A/N: I'm currently working on chapter 55 to this fic, and it seems like chapter 55 or 56 will likely be the last chapter to this part. I plan on writing a part two, continuing where the last (chapter 55 or 56) will leave off. I plan on doing this since (at least in my experience) the more chapters a fanfic has, the less likely new readers are to read it because it seems like a daunting task to read a 50+ chapter fanfic from the beginning.
My Life Had Stood
Chapter 50: Finding Jemma 1
Nevada:
It was quiet, the hallway quite narrow and devoid of any end tables or knicknacks. Some framed photos were tacked to the walls, but not enough to make the fading wallpaper feel less lonely in the sparse light.
Outside shadows clung to the yard, strengthened by the dark clouds and lack of any nearby street lights. The house with its narrow walls was all the way at the end of the street, and the only one there that was currently occupied.
"Pah...pahpa!" A child, dressed in magenta pajamas covered with purple and blue kittens, pattered through the narrow hall. Her small feet covered by the pajamas were soft but quick, racing toward a man that had just shut the child safety gate on the stairs. "Pah!"
"What are you doing, cher?" Linnet purred, scooping up the child running towards him, arms out stretched. "You should still be asleep."
"Pah! No 'leep, nuh." The child lisped, her dark umber eyes staring up at Linnet's face. She reached out towards his cheek with her small hands. "You 'urt?"
"No, cher. I'm fine." Linnet cooed, gently pulling the girl's hands away. His eyes widened a sliver when he noticed blood on the little girl's hand. He immediately touched the same part of his cheek as the girl had, feeling the oozy blood. He mentally swore.
"'Lood. It 'lood." The girl mumbled, staring at the red and sticky substance on her fingers. She glanced back up at Linnet, her eyes wide. "Pahpa 'urt? Pah pahpa!"
"It's all right. It's fine, cher." Linnet assured the girl as he brought her to the bathroom, and quickly dampened a washcloth. Still holding the girl, he used the washcloth to wipe the blood that'd gotten on his face, before doing the same to her tiny hands. "See? It's gone. Papa isn't hurt."
"'Lood gone. No 'lood." The girl giggled, happier now that Linnet's face was clean. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head against his chest. "Pahpa."
Linnet half-smiled at the girl as she struggled to keep her eyes open. He was about to say something to her, when the sound of screaming could be heard. A gagged scream, that reached his ears despite it coming from the cellar. He grimaced.
"Back to bed with you, cher." He kissed the girl's forehead and quickly brought her back to her bedroom. It was filled with stuffed animals and dolls, with drawings taped to the walls, nearly covering them. He laid her down on a low, fluffy bed tucked in the corner and pulled the blanket over her. "Time to sleep, cher. Papa has a lot to do in the morning."
He gave the girl another kiss this time on the cheek, noting that from the moment her head touched the pillow she'd fallen asleep. His lips held a smile as he looked at the sleeping girl.
The next moment the smile vanished and Linnet hurried back to the basement, his eyes livid.
"I told you not to make any noise, love." He hissed at the woman tied up and screaming for help. Not that her words were distinguishable through the duct tape over her mouth. "The woman here before you couldn't listen either."
"Hh ahhl!" The woman yelled, trying to free her arms that were bound behind her head. Her frightened eyes also angry, she glared at Linnet. The man rushed at her and forced her to look over at the right most corner of the cellar. The woman's eyes widened at the sight of another bound woman, lying motionless against the wall.
"Heh." Linnet laughed, and grabbed a jar from a nearby shelf. He showed its contents to the frightened woman "Here, love. If you don't shut up, I'll take yours as well."
The woman's eyes widened further, and her cheeks lost all color at the sight of a severed human tongue, still bloody, in the jar.
0
BAU Jet:
Spencer opened up the case folder he held, quietly perusing the files while the BAU jet was being readied. Take off would be soon and he was already sitting down, waiting for the rest of the team to board and sit. He read the file again as his teammates sat down, attempting to avoid their questioning, worried looks for as long as possible.
He didn't want to answer any questions about Alsie or talk about the whole twin thing. None of that mattered - none of it. Not compared to finding Jemma and allowing Rossi some measure of happiness from the whole Somerfield-Connell scheme. The older man deserved to meet his granddaughter.
"Hey, kid, how you holding up?" Rossi asked, sitting across from the younger man. He didn't receive an answer, instead Spencer acted like he was lost in thought while reading over the file. The older agent sighed, shaking his head. "Reid, you're going to have to deal with the situation with Alsie eventually. If not now, then once we find Jemma. Alsie is her mother..."
"..." Spencer grimaced, his eyes no longer even pretending to scan over the page in front of him. Swallowing and clearing his throat, he placed the folder down before him. His eyes met Rossi's. "There's nothing to deal with. Except this case Fitzgerald's team called us in on."
"Reid, I know you care about Alsie. I saw how you worried about her with her migraine, and when Shelly attacked her." Rossi sighed. "What Connell did is horrible, and...I know I can only imagine how rough finding out the truth about Alsie and you must've been. It'll take time to process. Look at me, I'm still processing everything dealing with James' kidnapping as a newborn and all that came of it."
Spencer just smiled a small, polite smile. The kind that was meant to be reassuring even though things weren't all right. "I'm fine. There's nothing to process, Alsie...Alsie's my twin, it's not..."
"Kid, you haven't even registered that that makes Jemma your niece, have you?"
Spencer faltered, unable to respond.
0
Nevada:
"Nommmm..." Jemma mumbled, still asleep even as she kicked her blanket off the bed. Light peeked in from a small window near the ceiling of her bedroom, hitting her face. She turned away from the light, still pretty much asleep though not as deeply as before.
A few moments later a clock attached to her bed's headboard clicked to the next hour, and started flashing colorful lights and vibrating. It was the vibrations that pulled Jemma from her sleep.
She sat up on her knees and pressed the big button on top if the clock, stopping the alarm. Humming to herself, she crawled out of bed, her eyes alighting on the blanket she'd kicked off while asleep. She quickly grabbed it and tossed it into a basket by the foot of her bed. Next she hurried to her toy box, a fancy one that looked like a pirate chest except it'd been painted pink and sky blue.
Jemma loved it, it reminded her of cotton candy. She opened the box and rummaged through the toys - mostly plushies, though there were some soft blocks and a book or two. She continued to hum, the sound becoming louder though she showed no sign of noticing. Only when she found the pink, floppy earred bunny near the bottom did she stop humming.
"'Unny!" She grabbed it and hugged it tightly, before dragging it with her to a small shelf against the adjacent wall. There were a lot of books stacked on the shelves, along with various boxes of crayons. The large kind of crayons designed for young children.
Grabbing a crayon box and a book of construction paper, Jemma sat in the middle of the room. Her bunny next to her, she hummed as she drew, making sounds and mumbling.
She didn't notice Linnet until he knelt down in front of her; she continued drawing and humming though until he pinched her arm. It hurt, and tears sprung to her eyes while she grabbed the bunny, hugging it tightly.
"Too loud, cher." Linnet mumbled after cupping the three year old's chin and making her look at him. "I know you like humming, but it's too loud."
"Pahpa." Jemma whimpered, the tears in her eyes blinding her briefly. Her lips trembled, and she held the plush bunny tighter.
Linnet gave an exasperated sigh and wiped away the girl's tears with the bunny's floppy ears. Once the frightened brown eyes were clear, he repeated what he'd said. "You are too loud, cher. No humming."
"Ssworree." Jemma mumbled, finally understanding why she'd been pinched. She kept her eyes on Linnet's face, particulary his mouth. The strangle-hold she had on her plushie didn't lessen until she noticed Linnet saying breakfast was already done. "Pahpa, b'eak fahst? Bu' it not time fwor b'eak fahst."
"Papa has to go out early today, so breakfast is earlier than usual." Linnet explained and picked the girl up, allowing her to take the bunny along. He glowered once Jemma couldn't see his face, how he held her prevented it. It was evident that something had ticked him off, and not just the annoying humming. "Damn woman from yesterday. Thought she'd last longer..."
Jemma didn't react to the whisper, but simply held onto Linnet and her plush. The pinched part of her arm still hurt, but it slowly went away as she looked around. She enjoyed seeing her room and the hall from so high up, it made her feel taller. Like an adult.
She made sure not to hum while Linnet carried her to the kitchen, though she missed the fun vibrations humming made. As they passed the door leading to the cellar, she scrunched her lips and eyes, thinking. She wondered if she'd ever be allowed down in the cellar.
"Here we go, cher." Linnet sighed and placed Jemma in her seat. A breakfast plate with scrambled eggs and toast was already laid in front of the girl's spot. Along with a sippy cup of green veggie and pineapple juice.
Smelling the yummy food, Jemma forgot about the cellar and about the pinch on her arm. She hastily grabbed her fork and started chowing down, smiling widely as she noticed the sweetness of the scrambled eggs. Papa had used the special sauce she liked - 'mirin' the bottle had said - which made the eggs sweet. She also noticed that he had mixed some sweet onions in it as well.
"Pahpa, 'ove 'ou!" Jemma giggled and picked up her sippy cup, not minding that it contained her least favorite juice. The sweet scrambled eggs were worth not having the strawberry or guava flavored juices she liked better. When she next noticed that the toast had melted peanut butter rather than butter, she grinned even more brightly. "T'ank 'ou! Pahpa!"
"It's all right, cher." Linnet replied, watching the little girl. He'd already eaten his breakfast, in both the PG sense and adult sense. He smirked as he thought of the women down in the cellar, how they had begged and pleaded. His latest acquistion had cried, pleading to be let go and complaining she was exhausted. She then started to shout and scream for help, and nothing he did deterred her from it.
He ended up hitting her in the head with his fist once he realized the choke collar wasn't enough. It had quieted her, but also made it impossible to wake her back up. He wondered if he'd killed her or made her brain-dead. Either way, she was now useless, it was absolutely no fun if they couldn't feel him.
"Jem, finish up, then go pick out some clothes." Linnet instructed after making sure the child was looking at him. When Jemma nodded in reply he left the table and started cleaning up: putting away the bread and peanut butter, as well as the toaster. The eggs and juice he'd put away before getting Jemma.
"Awll duhn!" Jemma announced, her voice just barely below that of what Linnet considered annoying. He glared sternly at her, at which she flinched and muttered a soft 'ssworree' again. Immediately afterwards Jemma climbed down from the chair and ran to her downstairs room. One that Linnet had supplied with her clothes so that he didn't have to choose between carrying her up the stairs or removing the child gate.
Once in the room, Jemma rummaged through the drawers and boxes of clothes. The urge to hum filled her, but she bit her lip to stop herself. She didn't want to get pinched again. Papa's pinches hurt!
It only took her a few minutes to pick out a purple and blue skirt, and a strawberry-lemonade pink blouse. With it she picked out a pair of yellow and pink leggings, and yellow striped socks.
She quietly and quickly carried it all to the bathroom, where a lady papa had brought home a while ago was waiting to help with her bath. Jemma handed the woman the clothes she picked out, before getting undressed and hopping into the tub.
Leah Crawford stared sadly down at the small child, her eyes terrified. The collar locked around her neck and attached to a hook in the hall prevented her from escaping. And the stub that remained of her tongue after Linnet had severed it a few days ago, stopped her from talking to the child.
Not that it would do any good, the little girl had ignored her when Leah tried talking to her before her tongue was cut. Begging for the girl to get help. It wasn't until after that she realized the reason.
The poor child couldn't hear properly.
Leah smiled sadly, bathing the young child. Her eyes welled with tears.
A/N: End of chapter. I'm anxious to know what you guys think of Jemma. I'm not that confident in writing young children characters, since I have no experience with them and don't really like them. Though that's probably because I find them too stressful to feel anything but anxiety around them.