The night was a rough one, with 3 nightmares and one bed wetting incident.

Charlotte was growing so distraught, that after the final nightmare around 5am, she wouldn't even go back in bed.

Emily had to carry and keep her in her arms, rocking her back and forth around the room until she drifted back off into sleep.

Once Emily was sure, she gently laid her back down on her bed.

Glancing at the clock, she saw it read 5:25am, and Derek was buttoning the buttons on his shirt, getting ready to head into the BAU.

"Derek" she called out in a horse voice laced with exhaustion.

He looked up from his shirt to her, eyebrows raised.

"Find whatever sons of bitches hurt her, and never let them get out of jail for it." She demanded tiredly, now getting back under the covers herself, trying to get more than 3 hours of sleep.

Even in his tired state, Derek chuckled. "We won't stop until we do."

He walked over and gave Emily a quick kiss, then left.

Emily turned her attention back to Charlotte.

Her small thumb was back in her mouth, and her blond hair was cascaded around her shoulders onto her purple nightgown.

Her body was tightly scrunched up into a ball, and hidden almost completely under the comforter.

Instinctively, Emily reached her arm out and wrapped it around her girl.

In her sleep, Charlotte froze temporarily, but then relaxed in the hold and snuggled close to Emily.

The agent smiled, then drifted back off to sleep with Charlotte.

The next time she woke up, it was close to 9:30, and she was feeling much more well rested.

She looked down to see Charlotte still sleeping peacefully in her hold, and was grateful that she had gotten at least a few hours of nightmare-less sleep.

When Emily rolled over to get her phone Charlotte's eyes slowly opened and she rubbed them, but her calm demeanor from resting was replaced with the confusion and fear she had the previous day.

Emily's heart sunk.

"Good morning sweetheart, how're you feeling?" Emily asked gently

Charlotte nodded carefully and moved slowly backwards as if trying to distance herself from being punished.

Emily pretended not to notice; she didn't want to frighten Charlotte any further.

"Ok, want to go get ready?" She asked with a reassuring smile.

Charlotte nodded again and cautiously slid off the bed and walked down to her room obediently.

"How about you pick out whatever you want to wear and get changed while I start breakfast?" Emily asked, trying to give Charlotte independence and privacy. "Just call if you need help" she said.

"Ok" Charlotte whispered, barely audible.

Her eyes weren't even looking at Emily; just like the night before, her focus already seemed to be divided over 50 different places.

Emily nodded with a smile then went downstairs and made some scrambled eggs and toast for them both.

She was about to go check on Charlotte when her phone rang.

She looked down and saw "Melissa" on the screen- Charlotte's case worker.

Shoot Emily thought, and picked up.

"Hi Melissa, how're you?" She greeted

"Good thanks, and you?" Melissa replied.

"Alright."

"I just wanted to check in and see how Charlotte was doing? I meant to pop in yesterday but got pulled away. With the court date coming up soon I just wanted to make sure she was doing alright." Melissa said

Emily sighed as she sat down. "She's doing ok, but to be honest with you she had a rough day in therapy yesterday, and hasn't fully recovered from it yet. She's regressed some into the timid behaviors she had when we found her, but the therapist assured me that it's normal for that to happen after the first time opening up." Emily explained.

"Well I'm glad to hear she opened up, that's a big and very important step, but I'm sorry to hear she's not processing it well. Tell me more about her behavior?"

"Well she had a few nightmares last night, all pretty bad. She's also just avoiding eye contact, flinching at touches, distracted... but I'm hoping she'll adjust back after today." Emily answered

"What is your plan for today?" Melissa inquired

"I'm going to take her back to the aquarium. That was the first place I took her that she opened up out of her shell, so I hope it will happen again now." Emily answered.

"That sounds like a great idea, Agent Prentiss. Please keep me updated on how she's doing, and we'll be in touch soon about court."

"Of course, thank you for calling" Emily said, and hung up.

She sighed, looked at the clock, and frowned.

Charlotte had been "getting dressed" for the past 15 minutes or so and hadn't come downstairs.

Emily ascended the steps to her room and saw Charlotte still in her pajamas, sitting at her desk and staring at Finny swim.

Emily knocked quietly, and Charlotte's body jumped.

"Hey love, I left for you to get dressed 15 minutes ago, what happened?" She asked

Charlotte's eyes widened.

"I'm vewy sowwy! I no mean to, I'm sowry, pwease no huwt. I'll get dwessed now" she said, scrambling to get up and retrieve clothes from her dresser.

"Hey hey, it's ok" Emily said, gently stopping her frantic hands. "You know I'd never hurt you. I just wanted to help. Let's pick out an outfit, ok?" She said, effectively calming Charlotte down some.

Charlotte, heart still racing, nodded and sat on the end of her bed while Emily pulled out green underwear with ladybugs, grey leggings, and a pink shirt with a big heart stitched onto it, then held them up for Charlotte's approval.

Charlotte nodded, relieved, then allowed Emily to help her get changed.

Afterwards, they went downstairs to the table.

Charlotte picked at her food and took her medicine without complaint.

"Alright Char, ready to go?" Emily asked, after she finished washing their dishes.

"Go whewe?" She asked, confused, staring at the wall.

"A surprise" Emily answered with a wink. "But I think you'll like it." She said, holding her arms out in front of Charlotte's chair.

After a moment of thinking, Charlotte got into them timidly and Emily carried her out into the car.

Charlotte was clearly not focused on anything in the car, and her eyes were darting everywhere.

But when they finally arrived at the Aquarium, Charlotte perked up some and looked out the window.

Emily smiled, seeing her girl starting ever so slightly to return again, and held her hand inside.

Once their tickets were paid for, Charlotte lead the way to a big fish display and stopped, pointing enthusiastically at some of the fish in the tank.

"Mommy mommy wook!" She exclaimed. "It's like Finny!" She informed

Emily grinned too, looking at the tank.

It wasn't quite like her fish, but it was close enough.

"Pretty cool Char, Finny's got a whole display dedicated to him!" She replied, eliciting a small smile from Charlotte.

Charlotte looked at the other tanks for a few more minutes, then back to Emily.

"Can we see the Tuwtles Mommy?" She asked, the smile at the corner of her lips growing a bit.

"You bet" Emily promised. "We can see whatever you want."

Charlotte smiled and lead Emily to the next exhibit of starfish, then around the whole floor, ending with the sea turtles.

By the end of their visit, Emily could finally see Charlotte's joy starting to return, and she couldn't help a quick stop by the gift shop on the way out.

Carrying Charlotte, they walked inside, and Emily found a under the sea coloring book right away, and seeing Charlotte's face light up in approval, walked over to the registrar.

As the cashier was ringing up her purchase, Emily looked back at Charlotte and followed her gaze to a stuffed starfish display right next to the registrar.

Emily smiled and picked up one of the starfish, then added it to her purchase.

Charlotte, wrapped her arms a little tightly around Emily. "Mommy t'ank you" she whispered in her ear, her voice full of gratitude.

"You are very welcome love" Emily said.

She loved being able to spoil Charlotte some.

After paying for the coloring book, starfish and a new book, the duo returned to the car.

This time, Charlotte was focused again on her surroundings, and the fear in her eyes from earlier had subsided notably.

On the way home, Emily made a quick pit stop to the pottery place from a few days before.

Their creations were done in the kiln, so the were good to be taken home now.

Once they returned home, Emily made lunch and served Charlotte's chicken nuggets and grapes on her plate that she had painted at the pottery place, much to Charlotte's delight.

To Emily's relief, she ate her whole lunch. After seeing her just pick at last nights dinner and this mornings breakfast, she was getting worried.

Charlotte started coloring a page in her new coloring book while Emily washes the dishes, but when Emily returned to the table, she could tell how tired Charlotte was, especially with her lack of sleep from the nightmares the previous night.

"Want to take a little nap sweetheart?" Emily asked, kneeling in front of her.

Charlotte rubbed her eyes and nodded, allowing Emily to pick her up and carry her upstairs.

On her way, Emily grabbed her snow globe she had made while making pottery.

Once upstairs, Emily gently laid Charlotte in bed, who put her thumb in her mouth and snuggled against the pillow.

Emily sat on the edge of her bed.

"Hey Char, I made you something" Emily said, unwrapping the snow globe she'd created to replace the one her master had destroyed.

Once she held it out, Charlotte's eyes widened and she sat up, looking closely at it.

"I know that master broke yours, and I know how much it meant to you. I wish I could get it back, but I couldn't fix it, so I made you this one."

Charlotte locked eyes with Emily, not even sure how to respond.

After a moment, the girl threw her arms around Emily, and hugged her gratefully.

Emily returned the hug, sighing happily and kissed the top of her head.

"Mommy?" Charlotte asked, a little more tentatively as she laid back down.

"Yeah sweetie." She answered, rubbing her back as Charlotte shut her eyes.

"I wove you" she said, now drifting off to sleep.

Emily's breath hitched. "I love you too Charlotte" she said.

Finally, Charlotte was back.

A/N- review if you want this continued!