Chapter 6 -

Emily had her arm draped over Libby as they slept in Emily's large bed. There had been several times in the night that Libby had been woken by her nightmares, but as the sun crept through the gap in the curtains and shone on Emily's face her eyes slowly opened. Blinking a few times Emily yawned as Sergio purred and nuzzled against her face.

"Shh buddy."

Emily smiled as the slender cat continued to purr, turning he started to purr and brushed against Libby's head.

"Sergio!"

Emily whispered quietly to the cat but it was too late, Libby opened her eyes only to be greeted by a loud meow.

"Hello Sergio!"

A light laugh emanated from Libby as the cat snuggled down in between Emily and Libby.

"I am so sorry Libby, he gets a bit needy in the morning until he gets his breakfast."

"I don't mind Emily, he makes me smile."

Emily smiled as she pulled the covers off and got up, pulling on a sweater and sweat pants as Sergio jumped off the bed, meowing loudly in anticipation.

"Come on then Sergio, lets get you something to eat."

Libby yawned and stretched her limbs before she too got out of the bed and followed Emily down the stairs before she sat at the table in the kitchen and watched Emily feed Sergio before she turned back around and smiled at Libby.

"Would you like something to drink?"

"Just water please."

Emily nodded her head and passed Libby a glass of water before she put the coffee machine on.

"Here you go Libby, don't forget your tablets."

Emily placed the tablets perscribed to Libby beside her before she poured herself a mug of coffee and sat down opposite Libby.

"So what would you like for breakfast Libs?"

"The housekeeper used to leave me out fruit and oatmeal."

"Libby you don't have to tell me if you don't want to but I know that things weren't great at home, even before this last week. Your bedroom was a bit bare sweetie, I have more photos of you and drawings that you sent me scattered around the house."

Emily smiled softly as she reached across and put her hands on top of Libby's, the young girl slowly lifted her head up and looked at Emily.

"You and mother are so different Emily. Whenever you and I talked I knew that I could be myself, like I was with my friends at school. But at home it was different, even before this week it felt..."

Libby stopped and dropped her head, Emily stroked her hands with her thumbs as she looked at Libby.

"That reminds me a lot of my own childhood Libs, you can remember the Ambassador and her rules and expectations. There were always certain appearances that she needed to keep up. Your mom coped better than me, I couldn't, maybe wouldn't, conform all of the time!"

Emily grinned and was pleased to see a small smile creep across Libby's face.

"Ok then Libs, as you have probably guessed I am not the greatest in the kitchen but I can whip up some choc chip pancakes! And then after breakfast, seeing as it is a nice dry sunny day, I thought we could go for a walk at the local park."

"Thanks Emily, that sounds great."

Emily winked at Libby as she stood up and started to find the ingredients that Tara had brought them both.

Dave was already sitting at the round table as one by one the others came in and joined him, the mood was quiet and sombre and the experienced agent saw how tired his team looked, knowing that they like him, hadn't slept well. He waited until they were all sat down before he spoke.

"Morning everyone. I know how hard this case is but I still want us to keep it, if you are all in agreement?"

Dave looked around the table as everyone nodded their heads without hesitation.

"So where are we with the financial situation Garcia?"

"Well there are several transactions that I have traces thathave bounced around a lot, but I have traced their origins back to Minsk."

"Ok that links to what Libby told us. Garcia can you start to look at the external hard drive that was in the safe?"

Garcia nodded her head as she brought up a map of New York onto the screen, narrowing down to the area that Libby had identified as to where she was taken to be abused as Dave continued to speak.

"We have found that there are two houses in this area that have links to Belarus. I am going to go and have a meeting with Rebecca, hopefully we can get a search warrant for both houses and also preemptive meeting in case we hit any diplomatic barriers along the way."

Dave took a breath and long sip of his coffee before he turned his attention to Luke and Tyler.

"Can you two go back up to New York and base yourselves up there? Do another search of Neil's work office and then lead on the searches of the houses."

Luke and Tyler nodded their heads, although they were both close to Emily and wanted to stay and support her, they also both knew that their skills were needed elsewhere.

"Tara, JJ are you two ok to speak to Libby again? I wonder if she is up to giving us a more detailed description of the people who attacked her and her parents?"

"Yeah, she is starting to feel safe and is slowly opening up to us."

Tara spoke quietly, she knew that they needed the information but also that it was going to be a tough day for Libby again.

Quietly the team one by one got up and left the round table room, all knowing what they needed to do but JJ followed Tara into her office and sat down on the chair opposite Tara.

"Are you ok Tara?"

JJ frowned as she spoke seeing the tiredness in her friend's eyes.

"Yeah, it's just this is going to be hard on Libby and Emily."

"I know, but at least Libby has started to talk to us, when I first met her I was so worried about her."

Tara nodded her head as she started to dial Emily's number, putting the phone on speaker as they both waited patiently.

Emily smiled as she looked at Libby, the two of them had enjoyed a nice walk round the local park and were now enjoying cake and hot chocolate at the local coffee shop.

"This hot chocolate is so good Emily!"

"Definitely Libby, just don't tell Garcia about this place, her and too much sugar are a bad combination!"

Libby laughed softly, she hadn't spent that much time with the colourful analyst but could definitely see where her Aunt was coming from.

Emily smiled as she looked at Libby, she was about to continue their conversation but her train of thought was interrupted by her cell ringing.

"Sorry Libby it's work."

Libby nodded her head as she turned her attention back to her drink.

"Hello."

"Hi Emily."

"Oh hi Tara."

"Hi Em.

"Hey JJ, is everything ok guys?"

Emily frowned and looked over at Libby but the young girl was concentrating on the large piece of chocolate cake in front of her.

"Umm, we were wondering if Libby was up for another talk? We were hoping that she might be able to give us some detailed descriptions of the men who killed her parents and then men that abused her."

JJ stopped and heard the heavy sigh leave Emily's mouth, JJ looked over at Tara who leaned forward as she spoke.

"I promise we will stop if it becomes too much for her Emily."

"I know Tara, I know you will and I trust you both implicitly, I also know that this needs to happen."

Emily sighed once again but she looked over at Libby and smiled at her niece.

"We'll be there soon, we just need to finish our hot chocolate and cake."

Emily finished the call and placed her cell phone back in her jeans pocket.

"We need to go?"

"In a while Libs. Tara and JJ would like to talk to you again."

Libby nodded her head as she slowly took a bite of cake. Emily reached and put her arm around Libby and kissed her softly on the top of her head, not lnowing what else to say but all she wanted at that moment was to Libby to know that whatever happened she was safe and Emily would be there to protect her.