Hello, everyone. Here is the next chapter. I hope you all like it. I just wanted to say thank you for reading and viewing my story.
Please enjoy!
In advance, I apologize for my mistakes.
Chapter 2:
Morgan left his office and walks around the BAU bullpen for the umpteenth time in a row now. As he was walking, he saw Garcia walking in-and-out of her bunker office; decorating while fixing up Reid's desk for his big return. It's been a quiet month without Reid here. A month without Reid ranting random facts or going on-and-on about Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars or some other topic that he could talk about for five minutes or longer. It just wasn't the same, even though Emily went back to the UK some time after the Müller ordeal.
Finally, a voice out of nowhere said, "Reid's not here yet."
Morgan stopped his tracks outside JJ's office, sticking his head in as he sees her doing stacks of paperwork on her desk. "What?"
"You've been walking around for almost an hour, man. Hotch went to pick him up before dropping Maddie off at school. What, you think I didn't notice?"
After walking into her office, he takes a seat on the chair and sighs in exhaustion; rubbing his temple with his finger. "Tell me, what's bothering you?"
"I think you know."
"Reid and Maddie?"
"It's been almost a month now."
Folding her fingers together, "And you don't think a month's enough. Okay…how long do you think Reid take? Another month? Six months? A year?"
"JJ, what if they both have PTSD? JJ, Maddie's almost six and she saw two people die in front of you; one of them was an older kid and the other was a bag of crap. Don't you think she's too young to have PTSD? What about Reid? He had to beat Müller to death. Think about Hotch when he had to deal with…"
"Morgan…wouldn't you do anything to protect your mother, sisters or anyone else in your family?"
"Of course."
"Look at the situations this way: Hotch did what he had to do to protect Jack from Foyet. Reid did what he had to do to protect Maddie from Müller. It was bad enough he held her for three days. Do I need to remind the people Foyet killed or what Müller did to the sixteen members of Maddie's family?"
"No thanks."
"Reid wants to come back to work and we have to be there for him and Maddie; just like we were there for Hotch and Jack."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks for the pep talk."
"Anytime, Morgan," JJ smiled as she closed her file and looked down at her watch. "I think Hotch and Reid should be here by now."
Finally getting off the elevator, he could feel all eyes were on him the second he stepped out from it. At first, others saw him as the shy and quirky boy genius doctor with the eidetic memory and brilliantly high IQ. Now, some would became to see him as Dr. Badass Papa Wolf...with eidetic memory and brilliantly high IQ. Random workers said as they passed by him,
"Hey, way to go, man. You really drilled Müller."
"Hey, really, it's good you're back, doc."
"You showed Müller whose boss, Dr. Papa Bear." A petite woman said, winking as she passed by him.
"Yeah, thanks." Hotch opened the glass doors to the bullpen area for himself and Reid. Once they got there,
"Welcome back, pretty boy." Morgan walked over and wrapped his arm around him.
"Yes, Reid! Welcome-welcome back, my most favorite boy genius in the entire universe!" Garcia ran up to Reid—even though she was wearing chunky heel shoes—and gave him a big hug, nearly squeezing him. "I really missed you! I really missed you with all my love in my big heart."
"Ye-ahhh!" Reid could feel the tension in his ribs. "Careful, Garcia. I'm still feeling a bit sore."
"Oopsie. Sorry, buddy. Let me help you," After she generously helped Reid get comfortable at his desk, she brings out a serving tray filled with of multi-colored cake pops and cake balls. "Have one. I know I've already said this, but we all missed you, especially me."
"We all missed you, Reid," Rossi said, patting him on the back. "Well, they missed you. I barely missed you."
"You did miss you, silly man." Garcia stepped into the conversation.
"No I didn't." Rossi tries to deny.
"You so missed him," JJ joined in as he gives her a look. "You just don't want to admit it. You were partially asking us when was Reid was coming back and would whine when he didn't."
"Okay-okay-okay, I'll admit it: I did miss you."
"Aww. You missed me, Rossi?"
"Yes, Reid. I did miss you."
"Really? Because I want to be caught up in what's been going on since I've been gone. And…there's so much I want to tell you all."
"And…goodbye." Rossi rushes back into his office before Reid could go back into Reid in rambling mode. As Reid went into this desk to find his papers,
"Hey," He looks up and sees Morgan towering over him. "We're all here for you and Maddie. If you two need anything…"
"I'm fine. And thank you. For all your help." After seeing Morgan leave to go to his office, his eyes focuses on a picture he had on his desk. It was a recent picture of him and Maddie, laughing and smiling together. He just prayed and hoped after the experience she encountered, she would be able to open up to him.
The Lockwood School in the afternoon…
It was just another one of those typical school days for Maddie.
After being dropped off at school this morning by Hotch and Reid, she did what she would do every morning. She greeted the rest of her classmates and put her backpack away, she went to her assigned desk and watched for her teacher to get started.
Now it was already half-an-hour pasted noon and Maddie's kindergarten teacher, Ms. Irwin, dressed in a blouse and black slacks, cardigan and flats with her hair in a bun, began greeting her students after an hour of lunch and recess.
Soon, she told them that they had thirty minutes to themselves before they began today's mathematics lesson after they have their snack. As the small students wonder around the classroom, Maddie just sat at her desk with her head down. For the past few days, that was all she was doing during her free time. She just didn't feel like reading the works by Edgar Allen Poe or Isaac Asimov. For some reason, she just want to do nothing. And at the same time, she felt so tired….and sleepy.
She just wanted to close her eyes for a while…just for a little while…
Maddie woke up and found herself in her room. Sighing in relief, she felt completely safe; getting the feeling no one can hurt her now. Her moment of peacefulness came to a halt when she looked down and saw her restrained by a leather belt and her wrists in cable zip ties.
"It's so nice to see you awake, Maddie." Her biological father said, towering over her.
"Ahh!"
Maddie felt herself falling out of her seat and onto the puzzle carpet.
She could see everyone staring at her. It was just like when Maddie back from school for the first time after what happened with…she knew who. When her teacher was about to being with opening exercise, Ms. Irwin pointed out to Maddie that hats weren't to be wore during school time and that Maddie was still wearing her pink baseball hat. Already feeling embarrassed, Maddie took her hat off and she could see everyone looking at her; taking airless gasps while whispering about her. All her classmates saw her as the smart mousy girl with long medium brown hair. Now they would start to see her as the smart mousy girl with the short mishandled crop haircut.
"Maddie!" Her teacher rushed to her side. "Maddie? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"Yeah," Maddie lied through the skin of her teeth as she shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, I-I'm okay. I-I-I mean…I'll be okay."
"Ms. Irwin," One of her classmates—her least favorite classmate out of everyone else—Jessica Sawyer said while standing with her two friends beside her, "She's probably faking it to get out of class early."
"Jessica," Ms. Irwin said to Jessica before turning her attention back to Maddie. "Maddie, why don't you go to the nurse's office?"
"Ms. Irwin…"
"Maddie, please…"
"Okay," Maddie said as she collected herself. "I'll go."
"Here you go." Ms. Irwin handed her a white hall pass before opening the door for her. "I'll call the nurse and tell her you're on your way."
"Okay and thank you." Before Maddie left the classroom,
"Freak." Jessica said before giggling with her two cohorts, only to be scolded by Ms. Irwin.
"Jessica! That's enough."
As she was walking down the hall, she shook her head. All she wanted was for all these-these…memories and flashbacks of what happened to her to just go away. Go away and don't ever bother to come back. In her mind, she wanted to talk to someone—if not anyone—about it. But at the same time…she just didn't want to.
Please review; constructive criticism is always appreciated.