doing recently. JJ immediately thought back to when she and Emily had first seen DeLilah at Foxworth Hall in Alabama. Perched upon Sasha's legs because she wanted to be close to her and babbling away about a board book in her hands, was Luna. JJ put her at just over a year old because Sasha didn't seem to be protesting about having the weight of a child on her legs, and while it was clear that Luna knew something was happening, she wasn't old enough to be aware of what it was. Next to them both and looking worse for wear was Estefani.