In Her Eyes - A Criminal Minds Fiction

Chapter 20: Just Hug Me

The next day, Tuesday, Emily woke up at 10:36am and noticed Isabella had a tight grip on her shirt.
She was feeling so bad and worthless because there was nothing she could do to make those horrible dreams go away.
She grabbed Isabella's book at the nightstand and began reading since she didn't want to wake the girl up. It was 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower'. Emily thought the title was interesting and read a couple of pages before Isabella woke up.

"What are doing?" Bella asked super sleepy.

"Oh good morning" Emily said putting the book back on the nightstand.

"Hi" Bella said still a bit sleepy.

"I was just reading a bit" Emily said. Isabella noticed she was holding her mother's shirt. She felt embarrassed and let go. Emily pulled Bella into a hug.
"I'm going to make breakfast, okay? Do you want pancakes or cereal?" Emily said.

"Cereal is fine" Isabella said closing her eyes again.

"Alright. I'll bring it up here" Emily said and gave Bella a kiss on the cheek.
Isabella just stayed there lying in bed thinking about how she just wanted to go back to sleep.
She was feeling tired all the time now and it was like it was getting worse because she couldn't get her dad out of her mind.

.

It wasn't long till Emily went back upstairs with a cup of coffee and Bella's cereal.
"Hey. Here" she said walking over to Bella. Isabella sat up and took the bowl full of cheerios.
"Eat everything, okay?" Emily said firmly but nicely. Isabella nodded as Emily walked to the other side to sit.

It was hard but she did manage to eat everything. She took quite a while so Emily was reading the book again.
"I'm done" she said as she put the bowl in the nightstand and laid back down.

Emily put the book down and hugged Bella.
"Good job" she said smiling and they just stayed there in silence for a while till Emily asked "so... what are our plans for today?"

"Stay in bed all day and sleep" Isabella said.

"Oh no, that's a horrible plan" Emily laughed.

"I don't really feel like going out mom" Bella said.

"What if we stay in bed and watch some tv and later in the afternoon we go out for a little while?" Emily asked knowing that a little was better than nothing.

"Okay" Bella said rolling her eyes and Emily laughed.
The little girl got up and went to the bathroom while Emily turned the tv on and put it on "That 70's Show". She thought the kid could use a little laugh and Isabella liked that show.
They snuggled on the bed for a while and then Emily's phone rang.
While Emily talked on the phone, Isabella sat on the bed, watching TV and texting her best friend, Cameron, about everything that had been happening. She told Cameron that she was scared but she didn't really share much. Cameron said she would try to visit Bella soon and they would talk about all of that. She also said Bella should talk to her mother, because she needed to open up to someone before she exploded. Isabella was still upset, and was feeling pretty overwhelmed, but talking to Cameron helped a little.
And she thought that maybe if she had the guts she could tell Emily everything she was feeling.

Every so often she would watch Emily as she talked on the phone with JJ, noticing small things that her mother was doing that she herself tended to do, like twisting her fingers and biting her lip. She started thinking that maybe her mother knew what she was feeling.

The girl was just feeling too scared to open up because she felt as if it would make everything more real and that scared her so much.

When Emily finally hung up the phone, she looked over to the child to find her staring back at her as if in a daze.
"Hey, you okay?" Emily asked, breaking Bella from her trance.