Author's Note: This chapter moves pretty quickly, mostly because I wanted to just get JJ and Hotch out of there and get on with the rest of this story. As some of you may have deduced, this is more than just about Child Abuse. This story is about forming a family and really becoming that. Thanks to everybody who has reviewed so far, I am delighted that people enjoy this story.
This chapter hints at the extremity of the kids' abuse. I needed the abuse to be enough for them to be immediately removed from their parents' custody, and also to eliminate all ability for them to go to their next relative to further the goals of the story. For those of you who are slightly concerned that this story may get darker, rest assured it will not. This is possibly the fluffiest happiest story I've ever written. That being said, there's still got to be a little drama to spice it up.
Warning: Contains mentions of Child Sexual Abuse.
Two hours later, Emily found herself in the hospital waiting room, lingering for any news on the condition of the kids while Dave answered a call from Morgan outside. She looked up as Dave stormed back into the waiting room, ignoring the other two women in the room.
"Damn it!" Dave groaned as he slumped down into the chair beside his girlfriend, hating that he was growing familiar with the hard waiting room chairs that seemed to be standard issue in every hospital.
"What's wrong?" Emily gently folded the magazine she had been pretending to read. In reality, she couldn't keep her mind off the little boy and girl on the other side of the waiting room doors.
"The parents were released while the LEOs came up with an arrest warrant." Dave started to explain, whispering so the others would not overhear.
Emily blew out her breath in disgust, and Dave smiled sadly. If only this was the worst part.
"Detective Ross obtained a warrant for their arrest, but when they arrived at the Hotchner home, Shelby and Gregory Hotchner were found shot to death." He shook his head sorrowfully, "Reid and Morgan are at the scene, but it appears to have been an execution."
"Damn." Emily breathed out in a whisper, sighing despite the sickening feeling in her stomach, she smiled grimly. "At least they found their grandmother."
Dave cocked an eyebrow as they glanced at the woman sitting across from them in the waiting room. An elderly woman, hard, with deep set eyes that reeked of cigarette smoke and cat dander stared off into the distance.
Emily offered a small smile, hating this just as much as Dave did.
These two children deserved to be loved.
"Jennifer and Aaron Hotchner?" A kind elderly woman with bright red glasses stepped out to greet them. "I'm Doctor Laura Anderson, I have been handling JJ and Hotch's case."
"This is the children's grandmother, Ms. Jareau." The CPS Worker, who had introduced herself at the station as Erika Jones, explained as the doctor led them out of the waiting room and down the hall toward the children's room, "These are Supervisory Special Agents David Rossi and Emily Prentiss with the FBI."
The doctor nodded, "We've got both of them settled in the same room, we'd like to keep Aaron overnight for observation..." She started to explain.
"Can I see them?" The grandmother asked immediately as they stopped just outside the sight of the two children inside the hospital room. "I just—I need to see how they are doing."
"Of course." Dr. Anderson smiled apologetically, "But first—"
"No. Please. You can tell me later, I need to see them now." Ms. Jareau insisted. "Alone."
The doctor quirked an eyebrow in surprise. "Sure." She gestured to the room, "We'll be right outside."
The older woman limped out of the room, sitting down slowly into the chair next to JJ's bed.
"Seriously?" Dave shook his head, looking at Ms. Jones in disgust. "This is the best you've got?"
"She's the children's grandmother." The CPS worker shrugged, "We're running a background check right now, but if nothing comes up then she's their closest living relative."
'Where is it?' The group outside heard Ms. Jareau ask the girl angrily. 'Where the hell is it Jenny?'
Emily frowned. "She's not very nice to them." She observed.
"Mean doesn't equal abuse." Ms. Jones sighed, frowning as she observed the interaction between the old woman and the children. "Unfortunately that's the best we can do sometimes." "What can you tell us, doctor?" The CPS Worker changed the topic, sadly used to this familiar task though it never got easier.
"Honestly?" The woman shook her head sadly, "It makes me sick what people can do to their own children."
"How bad is it?" Emily cringed.
"Both children are malnourished. The little boy, Aaron, has some nasty cuts and scars along his back, arms, and stomach, confirming the initial belief that they had been physically abused."
"Is that all?" Dave asked, hoping for the kids' sake it was.
"Unfortunately, no." The doctor flipped on a switch, lightening up a box on the side of the wall that she placed two abdominal x-rays against. "The little girl, Jennifer, complained of a tummy ache and didn't want to be examined, but in a case like this we would run x-rays regardless."
"What are we looking at?" Dave asked obliviously.
"These," She pointed to several round orbs that were barely noticeable, "Appear to be balloons full of cocaine."
"No." Emily groaned, her stomach rolling.
"None of these appeared on Aaron." The doctor offered, gesturing to the other picture, "which either means that he has already passed anything in his system, or his parents only used JJ as a drug mule."
"How do you know it's cocaine?" Dave asked, the first question that could come to mind rolling off his tongue.
"Cocaine appears as the same consistency as stool, heroin looks more like air." Dr. Anderson sighed. "I need consent to remove the drugs." Turning to the CPS worker she explained sadly. "JJ's going to need immediate surgery, we can't risk one of the balloons popping and releasing that much cocaine into her system."
"I agree." Ms. Jones nodded, "We—"
She never got the chance to finish the statement, 'Damn it Jenny, where are the fucking red balloons?'
'They haven't come out yet.' The little girl whimpered with tears rolling down her face. 'I'm sorry Grandma."
"Sorry is not good enough." The older woman spat.
"Did she just say what I think she said?" Dave asked angrily, pushing his way into the door as Dr. Anderson summoned security guards for help.
"You've got to be kidding me." Ms. Jones shook her head, just as disgusted as the others as she rushed into the room and watched as Dave quickly placed the older woman under arrest. "She knew about this?"
The security guards took the old grandmother out of Dave's hands, though she fought against them at every turn.
JJ cried silently on her bed, her brother sliding off his own hospital bed and climbing up alongside her. "Leave us alone." Hotch growled protectively, looking almost comical as a lanky little boy attempting to appear threatening. "We don't want you here. Leave us alone!"
"We—" Dave started, having no intention of leaving these children alone.
"Let's give them some space." Dr. Anderson stopped him, "We'll all be just outside, okay?"
The boy nodded slowly, watching carefully as the adults left the room.
"What the hell? How did you miss this?" Dave spat and turned to the CPS worker, livid that something like this could slip through their defenses. These children deserved to be protected, and they were this close to throwing the kids back to hell.
"I have no way of reading people's minds, Agent Rossi." Ms. Jones retorted. "The background check still hasn't come back yet."
"We know." Emily interrupted, shooting Dave a dirty look.
"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to need to talk to my supervisor about finding these kids an emergency placement." Ms. Jones shook her head in disbelief. "It might take a while."
Dave contemplated that fact, wondering how he and Emily could try for so long to have a precious child only to have two beautiful children be so mistreated by a cruel world.
"What if we took them?" Dave asked.
"You can't be serious." Emily grinned at his exuberance, shocked that he could read her mind and voice the same thought she was wondering how to spring on him.
He mistook her response for hesitance, but that did nothing to slow the idea that was rapidly forming in his mind.
Because this felt so right.
"Look, I know we pictured having a baby, a part of us." He grabbed her hand, "And maybe that will happen."
"And maybe it won't." She pointed out, smiling as this decision was most definitely already made.
"And maybe it won't." He agreed, slipping down out of his chair he stooped down in front of her. "Em. Who could love these kids more than we would?"
"It's not like a puppy Dave, do you think we're ready for that?" She asked, voicing the concern that was niggling at the back of her mind. "It's not going to be easy."
He smiled, "Since when have we ever done what's easy?" He leaned forward. "Mia Cara, siamo in grado di fare questo." He assured her, certain of it.
They could do this, together.
"Will they even let us take them?" Emily brushed away a tear that involuntarily pooled at the corner of her eyes. "We're not married. We work a lot"
"So we ask!" He exclaimed, "Emily Prentiss, I knew I loved you years ago. This is our chance, we could be a family."
Emily fell silent, the corner of her lips turning upward. "We could be a family." She agreed.
"So that's a yes?"
"It's a yes." Her face broke into a wide grin as Dave's lips crashed against her own. She pulled away, laughing. "Let's have a family."
.oOo.
Ms. Jones simply blinked at them in response. "You want to do what?" She asked again, floored.
"We want to take Hotch and JJ." Dave glanced back, feeling a pang of worry that maybe he hadn't been clear. At Emily's gentle nod of assurance, he continued. "What else are you going to do? Ship them off to a foster home?"
The CPS Worker recovered slightly, still stunned by the couple's offer. "Well that was the general plan."
"And they don't have any closer relatives, right? No one to take them in?" Emily pointed out.
"Well no. Agents, can I tell you how incredibly rare this is?" Ms. Jones ran her hand through her hair still trying to comprehend. "Are you sure you understand what you're offering here?" She asked doubtfully.
"Yes." Dave's face broke into a wide grin. "We're offering both of them the chance to be loved, the chance to be a part of a family."
"Hotch and JJ aren't your average kids." Ms. Jones insisted, certain that these law enforcement agents were simply caught up in the emotional toll of watching children be put into the system. "They'll require therapy."
"We understand." Emily agreed. "We want these kids. We want Hotch and JJ. Money isn't an option."
"This isn't about money." Ms. Jones shook her head quickly. "Yeah, therapy is expensive, but it's so much more than that. They'll need emotional support. They'll need someone to take the time to care about them…it's a huge investment. You have to be parents to children who have never had parents. You have to be parents to children where the people who put them through hell called themselves Mom and Dad."
Dave nodded immediately. "We can do that. We want to do that."
"I'm not talking just a once a week appointment to chat about how their week has been." Ms. Jones insisted. "I'm talking about daily struggles. These kids have seen more pain and suffering than some adults see in a lifetime. They've experienced horrors that no children should ever even dream of. They're going to need constant support and specialized therapy."
"Support we are able and willing to give." Rossi insisted, then catching her last phrase he stopped. "Specialized therapy?"
The CPS Worker snorted, unable to help herself. She'd seen it so many times before. People who claimed to have all the answers or a magic wand to wave over the awful situation to make it all better.
But in the end, most of the kids 'rescued' by these heroes ended up getting thrown back to the streets.
And that hurt more than any foster placement.
"You realize these kids have been abused, right?" Ms. Jones asked, flinging the painful truth at the couple.
If they couldn't handle it now, they didn't deserve these children.
"I know." Rossi murmured sadly as he glanced back at the hospital doors that kept him separated from where the kids were being treated.
"Not just slapped on the wrist. Both JJ and Hotch have been beaten. Broken bones, long scars—they've got it all." Ms. Jones continued, "There's evidence that JJ has been sexually abused, so yes." She shook her head in disgust, "Specialized therapy just scratches the surface of what these kids will require."
Dave's jaw clenched furiously, but otherwise remained silent.
"Both kids haven't eaten properly in years." She pushed forward, insistent, "Judging by their reactions in the small time I've met with them, they've been belittled and criticized regularly at home." Shaking her head, she added, "It's not going to be easy."
Dave and Emily fell silent as Dave reached absently for Emily's hand in support. Smiling briefly at the comfort their clasped hands provided, Dave took a deep breath before squaring his shoulders firmly. "We want these kids."
It was the CPS Worker's turn to fall silent, impressed by the quiet devotion both adults expressed with regards to the welfare of the children. Her lips tugged up at the corners. "Let me talk to my supervisor, I'll see if we can push everything through." She stepped back, still not entirely believing that this could be happening for these kiddos.
They may have just gotten the best break of all.