Safe now ( Emily prentiss )

A helping hand

JJ hadn't called Elle in a while but she knew Elle looked forward to their calls. "Hey Elle."  "JJ! Haven't heard from you, everything okay?"
"Yea, everything's fine. How are you?"  "Job's been keeping me busy. I'm thinking bout taking next week off. Maybe come visit you, if that's okay with you and Emily."  "Emily and I would love that but..." she trailed, trying to figure out how to mention Addie. "It's okay if not JJ, I know Spence will wanna see me, rattle of some facts and statistics about your last case," Elle shrugged, despite JJ not being able to see it.
"No, we definitely want to see you, it's just. We're looking after Addie." She paused. "Umm, Jj, you'll have to give me more than that. Is Addie a neighbour's cat or something?"
"No...Addie is a child - a teen really. That's why I called you actually. Emily and I are fostering her and she...she was held captive and... I thought you may be able to talk to her? I know you work with a lot of sexual assault victims. You don't have to, of course. Just thought it might help her, you know, with the nightmares, to talk to someone that's not me or Emily."  Elle thought for a moment, she didn't usually work with children but she was teen herself once, how hard could it be? "How old is she?"  "Fourteen."  Elle was silent. "Yeah, I'll talk to her. But, JJ, if she doesn't want to talk me I can't do anything to make her."  "I know. Anyway, maybe we could all go for dinner? Me, you, Spence, I'll invite Pen too."
"Yeah, JJ. That would be great. I've got to go but talk soon, yeah?"  "Yea, bye Elle!"

Jj walked into the living room, happy to tell Emily Elle would be coming. "Hey Em, my friend said she can come by next week!"
Emily nodded and then put her finger to her lip, motioning for Jj to quiet down. Jj walked closer to the two and furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at Addie. The small girl was frozen again, eyes fixed to the wall.

When Addie finally blinked, Emily and Jj raised their voices slightly ( alerting Addie of their presence ). "Hey, Addie, you with us?" Emily spoke in a hushed tone. "Mhm." Emily noticed the girl's delayed reply and noted that she wasn't fully grounded in her surroundings. A loud ringtone sounded and JJ walked out. Emily, assuming it was Hotch on the phone, decided to ask Addie if she wanted to play a game. "Addie, have you ever played Mario Kart?" She rummaged through the games she had, her eyes sparkling when she found it. Addie shook her head - moving around a lot meant she didn't have that many possessions. "I always play as Bowser. Jj plays as Princess Peach. Do you want to play?" The brunette began setting up the game. "I don't know how."  "I'll teach you, it's pretty simple." She showed Addie the buttons and what they did;It took Addie a few minutes,to adapt the way she held the controller to consider her cast, however, not long after she could comfortably hold the controller and press all the buttons. "We'll start off slow with an easy map, okay? First we pick our characters and then our karts," Emily said excitedly. Addie chose Daisy and picked a small kart. It took her a few games to figure out how to play but after that she enjoyed the game. "You're good at this Addie," Emily laughed as she almost lost to Addie. Addie smiled and happily asked - using less than three words - to play again.

When Jj walked back in she motioned for Emily to join her, "Hotch wants to speak to you." Emily saw the girl's eyes widen as she got up. "I'll be back in a minute. Promise." Emily took the phone from Jj and in turn gave Jj the controller. "You want to keep playing?" Addie nodded and pointed to the character. "Yeah, I'll change to Princess Peach now."

They played until the sun set and the room was coloured a warm orange. "Are you not hungry?" Jj questioned the small girl, who was moving food around on her plate but making no attempt of eating it. Addie merely shook her head. "Are you feeling alright? Have you got a temperature? We have your medicine if you need some." Jj said, the concern in her voice practically palpable. Emily, sitting next to the girl, reached over and placed the back of her hand on Addie's forehead. Addie tried not to flinch away as Emily felt her temperature. "Sorry...You do feel a little warm Addie." Emily spoke and nodded to Jj. After eating dinner, they decided to have an early night and go to bed. "Addie come have some medicine before bed," Emily told her whilst getting it out of the cabinet. Slowly, Addie walked over. "I'm fine." She whispered. "It'll help." Addie swallowed it reluctantly, the viscous, tangy liquid inching down her throat. "Let's get ready for bed, yea?" Emily said, trying to distract the girl.

Addie felt tired immediately and in contrast to the other recent nights, she knew ,when she laid down, that sleep would come to her quickly, hopefully, leaving her with good dreams.

"I think it would be good if we learn sign language - Addie too, of course. She seems to take comfort in not speaking." Emily said. "Or maybe it's that she get to chose, you know, she's in charge of when she speaks and who she speak too."
"I think that's a good idea. It would help us communicate throughout the day. There are probably some online resources and stuff." Jj replied. Emily reached over and kissing Jj's head. They both said goodnight and drifted to sleep.

The next few days went smoothly. Emily and Jj discussing future plans and Addie playing a lot of Mario Kart. This morning, Addie - having had no nightmares  - was quietly eating her breakfast as Jj watched her. "So, Addie, I wondering if you would want to meet to my friend?" Jj was figuring how to tell Addie about Elle without frightening the girl into dissociating. "Penelope? The one who sent me the gift basket? I like her." The small brunette replied, sipping her drink. "No, not Penelope," Jj noticed the instant change in her mood, "you can meet Penelope soon though. She's super excited to meet you!" Jj watched the girl intently. "Her name is Elle... she works... she use to work with me. She's pretty cool, a lot like Emily. She's coming around in the next few hours. You don't have to meet her if you don't want to... I just thought it would be nice to meet some of my friends." Jj understood that was a lot to comprehend for the girl and waited a few minutes. "Elle..." Addie tasted the name out on her tongue. "Is she nice?" "Very. Unless you're mean." "Okay." Addie nodded, taking a bite of her toast. Jj was beaming inside: Addie had agreed! Emily walked in a few seconds later, groggily pouring herself some coffee and saying good morning.

The following hours dragged as they waited for the arrival of Elle. This would be Emily's first time meeting her; Jj had talked about her often though, so she thought she already knew some things about her. Addie, upon agreeing to meet Elle, had been stuck by Emily's side all day, mirroring her tasks and helping out. It didn't go unnoticed by either of the older woman.
Despite the knock at the door being expected they all jumped at the sudden noise. Eagerly, Jj rose from her seat and opened the door, embracing Elle in a fierce hug. "I missed you too." The woman said. Emily and Addie stood hidden behind the blonde until Jj introduced them. "Elle, this is Emily and Addie," she tilted her head in each of their direction. "It's nice to meet you, Jen's said a lot about you." Emily smiled, her voice taking on the formal tone she would use at her mother's work events. Elle smiled back and spotted Addie. "You must be Addie," she knew better than to extend her hand offer a hug, she simply waited for a signal from Addie on what to do. When Addie didn't say anything, she turned her attention back to Jj who was welcoming her in.

Authors note
The next chapter should be longer, I just wanted to post something since I haven't in a few days. The next chapter may - or may not - include jealous emily...
I also wanna try to pace the chapters better as time (so far) has worked strange in chapters.