Long Overdue

5 - Brave New World

"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery."

- Aldous Huxley

"Y/N! Y/N!" 

Penelope's harsh whispers woke Y/N up quite early that Thursday morning. She snuck into Y/N's room and climbed into her bed. Y/N groaned and rubbed her eyes, rolling over to face her persistent cousin. Penelope had obviously been awake for a while now. Her platinum blonde hair was curled in tight rings, with purple plastic flowers holding it in a half-up half-down hairdo. The purple dress she'd chosen for the day was electric, like always. She snuggled next to her cousin and plastered an innocent expression on her face, knowing she'd been the one to wake up Y/N so abruptly. 

"Why are you awake? It's five in the morning," Y/N asked, glancing at her alarm clock. "I don't even go into work until nine."

Penelope smiled. "Let's go in early!"

"That's not how it works, you know. You need to make an appointment through the visitor's center."

"See, technically, you're correct. But you seem to forget that I happen to have an inside connection to Millburn Correctional." 

"And who's that?" Y/N asked, rolling out of bed. 

She grinned. "You." 

"Fine, fine," Y/N rolled her eyes as she made her way to the closet. "I'll see what I can do."

"That's the spirit!" Penelope jumped up from the bed. "I'll go get us Starbucks or something, you get ready."

"Sure thing," Y/N said as Penelope left the room. 

She turned back to the closet and dug around for today's outfit. Y/N pulled on a pair of dark jeans, and a big cable-knit sweater. She stepped into the little bathroom connected to her room and stood in front of the mirror. Her wild hair had dried in a tangled mane, and it took her more than a few minutes to force it back into some sort of bun. Y/N left the bathroom after putting on the little makeup she did wear and bumped into Penelope.

"Oh! Hey! Here you go," She passed Y/N a hot cup of coffee. "Are you ready to go?"

"Penelope, it's not even six yet."

Penelope looked at her, expression unchanging. 

Y/N frowned. "Fine, we'll go now, but I can't promise you'll get to see him immediately."

Penelope grinned and clapped her hands. "Yay! I'll get my purse."

Soon, they were both sitting in Y/N's old truck, speeding down the highway. Penelope filled the cab with chatter. Apparently, since Y/N had seen her last, the team had taken on a pretty big case, struggling without Spencer. 

"Hey," Y/N interrupted. "Spencer's been stuck over her with not much to think about, it might do him some good to have something to work on. If Emily allows it, email me the files and I'll relay the information to Spencer."

Penelope smiled. "I'm sure Prentiss could  bend the rules, especially if it's for you..." She wriggled her eyebrows at her cousin.

Y/N rolled her eyes. "Come on, that was a one-time thing a million years ago."

Penelope laughed. "Sure, sure."

The conversation lapsed into silence for a moment before Y/N turned off of the highway and down the long road leading to the prison. Y/N drove slowly up to the gate, stopping by the guard's tower. 

Officer Rodriguez stepped out of his booth and approached the car. "Hey there, Y/N. Got some company today?" He asked, leaning down to look in the window.

"Yep, this is my cousin, Penelope. She's with the FBI."

He raised an eyebrow. "Wow, a Fed?"

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I thought I'd show her around, give her the grand tour, you know the deal." Y/N forced a smile. "Look, I should probably get in there."

Rodriguez nodded and patted the hood of the truck as Y/N pulled through the gate. 

"Here we are..." Y/N parked the truck and hopped out of the cab. "I'll get Peter's to give you a visitors badge back here, so you don't have to sit on the waitlist."

Penelope followed quickly behind Y/N as she hurried into the building. 

"Someone's here early," joked Officer Peters as Y/N and Penelope stepped into the office. "And you brought a friend?" 

"Yeah, Officer Peters, this is my cousin Penelope. Penelope, this is Officer Peters."

"Nice to meet you, " said Peters, offering Penelope his hand. 

She took it and shook.

"I'll need a visitor's badge for her," Y/N cut in.

Peters frowned. "I'm not sure I can do that, has she gone through the customary screenings?" 

Y/N shook her head and tried to change the subject. "She won't cause any harm, I just wanted to show her what I do here."

Officer Peters frowned. "Did you ask Warden?"

"Haha, yeah, about that..." Y/N looked at the ground. 

"Of course not. Look, I'll give you the pass, but if Warden finds out-"

"I'll take the blame," Y/N said quickly. 

Peters shook his head as he filled out the visitor's pass. He passed it to Penelope and stepped down the hall. "Follow me."

"When will I get to see him?" Penelope whispered to Y/N as they walked down the hall.

"After breakfast, during rec time. That's when he'll come up to the library."

"That'll take hours," Penelope complained. 

"I told you I never came into work this early," Y/N shot back as she stepped past Officer Peters and unlocked the library door. 

"Whoa," Penelope breathed as she followed Y/N into the room. "How'd you manage to get all these books?"

"Well, I had some connections through the library world, a friend from DC sent me the catalog of an older library that was shutting down. Half of these came from there, and the other half came from me, rummage sales, ads on Craigslist, anything to get a cheap book."

Penelope wandered over to the fairly small romance section. "Not a big demand for these, huh?" She asked, pulling a copy of The Devil of Downtown off of the shelf. 

"You'd be surprised actually, most of those books have borderline porn in them, and while Playboys are contraband, most of those-" Y/N said, pointing at the book in Penelope's hand. "Are not"

"Oh," she said, stifling a laugh as she dropped the book back on the shelf. "Gross."

Y/N laughed at her cousin's reaction as she dropped her bag on her desk, and pulled out the new books. She walked down an aisle of books and shelved the Stephen King novels with the rest of the horror books. She pondered shelving Spencer's book with the rest of the Middle English novels, but she decided against it, placing it on the corner of her desk. 

"So, what do you do all day?" Penelope asked as she perched on the edge of Y/N's desk.

"Read, mostly," Y/N answered. "Organize the books here, nothing crazy."

Penelope rolled her eyes. "Y/N. You work in a federal prison. Nothing exciting ever happens?"

Y/N thought for a moment. "Well, sometimes we go on lockdown? Is that what you mean?"

"You're something else, you know that?" Penelope joked. 

"So I've been told," Y/N teased back. "Now settle down, Spencer should be here soon."