Chapter 15 – Support –

JJ knocked softly on Kate's bedroom door but she decided not to wait for a response as she poked her head around the door and saw Kate lying on her bed, clutching two photo frames close to her chest.

"Can I come in?"

Kate turned over in the bed so that she faced away from the door but she didn't deny JJ's request as JJ walked in and perched on the edge of Kate's bed. JJ sat there silently, stroking Kate's hair and waited for Kate to break the silence, it took several minutes but eventually the young girl moved her body so that she sat upright beside JJ the photos dropping onto her knees as JJ saw that one was of Kate with her parent's the other of Emily and Kate smiling and laughing on the sofa.

"Is she mad at me?"

"Of course not sweetie, nobody is mad at you I can promise you that."

JJ reached across and rested her hands on top of Kate's, rubbing her thumb against Kate's soft skin.

"I don't understand what all this means Aunt Jen, what do I have to do?"

JJ released her grip slightly and picked up the photo of Kate and Emily.

"I remember taking this photo, the three of us had been shopping all day and then we came back here, I hadn't seen either of you that happy before and luckily I had my camera on me."

JJ stopped to take a breath, she looked across at Kate's tear stained face and felt her own tears start to well up and was unable to stop them from falling.

"I'm not going to lie to you Kate, you deserve better than that. The Ainsley's are going on trial soon back in Pittsburgh and the prosecutor wants you, Emily, me and the rest of the team to give evidence at the trial. That means that you are going to have to tell some people about what happened to you. It's not going to be easy, I expect that you'll find it really hard but I want you to remember that me, Emily and the rest of the team are here for you and will help you as much as possible."

Kate looked up at JJ and saw the tears rolling down her face without thinking she wrapped her arms around JJ's waist and sobbed onto her shoulder.

It had been over an hour since JJ had gone up to speak to Kate and for the last twenty minutes Emily had been pacing around by the window.

"Emily dear, will you stop please!"

Garcia was sat on the sofa, not knowing what to say to her friend in order to make her feel better but she knew that her presence alone was of some comfort to her. Finally they both heard footsteps moving around upstairs and Emily anxiously moved to the bottom of the stairs to see who was coming down.

"Mom I'm sorry I shouted at you!"

Kate let go of JJ's hand and started to move speedily down the stairs, letting Emily catch her as she reached the bottom.

"Its ok munchkin, I'm sorry too. We'll get through this ok?"

Kate nodded and leant in against Emily as Emily looked up and saw JJ walking slowly down the stairs, she was shocked by how upset her friend was and immediately felt guilty about it.

"Thank you so much JJ, are you ok?"

JJ nodded and stood still for a moment before she managed to compose herself and walked over to Garcia who instantly embraced her.

Emily was woken up the next morning by the sun shining brightly onto her face, it took her a couple of seconds to realise that not only was she not in her bedroom she wasn't in Kate's either and she was stuck in a very uncomfortable position with Kate lying beside her with her arms wrapped tightly around Emily's waist. Emily lifted her head slightly and saw Garcia asleep on the sofa opposite, smiling at the sight she soon started to wonder where JJ was when a cup of coffee suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Morning, I thought I heard you stirring."

"Oh thanks JJ, this is very welcome!"

"I was hoping you'd wake up, I've got to go to the office in a minute and pick up some files."

Emily frowned as she carefully shifted her body so as not to disturb Kate but also allowed herself to look at JJ seriously.

"It's Saturday JJ, we've got the weekend off."

"I know but I've got to go."

Emily smiled at her friend as she extracted an arm and reached out to take a hold of JJ's hand.

"Jen I don't know how to thank you for last night, I don't know what you said to Kate but thank you, I couldn't have done this without you and Garcia."

"It wasn't a problem Em, tell Kate I'm sorry I missed her but I'll give you a ring later."

JJ smiled as she quietly stood up and sneaked out of the condo as Kate started to shift around in Emily's arms.

"Morning munchkin, you ok?"

"Mmm."

Kate stretched out her arms and then reached up to wipe the sleep from her eyes before she sat more upright and looked across the room.

"Does Aunt Pen always make that much noise when she sleeps?"

"Apparently so!"

Emily laughed softly as the two of them snuggled up on the sofa and watched Garcia lying prone on her back snoring loudly.

"So staying with Grandma DOES have some advantages!"

"Oh I'd forgotten about her, I'm going to have to talk to her later."

Kate nodded as she stood up from the sofa, stretching out her limbs once again before she crept across the room and kneeled down on the floor in front of the other sofa, gently poking and prodding Garcia until she spluttered and stuttered awake.

"What? Where am I? Kate what the...!"

Emily snorted with laughter, glad that the 9 year old had her mischievous sense of humour back again.

Ten minutes later Garcia was feeling slightly more human and was sitting in the kitchen sipping a much needed cup of coffee with Emily whilst Kate went upstairs to take a shower and get dressed.

"Um Garcia are you doing anything today?"

"Why sweetie?"

Emily took a long sip of her coffee before she smiled at Garcia.

"I've got to go and see my mother and tell her about the trial and I don't really want to take Kate with me."

"Don't say another word Em, but could you drop us off at my place, JJ drove me round yesterday and I'll need my car."

"Of course, what are planning?"

"Well Derek rang me yesterday and said about taking me ice skating, it sounds like a good idea for Kate."

"I think she'll love it, thanks Penelope."

JJ had reached her office at around 10am on the Saturday morning, there was hardly anyone else around as she shut the door firmly behind her. Sitting down at her desk JJ grabbed her phone and started to ring her contacts to find out all she could about the Pittsburgh DA.

"Hello mother."

Emily stood in the doorway of her mother's office and waited for her to acknowledge her presence.

"Good morning Emily, what a pleasant surprise. Is Kate with you?"

Emily shook her head as she sat down in the chair opposite her mother.

"I've got something I need to talk to you about mother."

"What is it Emily? Is everything ok?"

"Oh mom!"

Emily took a long deep breath as she sucked in her bottom lip.

"I got notified yesterday that the Ainsley's trial is going ahead soon and they want Kate and me to testify. I wanted you to know that there's probably going to be some stuff that comes out that is going to be hard for you to hear."

Emily stopped as her voice began to break and the tears welled up in her eyes.

"What's in the official report, it doesn't cover half of what happened in that cabin."

Emily couldn't hold herself together any longer and she also couldn't bear to let her mother see her break down, she pushed the chair back and started to walk out of the office.

"Emily wait!"

Elizabeth Prentiss ran towards her daughter, catching up with her as she tried to open the door.

"Emily stop!"

Emily turned around and looked at her mother, she pounded the closed door hard before she dropped to the floor only for her mother to sit down beside her and cradle her tightly.

"It's going to be ok Emily, I'm so sorry."