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 31.

Momma goes and fixes the afternoon snack for the children as she is keeping to her normal schedule. When she has them around the dining room table, she goes to the computer room and checks on what Penelope has found.

"Well, have you found his tracer yet?"

"I think so."

"What do mean you think so? The tracer was designed to be found no matter what the material or anything. There isn't anything that I can think of that can interfere with it."

"Exactly, that is what is so hinky. I have gone through the past two hours; remember you have the system record the tracers through your machine, so I can see what he has been doing. It looks like he was at school and he and Emily got to this location together and then he left her there and went here and that's where it goes hinky. It is like something is jamming it or blocking the signal. It is damn frustrating."

"That doesn't make sense. There should be nothing that can block the signal."

"I know that's what you've told me about the tracer and the devices, but something is."

"Get me Ross."

"Getting Ross." Ross comes up on the video screen.

"Derek is missing and the tracer isn't coming through. Find out why. It appears to be being blocked or jammed. Locate the problem, work with Penelope and find my boy." Momma turns and sees five sets of eyes looking at her. She walks past them and goes into the kitchen where she begins to get out bowls, pots and pans. It seems she is going to bake something. When momma wants to think or calm down, she likes to go to the kitchen and cook and bake. She needs to figure out why the tracer isn't working. What could be preventing it from the doing its job? She suddenly feels some small hands on her leg, looking down she sees Aaron looking at her worriedly.

"What is it baby?"

"What's happened? I thought that you could find us if something went wrong."

"It seems that there is a problem with Derek's tracer. Ross and Penelope are working on it and I've got to think about the components. I really can't focus on you right now sweetheart. Go find some place quiet to play and stay out of the way."

"Momma, I deserve better than that. I know I look and sometimes act like a baby. But I am not a baby; give me something to do that I can help you with."

"If you want to help, stay out of the way. I really don't want you in the kitchen right now. There are dangerous things in here that I don't want you around."

"Momma, I can help." Exasperated, momma picks him and takes him to the living room where she had set up a play pen earlier. She put him in there; all the while he is protesting and trying to wriggle out of her arms. "No, momma, please don't put me in there. Please No." She puts him in there and walks away. He screams in frustration and beats on the bars and then starts to throw everything in there over the bars.

David walked by and got hit by a toy, "Aaron, stop throwing things around. We are all worried."

"Get me out of here David."

"No, momma wants you in there and that's where you'll stay." Aaron screams again. "Aaron, stop. We are all worried about Derek. That is why I feel guilty for not getting to the school sooner. JJ and I got a little delayed because I had to talk to another kid before we left school. If I hadn't done that, I might have seen the unsub take Derek. It is my fault that he got snatched."

JJ responds, "It is not, look we got there as soon as we could. Your talking to Mike did not delay us. If we really felt that we had to be there, we would have run to the school; but neither of us felt anything was amiss. No one is at fault. This is why we are children right now; so that one of us would get snatched. It was Derek. We just go on now and hope that that tracer can be fixed and we can locate him and hopefully the rest of the children. Aaron, stop screaming. There is nothing that you can do right now, so shut up." Aaron looks at her with surprise that she would say that to him. She goes over to him and bends down to look at him through the bars of the play pen. "If you continue to act this way, I will suggest to momma that you need a time-out and another good long nap. Did you sleep well during your nap this afternoon? Because you don't act like someone who got a long enough nap. You are not two years old yet, stop acting like we need to think about the so-called terrible twos phase. Finish your temper tantrum and calm down, right now you are where you need to be. Observe, we are going to be getting visitors soon and we need your keen eyes keeping an eye on them." David had been putting the toys back into the play pen and then went to the kitchen to get a bottle for Aaron.

During this altercation with Aaron, Spencer and Emily just sat on the couch and watched. It's not always easy watching when the boss man gets angry and has a tantrum, but it is like a watching a car crash happening. You just can't look away.

Meanwhile, Ross and Penelope are checking out the problem of why they lost the tracer and if they can reconnect with it. Ross is thinking that it might be a dampening of it by another device that is using a different modulation. Since he knows that the prototype is being used in the area and the reason he can't locate it could be that it is at a different modulation than the device momma has; which means that unless you know the modulation, you can only see the illusion of the devices and anything under that illusion will only be seen as the illusion. But if have the correct modulation you can see the non-illusion. If the unsub was the person with the prototype, then why would he be taking children. What is the purpose of taking children? Would he be able to know that Derek is not really a child? Is so, then Derek is in big trouble. Could he have a device that could take out the tracer modulation? Ross mentions this to Penelope, who looks at this as an interesting question and begins to look at that type of modulation changes in momma's machine, within the computer systems.

Momma had finished several pans of cookies and brought some to Penelope with a coffee. She put some on the table for the kids with milk. Aaron had a bottle of milk and she brought him some warm cookies. He looks at her somewhat calmer than before; she smiles and pats his head before heading back to the computer room. "Is there any news."

"We think that it might be a modulation dampener. We are trying to remodulate the devices through the machine; we might be able to find the tracer then."

"Good, keep it up and keep me informed. Your fellow agents should be here soon to discuss the case more with you. Be able to give them some information."

Momma looked around to find where her children are. She knows the baby is in the play pen, but where are the others? Spencer and Emily had put on their jackets and were out on the porch playing with the toys, while JJ and David were doing their homework. Momma took some cookies and milk to her little ones out on the porch. The FBI local office began to drive up and Bob got out of the SUV and came into the house. He says hi to Spencer and Emily playing before going with the other agents into the house. Our child agents run into the house to listen what will be talked about. The agents took over the dining room table with files and laptop computers. Bob went to talk with Penelope and got the news about the problem with the tracers and the possible modulation solution.

He then went to the play pen, lifted Aaron out and carried him to the dining room table. He sat with Aaron in his lap and began to discuss the case with the agents around the table, having the files and information in front of him. Aaron just sat there drinking his bottle, listening to the agents and reading the information in front of him. He was grateful to Bob for this opportunity to learn and possibly use his talents. Momma smiled from the kitchen door as each of her 'children' was sitting with an agent in this communication powwow at the dining room table.