Bonds of Love

Disclaimer- I do not own Criminal Minds or any of the characters within the show, only this story and my imagination.

A/N- hello readers! Thank you, as always, for the lovely and persistent reviews, follows, and favorites! I apologize for the wait - I got a new job and have been very busy, but yesterday and today were snow days, so no work for me, and plenty of time to work on my stories! Without further chit-chat...here's Chapter Six of 'Bonds of Love'!

It was several hours after the children and agents Rossi and Hotchner had gone to bed that Derek woke up suddenly. He had attempted to get some rest after J.J's nightmare at one o'clock in the morning, and had ended up in a fitful nightmare himself. He jolted up, covered in sweat, with his treacherous heart pounding in terror.

The other children were still sleeping soundly, not that Derek expected anything otherwise. He had learned to keep silent while terrified a long time ago.

It wasn't until after he had checked on J.J, Spencer, and Emily that he realized the uncomfortable wet feeling in his pants. He cursed internally and stood up to find that there was a small puddle of urine soaking the bed underneath where he had been lying.

'Dammit, dammit, dammit!' He thought, kicking the bed frame in anger. It was the same inevitable cycle that had been repeating since he was four years old- the same nightmare and the same bodily reaction, every single time.

The jolt to the bed woke Emily, who sat up quickly, eyes scanning the room for threats and landing on Derek. The expression on his face could only mean one thing- a Code Yellow, as the others had learned to call it long ago.

"It's alright Derek." She attempted to comfort him, but his anger at himself would not dissipate immediately, she knew from experience. So she gently shook Spencer and J.J awake. They weren't happy to be woken up, but when they realized what was going on, their eyes widened and they snapped to attention.

"What do we do for a Code Yellow here, Derek?" J.J asked, unsure of how to get the sheets changed without the agents knowing what was wrong.

Derek thought for a minute. "We don't know where he keeps clean sheets. Maybe we can just spot-clean it?" He asked, a bit of doubt in his voice. "I don't know, but that seems like our best shot."

The younger children agreed. Slowly and quietly, they removed the fitted sheet from the queen size bed, and left the room. Derek crept out first, then Emily, then J.J, and finally Spencer.

They started towards the kitchen sink, being careful not to make a single noise. That is, until a sleepy Spencer bumped into the kitchen cabinet with a moderately loud bang.

His little eyes widened in horror as the older kids shushed him.

Rossi grunted in his sleep, but rolled over with a grumble, never fully waking up. He was a heavy sleeper.

Unlike Aaron, who had heard the crash and woken up immediately. His entire life, from his abusive childhood to his high-risk job, had made him a light sleeper.

He got up and went to check the children's bedroom, which he found empty. He was immediately on guard as he heard whispers in the kitchen. He moved quietly and stepped into the kitchen.

There, he saw four frightened children, clutching a soiled bedsheet as if their lives depended on it, frozen in place like deer in headlights.

Spencer's bottom lip began to wobble as tears fell down his little cheeks. "I'm sorry." He cried, looking at Aaron and then at Derek.

"What's going on, guys? Is everyone alright?" Aaron asked gently.

The children all nodded quickly, but Aaron checked them over visually just the same. They all seemed okay, just frightened. Their pajamas were rumpled with sleep, but not torn. The only thing out of the ordinary was the wet spot on Derek's pajama pants.

That, combined with the smell of the bedsheet, and the anger and shame mixed on Derek's face led Aaron to a quick conclusion...the nine-year-old boy had wet the bed.

The realization dawned on him- Derek had been exhibiting many of the behaviors of child victims of sexual abuse, and one of the symptoms of childhood sexual abuse was bed-wetting.

He cursed internally at the realization- he knew the behaviors were textbook, but he had been hoping against hope that the oldest boy hadn't been sexually abused.

The mere idea of this poor kid having to suffer through that at such a young age caused fury to burn in his heart.

Of course, it was obvious to the children that their current caregiver was angry, and they mistook the anger at Derek's situation and the abuser for anger towards Derek for wetting the bed.

Spencer didn't stop crying, but he bravely stepped in front of Derek. "I-If you wanna hurt Derek, you'll have to hurt me too."

Derek was having none of it- he immediately grabbed Spencer to push him behind him. "I pissed the bed, it's my fault. Punish me." He said boldly, looking Aaron square in the eyes.

Aaron realized that he was considered a threat at the moment. He took a deep breath, and said calmly, "I am not going to hurt any of you. I would never, ever do that. But Derek and I need to talk, alone. Can you all please go to your room in the meantime?"

Emily, J.J, and Spencer looked at Derek with wide eyes.

Derek gave Aaron another long, suspicious look. Aaron stared right back, trying to give the boy the silent message that he wouldn't hurt him.

Derek broke the gaze and nodded at the other kids, motioning towards the bedroom that they were currently occupying.

None of them seemed okay with leaving him alone with Aaron, but after a bit of hesitation Emily took J.J's hand in one of hers and Spencer's hand in her other one, leading them toward the bedroom, despite Spencer's many protests.

When the other children reached the bedroom and closed the door, Aaron took a deep breath and sat down at the kitchen table, motioning for Derek to do the same. The boy refused, and Aaron shrugged to show that he didn't mind.

"Derek, can I tell you a story?" He asked.

It was Derek's turn to shrug noncommittally. "Whatever." He mumbled quietly.

"When I was very young, about four years old like Spencer, my father lost his job. He was very angry about that, and he started to take all of his anger out on me. He punched me, hit me with belts, and threw things...My mother felt like she couldn't help my brother or me, so she stopped trying to help. Sean was a baby, so I took care of him while my father hurt me and my mother ignored everything. She died when I was a little older than you."

Derek was looking directly at him now, with a certain look in his eye...Could it be understanding and sympathy?

Aaron took a deep breath and continued. "The reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to know that even though I don't know exactly what you're feeling, I know what it's like to feel like people are unpredictable. To feel like adults only do bad things, to feel like you have to protect others even if it means getting hurt, to feel like the world is against you and there's nothing you can do about it."

Derek shifted uneasily and looked down at the ground.

"I want you to know that people can be cruel and unpredictable, but there is good people in the world, too. I also want you to know that I am not like those people who hurt you. I care about you and I want to keep you safe, and that goes for Spencer and Emily and J.J, as well."

The nine-year-old muttered something akin to "thanks" and swallowed hard, as if it was physically painful.

Aaron smiled warmly at him. "It's alright. C'mon, I'll put the sheet in the laundry basket and get you guys some clean ones, okay? Can you go into the bathroom and change your pajama pants?"

Derek nodded and walked with Aaron back to the bedroom, where the others, and Spencer in particular, were anxiously awaiting him. Spencer latched onto Derek right away, squeezing hard.

"I'm okay, Pretty Boy. I'm gonna go to the bathroom, and then we'll go back to bed, okay?" Derek murmured.

Spencer nodded as Aaron entered the room and put the clean fitted sheet on the queen-sized bed. Derek went to the dresser and grabbed a pair of Marvel pajama shorts and headed to the bathroom.

"Are you feeling a little bit better, J.J?" Aaron asked, having witnessed her earlier nightmare and given her a glass of water.

"Yes, thank you." J.J said quietly as Derek returned to the bedroom.

"Good." He smiled. "I'll see you guys tomorrow, then. Get some rest, kids."

"Good night, Aaron." Spencer spoke up timidly.

"G'night, buddy." Aaron smiled. "Good night, Derek. Night, girls."

"Good night," the girls chorused. Derek just gave him a half smile, but it was more than Aaron had ever gotten before, so it meant a lot to him.

The rest of the night passed without incident, and at half past eight o'clock in the morning, Aaron awoke and started breakfast, deciding not to wake the kids up until a bit later. He took the eggs out of the fridge and set them on the kitchen counter.

Just then, Rossi woke up and sat up on the couch, yawning. "Morning, Hotch."

"Morning." Aaron greeted, reaching for the cheese.

"Kiddos still in bed?"

"Yep."

"Are you making breakfast?" Rossi asked, suddenly interested.

"Yeah. Figured I would make some omelets. All we have to make breakfast is eggs and cheese." Aaron took the frying pan from the cabinet below him.

"Yeah, we gotta go grocery shopping, get the kids some snacks. Here, let me do I t." Rossi insisted, taking the pan from him and heating the stove.

"Fine." Aaron smiled, amused at Rossi's cooking obsession.

Then he frowned, thinking. "Yeah, they definitely need to eat. They're so malnourished that they look a year younger than they are." He thought about the UNSUB in anger. How often had he fed the poor kids? Definitely not enough.

Meanwhile, Spencer was sitting up in bed, rubbing his eyes with his little fists. "Wake up, Derek. Wake up, J.J. Wake up, Emily." He said, shaking each in turn. "We have to go with Aaron and Dave to the Behavioral Analysis Unit, remember?"

"Ugh...fine." Derek muttered. He sat up slowly, sniffing the air. "Smells like breakfast is cooking."

"Yeah," Emily agreed, and J.J nodded excitedly.

"Let's go see if we can have some. I'm so hungry!" She said emphatically.

They got out of bed, opened the door, and walked to the kitchen to find Aaron and Rossi already there. Aaron was taking out plates as Rossi turned off the stove. "Good morning, guys!" Aaron said as he gave them each a plate and Rossi slid the egg and cheese omelets onto each one individually.

"Morning." Spencer, J.J and Emily smiled back, and Derek, still tired, just gave him a half-hearted nod.

"So, we were thinking, after we finish at the BAU office, that we can go grocery shopping for you guys. What kind of things do you kiddos like to eat?" Rossi asked cheerfully.

Silence followed as the older kids tried to remember what they liked to eat before their abductions.

"Can we get more Cheerios?" Spencer asked excitedly. "And Jell-O?!"

"And ice cream?!' J.J asked, her eyes wide and hopeful.

"We can get whatever you guys want." Aaron said with a smile. How could he deny these kids simple pleasures, like Jell-O and ice cream, after all they had been through? Besides, they needed the extra calories. He would just make sure to get more fruit and vegetables, as well.

Spencer clapped happily and J.J squealed with excitement.

The older kids were more subdued. Aaron could tell that thinking about what they used to eat before, when they were with their families, had brought up a lot of emotions. Emily looked melancholy, whereas Derek's look was more of a mixture of sad and angry and uncomfortable.

So Aaron changed the subject. "I was thinking maybe we could take a trip to the D.C zoo this weekend. Would you guys like that?"

That got their attention.

J.J looked surprised. "Like on the T.V?" She asked, wonder in her tone. "That would be cool. I like animals, do they have flamingos? They're my favorite and they're so pretty!"

Spencer lit up with excitement. "Yeah! I wanna go! Do you know that the National Zoo in the District of Columbia was first established in 1889? They are currently home to over 2,000 different types of animals, representing more than 400 species!"

Derek and Emily couldn't help but smile as Spencer rambled on, moving his hands as he always did when he was excited to talk about a subject that interested him.

Rossi had to redirect him after he explained that the National Zoo also harbored over 180 different types of trees, 40 species of grass, and over 850 types of woody grubs. Mainly because he had been talking for five entire minutes, and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

"Okay, Spencer. That's fascinating, but make sure you finish your breakfast. Emily, Derek, would you guys be interested in going?" Rossi asked.

Emily smiled and nodded.

Derek just nodded. "Cool." He said.

"Then it's decided. We'll go on Saturday, make it a day trip. Maybe see the aquarium and a couple museums, too." Aaron smiled.

Spencer squealed with excitement. The agents and the older kids laughed.

A couple hours later, the kids were dressed after brushing their teeth, washing their faces, and combing their hair. Aaron and Rossi had done the same, and they all headed out to go to the B.A.U office.

They arrived about twenty minutes later and made their way up to the office, where Elle took the kids to her office to play while Rossi and Aaron briefed with Gideon.

"We received Emily Prentiss' case file from the D.C police earlier today. We'll conduct her interview next." Gideon told the agents.

"Alright, let's take a look at it." Rossi said determinedly, gesturing to the box on Gideon's desk.

Gideon opened it and pulled out some drawings, obviously done by Emily when she was much younger, and two photographs- one was of young Emily standing next to her mother, and the other one had a Hispanic woman holding Emily on her hip.

"Her file contained a character statement from her nanny, Sofia Gomez. She worked with Emily from birth, until she quit, about three months before the abduction occurred."

She must be the Hispanic woman in the picture, Aaron thought.

The agents sat down to study the file. After a half hour they had learned several things about Emily's early life.

According to the nanny, Emily's father wasn't in the picture. Emily's mother, an Ambassador, had been a workaholic who rarely paid much attention to little Emily. She left the job of raising Emily to the nanny, who traveled the world with the Ambassador and her daughter.

Emily was described as a very sad little girl who loved her nanny, but desperately hoped to get her mother's attention.

The nanny eventually decided to leave her position when she got pregnant, and Emily's mother hired a live-in babysitter whenever she had to travel or go to meetings.

One meeting occurred a few days after Emily's fifth birthday. The Ambassador had hired a babysitter and gone to her meeting, where she had been assassinated by a sniper on a nearby rooftop. When police went to the luxury apartment where Emily and her mother resided, they found that the babysitter had been stabbed to death and Emily was gone. The UNSUB had left no evidence, only the note.

"So the emotional neglect was the UNSUB's motive." Aaron spoke, trying to conceal the pain he felt on Emily's behalf.

"I think so." Rossi said simply.

Gideon nodded his agreement. "So let's interview her, see if we can confirm the nanny's story."

They went back to Elle's office and walked in to find Elle speaking softly to Emily, who was separated from the others, sitting where J.J had sat the previous day. She held a baby doll in her arms, rocking it back and forth gently in her arms.

Rossi and Aaron sat down on either side of her, while Gideon and Elle sat across from her.

"Hi, Emily. We need to ask you some questions about your mother." Gideon had apparently decided to cut to the chase.

Emily looked up in surprise, but she quickly looked down at the doll again, her face clouding over. She didn't answer him.

"Is that okay, Emily?" Aaron asked softly.

Emily nodded tensely, keeping her head down.

"How was your relationship with your mom, sweetheart?" Elle asked gently.

Emily shrugged. "Okay, I guess." She mumbled.

"What kind of things did you two do together?" Rossi asked.

"I don't know." Emily replied quietly.

"Did she...take you to the park? Or out to eat?" Rossi queried.

She shook her head no.

"Maybe to the movies?"

"No." Emily answered. "We went on plane rides."

"Okay, that's fun! Where did you go?" Elle asked.

"Everywhere." She muttered.

"What did you do there?" Aaron asked.

"She went to meetings. I stayed with my nanny." Emily replied bitterly. The profilers picked up on her tone immediately.

"Oh. What was she like?" Rossi asked carefully.

Emily's expression softened. "She was nice. She did everything my mom didn't. She was the one to take me to the park and out to eat and to the movies. She read me bedtime stories and sat with me on the plane...until she left to have her own baby." She said sadly. "Then she forgot me. And my mom hired the babysi-" Emily stopped and swallowed hard.

"A babysitter?" Gideon finished for her.

She nodded, seemingly unable to speak the word. She took a deep breath and quietly spoke, the words coming out in a rush, "She died. It was my fault. I screamed when he grabbed me and she came running and he took out a knife and he-" she broke off suddenly and started breathing heavily, unable to stop herself.

Aaron watched in alarm as she started to hyperventilate. He'd began to move in to try to calm her when J.J, Derek, and Spencer got up and ran over to her. Derek elbowed past him and grabbed Emily's shoulders. "It's okay, Em. It's gonna be all right." He spoke softly and slowly. J.J started playing with Emily's hair, and Spencer hugged her waist.

Emily calmed down relatively quickly, and Elle, who had left the room quickly, returned with a cup of water. She grabbed it gratefully, and swallowed it down in a few seconds.

"Sorry." She murmured, ashamed of herself.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Emily. It must have been hard to relive that. You did a great job." Aaron spoke soothingly.

Rossi nodded his agreement. "I think we're done here. Let's go, kiddos."

The occupants of the room all stood up and exited. "11 A.M tomorrow." Gideon told Aaron as he, Rossi, and the children made their way to the elevator.

Aaron nodded tersely. He hated putting the kids through so much pain. He knew the victimology might help them to catch and put away their UNSUB, but privately he wondered how much more these kids could take.

They made their way out to the car, and Rossi reminded everyone that it was time to go grocery shopping. The younger kids perked up at the mention of food, but Emily and Derek stayed solemn, lost in their own memories.

An hour and a half later, the cart was filled to the brim with meal ingredients, snacks, drinks, and of course, desserts. Picking out their own snacks and desserts had cheered the older kids up a bit, and J.J and Spencer were over the moon about their ice cream and Jell-O cups.

Once they came home, they had lunch, grilled cheese and tomato soup as per the compliments of David Rossi, before watching cartoons on the T.V. Spencer, who had been yawning for about an hour, fell asleep on the couch. Derek insisted on lowering the volume on the T.V and told Emily and J.J to go color quietly at the kitchen table, so as not to disturb the sleeping little boy. He would have found a quiet activity for himself as well, but Spencer was snuggled into his chest.

About a hour later, Spencer was awake, but the girls decided to keep coloring, and Derek turned the volume back up on the T.V so that he and Spencer could continue watching Cartoon Network. "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?!" had turned on, and Spencer watched a few episodes with Derek before getting restless and walking over to Aaron.

Aaron was reading a book when he felt Spencer pulling at his sleeve. He smiled down at the small four-year-old. "Hey buddy. What's up?" He asked the fidgety boy.

"Can you read to me?" Spencer asked imploringly, looking up at Aaron with big, nervous eyes.

"Sure, Spence, but -" He began telling the boy that he didn't have any children's books, but before he could, Spencer was climbing up onto the chair next to him and peering at his book.

His little face lit up. "I love 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band and other stories of Sherlock Holmes' by Arthur Conan Doyle!" He squeaked happily, grinning at Aaron.

Aaron smiled back, aware that he had forgotten what an extraordinary genius was in in his custody. "What's your favorite story of his?" He asked.

"In this publication, my favorite story is 'The Red-Headed League.' Spencer spoke eagerly. "Did you know that this story contains a rare misquote on behalf of the author? Instead of saying, 'L'homme n'est rien – l'oeuvre c'est tout', which translates to "The man is nothing-the work is all', Doyle typed 'L'homme c'est rien – l'oeuvre c'est tout'? It's only a letter away from being correct, but it's an error all the same."

Aaron blinked in surprise. "I most certainly did not know that." He laughed. "Why don't we start with that story, then?"

Spencer nodded excitedly and made himself comfortable in his seat.

Aaron grinned at the boy's enthusiasm before clearing his throat and reading aloud. "'I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the autumn of last year..."

They finished that story and read several other, until it reached dinner time two hours later. With each story, little Spencer had moved his chair closer, and closer, until the boy was close enough to lean his head on Aaron's shoulder. Which is exactly what he decided to do. Aaron smiled softly down at the child, and kept reading, a smile on his face and a warmth in his heart.

When dinner was over, and the movie they had watched, "The Wizard of Oz", was finished, Aaron thought hard while the kids took their bath and dressed for bed. A little while later, the children and Rossi were fast asleep, but Aaron couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about the future. He realized with a start that he couldn't imagine a future for himself that didn't include these kids.

What was he going to do?

A/N: thank you all so much for reading! Please review, I love hearing from you all, and you inspire me to write faster!