AN: Please read and review :) All translations will be provided in English at the end of the page.

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds nor do I own Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Day 5:

The entire team went back to the hotel suite planning to leave at first light. They took turns sleeping for a few hours because they were all so tense. JJ and Prentiss barely slept at all. The team was ready to leave, and the cars packed with everything they would need by six thirty, before the sun was up. It was still dark when they arrived at the station at six forty-five. They prepped with the other teams and were on the way by seven. All of the search and rescue teams were parking their cars by seven thirty, first light. Garcia was using a tech van to try and locate Catherine and her abductors. She had tasked a satellite over the area looking for thermal images.

JJ whispered to Reid, "Spence, they've had her for almost twenty hours. What if something has happened? What if we're too late to save her?"

Reid hugged JJ. "We won't be too late," he promised.

The cellar was cold and the children were scared. There were two twin beds pushed together in one corner of the cellar. It was where all six children had been sleeping. I introduced myself but they were all too scared to talk to me. A few hours later, when we heard the door unlock and footsteps on the stairs, they hid under the bed, behind boxes, in the cupboard, under the stairs. Little Alice hid behind my legs; it was heart breaking to watch.

Louis came downstairs with some sandwiches for everyone to eat. He set them on the bed and tried to grab Alice. I stepped in his way; he slapped me but I didn't move away from Alice. He started swearing at me in French and reached for his gun. I still didn't move. He hit me in the head with the butt, and I crumpled to the floor. Everything is hazy after that. I know that Dodgson came downstairs and between the two of them they carried my struggling self upstairs. The important thing was that they left the children alone. I knew Jen and the team would try their hardest to find me.

When they hadn't shown up a few hours later, I had a few doubts: maybe my phone wasn't working, and maybe Dodgson or Louis had found my phone and destroyed it. I was dumped on the bed downstairs sometime during the night. The kids must have been sleeping before Louis carried me down because the bed was warm. They had scattered around the cellar in an attempt to be looked over. It didn't matter though; Dodgson and Louis were already sated. I could feel the whip marks on my back bleeding sluggishly.

After Louis had gone upstairs and locked the cellar door, the children came out of hiding. Little Alice climbed up on the bed next to me and the others followed her example, after pulling the blankets out from under me. Catherine, Regina Rose, Bianca, Robert and Henry slept in a pile on my left, while Alice was on my right, curled into a tiny ball with her head on my arm. I was glad that the children slept because I needed some alone time to cry in peace. I desperately wanted to shower and clean the wounds on my back. I ended up crying, not for myself but for the kids.

When the kids woke up, it must have been morning because there was a small amount of light coming in through a small window. They started asking me lots of questions. They wanted to know about their parents and siblings. I told them everything that I could remember and then they wanted to know about my family. I smiled and said that my family was out there right now, looking for us. Ten-year-old Henry snorted in disbelief but the other children wanted to know how I knew. I told them it was because my family was already looking for all of them and I knew that they would never stop. Henry wanted to know why they hadn't found us already. The only thing I could think to say was, "These things take time," and that was not a good enough answer.

Alice wanted to know why the two of us were dressed the same; she also had a blue nightgown. Bianca's was white, Regina Rose's nightgown was red and Catherine's was pink and purple. Henry was wearing red pajamas and Robert had white ones. I told her it was because we had the same first name, Alice.

Catherine frowned at me and said, "You said your name was Catherine."

"It is," I replied. "My name is Alice Catherine."

"Oh," was the collective reply.

"That makes sense," said Bianca.

Regina Rose said, "I think you should have a pink, purple and blue nightgown if you have two names."

"Yeah!" exclaimed Catherine.

Robert handed me a sandwich and said, "We saved one for you."

I thanked the kids and tore into the sandwich; it had been a long time since I had eaten. We heard the door unlock and the kids scattered. Alice sent me a sad look as she too went to hide.

Louis told me to get my ass upstairs. It was slow going but I managed to make it halfway up the stairs before I faltered. Louis grabbed me from behind and I sneaked a glace at his watch, 7:33 a.m. I hoped that my family would hurry up; I didn't know how much more I could take.

When Dodgson and Louis were finished playing with me and beating me, they dropped me on the bed in the cellar again. My nightgown was soaked in blood. I looked at Louis' watch again; it was just after nine. They had me upstairs for less than two hours, but it felt like forever.

The team stormed the building and had Dodgson and Louis in their crosshairs before the men could go for a gun. Seeing so many weapons trained on them made Dodgson and Louis give up quickly.

After they had tossed their weapons aside, JJ strode up to Dodgson and said, "Where is she you bastard." Dodgson laughed and JJ punched him in the face.

Reid went to pull JJ off Dodgson but Prentiss stopped him, "Give her a minute."

Dodgson just smiled through the blood and said, "Thank you for bringing my Alice back to me."

JJ growled and went to hit him again but Hotch said, "That's enough JJ." When JJ moved away, Hotch cuffed Dodgson.

Rossi had already cuffed Louis and after seeing what had happened to his uncle, he was willing to cooperate. "The stupid little brats are in the basement."

I know that Aaron and Dave stayed outside after arresting Dodgson and Louis. I heard Jen as she unlocked the cellar door and flew down the stairs. She hugged me tightly and I must have made a noise because she let me go and really looked at me. I turned my face away because I was embarrassed and couldn't bear to face her. I ended up looking at her arms, more specifically her watch; it read almost 9:20. I wondered what would have happened to Dodgson and Louis if the team had arrived just a half hour earlier.

When we were ready to leave, Emily picked up Regina Rose, Spencer picked up Robert and they carried them up the stairs and outside. Henry, Catherine and Bianca followed them. Jen looked like she wanted to try and carry me but it just wasn't feasible. So Alice climbed onto Jen's back. They waited while Derek wrapped me in his jacket and gently lifted me off the bed. We followed Jen and Alice upstairs. I smiled when I noticed the black SUVs parked in front of the cottage.

Penelope told me later that while locating us in the park, even with the thermal imaging satellite, was difficult; driving through the ski path with winter tires was easy. It took her forty-five minutes to find us with the satellite and then it took the search and rescue teams fifteen minutes of arguing about how to proceed. It only took the team twenty minutes to get to the cottage by SUV; they had to park out of sight and walk up to the cottage stealthily. The ambulances followed the SUVs and waited while the teams got into position to storm the cottage. They drove up after Dodgson and Louis were arrested.

The children were all being loaded up into ambulances to be checked over by doctors at the nearest hospital. The rest of the team was far from idle but only Aaron and Dave went to the hospital with the kids. I started shaking when I heard Dave remind one of the officers to make sure they found all of videos. And I balked at the idea of getting into the ambulance to go to the hospital. I started struggling in Derek's arms; I was adamant that I not go to the hospital and Derek couldn't calm me down. He sat me in the middle of a police van and closed the door, giving me some privacy for my imminent panic attack. Jen came over with a big orange blanket from the ambulances and wrapped me in it, and then she sat next to me but didn't touch me.

She said quietly, "Kitty cat you know that we need to take you to the hospital."

"No!" I said. "No, no, no, no, no," I couldn't stop. Jen put her hand on my head and I shuddered, I felt like my skin was crawling.

"It's going to be okay," she said. "We found you. We'll get to go home soon."

Home sounded really nice. Jen gathered me in her arms and would not let me go, no matter how hard I struggled. I started crying and she ran her fingers through my hair. I just wanted to go home.

The rest of the team and I borrowed the police van. Jen and I sat in the very back; I couldn't deal with anyone being behind me. Derek drove and Penelope sat up front with him. That left the middle seat for Spencer and Emily. We did end up going to the hospital; Jen stayed with me and held my hand through my examination. The rest of my family waited in the hall. I know that they postponed the debriefing because none of them could concentrate.

I stayed in the hospital for most of the day but managed to convince the doctors that I should go back to the hotel to rest. Before we went back to the hotel, the team took me to visit the kids. They were happy to see me and I was glad that they were going to be okay. I received cards from them for Christmas and my birthday.

I stood still while Aaron and Dave hugged me goodnight and told me that they were glad I was okay. I was too tired to protest when Derek carried me to my room to say goodnight. Spencer looked lost, but he kissed my forehead without touching the rest of me and offered to sleep on the couch. Emily sent him away, telling him that we were going to have a girls' night and that if we needed him, someone would go find him. Derek called from halfway down the hall, "Let's go kid." Spencer followed him with one last long look back at us.

When we finally got into the suite, I raced for the shower. I had showered at the hospital but it wasn't the same without my own soap and shampoo. I was in the shower for a long time. When I got out, Jen had to help me re-bandage my back and ribs. It was nerve wracking to have someone standing behind me. After I put on my pajamas, I left the bathroom and was surprised to see Emily, Penelope and Jen setting out plates with pizza on them, in the living room. I moved across the room, intending to sit down by myself but Penelope reached me first. She hugged me gently and pulled me down next to her on the couch. I started to panic when Emily sat down on my other side but she didn't move until after Penelope let go of me.

She lifted my chin with her finger and said, "Chérie, tu sais qu'on t'aime? What happened won't change the way we look at you."

"Mais Emily, ça change tout," I turned my head away from her so I didn't see her reach out for me. Penelope gave me a small nudge and nodded towards Emily. I turned back to Emily and let myself be hugged.

Penelope added, "I agree with Emily; we all adore you, so it doesn't change anything. It could have easily been one of us, if we had gone to meet with Sargent Belanger."

When I looked at my sister, she was smiling at me. I wanted to disagree with them but I didn't have the energy. We did have a girls' night, but not anything resembling what my sister does when she goes out with Emily and Penelope. The four of us lay on the bed, watching movies and eating pizza. It was nice to relax a bit.

French:

Emily: (Chérie, tu sais qu'on t'aime?) Darling, you know that we love you.

Catherine: (Mais Emily, ça change tout) It changes everything Emily.

AN2: Edited on 5th of June 2012.