Disclaimer: Criminal Minds and all its characters belong to CBS. I don't own any of them.
This story will feature my favourite team (Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Emily, JJ and Reid) There is no particular season that I am looking at. Haley and Jack exist but they are in protective custody. Will and Henry don't exist.
This is a de-aging story and most of my inspirations came from Turning back time by Maxandkiz as well as I kid you not! by ev1lregal.
Twin SUVs pulled up outside an abandoned warehouse and the 6 profilers in charge of the case got out of the vehicles. The team is currently in Las Vegas pursuing an Unsub who was responsible for the death of 5 children who had no identities; or so the local police had initially thought. With further digging and checks courtesy of Garcia, they realised that they were not without identities. In fact, they were not even children (before the unsub got to them)! Garcia managed to run their fingerprints through the system, matching them to 5 adults– Barry Davis, Kelly Auburns, Randy Evans, Sam Brown and Jessica Adams.
After working tirelessly for the past 4 days, they managed to find a connection between the 5 victims. They had all signed up to be experiment subjects of one Ben Watkins. The retired doctor was previously fired by his hospital for trying to coerce his patients to be subjects of his experiments. But it looks like the doctor had managed to find new subjects on his own.
"JJ, Morgan and Prentiss take the basement. Rossi and Reid, you're with me." Hotch ordered, as the team prepared to raid the abandoned warehouse where their unsub was hiding at. "Be careful." He added, "We still have no idea how he managed to de-age his victims."
Rossi, Reid and Hotch trudged carefully into the large warehouse, with Rossi heading up the stairs on the left while Reid took the right. Hotch stayed on the first floor, surveying the empty space, trying to find for clues. Suddenly, a gunshot followed by a scream was heard. Rossi and Reid dashed down the stairs to find Hotch looking around on high alert. "Basement" he said, before any of the agents could speak.
"Was that JJ?" Reid asked, concerned. "I'm pretty sure I heard a gunshot Aaron" Rossi added as the 3 rushed down the stairs to find their remaining teammates. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, they saw smoke billowing out from the small door that marked the entrance of the basement. "Cough... Cough… Morgan? JJ? Prentiss?" Hotch called out as he squinted his eyes through the smoke, using his left hand to clear the smoke in front of him. However, when he managed to get a glimpse of what was in front of him, the BAU leader was stunned. In front of them were the 3 agents who had turned into children.
"What the…." Rossi mumbled as he took in the sight in front of him. There was no doubt that the 3 children in front of them were JJ, Morgan and Emily. Despite looking like kids, they were all covered in clothes that they were wearing earlier in the day. Before the 3 men could make another move, the kids were wide awake. "Hotch… What happened?" a 10-year-old version of Morgan asked. "We got de-aged didn't we?" a small voice belonging to Emily piped up.
From what the 3 men could see, Morgan was about 10, Emily, 6 and youngest, JJ was only about 3. Finally, Hotch got out of his stupor and walked towards the 3 kids. He bent down to pick up the guns before stopping at JJ to pick her up. Ignoring the small protest from the girl, the BAU leader removed the Kevlar vest and made sure the white shirt she was wearing was long enough to cover her properly. He turned towards the rest of his team who were still in shock. "Rossi, Reid help Morgan and Emily out of this place. We will discuss about this outside."
Like Hotch, Rossi moved to pick Emily up. However, unlike JJ who gave in to her boss, Emily was ready to put up a fight. "There is no way that you are carrying me out of this place Rossi." Emily challenged, giving Rossi what she thought was a death stare. However, it only turned out to be a cute side eye, which made Rossi -and Reid- snigger slightly. This did not sit well with the feisty brunette as she stomped her foot on the floor. Unknowingly, tears sprung in her eyes and she looked like any 6-year-old who was ready to cry.
This made Reid and Rossi guilty as they looked at each other, thinking of ways to calm Emily. Morgan who was quiet throughout the exchange stepped in to help the men.
"Emily, you can no longer fit in your shoes. You wouldn't want to walk out of this place barefooted right? Besides, you could take this opportunity to rope Rossi into buying new shoes for you." He whispered the last part to Emily, knowing how much she loved her shoes.
Thinking about the new suede boots that she can get – or rather sparkly sneakers (now that she was a child), Emily relented, lifting her arms. Silently thanking Morgan, Rossi picked the light brunette into his arms, patting Reid on his shoulders as if to say "Good luck with the tough one now."
To Reid's surprise, Morgan was more than willing for Reid to take him out the place, and unlike the girls, he was not going to be shy to hitch a ride. Before Reid could even speak, Morgan had ordered him to turn around. "Turn around?" Reid asked, puzzledly. "Yes, of course. How do you think you're going to give me a piggy back if you're facing me?" Morgan replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Outside, Hotch had gotten JJ strapped into the backseat of the SUV, noting that she was way too small to ride on her own at the moment. The BAU leader had stepped out of the SUV, not before covering her up in his jacket as he pondered his next move.
He was deep in thought when Rossi and Reid came out of the warehouse carrying Emily and Morgan respectively. "Was there an issue? Why did you guys take so long?" Hotch questioned as Rossi strapped Emily into the seat beside JJ. "Do not even –" Rossi started, before a "I wasn't being that difficult" from Emily was heard. Looking at the exchange between the 2 agents, Hotch decided to drop the question.
"Hotch, you know that JJ is too small to ride in the seat on her own right? In fact it's actually against the law for children …." Reid said as he put Morgan down in the back of the SUV. However, before he could finish the sentence, Hotch interjected, "Now's not the time Reid. And since you've addressed the issue, JJ is riding on your lap to the hospital."
"The hospital Hotch? I don't think we should go to the hospital now. The media would have a field day if they even catch the slightest whiff that FBI agents are turned into children. They did not even know that the victims were adults-turned-children!" Rossi replied.
"Alright then, Rossi and Reid, bring them back to the hotel and I will head back to the station." Before Rossi or Reid could argue that they were not the types for baby-sitting, Hotch had already taken the other SUV.
"Agent Hotchner! You've got a parcel. It's in the room that your team is using." A local police officer said as Hotch stepped into the station. "A parcel?" Hotch raised his eyebrows. He was not expecting anything and no one other than the FBI knew that the team was here. They had hardly made a statement to the press about the case this time round.
True to the officer's words, there was a parcel in the middle of the table. Hotch walked towards the medium sized box and opened it cautiously. There was nothing else in the box other than a small note. The note said, "To the BAU: Hotch, find me for the cure. Only one can be chosen. Make the decision fast. End one of their childhoods now." Ben Watkins have given them a riddle to find him.
Back in the hotel, Reid and Rossi were surprisingly good at getting the kids settled and comfortable. After recovering from the initial shock of being de-aged, they were now in between the stages of denial and acceptance of their new physical appearances.
JJ had fallen asleep on the way back to the hotel, her head lolled on Reid's chest as he held her protectively on his lap. Emily was also nearly asleep, but due to her age, she was better at fighting off sleep. When they reached the hotel, Reid had shifted JJ, carrying her up as he got out of the car while holding the door open for Morgan. Rossi took care of Emily, lifting her into his arms despite her soft protests.
"Just go to sleep Emily." Rossi said softly.
He smiled to himself as he felt her head drop onto his shoulders and the weight in his arms getting heavier.
Reid and Rossi decided to head into Rossi's room as they got the 2 girls settled into the large bed in the middle. Morgan had adamantly refused to take a nap, arguing that he was an adult who "did not need naps".
Seeing that the pre-teen was not going to settle down any time soon, Rossi decided to ask him what exactly happened in the basement.
"We went down, and Watkins was there, ready with a gun and a gas mask. He shot the gas which made us all pass out. I only remember hearing JJ scream and a slight pinch before I passed out." Morgan relayed.
"Well, at least now we know how he de-aged his victims. Gas and injections." Rossi said. "Let's hope that Hotch has more to work with."
"Guys, don't you think we should tell Garcia about this?" Reid said as he tried to liven the sudden silence that fell. "I think she would like to know that her teammates are de-aged. Imagine the shopping that she will do!" The last statement was directed at Morgan who in turn looked at the genius in horror. "No,she wouldn't!"
"I heard she is quite into bold colours nowadays." Rossi added with a smirk as he whipped out his cell to give Garcia a call.
"Hello. Rossi? How did the raid go? Did you manage to get the sick, twisted doctor?"
"Um Garcia, see something happened at the warehouse." Rossi said.
"Something happened? What happened? Did something happen to one of you guys? I'm coming. Which hospital are you at now–" Garcia rambled on as she stood up from her seat, ready to book the first flight to Las Vegas.
"Calm down baby girl. Everything's fine." Morgan shouted, eliciting a stare from Rossi as Emily stirred in her sleep.
"Rossi? Who is that sweet child calling me baby girl?" Before Rossi could explain the situation, Garcia squealed, "Don't tell me my chocolate god of thunder is a child now. He is isn't he?"
"Yes Garcia, and so are JJ and Emily." Reid added. "Morgan's 10, Emily's 6 and JJ's only 3."
"They are all children? You are telling me that I get not one, not two but THREE furry little friends to shop for? Ok this is it. The stores are calling for me. Tell Hotch I will be downtown shopping for them." With that, the BAU tech analyst put down the phone, leaving the 2 men and 1 child to look among themselves.
"Well that went well." Morgan said.
A/N: Please review. Be kind this is my first fanfiction. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter (:
