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Vanished

By
N. J. Borba


"Derek!"

He woke from a deep sleep, jolted by the shout of his name.

Emily appeared in their bedroom doorway a second later, her hair slightly ratted, night clothes rather askew on her thin frame. "She's gone. I can't find her. She just vanished or maybe she ran away. I don't know where she'd go, though. But she's gone."

"Who?" Derek rubbed sleep from his eyes.

"Who?" Emily echoed in disbelief. "There's only one other she in this house beside me. Even our dog and cat are both male," her exasperated tone was punctuated by hands perched on hips. "Carly. Carly is missing. You do remember the tiny little girl we brought home last night, the one I've now lost in less than twenty-four hours."

Truthfully, Derek had momentarily forgotten about the newest addition to their family. He blamed sleep, but he certainly wasn't about to tell Emily that. "I'm sure she's around here somewhere," Derek pushed the covers off him and finally jumped into action. "Where have you looked so far?" he asked as Zach came to stand in their open doorway beside Emily. His blond hair was also tussled and his eyes were droopy from sleep.

"What's going on?" Zach asked.

"Carly is missing," Derek said as he placed his hands against Emily's shoulders and turned her toward the hallway. "We just need to keep calm and search for her. She didn't even leave an apartment with a dead body in it so I'm guessing she hasn't gone far."

"I checked her room, closet too," Emily let him know as they made a move toward the former guest bedroom.

Derek's eyes narrowed. "That's it?" he was surprised she was freaking out so much when she'd barely checked the house yet. Clooney staggered out of Zach's room as the three of them passed by. Sergio zoomed down the hall, having emerged from parts unknown. The cat hung close to Emily's side as they all trooped down the hall then he zipped off down the stairs. "How about the bathroom?" Morgan inquired. "You check there?"

Emily gave a shrug and a partial head shake. "She hasn't eaten anything in… I don't even know how long. I doubt she'd be in the bathroom."

The bathroom was empty when they checked, and sensing he needed to tread lightly around the woman he loved, Derek made a plan of attack. "Emily, you check downstairs, Zach you stay up here and search. I'll go outside and scan the yard," he concluded as they all separated. He checked the front door and found it locked. The back door was in the same state but he ventured outside anyhow. Carly was nowhere to be found in the yard or the garage and the fence was nearly six feet tall. Even the gate lock was far too high for her to reach.

Back inside he found Emily in their lavender laundry room. She closed the dryer door and faced him. "She's not here," Emily reported with the tiniest bit of composure.

Derek was almost certain he'd never seen her so rattled, except maybe for the case involving an old friend of hers several years ago. "The doors were locked from the inside, which makes it unlikely she even left the house," he informed her. "I'm sure she's just…"

"Found her!" Zach shouted from upstairs.

They zoomed up the stairs. "Where are you?" Emily called out.

"In her room," the boy shouted back.

"No, that's no possible," Emily said as she and Derek moved down the hall. "She wasn't there a few minutes ago, I know I would've seen her if she'd been…" she trailed off upon spotting Zach on the floor. He was lying on his belly and pointed one index finger beneath the bed. Emily felt like an idiot for not searching there first.

"You haven't searched for a lot of kids, have you?" Zach asked. "Under the bed is the first place we think of to hide."

Morgan tried not to laugh. "I think Zach has already been living with you too long, Emily. You've turned him in to a smart ass."

"Language," she gently berated him. "Besides, he isn't nearly as smart ass as I can be."

"Language," Derek returned her scolding.

Emily stuck her tongue out at him for a second before she sunk down on to her stomach and flipped up the white bed skirt. Sure enough, there was Carly. The girl lay curled into the fetal position sucking her left thumb. It broke Emily's heart to see her that way. "I'm not even sure the last time I vacuumed under there," she whispered to Derek who had joined her and Zach on their bellies. "It could be filthy under there."

"I doubt she's worried about dust bunnies," Derek replied, wondering about Emily's scattered focus. As he regarded the girl, his thoughts flew back in time several months to a hospital room where he'd witnessed a young boy curled into much the same position beneath a table. "Carly," he spoke in a whisper. "I met a boy named Angel earlier this year. He felt a lot like you do, I imagine, scared and alone. But I let him know he was safe with me. That I only wanted to help him…"

Derek stopped short when the girl tightened her safety bubble, ducking her head from view. "I don't think I'm helping," he sighed.

Emily placed a hand to his forearm. "It's not you," she tried to assure him. "I'm sure it's not personal. I think you just represent all men for her at the moment."

"That's understandable," he said while getting to his feet. "I think I'll let you handle this." Derek motioned for Zach to rise. "You need to shower and get ready for school," he instructed the boy. "And I need to get ready for work," he concluded, flashing Emily an encouraging smile. "I'll check back before we head out."

"Thank you," she returned his smile and then turned her focus back to Carly. "Hey, mouse," Emily addressed the girl. Carly lifted her head a little, aimed her eyes toward Emily. Her thumb left her mouth for a moment. "I know you didn't mean to, but you hurt Derek's feelings. He only wanted to talk to you. But I can see now that's going to take some trust building. That's okay," Emily assured her. "He's a pretty patient guy and I'm patient too. We didn't bring you here on a whim," she let the girl know.

Silence fell between them again and Emily sighed.

"I was really scared earlier when I couldn't find you," Emily revealed. "Not a lot scares me, Carly. Pretty much the only thing that freaks me out is when the people I care about most are hurt or in danger. Maybe that sounds silly to you, if you can understand me. I know I haven't even known you a full twenty-four hours yet but you are special to me Carly. Just like Zach, I believe there's a reason why you and I crossed paths yesterday. I hope you believe that too. I hope you can learn to trust me."

Carly stayed put, blue eyes still focused on Emily and full of curiosity.

Something caught Emily's attention in the quiet room. It wasn't a sound, though, but a smell. The girl was filthy but she hadn't really smelled before.

Emily pulled herself up off the floor and inspected the bed. She didn't have to search for very long to find the source of the smell, which was a wet sheet and mattress. Realization grabbed hold and something else struck her as wrong. The step stool she and Derek had left in the room was missing. Emily searched the room but came up empty. She followed a hunch and found the stool in the bathroom pushed against the sink cabinet. "Zach," she addressed the boy behind the steaming shower door. "Did you move this stool in here?"

"Nope," he shouted back over the sound of the shower. "It was here."

With some of the mystery surmised in her head, Emily returned to Carly's room and sunk down on her belly again. She eyed the girl. "Did you have an accident last night, Carly? Or maybe early this morning?" Emily realized she hadn't asked Mrs. Dayton very much about the girl, but at least the social worker had assured them Carly was potty trained. "I'm guessing you got thirsty in the middle of the night, went to get a drink in the bathroom and then wet the bed. Am I right?"

No answer came from the child.

"You know you don't have to sneak around," Emily kept at it. "If you're hungry or thirsty you can ask for what you want. Or you can at least eat what we offer until you learn to talk, or until you feel safe enough to talk to us." She grimaced as half a dozen different scenarios flooded her thoughts. "Maybe the man you lived with before didn't let you eat much?" she asked. "Maybe he used food as a bribe? Did he make you do favors for him in order to eat?" it made her sick to her stomach to think of such cruelty.

The girl's eyes closed and she thrust her thumb back in to her mouth.

Sergio brushed against Emily's leg and then came to lick her face. "Hey crazy kitty, what are you up to?" she stroked the feline's back, grateful for the interruption.

He gave her a few more seconds of attention and then crept beneath the bed. Emily watched as the cat sniffed his way toward Carly. Sergio circled the girl's tiny body three times before he settled down beside her. He nestled himself where Carly's knees were pressed to her stomach. "Well, isn't that quite an odd picture," she remarked. "The cat and the mouse all cozy together," Emily chuckled. She knew him to be a love as did Garcia, but so far he'd been a pain in the butt to Clooney, Derek and Zach.

"Any progress?" Derek asked from the doorway.

Emily sat up and pressed her back to the wall beside Carly's bed. Her head shook. "She wet the bed. I need to change her sheets and probably buy one of those rubber mattress cover thingies. Do you think they even make them for a queen size bed?"

He moved in to the room and squatted in front of Emily, his hands on her knees. "I have no idea, but I'll go to the store after work tonight and find out," Morgan volunteered. "And we might want to think about getting her a smaller bed eventually."

"Probably," she agreed.

"Are you gonna be okay here today on your own?" Derek leaned in to kiss her forehead. "I could call in. Hotch doesn't even know about our new addition yet."

"You should go; you've already been out of work too long. And we need one of us bringing home a paycheck," Emily responded as the voice of reason. "There are two more mouths to feed these days," she grinned, thankful of his support, which she knew would be with her all day even when he was away at work. "Only thing I'm worried about is Zach. I don't know if I'll be able to pry Carly out from under this bed in time to pick him up from school this afternoon."

"That's okay," the boy stepped in to the room. "My friend Jeff lives a few blocks away, I can ask his mom for a ride home. Jeff said I could ask anytime."

Derek and Emily shared a somewhat surprised look, neither of them hearing about a new friend before. They remained silently pleased for the boy, but cautious as any good parent would be. "Why don't you have Jeff's mom call me today and I'll make sure it's okay with her. Otherwise we'll work out another plan."

Zach nodded. "If we get to school early enough Derek could talk to her."

Morgan gave Emily one more quick kiss and jumped to his feet. "I think that means we need to roll, youngster," he gently slapped Zach's shoulder and they headed out the door.

She called after them, "Derek, make sure he eats something for breakfast, a granola bar or a piece of fruit…" Emily did her best to sound maternal and somewhat healthy. She heard two soft garbled replies that she pretended were affirmation. When the front door opened and closed only a few minutes later she guessed they were planning to get some sort of fried egg sandwich from a drive-thru. She did her best not to worry about it.

There was a girl under the bed at the moment that needed her attention more.

"Speaking of breakfast…" Emily lowered her head again to spy on Carly. Sergio was still there and both seemed to be sleeping. "Guess that'll be breakfast for one," she whispered.

xxx

Emily swallowed a bite of her peach yogurt as she sat in Carly's room again.

There was a tray placed beside the bed within the girl's line of sight. Emily had put a small bowl of cheerios on it, a cut up banana and a tiny glass of apple juice. There was also another slightly larger glass filled with water. Earlier she'd pondering making some toast as another breakfast option for the girl. It was hard to know what Carly might like. In the end Emily had figured fewer choices were better. If Carly was hungry enough, and Emily imagined she was, then she would eventually gravitate toward what was offered.

"I didn't put any milk on the cereal," Emily carried on a one-sided conversation, as she'd been doing most of the morning. "I didn't want them to get soggy waiting for you to eat them. Lots of kids like them dry, but if you'd like some milk you can ask me," she tapped a foot against the carpeted floor. "Or you could give me some kind of sign, maybe touch the end of your nose if you'd like milk on your cereal." Emily sighed. "That is if you can understand anything I'm saying."

Sergio crawled out from under the bed and stretched his body into a deep v shape. Then he yawned and sniffed at the tray of food.

"Get away, you," Emily shooed. "You've got food downstairs," she admonished. "You know what, Serge…" Emily stood. "Why don't we both go downstairs and let Carly have some alone time." She used one foot to gently push the cat in the direction of the door. "I'll be back in a little bit to check on you, Carly."

With that she exited the room and descended the stairs with Sergio at her heels.

A half hour later she had the kitchen clean and was putting a load of laundry in the wash. She was just about to head upstairs to retrieve Carly's wet sheets when her cell phone sprang to life. "Hello," she answered warmly, surprised but pleased to see it was Derek on the other line.

"I just wanted to find out how you and Carly were doing?"

She smiled. "Good so far, but not much to report. I left some food for her, now I'm just hoping she'll eat some of it."

"Maybe you shouldn't stay in the room with her all day. I'm sure she needs some space to deal with all this change."

"Way ahead of you there, pal," Emily chuckled. "I'm doing laundry."

"How domestic of you. You really do like that lavender room of yours, don't you?"

"Yep, love it," she agreed. Mostly she loved it because she could never think of the room without associating him with it. "So did you speak to Jeff's mother? Or do I need to arrange for Zach to take the bus or something?"

"I did speak to Jeff's mother. Funny thing, though, she also goes by the name Lily Davenport. And she seems perfectly trustworthy and is willing to give Zach a ride home today. So no worries on that front. Just stick there with Carly. Do you want me to bring something home for dinner?"

Emily sorted through a pile of dark clothes with a grin on her face. "You're a good guy, Derek Morgan."

"I know… so how about that dinner offer?"

Laugher spilled forth as she shook her head, even though he couldn't see her. "Nah, I'll make something. I can handle that much. Now get to work slacker," she teased.

"Love you."

"Love you, too," she ended the call.

Derek's support spurned her toward the stairs to check on Carly. Emily walked down the hall slowly and quietly hoping to maybe secretly catch Carly sneaking a bit of food. What she found was the tray missing most of the banana and the water glass drained. Not bad, she thought while kneeling to take a peek at the girl. Emily's heart seized when she discovered the underside of the bed to be completely lacking of four year old girl.

"Carly?" she jumped up and rushed out of the room.

Thankfully the flushing toilet gave her a clue of where to look, not to mention a somewhat calmer heartbeat.

Emily stuck her head through the open bathroom door. Carly was standing there in her too-big clothes, wide blue eyes like a deer caught in headlights. "Sorry," Emily took a step backwards into the hall. "I didn't mean to interrupt. I was just worried that you'd disappeared again. That's what grown-ups do when kids disappear. They worry. Well, the good parents do. Not that I'm your parent or…" she trailed off when Carly ran past her and ducked into her bedroom again.

A sigh escaped Emily's lips as she spotted the girl slither under the bed. "At least you ate something, mouse," she was happy to dwell on that small improvement. "It's a start."

xxx

At six thirty, Emily met Derek at the door feeling very unlike Donna Reed.

She wrapped her arms around his neck even though his hands were laden with shopping bags. "You okay?" he whispered in her ear, dropping the bags, thankful there was nothing breakable in them. "Is Carly all right?" Derek wasn't used to her being clingy.

"Carly's good," Emily pulled away, but just an inch. "She came out from under the bed once to use the bathroom. She ate most of a banana and half a bowl of dry cheerios. And apparently she prefers good old water to apple juice. I guess Zach is the juice drinker in this group. Speaking of Zach, he got home fine and Lily agreed to bring him home for the next few weeks until I can get Carly on some kind of schedule, hopefully. Zach's doing his homework in Carly's room, on his belly. He seems pretty concerned about her and…"

"Slow down for a second," Derek encouraged, still trying to process most of what she'd conveyed. "You're gonna run out of steam. Come on," he waved a hand toward the living room sofa. "Sit, and I will show you what I found for Carly." He grabbed the bags and followed her to the sofa where she curled up on one end.

"I thought you were just buying a plastic mattress cover," Emily said as she spotted the three large bags.

"Left work a little early to pick up a few things," he sat at the opposite end of the sofa and smiled when her feet landed on his lap. "I found a queen size wee-wee guard cover. Pretty sure they make them so parents can have their kids sleep in the same bed with them, or maybe for old folks," Derek shrugged. "I also bought the best booster car seat money can buy so we can get Mrs. Dayton's back to her," he noted. "And then I bought some new clothes for Carly."

Emily's brows arched. "You did?"

"Yep, I had to get a couple different sizes because I wasn't sure what would fit her," he laid out several pairs of leggings. There was a pink pair, purple, blue, even a rainbow striped pair. "I figure we can return the stuff that doesn't fit." He proceeded to show her t-shirts with cats, unicorns and butterflies on them. A pair of lime green shorts, several sizes of underwear with Disney princesses on them and a few pairs of pink sandals. "And this thing is called a skort, I think," he tossed the teal colored garment at Emily and shrugged.

The skort made Emily wonder if Carly would ever be brave enough to wear a skirt. For some reason she couldn't picture Carly in something so girly. After examining each item she felt he'd guessed the sizes pretty close. Emily moved to sit beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. "You are the best dad a little girl could hope for."

"Not really her dad," Derek pointed out.

"You cared enough to buy her new clothes that fit, and a safe car seat," Emily replied. "That's good daddy material in my eyes. I just wish I'd been there to see it. I bet you were adorable debating between butterflies or unicorns and deciding to get both," she chuckled.

He kissed her cheek in a placating manner. "The real sight to see will be Carly taking a bath so she's clean enough to wear the new clothes."

"You speak the truth," she nodded, somewhat dreading that day but knowing it needed to come sooner rather than later.

"And what about you my beautiful domestic goddess?" Derek cooed in a playful manner. "Did you make a special dinner for your favorite bread winner?"

She nodded. "Of course I did. And it'll be delivered in about ten minutes," Emily chuckled, "Pizza and breadsticks… food of champions."

"Hmm…" Derek smiled as he kissed her again. "As much as I know you probably slaved over making that pizza order – about as much as I slaved over Zach's fast-food egg biscuit this morning - we might need to think about introducing some proper nutrition into these kids' diets," he gently suggested.

"Hey, I'm the one who told you to make him eat some fruit before you left this morning," she protested. "And I got Carly to eat a banana today. That's healthy," Emily remarked with a swell of pride. "Okay, so I wasn't even in the room when she ate it, and I suppose it is possible Sergio might have been the one to eat it. He was rather cozy with her today. But I still say I moved a mountain where Carly is concerned."

Morgan wrapped his arms around her. "Maybe a small hill," he teased.

Emily grabbed a pillow and wacked him over the head with it. "It was at least a large-ish hill," she protested, straddling his hips and pinning him further with one arm on either side of his torso, hands grasping the sofa. "You will not be released until you say it was a large hill," Emily demanded.

"You're right," he replied. "Getting Carly to eat a banana was more than a small hill being moved. A medium sized hill most likely."

"Think you're funny, do you?" Emily leaned in closer. "I have methods of torture to make you admit I'm right," she whispered, more seductively than upset.

Derek happily kissed her neck, working his way toward her lips. "We haven't had much time to be alone lately, with me recovering and Zach coming to live with us. And now Carly," he suckled her bottom lip. "I'm surprised you're not complaining about being tired or…"

The doorbell rang, interrupting what probably would've been interrupted by Zach eventually.

She rolled off Derek with a frustrated sigh. "You had to jinx it, didn't you," Emily smiled to let him know she wasn't mad. The doorbell rang a second time. "Dinner is served."

He kissed her again and held her hand as they moved toward the door. "You think there's any chance of us picking that up again later?"

"We'll see," she quipped as he opened the door.

xxx

Emily flopped down on the bed thinking she didn't have enough energy to even brush her teeth. Zach had needed help with his math homework after dinner. She and Derek had remade Carly's bed. And then Carly had refused to get in to the bed. She'd finally fallen asleep beneath the bed and Emily had transferred her topside. Sergio had insisted on sleeping on Carly's bed. After the kids were finally sound asleep the two of them had cleaned the kitchen, folded a load of laundry and made a plan for a healthy breakfast.

Now she enjoyed the feel of his deft hands as they caressed her thigh. "You know I love you, right?" Emily asked sleepily.

Derek nodded. "Yep," his attention was more focused on her body than her words.

"And there is honestly nothing I would like more tonight than to make love to you," she kissed along his jawline thinking maybe she could muster the energy.

"Oh yeah?" he wore a happy grin of anticipation.

"But I think I'd probably just fall asleep on you," Emily confessed as she laid back and gave up the act.

He gave her a sympathetic smile, kissing her on the lips. "I can't say I'm not disappointed, but it's okay," Derek insisted. "I know how tiring it can be to move mountains," he finally allowed her the satisfaction of that victory.

"You're the best," she closed her eyes, head on his shoulder.

"I try," he kissed her forehead.

"You succeed," Emily assured him before sleep took hold.


The End