From Chicago, With Love – Chapter 3
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"Momma!" Derek went to her and hugged her tightly.
Releasing her, he then hugged his sisters.
"What are you doing here?" He asked them.
"We heard about Devon…" His mother, Fran, replied. "What are you and your team doing here?" She looked at the BAU team strangely.
"Do you know this kid?" Derek stared at her.
Fran nodded, "Sarah and Nora, Devon's mother, they take the same college class together."
Derek looked at his older sister.
"Sarah?"
She was looking over at the playground in distraught, "Devon was out there with some neighborhood kids playing, Derek," She turned back walked up to him, "they were playing hide and seek and Piggy said he was hiding over there in the barrels…and…and then he was gone!"
Derek nodded, "Who's Piggy?"
She pointed at an Asian boy who was slightly plump and was crying as his mother was trying to console him.
Emily, standing beside Derek walked with him and approached the mother and son, "Hi, I'm Agent Emily Prentiss, can I talk to your son, ma'am?"
The Asian woman nodded, "He's very upset, Devon's his best friend."
Emily nodded, "I understand," She turned to the little boy and squatted down to his level and smiled, "Hey…what's your name?"
He turned his head towards his mother shyly as he wrapped his chubby arms around her leg, "Howard Chung." He said softly.
"I'm Emily, how are you, Howard?"
He nodded as he sucked on his thumb, "Everyone calls me Piggy 'cause I like to eat." His mother blushed as Derek arched his brow.
Emily grinned, "That's a funny name. Do you know when I was in the 2nd grade, everyone called me Princess?" She rolls her eyes for effect. "They make fun of me because for Halloween my mother dressed me up as a Disney Princess, Snow White," She and the boy laughed together as Emily continued, "So now everyone calls me Princess, especially Agent Morgan over there." She pointed at Derek.
Piggy giggled and nodded, "You don't look like a Princess."
Emily grinned. "I know right? I'm quite grown up now but I still play games and I heard you were playing a game today?"
He nodded.
"Did you and Devon play hide and seek?"
He nodded again, "We all did."
Emily nodded, "It's fun when lots of people play. So, Piggy, where did you and Devon hide?" Emily tilted her head.
Piggy turned towards a set of concrete barrels, "Over there, we're not 'spose to hide there but Devon wanted to, he said all the kids hide there anyways." He shrugged.
"Did you see anyone? Any adults nearby?" Emily asked. She saw Piggy's hesitation. "A stranger? It's okay, Piggy. You're not gonna get in trouble if you tell us. You want to help us find Devon, right?"
He nodded sadly. And turning his gaze up at his mother who nodded and prodded at him, he turned back to Emily, "She was dark skin like Devon and him."
Emily looked up at Derek in surprise; their UnSub was a female!
"What else does she look like?" Emily asked, trying to maintain her calm.
"She has long hair like her," Piggy was pointing over to Derek's sister, Sarah's hair who had thin long braids. "And she had black spot near her eye right here." He indicated on his right eye.
Emily looked at Derek who nodded, "Might be a mole or a birth mark."
"Have you seen her before? Is she a neighbor?"
He shook his head, "Stranger…she's a stranger. She wears Chicago Bulls shirt."
Emily smiled at the small boy, "Wow, Piggy, you're such a big help, thank you so much. Can I have a hug?" She asked him.
He smiled at her shyly as he nodded and held his arms wide and hugged her.
"Oh…she had a butterfly on her neck. Right here." Piggy said to her in her ear as he touched the left side of her neck before he released his hug from her and grinned.
Emily stared at him and nodded, "Thank you, Piggy. You are a lot of help." She reached down in her pocket and pulled some notes and handed it to him, "Here, give this to your mommy, go to McDonalds for dinner." She smiled.
He nodded as he turned around and handed the money to his mother and jumped happily.
His mother nodded.
Emily said, "Thank you, Mrs. Chung, your son helped a lot."
"I hope you find Devon, he and my Howard are very close friends." She said before she hustled her son away while the happy Piggy was jumping happily and chatting away.
"Well," Derek was watching the departing mother and son. "There goes a happy kid."
Hotch, Rossi, and JJ came to stand before Derek and Emily. "Anything helpful?" Hotch asked.
"Our UnSub is a woman; she is African-American and has a butterfly tattoo on her neck and a mole or maybe a birthmark near her right eye."
"You got all that from that kid?" Rossi's eyebrow was arched high. "He must have a very clear view of her, and she doesn't seem to be afraid of being seen by others." Rossi stared after the child. "I wish we had more of that kind of witnesses, makes our jobs a whole lot easier."
"Oh yeah, he said "She was wearing a Chicago tee shirt with a bull on it. …I don't know what that means." Emily said.
Dave and Derek exchanged incredulous looks, "Don't you know anything about basketball?" Dave looked at her as if she was from another planet.
Emily shook her head, "Not a clue."
"You've been hanging around Reid too much." Derek grinned as he shook his head.
"What?" She frowned. "Is there any significance in the shirt?"
Dave and Derek chuckled, "You've got Reid's genes, kiddo." Dave said as they walked away. "UnSub was wearing a Chicago Bulls Tee-shirt."
"What?" Emily frowned, "What about this Chicago Bull?"
"It's Chicago Bulls, I'll explain later." Derek said.
Hotch was on the phone to Garcia, "Can you search the Chicago medical database and hospital records for African-American women who had previously had children, possibly lost a child approximately seven years ago with butterfly tat. on her neck on her left side?"
"Gotcha…will call back when I have something, Mon Capitan. "
He ended the call and turned to JJ, "We can prepare a media brief and release an APB too."
JJ nodded as she approached the detectives.
Hotch nodded to Morgan and Emily, "Let's continue with our search around the neighborhood." They nodded. "Dave and I will take this half and you and Prentiss will cover the other half. We'll meet back in a couple of hours or until it gets dark."
Derek and Emily nodded as he walked up to where his mother and sisters had been talking to some other adults.
Fran turned to Derek and smiled sadly when she noticed her son approaching.
"Derek, how have you been?'
He nodded to her, "I'm good, Momma."
"Anything on Devon?" Sarah came to stand before them. She began to watch her brother and Emily.
Derek shook his head, "No, nothing yet. His little friend got a good look at whoever took him though. We're holding a press conference in a bit."
"You have a suspect already?" Fran asked them.
Emily shook her head, "No, it's a sketch base on Piggy…er the little boy's description."
Sarah frowned at Emily, "So, you just believe him and use his description and released it to the public?"
Derek glared at her, "What're trying to imply, Sarah?"
She eyed Emily then at Derek and back at Emily, "Piggy described a black woman, Derek." She said resentfully.
"And you have a problem?" He stood between her and Emily.
"He described just about every black woman in the neighborhood, Derek, with long braids! Look at me!"
"Sarah!" Fran exclaimed. "Enough!"
"She has distinctive markings." Emily said quietly. "It'll be released as well. She has a butterfly tattoo on her neck."
Sarah looked down at her feet at once as she turned away.
Desiree looked embarrassed, "My sister is always so …exuberant. Sorry, Agent Prentiss."
Emily shook her head, "Please, it's Emily. And I understand where your sister's concern…"
"And what do you mean by that, Agent Prentiss?" Sarah glared at her as she came back and faced her.
Derek frowned, "Sarah! What the hell's wrong with you?"
Sarah backed away from Derek, "Nothing! It's just I don't like the way she implied about us."
Emily arched her brow, "I'm not implying anything, Sarah. I was just saying it's a general prejudice against African-American and especially in a predominantly black neighborhood, it's easy for a child to mistaken a stranger but not in Piggy's case, he's been here a long time, he knows his friends and neighbors and he's probably been warned about strangers, that's all."
Derek almost grinned but his sister saw it and frowned, "I see that you've already taken her side, Derek." She walked away.
"Sarah, wait!" He called to her but she ignored him and kept walking.
"Just leave her be, Derek, let her cool off," His mother sighed. "She's having some…personal issues at the moment."
She then turned to Emily, "I'm sorry, Agent Prentiss, you have to see this, Sarah is normally a calm and unbiased person."
Emily shook her head, "It's okay, Mrs. Morgan…I'm used to being on the…"
Fran shook her head, "Please call me Fran. And we should get going and search for Devon, shouldn't we?" She looked up at Derek.
He nodded and began to move towards a block from the recreation center.
Emily frowned slightly as she followed the Morgans and began shining her flashlight into the trash cans and dumpsters in the alleyways as they talked.
….
It was dark when the Chicago and BAU personnel called off the search for the evening and resumed the next day.
Derek had decided to take his family to dinner along with Emily while the BAU team decided to eat nearer at the hotel, their intention was crashing in there after the meal.
Dinner with the Morgans was a quiet affair as Sarah was sitting sullenly.
While they were waiting for their orders;
"Sarah, how long are you going to sulk?" Fran frowned at her oldest offspring.
Sarah shook her head as she sipped her iced tea and looked up at her brother and Emily, "So, Derek, where were you when Aunt Yvonne called last week?" She glanced briefly over to Emily before returning her glare towards Derek.
Derek arched his brow, "Sarah," He replied. "I was in Iowa, on a case."
"What are you trying to get at, Sarah?" Fran leaned in. "You know your brother is busy."
"Too busy to answer her phone call?" She said resentfully. "You know, all you can do was return her call? That's all she asked?"
"Sarah, I was on a case!" Derek answered angrily. "Give me a break." He shook his head.
"That's a poor excuse, she just wanted to talk to you."
Derek shook his head and stood up "Sarah, I couldn't. I was in New York after that." He then left right after then.
Emily watched after him and turned back to Fran and the sisters, "I know it's not my business but I just want to say this, Derek's under a lot of pressure lately, our supervisor, Hotch, has been giving him quite a bit of extra duties while we were in New York."
"I heard about the terrorist attack over there." Fran said with concern.
Emily nodded as she quickly told them what happened in New York where he'd almost blown up, driving the ambulance loaded with the IED.
Fran's hand was on her chest as she paled, Desirée was clenching her fists while Sarah's expressions became guilty.
"I know it's not my place but I just wish you'd give him some slack as he catches it at work, he doesn't need any here." She stood up and left her napkin down on the table. "Excuse me." And left.
Fran looked at her daughters, "Well, I hope you're satisfied, Sarah."
She looked at her mother, "I'm sorry, Momma but I didn't know."
"Well maybe next time before you jump on him, try to get with him first." She smiled sympathetically.
"I like her, that Agent Prentiss. She's good for Derek." Desirée grinned.
Fran nodded, "I like her too, she sounds like me when I was younger."
Their food came as the waiter placed their food on in front of them.
Outside, Emily climbed in the SUV beside Derek, "You know I'm missing my dinner just for you?"
He didn't reply as he stared ahead of him.
She sighed.
"My sister is impossible." He said.
"If I have at least one sister, I'd be a much better person."
"Right now, I'd rather be a single child."
She shook her head, "No you don't, Derek. It's not cool. It's not a cool life. It's lonely and you have no one to talk to, no one to confide and no one to share things with."
He turned to her. "Sounds like you have it lonely."
"Well," She shook her head, "All you have are your stupid dolls, and your stupid teddy bears and Peacot to talk to."
He frowned, "Who's Peacot?"
"He was my invisible friend when I was 2 years old. I didn't have any real friends. You know Mother move around too much to form any long term friends but my father used to tell me stories about the Easter bunny and Peter Cottontail. Well, at that time, I can't pronounce Peter Cottontail so he came out as Peacot and became my buddy for the longest time."
Derek smiled, "So you and Peacot, huh?"
She nodded, "We were like peas and carrot!"
He began to laugh.
"Hey, he remained as my best friend for the longest time during all the moves around the world and then there were Petey Cot, when I was three and Gah."
"Gah?"
She nodded, "I can't say God when I was at church, so I talked to Gah, instead. The three were my constant companions for a very long time until high school."
Derek turned to watch her, "Your unHoly trinity of unpronounceable invisible friends. That was really screwed up." He shook his head. "No wonder you're so screwed up in your head….I rest my case."
She began to laugh."
"But seriously, Emily, your invisible friends represented a sense of stability for you. Some kids held on to blankets or pacifiers but for you, you had invisible friends." Derek smiled.
Suddenly, there was a tap on his side of the window; it was Sarah.
Derek lowered his window, "Yeah?"
"Look I was out of line, I'm sorry."
He nodded.
"We cool?" She asked him.
He glanced over to Emily who nodded. "Yeah sis, we cool."
She sighed, "Momma says your dinner's ready."
He nodded, "We'll be right in."
She nodded and left.
Derek held Emily's hand, "You ready for round two?"
She nodded, "Of course, Should I bring my friends for reinforcements?" She smiled at him.
He stopped as he waited for her to come around the vehicle, "Depend on how big your friends are. Ever watched the movie Harvey starring Jimmy Stewart?"
Emily giggled, "That was my favorite!" She shook her head, "And no, my friends were not as big as Harvey."
Derek held his hand out as Emily took his, "Noticed your friends and Harvey are also rabbits?"
Emily arched her brows, "Yes, I did, Derek. It was a coincidence they're bunny rabbits."
He grinned as they stepped inside the restaurant together, "Bunny rabbits…that is so girly talk…so cute."
As they entered the restaurant again, Derek leaned over and playfully whispered to Emily, "Maybe later you can introduce me to them."
She laughed as she whispered back to him, "Not a chance! Get your own invisible friends!"
"How about having your homeys introduce some to me?"
She laughed, "We'll see, Derek, we'll see about that."
"I want some fine looking snow bunnies…you know what I mean, Princess Snow White?" He wriggled his brows a couple of times.
She began to chuckle, "You and I need a long talk…a very long talk." She shook her head as they sat down to greet his family again and began to eat.
….
End of Chapter 3