The runaway
It was a rainy day and it was already dark outside when Emily Prentiss arrived at her apartment in Washington DC. It had been a long day, she was tired and could barely keep her eyes open as she grabbed in her handbag to take out her keys. She unlocked the door and entered the hallway, but as she was waiting for the elevator, she heard a quiet noise and immediately knew that someone was standing behind her. She shrugged and turned around, ready to fight, but there was nobody trying to attack her, instead a young girl was standing by the door, she had followed Emily inside, most likely seeking shelter because of the weather. She looked exhausted and tired, but that was not the first thing that Emily noticed about her.
Her mouth was bleeding and so was her nose, which appeared to be broken. There were dark circles under her eyes and her left arm was hanging off in a weird angle. She was skinny and pale like a ghost, something about her reminded Emily of a porcelain doll. She was dressed very poorly, the ripped jeans that she was wearing were way too big on her and her grey sweater was wet and dirty because of the rain and the blood from her mouth. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail.
She looked at Emily, unsure what to do. She could just turn around and run away. She would find another place to sleep tonight, but her legs wouldn't move. She was shaking and frightened, but the thought of leaving the house was even worse. For a moment neither of them said a word, then Emily made a step towards her, but all of a sudden the girl tried to run away. She tried to leave, run outside in the dark, away from the woman, but Emily ran over to the door, trying to hold her back. The girl tried to get past her, hit her and kicked her, but she soon had to accept the fact that Emily- a trained FBI agent, was stronger than her. Unable to leave, she started running up the stairs, hoping that there would be another exit. Emily followed her, not sure what to do.
When she realized that there was no escape, the girl started crying, Emily could see the panic written all over her face, she could barely breathe and Emily could tell that she was trying to hold back the tears. Her big dark brown eyes looked around in the hallway and then back to Emily, who was shocked about her behavior. She broke down and was hiding her face behind her hands as she was sitting in a corner of the hallway crying her eyes out. She wouldn't be able to leave this place again. This woman would not let an injured child go outside in the rain. She would bring her to a police station and that would be the end.
Emily sat down next to her, trying to figure out what to say or do next. Slowly she grabbed the girl's wrists and pulled them away from her face- carefully but firmly.
"It's okay" she said, "You don't need to be afraid. I won't hurt you."
For a split second Emily thought that the girl would slap her, but she didn't, all she did was to free her wrists from Emily's grip. "Tell me your name" she said calmly. "No." the girl said. Nothing more and nothing less. The way she said it was very neutral, she didn't mean to be provocative but as soon as the word had left the girl's mouth, Emily knew that she wouldn't get an answer. "Listen you have to tell me your name so that I can contact your parents. You're injured, besides you are way too young to be outside all by yourself at night." Emily waited patiently for the girl to answer, but she remained silent. She was staring at a wall next to her, as if she was expecting someone to come through the wall and tell her what to do.
"Just let me go, you don't know me it's not your business if I am running around by myself" the girl said defiantly.
"I won't let you go. Listen, you have two options: You can either tell me your name and give me a phone number so that I can call your parents or I am bringing you to the next police station." Emily said resolutely. She was concerned and didn't want to upset her even more, but at the same time she knew that she wouldn't get anywhere with this kid if she was being overly sweet.
"No please… I just… look, you will make everything worse, just leave me alone… you don't understand." She looked down on the floor, avoiding eye contact with Emily, who was observingly watching her, not missing the slightest change in her expressions.
"Well then explain it to me"
"I can't go back there. I mean… I could, but I don't want to"
"What do you mean you can't go home? Did your parents do this to you?"
"No, not really. I don't have parents, they are just my foster parents. I tried to tell my social worker, but he didn't believe me. I lied about stuff like that way too often. It's my fault that he doesn't take me serious anymore. He'll just send me back, it won't make any difference, I'll just get grounded and that's it."
Emily could tell that she wanted to get this conversation over with really quickly, she knew that the girl wasn't comfortable with any of this, but she wanted to help her. She had to.
"Come on, stand up, I'll bring you to a hospital" Emily said emphatically.
"Didn't you listen to what I said?" said the girl. She sounded annoyed, almost angry, but Emily was able to look beyond her tough surface. "I did and you will never go back there again, I promise. Look, you've got bruises all over your face, they will believe you." The girl sighed and Emily could tell that she gave up.
She stood up and helped the kid to get up on her feet again as well. They walked down the stairs, it was quiet now, all of Emily's neighbors had already gone to bed and for a moment everything seemed peaceful. As they walked out the doors and into the cold, dark night Emily realized that the girl's clothes were still wet from the rain and that she was freezing. She took off her coat and put it on the girl's shoulders.
"Thank you", the girl whispered. It was a weird feeling, she had never had someone care about her. She had only known this woman for a few minutes, but she still felt kind of comfortable around her and she wasn't sure whether she should trust her instinct or not. She had never made any good experiences with adults or strangers… or let's just say people in general. Kids can be cruel too, right?
For the first time the girl looked directly in Emily's eyes, only for a second, then she looked at the ground again, not making any moves to start a conversation.
"Can you tell me your name now?" Emily smiled at her, trying to make the situation more relaxed.
"Why don't you tell me who you are first", the girl asked, trying to ignore the question one more time. "I am Emily, Emily Prentiss and I work for the FBI."
The girl's heart stopped beating for a moment, she held her breath. Why? Why always her? She tried to run away and couldn't even go one day without literally running into the arms of an FBI agent? It seemed like karma wasn't on her side. Emily was still waiting for an answer and she knew that she wouldn't be able to avoid answering the question any longer. It was over anyway.
"My name is Bobby." She mumbled as they got into Emily's car, it was almost 1 am now and all that Bobby could think, was that her social Worker Mr. Walters would definitely not be pleasantly surprised, if he got a phone call from a nurse in the middle of the night, telling him that he would have to get up and come to the hospital right away… she was screwed.
