No One's POV
The elevator doors shut behind Hotchner and Rossi with a rather sudden clang, seeming to dispel the silence around the team, immediately all of the BAU team turning back to one another and breaking into chatter.
"Yo Reid… How are you handling all of this, by the way?" Morgan asks his best friend, turning to look at the youngest Reid sibling over his shoulder as he perches on J.J's desk.
"I'm used to her being gone." Reid replies calmly, looking up from his work as he answers his best friend's question. "My sister used to work for Doctors without Borders… Besides… I've talked to her." He shrugs rather casually.
"What?" Derek answers back with another question. "What do you mean you've talked to her?" It was a valid question, although being at Fort Benning gave Madison and Aaron a greater degree of communication with each other without risking a security breach, still, neither the team nor Hotchner were allowed to communicate on a regular basis for the very reason of risking Foyet finding out where Madison and Jack were.
Reid suddenly pulls out a rather bulky looking phone from his locked desk before setting it on his desk.
"Is that an encrypted phone?" Derek questions again.
Reid gives another ambivalent answer before putting the phone back into his desk and locking it away.
"Sometimes, I don't understand you two…" Derek mutters before turning back to J.J. and Emily.
"Maddie." Casey is there to greet Madison and Jack when the C-17 lands at the airstrip at Fort Benning and they walk down the ramp together, Jack clutching onto Madison's hand like a lifeline, his back pack securely on his shoulders, and his favorite teddy bear tucked in the crook of his arm.
"Casey." Madison returns the greeting, launching herself into his waiting arms, the two embracing tightly, leaving Jack only one step behind her with one of the MP's who had escorted them on the trip.
"Hey, everything is going to be alright now. We've gotcha. You're one of us. Leave no man behind, right?" Casey offers, his hand steady on her shoulder as he looks at her and Jack hiding behind Madison's body.
"Hooah." Madison replies back softly, a slight up tilt her lips.
"Hooah." Casey nods once back in solid show of loyalty and unity. "Now, let's get you and this little guy settled." He turns towards his truck, waving briefly towards the car behind his own where one of his buddies waits to follow them back towards the residential housing.
Madison stared out the window, her only cup of coffee, decaf coffee, she was allowed, warm in her hands and her thoughts lost to the morning and the last two weeks; in the last two weeks her house had been a never ending revolving door of military wives, the Rangers coming to welcome her back as if she was a long lost team member, and settling into her new routine with Jack, forced to be a pseudo mother to a still grieving five-year old boy.
"Maddie! Maddie!" Jack runs in from his bedroom.
"Hey bud… What is it?" Madison kneels down, immediately snapping out of her morning musing and daydreams.
"I can't find my left shoe!" Jack exclaims as he struggles to put on his sweatshirt and hop around on his right foot, his socks half on.
"Oh, well, that's easy to fix, buddy." Madison smiles at the young boy. "Remember? We decided to put them over by your back pack so we wouldn't lose them."
"Oh, right!" Jack perks up and then runs over to his pack which is by the door.
"Thanks Maddie! You're the best!" Jack runs back over to Madison to give her a big hug.
"You're welcome, Jack. Now, you better finish getting ready or you'll be late." Madison gives Jack a light ruffle on his hair, already hearing the familiar footsteps of the MP that drove Jack back and forth to school.
"Okay, mom!" Jack gives Madison a bright smile before running back to his room, leaving a stunned Madison in his wake; mom, she supposed she would have to get used to that term soon enough, after all, she was a few months pregnant with her own child, and Jack would be her step-son once she and Aaron inevitably got married... But, Jack calling her mom now? When Haley's death was only a month ago? To say she was stunned that would be an understatement.