(Hey y'all! Welcome to the sequel of Count On Me! I hope y'all enjoy! As always, I love y'all. Now let's go ahead and get into this, shall we?)
David Rossi had adopted his daughter about a month ago. Taylor Wilson's name was legally changed to Taylor Rossi. The seven year old was settling well into her new life. Sure there were ups and downs, but that was to be expected, especially with the trauma she had experienced.
After Rossi had adopted her, he brought her home and let her pick which room she wanted and just how she wanted it decorated. She asked for almost the exact same things that were in her old room back in Springfield. She wanted calming grey walls and soccer stickers to hang up everywhere.
Sure she had to leave all of her friends back in Illinois, but she still asked for those pictures too, as well as a few new ones. She made sure that she took a picture with everyone on the BAU team so she could remember everyone who helped her along the way. Rossi, of course, was in more than a couple pictures.
There were nights when she woke up screaming as she remembered everything that had happened that night. Watching her parents die right in front of her. Remembering the words that he had spoken to her.
Every time Rossi would come in without hesitation and calm her. He would let her talk it out if she wanted to, but most of the times she would rather just bury her face into his chest, remembering how that man was gone and that she was safe now. She was home.
Rossi took about a week off work. He had wanted to make sure she was settled and happy before he even thought about heading back. Hotch understood. Neither of them really told the team what Dave had done after that case. Hotch always just said that he decided to take a leave to figure a few things out. Nobody argued. Everyone agreed that Rossi deserved some time off.
When he finally came back, he brought his daughter with him. He wanted to leave her at Hotch's house with Jack and Haley's sister, but she was determined to come with no matter what and ended up persuading him. She really wanted to meet the people who saved her and put away her parent's killer.
He asked Hotch first if it would be okay if she could scope the place out a bit. His friend agreed, despite the possible idea of a case.
Taylor had never experienced Rossi leaving for days at a time for work yet. He wasn't sure if he was ready for her to feel what it was like, but he had already worked out a plan for when it did happen.
She would live at Hotch's house for the time being until Rossi could come back and could pick her up. Hotch was the one who actually offered it, since neither of them had a spouse to look after their children.
When Rossi brought Taylor into the BAU it was as if the whole atmosphere had changed. He walked in, her hand in his.
Reid was the first to look up. Once he caught sight of the child, his face brightened up. He lightly tapped Morgan on the shoulder and pointed to the pair as they walked up.
Morgan smiled. He stood up, his hands in his hips. "Well there he is." He looked down at Taylor. "I don't believe we've met." He took a knee so that he was more eye level with her and held out his hand. His voice was soft and kind. "Derek Morgan." He smiled at her.
"Taylor...Rossi." She responded with a small smile. It was amazing somebody's demeanor changed when they felt safe. She still wasn't over her parents death, nothing like that. Dave just helped her look past it sometimes. He would talk her through it, telling her just how proud her parents would be of her. How they would always be watching her, happy when she was happy, grieving with her, and so on.
Neither Hotch nor Rossi spoke of the adoption, but they were profilers so they kind of figured Rossi would end up doing something along the lines of adopting Taylor. As soon as she said Dave's last name as hers, Morgan looked up at the older man with a smile.
"It's nice to meet you, Taylor. How about I introduce you to the rest of the team?" He offered, looking up at Rossi to make sure it was okay.
Taylor, too, turned around to look up at her guardian.
He nodded. "Of course!" He squeezed her shoulder. "I'll be up in Uncle Aaron's office if you need me."
Taylor nodded and followed Morgan from desk to desk.
Rossi smiled as Morgan took care of her. He turned and headed up the stairs to Hotch's office.
Since Hotch considered Rossi to be an uncle to Jack, it was only fair that it went the other way around with Taylor.
Morgan led Taylor around. First was Reid's desk.
Reid leaned forward in his chair and offered her his hand. "Hi Taylor, it's nice to finally meet you. I'm Spencer"
She took his big hand in hers and shook it as best she could. "Nice to meet you." She nodded.
They continued to move down the line. Everybody was surprised to see Taylor again, but it didn't take a profiler to fit two and two together. This was why Rossi took his leave.
"When did he come back to get you?" JJ asked quietly. Her and Prentiss stood by Emily's desk, mugs of fresh coffee in their hands.
"Last Friday." She said quietly. The amount of people in the room had started to overwhelm her. She was happy she finally was able to formally introduce herself to everyone, but people kept looking at her with questioning glances. Why would a child be in the BAU?
Morgan looked down at her and saw her fidgeting with her fingers. He set his hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up. "How about we find Rossi." He offered quietly, watching her nod. "Alright, kid, don't worry he's right up here."
He led her up the stairs and to Hotch's office. He knocked on the door, waiting for the invitation. When he heard the muffled "come in" He pushed open the door.
Both Rossi and Hotch looked towards the door, sighing with quiet relief to see that it was only Taylor and Morgan, and not JJ with a sudden case.
"Hey kiddo, did you have fun?" Rossi asked. He turned in his seat to face her. She nodded enthusiastically. He chuckled and offered a small nod to Morgan. "Thanks Morgan, I owe you one."
Morgan shook his head. "It's not big deal, Rossi." He crouched down. Taylor looked at him curiously. "Welcome to the family kid." He smiled at her and lightly tapped her nose, causing her to giggle.
Morgan saw his own way out, shutting the door behind him.
Hotch stood up from his seat. Taylor smiled up at him and ran over to him. She wrapped her arms around him. He chuckled quietly. "Hey T."
It was amazing how she had also become so attached to Rossi's best friend. At first, she wasn't so sure. When he saw the agent side of him, it scared her, but when she saw the way that he was dealing with his own son, she realized that he wasn't as hard as she first thought. All in all, she liked him.
She pulled away and walked back over to Rossi. He picked her up and set her on his lap. "Did you meet everybody?"
She nodded.
"Do you have a favorite?" He asked jokingly. Her brow furrowed. She pointed at him. He laughed and shook his head. "Other than me or Uncle Aaron."
She thought for a second and shrugged. "I really like JJ."
Rossi exchanged a look with Hotch. "You owe me ten." He said as Hotch sighed, the pair having bet about five minutes ago who Taylor would like the most.
Hotch slid the money across his desk. "Have you started school yet?" He asked, looking at the child.
She shook her head. "I'll start after Christmas, but yesterday, Dave enrolled me in soccer!" She said excitedly. She placed her hands on the desk and leaned forward.
"Wow!" Hotch smiled. "Isn't that your favorite thing, you know, in the whole world?"
"The whole wide world!" She grinned. Just the thought of playing soccer got her excited.
Another knock sounded from the door. JJ pushed open the door and held up a file. "Sorry to break up the family gathering, but we've got a case."
Rossi sighed. He was afraid this would happen. He nodded. "Hey, Hotch, I'm going to take her to your place and meet you at the airport. Brief me on the plane?"
"You got it." Hotch nodded and stood up.
When he first left her to take on a case, he had made a decent effort to explain that he wouldn't have much time on his hands, but he would try his best to call her every so often. More for her sake than his. Of course he loved checking in on her and hearing about her day, but if she didn't hear a word from him in a couple days, her mind would always flash back to the trauma. She couldn't help it. He had only let that happen once during a long case with no leads.
Rossi wasn't used to being a parent yet. He hadn't realized how hard being away from them for so long would be. He didn't know how JJ or Hotch did it.
This case had been a rough one. There had been a series of home invasions where all of the inhabitants were found dead, and smiley faces were drawn on all the walls in blood. The families ranged from low to middle class, from every race. They had nothing.
It took them almost two days to even figure out much of a profile. This unsub just seemed to be killing for the fun of it.
It was during those two days that he had no time to step away. The whole team had been working frantically to find something, anything that could give them a lead. They didn't find much.
That night Rossi had gotten a call. He excused himself from the group and headed into the next room. "David Rossi." He answered with a sigh. He rubbed his brow and shook his head, hoping his exhaustion would fade.
"Dave?" Haley's sister, Jessica's, voice spoke from the other end.
Worry shot through him. His heart began to race, the previous thought of sleep suddenly gone. "Jess? What happened? Is Taylor okay?"
"She's having a panic attack. She's been quiet for a couple hours now, but now she won't stop crying. She keeps calling for you...and her parents."
Rossi's chest began to hurt. Guilt washed over him. He couldn't be there for his daughter in her time of need. He slowly lowered himself into a chair. "Can you please give her the phone?"
"Yeah." Jessica voiced quietly as she went to give the phone to Taylor.
The seven year old was too lost to take it, so Jess put it on speaker and placed it beside her.
As soon as his child's soft cries hit his ears, he felt his own eyes water. He blinked and took a deep breath. "Taylor? Hey kiddo, it's me. I'm here. Everything's okay." He spoke softly. "Talk to me sweetie, please." His heart ached for her. "Everything's okay." He whispered again, wanting to do all he could to calm her. Usually when she had attacks like this he was there in person. He continued to repeat quiet words of comfort until she had quieted down.
She sniffled and sat up, grabbing the phone off the floor. She wiped her tears and took the phone off speaker, placing it to her ear. "I...I just...I thought.." She whimpered, her breathing uneven.
"Shhh it's okay kiddo, it's okay."
"I thought...I thought that he got you too."
Rossi's heart sank in his chest. Tears had finally fallen from his eyes. He shook his head. "He's gone Taylor, he's gone forever. He can't hurt anyone anymore."
She wiped her nose and shook her head. "I was...I was just scared. I didn't want to be left alone again."
"I know T, I know...I'm sorry."
Fast forward to a month later and the BAU team was on the flight home after a case in Ottawa, Kansas. In that small of a town, you'd figure that nothing goes on, but something definitely happened.
The unsub had been using the tiny town as a place to hide his bodies. He had killed and raped two teenage girls. He displayed his kills in the center of town for all to see. He kept each woman for about a week, but as soon as the feds came into town, he killed the last one on instinct. He didn't have time to tie her up in town either. He was caught fleeing the city with a dead teenager in his truck. He did put up a bit of a fight though. Everybody except the unsub and Rossi escaped without a scratch. The unsub's death was written off as death by cop, while Rossi was only clipped by a bullet. He was fine.
As soon as they had gotten up in the air, he pulled out his phone. By now it was tradition. After every case he would call Taylor to check up on her, just like she had called him that first night. He tried to call her every night, if he had the time of course.
He first told her that he didn't want to wake her up, especially with how late they sometimes ended up on the plane. Of course she didn't care, she just wanted to make sure he made it out safe. He could understand why.
"Hey kiddo." He said quietly once she answered.
"Hey." She breathed sleepily.
"Did I wake you?" He usually always woke her, but if he didn't call her, she'd be a worried wreck until he came home.
"What? No." A failed attempt at covering a yawn could be heard through the phone.
He rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Alright T, just checking in with you kiddo. I'll get home safe and sound. I'll pick you up tomorrow. Get some sleep."