Jeremy and Marley took the same plane as everyone else to Toronto and from there they took a plane to Seattle. Bella kissed her niece and nephew goodbye and hugged her brother tight.
"I'll see you soon" Jeremy told her.
The flight to D.C. was nice. Bella sat between Emily and Derek and slept the whole way there. When they landed they got their bags and went to the car. Before heading home they stopped at the pet hotel to get Lulu and Sergio, the dog was super excited to see her family again. Once they arrived home Bella picked up Sergio and then put some food for her pets. She had missed them a lot.
"Shower and then bed, young lady" Emily told the girl.
Bella went and showered and then put her presents away. She got a lot of books, legos and clothes. She went to bed and soon after Emily walked in to tuck her in.
"I can't believe you're 10 now" Emily said and Bella smiled. "How does it feel being double digits?" Emily asked sitting on the bed.
"It feels exactly the same, mom" Bella said and Emily laughed.
"Good to now because you're my little girl. Nothing will ever change that" Emily smiled.
"Okay" Bella smiled.
"Oh God, I can't believe I'll have a teenager in three years" Emily said widening her eyes and Bella laughed.
"I'll still be your little girl. Don't worry" Bella said.
"You sure will" Emily smiled and placed a soft kiss on the girl's cheek. "Sleep tight. I love you"
"I love you too" Bella said and turned to the side. Emily went to her bedroom and found Morgan in bed already.
"Is she alright?" Derek asked worried because Emily took a while at Bella's bedroom.
"Yeah. She's okay" Prentiss smiled and laid next to him.
They were both so exhausted that they soon fell asleep.
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The next morning everyone woke up a bit late so they rushed to get ready. Bella ate cereal on the way to school so she wouldn't be so late. When she got there she headed straight to class and it had already started.
The morning went great for the girl and for her parents. Emily and Derek were sure they'd have a case that Monday but they were wrong. So around 3:45 Morgan was waiting outside of the school for Bella. The kid was happy to see him and excited to go hang out with the team. They chilled at the office and headed home around 6. It was just an ordinary day.
The next day, Tuesday, things changed. The team had to leave for a case right when they got to the BAU. Emily texted Bella and the girl just sent her "okay. Be safe". It was a hard case for everybody.
At school Bella had an okay day. During lunch their trip came up in a conversation again.
"You guys were so lucky to get to travel like that" Mazzy said. "My dad would never do that"
"My mom wasn't like that till she met Emily" Chloe said. "And after what happened I think she trusts me to go to the moon with the team" she said and everyone laughed.
"I loved the pictures you posted Chlo" Rose said. "And the twins are soooo cute" she told Bella and everyone smiled agreeing.
"I haven't seen all of them. Where did you posted? At prvdc?" Bella asked. PrvDC was a website for private schools in the D.C. Area where the teachers would post extra homework and school projects and the kids had a page that looked like a Facebook page.
"Yeah. That's the only thing my mom lets me use now. You know... after what happened" Chloe explained. The website was monitored and was very secure and only teachers and students from specific schools had access to it.
"I'm gonna check that out later tonight" Bella said. She was excited to see all the pictures of their trip.
So later that day Bella was at Derek's office using his computer to see the pictures her friends were talking about. Chloe had posted almost every single picture she had taken so Bella decided to post some too. She created a new album called "travels" and posted them there. She posted a few photos of their trip to Disney and some pictures she had from trips with her dad, John, and last but not least she posted 10 pictures of their trip to Canada. Her favorites were one that JJ took when she fell asleep by the fire, when her parents were hugging her; and one that all the kids were sitting in the snow with their ski clothes, smiling proudly.
Almost as soon as she posted she got a notification. She clicked on it and it was from Chloe.
"Can't wait till our next adventure!! Traveling with you is the greatest thing ever" Chloe said on the picture that all the kids were in.
Soon Gavin also posted. "Can't believe my mom didn't let me go :( glad you guys had fun though! And I can't believe you're 10 now. You're finally our age haha"
Bella sent him a ":)"
Soon the kids from her class joined in and everyone was liking her pictures and commenting how cool it was for her to travel with her friends and to celebrate her birthday skiing.
Everyone was super nice till Vanessa logged in.
The girl was studying at another private school that had access to that website and she was raged when she saw all the pictures Chloe and Bella posted. She couldn't believe at how perfect their lives were while her life was a mess. She got so angry and jealous that she opened the picture JJ had taken and started typing at the comment section.
"Everything seems so perfect but this is bullshit. You try to hide but you're a freak and your life is a freak show...." Vanessa started.
In her comment she wrote a bunch of mean things to Bella and also told everyone that wanted to read what had happened to Isabella. Everything Bella had said in the group therapy she wrote down. She commented terrible things on every single picture of that album.
Isabella was sitting in Derek's office looking something up on YouTube when the notifications started popping. In less than a minute she had over 100. She clicked on it and when she saw Vanessa's name she nearly froze. She clicked on it and the website took her to the photo JJ had taken. She scrolled down and her heart started beating really fast. She read the comments and before she could finish she already had tears streaming down her face. She couldn't believe everyone knew about everything now. She got so angry that she pushed the computer screen off the table and it made a huge noise when it fell down. Suddenly Derek and Emily rushed to the door. They had just arrived and were looking for Bella so they could go home.
"What happened?" Derek asked from the door. He looked so worried.
"I ..." Bella tried to speak but she just couldn't.
"What happened? Why are you crying?" Emily asked walking to the girl. Bella took a step back.
"Bella, tell me what's the matter" Emily said more serious now.
"Vanessa is the matter" Bella said and cried even more.
"What did she do this time?" Emily asked. Bella didn't say anything she just cried. Emily grabbed her hand and guided her to the couch. She sat down and pulled Bella to her side. "Tell me what happened?"
"Chloe posted some pictures from our trip at the PrvDC so I posted some too and Vanessa wrote a bunch of things in the comments" Bella said.
"PrvDC? Is it the school's website?" Derek asked.
"Yeah. I posted so my friends could see" Bella said. "I didn't even know she was on there. I never really use that website I just posted because my friends are using"
"Derek, get the computer, let's see what she posted" Emily said and Bella immediately stood up. "No!" The girl said.
"Bella calm down." Emily said holding Bella's hand tight so she wouldn't get to the computer that Morgan was trying to fix at his desk.
"No! I don't want you to read it" Bella said trying to get away from Emily.
"Okay okay. Calm down" Emily said and Bella stopped fighting her off.
Derek sat down on his chair and Bella ran to him and turned the computer away.
"Bella stop it! We need to see what's wrong" Emily said.
"No!" The girl said and suddenly Derek ripped the computer screen from her hands and Emily hugged her tight so Derek could see it. Bella saw it was too late and he was already reading it so she just bursted into tears. Emily picked her up and ran her hand on the girl's back.
Suddenly Garcia and JJ walked in.
"Can you give me a ride home?" Penelope asked and suddenly she saw Bella was in Emily's arms crying. "What happened?" She and JJ asked in unison worried and walked to them.
"Vanessa posted a few things online about Bella" Emily explained.
"Not a few things. Everything" Derek said in disbelief the girl actually did such thing.
"Where?" Penelope asked.
"At that stupid website for private schools." Emily said. She had not yet stopped rubbing circles in her daughter's back.
"Let me see" Garcia said walking to Morgan. Bella was so upset that she didn't even care anymore. She just wanted to disappear.
Penelope took a look at it and said "oh baby I can erase these things in less than a minute"
"But everyone already saw" Bella cried.
Penelope scrolled down and said "come here look at this. There's people defending you"
"No there's not" Bella cried.
"Yes there is. Come see" Penelope said and Emily took Bella there. Prentiss put the girl down and Garcia showed it to her. There was a few kids from Bella's school commenting on Vanessa's post telling her to leave Bella alone and that none of that was her business.
"See? They don't care about what happened. They're your friends" Garcia said.
Bella turned to Emily asking to be picked up again so Emily did just that.
"Just take it off" Bella told Penelope.
"I will" Garcia said and in less than a minute she had wiped Bella's page. "Done" she told them.
"Let's go home" Emily told Bella and the girl rested on her shoulder still crying.
Garcia stood up and turned to Bella.
"Don't go on that website anymore okay? I'll watch it and if she posts anything else I'll erase it"
Bella nodded.
Her face broke everyone's heart. She looked so tired and heartbroken.
Emily and Derek took the child home and that night Bella wanted to stay in the bed with them. They ate dinner, Bella barely touched the food, and then got ready for bed. Emily wrapped her arms around the girl and Bella hid on her chest.
Prentiss had a feeling the next day would be tough.
... and she couldn't be more right.
Bella didn't want to go to school and started crying about it. Emily made her get up and get ready which made the girl get angry at her. When they parked at the school Bella refused to get out but her friends walked to the car to get her because they just knew she'd be upset.
"We're here with you. No one is gonna say anything" Gavin told her and she followed them to the school. She stayed quiet and didn't talk or looked at anyone till lunch time. She stayed in the classroom with Chloe while the others went to get foot. Suddenly three older girls walked in.
"You're Bella, right?" One of them asked and Isabella nodded looking scared.
"Why did you lie to us?" The other asked. "Why did you say it was a tattoo?" she asked and Bella remembered the girl. She'd met her at Gavin's birthday, when her bandaid fell off and everyone could see the clover on her back.
"I didn't want anyone to know" Bella said still looking scared.
"You didn't have to lie" the girl said and Bella looked surprised. "Look... you've been through a lot and it's just not fair that Vanessa is doing this to you. She was always mean and acted like she ruled this school but she's not here anymore and we've got your back" the girl said.
"My name is Jenna. If you need anything just come look for us" the other one said and they left. Bella was perplexed. She was certain everyone would be mean to her now but she was certainly wrong.
The rest of the school went great. Bella noticed how the kids in her classroom were normal with her and no one was talking about her or anything like that so she allowed herself to be fine again and not worry. When Emily picked Bella up that day she was surprised to find a different child from the one she'd dropped off in the morning.
"How was school?" Emily asked holding a smile.
"Fine" Bella said buckling up. "Do you remember those girls from Gavin's birthday? The ones who asked about my back"
"Yeah" Emily said.
"They came to talk to me and they were really nice." Bella said. "I thought everyone would be talking about it but they weren't"
"That's really good huh?"
"Yeah" Bella smiled and Emily smiled back.
"All that fuss this morning for nothing" Emily said.
"I was scared mom, I'm sorry" Bella said.
The rest of the day was fine. Bella told Penelope how school was and she was happy about it. At home she watched a movie with her parents, had pizza for dinner and then went to bed. It sure was a better day than what she'd expected.
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As the weeks went by, Penelope told Emily that Vanessa would post something on Bella's page at least once a day. But every time she did there was someone defending Bella right below it. In the beginning Bella was still a little upset but as time went by she just didn't pay attention to it anymore. Because of it she had made new friends and she saw how a lot of people at her school liked her and cared for her.
That Monday morning was an exciting day. Emily was going out to find a dress for her wedding. She wasn't sure about the whole getting married wearing a white dress thing but Isabella insisted she needed to so she picked the girl up from school early and they went to hunt for a dress with JJ and Penelope.
"Wow" Bella said when Emily came out wearing the first option. "You're getting married" the girl said with glossy eyes which made Emily tear up too and smile big.
After almost 3 hours Emily had found the one. She had to get the length adjusted but otherwise it was perfect.
"I'll take this one" Emily said and everyone cheered. She looked at Bella and the child's smile made her smile even more. "Next week is your turn to pick out a dress" Emily told her.
"Can we eat now? I'm starving?!" Bella said and everyone laughed.
"Let's go feed your hungry tummy and then go home cause I'm exhausted. I've never gotten so tired of looking for a dress in my entire life" Emily said and they smiled.
Bella couldn't be happier that Derek and her mom were getting married. It was the best thing that ever happened in her life.