Stella sat on her laptop typing when Dave came into the office. "Another case?" Stella asked looking up.
"Yeah. You gonna be okay with Garcia while I'm gone?"
"Yeah. She's really cool and nice. I like her." Stella said.
"Alright. Your bag is over there in the corner. If you need anything else you have your house key. I'll see you in a few days Stella." Dave kissed the top of Stella's head and got ready to walk out the door. Stella got up and hugged Dave around his middle. "Love you Dad. Come home in one piece." she smiled.
"Alright." Stella stepped out of the office with Dave. "Morgan bring my old man home in one piece."
"You got it." the dark skinned man smiled at her. "Hey Stella I got a book you might want to look at. It's called Pandora."
"I've already read it Spenny." Stella told the man. "Fine. See you when we get back." Spencer waved as he walked out the door following Morgan. Stella collected her things and went into the Lioness den with Garcia. It had been two weeks since the picnic. Stella started going back to work with Dave and was slowly learning every again. But the team always kept and eye on her and Strauss.
That was until today. "Strauss couldn't stand it when others stood up to her. She held a great deal of authority and yet a mere teenager had gotten smart with her and dared to talk back. Not even her own children were so bold as to do so.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at some camp?" Strauss asked.
"I'm to old for one those."
"This is no place for a child."
"Young adult thank you." Stella retorted.
"Child or not this is not a play ground."
"Really I was wondering why I couldn't find the monkey bars and swings. Now if you'll excuse me dragon breath I have something else to go attend to." Stella walked past her and into Garcia's little office. Garcia's door had been cracked open so she heard every bit of the conversation. When it seemed they would be working late they called in for food and Garcia sent Stella to go get it when it arrived.
"She is your daughter through and through." Emily smiled. "Yeah and I'm proud to call her mine." Dave smiled.
~.o0o.~
Stella found herself yet again waiting for her father to get home from a case. "Hey Penny I'll be right back I'm going to the bathroom." Stella walked out the door.
"Satan's host." Stella called after Strauss.
Three days later Dave and Stella found themselves in Strauss' office. "I don't want to see your daughter in this building Rossi."
"Why because I can profile at the age of sixteen?" Stella asked.
"What does a child know of profiling?" Strauss asked.
"Young adult." Rossi corrected.
"The modern furniture, strategically placed magazines, the framed diplomas, the art on the wall are all on conflict of your family photos. You have three children and you favor the middle one, your son." Strauss stared as Stella continued. "Of course you love all your children but not like your son. The bonsai you keep on your desk and obsessively nurture is to compensate because you feel you've failed as a mom." Stella told her.
"Well what happened" Dave asked as Stella and Dave walked into the office. "I profiled Strauss and totally owned her." Stella smiled. "You'll make a great profiler in the future." Hotch smiled. "Oh my god." Stella practically shrieked.
"What?"
"He smiled. The man who I haven't even see blink, the man who keeps a straight face just smiled. It's going to snow tomorrow." The others laughed.
Memory or not Stella was still Stella. Still a ball of energy. Dave didn't profile his own daughter and Stella for the most part had settled into life as if nothing happened. But Dave did miss the guitar playing every now and again. It was one night when he came home after going out to grab beers with the team that he heard the familiar plucking.
Stella was playing a song something new and something different. She kept getting frustrated with it and put the guitar down. "What's wrong?" Dave asked. "I felt asleep watching TV at around four and as I was dreaming I heard this song and I saw a woman's face. I feel like I should remember it but I can't. But she looked at me with such love in her eyes. I wondered if she was my mom." Stella told him.
"If you saw a picture of her would you recognize her?" Dave asked. "Yes."
"Wait here." Dave left the room and returned a few minutes later with a photo album and placed it in front of Stella. Dave opened it to the last page a picture of Stella and her mother. "That's her." Stella said. "She's your mother kiddo."
"She was pretty. Why didn't you go look for her after she left?" Stella asked.
"Because that wasn't the first time I had been left like that. My first wife left like that and I got the divorce papers three weeks later. I had three girlfriends before your mother came into my life. Two left in much the same fashion not a word. While I was with wife number two there was the affair I had with Strauss of all people." Dave shook his head.
"Ew Daddy. Like really what did you ever see in that woman?" Stella asked.
"To be honest I don't even remember. All I know is she use to be a great woman and beautiful. That's why we have the fraternization rules that we do. That's all my doing." Dave smiled. "You are so not cool." Stella laughed.
"Very funny kid but back in the day I was a very much so desired man." Dave smiled at the teen. "Come on I have something to show you." Dave took Stella down stairs and sat her on the couch. "A few weeks after you came to live with me your mother sent you a box with tapes and photo albums in it. The tapes were of you growing up." Dave said pushing play.
Stella watched as the life she had forgotten played out in front of her. Her life and her memories were being offered to her and she couldn't remember them. Stella's head started to hurt and she got up from the couch. "I'm going to call it an early night." She said rushing up the stairs.
"Are you alright?" Dave had rushed up the stairs.
"I'm fine I'm tired and I'm going to bed." Stella sat on the other side of the door on her bed with her legs drawn up trying to will away the growing headache.
"Stella I can't help you if you don't tell me what's bothering you." Dave persisted. "I said I was fine now leave me alone." Stella snapped back. Dave turned away from the door and looked down at the brown lab. "Come on we might as well call it quits too." he told Mudgie.
The next day was quiet. After two in the afternoon Dave gave up hope of seeing Stella that day. He sat down stairs listening to the house. Listening for his daughter to open the door and move. No such prayer was answered till after nine that night. Dave was sitting in his office typing for his next book when Stella appeared in the doorway. "It hurts." she frowned.
"What hurts?" Dave removed his glasses.
"Where I hit my head. Whenever I think about my past too much it hurts. Last night when we were watching those movies I kept trying to force myself to remember everything about me about my life. I want to remember but I can't." Dave got up and pulled Stella into a hug. "It'll be alright Stella I promise. Just one day at a time." Dave said.
"I want to remember now. We're leaving to go see people I don't even remember or have a connection to anymore for all I know. I want to remember my mother and friends where I came from." Stella clung to Dave's shirt as she cried into Dave's shirt. When Stella had finally pulled away and whipped away her tears she chuckled to her self a bit. "Sorry for getting your shirt all wet." She looked up to her father.
"Wanna see something?" Dave asked.
"What?"
"Go pack a bag for the night and get Mudgie. Meet me at the car in five minutes." Dave smiled as he watched Stella race off to get what she was told to get. Stella met him at the car four minutes later. "Get in Mudgie." She said opening the rear door. Stella jumped in the front and rolled down her window. "Let's roll." Stella said.
Dave started driving with a large smile on his face as he watched Stella look around and try to predict where they were headed. "Why don't you put on some of that music you seem to have gotten me hooked on?" Dave smiled. Stella hooked up her ipod and started a song. The listened as the chello and violins harmonized to make the song come together.
When they began to reach a more wooded area Stella looked at Dave. "We fishing in the dark or something?" She asked. "No. I discovered this place few years back when I had made a wrong turn in the night. It was the most magnificent sight you would ever lay your eyes on. And tonight it'll be all the better because the moon is so full it can be counted as full.
Dave stopped and put the car into park. Get Mudgie and put him on his leash I don't want him getting lost grab a flash light." Dave said getting out. Stella quickly followed after her father with Mudgie on his leash and flashlight in her hand. They walked for a good twenty minutes before they reached the desired point.
"Wow." Stella looked up at the night sky. Stars were shining brightly as the moon out shown them all. "Great isn't it?" Dave asked. "Yeah it is."
Stella took in a breath through her nose and inhaled till her lungs could take in no more before turning her head to the sky and howling to the moon. "One that was close to being real and two why'd you do it?"
"It felt right. Like I'm meant to do it." Stella told him. "That's what you use to play your guitar. Don't play it until you feel like you want to. However long it takes let your fingers do what they do naturally. It'll come back to you soon enough. Come on lets get to the cabin we'll crash there for the night and start out tomorrow morning." Dave said.
"Alright. Come on Mudgie time to get to bed its late." she told the dog. Stella suddenly smacked her skin. "I'm going to be itchy tomorrow." Stella sighed. "But it was worth it kid. Just keep telling yourself that." Dave smiled.
"Alright. I'd like to see this place again."
"We can make the trip again. All you have to do is ask." Dave said.
"Thanks Daddy."
~.o0o.~
The girls were at the pool when Hotch called them for a case. Six teenage girls had gone missing in the last threw months. Dave called Garcia to send her to get the girls from the pool. Every picture Dave saw of a brunette haired teen he could almost see Stella.
The team didn't waste time in going home when they finally had their man. By the time they got home it was the middle of the night. Dave drove straight over to Garcia's to see Stella. "Who the hell is knocking on my door this late?" He heard Garcia say.
"I really should have called first." he said. Garcia yanked the door open. "Rossi?"
"Where's Stella?" he asked. "Sleeping on the bed." Garcia moved out of the way as Dave made his way into Garcia's bedroom. Stella was still sleeping. He sat on the edge of the bed and smiled down at his child. His own flesh and blood. He brushed a lock of hair away behind her ear.
"Daddy?"
"Hey there." Dave kissed her forehead. "Go back to sleep. I'll be in the other room." Dave said. Dave walked into Garcia's living room looking back over his shoulder with a smile. "I'll be back in few hours to pick her up." Dave said. "You might as well crash on the couch and sleep while you can." Garcia said with a smile. She knew that JJ and Hotch were the same way with their children after a case much like the one they had just finished.
She smiled as she went back to bed. Rossi was a good father in his own way. And Stella she'd turn out just fine. She had her father to back her up and had the rest of the team there if she needed them.