When Blake returned to their bedroom, Garcia was sitting beside Alaina's bed knitting a blue and purple striped . . . something. Blake wasn't exactly sure what the object in Garcia's hands was. "What is that?" she asked softly so as not to wake the young girl.
"At the moment, it's a tail," Garcia replied. "which will eventually be attached to the rest of a puppy dog."
"You're knitting a dog?"
"I've decided Reid needs a pet. I tried to convince him to go to the pound with me and get a dog or cat from there, but he doesn't think he's ready to take care of one. So, I'm starting small."
Blake laughed quietly. "You are in interesting woman, Penelope Garcia."
"Thank you. I know. What are you doing back so quickly? False alarm?"
"I wish," Blake told her. "No, it's a real dead body, and it was found here in the hospital."
"Oh my God!" Garcia exclaimed, and then quickly lowered her voice as Alaina shifted on the bed. "Oh my God! Who was it?"
"Reid's doctor. Hotch needs you to check surveillance videos and see what you can see."
"I will use my computers as a crystal ball." Garcia stood up from the rocking chair and put her knitting down on her bed. "Are you staying here with the little one?"
"I am. Hopefully when she wakes up she'll be able to tell us something useful."
As Garcia headed down to her computer lab, Blake pulled the papers she had been grading out of her bag and took the other woman's place in the rocking chair. She briefly considered going back to bed, but decided she would feel guilty taking a nap while everyone else was working, even if she was just waiting for Alaina to wake up.
Despite her best intentions, Blake found herself nodding off when the girl began making noises. Rousing herself, Blake realized Alaina must be in the throes of a nightmare as she tossed her head on the pillow and whimpered softly. She reached over and shook the girl gently, calling her name. "Alaina. Alaina. It's Alex Blake. You need to wake up now. You're safe. We're protecting you. Wake up."
Alaina woke with a gasp, staring around with wild eyes before they fixed on Blake. With a choked cry the girl climbed off the bed and into the woman's arms, curling into her lap like a much smaller child. Blake stroked her hair while muttering nonsensical, soothing words and rocking slowly in the chair. Gradually the girl's frantic sobs faded to steady crying, and then to sniffles. Once she had calmed, Blake maneuvered her body around so Alaina was sitting on her lap. Reaching over to her bag, Blake pulled out a hairbrush and began brushing the girl's long brown hair. "Alaina, I know some really bad things happened to you, but you're safe now. My friends and I are with the FBI, and we're going to protect you. We're going to find the person who hurt your parents. We'll find her no matter what, but it would really help us if you could tell us what she looks like."
Alaina had picked up Garcia's knitting from the other bed and was twisting the yarn in her fingers. She began to shake her head back and forth slowly. Blake kept tenderly brushing the hair, speaking kindly. "No? No, you don't want to tell me? Alaina, she can't hurt you, I promise."
Finally Alaina spoke, so quietly that Blake could barely hear her. "Not a her."
"What, honey? What did you say?"
"Not a her," Alaina repeated, a little more loudly. "It was a him."
Blake forced herself to stay calm so that she wouldn't scare the child back into silence. "Alaina, did you see the person that hurt your parents?"
"Why do you keep saying that?" Alaina demanded, suddenly loud. "He didn't hurt them! He killed them! I know the difference. I'm not a baby." She started sobbing again.
"I know," Blake said, giving up the pretense of hair brushing and just holding Alaina tightly. "I know you're not a baby. You're a smart young lady who's been through a terrible experience. And I'm so, so sorry. I wish I could make it better, but I can't. All I can do is try and catch the person who did this to you, to your parents. Alaina, are you sure it was a man?"
"I didn't see him, "Alaina told her, "but I heard him. I was sleeping on the couch, and when I woke up it was dark. It took me a minute to remember where I was; I usually sleep in my bed, but our heat wasn't working very well and Daddy said I'd be warmer sleeping on the couch in front of the fireplace. He and Mommy were going to sleep on the floor on the air mattress." Her voice trailed off, apparently lost in the memory.
Blake brought her back as gently as she could. "You woke up in the dark. What happened next?"
Alaina startled slightly, and then continued. "Mommy was arguing with someone, but really quiet. She kept asking the other person what he wanted, why he was there. She said, 'I'll give you whatever you want, just don't hurt me.' Then the man said, 'It's too late to give me what I want. You had your chance. I'm worth more.' They didn't say any more after that. I heard . . . I heard . . . ." She broke into sobs again.
"It's okay," Blake assured her. "It's okay. You're doing great. You can skip that part. What happened after that?"
"I just laid there," Alaina cried. "I was so scared I couldn't move! I think maybe I even fell asleep again for a little while, because the next thing I remember it was getting light. I was scared to get up, but I knew I had to. I sat up and looked over the back of the couch, and that's when I saw them. I knew they were dead right away. There was too much blood for them to be alive."
"Is that when you went and called 911?" asked Blake.
Alaina's sobs stopped abruptly. She looked up at the agent with bewilderment in her eyes. "When I did what?" she questioned.
"Called 911," Blake repeated. "You called the police and then went back to your parents."
"No," Alaina said, "I didn't. I never got off the couch at all, until the cops came in and got me."
Blake didn't want to frighten the girl, but this was an incredibly important piece of information. She turned Alaina so that she was looking into her red-rimmed eyes. "Alaina, are you really, really sure that you didn't call the police?"
"Miss Alex, I promise. I didn't call anyone."
Blake hugged the little girl again. "Alaina, you are so brave, and you have done such a good job telling me what happened. Do you want to try and get a little more sleep?"
Without answering Alaina laid her head down against Blake's shoulder and fell back to sleep. Blake rocked for a few minutes to make sure that she was truly out, then lifted her gently onto the bed. Slipping her phone out of her pocket, she walked into the bathroom where she could keep an eye on the girl without waking her with her voice. Hitting the first number on her speed dial, she waited a moment, then spoke into the device. "Hotch? I've just been talking to Alaina Tew, and she had some very interesting information. . . . Ten minutes? You got it . . . . She's gone back to sleep for now. . . . All right, I'll be there as soon as Stephanie comes to relieve me."
When Blake walked out into the main room, she found JJ and Will sitting on the couch with Jack and Henry at their feet eating cereal. The boys were engrossed in a television program about penguins, Will was texting, and JJ was dividing her attention between the children and the elevator. Blake didn't blame her; she knew it was virtually impossible to watch a door nonstop for hours when nothing was happening with it.
"Hey," she said to the group. "Anything interesting happening in the outside world?"
Will looked up from his phone. "Looks like the city is still pretty much shut down. They're asking people to stay home unless it's an emergency."
"Makes sense," Blake commented, walking over to the window and looking out. Although the snow appeared to have stopped falling, the roads and parking lot outside were still covered in white.
Henry looked up as his program went to a commercial. "Me and Jack wanna go out 'n' play, but Mommy won't let us," he pouted.
Blake knelt down so she would be on a level with the two boys. "You know, Henry, I think the snow might be over your head. If you tried to go out there, we might lose you."
Henry's eyes grew wide, while Jack stifled a laugh. "I guess we better stay inside, Henry, until it melts down a little," he said to his smaller friend. We'll find fun things to do up here. Besides, we never get to watch this much TV at home. We better enjoy it while we can."
"You know what else?" Blake asked. "There's a new friend for you to play with sleeping in my room. Her name's Alaina, and she's eight years old. Maybe when she wakes up you two can get her some of that awesome looking cereal and the three of you can find something fun to do."
Before they could reply Reid's doctor and nurse came out of his room and approached JJ. "Agent Jareau?" Dr. Grosso said. "I hate to interrupt, but I need to go downstairs and get some different medications for Dr. Reid."
JJ was immediately on the alert. "Is something wrong?" she asked, jumping to her feet.
"No, not really," Michael reassured her. "It's just that Dr. Reid is refusing to use the morphine drip, and he needs to have some sort of pain medication."
"I'm going to get some non-narcotic pain relievers," explained Dr. Grosso.
"I thought you said the morphine wouldn't be a problem for him," JJ said accusingly.
"It wouldn't be," Dr. Grosso replied, "if he would take it. Do you want to try and convince him? Because he's not listening to anything that Michael or I tell him."
JJ looked like she was going to march into Reid's room and force him to take the morphine, but Will reached over the back of the couch and took hold of her wrist. "Let him be, darlin'."
"He thinks he has to be some kind of hero," JJ proclaimed.
"From where I stand, he is some kind of hero," Blake said softly. "If he doesn't want to take the pain medication, that is his right."
JJ seemed to shake herself, then turned back to the group. Jack and Henry were looking up at her in confusion. "Sometimes I can't get it through my head that he's not a child," she admitted.
"He's one of the bravest men I know," declared Blake.
"I know." JJ sighed and reached into her pocket, pulling out the elevator key Rossi had given her. "Go get what he needs, doctor," she said, walking over and using the key to summon the elevator. After the doctor left and Michael had gone back into Reid's room, JJ went back to the couch and pulled Henry into her lap. "Your Uncle Spence is a hero," she told him.
Henry nodded vigorously, "He catches the bad guys," he exclaimed, "and he flyed with me off of the roof. He's a superhero!" He wiggled off of his mother's lap. "Come on, Jack. Let's play superheroes."
As the two boys ran toward the bedrooms, JJ answered her buzzing cell phone. She listened for a minute before pushing the end button and walking back over to the elevator. "Hotch, Rossi and Morgan are on their way back up," she told the others. "Hotch says they have some unexpected information."
"So do I," Blake remembered. "It's time we all shared. There's something strange going on here."
