Once up the stairs, Charlotte began to panic seeing all the people around: not only was the BAU team there, but local police and EMT's had also joined. Emily felt her tense up before she buried her head in her shoulder.
"Shhh, it's ok sweetie. You're safe." Emily kept repeating to her, hoping if she said it enough maybe Charlotte would start to believe it.
She took her into the kitchen where the EMT's were, and tried to set her down on the counter, but Charlotte refused to let go of Emily.
"Charlotte, I'm not going anywhere, I promise. I'm just going to set you down here so the doctors can help you." She explained.
Charlotte still didn't want to let go of Emily, but couldn't risk making her mad. She had already been too nice. "I'm sowry" she said, letting go of Emily so she could put her down. "I'm sowry, no hurt pease?" She asked, with fear back in her eyes.
"No sweetheart, no hurt." Emily confirmed, holding her hand. "Never hurt."
The EMT saw quickly that the girl needed a lot of exams and medical treatment, but that wasn't going to be easy. After a quick assessment, she determined that the only thing that needed immediate attention was the cut on her leg.
"Im just going to take a look at this cut." She told her, starting to lift the tape.
Charlotte winced and looked quickly from the EMT to Emily, not sure how to respond.
"No!" She said, clearly scared of what the EMT would do.
"Charlotte she's just going to look at your cut, I promise she won't hurt you. Look I'm right here." Emily reasoned.
Charlotte nodded, more confused than anything. The EMT saw the cut and wrapped a new clean bandage around it.
"She needs stitches and a full exam" she explained to Emily "but with this level of trauma, it can be done under anesthesia." Emily nodded, agreeing that was their best option.
Emily turned back to Charlotte and held her arms out.
Charlotte waited for a minute, still not sure if she could trust her, but decided to go back into them. Emily held her in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital. When they got there, they were taken straight to a private room on the peds floor. A doctor came in with a mask that had anesthesia going through it. She passed it to Emily who held it up for Charlotte.
"This" she explained to her, "is just air. But it's special air for you to breathe that will help you feel better. I'm going to hold it up for your mouth, and I want you to take a few deep breaths of it, ok? I promise that it will not hurt you."
Charlotte was very skeptical, but she wasn't allowed to say no to adults, and she knew bad things would happen if she did.
She nodded, determined to be brave, and Emily held it up in front of her mouth. Charlotte was knocked out after just a few breaths from her sheer exhaustion and low weight. The doctors got right to work changing her into a hospital gown and putting an IV in her before beginning their examination. One of he nurses lead Emily out, promising to update her and her team as soon as they had more information, and took her out to the waiting room.
The team was waiting for her in the waiting room.
"So..?" Hotch started
Emily took a breath and sat down with them. "Her names Charlotte. She's maybe 5 or 6? Clearly suffered horrible abuse, physically, mentally, and I'd guess sexually as well. She referred to Hosben as 'master' and lived in the basement there." She told them.
"Geez, we didn't even profile him as having any kids.. and Garcia didn't find any birth certificates with him listed as the father." Morgan pointed out.
"I know" Prentiss sighed. "My guess is that he kidnapped and raped the mother, she escapes, has the baby, then he finds the two of them and kidnaps them again."
"That would mean the mom either ran away or died" Hotch said.
"Statistically, kidnapping victims of opportunity don't live past 48 hours if they're lucky" Reid said "and if they are to escape, escaping again would just be very unlikely."
"Not to mention, she would try to take the kid" Rossi added.
"Which means she probably is dead" Hotch said grimly. "Let me see if Garcia can find anything" he said, and walked to other side of the room to call her.
"Um BAU?" A nurse said, coming out into the waiting area.
They all stood, ready to hear her news.
"As it turns out" she started, "the girl you brought in, Charlotte, was actually born here. She's six years old. We have her records here. Her mom had her here and didn't list a father on the birth certificate. There weren't any complications and she went home with Charlotte pretty soon after. That's all we have on the girl. We also, however, were able to find her mothers death certificate because our hospital responded to a 911 call that she died in.. she drowned after overdosing." She explained.
"So Hosben finds her and the kid, get them again, then stages the death to make it seem like an accident, get 911 there, but still has Charlotte." Rossi summed up to his team.
"How old was Charlotte when her mom died?" Hotch asked, rejoining the conversation.
"She would have been around 3" the nurse answered.
"And how is she.. now?" Emily asked
"Well" the nurse said with a sad sigh, "to put it bluntly, she's the worst case of abuse this hospital has ever seen. Extremely underweight, dehydrated, has healed broken ribs, leg, and wrist, bruises everywhere, cigar burns, chemical burns, her skin is completely raw on her legs from, my guess, being held in a scalding bath. Her leg now has stitches, her clothes were filthy, and she's been repeatedly raped and sodomized. Her anesthesia started to wear off and she was freaked out when the saw the doctor examining her, she tried to rip out her IV and run. We put in more medicine to keep her unconscious, but we can't put her through any more trauma, wether she's awake or not. She's going to be asleep for hopefully a few hours now to let her body rest. We called social services, they're on their way. Please tell me you caught whoever did this to her?" She asked.
Reid nodded. "We did." He told her.
"Good" she replied. "I have to get back to work, but ask anyone at the desk and they'll get me if you have any other questions. Social services will be here soon." She said, and went back to her floor.
The whole team was silent for a minute; no one knew how to reply to the information they had just gotten.
Morgan was the first to break the silence. "That son of a bitch" he simply said.
They started to get their things together but no one was ready to leave.
Hotch pulled Emily aside.
"Are you ok, Emily? I know that was hard to hear" He asked
"Hotch what's um, what's going to happen to Charlotte now? I mean once social services gets here?" She asked him
"They'll try to find a foster family as soon as possible but, she'll probably end up in an orphanage for at least a few days" he answered, rubbing his face.
"Hotch she can't be in an orphanage. She couldn't even be around a doctor without being sedated. Even most foster homes couldn't possibly ha-"
"Emily, what are you saying?" He asked curiously, cutting her off.
"That I want to foster her." She told him.
"That's dangerous, Emily. That's mixing work and your personal life, and you don't know the full extent of her damage and-"
Now Emily cut him off. "Hotch. That girl needs me. I'm not going to leave her now."
He nodded, still hesitant, but understanding. "I get it. Stay and talk to social services. I'll fill the rest of the team in and check in with you later" he said.
"Thank you." She replied.
Thanks for reading! As always, reviews are much appreciated! I hope you're enjoying it.
