AN: Here's to chapter 6. Hopefully I will be able to work around to getting some Morgan and Garcia time in here; not making any promises, but I will try.
The next few hours passed uneventfully; there was dinner. And that was an affair to remember. There had been one story that Kevin and his parents were telling about Lex that had everybody laughing. It got to a really good point, and they were talking about some crazy thing that she had done, and Lex started laughing so hard that she shot drink through her nose. As she squealed in agony at the burn, Kevin started laughing that much harder himself.
"That burns, you dick!" she said from behind her hand as she sniffled trying to get herself together.
"Ooooh. Did Lexa say a bad word Mrs. 'Ouisa?" Jazzy asked.
"Mommy, that sounded like a bad word." Sofie chimed in. And at the same time Emma got her two cents in with, 'Does she gotta put money in the jar?"
Sasha and Eva and Oleg made some sort of jokes in Russian about things never changing in reference to her mom getting caught saying some dirty word. As good a woman as Alecta might have been, she could swear like a sailor when she got into the swing of things.
"Hardy-har. I wish you would laugh. That shit hurt." And of course Sasha and Eva laughed that much harder.
After dinner the kitchen was quickly cleaned up. Sasha and Eva and Oleg took Sofie, Emma, and Jazzy upstairs to the ballroom to play a bit. Alecta hopped on a computer that was in the study to check in with Immogene and see how the rest of her girls were doing on their time off. She was informed that Theo's body had made it back to her native city in Russia and was given a proper burial.
When she came back out of the office, Alecta seemed a little morose. She saw agent Rossi over in the atrium trying to schmooze with her mother. Smiling, she walked to the archway that opened into the atrium and leaned against the door, watching them.
"Now, mother you do know that he has had three wives right?"
"Yes, nosey rosy. He already told me that. Don't you have something to get into?"
"Yeah,' Alecta said quietly and walked away; but she wasn't quick enough for her mother to miss the look in her eyes. That lost look; she had it a lot these days.
"Excuse me Agent Rossi…."
"Seriously, when will you start calling me Dave or David?"
"When it stops being such a big deal to you. But right now, I have to go talk to her. I've missed out on all of these things."
"I suppose you're right. Go ahead, let me know how it goes."
Mrs. King simply nodded her head and walked quickly from the room. She learned that Alecta had gone into the kitchen to ask Mrs. 'Ouisa if the plans were pretty much in place for Mr. Dan'el's party. And they were. They had planned it months in advance, she was told. So she had walked up the stairs and disappeared.
Mrs. King went all over the house, finding her, finally, on the covered porch that faced the river…on the true front of the house. She was sitting up on the banister, leaning against one of the large columns that made up the entrance of the front steps, her arm resting around one as though she was trying to hug it to her side.
Hearing her mother coming up, knowing those footsteps better than her own, even after all these years apart, "It's gonna storm again tonight."
"That's what I was thinking as well. What has brought you so down this quickly?"
"Back the other week, there was a situation. A dear fr…a dear friend of mine had to be killed."
"You mean she died?"
"No. I mean, she had to be killed. There was nothing else that could be done. She had stabbed me multiple times…I forget how many now. And Gibbs had to shoot her."
"Gibbs? Our cousin Gibbs?"
"Yes."
"What kind of friend was she to stab you?"
"Troubled…deeply troubled. She, at one time, reminded me of myself. I tried so hard to save her. I tried to….it doesn't matter. Whatever I was trying to do, I failed. It's as simple as that. The fact that she tried to kill me was as much my fault as hers."
Alecta began to reel out the story about the undercover job and what had happened with that.
Meanwhile, upstairs, Garcia had gone to get a shower. It had been looking like it wanted to storm judging by the clouds outside and she was trying to get a jump on things before that happened. She shut and locked the bathroom door behind her and then leaned over to start the water running to warm up to the right temperature. Then she took her hair down and brushed it out; then she stripped down. As she did this the scars she had from her time being held captive by Alecta's father, Jake, were glaring at her in the reflection from the mirror. It's part of the reason that the only mirror in her own apartment was the one in her own bathroom. She didn't need it all staring her in the face any more than necessary. She wore colorful clothes, crazy patterns, and pasted a cheerful smile on her face. And usually she did a great job of keeping people off of the trail. Most people would never guess that she had these scars or where they had come from. Most days she didn't even really look at herself in the mirror. She just would glance long enough to make sure her eyeliner landed on her eyes and that her lipstick stayed where it belonged. She never actually saw herself though.
And for the most part she was able to get by. The only times that her loathing came to the surface much was when she thought about her friendship with Morgan; well now they were dating, had been for several months.
In the old days, when they were just friends, she used to wish that she could be like those other women. Maybe not built like a number 2 pencil, but at least then she wouldn't have the scars. It's why she and Derek hadn't slept together yet. She had never been able to tell him the story. She had tried for nearly half of her life to leave it all behind her as much as possible. She didn't want to lie by omission. But Pen didn't want to do something foolish like get intimate with Derek, be lying in bed, naked no less, and have him see all these things and ask too many questions. Or worse yet, what if he saw them and bailed on her? She wouldn't be strong enough to deal with that.
Feeling the water, and noticing that it was at just the right temperature, she got into the shower, pulling the curtain shut behind her. She washed her hair, and her body, going across as many of the scars as she could reach, reliving the acquisition of each one in her memory. She began to scrub at her skin a little harder. Before long, she began to notice how she had scrubbed her skin practically raw in places; she rinsed her hair and applied the conditioner, shortly thereafter rinsing that out. After making sure she had rinsed all of the soap from her body, Penelope leaned over and shut off the shower. She got out, drying off, wrapped another towel around her hair. She carefully got her pajamas on; they were a pair of pj pants that had the 'Tasmanian devil' on them…they were bright sky blue. And she had a matching blue camisole top. It covered the really noticeable scars. There were a few smaller ones here and there that she could pawn off on childhood accidents.
By the time that she had made it back into the bedroom she noticed that Derek had come in and was waiting on her to come out. She had taken her still slightly damp hair down out of the towel and put her glasses back on.
"I was wondering where you'd gotten to princess." Derek mentioned as he came closer to her.
"Just figured I'd get my shower out of the way; it looked like a storm was coming up and I wasn't sure who else might want to get one before it does."
As he leaned in to kiss her, Derek commented on the scent of vanilla of her body wash, and how it made her smell good enough to eat, causing her to chuckle, albeit nervously, at him.
During the time it had taken Garcia to get her shower, Alecta had told her mother the abridged version of what had happened to her undercover; there were certain things that a mother should never know about in respect to things that have happened to her child, and then come in to get her own shower. She went through much the same routine as Garcia; not really looking at her reflection…scrubbing her skin practically raw. It was something she'd been doing all her life. If someone asked her if she knew what she really looked like, she could vaguely tell you that she had dark hair and eyes and that she was short with boobs and a but that she had always thought were a bit large for someone of her stature. But other than that she couldn't tell you any real details about herself. She couldn't bear to look in the mirror and study her reflection for long. Her problems went even deeper than Garcia's though. Part of Alecta's problems stemmed from the fact that, except for her lack of height, she looked remarkably like her father; same dark hair and eyes, and a similar, yet more feminine bone structure. She had had enough of Jake and his friends watching her over the years. Alecta didn't want to have the same experience every time she saw herself in the mirror.
And Garcia and Alecta were different, too, in that Garcia went for the vanilla scented and sometimes fruity scented body washes. Alecta was more into the florals. It was one of the few truly girly things about her. She loved the lavenders, roses, lilacs, jasmines, etc.; she was a sucker for them. Tonight, it was the rose flavored body wash that she had with her; even her shampoo and conditioner had a light rose scent. Nothing too overpowering though, she didn't like to over-do it. She liked just enough to get noticed, but not enough to knock over an elephant.
Derek and Pen had moved their little make-out session to the bed. Derek had the forethought to lock the bedroom door behind him when he came up here. And right about now, he was thanking whatever it was that made him do that. Things were moving along quite nicely between them, rather suddenly. They had started dating months ago, and had yet to get anywhere sexually in their relationship. They had had several near misses with making out. Sometimes it was because they would get called into work, bastard unsubs…and sometimes it was because for some reason or other he could always tell Pen was holding back for some reason. He figured it had to do mostly with body image issues, not that she had any reason to have them, not as far as he was concerned…hell no. But he knew that sometimes women just didn't like the way they looked or were always feeling like they could lose 10-20 lbs.; it's just the way some women were. But it would break his heart if Pen lost very much weight; the way he saw it was that she was damned close to perfect now. He didn't want her to change.
Their kissing was getting more involved; Derek had leaned over Pen, resting his weight on one arm, so as not to crush her, and his free hand was beginning to roam her body. Then there was the moment that he tried to get her out of her pajama top. She began to push him away. At first it was just shoving his hands away. Then it progressed to that as well as trying to get his attention by calling his name. And finally, Garcia used the strength she had and shoved Derek off of her enough that she could wriggle out from under him and off of the bed.
Derek spun around in his spot on the bed and looked at Pen, really looked at her. She was breathing hard, like she was scared. Her arms were a toasty red, as was the skin of her chest above the neckline of her top. And the look in her eye, he'd seen it on Alecta a few times since he'd met her.
"Baby Girl, what's wrong?" he asked very gently.
"I just…." She looked away from him, towards the floor, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth.
Derek had seen that look on Alecta's face before, too. He knew that this wasn't going to be good.
"Sweetheart, what is it? If this is about the scar from when Baylor shot you…."
"I wish that was what this was about."
"Alecta told me once that the two of you met out this way…"
"What did she tell you?" Penelope asked rather demandingly.
"Only that you passing through the area, and that you had bumped into each other. She didn't elaborate. Is this what this is all about?"
Pen dropped down on the end of the bed putting her face in her hands, "Yes."
"Tell me what happened."
"Derek…"
"Now come on baby, you know I won't let you go without telling me the truth."
Garcia began to tell the story, haltingly, about how she had been visiting a couple of friends that had set up shop a town or two away and asked her to come visit; and so she had. And they had gone out to a small bar one night just to hang out. Pen had gotten up to go to the restroom on her own, and that was all she remembered until she woke up in this….basement…..it was an odd room. And when she looked around she saw all sorts of devices on the wall. And a young girl with bruises all over her came into the room to bring her something to drink; the girl helped her take the drink seeing as Penelope herself was restrained. As the girl helped her drink, she softly and quietly told Penelope she was going to try to help her get out of here. Pen happened to notice the small girl was actually pregnant.
"I asked her how old she was. She told me she was about 15, or pretty close to it. But she was so little, she couldn't have weighed as much as 100 lbs. soak and wet, most of that was baby belly. She explained that she had tried to help some of the others escape, but failed. And she hoped she didn't fail again. But then the men came. One of them grabbed the girl by the hair and threw her to the floor and started beating her, telling her that they didn't give her the permission to speak to me. It was a few days later when the men made their mistake of leaving us alone in the house together. As soon as they had gone the girl came down and brought some clothes that she had found...God knows where…and she managed to cut me lose. She helped me get outside and hotwire a car they had left behind. I drove the both of us to the police station. She stayed with me until someone came to take my statement. I made the cops keep her there with us and take care of her, too. If she had gone back to that house alone I'm pretty positive they would have killed her, or at least come close. And she had saved my life."
As Garcia babbled onto the rest of the story, telling what she knew about Alecta's time in that house. She told about how Jake would trade her for favors from friends or sell time with her outright, as if she was no better than a prostitute; and how he and his friends would torture the girl. The thing that she was sure would stick with her was the stories about when they would stick her down in the well. It was dark and cold and the bottom was filled with snakes; all three of which terrified the girl.
"She's been absolutely terrified of the dark as long as I have known her. She would make Reid look positively heroic by comparison. She hates the dark. And they did that to her all the time. Or they would tie her to the bed while she slept, and when she would wake up she would have roaches crawling all over her….or spiders. She learned quickly she couldn't scream or they'd get in her mouth. Jake and the others would be sitting around laughing, knocking back beers as they went. I have scars all over the place to show what they did, as does Lex. But she has it even worse than me. She looks like Jake a bit; so every time she looks into a mirror, she sees him and what he's done."
What Garcia didn't know at the time was that out in the hall, Hotch had come upstairs to get into his own pajamas, and passing by the bedroom door, hearing Derek and Penelope's conversation about Alecta, had stopped to listen a little. He hated doing it. He felt like a heel. But Alecta wasn't letting him in. After listening for several minutes, guilt got the best of him and he began to move away from the door and continue making his way to his own room. As he got started again, he looked up and saw Alecta coming out of the bathroom she had been sharing with Kevin.
Alecta was wearing a nightgown that on most women would have skimmed their ankles, but on her it draped the floor. It had wide straps at the shoulders instead of sleeves. Her hair was damp from washing and hung heavy around her waist, if not slightly below it. She hadn't noticed Hotch yet. She was still busy trying to pull the door shut and not trip on the hem of the gown. Hotch shook his head and smiled a bit, even broke into a bit of a chuckle.
Suddenly Alecta looked up and saw Hotch in the Hall and tried to go past him to her room only to have him take her by the arm, "We need to talk."
"Oh. Those are my favorite words out of a man's mouth, said no woman ever." Alecta grabbed a side of her gown so she wouldn't trip over it as Hotch pulled her by the arm to his room, shutting the door.
Alecta became nervous, "You said talk."
"Yes, I did."
"Then why are you shutting the door?" Hotch looked her in the eye and saw the look on her face change immediately. He walked over and opened the door that led out onto the second story porch that wrapped around the house; it seemed to calm her down a bit.
"I wasn't sure how much of this you wanted the others to hear."
"What is this about?"
"Jake, that house, how you really met Penelope."
"That's a loaded question. What has she told you?"
"She's told me nothing. I overheard her talking to Derek about things. It seems as though they want their relationship to progress, but she was…."
"Afraid?"
"Yes. What happened in that house?"
"Reference point?"
"I know I saw the bite mark left by the dog. But what about the one left by human teeth that I saw?"
A loud clap of thunder struck so hard it shook the house, causing Alecta to jump.
"Really, was that even necessary?"
"You're stalling."
"Daddy's friend Rusty bit me. Simple as that. He was playing too rough one day. I didn't care for it at all; I may or may not have kicked him in his manly parts. And then shit got real. Next."
After Hotch asked several questions of her she got tired of the whole charade.
"Look…sit. Be quiet and listen. This will go a whole lot faster if you don't interrupt."
Alecta made Hotch sit on his bed, she sat over on Rossi's and perched on the edge with her knees pulled up to her chest as she talked, wrapping her arms around them. Her story ran the gamut of things that had happened to her from that day in the kitchen when she was two years old until the very last day, when she helped Garcia escape. She even told him how she got the scars around her neck that looked like rope imprints.
"They used to hang me sometimes. Not for long, not until dead, no; just long enough that, when they decided to cut me down they could be sure that I would behave myself."
"You still haven't told me what happened that led up to Jake trying to kill your mother. What happened that was so bad that he resorted to that?"
"Nothing much. It was a Tuesday. The night before, on Monday, he had been on a bar crawl with his friends. When he came home he was drunker than I had ever seen him up to that point. As soon as he came in the door I knew something was going to be different. I was up in my room, shaking under the covers. I knew he'd be coming for me in a few minutes; it wouldn't be long at all. He'd smack momma around a little first and then come for me. I had learned not to bother screaming for him to stop, he never did. Crying didn't work. I didn't even hide from him anymore. That only prolonged the inevitable; he always found me, no matter what. And by hiding it made him think I was turning all of this into a game, that it was as fun for me as it was for him. And besides, the one time I did hide from him, by the time he found me I was so upset by the whole thing, I vomited all over him. Although that did break whatever mood he was in, I got beaten for it.
All I could do was sit there and wait. It was the most miserable feeling in the world, being trapped.
He was rougher on me than he normally was, I guess because he was so drunk. It hurt worse than it had in long time. Although I had given up on screaming and crying a long time ago, I couldn't help it that night. Momma was trying to get to me. But she could barely stand on her own two feet. And one of her eyes was swollen shut anyway. And then he…h-h-he passed out on top of me."
Hotch watched as she began to have difficulty taking a deep breath.
"I couldn't breathe. And daddy is so big that I could never in a million years get him off of me. Momma dragged herself along the floor and pulled herself up by the bed, scared when she couldn't hear me screaming or crying anymore. She knew that as long as I was making some sort of sound then I was at least alive and we could live to fight another day. She couldn't get daddy off of me either.
She had to turn and get down the stairs somehow and drag herself out of the house. I'm still not sure how she made it down the road to that old shack the Gatlings lived in, but she did.
She brought them back with her. The old man grabbed daddy and pulled him off of me and the bed, throwing him in the floor. When daddy turned on the old man, Mr. Gatling lowered a shot gun in daddy's face and chased him out of the house. And then, Mr. Gatling came to me and checked me out. I had stopped breathing, I was changing colors. But the old man had been a medic in WWII and he knew more or less what to do for me. He saved my life.
Momma and I stayed with the Gatlings that night, in case daddy came back. Mrs. Gatling got momma and I cleaned up; I slept in one of Mr. Gatlings old t-shirts. The next morning they gave momma handful of cash that they had socked away in a jar in their kitchen. They took us home. The plan was for momma to pack a suitcase for us both and then the old man would pick us up that afternoon and carry us a couple towns away and put us on a bus. We were to ride as far as that money would take us. But daddy came home early and caught momma packing. And that was it."
By the time Alecta had finished the story, or as much of it as any one person could take at one time, Hotch had tears rolling down his cheeks. Alecta got up and sat beside him and rubbed them away using one of Rossi's shirt sleeves from a shirt that had been lying across the bed. The idea that she was doing that to one of Rossi's shirts almost made Hotch smile in spite of how sad he was.
"You ain't gotta cry, boss man."
"You know you can call me Aaron, right."
She shrugged. "I don't anymore; cry I mean. It never got me anywhere. Why do you think I always said that you can't kill what's already been dead? Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. It was quite dull and I didn't care for it. Anyway, you have to change…"She stood to leave the room and give him his privacy. Hotch stood to walk her to the door.
Another loud clap of thunder rolled out, shaking the house, making her jump again. When she jumped Hotch wrapped his arms around her, and she quickly ducked out of his arms; she wasn't ready yet for anything that might prove he was serious about her.
"Why are you so jumpy today?"
"I gotta go."
With that she lifted the hem of her night gown enough to walk and took off out of the room onto the porch and ran into her room and shut and locked the door. Hotch just sighed, running his hands through his hair and began changing his clothes like he had set out to do in the first place. Right about now, Hotch could really use some kind of advice on which way to turn with her. After changing clothes he decided to go back down stairs and passed JJ and Will in the hall. They were putting Henry down and would be turning in early themselves. Yeah, everybody knew what they were up to; trying for baby number two is what they were doing. Then he also passed Rossi who grinned at him as they passed in the hall.
"What's that look for?"
"What's been keeping you so long?"
"What are you implying?"
"Alecta is back down stairs, her nerves a little shot. What did you do?"
"Nothing, I swear. I finally got her to tell me quite a bit about the things that Jake did to her when she was a girl, that's all."
"How the hell did you manage that? She's as tight lipped as a clam about what happened in that house. Kevin still only knows some of it. And wipe that smirk off of your face; you know that's a damned lousy way to get one over on him."
"Yeah you're right. I didn't have to do much; I just let her know that I had overheard Morgan and Garcia talking in their room about what happened to Garcia and how it lead to Garcia meeting Alecta. Shortly thereafter, Alecta was telling me what I wanted to know. Now is it alright if I go back downstairs?"
"You can bet there's more that she hasn't told you, yet."
"How much more can there possibly be?"
"You have no idea."
With that Rossi turned to his nightly routine, allowing Hotch to head back downstairs before a search party was sent. Getting further into the room, Rossi saw one of his shirts on the floor by the opposite bed. Now, he was pretty sure that he had left it on the bed he had been sleeping in. Whatever, he'd ask Hotch about that later. There was no time for a shower now, the storm had blown in and was raging pretty well, so Rossi settled for just washing his face and letting the rest go.
By the time Rossi got back downstairs, he started laughing. Mrs. King was sitting on the sofa, Rachel was sitting in front of her, Alecta was sitting in front of Rachel. In front of Alecta was Emma, in front of Emma was Sofie, and in front of Sofie was Jazzy. They were each brushing and combing each other's hair, and beginning to put braids in each other's hair. They were each chewing some bubble gum.
"Mommy you said ta do it this way?" Sofie turned for a second looking back at Alecta to make sure she could get the instructions from her mother about how to blow a great bubble.
"Yes baby. Make the piece of gum bigger, like this…then take your tongue out of it and blow, like a balloon…"
"Sofie, turn it around, you're gonna make me mess up your braid."
"Ow, mommy! She's pulling my hair!"
"I'ma pull more than your hair if you don't turn it around!"
"No really, hair braiding and bubble gum starts a fight. Just hadda flashback."
"Mama, stop moving your head." Rachel yanked on the handful she had of Alecta's hair.
"Momma, make her stop pulling my hair!" Alecta wrapped Rachel in the calf with the hair brush she had been using to brush through Emma's hair. "The witch knows I'm tender headed."
Yanking on Rachel's hair, "Stop pulling your momma's hair."
Rachel sort of grumbled under her breath. Alecta settled back into the routine, smiling, tickled pink that pulling the 'mom' card had worked in her favor.
"So, tell me…why are all of you going through the braiding train when you will have to go to bed soon anyway?"
"Ignore Reid. He's a guy, and he's city people."
"I didn't even hear a word he said," Rachel replied while going through the segments of her mother's hair. She looked up at Reid and winked with her left eye, grinning.
Reid began to turn beet red in the face; Emily, sitting beside him giggling at his discomfort.
Sofie was sitting there, braiding Jazzy's hair and began to blow her bubble. It got bigger and bigger, and then the little girl dropped the brush and Jazzy's hair, waving her hands ecstatically to get her mother's attention.
"I see it baby, good job. Now, how long can you keep that going?"
Just another second or two later the bubble burst, covering part of the little girl's face, running up her forehead, getting into her hair.
"Mom-mee! Get it out, get it out!"
"Hurry up Rach…I got surgery to perform."
"Hmmmm….hang on, hang on. There, finished. Your own home styled fantail braid."
"K. Sofie, come on. Let's get this gum thing under control."
"Remember baby, peanut butter, it's what always got it out of your hair."
Hotch managed to get a good chuckle off of that. The more that he saw how Alecta and her kids, and now her mother, were so much alike, he fell even more under her spell.
Alecta got up out of the floor and leaned down to pick up Sofie and hiked her up on her hip, carrying the little girl through the kitchen door and settling her on the island in the middle. Then Alecta walked over to the cabinet where Mrs. 'Ouisa kept some of her non-perishables and began looking for the peanut butter. She found it; it was up on the second shelf in the cabinet. And in a house with ceilings that were nearly 20ft high, the kitchen cabinets were installed with average or taller people in mind. there was no way that Alecta could reach the shelf she needed without getting a chair or stool to stand in; and in that gown, as long as it was, that wasn't the best idea, she'd break her fool neck for sure.
Walking to the kitchen door, swinging it open, "Um, can a tall person come here please?"
The group in the living room could hear Sofie cackling in laughter through the slightly opened door.
"What's the problem doll face?" Kevin asked.
"M-m-m-…Mommy…Mommy can't reach the shelf the peanut butter's on," Sofie could be heard to say, giggling in hysterics; that is until the next sound they heard was 'OW!'.
With that, Alecta whipped her head around and looked in the direction of her little girl, who was still laughing, and this caused her to crack up, too.
"Lex what happened?"
"Nothing pops,' she had to stop to giggle, 'Sofie just fell off of the island laughing at me."
And with that Alecta was gone, she was laughing so hard she collapsed to the floor in a fit of giggles, bumping the louvered door open just a bit further, which allowed the room to see that Sofie was, in fact, alright and began to laugh even harder at her mother's reaction. They began pointing at each other and laughing until tears came out of their eyes.
"Oh dear lord, they both get completely silly when they get tired." Mrs. King was heard to mutter, and both Sofie and Alecta snorted with laughter when they heard her. Their faces were turning red as beets.
"We still have to get the gum out of Sofie's hair, nanna." Rachel finally managed to find her voice, through giggles.
"Oh don't you start, too." Mrs. King got up, stepping over her daughter, and walked into the kitchen; she scooped Sofie up and sat her back on the counter. Since Mrs. King was nearly six inches taller than her daughter, it was much easier for her to try to reach the container of peanut butter to finally be able to apply some to the gum in the little girl's hair.
Alecta and Sofie were still in the midst of their giggling fit and Mrs. King would have had a devil of a time working with Sofie if she had not already had the same experience with Alecta.
Mrs. 'Ouisa couldn't help but start laughing, "Almost nothing has changed in nearly 40 years, eh Daniel?"
"You're telling me."
Alecta had taken to just lying in the floor on her back in the door way where she had been toppled by laughter. You could still see her shoulders shaking with the remaining laughter that was still escaping. Her braid had managed to fall over her shoulder and was still lying down the length of her torso.
While lying in the floor, "Hey Kev, what ever happened to David?"
"You stay away from David. He's still got it out for you."
Alecta rolled over onto her stomach, resting her chin in her right hand, "I'm just asking. Does he still walk with that nasty limp?"
"Yes, and he's been pissed at you ever since. He had planned to go to college on a football scholarship until you crossed his path."
"I wish I could say I was sorry. But I hate to lie."
"Who is David?" Emily asked.
"He was one of the biggest dick heads I knew growing up. He thought he was so great. And he got served by a 13 year old girl. But that's our princess; always making the douche bags look even worse in front of God and everybody."
"What did you do Davis?"
"Rossi, why is it always my fault?"
"Uh, maybe because it often is sweet pea."
"He…."
"Don't even. You were 13, unlicensed. You accepted a race out at 'Dead Man's Curve' against David. You managed to roll an unmarked cop car in the process; it rolled over like four times. You broke your arm doing it…."
"But I won, right?"
"Besides the point Lex."
"How. I finished the race. And I don't have a permanent injury."
"Well just stay away from him, yeah. We have enough to worry about without getting David fired up about a rematch."
Alecta had decided to rest her head on her hands that were crossed, one over the other on the floor. She was getting tired quickly, running out of steam. Then as she lay there in the floor, Alecta raised her hands to the back of her head and began taking the braid out…she wasn't one to sleep with them in, it had just been a fun little thing to do since the girls had wanted to play 'Beauty Shop'. Whatever kept them occupied and calmed down before bed was golden.
Hotch tried to appear to be reading a book that he had left on the coffee table earlier. But, it wasn't possible; he had gone over the same exact line about 10 times already. And he was pretty sure that none of the other profilers in the room were buying his effort; especially when you consider the grins on the faces of Rossi and Prentiss. Nice, now he had the two of them that were going to be on his ass. He knew that Derek knew something; but Derek had the tact to not say something shifty about it. Whereas, Rossi, being a bit older and having gone through his fair share of women, had no qualms about razzing Hotch about his feelings for Alecta.
"Lex, go to bed. We can put the girls down; it's not that big a deal."
"But I…" she had to stop mid-sentence for a huge yawn.
"Honey, go to bed."
"That requires getting up."
"Trifling, nobody told you to lay in the floor."
Hotch figured she was trying to bait either him or Kevin, it was hard to figure out which one. Kevin, because he knew her so well, and she wanted to start some shit. Or, Hotch, because he was fairly new in her life and she was trying to see how far he could be pushed. Taking the bait, Hotch walked over and began to lift her up off of the floor; he honestly only intended to lift her into the standing position and make her walk the rest of the way on her own. But, apparently where he had placed his hands, one in her left shoulder area, and one on her right hip, were rather ticklish. She balled up and started laughing out loud again and begged him to let her go. By the time he pulled his hands away she already had tears in her eyes for laughing so hard again.
You could hear Sofie in the next room with her grandmother, still picking gum out of her hair, laughing because she heard her mother laugh.
"M-M-Mommy's gots tickle spots,' her little girl laughter lit up the room. "Get her, Emmy!"
"Oh, no!" Alecta balled up as tight as she could as Emma and Jazzy came running over and pounced on her, trying their hardest to tickle Alecta to death.
Hotch had just barely dodged out of the way before being run over by two little tots that were giggling maniacally the whole trot over there. Whatever spots the kids were hitting must have been good ones. Alecta was crying even harder with laughter in mere seconds.
"Make 'em stop or I'm gonna pee on myself!" Alecta exclaimed short of breath for laughing so hard.
Sasha and Eva stepped forward and got their hands on the kids and freed their mother; but they couldn't help but wipe tears of laughter from their own eyes. And, once the kids were sat back down on the sofa, Oleg high fived Emma.
"Help me up, boss man." Alecta shot a hand into the air, which Hotch took and pulled her quickly to her feet.
"Emma, I can't believe you sold me out. Tsk tsk tsk. I will have think of a way to get you next."
Alecta squinted an eye at her little girl and smiled, causing the girl to have residual giggles, knowing her mother wasn't serious.
Alecta put her forehead against her hands as she stood next to Hotch, and sort of massaged her temples a little bit, and then grabbed her stomach, running for the stairs.
"What's wrong, baby?" Kevin asked.
There was no time to reply as she tried to climb the stairs, but becoming frustrated she wasn't able to move fast enough. Once again, pulling a 'Morgan', Hotch ran to her and scooped her up and ran her up the rest of the stairs, and deposited her on her feet in the bathroom. He had lived with a pregnant woman before, that particular stomach contact meant that she was about to lose her dinner.
"Go away,' she mumbled as she sank to her knees in front of the toilet, grabbing her wildly curly hair with one hand and bunching it up out of her way.
"Go away? I'm not going away."
After tossing cookies into the commode and wiping her mouth on her hand, 'Do you really like it when people watch you yak up a full meal?"
"Rachel and Mrs. 'Ouisa are taking care of the kids. Your mother is taking care of getting the gum out of Sofie's hair. What do you want?"
Alecta just groaned as another wave of nausea hit.
Once it was over, 'A little secret…"
"Yeah."
"I hate being pregnant. I love my kids to death. But pregnancy sucks out loud. I can't stand those women that say it's the best thing ever and they love it. I wanna punch 'em in the throat. I am not a patient person for one thing. I hate waiting for the kid to get here. And then on top of that, I usually wind up on bed rest." With that she threw up an index finger to pause the conversation while she had another round of vomiting. Hotch got up and got her a wet wash cloth to be able to wipe her mouth a bit better. She took that from him and he got his hands on a second one and dampened it with some warm water.
As she finished being sick yet again, Hotch sat down in the floor next to her, with his back against the bathroom vanity behind him, wiping her face off with the second damp cloth. Alecta pulled away from him looking at him funny.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to help out."
"But anyway….When a woman says she enjoys being pregnant, it's all lies. What woman in her right mind actually likes not being able to see her feet, or fit at tables at restaurants, or sleep in whatever position she chooses in the bed? It's a load of crap I tell you.
When I was carrying Sofie and Emma, I was so sick…just like with Rachel. Both times I had come down with a combination of bronchitis and double pneumonia. I ran fevers constantly. One time I got laryngitis, which some people think is a blessing, anything to keep me quiet. And I had sinus infections during both pregnancies. So I was going to cough up a kid and couldn't breathe.
With the kids I had with Yuri…Sasha and Eva were only my second…ok…third pregnancy and they were twins. I was put on bed rest at the sixth month, especially after I collapsed that one time. And with Oleg…I love that boy, but that pregnancy was rough. I was put on strict bed rest in my fourth month, which was around the same time that they found out I was even pregnant to begin with. I almost killed Yuri. I hated being cooped up. And don't even get me started on labor. Oleg was sort of like shooting a Volvo through a straw. This kid better not be that big, or I'm never going to have sex again."
With that she leaned back over the commode and was sick some more. This round wasn't as bad as the one before, and she was able to sit back up soon enough.
"You should go to bed boss man, I'm gonna be here a while. Just tell Kevin to toss me a pillow and a blanket. I'll be fine."
Hotch gave her his best 'Boss man' hairy eyeball, letting her know that he was in charge.
"Of course you know, I had to try. But for real, go get me a pillow and a blanket. This floor is going to get cold."
Hotch went into his shared room and grabbed a pillow and the comforter off of his bed and took it back to her. She took them from him and climbed in the tub, wrapping the comforter around herself and setting the pillow up so she could lay her head against it. Hotch could tell she was wearing out.
"Mommy, mommy! Where you at? I gotsa give you hugs, and Emmy, too." You could hear Sofie out in the hall and she was knocking on the door with her little balled up fists.
"Mr. Agent man, let me see my mommy! Now!" Sofie was getting riled up as the time ticked by, and Rachel was out there trying to get her to go to bed.
"NO! I wanna see my mommy!"
Sofie had shoved Rachel's hand off of her shoulder and continued to knock on the door, getting more insistant.
"You better let her in before she figures out how to take the pins out of the hinges."
"She'd do that?"
Alecta shot Hotch the hairy eyeball right back, 'You had to ask that question?"
Hotch got up and opened the door; Sofie came bounding into the room, her bangs a little damp from where they had gotten the gum out of her hair and cleaned of the peanut butter as well.
"Mommy? Whatchu doing in the baff tub, wiff a banket? Emmy, mommy has a banket in the baff tub! Come see. Bring Jazzy."
The other two little girls came running into the room, stopping at the side of the tub.
"Ma? Wha's wrong mommy, why you in the tubs wiff a banket?" Emma asked in a much calmer tone than her sister. Jazzy looked on worried; her mommy was sick and went away, and she was staying with Alecta and her kids. What happens if Alecta got sick like her mother, where would she go?
"Mommy's tummy hurts, I'm just a little sick, that's all."
"Lexa?" Jazzy asked carefully.
"Yes baby?"
"You're not gonna be sick like mommy, right?"
"What do you mean baby?"
"Well…well…That man made mommy get sick; and she went away, she tol' me to stay wiff you. But if you get sick like mommy….?"
"Come here kiddo." Alecta could see the tears gathering around the rims of Jazzy's little eyes. She knew what the little girl was thinking, and she knew that the child wasn't sure how to say what she was thinking. She pulled Jazzy into her lap in the tub, the little girl straddled Alecta's hips and laid her head on her shoulder; Jazzy's eyes were getting heavy. "I'm not going anywhere. The world has to work just a little bit harder to try to get rid of me than this.
Not to be outdone, Sofie and Emma climbed into the tub and settled in lying against their mother's chest. Alecta wrapped her arms around the three little girls and started to doze off. Rachel came up the stairs, trying to find out where the kids had gotten to. Seeing them in the bathroom crowding Alecta in the tub, Rachel came to fetch them.
Alecta's eyes opened briefly, 'No, leave them be. They 're almost asleep."
"But momma, what happens if you get sick again?"
Alecta grumbled under her breath, but she relinquished the girls to Rachel and her own mother. The girls grumbled under their own breath at the idea of being taken away from Alecta.
"Ooh! Wait, wait, wait!" Emma was the one that was getting all worked up this time.
Rachel was getting tired of the shenanigans, 'What is it Em?"
"The last time mommy had a tummy ache…."
"Mommy…."Sofie said in an excited whisper.
"What is it?" Jazzy was catching up to the conversation.
"We will tell you in a minute Jazz, don't worwy."
With that, Rachel and Mrs. King took the kids down the hall to their own room.
"For real boss man, you should go to bed. I could be here 'til morning. I'm used to very little sleep."
"On our team we've been known for working nearly 48 hours straight under some circumstances."
"Ok. Suit yourself."
"How did you meet Kevin, I don't remember if you ever told me or not."
"Kindergarten; there had been crayons involved." Alecta was climbing out of the tub.
"Where are you going?"
"I need to get something to drink and some crackers. You know, the pregnant girl buffet."
"Stay in here, I'll be back."
While he was gone, Alecta spent most of the next five minutes straight leaning over the commode tossing more of her cookies. By the time he got back with the bag of crackers and the soda, she had fallen asleep in the bathroom floor; the comforter and pillow were still in the bath tub. Shaking his head, with a smile on his face, he stepped over her and grabbed the comforter from the tub, wrapped it around her, and scooped her up. He took her to the room he was sharing with Rossi. This may not be the brightest idea of Hotch's life history. But he figured that if she got sick again someone would be there with her; never mind the fact that he could set her up in her own bed and stick a trash can beside her. And there was always the chance that if she woke up, under this new set of circumstances, she would freak out. The chances he would have to take….
The next morning, Rossi woke up about 7:30 and went downstairs to start some coffee. As he gathered his clothes together to go change in the bathroom, he looked around the room to see how Hotch was sleeping. When Rossi went to bed the night before, Hotch was still sitting in the bathroom floor with a very sick Alecta who was hunched over the commode.
Looking around, Rossi saw Hotch sleeping on his right side, his head resting solidly on the pillow. Next to him, sleeping on her left side, facing him, her head barely on the bottom edge of the pillow was Alecta; her left hand was palm up under her left cheek. Either one of them looked like they were more relaxed in sleep than anyone had ever seen them before. Hotch didn't seem so stoney faced, and the worry lines were gone. And Alecta seemed to just be relaxed period; awake, she was always so tense, she had her guard up 24/7. Hotch had his right arm draped around her waist lightly, not really holding on to her; Rossi suspected that had more to do with the idea of her having to get up in the middle of the night to be sick again. He knew if Hotch had any say in it at all the grip would likely have been tighter.
Trying not to impose, Rossi finally got himself together and went to the bathroom and got changed and washed his face, getting ready for the day. He figured he wouldn't say anything to Hotch about the sleeping arrangements just yet. He honestly wasn't sure how certain people in this house…Kevin….would take the news, even if it was completely altruistic. Finishing his morning routine, he put his pajamas back in the bedroom and went on down stairs; he wasn't the first one down, Mr. Dan'el had beaten him and already had a steaming cup waiting for the Agent, with his favorite section of the paper.
The night before, at dinner, there had been talk of the party to come. Early this afternoon everyone would be outside, swimming. There was an enormous in-ground pool in the yard. It was pushing 70ft long (not quite half the length of an Olympic sized pool); and at its deepest point the pool was about 25-30ft deep. This was a swimmer's pool. Kevin's parents had it installed years ago, to have huge parties with the friends and family. Later, on in the upcoming evening, would be the birthday party for Mr. Dan'el. There was a barn on the premises that had been outfitted with the proper electrical work and turned into a sort of club house for this sort of thing. You could easily fit close to 200 people in this thing, if that was your choice. There were tables that were being set up and decorations that had been going up in the days prior. They had completely renovated that old barn. It was a pretty nice venue now actually. At some point over the years they had even built a stage for live bands and other entertainment; it wasn't anything fancy, but it was quite nice none the less.
By 9:30 am Hotch woke up and looked around. He panicked. Alecta was nowhere to be seen. Before he freaked himself completely out, he checked outside on the porch; if she wasn't out there, he'd knock on the door to her room and give her the speech about the etiquette of leaving a bed.
As it was he found her, on the porch, curled up, laying in a ball on the floor, shivering. How long she had been out there was anybody's guess. He felt the hand of hers that was sticking out of the ball and it was so cold. He ran back in his shared room and grabbed the comforter from last night; he placed the comforter over her and tucked in the edges a bit and then sat down on the floor of the porch just a couple of feet away (in case she woke up swinging). Now he just waited for her to wake back up.
Within another 15 minutes he got his wish. Alecta's eyes opened first; she could see the river just beyond the edge of the yard…..that is once she peeked around the edge of the….comforter. But the comforter was on the….Oh shit! With that thought in her head she began to slowly sit up, not looking directly at Hotch yet, worried about if he'd be angry or not.
"What are you doing out here, Lex?"
His voice was barely louder than a whisper, realizing she was still just waking up, trying to shake the cobwebs out of her head.
"Nightmare; around….I don't know, maybe 8 or so. I….it made me feel….it…I came out here to get some air and fell back asleep."
"You're gonna catch your death out here like this, I don't care if it's the summer or not."
"Oh God, now you're starting to sound like my mother. Do I have to keep you two separated? Should Rossi be jealous?"
"What was the nightmare about?"
"It was nothing. I'm starving." Alecta got up, wrapping the comforter around her shoulders and walking/stumbling back inside the house towards the top of the stairs and down them, into the kitchen. She sat down at the table and looked at her breakfast and was glad it was simple. After last night she wasn't quite sure how much she should try keeping down; it was just a bagel with some cream cheese…one of her favorite food groups. She washed it back with a little orange juice, and then grabbed a homemade oatmeal cookie.
After grabbing her cookie she headed back to the stairs, still wrapped in her blanket, nibbling on her cookie; she went up to her room and began to change into her swimsuit.
When she left, Hotch looked around the room and noticed Rossi looking directly at him with a smirk that could have lit up midnight. Hotch just shook his head and ran his hands over his face. He knew what he had to do to head Rossi off at the pass.
"Kevin we need to talk."
Kevin followed Hotch out to the study down the hall. There Hotch informed him of the sleeping arrangements that happened the night before.
"You can take another shot at my jaw if that's what you want. But I wanted to be the one to come and tell you before things went too far and someone else told you about it and the story got blown way out of proportion."
"I'm not going to hit you again. It wouldn't do any good. Us fighting over something, anything, would just stress her out more. That's not a good idea under the best of circumstances. And right now, she's pregnant, and in the same zip code as her father…she has enough to worry about. Besides, I figure I'd let her make her own decisions about who she intends to stay with…if she'd ever come back to me, or if she'd go to someone else…It's really up to her. I'll be honest; I'd love nothing better than to take her back. In a perfect world that would be my solution to all of my problems. But, she's right. The day she left all those years ago, it hurt like hell. And I haven't handled it well over the years. She may have left for her own reasons, but I never made her feel like she had the option to come back. Through my treatment of the situation, I made her feel like she was totally worthless. That's my fault. I have to let her choose now what path is the right one for her. With the exception of Fletcher she's done alright on her own.
But, understand this. If you ever do her dirty, I am just a phone call away. And my aim is even better than yours." With that, Kevin smiled kindly at Hotch and walked away.
So that was over and done with; and Hotch had managed to keep all of his teeth; a good day so far.
The rest of the stragglers began to get changed into their swim suits.
Rachel was in a bikini in a killer shade of red. Of course she looked as good as any super model; good genes.
Garcia was in a great tankini that had a Moroccan sort of pattern with bright teal and copper colors (among others in it). She looked fabulous in it of course. And it went without saying that Derek's eyes were on her like a magnet once he saw her in it. It wouldn't take a profiler to know what was on his mind; taking the bathing suit off. Yep, when it came to Penelope, you could read Morgan like a book.
Emily had on a red bikini that looked great on her, contrasting nicely with her hair and eyes. Did the woman ever look bad in anything?
JJ was in a bright blue bikini, it brought out the blue in her eyes. Barbie.
Of course the men had on their swim trunks. You almost needed a mop and bucket once Garcia saw Derek coming down dressed in his, which were a very nice blue as well. Turnabout was fair play apparently.
Emily couldn't resist, 'Pen, you're drooling there sweetie."
"Hush, you're just jealous that my man is H-O-T and here."
Emily just winked at her. And Garcia gave Derek a sheepish grin; he gave her a wolfish one back, which caused her face to blush nearly crimson.
Rossi laughed at the two, it was definitely on later; hopefully he had remembered to pack his earplugs.
Rossi himself was where a pair of black swim trunks; old fuddy duddy.
Hotch was in a pair of coppery orange ones; when he and Jack had gone looking for some trunks before the trip, Jack had made the decision that his dad ought to have at least one thing in his wardrobe that wasn't a black suit.
Will was wearing a pair of red trunks, and Henry had a little pair that was similar to his daddy.
Jack was wearing a pair that had a wild Hawaiian print; he was a rambunctious little guy, he had to have color or die. Everyone joked that he was a bit like Garcia that way.
Kevin had on some trunks that were brown with white piping.
The three little girls had on their little swim suits; they were wearing one pieces.
Sofie, of course, ever the drama queen, had on a screaming red suit. If she got any more like her mother, it would be frightening.
Emma was wearing a great little purple and white suit that seemed to fit her quieter personality just right; she loved it so much. It had a design of a small bunch of white and green daisies on the front.
Jazzy was in a suit that combined pink and orange color blocks; she loved the bright colors and she and Emma were talking to each other about the colors in their suits and how much they liked them.
Sasha and Eva had on matching bikinis; they were a vibrant green, sort of a shamrock green. It was nearly the color of their eyes. And with their blonde hair, it was really lovely.
Oleg was wearing a pair of trunks that had a green and gold grid pattern that would make you think of one of the domes of St. Basil's Cathedral in Russia.
Finally, Alecta comes down. Hotch had been about to walk down the hall to the back door to go out to the pool when he saw her coming down the stairs. He tripped over the leg of the console table that sat against the wall opposite the stair case, nearly knocking it over in the process. She was in a bikini. Nobody had ever seen her wear so very little clothing, even the women were stunned. Instead of being a normal styled bikini like Emily's or JJ's, Alecta's was more of a sportier style. The top was built more like a tank top with wider straps and it gave more coverage across the girls; although that didn't really stop her cleavage, no sir. The bottoms were boy-cut style to give more coverage across her back side. Even though there may have been slightly more material in hers as compared to Em or JJ, it still showed off her figure to a T. And the pattern was a funky retro sort of floral print in teal and brown and white, it all just fit together so very well.
When she heard Hotch stumble over the hall table, Alecta gave a short chuckle as she finished making her way to the bottom of the stairs. She had her teal colored terry cloth cover up thrown over her arm.
She walked right past Hotch smiling, 'What's wrong boss man? Did the mean old table jump out and bite you? Bad table, tsk tsk tsk."
With that she continued on her way to the pool, the three little girls trotting down behind her.
"Hey honey, what kept you so long? Momma has wanted that table moved for ages."
"Chaz called. She'll be here with 2 a little later; I told her to come on to the back, that we would be in the pool." Alecta kept walking, running her fingers through her hair, tossing it over her shoulder as if it was every day's business that she made men trip over furniture.
Mrs. King came down stairs laughing at Kevin's comment, 'Leave the man alone. The poor guy may have coordination issues."
Mrs. King, Rachel as Rossi had become accustomed to calling her, came downstairs in a one piece that had a little more coverage around the hip area. It was in hues of blues and greens; it looked really good on her with her still blonde hair and blue eyes.
Mrs. 'Ouisa had on one that was in shades of blues and purples; upon the two women seeing each other they started laughing and pointing at each other.
Rossi, Hotch, and Mr. Dan'el all started laughing as they made their way to the pool.
Once outside, Alecta took off and climbed up the ladder to the high dive platform they had put in; it was a long one. She began running and then did a cartwheel into a series of back handsprings and, as she got to the edge of the platform she rotated on one hand before going over. Once over the edge she did a nose dive into the deep end.
"Ever the show off." Kevin shook his head and did a cannonball into the deep end. The others seemed to mosey into the pool at their own pace, with the exception of Sofie and Emma. Both of them began racing up the ladder to the high dive like their mother. Without a bit of trepidation like most tots would have, they each did their own little dives off of the platform, joining their mother on the bottom. From above the surface everybody could see the little girls and Alecta playing around with something on the bottom; it looked like rings that were on the bottom…the kind you would toss down there to just have to turn around and go get them. In a minute or so the three of them came back up. The two little girls squealing with delight about the game of fetch they were going to play with Jazzy. Alecta dove back under the water and was swimming up to the shallow end, the little girls were following her above the surface.
As soon as Alecta had gotten to a point where her feet would touch bottom, she came up. The water was deep enough that barely more than her shoulders stuck out of the water and she had to flip her hair over so she could see.
"Do I still have it?" she asked look towards Kevin but throwing Hotch a wicked wink as she went; apparently it went unnoticed by everyone else.
"Seriously, you have to ask that?"
"Eh. So are ya grilling pops?"
"Yes, I'll fire it up in a bit. Don't worry."
The afternoon was quite fun. Chaz had shown up with her little girl, 2, for a bit around 12:30-1:00. Around the same time, Esteban and Maria had shown up with their four kids; Isidro, Yesenia, Isias, and Erica. And shortly thereafter, Victor and Zoe brought Niko. Yesenia was about 5, so she was very close in age to Jazzy, 2, Sofie, Emma, and Niko; and yet she was also close in age between Jack and Henry. Even Erica and Isias hung out with the nine of them; they were closer in age to them than they were to the older kids, Sasha, Eva, and Oleg.
At some point in the afternoon they were playing games in the yard as well as swimming. They were going to play a bit of volley ball. It came time for Alecta to serve the ball. Derek being Derek was taunting her about being able to walk under the net without ducking, trying to throw her off a little bit.
Giving Derek a hairy eyeball, Alecta tossed the ball in the air and took one hell of a swing at it as she leapt into the air, sending it sailing. Derek had to duck to try to reach it, at which he failed. Upon settling back into her usual stance she noticed Hotch watching her like a hawk. After a few more minutes of playing, Alecta ducked out of the game, Chaz taking her spot.
"So, boss man, how's it going? Enjoying the day so far?"
"Yes, quite a bit. What are you trying to pull?"
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
"You've got me walking into doors and furniture. What are you doing?"
"You kissed me. You are the one that put it out there that you were into me…."
"And you are the one that has made it perfectly clear that you weren't ready for anything serious. If I'm not mistaken, you ran in the completely opposite direction; I'm surprised you weren't screaming for the villagers to take up the pitchforks and torches. And here you are trying to push my buttons. What game is this?"
Leaning in, almost kissing him back in return for the one he gave her, but not quite, 'Well boss man, you're the master profiler, figure it out."
With that she jumped up and made her way back into the pool, this time walking down the steps into the water; purposely. She was making him watch her walk away, giving him something to think about. Once she got back into the water, just about waist deep, the ends of her hair floating in the water around her, she turned around and looked back over her shoulder at him and smirked.
By 5pm the pool party was starting to wind down a little bit. The smaller kids were being ushered in to the house to get baths, and rest for a bit before they went to the party.
Alecta finally got her shower, and washed the chlorine water out of her hair. She rolled her hair towel up and wrapped it around her hair a bit and dragged it out to the end and twisted her hair up in it to help wring out the excess water. She went back to her room and fell onto the bed, covering up with the sheet and a light blanket. She still felt like she was in the water floating around, it was kind of a fun feeling; and she was happy that the baby cooties had stayed away long enough for her to enjoy the afternoon. She slept hard during her little nap. She had a lot to think about…quite a lot.
There was a knock at her door about an hour later. Alecta was sleeping so hard that the person who knocked at the door had to come in to wake her up. Hotch reached over and shook her by the shoulder; Alecta sat up suddenly, her fists balled up, and ready to swing on whoever had placed their hands on her.
"Alecta, it's me! Wake up. It's Hotch."
Sitting up a little more correctly, coming out of her daze, she seemed to focus on Hotch's voice and snap out of it. He brushed the errant strands of hair out of her eyes. Once he was able to see her face, he saw that she had been in the middle of a nightmare when he woke her up.
"You have the best timing ever." She jumped out of bed, not willing to discuss it further, saying that she had to get dressed and ready for the party. With that she shoved Hotch out of the room, shutting and locking the door. But as she did this she suddenly had a quick thought about the look on his face as she pushed him into the hall way.
Alecta unlocked and opened the bedroom door, causing Hotch to look up from his task of walking away, "Thank you," she mumbled quickly and quietly, but looking into his eyes so that he knew for sure that she had meant it. Hotch nodded and walked away, going down stairs, and eventually making his way out of the house following Victor and Mr. Daniel and the others over down to the barn. The kids were running and playing the whole way there as usual. The women were still back at the house getting ready for the party.
Alecta took out the outfit that she had planned to wear for the party. It was a pair of busted old jeans that were so faded, and they had holes in all the right places. It looked like they were held together with a lick and a promise. She also put on a bright green camisole top that was nearly the same shade of green as the bathing suits that Sasha and Eva had worn. With her recent sun exposure and slight tanning effect, coupled with her dark hair and eyes, she looked hot in this color. She combed out her hair and pulled the few strands along the top and sides back and secured them with a little elastic that rested low down her back to keep her hair mostly out of her eyes. She didn't bother putting make-up on at all. It would have been a waste of time. She would merely sweat it off later at the party, if not during the walk over there…damned southern humidity. She did bring a light sweater with her. Humidity or not, sometimes it still got a little bit chilly at night; and besides, she never knew when she may start to feel a little to exposed and need to put it on to calm herself down.
Alecta left the house with her momma and her daughter and Mrs. 'Ouisa in toe, as well as Chaz and Penelope. Chaz had promised Kevin to keep an eye on Alecta as they made their way. Pen had been worried about if the outfit she had picked to wear that night was good enough. Garcia, who was back to being blonde the last few weeks, was wearing a shimmery yet smoky shade of blue silky top. It had wide, tank style straps. And was somewhat low cut, and gathered under the bustline. The neckline and 'sleeves' were lined with black lace, and the neck line gave a faux bias line, almost making the top seem like a wrap style, with the black lace going all the way down and continuing around the hem. It showed off the girls just right. Derek was a dead man. And she was wearing a pair of black slacks that looked nearly as fabulous on her as the top did. And shoes that matched her top, with no heel; this was odd for her, but even she had a slightly practical side…sometimes. Her hair was swept up in a bit of a bun with some curls falling out of the end of the bun and swinging freely.
"Did you see his reaction to you in your swimsuit? This will do just fine. Trust me." Alecta had told her to help her calm down a bit. She and Garcia were actually walking arm and arm to the party, chatting, trying to keep each other's nerves from acting up.
Upon arriving at the party, they saw that it was pretty much in full swing. The women jumped in getting their drinks and trading conversation with the other party goers. Alecta danced with so many people she had begun to lose count. There had been two guys that jumped up and were dancing with her that she had known for a long time, Ben and Nate. A song that the three of them had liked forever had come on; of all things to play it was a hip-hop song actually. The three of them began popping and locking just as if they were picking up where they left off. Everybody thought they were nuts, as usual. But it got a good bit of applause when they were finished; laughing at each other over the whole thing.
Soon, Alecta was sitting at a table with Kevin and Hotch and a few others, having a drink and taking a rest when Mr. Dan'el came up and sat down next to her. Alecta got up and sat on his lap crossways, putting her arms around his neck and giving him a good squeeze.
"Are you enjoying your party Pops?"
"I am. I really am. I'm so glad you came." He rested his head on her shoulder a bit and she stroked his hair, like she would her son, Oleg's. "But, you know what would make this a really great party for me?"
"Do tell old man."
He drew back and looked her in the eye.
"No. I can't…"
"I would love it if you would sing. I even had your guitar tuned."
"No. I haven't played in years. Not since…."
"Since when Lex?" Kevin chimed in.
"Not since….I don't know if I remember how."
"You wouldn't deny an old man the only thing he's asked for on his birthday now would you?"
Looking up at the ceiling of the barn, Alecta knew she'd been beaten. She truly didn't want to be up on that freaking stage in front of God and everybody. Nobody on the team knew that she had any clue how to play an instrument. And they had no idea that she could sing or had any particular talent outside of her chosen career at all. She hadn't played or sang since that one fight that she had gotten into years ago, with Fletcher. It was when she was pregnant with her second son….before she became pregnant with Sofie and Emma. She had been playing the guitar that she had at the house. The baby had been rowdy in her belly all day, she was tired and worn out from trying to deal with that, and it seemed that playing the guitar had gotten him to quiet down in there. And she hadn't been playing more than 10 minutes before Fletcher came home from being out at the store. He flew into a rage at her and beat her so bad. She was 7 months pregnant. She went into early labor from the beating; she had to call an ambulance to come and take her to the hospital, Fletcher turned around and left her after the beating. In the hospital, the baby boy was delivered; he didn't make it, he was born dead. He had received head wounds and other injuries of his very own from the beating. Alecta never sang or played anything after that. She couldn't bring herself to do it. Every time the thought crossed her mind, she would think about how that had gotten her baby boy killed and she would talk herself out of it.
Looking at Mr. Dan'el, she knew she couldn't deny him his birthday wish, there was no way.
"Yes. I'll do it." With that she pasted a happy face on and asked Mr. Dan'el to get the guitar for her. It was one that he had taught her how to play years ago. It was one of the things they had bonded over and it helped her accept him in her life faster than she might have otherwise. When she saw it she got a little teary eyed; but she sucked it up and took it from him and tossed the strap around her shoulder.
Mr. Dan'el went up and stood in front of the mic and made the announcement that she would be performing.
Walking up to the stage, Alecta took a deep breath and begged God to just get her through this without freaking out too much.
Hotch saw the emotions playing on her face, and he knew that whatever she said next was going to be something important; one way or the other it would be very important.
POST AN: Holy crap! That was a long chapter. What in the world….
Ok the blue swim trunks that Morgan is wearing in the story are based on the infamous 'blue shorts' pic that has made a few laps around FB lately…if you want to know about that, hit me up there or through a pm, whatever, I can show it to you. Virginia….lol.
Next chapter should cover what happens at the party and some of what happens after that.
Wow, such a long chapter; it just kept going, there didn't seem to be a decent place to cut it off, not as far as I could tell anyway.
Per the usual; let me know what you think, good or bad. Later peeps.