Just something that hit me over the head. Enjoy.
Ellie Spicer had never been outside of California before. Her window now showed her valleys, fields, mountains, and deserts, passing in endless continuity. Her bus ticket had been the largest amount of money she had ever seen printed, but that still hadn't stopped her from using her foster mother's credit card to purchase it. She had thought about a plane ticket, but airport security was more strict than bus drivers.
Besides, people paid less attention to a single nine year old girl on a bus than on a plane.
So far, Ellie had had three different people sitting next to her from LA to Chicago. The first had been an elderly man that had dozed off and tottered off without noticing her at all. The second had been a middle aged woman who insisted on showing Ellie the photos she had from her last vacation to Hawaii; Ellie had lied like a pro and didn't even remember what she had told the woman about where she was going and why she was alone.
She was on her third neighbor, a woman in her late twenties, who had gotten on in Chicago looking tired and drawn but still beautiful. Ellie imagined, hoped a little, that with the two sitting next to each other, they looked like sisters. Straight, dark brown, thin, pale faces and large, dark eyes. It protected Ellie from other well-meaning adults if they thought she was with family.
She studied the woman through the window reflection. Her dark hair was long like Ellie's used to be. Her facial features were delicate, but a little pointed, and her eyes were dark and bottomless, even gazing off into space and unfocused. Ellie could stare at those eyes all day and never see everything that was there.
She fell asleep at some point, cuddled up against the window with her back pack as a pillow and her jacket as a blanket. But she didn't sleep for long before another nightmare sent her thrashing and gasping until she fell across the woman's lap.
"Hey, kid, you all right?"
Her voice was a little husky, not necessarily from the late hour.
Ellie shook her head and rubbed her eyes, trying to get rid of the images. Her father's face as he begged and even worse, her father's face without expression.
She started to hyperventilate as another face came to view in her memory and even trying to throw it off with Agent Morgan's face did not cut through the fear.
The woman had apparently given up on an answer and instead supported Ellie's body upright with an arm around her front and the other rubbing soothing circles on her back. Slowly, Ellie controlled her breathing with the woman's help and only shed a few tears.
"Okay, now?"
Ellie nodded shakily and pulled back from the woman's embrace. The woman reached into her large purse and pulled out a bottle of water. "Here."
Ellie cracked open the lid and took a sip.
"Bad dream?"
Ellie nodded again.
"Yeah, I get those, too."
"My dad was shot," Ellie found herself whispering. The first time she had spoken the words out loud and here she was voicing them to a perfect stranger. "Right in front of me."
"My dad was shot, too."
Ellie Brass had been all over. Jersey, Vegas, LA, Chicago. She thought she'd give Miami a try. She didn't turn tricks any more, that at least she'd been able to shake off. She waited tables or danced depending on what was available. She was still chasing and purging her demons. She didn't know what she would do when, or if, she finally did.
The bus was crowded and Ellie had her choice between sitting next to the little girl or the pipsqueak teenaged kid who was eyeing her and already winking to catch her attention. Not much of a competition.
The kid looked like she could be Ellie's younger sister. Hell, she could probably pass for Ellie's child and Ellie knew she was lucky she had never rolled that set of dice with all the stupid decisions she had made.
Hours passed and Ellie went into that little head space she had, trying to rest without letting her guard down. More than half the bus cleared out at one of the night spots, but Ellie didn't feel the need to move. Another hour later, and Ellie's neighbor started to twitch in her sleep. Soon the twitching turned into full on thrashing until the girl woke up, gasping for breath.
Ellie didn't have a lot of experience with kids, but she had a lot of experience with nightmares. She made soothing noises and held the girl close while rubbing the girl's back to get her breathing stable.
Despite Ellie's questions, the girl didn't answer. When she pulled away, Ellie offered a water bottle, knowing that dry and fuzzy mouth feeling all too well. She smiled as the girl carefully inspected the seal before drinking. It was something Ellie's father had taught her, one of the few things she had thought worthwhile, and she wondered who had taught the girl that trick.
With the bad dream confirmed, Ellie confided, "Yeah, I get those, too."
She was stunned when the girl spoke next. "My dad was shot. Right in front of me."
Ellie thought of bright lights and white sheets. She saw her father's unfocused eyes still manage to pinpoint her outside his room and like a coward, she had run. He was alive, that had been all she could do at the time. Maybe in a few years, she could do more.
"My dad was shot, too," Ellie said. "I wasn't there, but he got better at the hospital. I'm sorry your dad wasn't that lucky."
"He was a cop," the girl whispered.
Ellie's heart skipped several beats in a row. What were the odds?
"So is mine," Ellie whispered back, nodding at the incredulous expression on the girl's face. "Here, you cold?"
The girl had begun to shiver and Ellie noticed that her jacket-cum-blanket had slipped onto the floor. With one hand, Ellie reached for the jacket and wrapped the other around the girl's shoulders, drawing her in close and tucking the jacket around her.
"You've run away, haven't you?" Ellie asked, having seen the signs already but was willing to overlook. "Won't your mom be worried?"
"Mom left years ago. Haven't heard from her since."
And the hits kept coming. Ellie kept her breathing even, not letting the little girl next to her know how much her heart was breaking.
"Do you have a plan? It's harder if you don't have a plan."
"There's an FBI agent in DC. He was there when… He'll help me. I know it."
Ellie sighed and hugged the girl closer. So much for Miami.
Ellie held onto the woman's hand as they got off the bus. The Virginia terminal was loud and packed, so Ellie hung on tight. The woman walked with purpose and navigated the crowd of people with ease and much practice. When they reached the stands for public city transportation, Ellie studied the map with the woman as she traced the bus routes with a finger and then tapped the map at a certain location.
"This way."
Two more buses later and Ellie stood outside the FBI building in Quantico.
"You sure there isn't anyone else for you to call?" the woman asked.
"No one," Ellie answered.
"All right then."
The woman walked them in and asked the receptionist for the BAU and Special Agent Derek Morgan. Ellie selfishly hoped that they weren't out saving someone else, because she needed him again and didn't have a back up plan. But maybe, if Agent Morgan wasn't there, the woman would have an idea?
But Agent Morgan was in and only minutes later, he was kneeling in front of her in complete shock.
"Ellie? How did you get here?" he demanded.
She froze, finding that she was suddenly frightened to explain her foster home and her cross country trip which had maybe broken the law. Would he arrest her or send her back? She looked up pleadingly to the woman, whose name she still didn't know, for help.
"And you are?" Agent Morgan asked the woman, looking up with suspicion.
"I just helped her get here," the woman explained, though she had shot Ellie a quick, unreadable glance. "She said she didn't have anyone else to go to but told me she was coming here. I couldn't leave until she had found you."
The suspicion lessened somewhat and Agent Morgan stood but kept a hand on Ellie's shoulder. "Ellie, wait right here while I talk to my supervisor."
He left, but sent over a blond woman with bright clothing who watched her and the dark haired woman carefully. Ellie's traveling companion knelt down next to her and dug into her purse for something.
"You're leaving," Ellie realized, not sure why it made her sad.
The woman sighed and met Ellie's eyes. "Yeah. You know what I'm going to do?"
Ellie shook her head.
"You helped me realize something that's very important. And I really hope that this works out for you. Here."
The woman held out a palm sized teddy bear that had a pink ribbon around its neck. It wasn't new but wasn't ragged and Ellie took it carefully in her hands.
"I don't know where I'm going to be, but this is my cell phone number."
Ellie also accepted the scrap of paper which only listed the numbers.
"Call me if you need to, okay?"
"What's your name?" Ellie asked, for the first time realizing that she should have asked that awhile ago. "My name is Ellie Spicer."
The woman smiled and reached out to hug Ellie.
"Ellie Spicer, it's nice to meet you. I'm Ellie Brass."
Ellie slung her purse onto her other shoulder and switched hands on her duffle bag. The receptionist at the Las Vegas Police Department had informed her that Detective Jim Brass was at the crime lab, working with one of the CSI's assigned to his current case. Ellie had asked that receptionist if she could keep Ellie's arrival a surprise. Well, that hadn't gone over well, but the two women compromised that one of the near by officers could escort her back to the lay out room where her father was located and see if Detective Brass welcomed her surprise. Not that Ellie had said she was Brass' daughter.
She didn't see the tall, African American CSI she had met in LA. She didn't see Dr. Grissom, the only CSI whose name she had learned and remembered.
But then she saw her father from behind, sitting in the office of a blond woman since the woman was sitting on the computer side of the desk.
"Detective Brass?" the escorting officer interrupted. "Someone to see you."
When he turned, Ellie could see the last few years written on his face and knew that it was most likely a combination of her own antics and his job.
"Hi, Dad," she said simply, ignoring the looks on both the officer's and the woman's faces.
"Ellie?"
He stood and took a step closer to her hesitantly, as if she would bolt if he got too close. She didn't blame him.
She swallowed heavily, but spoke the words she had practiced on the road trip back across the country to Vegas.
"I don't need you to make a call," she started, referencing the note he had left with the teddy bear. "And I'm not much sweeter, but I'm safer and little smarter. Could we get that dinner together, maybe?"
Well, now it just sounded stupid. Before Ellie could back track, or maybe just melt into the floor, she was suddenly engulfed in strong, familiar arms. Her own arms wrapped around his midsection, wondering fleetingly where the bullet had gone into his body.
As her father walked her out the door, unwillingly to let go of one of her hands, she hoped that little Ellie Spicer was back on track with the FBI and that she'd be smart enough to learn to accept that help a lot quicker than Ellie Brass had.
Ellie Spicer had a future now, and so did Ellie Brass.