A/N: Hey everyone! Here is the next chapter (again, I cannot take the credit for this chapter), I'm trying not to post these so close together, get people time to read and review, but anyways. I'd like to say thanks to these reviewers:
Lady Lunera - I know! These poor kids, it makes me sad. I'm sure they'll be rescued, hopefully, soon!
CmGleek - Agreed! They sure do have a mean dad!
Itsjustmeagain7 - Thank You!
Thanks for reading, and I'll let you get on with the chapter!
CriminalMindsFan88
Chapter 3
The next morning, Aaron wakes up and forgets his sisters slept with him in his room. He looks down and quietly gets out of bed without disturbing the girls. Once he makes it out of the room, he quietly walks over to the stairs and heads down. Not seeing any sign of his dad still home, he goes into the kitchen and looks out the window. He notices his dad's vehicle is gone and gives a sigh of relief. He walks over to the pantry and finds what little bread they have, and walks over to the fridge. Furthermore, he spots a few eggs left, and grabs what's left and sets out to make scrambled eggs and toast for him and his sisters. A little while later, Aaron happens to turn around and sees his youngest sister walk into the kitchen.
"Well good morning JJ, how'd you sleep?" Aaron asks the tired, young girl.
JJ rubs her eyes tiredly, shrugs her small shoulders, "I slept okay. My arm still kind of hurts from when daddy grabbed my arm."
"It does? I'll take a look at it here in a minute, let me get this finished up first," Aaron tells her.
JJ just stands there and nods her head, and waits for her brother to finish up with breakfast. As soon as the eggs were finished cooking, Aaron placed the toast in the toaster oven and turned to face his sister. He picks her up and sets her down on the counter. "All right squirt, let's take a look. Which arm is it?"
The little girl holds out her right arm towards her brother, Aaron takes a hold of her arm gently and inspects her arm. "Well, looks like you got some bruises on your upper arm. You'll be okay."
As soon as the toast pops up, Aaron grabs them out of the toaster and starts buttering each slice of toast, once that is finished, he places the toast and eggs on the table and turns to his little sister. "Okay, why don't you go on up and get Emily. Tell her breakfast is ready."
"Okay," JJ tells him, just as he picked her up and placed her on the ground. Aaron watched his little sister run out of the kitchen to go get Emily.
The thirteen-year-old goes to the cabinet and gets out three glasses, one for each of them and sets them on the table along with the plates. He then goes over to the fridge and gets out milk and orange juice. Just as he put the jug of milk and the orange juice on the table, he looks up just in time to see JJ coming into the kitchen, with Emily in tow. "Just in time," Aaron tells the girls.
"Emmy was already awake," JJ informed her older brother.
"She was, was she?" Aaron smirked at his little sister. "How'd you sleep Em's?"
Emily shrugs her shoulder, walks over to the small kitchen table and sits down, "Okay, I guess."
"Well, let's sit down, eat breakfast and clean up some. Maybe we could head over to the park. It looks like it'll be a nice day out." Aaron suggested.
Emily looks at her brother, "What about dad?"
"I think he's gone off to work. It'll be good to get out of the house for a little while. Just for a few hours." Aaron tells her, then he looks towards his little sister, "What'd you think squirt?"
JJ, with a mouth full of food, nods her head enthusiastically, and jumps up and down in her seat. She swallows the food and takes a drink, "Yes! Can we?"
Emily chuckles at her sister, "Okay, I guess we can go."
"Yay!" JJ exclaims excitedly. "I'm going to finish eating and go get ready."
"Got to help with the cleanup first kiddo," Aaron reminds her.
"Oh, okay," JJ responded, then finished eating her breakfast.
The rest of breakfast, the kids finished up their breakfast and helped clean up the dishes, and went around the house to pick up anything that was left out, whether from them, or from their father. Once they got everything picked up, they all went to their own rooms to get ready. As soon as the youngest was finished getting, she walked over to her sisters room, right next door to her room. "Emmy?" JJ asks, knocking on her sister's door.
"Coming," Emily called through her door.
A few seconds later, Emily opens the door, "yes?" Emily asks, looking down at her sister.
"Emmy, can you help me with my hair?" JJ innocently asks her older sister.
"Of course, come on in," Emily tells her, letting the little blonde into her room.
JJ walks over to her sister's bed, and sits down, and waits for her sister to do her hair. Emily went to her dresser, grabbed a hairband and her brush. Then she walks over to the bed and sits down next to her sister, "I'll just put it into a pony."
Emily sets to brushing her sister's hair, and puts it into a ponytail. Once she was done, she lightly tapped her sister on the head. JJ turns around and gives a look to Emily, who starts laughing. The ten-year-old reaches over and starts tickling her sister, who starts giggling uncontrollably. Aaron walks into the room, and sees his two sisters laughing, without a care in the world.
"What's going on?" Aaron asks, stepping more into the room.
"Emmy keeps tickling me!" JJ states, making it sound obvious.
"Oh really?" Aaron questions. "Well, let's gang up on Emily, and get her back."
"Yes!" JJ squealed, and both she and Aaron turned towards Emily, who squealed, and tried to get away, laughing the entire time.
All three kids settled down after a few minutes of tickling one another. They all left Emily's room, and walked down the stairs and went to the foyer to put their shoes on. Aaron made sure he had his house key, and all the kids walked out the front door. Emily grabbed a hold of JJ's hand, and both girls followed their brother towards the park, which was just a five-minute walk from the house. As they got closer, JJ let go of her sister's hand and started running towards the playground. "JJ, wait!"
"Just let her go, she's fine. We can see her," Aaron tells Emily, as they both got closer to the playground.
Emily just dropped it and headed towards the swings once they got to the playground. Aaron followed Emily over to the swings, while they watched their sister go down the slides. While they were minding their own business and just having a good time. One of Aaron's classmates had shown up to the park, and walked over to Aaron. "Hey, Aaron right?"
Aaron looked up over to his right, "Hey. Yeah, that's me. Derek, right?"
Derek nods his head, "Yup. Mind if we join you guys? I brought my siblings to get them out of the house."
"Fine with me," Aaron tells him. He points to his left, at his sister, "This is Emily, and over there on the slide, is Jennifer, she goes by JJ."
"Nice to meet you Emily," Derek tells her.
Emily just nods and waves at Derek, and mutters a 'you too' at him. She then gets up off the swings and goes over to where her sister is. Derek takes the now vacated swing. "The little boy with your sisters, he's Spencer, and the one next to him, is Penelope."
"Not to pry, but are you adopted?" Aaron wonders.
"We all are. My dad got killed during a robbery, and my mother had cancer at the time, breast cancer, and she didn't make it; it was too advanced. That was about five years ago now. The other two, it's not my place to say. So if they want to tell you, I'll leave that up to them." Derek explained to Aaron.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Aaron told him honestly.
A few minutes later, Aaron looks over to see his youngest sister come running over to him, with a little boy behind her. "Aaron, Aaron!"
"What's up squirt?" Aaron asks the young girl once she approaches him.
JJ, who was out of breath, responds, "Meet...meet my new friend!" She then turns to the young boy and asks, "What's your name again?"
The young boy shyly replies, "Spencer."
JJ then takes her hand and slaps it across her forehead, "Oh yeah. His name is Spencer!"
"It's nice to meet you Spencer," Aaron acknowledged the young boy.
Spencer just stood there, waved at Aaron. JJ looks at her older brother, "Aaron, can you spin us on the spinney thingy?" JJ asks, pointing to the merry-go-round.
"Sure," Aaron answers, then he gets up, turns to face Derek, "You want to help push them around?"
Derek just shrugs his shoulders, "That's fine with me."
The boys followed their younger sibling over to the merry-go-round and waited for them to hop on. Before they could get the merry-go-round pushed, Aaron saw his sister and Derek's sister come running towards them. They both waited till the girls were able to get on, then both boys made sure all the kids were holding on tightly, and they started to push the merry-go-round in circles as fast as they could get it to go. A half hour later, the kids were getting tired, Aaron told them it was time to head home. Derek also rounded up his siblings to get them home. Before they left, Aaron looks over at Derek,
"It was a good time. We should get the kids together, I know JJ would like to play with Spencer again."
"Sounds good to me. It'll be good to get these two out of the house for a little while." Derek agrees, ruffling up his brother's hair. Spencer just looked up at his brother and scowled at him.
"It's supposed to rain tomorrow. We'll catch up at school come Monday, and we'll figure it out then. If you're good with that," Aaron suggested.
"Fine with me," Derek tells him. "You two ready to get home?"
"Not really. But if we have too," Spencer answers.
Penelope just shrugged her shoulders at her brother, then turned towards the girls, "It was nice meeting you guys. Hopefully we'll get to play together again soon."
With that, both families went separately, going to their own houses. Aaron, looks at his two sisters, "Well, what'd you guys think? Of the other kids?"
"I think they're wonderful! I want to play with them again soon!" JJ answered her brother excitedly.
"I second that. I particularly liked hanging out with Penelope. She seems cool. I wouldn't mind hanging with them again." Emily responds.
Aaron just nods his head as he listened to his sisters talk, "Well, I'll see what I can do about getting together with them soon."
"Yay!" JJ enthusiastically responds.
The three of them made it home. They noticed their father's vehicle was still gone, so Aaron had them go on upstairs and wash up. Once Aaron was cleaned up himself, he went downstairs to the living room, and turned the TV on. He was flipping through the channels when Emily walked in. "Dad's not going to like it, if he walks in, and you're watching TV. We're not allowed to Aaron."
"I know. But what dad won't know won't hurt. Sides if I see him pull in, I'll change it back to the channel he had it on, and shut the TV off. I'm hoping it'll be late when he gets home. It is Saturday, and he's usually out late on Saturdays."
"I hope so. I'll be glad if I could go a day without seeing dad." Emily agrees.
"What's going on?" The youngest Hotchner asks, walking over to her siblings.
"Nothing JJ." Aaron tells her.
The little blonde, just shrugs her shoulders and plops herself down beside her sister. After a few minutes of silence, JJ asks, "When will daddy be home?"
"I'm not sure kiddo. We aren't going to worry about that right now." Aaron tells her.
"Okay. Can we play a game? I wanna do something," JJ asks, out of boredom.
"I'll play a game with you, why don't you go pick a game out. Something that won't make a lot of noise," Emily tells the young blonde.
"Okay!" JJ gets up off the couch and runs up the stairs in search of a game.
"Thanks Emily." Aaron tells her.
"No problem. Figured I'd help keep her busy." Emily replies, just as JJ came back down the stairs with a game. "What'd you pick out?" Emily asks.
"Uhm...go fish?" JJ replies, in what sounded like a question.
"Sounds like fun, let's play," Emily tells her, as JJ started to dump the cards out on the coffee table.
A few hours go by, with no sign of their dad returning home. Aaron goes ahead and gets started on dinner, fixing the same meal as the night before. Emily goes in to see what her brother's cooking, and complains about having to eat the same meal again.
"Sorry Em', but it's all we got. I told you that last night. Hopefully I can get enough money from dad, whenever he gets home, and we can go to the store tomorrow."
"I know, I'm sorry. It just sucks." Emily tells him, sitting down at the small kitchen table. "Why can't we be normal? I just wish our dad was what he used to be, before mom passed away."
Aaron takes in what his sister was saying, "I know Em'. I wish that too. But that's not going to do us any favors by wishing for things that we used to have. It's not possible. We don't live in some kind of fantasy world, if we did, I'd wish this way of living to change in a heartbeat. It really bothers me when dad goes after you both. He knows that. He knows I can't do anything about it, so he threatens you two if I don't do as he asks. Not that it stops him anyways. I'm sorry for not protecting you two as much as I should. I will do my hardest to try and stop him in the future."
"You can't promise anything you can't keep, Aaron. You know that." Emily tells him. "It's not your fault. I just hope someday someone will take us away from here."
"I know. I hope so too. Only five more years until I turn eighteen, then we can all leave. I can take care of you both, and go to work. We'll start over, start fresh." Aaron promises.
Emily just nods her head, indicating she heard what her brother was saying. She gets up, and goes to stand in the doorway in between the kitchen and the hallway. She looks over into the other room, across the kitchen and just watches her sister play cards by herself. Playing memory cards. "What's she doing?" Aaron curiously asks.
"Just playing with her memory cards." Emily responds nonchalantly.
"Why don't you go get her, dinner is just about ready. Have her pick the cards up and you two go wash up for dinner." Aaron tells her.
Emily goes into the living room, tells her sister to pick the cards up, and to wash her hands. She follows the little blonde up the stairs. While the girls were washing their hands, Aaron started plating their food, and placing them onto the table, along with their drinks. The girls came back down, and sit down at the table, and all three kids start to dig into their food. They're all lost in their own thoughts, when JJ asks, "Will we get to see those kids again? I really want to. They're really nice."
"Maybe squirt. I'll talk with Derek at school on Monday." Aaron tells her. "But, I'm not promising anything.
"Yay!" JJ responds, taking a big bite of her Mac n Cheese.
Aaron just smirks at his sister, shakes his head and goes back to eating his food. Not too much later, the kids finish their food. And they place their plates in the sink, with Aaron starting a sink full of hot soapy water. Each kid helped clean up their dinner mess. JJ washed the table down, while Emily helped Aaron wash the dishes, he washed, and she dried. Once the kitchen was picked up, they all went and did their own thing, Emily reading on the couch in the living room, and Aaron and JJ were upstairs in their own rooms, keeping themselves occupied. As soon as it was time for them to get to bed, they decided to go ahead and sleep in Aaron's room again, just in case their dad had come home and wreak havoc. The older two, knew it was going to be a long night, just waiting for the slam of the front door, and their father booming up the stairs. They laid in bed just waiting, their younger sister had fallen asleep minutes ago. When they couldn't stay awake much longer, both older kids had fallen asleep, drifting off into a restless night.
A/N: Thanks for reading everyone! Please leave a review! Just to let you guys know, I'm going to be gone this weekend, Saturday-Sunday, so, I plan to post tomorrow morning/afternoon, whichever comes first lol. Then, when I get back, hopefully I'll have the next chapter started after next (meaning, hopefully chp 5 will be started and close to being published) I'm going out of state to a friends daughters' first birthday party. I probably won't post again until Monday (May 17th). Anyways, please leave a review, and I'll get the next chapter posted sometime tomorrow! (maybe in the morning, if I can get at least 5 reviews? lol)
CriminalMindsFan88