"JJ!" Gideon yelled on his way out of the station. "Get Gary Lambert's picture out to the media now! We need to find this monster before he kills Tessa!"
The blond liaison nodded and pulled out her phone. The rest of the team hurried off to find the wife of Lambert. She was possibly the only other person who knew the location of the hunting cabin the team was sure he had taken twelve year old Tessa Baker. It was his safety net but ironically the place where a bear mauled his own little sister twenty years ago. Garcia had told them that the mother had a habit of disappearing ever since Paula was an infant and not to expect her to be home.
"Guys be as gentle as you can." Gideon forewarned. "We don't know what kind of mental damage Gary caused Paula Lambert."
Hotch, Morgan, Elle and Reid all grimaced. The five year old had been physically and emotionally abused for who knows how long, maybe since she was an infant. Gary was known to be abusive, temperamental and prone to outbursts but Paula and her mother were too scared to report the abuse, her mother running instead. The neighbor only came forward when Gary was arrested for drug possession. The charges were later dropped, and the neighbor committed suicide.
"We're here."
The team sprang out of the car and Elle knocked on the door. There was no response.
"Megan Lambert?" Elle called. Gideon, Hotch, Reid and Morgan stayed silent, as did the four policemen surrounding the home in case Gary showed up. "FBI? We need your help!"
The door slowly opened to reveal one little hazel eye peeking from the tiny crack between the door and the frame. The five year old looked terrified. Elle crouched down to reach the little girls eye level and pulled out her badge, a soft smile on her face.
"Hello. I'm Elle. Are you Paula?" The little girl nodded. "Is your mom home?"
She shook her head. Elle looked back at Gideon who shook his head as well. They needed to find Tessa, not run around trying to find Paula's mother.
"We need your help to find your dad, Gary?"
At the mention of Gary's name, Paula's brown eyes went wide and she began to hyperventilate.
"D-daddy? Where?" She cried, backing away from the door with her arms curled tightly around her middle. Elle tried to calm her.
"He's not here! Paula, he's not here but we need your help. Will you come with us?"
The men had retreated to the cars when Paula refused to come out of the house if they were present. Gideon's heart ached. Gary had done so much damage that Paula wouldn't trust anybody of the male gender at all and at such a tender age as well. She seemed on edge with Elle as well and it worked the older profiler. If the girl even knew where the cabin was, she wouldn't talk to any of them. The BAU men all rode uncomfortably in one SUV, while Elle and Paula rode in the other, Elle snatching a car seat from the garage. When they got to the police station again, they saw JJ being overwhelmed by the press. Elle managed to both cause a scene but also avoid hitting any reporters as she quickly saved JJ a little bit of grief. She didn't notice the way Paula's eyes brightened when she saw JJ before she drove away.
Inside the station, Elle brought the girl and sat her down on a couch in the Chief's office. She looked uneasily out the window at all the male officers wincing everytime a door slammed or a particularly loud shout echoed through the station. The little girl looked scared out of her mind and it pained Elle to not be able to help.
"Paula? I know you're scared but you can trust me. Have you seen this place before?" the profiler showed the little girl the photo of the cabin. They had tried to pinpoint the location but it was strategically placed-in the middle of nowhere. When Paula didn't respond, Elle pulled out Tessa's picture.
"Please, Paula, look, he took this girl. Her name is Tessa and she's twelve years old. If we don't find her, Gary is going to do very bad things to her."
Paula just scooted away from Elle on the couch, nervously tapping the edge of the soft leather. Elle got up and left the room, making sure to softly shut the door. She sighed as the team looked at her expectantly.
"Nothing. She's too scared."
Gideon rubbed a hand over his face. "We should have kept her at home. She would've felt more comfortable. We don't know who she trusts, it's not her father, it's not her mother. She has no aunts uncles or other relatives..."
"We couldn't run the risk of Gary finding out she had talked if he came back by keeping her at home." Hotch disagreed. "If we could just find the person she trusts… all five year olds have at least one. But it could be a complete stranger and we don't have time to chase them down."
They continued on solutions and didn't notice when the TV in the briefing room turned on, JJ's face appearing as she gave a press conference. They did notice however, when Paula zipped across the room and sat as close to the opposing window as she could, looking with wide eyes at something.
"What is she doing?" Morgan wondered.
"Look at her face!" Gideon said. "She recognizes someone. Her security net. The one person in this world she trusts!"
"But who?" Reid wondered, looking around, scanning for any new faces. "There are ten officers here, besides us, none of which are female. If it's not Elle…"