Undercover Family

I would love to hear your opinions and look to working further on the story.

I do not own or have connection with the "Criminal Minds" program or its characters.

Chapter 12.

The end of the school year comes and the team is still at a loss as to whom their unsub is and to the location of the missing children. In fact, there have been no new abductions and no new information. Our agents are beginning to wonder if they should even be there any longer or if anything more was going to come up. However, the director has not approved of their returning to Quantico just yet, his agenda is to find the children and the unsub but is also using this case as a way of testing the illusion device. Our agents are being tested in the way they behave under the illusion and whether they can maintain their abilities to function as agents. Out agents have completed the school year and if they are still here at the end of the summer will return to school at the next grade level. At this point, there is every indication that they will be attending school next year. So what do our agents do over the summer while under the illusion of being children? Momma has decided to give them chances to be children, there will be days at the park, the aquatic center with swimming lessons, the boys are in a baseball league and JJ has joined a soccer league. Momma also has plans to take the children out of town to Chicago for few days, to an amusement park and then there will be a two-week vacation in DC in August. Summer in going to be fun for these agents.

The first weekend after school is out is a weekend at home and the head agent from the local office is coming to visit. He has been inducted into the family as momma's brother and is known as Uncle Bob. He had met Aaron earlier when momma and the agent came to the office to discuss the case and what information had been discovered already. That Saturday he comes to get to know his nieces and nephews. At lunch, they discuss the lack of any new evidence and what they should be doing now. He informs of the directors decision to keep them undercover for now. He tells them of the plans for the summer for them and the sports they would be a part of and the other things they would doing. He would come once in a while to be a part of it, but would remain as the main liaison with the local police and any information that they would find, including if the missing children are found. Otherwise, they were to just have fun under their illusionary child bodies. After lunch, the family goes out to the backyard and plays a ball game. With Bob, Emily, Penelope, and Derek on the red team, David, JJ, Spencer and Momma on the blue team, Aaron is the umpire and score keeper. Of course, momma had both Spencer and Aaron nap before lunch so they won't get too tired and cranky after lunch and would be able to join the others in playing.

After a while of playing, however, Aaron gets a little distracted and the baby side of him takes over a little when he sees the dog that comes by once in a while running to the garage. Aaron runs after the dog, the others watch him in utter disbelief. When he crawls under the brush around the garage after the dog, the others all run over to find out where he's going. It seems that the space is so small that they can't find him, they call for him but he won't come out.

Aaron is reaching out to pet the dog, when the dog growls slightly and he hangs back a little scared, the dog comes forward and smells that there is no danger from him. She allows Aaron to come close and he sees her puppies, which he squeals about and picks up one up. He just sits and pets her and the puppies and doesn't seem to hear the others calling out for him. Outside the bushes, they keep trying to find the hole which Aaron went in and it just seems to elude them. Spencer, being the littlest and closest to the ground, sees a very small hole, he pushes his way without telling anyone where he is going and finds his way into the little spot that Aaron is sitting with the puppies, he also squeals and starts to pet the puppies. Meanwhile, momma notices that Spencer is now missing, she is getting a little freaked because now her two littlest are missing. There is more frenzied looking for the hole that the boys went into, but it seems to elude them. David suggests that they start cutting down the bushes. JJ says that would be stupid, what if they hit one of the boys. He responds that it is not stupid; they need to open up a way of getting in there. He and JJ have a little spat of what and who is being stupid and coming up with dumb ideas.

Meanwhile, the adults are trying to find a way into the bushes and then Emily gets down on her hands and knees and starts to crawl around the edge to see if she can find the hole. She doesn't see it yet, but she does hear the boys giggling and calls out to momma. She comes running over to where the girl is sitting and also hears the boys giggling in the bushes. She calls out to them to get out of the bushes. They do hear her, but they hear that is mad, this worries them, because they think they are in trouble now.

Are they in trouble? You bet will they get punished for it? Not likely, momma just wants them to come out of the bushes. Bob does something, by breaking the branches of the bushes to get to the boys. He finally opens up a hole enough to see them and continues to break more branches to open up the hole more to reach in and pull one of them out. He reaches in to do that and immediately pulls his hands back out, one the boys bit him. "Ouch." Momma pushes him aside and looks into the hole that he made, smiling at her boys, says "boys, it is time to come out of there. Come on." She reaches in grabs Aaron and pulls him out, she hugs him until he wiggles and squirms in her arms. She hands him to Penelope and reaches down to bring Spencer out, but he has crawled away from the space and to the original hole that he came in. Momma turns around and sees him on the ground, she walks over to him and picks him up and hugs him tightly. The group walks back to the house. Momma carries Spencer into the bathroom to clean him up.

"What do you think you were doing in there?"

"I was having fun, we were petting the puppies."

"You scared momma because she didn't know if you were safe or just being a little boy who got distracted by something."

"I'm sorry momma; I didn't mean to scare you." He hugs her tightly.

"I know that baby, but let's try not to do that again. Who bit Bob?" She looks at him questioningly.

"Aaron did." He looks guilty and ashamed of that happening.

"Are you sure it was Aaron?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I want you to go stand in the corner and think about why you should not have done what you did."

He jumped off the sink and walks out of the bathroom and to the corner of the dining room. Momma follows him out and looks at the rest of the family standing there. Penelope stills has Aaron in her arms and momma walks over to them and reaches for him, he squeezes back. Momma just stands there and looks at her miscreant little boy. With a little trepidation he falls into her waiting arms and she takes him to the bathroom to clean him up.

"Well, baby what were you thinking?"

"I saw the dog and just wanted to pet her, she's come by before and would let me pet her and I just didn't think. I am sorry." He looks so puppy dog sad and unhappy.

"You don't need to look at me like that, I am angry with you because you didn't come out when I called, not because you went running after a dog. What you did was so very little boy and it was cute, but you did not obey when I told you to come out."

"I didn't hear you calling out for me, I am sorry that I worried you."

"I forgive you. Who bit Bob?"

"I did."

"Why?"

"I knew who it was but I just got scared and didn't want to be picked up by him. He is a colleague and I didn't want to be carried by him. I know it doesn't sound logical or right but it is the way I feel. I do owe him an apology."

"That is a definite yes and the sooner the better, but not just yet. You need to be changed." She picks him up and takes him past the others who were still in the dining room waiting for word from momma about the situation.

"Why don't you people find something to do? Play a game or something. Spencer, go to the porch and find something to play with." She walks to the bedroom with Aaron. In the bedroom, she proceeds to change him and puts clean clothes on him. Bob comes in to the bedroom while she is dressing him.

"Bob, I don't usually like men in my bedroom."

"What do you call Aaron and the other agents in your care?"

"I see them as children, not adult men. It is the only way that I can be able to do the job that I have. You are not welcome in this room; please wait for me in the living room." He turns and leaves the room. Aaron looks at her interestingly.

"How many men have you had in your bedroom?"

"That little boy is none of your business." He finds it mildly disturbing that she only thinks of him as a child, since he knows that she also has seen him as an adult and works to make sure that he remembers who he is. When they do the videos every three weeks for Jack, she is right there keeping him as an adult. He doesn't really understand this woman and where she comes from emotionally. Are he and his team only children to her? What does she really see when she looks at him, a baby or a man?

She finishes dressing him and they go back out to the living room, she puts him down where he runs to the porch. Bob is watching her look as the baby runs away.

"You need to disassociate yourself a little from him and the others."

"Excuse me."

"I think you are getting too close to them, they will eventually have to return to their normal ages and lives. What will happen to you when that happens?"

"Agent Carlyle, I understand your concern, but you don't need to be worried about my relationship with these agents. I know who they are and what they are and I will deal fine when they have to return to their normal lives. My life won't change one way or the other. I am enjoying myself immensely right now. That is what I do, I live for the moment that I am in and I don't worry about what will happen in six months. Life is too unpredictable for that. I have never been a mother and I am enjoying this time as one. That is the only concern you need to have. When it is time to give them up, I am sure that I will be to do so just fine. I would like you to go out and talk to Aaron about his biting you."

"He's the one who bit me." She nods her head yes. "That little stinker, I think I will have a little talk with him as uncle to baby nephew." He walks out to the porch and looks for Aaron. He sees him at the end of the porch playing with the fisher-price garage and cars. He walks over and looks down at him. Aaron sees his shadow and looks up at him with trepidation. Spencer who is playing with the puppet show saw and walked over to Bob. He stepped between him and Aaron.

Bob smiles and says, "It is okay Spencer, Aaron and I need to talk. He is quite safe." Spencer stands there and sizes him up, he steps aside.

"I am going to keep my eye on you and if you make him cry or anything, I am going to sic David and Derek on you."

"I understand." He bends and picks Aaron up. The man and boy go to the other side of the porch and Bob sits at the table there and puts Aaron on the table. They are at eye level.

"I heard you bit me."

"I am sorry about that, but I didn't want you to pick me up or carry me anywhere."

"Moot point now." They both smile at that. "Do you remember when we met?"

"Yeah, at the local office."

"Yeah, when I first heard about the undercover assignment; I couldn't believe it. I didn't think it could work and it seemed to be like x-files or science fiction to me. But I heard you were coming to liaise with me about the case and I stood actually waiting at the window near the door of the office to see what you would look like. I saw Rebecca drive up and get out of the car and she reached into the back seat and unbuckled you from your car seat. She placed you on the sidewalk to walk to the office yourself and I couldn't believe that I was actually seeing an FBI agent. I really did not see how you could have been able to give me any information or benefit the case at all. I went to my office to wait for this baby to walk in. I was surprised.

"You were surprised?"

"Rebecca must be able to change you and your fellow agents at any time, because what came walking into my office was a 6 foot 2 inch, dark haired man in a suit and tie and looking every bit an FBI agent. We talked all about the case, you were fully adult and there was nothing of what I saw today. When you left the office, I immediately got up to see how she was going to put this adult man in a car seat and I looked out the window and what I saw is the baby that I see before me today. You are an amazing man."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because it takes a strong, amazing person to have the dichotomy that you are going through right now; you are the boss of your unit, of your team and yet here you must be the youngest child, the baby. Do you find it hard to separate the two?"

"Sometimes, it is, but I couldn't ask or expect any of the other members of my team to do this. Their talents lie in different ways, we complement each other, and this is the best way right now that I can lead my team."

"I agree and I look forward to working with you."

"Great, but let's go tell momma that we want something to eat. I am hungry." The man laughs at that simple statement.