Authors Note: This is just a short chapter, but more is on the way.

I'm having way too much fun writing for Maddie, but Hotch has a lot to say about what is happening so we ares sticking with him for now. I really appreciate the reviews, and that any of you are still reading this. It's a beast of a story, and I realize that my writing has changed and developed a lot, hopefully toward the better.

I notice when ever I write perfixes when the chapter posts they disappear so I wrote for that hopefully.

The reason that Emily is taking so darn long to come back is that it's important to me that the Madlien who walked into the BAU looking for her mom, and the one Emily returns to is a very different me know in a review if you've noticed any changes with Madlien.

Chapter 28

Hotches POV

"STOP!"

Maddie, I drag my bedding off my bed in my haste to get to her. Another night terror only this time it happened on Jacks weekend.

"It's alright bud, go back to bed. I got her." Intercepting his path. I pat him on the back as he blearily makes his way back to his bed.

Once in her room I switch the light to the dim setting she prefers.

Maddie is heaving and viciously scrubbing at her eyes. Stopping at the door way. "Hey" I announce my presence. She looks up at me her are eyes blood shot, but her breathing is steadying out.

"Tea" Nodding she climbs out of bed and we head toward the kitchen.

She is silent, in her own world, as I prepare chamomile tea for both of us. Sliding her glass to her. I sit across from her. She sips at it for a moment.

"I hate this." She finally speaks. "Not, being able to remember, what sick trick of the mind is that?" Her frustration is fair.

These have been happening every night for over a two weeks now. Just when things were starting to mellow out, school seemed to be going well, she even has regular visits with Chester.

The night terrors had come when we were on a case and Maddie was staying with Penelope. It is Penelope who had started the coping mechanism of addressing the nightly wake up calls by baking in the middle of the night with Maddie.

"Doctor. Irving suggests I might prefer not remembering the night mares, that it's my brain protecting me...What's it protecting me from? I still wake up, I still feel awful, like I'm about to fly apart, only I can't reason my way out of it. I don't know why I feel like this Hotch, I'm tired."

She looked away from me as she rambled, but her eyes connected with mine at the end.

"I remember everything that happened in that room with the locked door, what the blood gushing over my gums felt like after having a baby took yanked out as a consequence, I remember being strung up and being beaten after I thought it was all over. What could my brain be protecting me from? I just want to sleep!"

My mind can't save me, the consequences, the threat of them, it was never forgettable! "It's so constant Hotch." She seemed to be begging me to help her, but I couldn't no matter how desperately I wanted to give magic words.

She heaved in a breath. "Weeks of no sleep. These thoughts phantom pain, it sits on the back burner of my brain, and I can keep it out of my direct thoughts, but it's always there, accept for when I was asleep, and now that is gone." Her lip trembled. "I'm tired." She was flushed, heaving in breaths to calm herself.

There is nothing I could do for this. Medication isn't an option she is interested in, and her therapist agreed. I can't go back in time and keep Madlien with her mother.

I must remember in the face of that confession that we are doing what we can, that nothing will be accomplished by me going down to the prison her abductors are in and plying their teeth out one by one before punishing them in all the ways that they had hurt her, and then after that slowly, mercilessly breaking them, they may be sick, but I know tricks of the trade they would never imagine.

Then she wouldn't have me here listening to her. She wouldn't have the trust we've fortified together likely ever again.

"That sounds difficult." Emily had taught me that girls don't always want answers, sometimes they just want to be heard. I hear you, by god, if I could turn off that burner I would let you forget about it and never tend to those thoughts again.

Maddie glances at her tea, and opens her mouth like she is about to say something, instead she brings the tea to mouth and sips at it.

This action is entirely too familiar. What else is bothering you? Every night terror she starts to say something but doesn't, and right on cue she files whatever that thought is away. Some of her defenses have stayed despite her exhaustion.

I don't prompt her for more. Only Doctor Irving seems to have that balance of asking for more, but respecting her privacy figured out.

3 weeks ago when I had made her choose a psychologist I had thought it was just for her.

I was too close, clinically I should realized that successfully adding to her support system with a therapist that is genuinely helping her, would remove pressure and tension from her interactions with every caregiver in her life including the rest of the team, and myself.

"I didn't finish my math homework." she spoke as if she was surprising herself with that news, and not merely confessing to me.

Last time she had said those words she had been on the verge of a panic attack. She hadn't been able to figure out how to do a set of problems.

"Please just give me a start, I can figure it out, we don't have to tell, I'm sorry, I'm missing something, I won't miss it again if you help me!" she'd begged me to help her, to not be mad, to not tell anyone, that look in her eye the conviction that her not solving a few problems had somehow meant she earned a punishment...a consequence.

However they forced that scholar knowledge on her, the level of school book smarts that lead to her grade level being relatively easy, it came at a cost she should never have paid.

I softened my features kept my breath even. She really had been struggling to sleep, if she was tired she may just now be realizing her error, and the wrong reaction could lead us right back down that same road. That road may as well be a kick to the shin.

"I called Stacie we talked it over a bit. She couldn't figure it out either." Maddie offered a shrug. "We started it and tried to work through it, but it's probably a new concept Miss Lane is introducing." She smiled at me.

"It's fun to try to puzzle through those problems like that. I don't have the answer, but I bet I have part of the method right." Her eyes are shining up at me and the message is as clear as day.

I did it! The same pride, and energy in her gaze as Jack had when he went down the larger slide at the park.

No need to call Reid here in the middle of the night again, this would not be one of many midnight math emergency's.

It's a delicate balance speaking with Maddie. She makes an effort to share her progress, and perspective, yet remains flustered, embarrassed, and likely has a residual fear to admit that she struggles with unique or any problems. It's been made evident that asking for help was equally as punishable as making a perceived mistake, or defying her captors.

Nine of her developmental years won't just disappear because we tell her she is safe.

"I'm glad you were able to reach out to your friend, sounds like you two tackled quite the math problem."

She nodded smiling for a second then glancing away. She kept her gaze off to the side of my head, and her voice was almost too soft to hear.

"I'm not scared, even though I know I didn't quite get it." This kid, the trust implicit in that admission.

Just like Jack with big slide needing to make sure I understand. Did you see that?

If she is going to confront this head on, so will I. "I'm proud of you."

Just like that the prideful grin returns. You saw it, I did it!