Hey guys! Please please please review! It really encourages me to write and update more and I've been having a ton of writers block so give me any ideas you have for how to continue the plot. Enjoy!
Quantico,Virginia
JJ, Aaron and Sean froze.
"Aaron, get out here!" Mr. Hotchner bellowed a second time.
JJ pushed Aaron and Sean under the table.
"Is there another way out?" she whispered
"Back door" mouthed Aaron, gesturing to the hallway outside the kitchen. He was holding his hand over Sean's mouth because Sean had started to whimper.
"Okay, here's the plan." said JJ, as Mr. Hotchner stomped around the house, shouting Aaron's name. "Get Sean out of the house, I'll get our bags."
"Be careful!" whispered Aaron, carrying the now-crying Sean to the door.
JJ crept around the corner and peeked into the living room. Seeing that it was empty, she ran in and grabbed hers, Sean's and Aaron's bags. After a quick look around, she stuffed Jack and the Beanstalk into Sean's bag and started towards the door. She was almost out when something shoved her against the wall.
"And who the fuck are you?" shouted Mr. Hotchner, holding her against the wall by her neck. "You aren't Aaron." he slurred, alcohol heavy on his breath. JJ tried to bite his finger as he pointed angrily at her. He yell and backhanded her hard. She felt the ring on his finger cut her cheek and blood drip down her face.
All of the things she'd learned in her years in the foster care system started to kick in. She brought her knee up between his legs as hard as she could. He let go of her and doubled over, screaming obscenities. She took the opportunity and sprinted out the door, slamming it behind her. Aaron and Sean were waiting in driveway.
"JJ! What happened to you face?" cried Aaron.
"No time, just run!" yelled JJ. She shoved the bags into Aaron's arms, swinging up Jack onto her back and running. Aaron followed close behind her and they ran down the dark street, ignoring Mr. Hotchner's shouts behind them.
Earlier in Chicago
Officer Marisa Malloy was about to head back to headquarters to clock out. She had had a relatively easy day, which was rare. She new to the Chicago Police Department so she got stuck with the worse patrols, mainly the South Side and adjacent neighborhoods. Today, she hadn't seen anyone get shot, she hadn't arrested anyone and she hadn't done anything more than give out a few speeding tickets. It was a nice day.
As she turned onto 55th street on her way back to headquarters, a voice crackled into her police radio.
"We have a report of child abuse at the Youth Center of 56th and Cermak." said the static-filled radio dispatcher.
"I guess I'm close to that." she sighed, making a U-turn and heading up to Cermak street. She pulled up to the Englewood Youth Center at the same time as another cop car pulled around the corner.
"Hey Pete," she called to the other cop.
"What's up, Marisa?" he said, climbing out of his car. "Last call before you clock out today?"
"Yeah, I was close." she said. The two cops walked up the driveway to the front door. The sign was flipped to Open and the door was open so they walked in.
"Looks empty to me." said Marisa.
"This is the police responding to a call placed about acts of abuse taking place in this establishment is there anyone here?" called Pete. He heard a thud in the room over and motioned for Marisa to go check it out.
Marisa walked into the office and clapped her hands over her mouth.
"Oh my god!" she screamed. "Pete, get in here!"
Carl jumped away from Derek and hurriedly pulled his pants up.
"This isn't what it looks like, officer!" he said, looking terrified.
"Get your hands over your head!" yelled Pete, wanting very much to kick the man in the face. "Get on your fucking knees! Now!" Carl knelt down onto the ground and put his hands in the air. He started to cry. "You don't know the full story! You don't know what's going on here!" Pete resisted the urge to throw a punch at the man and started handcuffing him.
Officer Malloy ran around the table to help the boy. He was slumped over the desk, unconscious. She checked his pulse and sighed with relief when she felt that it was steady.
"Honey?" she asked quietly. The boy didn't stir, he seemed to be out cold. She checked his pockets for a wallet with some kind of identification card inside but she couldn't find any. Pete pulled the man to his feet and shoved him out the door. Marisa followed, carrying the boy in her arms. Pete shoved the man into the car, banging his head on the door.
"Uh oh." said Pete, turning up his dispatch radio. "Listen to this." He help up the radio so that Officer Malloy could hear.
"Collision involving two buses on I-94, multiple injuries, all ambulances being directed to Jackson Park Hospital."
"Where do we take the boy?" asked Marisa. "There won't be any spare ambulances and if we take him to Jackson Park Hospital he'll end up in a waiting room for hours."
"Rush Medical Center?" suggested Pete.
"At this hour?" said Marisa. "That's all the way in the West Loop. The traffic will take forever."
"Let me see him." said Pete, checking the boy's pulse. "He seems to be stable for now."
"Oh thank God!" said the man handcuffed in the car.
"Shut up!"said Marisa and Pete at the same time.
"How about the group home in the South Loop?" suggested Pete. "You know, the big one with the clinic?
"In the business district, right. What's it called? Oh yeah, the Rice Center." remembered Marisa. "Good idea. You take this filthy animal to the station." she pointed to the man in the back seat. "Call in some backup to collect evidence and take photos. Wait until they get here, I'm going to take this child to get some medical attention."
"Will do." said Pete, reaching for his walkie-talkie.
Marisa gently laid the boy across the backseat of the car and put a blanket over him. He was in for a long night.
Quantico, Virginia
JJ, and Aaron didn't stop running until they were a good eight blocks away from Aaron's house. Sean was riding piggyback on JJ's shoulders and crying. They came to a deserted bus stop and sat down on the bench. Aaron sat Sean on his lap and tried to comfort him.
"Daddy's gonna hurt Awon!" sobbed the five-year-old.
"Daddy isn't going to hurt us anymore." assured Aaron, pulling Sean into a hug. Sean laid down on the bench, exhausted. Aaron put his backpack under his head like a pillow. He took off his jacket and put it over his little brother like a blanket.
"Now let me see that cut." he said, turning to JJ. Under the flickering streetlight, it was hard to see but it looked like a shallow cut on her cheek. He cleaned off the blood with a tissue.
"JJ, I'm so sorry that happened."
"Not your fault." said JJ, briskly. "We need to get out of here before someone calls the cops."
"You're right." said Aaron. "The bus station is an hour walk away. What time is it?"
JJ checked her watch. "Its two thirty in the morning. When does the first train leave?"
"Six in the morning." said Aaron.
"Lets start walking," said JJ. "We'll take turns carrying Sean." she looked at the sleeping child on the bench. "Poor kid, he's had a rough week."
Aaron roused Sean and helped him put on his jacket. He pulled Sean onto his back while JJ picked up their bags. Sean mumbled drowsily and fell asleep on his brother's shoulders. The three kids headed off down the dark street, their shadows long against the yellow lights from the streetlights. The streets were abandoned, except for the occasional homeless person sleeping on the curb.
Twenty minutes into their walk, they passed an empty shopping cart on the sidewalk and eagerly grabbed it. They were both tired from carrying Sean and from lack of sleep. It was slow going, walking across town in the middle of the night, with a toddler. They gratefully flung their backpacks into the cart and carefully laid Sean in the middle like a sleeping kitten.
At three in the morning, they stopped to eat some sandwiches. Sean, who hadn't eaten all day, woke up crying. Aaron felt like crying himself. He was exhausted.
At five fifteen, they finally reached the train station. They ditched the shopping cart in an alley and walked up to the ticket counter, JJ carrying Sean on her back. Aaron tapped on the glass for a few minutes until a tired looking woman came to the counter.
"Yes?" she said, glancing at her watch.
"Three tickets to Chicago, please." said Aaron, pulling out his wallet.
"It leaves from Platform 9 in 3/4 of an hour." said the woman, passing their tickets under the glass window.
Chicago
Heather, the nurse in residence at the Rice Center looked in the window at her newest patient in the clinic. The boy was a young teen who looked athletic and mixed-race. At least, that was the description they had put on the police report. So far, no one had claimed him. He had been unconscious for hours. Heather had taken a sample of his blood and it had been sent to a hospital to be analyzed but she was fairly certain it would contain a high concentration of date rape drugs. The man who had been arrested had refused to talk to the police, making it very difficult to identify the boy in the bed.
Quantico Train Station
JJ, Aaron and Sean sat on a bench at platform 9, splitting some sandwiches for breakfast. JJ pulled Jack and the Beanstalk out of Sean's bag and read it to him while they ate.
"Remember what we talked about at home before Daddy got there?" said Aaron to Sean when JJ finished the story.
Sean nodded thoughtfully, his mouth full of peanut butter and jelly. "A new home near Awon and away from Daddy." he said.
"We're going there now," said JJ. "But there's some very important things you need to know before we go there."
"Can you put on your very best, big boy listening ears?" said Aaron, seriously. Sean nodded, sensing the importance.
"Daddy doesn't want you to go to the new home. He wants you to stay with him." said Aaron. "What do you think about that?"
Sean shook his head. "Bad. Daddy hurts me and Awon."
"That's right." said Aaron. "He hurts us and if he found out you were going to this new home he would get very, very angry. What does Daddy do when he's angry."
"Bad things. Hits and throws and yells."
"Correct." said Aaron. "So it's very important that Daddy doesn't know that you're going to a new home. Do you understand?"
"Secret." said Sean, closing his lips with his fingers.
"Right." said JJ. "So to make this a secret, we're going to give you a brand new name."
"Why?" said Sean, confused.
"Because when your Daddy sees that you've gone to a new home, he will get very angry and he will try to find you. He'll go to all the police and say 'Have you seen Sean?' and maybe someone from your new home will hear. Then they will say 'Oh yes! I've seen Sean!' and they will send you home to your Daddy. Do you want that?"
"No way!" said Sean.
"So you're going to get a new name and from now on, that will be your real name." said JJ.
"What name do you want, buddy?" asked Aaron.
Sean looked down at the picture book in his lap, now covered in sandwich crumbs. Jack and the Beanstalk.
"Jack!" said Sean. "Like Jack in the book!"
"Excellent!" said JJ. "Let's practice."
"Hello, good sir, what is your name?" said Aaron, shaking his brother's hand.
"Sean," he said, giggling.
"No, it's Jack now, remember?" said JJ. "Let's try again."
For the next half hour, JJ and Aaron grilled Jack on his new name, thinking up funny stories where he had to introduce himself again and again. By the time the train to Chicago pulled into the platform, he seemed to have the hang of it.
They easily got a compartment all to themselves, there was almost nobody on a train that early in the morning. For the whole train ride, they taught Jack what to say to the Rice Center staff.
"Let me try now." said JJ, standing up. She picked Jack up and plopped him onto the seat next to Aaron. "Hello little boy! I am a doctor at the Rice Center. What is your name?"
"Jack!" said Jack promptly.
"What is your second name?"
"Don't got one."
"You don't have a last name?"
"Nope."
"Where is your mommy and daddy?"
"I don't have a mommy and I don't know where daddy is."
"When did you last see them?"
"Don't know."
"Where do you live?"
"Don't remember."
"Do you have any brothers and sisters?"
"No."
"What happened to your face? How did you get hurt?"
"Daddy hit me."
"Do you know anyone named JJ or Aaron Hotchner?"
"Nope."
"How about Jennifer Jareau, have you ever heard of her?"
"Nope."
"What's your name?"
"Jack."
"Bravo!" cried Aaron, clapping his hands. "That was great!"
"Now tell me what we're going to do once we get off the train." said JJ
"Take a bus to the new home." said Jack slowly. "I go into the new home and take the elevator all by myself. Then I look for a grownup and...and-"
"What do you tell the grownup?"
"I don't have a place to live."
"Good job!" said JJ. "You'll do excellently."
The train pulled into Union Station and screeched to a halt.
"Are we going to my new home now?" asked Jack.
"You bet." said Aaron, leading the way off the train.
The three kids got on the bus headed to the Rice Center.
Inside the Rice Center, a teenage boy laying on a bed in the clinic started to stir.