Author's Note/Disclaimer: I…really have no excuses. I have been really behind on both stories and I apologize. On the other hand, I really would like to thank all the people who have kept reading and have favorited/followed this story, I appreciate the faith you have in me and I'll do my best to meet your expectations! Thanks to gossamermouse101, Daisyangel, Dark elfy, Rg2104, Guest and Lunar678 for reviewing my last chapter! So, who else was watching Derek's episode and kind of hyperventilating?! My roommate and I had a hard timem breathing properly when it was all over, I'm just so happy it didn't turn out worse than I was thinking it might have! Anywho, onto the story, with Nina taking care of Ellie and the rest of the team getting their first real glimpse of her!
Chapter 14:
While Ellie was still sleeping, Nina stepped out into the hall to call Dr. Renolds regarding his assessment of the girl before her placement family had stopped sending her. Her blood was still boiling. What sort of foster home refused to allow a ten-year-old girl to talk to a therapist, especially after circumstances like these? It wasn't like they were paying or anything…
As soon as Renolds picked up his phone, Nina's voice snapped out at him like a bear trap. "Hector Renolds what the hell happened with Ellie Spicer?!"
She heard him sigh before telling someone (probably a secretary) that he would be busy on a call for about an hour. She had to smirk at that- back in school she'd had a reputation for being difficult, especially when it came to her patients, and it was a little funny that Renolds still remembered that he did not want to be on the receiving end of it.
"Before you start yelling, you know that I can't force anyone to keep meeting with me." Renolds pointed out, closing the door to his office. "Nina, I called the foster home after the first time Ellie missed an appointment, and they said she wouldn't be needing to come back."
"And you just let that stand?!" Nina asked incredulously. "She'd just watched her father be kiled and her aunt raped in front of her! She spent at least 24 hours with the man who killed them!" She was starting to want to go to L.A. herself to smack some sense into this man. "Did you ask to talk to Ellie at all?!"
"You know that as her guardians, the foster family had every right to deny me that." Renolds retorted. "They told me that Ellie wouldn't be needing any more help from me and that was the end of it."
Nina growled. "Well she just ran all the way rom L.A. to D.C. because of that foster family." She snapped. "Apparently some of the boys in that house were trying to watch her shower. She got here yesterday, by herself, and that family you let tell you she didn't need help didn't even realize that she was gone!"
Before Renolds could get out more than a shocked "Nina-", she hung up, wishing she still had a flip phone or had called on a landline, just so she'd have the satisfaction of slamming something down on him. Yes, she knew that he'd been justified legally in letting the case go- Ellie had never technically bee a patient of his to begin with- but with everything she'd been through, Nina would have hoped someone, especially a colleague of hers, would move heaven and Earth for her.
She deserved that much.
After composing herself, Nina went back to Garcia's tech room, affectionately referred to as 'the cave', to see that Ellie had woken up and was looking at the colorful toys around Garcia's room with eyes that didn't really seem to be seeing any of it. Nina knocked quietly and Ellie jumped, eyes flashing to her like she was expecting someone else- her foster parents, maybe, or another person she couldn't trust.
"Ellie?" Nina said softly. "Hi. My name is Nina."
Ellie looked at her, sizing her up, and Garcia spun around in her chair. "Oh, Nina, you're back!" She said cheerfully. "I was just telling Ellie about you."
Nina smiled at Elie, still curled up in her chair. Ellie just blinked up at her. "You're a shrink." She said softly. "Like Dr. Renolds."
"I am." Nina said, sitting down in the chair next to her, though she made sure not to sit too closely and overwhelm her.
Ellie looked away from her. "I stopped seeing him." She said, obviously trying to seem as though this had been a choice on her part, rather than something she'd needed that had been taken away from her.
Nina smiled at her sadly. "I know, I just spoke with him." She paused. "Ellie, I want you to know that the family you were with had no right to keep you from seeing him. I know he should have tried harder to get to you when they refused, but I promise I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."
Ellie looked up at Nina, but her eyes were watery, more open and vulnerable, as if she really wanted to believe what Nina was saying but didn't know if she could. "Really?" She asked softly.
Nina nodded. "I promise." She smiled and subtly looked away so Ellie could wipe her eyes without feeling too much pressure. When she looked back, she noticed Elie yawn. "Are you still tired?"
Ellie shrugged. "It was hard to sleep there." She admitted. "Not just because of the boys. It's just…Dad or Aunt Kristin used to read Harry Potter with me every night before bed. It's hard to sleep without it now."
A smile spread over Nina's face. "Your dad had good taste. I've tried reading Harry Potter to my niece, but she's more into Disney princesses right now." She glanced up at Garcia, who was tapping away at her computers. "Have you ever played Twenty Questions, Ellie?" When the girl nodded, she gestured towards Garcia. "It looks like she's going to be busy for awhile. Want to play Harry Potter style?"
A small smile appeared on Ellie's face, the first one Nina had seen.
Yeah, they could fix this.
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It was getting late and Nina had moved herself and Ellie into Agent Morgan's office, partially because it had a couch for Ellie to sleep on, and partially because Garcia kept chiming in during Twenty Questions and giving the game away. After the third time Garcia guessed correctly ("You're Penelope Clearwater, aren't you?!") Nina sweetly said they'd let the 'tech goddess' get back to work and shuffled them out of the room.
When Ellie fell back to sleep- this poor girl was damn tired- Nina leaned back, one hand over her face. Ellie was still so angry, she had seen that, and afraid of going back. Unfortunately, Nina couldn't see how they could avoid…
There was a quiet knock at the door as Garcia poked her head inside. "Can we talk out here for a sec?"
Making sure the door was carefully shut behind her, Nina turned to face the blonde computer technician who was looking somehow both happy and guilty at the same time.
"What is it?" Nina asked warily.
Garcia took a deep breath. "I know you're working on making Ellie feel better and I want to feel better too it's just that the team's on their way back and you should probably give her a heads up before-"
"Ms. Garcia." Nina said, holding up a hand and smiling a little bit at the word vomit. It was almost child-like, it was adorable. "What is it I need to know?"
Garcia bit her lip. "I got ahold of Ellie's mom."
Nina wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but it hadn't been that, from what she'd gathered from Ellie, her mother hand't been in the picture for quite some time.
"She's on her way here," Garcia said, biting her lip again. "I thought that you should know…to give Ellie a head's up."
Nina glanced back in the room where Ellie was stirring. She sighed- she had a feeling the girl really wouldn't like this.
She nodded to Garcia and went back into the room as Ellie sat up and stretched. She smiled at Nina, who tried weakly to smile back, but Ellie caught on. Her own smile faded. "What is it?"
Nina sighed. "Ellie, Ms. Garcia has been looking for your mom, and she just got in contact with her." Ellie's eyes widened. "She's on her way here."
"But…but I don't want her here!" Ellie protested. "She left us!"
"She is your mother, we can't send you to a foster home if she's capable of taking care of you." Nina said uncomfortably. She hated to give news like this, when the child was genuinely distressed. Ellie's mother had already left once, and that was all Nina knew about her. How could she feel good about giving Ellie back to her? But, at the same time, she really had no say in it. She wasn't officially Ellie's therapist, so no judge would care about her opinion either way.
Ellie, who looked like she was trying to hold back tears, huffed and shoved her hands into her bag, pulling out her iPod and plopping down at the table, pointedly turning away from Nina and turning up the volume. Nina sigh and sat down across from her. She hated situations like these, when the child she was trying to help was doing everything they could to shut her out. She wanted to help, she really did, but she couldn't if they wouldn't let her.
She tried getting Ellie's attention several times in the next two hours but it just wasn't happening. Eventually, Nina leaned back in her chair and sighed, keeping an eye on the door. About two hours after Garcia had pulled Nina aside, an older woman with brown hair and the stress of many years behind her eyes appeared at the glass doors. Nina stood up slowly, making Ellie turn around. Immediately she turned back to table to avoid the woman's pleading gaze.
Nina walked around the table and went out into the hall, closing the door behind her.
"I'm Adrienne Turner." The woman said, holding the strap of her purse over her shoulder like a lifeline. She was looking over Nina's shoulder at the girl in the other room, frantically looking for details she recognized. "I'm Ellie's mom?"
Nina smiled at her. "Hi, I'm Nina Connelly. I'm a child psychologist, they called me in to talk to Ellie while they figured out what to do." She glanced back at the room, biting her lip. "I'm going to be honest, Ms. Turner- Ellie is not really happy that you're here."
The older woman sighed. Well, she looked older, Nina couldn't imagine there was that big a difference, but the separation from her child had clearly taken its toll.
"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." She said softly. "I left when she was four. I'm sure she blames me." She started towards the room, hand tightening on her bag. When Nina made to follow, she paused. "I'd like to talk to her alone."
"Technically, Ellie is a ward of the state. She is meant to have a state approved caretaker at all times." While this was fair, Nina didn't feel comfortable leaving Ellie alone with this woman either. It had been many years since Ms. Turner had left Ellie, and maybe she was a better mother now than what she had been, but Nina didn't want to chance it. She wanted to be there if the girl needed her.
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Ellie kept up her silence for another hour, despite her mother's attempts to get something, anything, out of her. Nina watched sadly as Ellie scribbled away furiously. She was just so angry at everything.
When the team arrived back at headquarters, Garcia took Morgan and Hotch back to the rooms. When Nina caught sight of the profilers, she quietly got up and excused herself from the room, not that Ellie or her mother really noticed.
"Hey Superman." She said, smiling at Hotch out in the hall. Hotch smiled back, making Morgan raise an eyebrow.
He hadn't really thought about what Garcia had said, how cute this psychologist was and that she and Hotch would be good together. But now, actually seeing them next to each other and interacting, he had to notice that he hadn't seen that look on Hotch's face since…well, ever.
"Thank you for coming in," Hotch said, awkwardly patting Nina's shoulder (it seemed too formal to shake her hand, but he was not about to hug her either). She raised her eyebrow at him, grinning, but he knew she'd wait to tease him about it until later. "Uh, Derek Morgan, this is Nina Connelly, the child psychologist I called in."
"It's nice to meet you," Nina said, shaking Morgan's hand. "Aaron's told me all about your team."
Morgan nodded at her. "Thanks for coming in on short notice. How's Ellie?"
Nina glanced back towards the room sadly. "She was better before she found out her mother was coming. She won't talk to either of us now."
Morgan nodded before going into the room, leaving Hotch and Nina alone in the hallway.
"Really, thank you for coming in." Hotch said quietly. "Has everything been okay in here?"
Nina shrugged half-heartedly. "She's really closed off. I don't blame her, considering everything you've told me about what she's been through, but I don't think that she was ever going to fully let me help her. Not after her last experience." She glanced thoughtfully through the glass door, watching as Agent Morgan crouched down next to Ellie, who was looking at him like he had all the answers. "Maybe he can."
The two walked away from the door slightly and back towards the bullpen, giving the little group space to work themselves out.
"How was the case?" Nina asked hesitantly. She didn't fail to notice how tired and drawn Hotch looked, event hough he and his team hadn't been gone that long this time.
"It was a bad one." He admitted. Hotch didn't like telling Nina about his cases. He knew that she was asking so he could unload, but he'd always considered Nina a 'safe place', one where he didn't have to think about the horrors he was so accustomed to seeing.
Nina seemed to take the hint and switched gears. "How goes the birthday party planning?" This was safer, this was about Jack, this was the light place that Hotch could hold onto when he was gone. It was untainted by the darkness of his work.
"It's going well." Hotch said, grateful for the subject change. "Jack wants to have a cookout before it gets too cold, so we'll have soccer, and Jess and I are looking into renting out a park for the day." Hotch was actually proud of himself, even away on cases he made sure that he was a part of the planning for this birthday. Haley couldn't be there, so he'd make sure that he was. "And lots of Avengers decorations, of course."
"Well obviously." Nina teased. Can't just have Superman at a party, there needs to be a whole back-up team." She reached up to squeeze Hotch's shoulder, making him smile back.
Just then they walked into the bullpen, and Hotch became acutely aware of how the rest of his team was gathered around Garcia, who was whispering excitedly and gesturing wildly. He also didn't fail to notice how as soon as he and Nina walked in, Prentiss nudged her and the brightly colored blonde fell silent. He sighed but carefully lowered his shoulder so that Nina's hand fell away. At once her smile faded, but she was composed a second later as Hotch began introducing her to the rest of the team.
As she assured Prentiss that Ellie and Morgan were doing just fine and as Reid began bombarding her with questions about her social psychology studies, Rossi edged his way closer to Hotch.
"Is everything okay back there?" He asked casually. "When you came out, she seemed kinda put out."
Hotch didn't take his eyes off his group. "Everything's fine." He said, but he couldn't help but notice that Nina's smile wasn't as bright as before.