A/U Story JJ and Emily centric but features the entire time in some capacity. Emily is the six year old daughter of Dave Rossi and Elizabeth Prentiss-Rossi. When Dave moves his family from DC to Pennsylvania he has no idea the secrets and lies hidden in a small town. A friendship between his six year old daughter Emily and Jennifer Jareau will force Dave and their small town to face the horror's that can hide in plain sight. Inspired by the song "Alyssa Lies" By Jason Michael Carroll.
"DADDY!" the sound of a very excited six year old filled the air as David Rossi opened the front door. The young father unable to stop the smile that stretched across his face as the raven haired child jumped into his arms.
Spinning the six year old around, hearing her laughter, made the recent changes in their lives worth it. The Prentiss-Rossi family had uprooted their lives, moving from the hectic world of Washington D.C. for the quiet town of East Alleghany, Pennsylvania. Dave had transferred to the Pittsburgh field office while Elizabeth had left her job with the Embassy and took a job with the State Department. The move had allowed the career driven couple to find a balance between work and family.
Dave dropped his briefcase by the door carrying his little girl into the kitchen of their new house. They had been here for just over two weeks and already it felt more like home than their condo in Dupont Circle ever had. "Honey, I'm home!" Dave put his daughter on the kitchen counter kissing his wife's cheek, "How was your day Lizzie?"
Elizabeth Prentiss-Rossi rolled her eyes making a face at the giggling six year old. Dave knew she abhorred the name Lizzie but still insisted on using it. "Your Daddy's asking for it, isn't he Emily?"
The little girl in braided pig tails gave her mom a strange look, "What's he asking for Mommy?"
Elizabeth smiled at the innocence of her child, "He's asking to be punished my sweet girl." Placing her index finger on Emily's button nose, leaving a dusting of the flour that covered her hand.
At six years old Emily Rossi was nothing if not inquisitive. "Punished? Are you going to give Daddy a spanking?" Emily visibly cringed, having received a swat or two in her short life.
Dave's deep laugh filled the kitchen, "Yeah Babe, are you going to give me a spanking?" His eyebrow arching up and down suggestively, his chocolate eyes gleaming. Elizabeth could only shake her head and laugh, "You're incorrigible."
"Come on Em's I need to hear about your first day of school." Dave easily lifted the small child off the counter putting her safely on the floor, he turned and whispered in Elizabeth's ear, "You can spank me anytime." Elizabeth laughed, loving the effect country living was already having on her usually serious husband. "Get out of here," she threw the towel at him as he scampered off holding tightly to Emily's hand.
Dave sat down in his favorite chair, the old La-Z-Boy sitting in the corner of the living room. Dave leaned back raising the foot rest, pulling Emily up in to his lap, the young girl quickly laying against his chest. Dave kissed the top of her head, "So Em's, how was your first day at school?
While the move to Pennsylvania had been a good move for their family, Dave and Elizabeth had been worried what switching schools would do to the first grader.
The wide smile on the small girls face told Dave all he needed to know, she loved her new school.
"My teacher, Miss Brooks, is really nice Daddy. She let me be today's special helper. I got to erase the board and pass out papers and at lunch I got to lead the class to the lunch room!" For the first grader, tasks that were mundane in the adult world, were exciting.
"Guess what else Daddy?" Dave loved seeing the excitement on Emily's face, "What baby?"
"I already have FIVE friends!" Emily held up five fingers for emphasis.
Dave dropped his jaw in surprise "Woah! Five friends already!"
Emily nodded her head excited, "Yep. Miss Brooks has our desks in groups. My group is at the front of the classroom. We share crayons and markers and we all works together on special projects. Miss Brooks says we has to learn to work together as a team.
Today we picked a team leader, that's the person in charge of making sure we do our work and collects our homework for Miss Brooks. Wanta know who's our leader Daddy?"
"Is it my little girl?" Dave continued to give the excited first grader his undivided attention.
Emily shook her head, her pigtails flopping, "Nope, my new friend Aaron Ho..Hotch..Hotchner, yeah Hotchner, but he says we can call him Hotch if we want to. He's really nice, he's the oldest. His birthday is in January so we picked him to be our leader that was the fairest way to pick."
"That does seem fair pumpkin. Who else is in your group?" Dave encouraged Emily to continue.
Emily looked up at the ceiling trying to remember who was next. "OH! Derek sits next to Aaron, they also live next to each other. Derek says Aaron is his bestest friend. And guess what else Daddy," Emily continued not even giving Dave a chance to answer, "Derek's Daddy is a Cop like you." At such a young age Emily didn't know the difference from a cop and where Dave worked. She just knew that cops helped people and her Daddy helped people.
"There's one other boy in our group but he's younger than us. His names Spencer and he just turnded five, but he's really smart Daddy. He can read anything, and he remembers everything." Emily continued telling about her new friends. "Next to Spencer is Penelope, but she says we can caller Penny. She's really funny Daddy, she calls Derek silly things like 'Hot Chocolate' and 'Sugar Plum'. And she wears funny clothes. Her shirt was bright green and has a Unicorn on it. She's got the coolest pencils. They're different colors and have sparkles on them. Penny let me borrow her purple one when I told her it was my favorite color. That was really nice uh Daddy?"
"Yes it was, honey. So that's everyone in your group right? Aaron, Derek, Spencer, and Penny; that's five right?" Dave joked knowing full well there was another that Emily had clearly waited for last to tell him about.
"Nope," Emily shook head emphatically. "That's only four Daddy!"
Dave playfully slapped the top of his head, "Oh of course. I must have counted wrong. So who's the last person in your group?"
Emily's eyes lit up as she talked about her new friend, certain that she had found her new best friend. "Her name is Jennifer Jar…Jaru… I can member how to say her last name." The six year old shrugged not really caring what her friend's last name is. "But she doesn't like to be called Jennifer she tolds us to call her JJ. She's five but will be six in October, her birthday is the day before Halloween! How cool is that?" Emily barely took a breath before telling Dave more about JJ. "JJ's Daddy is a cop like you, he works with Derek's Daddy. JJ says he's everyone's boss. She has an older brother named Alex and he's fourteen. And, she has an older sister, Rosaline, she's twelve. JJ plays soccer and she said she can show me how. We ate lunch together and she shared her brownie and I gave her some of my cookies.
And you know what else Daddy?" Emily continued "I think JJ is my new bestest friend."
Dave loved the way Emily lit up as she told him about her new friend, hoping this was a friendship that would follow his daughter for a lifetime.