A New Life
I would love to hear your opinions and look to working further on the story. This is a follow-up to Undercover Family. How do they survive being children?
I do not own or have connection with the "Criminal Minds" program or its characters.
Chapter Eleven. Six Weeks Later
It has been six weeks since Minnesota and there are still little bodies that wake up in momma's bed because of bad dreams and thinking she can keep them at bay. It seems that age does matter when seeing the death masks of those killed by predators. Our agents are still working but they focus on reading the case files and doing write ups with profiles. There has been no more field work for our children not since momma confronted the director two weeks after Minnesota and let him know what was happening to his agents as a consequence of what happened there.
Flashback
Momma comes in to the offices of the director of the FBI and tells Maggie that she was there for their appointment. She has all of children with her except Penelope who was working that day. They come in to the office with her and take a seat on the floor while she sat in the chair across from him.
"Hello Bob. I hope things are well for you."
"Hello Rebecca. I see you brought your bodyguards. Hello kids." There was no answer except some nods of acknowledgement. "Rebecca, I know that you have not been sending my child agents to work since the return from Minnesota which is why I wanted to meet with you. Can you tell why you haven't been sending them?"
"Director, I wake up in the morning with a bed full of children. I don't go to bed that way. The children are always put to bed in their own beds but don't stay there. The only one that can't get into my bed is Aaron and he screams when he wants out of his crib. The children are having nightmares and crawl into bed with me thinking that I can keep the monsters away. Does that sound like adult agents able to work?"
"No, that doesn't but that is the consequence sometimes of difficult cases."
"Difficult cases?!? These are children not rational adults who compartmentalize their feelings and let them go without feeling them. They cannot just turn off their emotions or their feelings. They do not have that impassionate style that adults have in order to see death in that way. If I had known what you were sending them into, I would have told you to forget about sending these children to that place."
"I didn't know what they were going to find. It was just a missing child case. We certainly did not expect that there was a serial cult having killed dozens of children over a fifty year time period. We certainly did not expect Spencer to fall into a hole with their bodies." Spencer whimpers when the director says that and the man looks at the boy with his fear filled eyes. "I understand that it is hard on the children to overcome the sights and smells that they experienced."
"Hard on them?!? You really don't see the damage that case has done."
"I do see it but these children are also some of the best profilers we have and I would like to continue to use those skills that they have but maybe field work is out of their realm at this time."
"At this time?"
"We'll see about future possibilities." She looks at him with an incredulous look on her face. "It will depend on the case, no death or murder type."
"We'll see. In the meantime, I will allow them to work under a few different rules."
"Different from before?"
"Just a few less days a week, Spencer will work one or two days a week on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays, Emily will work two days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and/or Fridays, Derek will work three days a week any days I decide to send him on and varying each week. David and Jennifer will work four days a week and I decide the days that they work. Sean does not work at all for the agency in the field or the office."
"And Aaron?"
"Aaron will help you when you need him in a meeting but not in any other capacity."
"And if I don't agree to these terms?"
"What do you think?"
"I think you have some gall, but I agree to your terms. No field work and limited days with Spencer and Emily also still taking their afternoon naps."
"It would be a good idea."
They are interrupted by Spencer coming up and standing next to momma. She turns to him and asks, "What is it sweetie?"
"Mommy, I got to go potty."
"Can you wait a few minutes?"
He whimpers, "No."
Sean says, "I'll take him momma. Come on Spencer."
Mommas says, "Why don't you take all the boys at the same time and Jennifer can take Emily to the girls room now as well. Will that be okay with you children?" They all get up and head out the door to go to the bathroom, even though they might not need to go right now they will try to go and get it over with. Sean gives Aaron to momma since he doesn't want to change a diaper and Aaron doesn't use the toilet.
While they were away, the director and momma talked more about what they would be doing and the limitations that will be put into place. Aaron actually puts his opinion in once in a while and is a part of the conversation. He is still in many ways their 'boss' and they do listen to him when it is necessary. He still gives good remarks in what they do and the cases they were working on and sometimes the littlest becomes the oldest and wisest.
When the others come back momma and the director have finished their conversation and our family leaves the building and goes to lunch at McDonalds where a toddler kids meal, three regular kids meals and three big kids meals were gotten and momma asked them to put a different toy in each box. The restaurant was able to comply. After lunch they went to the Air and Space museum for the rest of the day.
End Flashback
Since the conversation with the director, momma and her children have been following the work schedule set up and there has been no field or travel for our young agents although David went on a trip with other agents to Cleveland for a few days. There was no death or blood for him, it was a situation of finding a pedophile and he was used as an expert in profiling the man. He was never sent anywhere alone.
It is at night that our young ones remember what has happened, Spencer has been wetting his pull-ups every night and Emily started wearing them when she began to wet the bed as well. Dreams of a man standing over with a knife in his hand continue to haunt her. Spencer dreams of being in a dark place and then all of sudden things are falling all around him and he doesn't know what they are and can't see them. Sean dreams of bloody rags and faces, although he hasn't wet the bed, he does wake up with his sheets drenched in sweat. All three sneak in to bed with momma after waking from their dreams. Spencer and Emily take off their wet pull-ups and put on a clean one, although sometimes Spencer puts them on backwards. Sean changes out of sweat soaked pajamas and puts on a clean and dry pair before they get into bed with momma.
During the days when the children are working momma goes to the institute with the children with her or they stay at home and play in the playroom although sometimes momma lets them go to the park or the zoo. When momma has all the children with her, she plans for days out. Like the museum, the zoo, the aquarium or some other child-oriented place to play and learn. She wants them to just be children on those days.
Aaron has helped the director a few times by sitting in on some of meetings but otherwise he has just been the little one in momma's arms when they go anywhere. He is always available to listen to any of the others when they want to talk. Sometimes they just want to cuddle him like a teddy bear and he just lets them because sometimes that just helps when you are feeling bad.
It has been six weeks and the family went to bed that night as usual with the door to the basement closed and the all the doors to the outside locked. When momma is awakened by the sound of the fire alarm from the basement going off, she rushes down stairs to check it out and the door is hot so she doesn't open it. She rushes back upstairs to the top floor and the children have also woken up.
Momma tells them to grab whatever is most precious to them, i. e. pictures, and sentimental items and go downstairs to put their snowsuits on and go across the street. She asks Penelope to keep charge of Emily and Jennifer and asks Sean to keep charge of Spencer and Derek with David helping him. She goes to her room and gets the diaper bag and puts her most precious pictures and other stuff in it and puts a pair of pants on under her nightgown and a dress on over it. In the meantime, smoke is beginning to fill the air and she is then on the cell phone and calling 911 so that the police and fire engines arrive. She grabs Aaron out of his crib and wraps him in a blanket and rushes back upstairs to check all the rooms that all the children were gone. She then checks the rooms on the second floor and grabs more blankets before heading back into the smoke filled first floor. She looks back from the hall and sees flames coming from the basement and heading into the back of the house and up to the ceiling creating a lot of black smoke. She coughs her way through and grabs her cape and Aaron's snowsuit and rushes outside where the first fire engine begins to show up. She goes across the street to where the others are standing. She counts and makes sure they are all there which thankfully they are. She turns and sees the house begin to burn on the second floor and the fire hoses starting to be used on the house as well as the trees surrounding the house and the house that is attached on one side. The house is a row house at the corner but does share a wall with the house next to it. Momma looks at it and just imagines all of her thousands of books being destroyed. Many of which are irreplaceable.
It is at this time that Aaron moves in her arms, he feels like he is being smothered by the blankets on him. Momma hands him to Penelope and takes off one of the blankets which she folds in half and places on the ground for the children to sit on. After Jennifer, David, and Derek sit down, Spencer and Emily get on their older ones laps and momma wraps another blanket around them. There is one more that she gives to Sean to wrap around him and Penelope. She puts Aaron's snowsuit on him and holds him in her arms under her cape which Penelope wraps around her.
"Momma?"
"What is sweetie?"
"What happens now?"
"What!?!"
"Where do we go?"
"I don't know. The institute I guess. There are beds you can sleep on and later in the morning we can figure out…"
"Momma, why don't you call the director?"
"What?"
"He is our supposed grandfather. We have stayed at the house before."
"You're right. That might work." Momma is in a bit of a daze seeing her home and everything she owned going up in flames. As she continues to stand there and look at the fire, Penelope takes the cell phone from her hand and calls the director about what is happening.
Fifteen minutes later, the director is driving up in the large van that is used when they need the family. He is wearing a pair of casual pants and a sweater of over his pajamas. He runs over to Rebecca and the children. Penelope has them stand up when she sees him and begins to bundle them into the van.
"Rebecca?" She looks at him with a shell-shocked face and he gently guides her to the van to get in with the children. He then walks over to the fire chief and the head police officer there and lets them know who he is and who she is and where he is taking her and the children. He leaves them with his information for when they want to get a hold of the family.
When they get back to his house, he puts them in rooms they had before, except with the addition of Sean there does not seem to be enough beds, so they put Spencer in the crib that Aaron was in before and momma took Aaron into her room where they set up a cradle that had been used by the directors own children many years ago. After all the children had been put into bed, momma and the director sat at in the office on his leather sofa to discuss the situation.
"Do you know what happened Rebecca?"
"I have no idea, Bob. We had a normal night and went to bed after leaving the basement playroom. I closed the door behind as usual because it helps to keep it warmer in the main section of the house if some doors are closed. I woke up hearing the fire alarm in the basement go off. I went downstairs to check it out and the door was hot so I did not bother to open it. I went upstairs and told Penelope to get the girls and get out and then told David to go with Sean and get the little boys and get out. I then went and got some of the more precious things that I didn't want to lose and then grabbed Aaron and wrapped him in a blanket and grabbed several more blankets to head out. It was starting to get very smoky and when I got down to the first floor I saw the first flames leaving the basement and begin to climb the walls and head into the rest of the house. I grabbed Aaron's snowsuit and my cape and went out the door hoping the other children were already out. I had called 911 when I was getting Aaron. I don't know what could have caused the fire. When the engines arrived they began to fight the fire but also worked to prevent the trees and the attached house next door from getting too damaged... David suggested I call you. I couldn't seem to think, just watch while everything I owned was destroyed. That's why Penelope called you."
"I am glad you called me. We can figure out the future in the morning. Why you don't go to bed now?"
"Is that the director or my 'father' talking?"
"At this moment I will be your father and tell you to go to bed. You will have eight children in the morning worried and frightened about the future and that is only a few hours away. Get some rest."
She agrees with him and the two head to their respective bedrooms. Of course momma goes to her room after she checks on her children. The girls are in a room with three beds, one bunk bed and one twin size. She checks on Penelope in the twin and tucked Jennifer more in the blanket on the top bunk. She bends down to more closely tuck in Emily in the bottom bunk and kissed her forehead.
She goes to the boys' room next which also has one bunk bed and one twin size bed with the crib in the corner. Sean is in the twin size bed and has strewn his bedclothes all over the place; she tucks them around him and then goes to David in the top bunk. He looks at her with wide eyes when she tucks him in.
"Why aren't you sleeping?"
"Is everything going to be alright? What is going to happen to us now?"
"Everything will work out. You will be with me wherever I go."
When he hears this, he sighs and closes his eyes as he snuggles further into the blankets and finally goes asleep. Momma bends down to the bottom bunk and checks on Derek to tuck him in further and make sure he is sleeping. She then heads to the crib where her big little boy is sleeping peacefully. He objected to sleeping the crib at first but allowed momma and the director to put him in it when he was told that it would only be temporary and they would get him a bed as soon as possible. He was sleeping on his stomach looking like an angelic cherub. Momma kisses his forehead and heads to her room where Aaron is sleeping in the cradle. He is another who looks angelic while sleeping, except when she looked down at him he opened his eyes and then reached out his arms to be picked up. Momma picked him up and then sat in the rocking chair with him for the rest of the night. She never went back to bed that night.
