The Girl in Red

Rebecca runs as fast as she can through the house and out of the front door to the garden. Isabella is right behind her and little Eric does everything he can to keep up with them. They stop at the front porch and while breathing heavily they look around for Jack and Henry. At first they cannot see them, but then Rebecca sees something move out of the corner of her eye and quickly runs in the direction of what she thinks are them. She runs fast, faster than most of the girls her age. She likes being quick and JJ often tells her to quit ballet and take up soccer instead, because she would be perfect for it. Rebecca runs around the corner of the house and directly into a much taller person than she had expected. She stumbles a few steps backward before she falls on her butt. "Sorry," she mumbles and looks up into the face of her father.

He ignores her apology and instead asks, "Are you okay?"

Rebecca sighs. "I fell on my butt not my neck, dad. I'm just fine, but I have to catch Jack and Henry before they go all serial killer on Daisy, and if that happens then you have to call the team together so you can profile them and catch them yourself, and THAT would totally ruin your nice and sunny Saturday, don't you think?" she says as she gets up from the ground.

"That wouldn't be good."

"Just my words," Rebecca says and looks up at her father with a hand above her eyes to block out the sun. "Have you seen them?"

"I think I saw them by the big trees."

"Thanks daddy," she quickly says before she takes off running. For a moment she wonders where Isabella and Eric are, but then as she gets around the house to the backyard she sees them standing under one of the big tress Hotch had referred to. They are looking up at something and Rebecca guesses that it's Jack and Henry or just Jack. As she comes closer Henry jumps down from one of the low branches and then stands between his sister and brother and looks up at Jack just like them. Rebecca does the same and sees Jack on the top of the tree with Daisy in one hand and a thin rope in the other. At first she cannot really see what he is doing with the rope, but then it hits her. He is going to hang Daisy from it. Rebecca cannot let him do that to her beloved yellow teddy bear.

"Jack, give me back Daisy right now!" Rebecca yells, but Jack just laughs at her and climbs a bit higher. She crosses her arms tightly across her chest and turn to face Henry. "Get him to come down!" Rebecca demands. "Or I will kick you in shin."

Henry looks at her and knows she is serious. He also knows that her running super fast isn't the only reason for why his mother thinks that Rebecca should play soccer. "If I have to climb up there after him, then I might need some help," he says.

"I can't believe you guys," she says looking mad at him. "But if you can't get up there by yourself, then you are helping me up."

"Why me? And why would I even help you?"

"It has to be you, because Eric is only 3 and Isabella isn't strong enough to carry me," she says madly. "And if you don't help me, then I will kick you where it hurts and this time I'm not talking about your shins."

Henry sighs. "Okay, okay, fine." He gives her a boost so she can reach the low branches and then she swings her leg over it so she can pull herself up in a sitting position on it. Rebecca steadies herself and then slowly gets to her feet and starts climbing up the tree.

"Don't slip," Isabella says nervously.

"I'm not going to slip," Rebecca says annoyed, but when the branch under her feet makes a cracking noise she starts getting a bit nervous herself. She quickly gets of the branch and climbs further up the tree till she reaches Jack. "Give me back Daisy," she says and smacks him on the leg, but he just laughs at her again, so she decides to hit him harder. The force of the hit is much harder then Jack had foreseen and it causes him to loosen his hold on the yellow bear and it falls quickly to the ground.

Rebecca looks shocked up at him. "You dropped Daisy!"

"Well you got her down from the tree like you wanted."

"I wanted you to give her to me, not drop her!"

"Sorry."

"Stupid, stupid boy!" Rebecca says hitting his leg with a close fist repeatedly.

"I said I was sorry," Jack says and moves his leg out of her reach.

"Yeah but I know you didn't mean it," she says and hits his other leg.

Jack groans. "Would you stop hitting me?" he asks annoyed.

Rebecca does not answer him instead she starts climbing down again. She lets her feet drop back down on the cracking branch and tries to put as little weight on it as she possibly can, but it does not help. The branch snaps anyway under her feet and Rebecca is clutching tightly to the branch above her to keep her from falling down.

"Oh, shit," Jack curses when he sees her feet dangling back and forth realizing that there is not a branch within reach for her to stand on. "Hold on tight and don't go anywhere."

"Like there is anywhere for me to go," Rebecca mumbles as Jack climbs down to her. He grasps a hold on the back of her red t-shirt and tries to lift her up, but he cannot get her up like that without strangling her. So Jack decides to climb all the way down himself. When he is on the ground again he turns and looks up at Rebecca. "Alright, just let go of the branch and I will catch you."

"I don't think that's a good idea," she says, but her arms and hands are starting to really hurts, so she might have to do as he says.

"Come on, just do it."

"Are you sure you're going to catch me?" Rebecca asks. "Maybe we should get mom or dad?"

"No, I'll catch you," he answers. "I swear."

Rebecca sighs quietly and glances at the sky before looking down. "Okay, I'm letting go now." She closes her eyes and let's go of the branch.

Jack would probably have caught her like he had promised if it was not for her shirt getting caught on one of branches throwing her off balance and head first into Jack's arms. She crashed into Jack and they both fell to the ground with a loud bump.

"I'm getting mom," Isabella says and runs off with Eric on her tail.

Rebecca sits up and when the shock of falling down wears off she begins to feel a sharp pain in her head. She lifts a hand to her forehead where it hurts the most and when she brings it back down again she sees that there is blood on her fingers.

"Oh my God," Emily rushes toward them and then kneels in front of Rebecca. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Jack didn't catch me like he said he would," Rebecca mumbles.

"What?" She looks from Rebecca to the boys. "Jack, tell me what happened."

And he is just about to, when Rebecca says, "I was climbing the tree when the branch I stood on snapped and I fell down." She presses her hand to the cut on her forehead. "Can I get a band-aid?" Emily nods and quickly helps Rebecca up and they and the others walk back to the house. When Jack sees that his father is not following them then he stays behind too. For a moment they just stand there under the tree not saying a word, but then Hotch turns to Jack. "You should be very happy to have a sister like, Becky. She is only 8 years old and she is already willing to lie for you, so you wouldn't get in trouble."

"Sorry," Jack says and looks down at the ground ashamed.

"It's not your fault that she fell down, but I'm guessing it was because of you that she was up in the tree. Probably to get Daisy down?" he asks and nods his head towards the yellow bear still lying on the ground under the tree.

Jack picks the bear up. "I will give it to her right away."

"Good," Hotch says with a smile and then he lays a hand on Jack's shoulder and they walk up to the house where they can hear Rebecca complaining as Emily tries to fix her head wound.