Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the TV series, Criminal Minds.
Who We Are
Part 6
By N. J. Borba
The others entered the conference room and took seats, but Emily remained standing for a while in front of the large window. She peered down through the blinds, watching as Anna made sure Michelle was situated at her desk before joining them. Emily could see that the girl was inundated with the books, paper, pencils and markers that they'd purchased for her, and she sincerely hoped Strauss didn't happen along to find their mini-daycare facility. She would have happily hid the girl away with Garcia in the tech's lab, except Penelope needed to be at their meeting as well.
"How are you doing?"
JJ's quiet, concerned voice broke through Emily's vigil. "Oh, you know…" she paused, not looking away from her sister. Emily saw Anna speaking with Anderson, no doubt reassuring herself that he would keep an eye on Michelle while they were in the meeting. "As a special treat for my birthday I thought I'd discover a long lost sister," Emily continued. "But that wasn't quite enough excitement for me so I threw in a stalker who seems interested not only in me and my sister, but also my eight-year-old niece. Other than that I'm doing great."
The liaison smiled sympathetically as she touched her friend's arm. She'd grown used to Emily's snarky nature and took it in stride. "We'll figure this out," she offered up before taking her usual seat at the round table.
Emily finally turned away from the window and was greeted by the team's silent concern. Anna entered shortly after and went to sit beside her sister. Garcia hustled into the room a few moments later. "Sorry I'm late," she sat and arranged her personal laptop. Then her eyes lit upon Anna and she smiled welcoming. "I'm Penelope. It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you."
"I'm sorry to disappoint you by not wearing my Laura Ingalls Wilder clothing," Anna replied with a shy grin.
"Oh, boy…" Garcia glared at Derek, because she was pretty sure he was the only one she'd made that comment to. One of her fingers moved back and forth between the sisters. "There's a little family resemblance now that I look for it, but it wasn't until she opened her mouth that I caught the Prentiss vibe from her."
There were a few soft chuckles around the table at that, even from Hotch. But a somber mood descended again as JJ took center stage and began to discuss the matter of the photographs that had been left at Emily's door. "Lab was able to pull a few prints, mainly Emily and Morgan's," she said. "There was also a thumb and index print on some of the pictures, but nothing on the envelope, and nothing in any database to match. They also reported the pictures are of low quality, most likely taken by an inexpensive digital camera and then developed at a store, which could explain the unknown prints."
"Because our UnSub most likely wore gloves when handling them," Rossi guessed.
"Or our UnSub isn't in any database," Hotch countered.
Penelope took over from JJ. "The envelope only had Emily's name. So, I scoured the surveillance tapes at her building." She linked the video images from her laptop to the large screen in the room. They were speed up. "Between 9AM, when Emily and Anna left, to 12:30PM, when Derek and Michelle returned, there were a dozen entries. Ten of those were residents, one was a refrigerator delivery to the second floor and one was this FedEx guy." She stopped on a still image of the man.
He was tall, clean shaven with dirty blonde hair poking out beneath a ball cap that bore the FedEx colors. "He's wearing gloves," Reid noticed.
"They're uniform issued, I checked," Garcia relayed. "It wasn't terribly cold Saturday morning, but my guess is they're more about sanitation for this guy. He probably touches a gazillion packages a day, not to mention door handles, elevator buttons..."
"What do we know about him?" Hotch asked.
"He seems normal enough," Garcia was sure she'd said those words before only to uncover some deep dark UnSub past. "Name is Gary Sullivan and he's worked for the company for five years. Had an arrest for disorderly conduct last year, for which he spent a night in the drunk-tank. A few unpaid parking tickets and, apparently he's late on his rent almost every month, but nothing more serious than that. Thirty-two years old and married. That's all I've got so far," she concluded.
Hotch looked to Dave. "Maybe you and Reid can go talk to him later," he suggested.
"Sure," Rossi agreed.
"There's something else," Penelope said. "Derek asked me last week to search for anything I could on Eli and Maggie Wallace," Garcia saw the look on Anna's face at her mention of those names. It was a combination of fear and loathing. She gulped down her apprehension, wanting Emily and her family to be safe from any further harm and knowing she might have information to make that happen. "The name Maggie Wallace didn't register anything in Wichita or surrounding areas. However, I did find a fairly prominent family in Wichita by the name of Williams. They've owned a plastics manufacturing facility there since 1946."
Derek had been carefully watching Anna for any signs that she'd heard the name Williams before, but she seemed perfectly calm. "How does this tie to Maggie Wallace? Or does it?" he pushed his friend.
A new image popped up on the screen to replace Gary Sullivan. "This woman is Margaret Williams, one of the heirs to the Williams Plastic dynasty."
Anna took a shaky breath before she spoke. "It's her," she confirmed. "She looks much younger, but…"
Emily reached for her sister's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "So, she changed her name when she married this Wallace guy. Why is there no record of that?"
"If she was married to Eli Wallace, she never changed her name," Garcia replied. "But she was definitely married to this guy for a short time." A dark-haired man joined Margaret's picture on the screen. "That's Ian Ballard, who she had a son with; Jacob Ballard," Garcia spoke that name as the picture of a young boy appeared.
"No," Anna's voice was a strangled cry as she stared at the boy. "No, she was not his mother. She could not be," tears welled and spilled down her cheeks.
Emily easily guessed what her sister was talking about, because his green eyes reminded her of Michelle. "He was Eric, wasn't he?" she asked as gently as possible.
"Yes," Anna wiped her tears.
Reid furrowed his brow. "How is it that Eric didn't know she was his real mother?"
Garcia had an answer for that. "I found an article in the Baltimore Sun archives about Ian Ballard being found in his home, throat slit. That was in the spring of 1971, right about the same time Charlotte, um… Anna was taken. The boy, Jacob… Eric went missing from his father's house that night. Apparently the father had full custody and kicked his lush of a wife out when Jacob was just eight months old. He and his second wife, Tammy, were raising the boy when he went missing."
"And this Tammy Ballard woman, what happened to her?" JJ asked.
"Strangled to death the same night as Ian died," Garcia grimly reported the facts.
Rossi considered the case aspects. "One strangled and one with a slit throat kinda sounds like multiple UnSubs to me. We know Eric was with his mo… with Margaret all these years," he decided to give Anna the peace-of-mind not to call the woman Eric's mother. "She's also the most likely to want to cut her ex's throat."
"And strangling is typically a male UnSub trait; the use of brute force," Hotch noted. "Eli Wallace," he concluded.
Derek was a little confused by something. "It seems obvious to all of us that Margaret Williams was responsible, didn't the police come to that same conclusion? And yet she lived less than a hundred miles outside Wichita, where her family's from, but no one ever went after her?" Derek was upset by that notion, even though he knew kids had gone missing before and shown up years later not very far from their abduction sites.
"Forty years ago they didn't exactly have amber alerts, or a lot of the resources we have these days to find lost kids," Reid pointed out. "And even if they did question her family, it's likely they lied to cover for her."
Hotch shifted the conversation a little. "What about Eli Wallace?"
"Unfortunately," Garcia sighed in defeat, which was a rarity. "I know even less about him, as in, nothing. I searched a lot of Eli Wallace's in this country, scoured IRS records, social security numbers, everything I could think of and nothing matched the parameters of the guy in question." She looked to Anna. "Maybe I could do more if you have a picture of some sort that I could run?"
Anna shook her head. "Eric and I, we… we burned everything in that house that reminded us of them. We made better memories for ourselves there, happy ones, especially after Michelle was born. There were never any pictures of those people, anyhow."
"Because they didn't want to run the risk of being found out," Emily surmised.
The eldest Prentiss sister shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "I thought we were trying to figure out who sent those pictures to Emily."
"That is our goal here, Anna," Hotch answered. "Whoever sent those pictures is likely someone you or Emily knows, possibly someone from your past."
"But I told you before that Maggie and Eli are dead," Anna returned.
Derek could see she was upset by the conversation, but he suspected there was more to it. "Are you sure that they're both dead?" he asked. "Can you tell us exactly what happened to them?"
Anna looked fearful as she eyed her sister. Emily squeezed her hand again. "You don't have to, but it could only help us to know. And I'll be right here the whole time. I promise you can stop any time you want if it becomes too much for you."
The woman nervously ran her knuckles across her lips then bit down softly on the tip of her thumb. "Eric and the man were working… they always went out to work the fields together. They watched us every second of every day, at least while we were free," she revealed.
"Free?" Emily took point on the questioning, even though it was breaking her heart already to hear the truth come out. "Did they lock you up somewhere?"
"In the barn sometimes," Anna's voice was barely a whisper. "There was a cellar," she shook her head and regained the full use of her voice. "Most days they let us be out, usually to work. I was in charge of the garden and some of the animals; feeding them. Eric worked the fields with him. He also milked cows and did all the repairs on things around the place."
Emily breathed out through her nose. "So, one day Eric was working with him…" she gently prompted.
"They were in the south corn field, plowing for planting season," Anna recalled. "I heard them yelling, but she was watching me so I couldn't go see what was happening. She always just watched, never helped. Her eyes always looked at me like she hated me, but I don't know what I ever did to make her hate me."
"You didn't do anything. She needed to make you feel bad so she could feel good," Emily was quick to assure. "Now, can you tell me what else happened that day?"
Anna bit her bottom lip. "He screamed, and she finally looked away from me and took off toward the field. I followed and found Eric standing over him. The plow had severed his leg and it was bleeding. There was so much blood, and she told me to run to the house and get blankets, bandages, anything to help… but I did not obey her that time. Eric took my hand and we just stood there and watched him bleed to death." She took a shuddering breath. "It was not until years later that Eric told me it had not been an accident. He had pushed the man."
The room was silent for a long time after that, allowing her words to sink in. Derek could tell she was worried, fearful of what they would all think. He couldn't speak for everyone, just himself. "Eric did what was necessary to survive, it's called self defense," he told her.
"He was not a violent person," she insisted.
"I know," Derek assured her.
Hotch hated to have to push her more, but he shot Emily a look that implored her to keep at it while Anna was still in a mind frame to talk. "What happened to Margaret?" Emily continued at her boss's insistence. "How did she die?"
"She didn't," Anna confessed. "After the man's death, Eric felt confident enough to stand up to her. It took us thirty years, but we finally fought back. He told her to leave or he would hurt her," she recalled. "It was no worse than the things they told us. They always used Eric against me and me against him, telling us they would kill the other if we did not do as they said."
Morgan felt vindicated in what he'd told her about self-defense. "So she left?" he sought clarification.
Anna nodded. "We never saw her again. And we pretended that she was dead. It made us feel safer to think that than worrying that she might return. But that is what you think, right?" she finally realized. "You believe she has come back."
"It seems likely," Rossi confirmed what the team was all thinking. "She realized that without Eli she didn't stand much chance against both of you, so she fled. But she's probably been watching you all this time. And when Eric died she regained her confidence."
"But Eric has been gone nearly a year," Reid pointed out. "Why has she waited so long to come after them?"
Hotch was curious about that as well. "Anna is useless to her, probably because she fought back."
"Michelle is still young with the potential to become whatever she was seeking from Eric and Anna," Dave rolled with it.
"Emily being referred to as a wildcard suggests that she intentionally waited," Morgan added to their theorizing. "Maybe she hoped Anna would find her family. To what end, though..." he had no answer for that.
"Be overly cautious," Hotch directed his words to Emily and Anna. "I'll try to have a patrol car cruise by your building at least once a day, but the budget is already stretched pretty thin. I hate that it comes down to that, but any extras are hard to arrange."
"Then I offer my services," Rossi said. "I can check in on them from time to time," he suggested.
"I could do that, too," JJ agreed.
"And me," Reid and Garcia spoke in unison.
Anna squeezed her sister's hand and smiled gratefully as she looked around the table. She knew without words that Derek and Emily's participation in keeping tabs on them was already a given. "You are all much too kind. Thank you. I do not know how I will ever repay you."
"It's not necessary," Dave insisted.
xxx
Emily stretched her arms above her head, pointed her toes and arched her back, yawning as she woke. She got up, pulled her robe on, donned some slippers and headed downstairs. The kitchen was quiet, but occupied. Anna had coffee made, even though Emily knew her sister only drank tea. They'd gone a whole week without any further contact from their creepy picture taker, and Emily hoped to keep it that way. She hoped Margaret, if it was her, would just leave them alone. Although, the way her month was going, Emily didn't think holding her breath on that one was such a good idea.
"We are having pancakes," Anna announced. "Homemade ones," she added.
"Sounds great," Emily replied sleepily as she dragged her feet across the tile floor to get coffee.
Anna smiled. "I am glad you sound happy about it, because you are going to make them," she proclaimed.
"Huh?" Emily's face contorted in confusion. "I don't know how," she shook her head.
"Well, this morning you are going to learn," Anna insisted. "I will teach you. You follow a recipe. It is not hard."
The profiler groaned. "Maybe some other day, when I haven't just returned from chasing some crazy aerobics instructor killer," she realized only too late that Michelle was nearby, coloring at the coffee table in the living room. Emily glanced across the room and saw the child still intently working on her drawing. She sank back against the counter and sipped her drink.
"How do you do it?" Anna asked. "How do you willingly face that kind of thing on a daily basis?"
A shrug rose Emily's left shoulder. "You just learn to shut it away into a small corner of your mind, a place you forget about."
"Does that work?"
Emily sighed. "Some days it does."
Her sister pulled out a measuring cup and bowl from an upper cupboard and placed them on the counter. She turned to look at Emily. "It never worked for me."
Those words soured Emily's mood, but she tried her best to lighten the situation. "Why does my place look cleaner than it's ever been?" she asked.
"We wanted to do something nice for you," Anna replied, happy to leave the other conversation behind. She gathered more items for their breakfast; eggs, milk and flour; placing them beside the bowl. "Come here," Anna beckoned her sister. "You are doing this. Not me," she maintained.
"Anna, I don't want you to clean my place," Emily continued to avoid the pancake ingredients. "You're my guests, and I have someone who comes to clean."
The older woman nodded. "I know, I saw her on Thursday and told her she could go home, because I already cleaned. I'm happy to do it, and I want to help. I like to keep busy and this place is very small compared to where I lived before. I have no chickens to feed here, or garden to tend."
"So you washed my mini-blinds?" Emily noticed that the taupe colored shade device on her kitchen window was actually sparkling.
Their back and forth game of insistence and avoidance was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. Michelle jumped to her feet. "I'll answer it!" she exclaimed.
She was half-way to the door when Emily reached out and stopped her, snaking one arm around the child's waist. "Hold on there, chaton. Remember what your mom and I told you about answering the door or the phone?"
"To be careful and make sure I know who it is first by checking the caller ID and looking through the peephole on the door," Michelle regurgitated the information almost verbatim. The bell chimed again and her eyes opened wider as she looked up at Emily. "Now can I check who it is?"
Emily let go of the girl and nodded. She watched as the child scooted the step-stool they'd bought for her over to the door. Michelle climbed up and looked through the peephole as instructed. Her head turned to Emily. "It's a man, but I don't know him."
"Go into the kitchen with your mom," Emily ordered. She waited until Michelle was out of sight before looking through the peephole. The man was wearing the same FedEx garb she'd seen on the Sullivan fellow in Garcia's video. But it wasn't him. She finally opened the door, keeping the chain in place. "Can I help you?"
"Delivery for Emily Prentiss," he waved a white envelope at her through the slit of open door. "You need to sign."
She put her hand through and beckoned for his clipboard. Emily signed the digital screen and handed it back to him. Then she used one corner of her bathrobe to grasp the envelope so she wouldn't get prints on it. He shot her a funny look, but Emily didn't care as she slammed the door in his face. When she finally looked at the envelope she saw that it was from her mother. Emily let out a sigh and tore it open. She actually smiled at what she found inside.
"Was it something from…" Anna didn't know how to discuss the woman without explaining things to her daughter. She wanted Michelle to be cautious, but she didn't want her to know details about what was going on.
"No," Emily handed over the item. "It's for you."
Anna looked at the piece of paper that bore a golden seal, some fancy writing and small black footprints on the bottom. She read the name of the child listed on the birth certificate. "Charlotte Noreen Prentiss."
"Noreen was our grandmother on daddy's side. She died when he was a little boy," Emily explained. She watched her sister for some kind of reaction, hoping for a happy one. "This means you can get some picture ID now, maybe even look for a job if you still want to. And you can also apply for a legal birth certificate for Michelle so she can go to school here."
"No," Anna shook her head. "I don't know this name… I don't know this person," she tossed the paper onto the counter and fled the room, headed upstairs.
Emily went after her sister and was at the top of the stairs when the doorbell rang again. She heard Michelle's little feet slapping against the floor and Emily quickly turned around to make sure the child didn't open the door to anyone. At the bottom of the stairs she saw the door hanging open and no Michelle in sight. She raced to the partition and flung it open wider. Her heart nearly leapt out of her throat when she saw Derek there with Michelle in his arms.
"I found something that belongs to you," he grinned, hefting the girl inside. Morgan noticed Emily's frightened look. "She took a peek at me before opening the door," he revealed. "Don't worry so much, it causes ulcers."
She breathed a little easier as they all moved into the kitchen. Emily spied the recipe Anna had left out for her and grabbed the measuring cup, thinking her efforts to cook breakfast might help Anna come around. "What are you doing here so early?" Emily finally asked him.
Derek sat Michelle down on the counter. "Well, I received a personal invitation for pancakes," he glanced over at what Emily was doing. "Although I didn't know you'd be the one making them."
"I didn't invite you," Emily retorted, clearly catching the apprehension in his tone at the thought of her cooking.
"I did," Michelle swung her legs back and forth.
It was hard not to be touched by the girl's happy mood. Emily wished her sister were in the same spirits. "I believe I taught you how to use the phone in case of an emergency," she reminded the child.
The girl nodded. "It was an emergency. I wanted to tell Derek that you're my auntie," she looked to the man in front of her. "Mommy said she and Emily are sisters and that the lady at the hospital, Elizabeth, is my grandmother and the quiet man is my grandfather. I've never had any of those things before," she smiled brightly.
Morgan already knew all of what she'd just said, but he was honored that she'd wanted to share the news with him. "I'm really happy for you, sweetness." He glanced around the place for a second. "So, where is your mom?"
Michelle frowned. "She got upset and went upstairs."
"Hey, kiddo," Emily walked away from her task for a moment and rubbed a hand along Michelle's back. "Why don't you go up and tell your mom that Derek is here, and that we're going to have pancakes real soon."
Derek helped Michelle hop down and watched her bound up the stairs two at a time. He spotted something on the counter and picked it up. "Is this what upset Anna?"
"Yep," Emily answered, mixing her pancake concoction with a wire whisk. "She said she doesn't know who Charlotte is. Can't say I blame her, either. She must be so confused," Emily felt her ire rising and let out her frustration on the unsuspecting pancake batter, beating it to within an inch of its life.
"I think anyone would be," Derek commented.
"She's been putting on happy faces for me and Michelle," Emily continued. "But I think they're masks. I think she's at least a little depressed by all of this. Learning about Eric's mother, and the possibility that Margaret is still out there gunning for her. When I called to check in on them Thursday it was five in the evening here and Anna said she'd been sleeping," Emily rambled on. "And then there's our mother of the year candidate, Elizabeth Prentiss, who still won't even talk to her. Do you know what she did?" Emily let out an annoyed sigh. "She had a bed delivered here the other day while we were in Albuquerque, because I made the mistake of telling her that Anna and Michelle were sharing the one bed in my one guest bedroom."
"She was trying to do a nice thing for them," Derek thought it seemed reasonable enough.
"Oh, but that's not all," Emily continued. "She sent me a note with that bed which dropped several hints about how she and daddy have three spare bedrooms at their place and that maybe it would be best that Anna and Michelle come to stay with them. Also fed by the fact that I told her about this stalker business, because I felt that being honest was the best policy, though I'm not sure where I learned that from."
Derek's lips curled a little as he watched her pour batter into the frying pan. Seeing her cook was something he never thought he'd witness. "It seems to me that she just wants to protect her daughter and granddaughter. How is that a bad thing?"
"It's not," Emily couldn't argue about that. "But why does she keep coming to me with it? Even that birth certificate was addressed to me. Why can't she talk to Anna? It's like I've become some wooden dummy with her ventriloquist hand shoved up my ass," she chuckled softly. The laugh grew, but she felt bad for it. "I don't know why I'm laughing, it's really not funny."
"It's a little bit funny the way you tell it," he grinned. A second later he watched a solitary tear streak down her face. Derek reached out to wipe it away with the pad of his thumb. "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
She smiled through her tears. "Vonnegut," Emily knew the quote.
He nodded. "Honestly, I think your mother needs you, Emily. She's uncertain about how to deal with Anna and she's seeking out your guidance. If your mother and Anna are ever going to work this out, I think it's gonna be because of your influence in both of their lives."
The conversation was left at that as Michelle returned with her mother. Emily flipped several pancakes and served them up; hoping food poisoning wouldn't be on the toppings list along with butter, syrup and jam. They all sat at the table like civilized people, but it wasn't long before some furtive looks were exchanged. "Are pancakes meant to be crunchy?" Derek finally asked.
"Real nice, Morgan," Emily instantly took offense.
"It was just an observation."
"Yeah, that I suck at cooking."
"No, you do not… suck?" Anna shook her head. "That is an odd word to use, isn't it?"
Emily sometimes forgot that her sister, for all her book smarts, had never fully lived in the real world. Outings to libraries hardly qualified. "The word suck has grown to mean things it was never meant for, but when I joined the bureau I had to wean myself off of other more colorful vocabulary," she explained.
"Well, maybe you just need a little more practice with the pancakes," Anna suggested as she took another bite. "And less baking soda," she noted.
"I was thinking…" Emily took a bite and turned up her nose. She added a lot more syrup. "We're still having a bit of Indian summer, so I thought it might be fun to go to the park today."
"Can Derek come?" Michelle asked. "Can we ride bikes again?"
Morgan was a little surprised the girl had latched on to him. He liked kids well enough, but they usually found him a bit scary. The only kids he'd gotten very close to over the years were Jack, Henry, Ellie and now Michelle. "I don't have a bike for you to ride today, but we could go for a walk and I know there's a playground there. Swinging is always good for building strong, riding, leg muscles."
"What about you, Anna?" Emily asked. "We could make some sandwiches and have a picnic."
"I don't feel up to going out today, but you three should go," the woman replied.
Emily was disappointed by her sister's response, but she wasn't ready to give up yet. "I heard about a trick or treating event at the USA Mall in McLean tonight." She caught Derek's eye, knowing it was the mall where he'd once averted a terrorist attack. It had actually been her first case with the team. "It's from 7-9PM, and there's about fifty stores participating. That's a lot of candy," she eyed Michelle.
"I believe Halloween is when children threaten to play a trick if they do not get a treat," Anna voiced her concern.
"No, that's pretty much never the case these days," Emily tried to assure her.
"I read about trick or treating in a book," Michelle said. "Is it fun?"
Morgan noticed that Emily was looking a little upset by her sister's mood so he jumped in. "Trick or treating is a lot of fun," he told Michelle. "You get to dress up in a costume and see everyone else's costumes."
"Could I do that, mommy?"
Anna nodded. "If you'd like to. I'm sure Emily will take you."
"The point was for all of us to go," Emily informed her sister. "It's your first holiday with me. I wanted it to be special."
"I told you I don't feel up to it!" Anna shouted, rising from her seat and rushing from the room.
Derek watched Michelle and Emily push pancakes around their plates. He couldn't be sure if was due to the fact that they were awful, or that Anna had just blown up at her sister. "So, what kind of costume do you think you'd like, Michelle?" he asked, hoping to bring them both back to life. "I bet that the day before Halloween means we could get some pretty great deals on a costume. Maybe we should go to some stores after the park," he suggested.
The girl shrugged. "Okay."
xxx
Playing outside in the sunshine, eating an ice cream cone and finding the perfect Halloween costume had all helped put Michelle in a better mood by that evening. She sat still on the kitchen counter as Emily applied some make-up to finish off her costume. Morgan was hovering nearby, having spent the whole day driving them around. He smiled as he saw Michelle's costume come to life. "All finished," Emily declared. "Why don't you go show your mom and tell her we're leaving real soon."
Michelle took off, and Derek could read Emily like a book. "Seeing Michelle isn't going to change Anna's mind. She seems pretty adamant about not going."
"I just wish I understood why," she sighed.
"Emily, she's spent the last forty years with basically only three other people in her life and two of them were abusers," he reminded her. "The fact that she was able to get on a bus and travel all the way out here was probably a huge step for her. Socializing is something even kids have to gradually learn. I think we need to give her some time, and space."
Her brows arched. "We? Does that mean you're coming along with us tonight?"
"Nah, I don't do Halloween remember?"
"Well, Michelle is not exactly the Halloween honey sort, but she is pretty sweet," Emily chuckled. "And I'd really rather spare another Prentiss heir the task of muddling through a mediocre childhood, especially since she's already been through so much lately. I think she'd love it if you tagged along."
His head shook. "That was a pretty good speech, but I think you just don't want to be alone in a mall full of kids."
"There is that," she used her eyeliner pencil to run a streak across his cheek before he even knew what hit him.
"Oh, no," Derek tried to bat her hand away from his face. "I'll go, but I didn't agree to a costume."
"Just a little bit of something to go along with Michelle's costume. I'll do it too," Emily proceeded to make several marks on her face. When she was done, she turned a smile his way. "Come on, it will be cute," she insisted.
"The terms cute and Derek Morgan do not go together." But he felt himself slowly caving under the weight of her persistence. "What if I see someone I know?"
She dismissed his concern. "Who could we possibly run in to?"
Two hours later Michelle was walking between them as they circuited the mall, ducking inside each store that was participating in the trick or treat event. They were just about to enter the Adidas store when they heard a familiar voice call to them. Emily and Derek both turned to see Hotch and Jack approaching them. "Hi, Derek! Hi, Emily!" the boy exclaimed. "I'm Superman!" he raised his arms into the air like he was flying.
"Yes, you sure are," Morgan agreed, lifting him up so that he actually was flying as they turned in a circle. When he put the boy back down, Derek motioned Michelle over. "Jack, this is my friend, Michelle," he introduced the kids.
"Hi, Michelle," the boy flashed a friendly smile her way.
"Hello, Jack," she politely replied.
Hotch was glad for the kids' meeting, but he couldn't help starring at his colleagues. "Are those whiskers on your faces?"
"Derek and Emily are cats," Michelle was the one to answer. "But I'm a chaton, because that's what Emily calls me."
"I don't know what that means," Hotch looked to the girl for an explanation.
"It's the French word for kitten," she beamed.
Jack bounced up and down in front of his father to gain attention. "Daddy, can I go in this one?" he pointed toward the shoe store.
"Sure, why don't you and Michelle go together," Hotch ushered both kids into the store. "Don't forget to say thank you," he called after them, waiting until they were out of sight before his attention returned to Derek and Emily. "So," he looked them over again. "You're cats?"
Emily felt slightly embarrassed, but she sensed that Derek wasn't planning to say a single word about their appearance, so she tried to gloss over the fact they were both sporting painted on cat whiskers. "It was very last minute. And what are you supposed to be, man in a suite?" she expertly diverted the topic.
"I'm an FBI agent. I even have a real badge," Hotch cracked a smile.
"Very original," Emily chuckled, happy to see her boss in a good mood for a change.
The kids ran back, brandishing their sacks of candy. "I got something called… Snickers?" Michelle said. "Are they good?"
Jack nodded, not seeming to find it odd that she didn't know what a Snickers bar was. "I like Snickers, but M&Ms are better," he waved the yellow package of peanut M&Ms he'd gotten. Then he tugged at his father's hand. "Come on, daddy, let's keep going," he insisted in an impatient manner very befitting of a five-year-old.
Hotch pointed his finger in the direction Jack was pulling. "We're headed that way."
"We're going the opposite direction," Emily replied. "But maybe we'll see you again up on the second level," she offered as Jack finally got the upper hand and drug his father away to the next store. Michelle set out in front of her adult chaperones, black cat tail swishing against the polished floor. Emily fell into step behind her niece. She couldn't help notice the sideways glare Derek was shooting her. "What?"
"Who could we possibly run in to, huh?" Derek shook his head at her. "You owe me for this, Prentiss. You owe me big time."
xxx
Michelle was fast asleep by the time they got back to Emily's place. Derek carried the girl inside and up the stairs as Emily directed him to the guest room where Anna and Michelle slept. Emily tried to be as quiet as possible, not hearing any sound in the room or seeing any light on. She felt bad having to flick the lamp on, not wanting to disrupt her sister. But when the soft light flooded the room Emily realized her sister wasn't in bed.
"At least take her shoes and tail off," Emily instructed Derek as she slipped out of the room.
She padded downstairs to see if she'd missed Anna sitting in the darkened living room, but with the lights on Emily could see that no one was there. She poked her head into the powder room and the laundry alcove, but there was still no sign of her sister. Emily rushed back upstairs and ran into Derek in the hall. "I don't know where Anna is," her voice revealed a note of panic.
Derek stayed close as they went to check her bedroom. Emily noticed that there was light coming from the adjoining bathroom and she pushed the door open. They found Anna lying on the floor, curled up beside the Jacuzzi bathtub. Emily sunk to her knees in front of her sister. "Anna?" she tried to rouse the woman.
"Emily?" a small response came from the supine woman.
"Hey, what happened?" Emily helped her sit up.
Anna noticed Derek was there and felt somewhat uncomfortable. "I don't know. I was just going to take a bath in here, but I was kind of tired and…"
Morgan reached down to help her up and heard the soft groan she gave when he placed his hands against her lower back. Emily heard it too and pushed Anna's shirt up to discover a few small bruises close to her lip bone. "Did you fall?" Emily asked.
"I don't think so," Anna replied.
They got her to Emily's bed and Derek took a deep breath before asking some harder questions. "Did you take anything? Maybe a few aspirin? Some wine?"
Emily knew what he was thinking. She hated to admit the thought had crossed her mind as well. "Anna, if something is going on…" she took a breath and sat down on the bed beside her sister. "You can talk to me about anything."
"I'm just tired."
A concerned frown drew the corners of Emily's mouth down. She reached up to press her palm against Anna's forehead and turned to Morgan. "It's a little warm."
"Have you felt sick at all today?" he asked. "Nauseous? Vomiting? Diarrhea?"
Anna shook her head to all of his questions. "I just need some rest," she made a move to stand up, but felt a little wobbly on her legs.
Morgan and Emily booth reached out to steady her. "I don't like this. I think she should be checked out," Emily suggested.
Derek nodded his agreement. "I'll drive you."
"No," she protested. "You should stay here with Michelle. I'd rather not drag her to another hospital, especially since she's already asleep."
"Well, I'm not letting you drive Anna, you're too upset," he didn't deliberate long on what to do. "I'll call your parents."
To Be Continued…