Chapter 1

If they hadn't made stops it would have been 30 hours in a car with four children under 8, a very protective, well trained ex-military German shepherd, and two adults, is more than enough to drive two said adults crazy, luckily besides the stops, they had paid for the DVD players with Headphones to be installed for their children, and the Bacon back cargo area, was turned into a dog haven for Jethro. A comfortable bed, dog toys, including bacon flavored dog bones designed to clean dog teeth. They had stopped in Lima to see Blaine, Mina and Lucas. Cooper was in L.A., Lucas was his usual intolerant self, but he knew how to be polite to people he didn't like, or even people he was intolerant of. It was that British heritage that, Lucas, and Jacob Anderson's father rarely spoke about. The ability to be polite although sarcastic to people you dislike or even hate, Blaine had it in spades, and so did, Jodie, Jane, and Pepper. Babette had worked so hard to become who she wanted, to hell with who her family had raised her to be, her Uncle Frank's tender mercies were enough to turn her into the brash, Brassy, loud and overly Kind Gossip Queen Stars Hollow had come to love. But she had no ability to find her emotions, and hide as she did as a child, and that was part of the problem, as a teenager after the abuse was over, she wanted to be the opposite of who Frank had groomed her to be. And then Barbara became Babette. Frank was imprisoned and died in prison, not of an attack but of a simple burst appendix, he had a daughter, who became an early member of the BAU, and then a profiler for missing and exploited children section at the FBI. She eventually burnt out and spent the rest of her days on the Ponderosa.

After stopping in Lima, they traveled for half a day or so, until making it to Helena, Oklahoma, they refueled, and took care of the car, and like in Lima, they had called ahead to meet their relatives. Eliot's father Hank, developmental disabled older brother 47 year old Junior, Baby sister Jessie Mae, Brother-in-law, Alfalfa County Sheriff department's Deputy Matthew "Deck" Decker, and daughters, 7 year old Anna Leigh, 6 year old Callie Marie and 4 year old Mattie Grace were all expecting them. They would stay with the Decker's overnight. Jessie Mae was the same age as Abby, and Eliot was one or two years older, and Junior was 47.

It was a Tuesday, so the Decker's girls were in school, Hank and Junior were working at Globe Market, a job they got compliment of Jodie, as a favor to Eliot. Deck was working the town, and Jessie was running the Main Street diner she owned, she of course she had help. A Cook, and three waitresses, one of which former prom Queen or not was also the assistant manager. The small town which only held 1,400 residents employed thanks to the market, Red Shed, The Local Bargain Village, a box store competing with Valumore and Price Co, and the James Crabtree Correctional Center, provided jobs for residents in all of Alfalfa County, and select few from outside the county. Hank was for some reason Stubborn about not talking to Eliot, even going so far as to send back to money Eliot sends. When they arrived in Helena they refueled, and arrived at the Main Street Diner, where they as planned met Jessie Mae Decker. Jethro in the car, with the windows cracked, water, and blankets to keep him warm. It was a November 14th, and around fifty degrees outside. Not what they were used to dealing with in DC, or Stars Hollow it reminded Jodie of her childhood in Los Angeles. 50 degrees in late autumn was actually a fairly cold day there. And both women knew that was true here. They made it into the diner with their brood. Jessie came out behind the counter.

"Jodie Anderson, it's about time you showed up. This must be Abby it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Abby said.

"These your babies?" Jessie said smiling.

"All four of them, Andy, Ellie, Pep and Katie. Andy's 7, Ellie's 6, and the twins are 4."

"I'll get you a table you must be starving." She found them a large table and two Booster seats. She handed them two adult menus and four children menus. Jodie and Abby both got, Medium Well burgers with everything on them, Abby got well done fries, and Jodie got Onion rings, Andy got a turkey sandwich and a side salad, Ellie got burger lettuce, tomato, Cheese and Ketchup, The twins got chicken fingers with fries. After lunch, Jessie left the diner and showed her cousin around her town. Jodie insisted on making dinner for Jessie and her family, she decided on fried chicken, mashed potatoes with cream gravy, biscuits and chocolate cake, they got the ingredients and picked the Decker girls from school. Both sets of children got along famously, and Jodie went about making a feast for everybody, Deck got home about a quarter to six and dinner was on the table. And he had relatives to meet.

They had a fun, filled dinner filled with chit chat and laughs. They put on the Movie Monsters Inc. for the children, and adults cleaned up the meal.

"So how is Eliot?" Jessie had kept quiet this long she really wanted to know.

"He's fine he's working for a company that does good work he had tried to get past your father's front door last year, but he obviously didn't come and visit you."

"He didn't. And Junior obviously wasn't home, he was probably with his choir."

"Choir?"

"Yeah, Junior joined the church choir for all his disabilities he's as a gifted a singer as Eliot, they travel the gospel circuit pretty often, Pastor White and Cherry Decker, Deck's older sister take pretty good care of him. Eli must be pretty lonely."

"He's got his team, who has become his family, and he has Lance."

"Lance?" Deck asked.

"Your Aunt Laverne's son, she abandoned him in Delaware while she did the Psychic Carnival Circuit thing, he was abused adopted by an elderly couple named the Finlay's, He He's getting married later this year to a graduate student named Daisy Wick, In truth, the only difference between Lance Sweets and Lance Finlay, was that Laverne had not used Lance's father's name on the Birth Certificate. Jodie was not sure why in one time like she did, and in another time like she didn't, and why in one time like, Lance, decided to take the Finlay's last name, and in another he didn't it was quite confusing.

"We want to meet Lance, and see Eli, again." Jessie said.

"We have their numbers for you." Abby said.

"What's this Lance fella like?" Deck said.

"Well, he looks a bit like Blaine to be honest, but that's probably a coincidence, he's a psychologist and a profiler for the FBI, he works closely with Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan at the Jeffersonian. And although he was trained in Profiling he never went to the BAU, instead becoming a Clinical psychologist within the FBI, and seeing the agents in the capacity, as well as getting himself assigned as team psychologist, to Jeffersonian team."

"Sounds like he's very intelligent and knew what he wanted." Deck said.

"He is, he's also, he's very in a way innocent despite the horrors he endured in foster care, and horrors he sees on the job, because despite everything he still believes that people can be saved, and that lets him down often enough, but he was completely untrained just a clinical psychologist with profiling ability when he entered the bureau, Eliot and Jane and Jeff trained him completely they figured if he was going to be hanging around the Jeffersonian team often enough he needed to be able to provide back up. He still doesn't carry a gun, but his hands are now lethal weapons and his body is no longer looks like it belongs to a 12 year old girls, Daisy is very pleased with the outcome of his extra-curricular training." Jodie said.

They next day, they had breakfast at the diner, and Hank Spencer, and Junior joined them. The children were unhappy that their parents were making them eat just whatever kind of eggs they wanted, with toast, breakfast meat, and Juice and Milk, and No diner food, no pancakes, no French toast, no hash browns, or home fries. The Decker kids, were the same, their Mom, made the same and they all had to have.

"Hello, Josephine." Hank said.

"Hi, Uncle Hank, Hi, junior." Josie said. 'This is my wife Abby, and our children Andy, Ellie, Pep, and Katie."

"Dad is actually your Great-Uncle." Junior said.

"True but Great-Uncle Hank is a mouthful don't you think Junior?" Jodie said.

"I suppose." Junior said placated.

"I'm sorry, we haven't really seen each other since Aunt Marie died." Which was around the same time that they shut Eliot she knew she did the Math. Eliot joined the Army right after and then when the town went Bargain Village, was unable to help.

"That was my choice, you've been there for us, I suppose I have you to thank for our jobs at the Market?"

"Your family when Eliot told me a Market was coming to your hometown and to find you a job, It didn't take much convincing, there was already a Red Shed Here, if there was no job at Globe I would have found you a job at Red Shed."

"I'm happy with my job at the Market, and Junior is happy with his job as a Box and bag boy." He sighed. "Did Eliot really ask?"

"Yes, I have no idea when one of my companies is opening a store somewhere, I have no many companies, he came to me told me Globe was opening a market, and asked. I called Corporate they said they'd take care of it. I called Aunt Babette, and Jane to make sure they put in a word too, they did, and with all three of us backing the request they really had no choice but to give you a job. I hope it didn't upset you that I did that."

"No, I was grateful, child, I was married too many years to a Cartwright not to know how they think. And family takes care of family. I'd worked as a Driver's Ed teacher before that, Part time, but it didn't really pay the bills. I was considering moving to the Ponderosa, I was too old to get a job at the Prison, and I'd never willingly work for Bargain Village, in Virginia City we'd be welcomed, and put to work without a second thought but I didn't want to miss my grandbabies growing up." That made sense, any Cartwright related by blood, adoption or marriage was welcome at the Ponderosa. At any time, it was run by More of Joseph Cartwright's descendants. And any of us would be welcomed with opened arms, Spencer Reid, if he had showed up in the original history before Jodie changed it, with his mother in tow, would have welcomed. The Cartwrights thought of family first, Frank was the odd man out, He hadn't abused anyone since the late 70s, but his 4 pack a day cigarette habit has made him weak, and riddled his body with cancer, it won't be long before he dies. His daughter who was raised by her mother and never met him, and worked for the BAU, and then Missing and Exploited children, was the famous Katie Cole. Not that she admitted it to most people. Although she did like most of her Cartwright relatives that she knew.

A few days after entering Helena the Scuito-Anderson Brood left, and made their way to Stallion's gate, New Mexico. Abby Convinced Jodie not to stop in and see Mary Shannon that she would not be well received and she was right, she wouldn't have been. Less than a day later and they were in Stallion's gate, and were approaching the Quantum Leap complex. They made it there in one piece. And their newest set of adventures were just beginning. But Abby and Jodie knew as long as they stuck together they could handle anything, well almost anything, losing one of their babies would break them, and they knew it. Jodie tensed at the thought, and Abby rubbed the back of her hand, knowing what her other hand was thinking, Jodie calmed. They parked the car, and went through security, and two adults, four children under 8, and an overprotective military trained German shepherd made their way to conference room.