DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters or Criminal Minds. If I did it would be so different and yet so much the same.
SUMMARY: An injured Prentiss join's Morgan and his family for Fran's birthday and stumbles on a twisted UnSub terrorizing the young mothers of Chicago.
NOTE: This story takes place sometime after the season 7 opener but does not follow cannon. Thanks so much for reading! As always, reviews are a writer's fuel so make sure to tell me what you think.
*CM*
"This is nice." Emily sighed contentedly as she leaned back into the diner booth full and satisfied.
"Stan's Diner?" Derek asked, his eyebrows lifting into an incredulous look. "It's a dive." Emily laughed and shook her head before letting her face fall into a small tender smile.
"I meant this" She gestured between them. "Spending time with you, talking about everything and nothing, not talking about work." Derek nodded and reached out to snatch an uneaten onion ring from Emily's plate. "I missed this when I was away." She added with a far off look. As always Derek bristled slightly at the mention of her death.
"Me too" he agreed softly but offered nothing more.
"I was nervous about coming here with you, to Chicago." She admitted, finding herself unusually eager to share her inner musings. "I know that despite your best efforts you're still angry with me. I get that, it's ok. I am still a little angry with myself."
"A little" Derek conceded with a shrug. "But I am more happy to have you back then I was angry that you went away." He told her sincerely. "I am glad you came. I like seeing you getting along with my family." Again they find themselves staring at each other. Their eyes meeting with so much intensity the air around them practically crackled. Emily swallowed hard, realizing the admission in his words. He enjoyed seeing her get on with his family; what would it matter unless he had been imagining the same thing she had; a future in which she was apart of it.
"I love your mother" Emily told him, finally breaking their connection to look down at her coffee. "She's so warm and loving and everything my mother isn't" Derek smiled brightly.
"She's the best." He agreed eagerly.
"Obviously" Emily quipped. "She managed to raise a terror like you into a reasonably respectable guy." With a sly smile at his over-played shock she pushed the bill toward him. "The kind of respectable guy who pays for lunch when he takes a girl out."
*CM*
The preschoolers she'd met that morning had been attentive if a little restless and she felt as though her message had been received loud and clear. The teens on the other hand; Emily is no stranger to the kind of trouble a young girl could get into, but she hadn't factored in how much protection her privilege had afforded her.
Unlike her morning with the little kids Emily had posed her workshops with the older girls as a discussion more then a presentation, allowing the young women before her to share. Her experience told her that these workshops very often resulted in at least one outcry. While there had been no direct report from any of the girls at this point it was exceptionally clear to Emily that all of these girls had seen a lot more then any girl their age should. One was obviously pregnant, likely as far along as Desiree, if not further. A few had visible scars from who-knows-what, one had been reprimanded upon arrival for carrying a bandana in the colour of the biggest neighbourhood gang.
"I'd say a general rule is that if it feels wrong it is." Emily answered a question.
"What if it doesn't?" a small quiet girl on the edge of the group piped up for the first time. "What if the people around you are saying it's wrong but it feels ok?" Emily paused for a moment, taking in the girl's young face marred with stress beyond her years.
"Just ok?" Emily urged her to go on. The girl shrugged.
"There ain't no such thing as Prince Charming in this place. 'Just Ok' is as good as it gets" She shrugged. Emily frowned.
"I've been there" Emily nodded. "It certainly feels that way sometimes, but don't you think you're worth more then 'just OK?'" again the girl shrugged but this time didn't answer. "Let's all make a pact then." Emily suggested, looking back out over the small group in front of her. "Despite how you may have been treated in the past by people who were supposed love you; from this day on we are all worth it." Emily leaned forward, extending her hand in front of her and motioning the girls to do the same. Slowly each of the girls but the one on the edge leaned in to put their hands near Emily's "We all deserve the best; we deserve to be loved and to be respected without any conditions."
As the group broke off into its various cliques Emily moved closer to the girl in the corner. With a smile she seated herself beside her and rested a gentle hand on her arm to stop her from running off. "You want to tell me more about 'Just Ok'?" She asked gently. "It doesn't have to leave this room, but sometimes it helps to talk."
"You won't go talkin'" The girl confirmed. Emily nodded then sat back to wait. After a few moments of silence, after the other girls had moved out of the room, she spoke. "My boyfriend, he's older then me." She shrugged. "So he's just ready for things sooner then me I guess." Emily nodded her understanding but said nothing. "There are rumors that he steps out, that he got a couple other girls pregnant, but he says he's faithful and I believe him. I think."
"You want to believe him." Emily suggested. The girl nodded.
"Yeah." She sighed. "But maybe I can also believe that he did. He wants more from me, ya know? Said he wants to get me pregnant, start a family. Maybe he'd be more serious if we did." Emily's heart broke a little but something went off in her head at the same time.
"You mean like how he's more serious about the other girls who are supposedly pregnant by him?" Emily asked. The girl looked helpless for a moment.
"I guess." She laughed humorlessly. "Even his friends pressure me. They ask when I am gonna do my part and start popping out babies like the other girls in the neighbourhood."
"You're only, what? 15?" Emily asked with concern, her mind traveling back to her own childhood when the pressure this girl was obviously doing her best to resist had proved too much for Emily herself.
"16 last month" The girl answered. "Old enough I guess. Seems like all the girls around here are 'doin their part' these days."
"That's not really a reason." Emily stated with a reassuring smile. "Bringing new life into the world is monumental. It's not something that you should do just because everyone else is doing it." Silence built up around the two women for a few moments as both contemplated the conversation thus far. The young girl feeling even more confused and overwhelmed while Emily pondered if she herself would have been swayed by such a conversation when she was 15. "All these girls in the neighbourhood you've been talking about, they have whole lives ahead of them and yet they need to put another first. You've got more living to do."
"Right" the girl snorted. "Half of them give them up and continue like nothing ever happened." With a slight snarl she tipped her head toward the pregnant teen gossiping with her friends just outside the doorway. "Tanya over there gets a nine month long stay in a nice apartment with her Mama and all her medical bills paid for by the rich folks across town who want her baby. She brags about it all the time."
"Really?" Emily's eyes bugged out despite her attempts to keep her face calm. "Who set that up for her?"
"Dunno anything but rumors" The girl dismissed but Emily caught the edge in the girl's voice as she hovered over the word 'rumor', her drawl drawing an obvious connection between the rumors of her boyfriend's activities and the rumors of her peer's condition. Gently Emily rubbed a hand over the young woman's shoulders and let out a sigh.
"Either way, it's not worth it" She coaxed. "Wait until you're ready to bring a child into a happy home yeah?" A practiced adolescent shrug was the only reply Emily got; the issue was obviously closed to further discussion.
As the afternoon drew along Emily did her best to put the young woman out of her mind, internally compelling herself to let go and hope their talk had made a difference. This was exactly why she hated the education and outreach part of their jobs, it was almost impossible not to become attached and invested. Derek seemed to notice her distraction as they grabbed a take away dinner and made their way back to the Morgan residence but he did his best to keep the chatter light and not push her for details. She laughed along through dinner, his sisters regaling her with stories of their misspent youth, shared a few quiet moments with Fran as she helped to wash up after dinner, but all along something nagged at her.
While the media would like everyone to believe otherwise, there actually wasn't a great epidemic of young women going out and getting pregnant before society deemed them 'old enough'. Emily knew from her own research and experience that the only difference between now and 20 years ago was hype, a greater number of people talking about teen pregnancy, while the actual number of teen pregnancies in relation to population hadn't changed all that drastically. She also knew that the incidence of these types of situations went up among minority populations but her mind simply could not wrap itself around the phenomenon the young girl at the youth center had alluded to.
TO BE CONTINUED!
