Safe now ( Emily prentiss )

January: a new 'home'

14 year old Ariadne - Addie - often moved houses. According to her strict father his work required changing states or even countries sometimes; he tried to put of answering questions that required anymore then a simple one word answer. Today she found herself in front of the door to a two bedroom, city apartment. She waited patiently for her father to come over with the key, shouting out to him wasn't an option. As she stood there, silently, she noticed two woman enter the apartment next door. The first had short dark hair which curled slightly and bangs just above her eyebrows. The other, in contrast, had short blonde hair and striking blue eyes. They smiled at Addie before entering the adjacent room. Just then she heard a loud bang. Turning her head she saw her father had dropped a large box he'd been holding tightly onto. She scrambled to pick everything up: she didn't need her father in a bad mood.

The day crept along slowly while Addie started the "homework" her father had given her to keep busy. It was mostly language translations and maths equation but it helped keep the boredom away. "I'm going out for a few hours. I'll bring back food and groceries when I come back," her father said as he huffed on a cigarette. Holding back a cough, she nodded and carried on with her work.

A few hours later and he still hadn't come back. Addie walked into her new "bedroom", the mattress on the floor was stiff and the blanket smelt musty but she could barely keep her eyelids open as she sank down into it. The city atmosphere was alien to her: the cars beeping, people talking, shops working. She glanced at her almost broken watch - it was too early to go to sleep - maybe her father would understand the exhaustion she felt after the long day, hopefully.

"Ariadne." Her father shouted, his loud footsteps echoing through the hallway. Addie bolted awake. Glancing at her watch, she stood up and exited her bedroom. "Yes," she said, violently willing her hair to go back to normal after sleeping on it. "Yes, father," she said again after hearing no reply. She walked down the hallway without recognising the sound of two, not one, voices. Her father had company. Rule number 1: always look presentable. Her feet had already taken her towards the noise before she had time to turn back around. Her father watched her, trying to hide his face of disgust for the sake of his new...business partner? "This, Michael, is my daughter. Ariadne, do sit down. We were just talking about the city." Addie hesitated before taking a seat at the table. "So, how are you finding the city so far," Michael spoke, his voice loud and official sounding. "Well, I've only been here for a day," she glimpsed at her father to gauge his reaction, "it's good," she said quietly looking down. "That's good to hear. Anyway I should be going now. It was nice to meet you Ariadne." He left, Addie and her father at the table. She fidgeted in her seat as she waited for her father to say something. "You were asleep." She nodded, still looking down. "You know rule number one." She nodded again. He stood ,imposingly, in front of her. The slap hit her from the left. Her cheek flooding with pain as she held back tears. "I'm sorry," Addie sniffled. "Go to your room."

Addie woke early the next day: the moving van had her personal stuff. She bounced on the balls of her feet as she watched the truck arrive. "Ariadne, stand still." She tried her best as the truck stopped. Immediately, she bounded over to get a box labelled with her name. She climbed up the stairs, careful not to drop anything. One box down, three to go. Her father was carrying his own boxes up and down the stairs. Minutes later and only one box remained. This box was the biggest and had mostly photo frames and old pictures and drawings she had done of various cities and friends. Addie had almost made it to the top when she missed a step by an inch. At once, she dropped the box, her body attempting to save only herself. Hearing the commotion, the two neighbours that were also coming up the stairs rushed to help her. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she repeated (stuttering only slightly) whilst shaking her head rapidly and hurrying to pick everything up.
Her breath became staggered. "Hey, sweetie, it's alright," the kind brunette woman said to her as her friend helped pick out the stuff Addie had dropped. Five seconds later, her father stood watching her. He creased his eyebrows, watching her make a fool out of her - him - yet again. He latched onto her shoulder, "I'm sorry about my daughter. You can be so clumsy, can't you Ariadne," steering her away. The couple shared a quizzical look but, deciding to ignore it, went into their apartment.

The door slammed shut behind them. "I'm so," her voice was cut off by the sickening thwack of his fist hitting her face. She barely had time to register it before her father pushed her into bookshelf, then the wall. After a few more punches had been thrown, he sat down, eyebrows furrowing as he refused to look at her. A knock broke the silence. When her father made no visual attempt to answer it, she walked down the hallway. Quickly glancing at her self through the mirror, Addie made sure to cover any scrapes, cuts and/or bruises. She smiled at herself in the mirror, giving her best efforts of composing herself. "Hello," Addie whispered. "Hi, sweetie, we just came to check if everything's ok? We heard some noises." It was the blonde that had spoken. She lowered her voice when noticing the obvious emotion on the small girls face, "sweetie, are you sure everything's alright." Her father had chosen that moment to appear, his face stoic as ever. He put a - what could look like to anyone except a profiler - a 'reassuring' hand on her shoulder. "Everything is fine. You probably just heard Ariadne tripping again. I didn't seem to catch either of your names when we spoke before," her father spoke. Surprised at the sudden change of topic the brunette stepped in front, "I'm Emily. And this is Jennifer - JJ," she said, as Jj glanced at Addie. "Well, Emily and JJ," he said, pointedly using their names, "I'm sorry for any disturbances she's caused you." He said shutting the door. "Something seemed... off about them," JJ said turning to her girlfriend. Nodding her head, "We need to get the girl alone," Emily agreed.

The next morning, Addie found she had the house to herself. A note with the words 'be home at 5, food in fridge' sat at the kitchen side. Her body ached from yesterday; bruises forming on her skin. Deciding to take a shower, she looked through her wardrobe to see if she had anything to wear. After her shower, she dressed and ate and finished her work from the previous days. With three hours left till her father got back she decided she would walk around the block.

Staring out the window, Emily noticed the girl - Ariadne - was leaving. Without her dad. Without words the two woman quickly got on their shoes and coats. Following the small girl down the pathway to the park.

"It's a bit cold to be going out without a coat. Isn't it ?" Emily stated, matching her pace to Addies. JJ stood the other side of Emily, not wanting to overwhelm the girl. "Hi," Addie said, avoiding eye contact. "Hey," Emily tried to make sense of the girl in next to her. They stopped at a bench. The woman sat down and looked at the girl intently. Addie sat too. Jj's piercing blue eyes met Addies, "do you wanna tell us what happened yesterday...after you dropped the box," she said softly. Addie's gaze dropped to the floor. "Hey, it's ok. We just want to help," she carried on, "sweetie we can't help if you don't tell us." Addie thought for a moment. She was about to answer, when she realised her shirt had fallen down a bit to show her bruised collar bone. Jj looked away, covering up her expression as best as she could. Emily scooted closer to the girl. In return Addie flinched away, "I'm sorry." She shut her mouth immediately before slowly looking up at Emily. Emily's heart broke for this young girl. "Did he... Has he been hurting you?" She whispered to the girl, in an effort to make her more comfortable: yelling would do no good. Addie would not let the tears escape her eyes. She shivered. Sensing the girl wasn't about to speak, Emily tried again, "do you want to talk about it? Its ok if not...we can just sit here for a while if you want, keep you company. Here, how about this," she took out a piece of paper and pen from her pocket, "this," she frantically wrote down a scribble of numbers, "is my phone number. Any time, night or day, you can call me - us. Please." She looked at Addie, her eyes sparkling with hope. "Ariadne - that's your name right, it's what your dad introduced you as - we can help you," JJ smiled. It was eight long seconds before Addie replied, "Addie. My name is Addie." Emily and JJ smiled at each other at the small break through they had made.