Two weeks had passed and Dustin's funeral has just ended and Christi is holding a crying Levi on her lap close to her. She had found out earlier that week that she was six weeks pregnant with Dustin's child. She had cried for hours and Jack had held her the entire time. He had been spending more time with Christi and his son in their darkest time. He knew that they needed him and Christi had even told him that. She was just sitting there staring at the Dustin's coffin that was once covered in the flag that Levi was clutching to his small chest. Christi was wearing his tags and then looks up as two figures come into her line of view. She sees Dustin's parents and she sighs.
"Hi Amanda, hi Patrick."
"THIS IS YOUR FAULT YOU LITTLE SLUT!" Amanda growls at her.
"Excuse me!" she asks.
"You heard me. If my son hadn't been so distracted thinking about you and that wedlock child he would still be alive!" Amanda growls.
At this point Levi started shaking in fear of his grandparents. They had never talked to him mom like that before or said such cruel things about her or him and it scared him. He couldn't understand why they just couldn't let them be sad why they had to be so mean.
Jack looks up and growls when he sees them yelling at Christi and her trying to calm their son down. He goes over and gently scoops Levi from his mother's arms.
"Excuse me, but I would appreciate it if you didn't speak like that in front of my son. He is grieving for the loss of the father he's know his whole life. if you have something to say to Christi say in private and not here or now. You have no right!" Jack growls.
"He was never his father, he's just the man who took over when you screwed up and left the bastard of a child!" Patrick growls.
"MY SON IS NOT A BASTARD CHILD! NOW GET OUT OF HERE AND LEAVE CHRISTI AND LEVI TO MORN THEIR HUSBAND AND FATHER IN PEACE!" Jack hisses getting pissed off getting ready to hit both of them.
"Jack, stop. Just leave it. You know the stages of grieving and apparently they're going through anger right now. It's fine." She said.
Jack nods and the trio walks off and Jack settles a now sleeping Levi into the backseat of his SUV and then heads back to Christi's place. His parents had already gone through the house and ransacked it taking all of Dustin's belongings. Luckily she had been able to grab a few shirts and other things and hide them over at Derek and Spencer's. She knew that she and Levi were going to need the shirts to get them through the first few months. She had also put all of the irreplaceable photos at Derek and Spencer's as well. She didn't want to lose those photos.
They get back there and Jack picks Levi up and carries him inside and lies him down in his bed and kisses the side of his head and rubs his back slightly before he heads downstairs to check on Christi.
"Hey how are holding up?" he asks.
"I'm doing okay. I just really miss him it feels like I'm so numb."
"How's you sugar and insulin levels?"
"Fine. I checked them while you were putting Levi to bed." She said curling into his side and lying her head on his shoulder.
Jack just holds her and rubs her back. He hated seeing her this upset. His parents made it worse for her by yelling at her.
"Jack what am I going to do? I can't raise Levi and a baby on my own. I can't do this. Who's going to watch the both of them. I can't leave a new born and Levi with Garcia when I go on cases. Jack I can't do this!" she sobs.
£2 years later£
Christi is walking into the BAU moving gingerly. She was in a lot of pain after last night. The guy she was dating Jimmie Ryan, was psychologically, mentally, physically, verbally abusive. When he got drunk he would get violent and beat her. So far she had been able to keep him from hitting Levi and Robin. Christi had given birth to a girl she named Robin Mackenzie McKnight. She would do anything and everything she could from having Jimmie abuse her kids.
She had been able to hide it from everyone including the kids. She sits down and sighs. She was really sore and her whole body hurt.
She starts going over the case from last week as she kept putting off the paperwork and Strauss was breathing down her neck demanding she got it done so she was finally getting it done.
Rossi comes in and pats her on the back and she cringes.
"Hey kiddo what's the matter?"
"Oh yea. I slept kinda funny and my back just hurts. Not to mention chasing Robin around and bending over and picking her up and trying to get her out from under the bed." Christi said.
Rossi nods not believing her and unable to call her on it since he doesn't have enough evidence to call her on it so all he can unfortunately do is keep a close eye on her.
"How are Levi and Robin doing?"
"They're doing good. Robin adores my mom and finds everything in hers and Evan's place intriguing. Jasmine loves her to bits as well." Christi smiles talking about her step-father and sister always made her smile.
The rest of the day goes by uneventful until Jimmie shows up around lunch. Christi inwardly groans and gets up and goes to see what he wants.
"What do you want Jimmie?" she growls.
"I want you." He growls and pulls her to him roughly.
She suppresses a yelp of pain.
"Jimmie I'm working. This building is full of FBI agents if you try any shit they will shoot you." She warns.
She pulls free and glares at him.
"Now leave. I'm busy working."
"You don't look busy."
"We're taking a lunch break but I'm working and eating at the same time now get out of here Jimmie." She growls.
"Fine, but when you get home tonight, you're all mine. Do you hear me?" he snarled grabbing her arm and squeezing it roughly. She just nods; it hurt too much to speak. "Very good then, bye for now," he said stalking out of the bullpen, leaving Christi behind absently rubbing her arm. XXXX
Later that day, Christi pulls into her driveway. Jimmie had told her he would get Levi from school that way she only had to pick up Robin from her mom's.
"Let's go inside and see what you're brothers up to, huh, kiddo?"
"Yeah," she cried running towards the house giggling. She frowned when she realized how quite the house was. She would normally hear Levi playing some game or having some kind of fun. Jimmie came out of the kitchen and kissed her roughly before pulling back.
"Where's Levi?"
"Upstairs doing homework. He already ate so I told him to work on his homework then it was bedtime."
"Oh, uh, okay," she said with a frown.
"I talked to Jack and he said he can take the kids tomorrow. What do you say we go out on a date?" Jimmie suggested.
"But I don't really feel like it, Jimmie. It's been a long week," Christi complained.
"I said we're going on a date and that's final. Now how hard is that to understand? Are you really that stupid?" he yelled. Biting her lip, Christi tried to blink back the tears his outburst caused.
"Are you really going to be that pathetic and cry? Good grief, grow up," he exclaimed slapping her on the cheek then turning and walking away from her. Christi was glad that Robin had ran upstairs to be with Levi and that she didn't see what had just happened. She would tell Jack if she'd saw what happened, and Christi knew that wouldn't end well. XXXX
It's now the next day and Christi and Jimmie are out on the date and Jack is spending the evening with the kids. He's put Robin to bed and is in the process of tucking Levi in.
"Goodnight, sport, do you need anything before I go back downstairs?" Levi shook his head and turned away from his father. He had a secret, but he wasn't supposed to tell anyone. Jimmie had told him that if he told he'd hurt his mommy and little Robin. He didn't want anything to happen to them so he couldn't tell.
"Love you Papa, night," Levi mumbled.
"I love you to. See you in the morning," Jack said leaving the room. He couldn't help but think something was bothering Levi. He wasn't sure what it was, but he had a funny feeling it had something to do with the guy Christi was dating. XXXX
A scream woke Jack a few hours later. Identifying the direction from which the scream came told him it was Levi. He was glad that Robin slept like the dead and didn't wake up. Running into Levi's room he saw his son sitting up in bed tears streaming down his face.
"Hey, what's wrong, kiddo?"
"N-n-nightmare," he stuttered. Glancing down Jack saw that the sheets were wet.
"Hey, let's get you out of these wet pajama's and change these sheets, what do you say?"
"Oh, okay," Levi said softly.
"Do you want to talk about the nightmare?" Jack questioned as he stripped the bed and replaced the sheets then guided his son into the bathroom so he could help him out of his wet and sweaty pajama's so he could take a bath.
"No," Levi answered shortly. Jack's eyes widened when he removed Levi's pajama top and saw the large bruise forming on his son's back.
"Who did this to you?" he asked gently tracing the bruise.
"N-n-n-no one," Levi replied.
"Levi, you can tell me," Jack coaxed.
"No one, I fell at school," Levi told the lie Jimmie had told him to tell.
"Levi Derek Hotchner. That looks like a hand shaped bruise. So I'm gonna ask you again, who hit you? You're not in trouble, I just need to know who hit you," Jack explained. Levi thought about it for a moment as he climbed into the bath and began scrubbing his skin.
"Jimmie," Levi said just above a whisper.
"Jimmie hit you? Has he ever done it before today?"
"No, sir. He only does it to Mommy. He hit her again last night and made her cry. She doesn't think I saw, but I did. He hits her a lot and calls her stupid," he answered softly. "He called her stupid yesterday. Mommy isn't stupid, she's the smartest person I know. He hits her a lot and calls her a lot of mean names. Oh, no…" Levi broke off when he realized what he'd just done. He'd told the secret, now Robin and his mom would be hurt. He began to cry out of fear and anger at himself. The father could see the fear in his boys eyes and it made him sick.
"Levi, it's okay, you're safe. He can't hurt you now."
"He's gonna hurt Mommy and Robin. He said if I t-t-told he'd hurt them, and I told you. I'm sorry," he exclaimed bursting into tears and curling into a ball in the bathtub. Carefully Jack reached over and lifted the wet and sobbing boy into his arms and began rocking back and forth.
"You didn't do anything wrong. You told the truth which is what Mommy and I have told you to do. Now let's get your pajamas on you and get you back to bed, what do you say?"
"Okay," he stuttered through his tears. Smiling gently at his little boy, Jack helped him put on the pajamas then helped him back to bed. Once he was sure Levi was drifting off to sleep he ran for his phone and dialed his sister. XXXX
"Hello?" came Mallory's sleepy voice.
"Mal, it's Jack. I need you to come over and watch Levi and Robin. I need to go take care of something."
"Jack, it's 2:00 in the morning. What in the world is going on?" she asked as she sat up.
"I'll explain when you get here. Just please hurry."
"Okay, I'll be over as quickly as I can," Mallory replied hanging up and throwing on the first clothes she found. XXXX
"You want to tell me what's going on?" the youngest Hotchner demanded as she stood in her brother's living room.
"That jackass Christi's dating hit Levi today. He's apparently been abusing Christi for a while now. I'm gonna go take care of it right now," Jack growled.
"I don't condone violence, but please be careful, don't do anything stupid, big brother," Mallory begged.
"I can't promise, but I'll do my best not to. If he's hurting her, though…" he broke off, but Mallory knew what he wasn't saying.
"Go, I've got things here. Make sure Christi's okay."
"That's what I intend to do," Jack said picking up his keys and heading out the door. XXXX
The street outside Christi's place was silent and dark. Arriving at the door he could hear a pain-filled scream then the sound of glass breaking. Without a second thought he pulled out the key Christi had given him and put it in the lock. Entering the house he followed the noise to the living room. Christi was on the floor and Jimmie was beating her. He must have just thrown a picture frame of her, Dustin, and Levi at her because glass was surrounding her and she had a cut on her face that was bleeding. Diving forward, Jack tackled Jimmie and began beating the crap out of him. The other guy was surprised at first which meant Jack got the upper hand. Jimmie was able to get in a couple of lucky swings but not much.
"Jack, stop it! What's going on?" Christi rasped from her position on the floor.
"This SOB hit Levi today," Jack informed her.
"He w-w-what?" she stammered tears filling her eyes. Turning to Jimmie, she said, "How dare you hit my son. Why in the world did you hit him?"
"Because he didn't clean up his dishes from his snack fast enough." Christi saw red.
"That's it, we're through."
"Oh, yeah, I don't think so. You're mine," Jimmie growled lunging at her. Jack stopped him, though and threw him against the wall knocking him out.
Once he was sure Jimmie was unconscious he made his way over to Christi. Taking in the bruises and cuts that covered her body made his blood boil all over again.
"I'm calling the team," he said with a note of finality in his voice. Christi wanted to argue with him, but she knew it would be no use. She was glad Jack was there. She wanted out of the relationship but she wasn't sure how to do that without getting herself severely hurt.
"Where are Levi and Robin?" she asked, remembering her kids.
"Mal's watching them. The team will be here soon. They've also called the paramedics. You need to go to the hospital to be checked out. Just answer me one thing. Did he ever er uh," Jack stumbled; he really didn't want to say the word.
"No, all he did in terms of physical abuse was hit, slap, and kick," she replied. Jack released the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. At least the bastard hadn't raped her. Settling on the floor next to her, he took Christi into his arms just as she began to cry. That's how the team found them fifteen minutes later.
TBC?