Well apparently, being at home sick for two days gives me the motivation to write! ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own CM.
-kbrewster.
Emily couldn't see, she couldn't think. She could hardly even breathe. Her little girl was missing, and all she could do was blame herself. It was her fault, after all. At least, that's what she'd convinced herself as she continued checking the entire Aquarium's square footage in search of the nine-year-old. She had been so careful all day, she'd let her guard down for one minute, and in that minute her entire world was flipped upside down.
Hotch and an Aquarium employee had been trailing Emily, but she didn't know if they still were. She'd stopped looking back to check awhile ago. They were only slowing her down, anyway. She kept calling the girl's name, not in anger, but desperation. Where the hell could she have been taken? Security cameras had been checked, there was no sign of Gabby e
Just when Emily was about to really, truly lose it, she saw something that made her heartbeat increase, and this time not out of fear; but out of hope. She saw something moving in the shadows, hunkered down in the corner of a dark exhibit, directly between two benches. She didn't think, she just made a run for it.
"Gabby? Gabby, is that you?" Emily asked, crouching down in front of the child, who was obviously none other than her daughter. Her knees here brought up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them, and her head resting atop her knees.
However, the girl didn't respond she just sat there, completely still.
Emily instantly grew worried. "Its me, ma chere, it's Mommy," Emily prodded gently, rubbing a hand up and down Gabby's arm.
This time, the girl looked up, eyes red and glassy, sure signs of crying. Almost hesitantly, Gabby crawled out of the corner of the dark exhibit, looking around wildly. Emily knew by the girl's actions that something definitely happened in the hour and a half she'd been missing. Emily instinctively took Gabby in her arms, picking her up with her as she stood.
She felt Hotch run up beside her, wrapping his arms around the both of them. "Oh, thank God," he breathed. Shedding tears was a rare occurrence, and right now was one of those times. He was so happy they'd found Gabby, that she was back where she belonged. He hadn't even noticed the young girl had not said a word since he'd been there. He went to stand behind Emily so he could face Gabby, who's head rested on Emily's shoulder.
"Hi, sweetie," he said calmly. "Are you okay?"
Gabby didn't respond verbally, instead she twisted her head around the other way she she was no longer facing her father.
"Let's just get out of here," Emily said. "we need to get her home,"
"Okay, sounds like a plan. You take her out to the car, and I'll get JJ and Jack," Hotch said, kissing both Emily and Gabby's heads, turning abruptly and walking towards the other side of the Aquarium, where both JJ and Jack were.
"Come on, sweet girl, let's go to the car and wait for everybody else," Emily said, walking out of the Aquarium, thanking each employee for their help on the way out. She found their car, thankful that despite the crowd, they had been able to park relatively close to the entrance. She pulled the car keys out of her pocket, and unlocked the doors. She opened the back door, carefully sitting Gabby in the seat. Gabby crossed her arms in response as Emily got in, too, crawling over Gabby to sit next to her.
"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Emily asked softly, brushing the girl's hair back that had fallen out of the elastic that had been holding her hair up.
Gabby shook her head. "I just want to go home,"
"We will, I promise. But honey, I need to know where you were. Where did you go? I'm not mad at you, I promise," Emily tried coaxing. She watched as the girl bit her lip, a bad habit she'd picked up from her mother no doubt.
"Can I tell you at home?" Gabby asked quietly.
"Sure, if you'll feel more comfortable there," Emily agreed.
"I'm sorry," Gabby whispered quietly, uncrossing her arms and sitting herself in Emily's lap. Emily's heart nearly broke, watching her daughter be so upset and not knowing what was causing it. Gabby sat with Emily until they arrived home; refusing to move once Hotch, JJ, and Jack arrived out at the car. And Emily, frankly, didn't have the heart to make her move.
When they arrived back at home, Emily carried the girl inside. She took the girl up to her room, and sat her on the bed. She sat on the bed next to the girl, who had laid down when Emily turned to shut the door. Absentmindedly, Emily took the elastic out of Gabby's hair, and began to run her fingers through it.
"Do you want to talk about it now?" Emily asked quietly after a few minutes of quiet.
"I can't tell you," Gabby said.
"Yes, you can. You can tell me anything, you know that," Emily said. Gabby had never acted this way before, and it was scaring Emily to death.
"No!" Gabby protested, swatting Emily's hand away and rolling over on her stomach to bury her face in the pillow. Emily could tell by Gabby's breathing that she was crying.
Placing a hand on Gabby's back, Emily sighed quietly. She had always been able to get through to Gabby. This was the first time since Gabby had learned to talk she had ever told Emily she couldn't talk to her. However, when Emily tried to get up from her spot on the bed to give Gabby some time alone to let the girl come to her, Gabby had fervently protested the idea.
"I don't want to be alone," she'd said in the smallest voice Emily had ever heard.
After a few more minutes of silence, Emily got an idea.
"If you can't tell me what happened, do you think you could show me?"
Gabby finally turned back over to face Emily, nodding her head. Her eyes were still sad.
"Okay, do you want to write it out or would you rather draw it?" Emily questioned, standing from the bed and rummaging through the drawer in Gabby's nightstand that housed paper, pens, crayons, and markers.
Gabby shrugged her shoulders in response, so Emily gave the girl three big sheets of white paper, a pen, and several different colored markers.
"Do you wanna do that while I go talk to your Dad for a few minutes? He's worried about you," Emily said.
Gabby glanced around the room a few times before finally agreeing, she set to work as Emily quietly walked out of the room, keeping the door open in case Gabby called for her. She held on to the banister of the stairs for dear life, as if it was the only thing steadying Emily's shaking body. When she made it to the living room, she saw Hotch sitting on the couch, tapping his foot on the wooden floor lightly. She noted Jack seated in the recliner doing the same thing.
She cleared her throat to announce her presence, and both Hotchners looked up at her, eyes wide.
"Is she okay? What happened?" Hotch asked.
"I...I really don't know," Emily said, flinging herself down on the couch next to Hotch. "She won't talk to me, she's always been able to talk to me, Aaron. Ever since she was little, she's never hesitated to talk to me. I don't know how to help her," Emily said sadly, slouching down a bit to rest her elbows on her thighs, propping her chin up with her hands. "She's writing it down for me now, though. Whatever happened scared her to death. Its all my fault," Emily sighed, tears threatened to fall from her dark brown eyes.
"No, Em, no," Hotch said gently. "None of this is your fault. You were right there. It could've happened to anyone,"
"No," Emily protested firmly. "No, it couldn't have because Ian Doyle's not after anyone else!"
"We don't know it was him," Hotch reminded her calmly.
"Ugh, just stop!" Emily begged. "Stop being so...so insensitive! You know damn well it was him, and you know damn well if I hadn't been so careless for those few minutes, it wouldn't have happened at all! I was so careful all day. I made sure it was virtually impossible to have anything happen to Gabby. But I let myself, for one tiny little second, forget. I let myself get too comfortable, and I just thought of us as a family. A normal family who goes on outings like this all the time, not a family who's terrified to let their daughter out of their sight because a terrorist is after her!" Emily was full on crying now, not even trying to stop the tears. She was surprised when she felt not one, but two people wrap an arm around her shoulder. She looked up, as her head had been in her hands, and noticed Hotch on her left, which she expected. What she didn't expect, was Jack to be perched on the arm of the couch on her right, with his arm wrapped around her tightly, almost protectively.
Emily sniffed, and gave Jack the tiniest of smiles. Though he hadn't been completely anti-social around her anymore, this was the most he had reached out since she and Gabby had come back.
"Please don't blame yourself," the 17 year old said calmly. "The important thing is, we got her back, right?"
Emily didn't know what to do, or what to say, so she simply nodded her head. She felt her heart swell when Jack hugged her tightly, something he hadn't done since he was a little kid with missing teeth and action figures. Emily cried more, now as she returned the hug. She had certainly missed the sandy-haired boy.
Minutes later, when Emily was a bit calmer, she went up to Gabby's room to check on the girl. When she entered the room, she saw Gabby sitting on the edge of the bed, the papers she had used neatly stacked next to her.
"You all done, Gabby?" Emily asked quietly, to which she received a nod. "Okay," she said, seating herself next to the stack of three papers, taking them into her hands.
She felt her heart stop when she saw what Gabby had done. Gabby had drawn herself standing in front of a man. Though Gabby had properly labeled him, ("Bad Man," of course as Gabby didn't know Doyle's name) Emily would have known it was Doyle, because Gabby had drawn him with bright, shining blue eyes. He was wearing an Aquarium employee uniform. That made Emily cringe.
Under that drawing, Gabby had written in French, as she claimed it was easier to write in: "I left the gift shop even though I know I was not supposed to. I went back to see the alligators, because I couldn't remember what that really big ones name was. I thought it was right there, but I got really lost. Then the bad man found me, but I did not know he was bad. He had the uniform on. I thought he was going to take me back, but he made me follow him. He said if I screamed or ran away he would hurt you." Emily felt sick, and the feeling only intensified as she went to the next page.
There, the scribbly penmanship continued.
"After that, he took me into a closet. He said if I tried to escape I would regret it, that he would kill you. But I was so scared, and I just wanted to find you. So I found out how to unlock the door from the inside, and I ran away. I hid between the benches until you found me. I'm scared he's going to come back."
Emily really felt sick now. She held back her tears, biting her lip and taking a deep breath. She sat the papers on the bed, taking Gabby into her arms.
"You did the right thing, ma chere," Emily whispered. "Everything's going to be fine," she said. Not because she believed it, but she knew its what she had to say, it was her job to make sure everything was okay.
"But what if he comes here?" Gabby questioned, clinging to her mother in the same way she had when she'd started kindergarten.
"No, no," Emily assured her. "We're going to get some help, now," Emily told the girl. "We're going to get some help, and he's going to go away for a very, very long time," she wasn't sure if she was trying to convince herself of Gabby more.
She would never admit it to Gabby, but Emily knew she wasn't Doyle's target. Gabby was. She knew that he knew she'd rather die than have anything happen to her daughter. After all, she'd risked her life to save Declan once before. She'd do it all over again if she had to.
Just then, Hotch entered the room. He took a seat next to Emily, who held Gabby close with one hand as she handed the papers with Gabby's story to him.
Once Hotch had read the story, he looked at Emily. She couldn't tell what he was thinking the most. He looked angry, upset, and terrified all at once.
"We can get the help we've been needing now," he said. "This is the solid proof they've been wanting. It'll all be over soon. Especially since she escaped. He messed up somewhere. I don't think letting her go was part of the plan. It just doesn't fit with his level of anger," Hotch said, putting his profiling skills that had become like a second nature to him back to good use.
"Can we not discuss this in front of her, please?" Emily asked, covering Gabby's ear with her hand as the girl leaned into her mother. "I just don't want to scare her more,"
"Sure," Hotch agreed, putting an arm around Emily. "We'll talk more later," he promised.
Just then, Jack quietly knocked on the door frame.
"Emily?" He said softly.
"Yeah, Jack?" She replied.
"Uh, Spencer's on the phone for you," he muttered quietly.
"Spencer Reid?" Emily gasped, her eyes growing wide, feeling er whole body go numb when Jack nodded his head, confirming what she already knew.
o.O.o.O.o.o.O.o.O.o.o.O.o.O.o.o.O.o.O.o.o.O.o.O.o.o.O.o.O.o.o.O.o.O.o.o.O.o.O.o.o.O.o.O.o.
Ian Doyle was furious. He finally had what he came for, and she'd managed to smart her way out of it. Just like her mother, he thought bitterly. He paced the length of his hotel room, sending a glare towards Paul. He'd given the guy one job. Just one. Make sure the girl stays put. He went to pull his SUV around, going slowly and carefully to avoid suspicion. In that short amount of time, Paul had managed to not only lose the girl, but also not make any attempts to get her back. She was a child, for God's sake! Surely Paul could've ran after her.
"I ought to put a hole right in your stupid, pathetic skull!" Ian shouted, banging his fist on the small table in the corner of the room. "I gave you what I thought was a simple job, and you couldn't do it! Even if the girl doesn't go crying to her mother and telling her everything, she'll figure it out! Then what, Paul? We're caught. You're in jail, and God knows what they do with me,"
"I'm sor-"
"No!" Ian screamed. "I don't want to hear an apology from you! That's not going miraculously make this okay!" Ian said, feeling the rage grow inside of him. He marched out of the room quickly, not allowing it to get too ugly. He went to his own hotel room just a few doors down. He slammed the door behind him and went straight for the refrigerator. He grabbed whatever alcohol he still had remaining and downed a glass in no time flat.
He was so angry, he didn't know what to do next. He found his thoughts drifting back to over twenty years ago, when Chloe was expecting Declan. He recalled how she tried to kill herself, and Declan. She'd never wanted a child, and especially not his. But then, four years later, here came Lauren Reynolds, who wasn't actually Lauren at all. But he'd fallen for it. He'd let Declan fall for it, too. What pissed Ian off most, so much he felt his whole body start to shake, was that Emily had wanted Declan. He could tell by the way they played together, by the way she talked to him. A lot of things may have been lies during that time of their life, but you can't fake that. Emily treated Declan like he was her own son. She protected him, loved him, and had even sent him away so he wouldn't be used as a pawn just to make Ian talk.
He felt his anger increasing. Why couldn't Chloe have been that loving and caring? Why couldn't Lauren have been real? Why didn't he see through Lauren to Emily? Why did she get to be the hero, and he be the bad guy? Now, she had a child of her own. One Ian knew meant more than life to Emily. She'd taken his son from him, so why shouldn't he be able to take her child from her?
He threw the glass at the wall, watching it shatter to pieces. He couldn't be bothered to clean it yet, instead he tried to compose himself, and he left the room. He knew what needed to be done now, and he would do it on his own. He didn't need Paul anymore. He was going to finish what he had started, no matter what it took.