Alyssa Lies

A/N -- The plot in this story is taking from the song 'Alyssa Lies' by Jason Michael Carroll.

Early September 2016

Emily had the day off so she had decided to take the kids to the play ground. The twins were asleep in the pram; Jack was playing soccer with some other boys, and Sophie was swinging with her new friend from school, Alyssa.

Emily looked around at the kids and could not help but smile, when she saw how happy they all looked. Even Anna and Tommy, who were sleeping, looked happy. She and Hotch had done a good job with them. But all of the sudden Sophie came running towards her, crying.

"Honey, what's wrong?" Emily asked concerned as she wiped a couple tears of her daughter's checks.

"I want to go home. I want to see daddy," Sophie said.

"But daddy is at work."

"I want daddy," Sophie started crying even more.

"Okay, stay here with the twins, then I will go get Jack," Emily said a walked over to the foot bold field.

"Jack!" Emily yelled and waved for him to come over to her.

"What is it?"

"We have to go now."

"Why? Do you and dad have a case?" Jack asked a bit disappointed.

"No sweetie," Emily smiled and ruffled his hair, "But Sophie is crying and she only wants her dad."

"So we are going to the office to see him?" Jack asked with a big smiled on his face.

"Yes we are, so let's get going," Emily said and both of them walked back to the sleeping twins and the still crying Sophie.

---

In the car Sophie had stopped crying, but as soon as they walked through the glass doors she started crying again. Morgan and Reid looked up from their paperwork when they heard the sound of the little girl's cry.

"What's with her?" Morgan asked.

"She won't say. She just wants her dad." Emily rolled the pram over by her desk and grabbed Sophie's hand. "Will you two, please, keep an eye on Jack and the twins, while I take her up to Hotch?"

"Sure thing, Em."

Emily and Sophie walked up to Hotch's office and both of them knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Emily opened the door and they walked in. Hotch smiled then he saw them, but then he noticed that Sophie was crying. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know. She just wants you."

"Come here my little star," Hotch said and trapped on his thighs. Sophie walked over to him and crawled into his lap. She laid her head against his chest and sniffed a couple of times.

"I'm going to go back down two the others," Emily said and left them alone in the office.

Hotch stroked Sophie's back and waited for her to start talking, but she didn't. "Sophie, why are you crying?"

Sophie looked down at her hands. "Alyssa lies."

Hotch smiled a little. His daughter was crying because one of her friends had lied to her. He wiped a tear of her check and said, "Well, it was not very nice of her to lie to you."

"Alyssa didn't lie to me."

"Then who did she lie to."

"She lies to everyone at school, daddy. Even the teachers! And you must not lie to teachers!" Sophie said and wrinkled her forehead.

"What does she lie about, sweetheart?"

Sophie did not say anything, she just started crying again. Hotch hugged her and said, "You can tell me."

"Alyssa lies about where she got the bruises on her back and tummy."

As the words left his daughter's mouth, Hotch could feel the concern fill his body. "How does she say she got them?"

"She says that she fell, but I know that's not true."

"How do you know that?"

"Her daddy is mean," she whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw him hit her today, because she didn't want to go home from the playground," she said and looked up at Hotch. "Daddy, can we go back down to mommy now?"

"Of course." Hotch sat her down on the floor and took her hand and they walked out of the office. Down by the desks the whole team was gathered. Morgan was sitting with Anna on his lap and Garcia stood over the pram and made funny faces to Tommy. Jack and Reid sat in deep conversation about Star Wars and Emily and JJ talked about their children.

"Auntie Jenny!" Sophie let go of her dad's hand ran down the stairs to JJ. She hugged her around the waist and looked up at her. "I just started taking ballet lessons," Sophie said with a big smile. There were no longer any signs of sadness in her face, even though she had been crying for over an hour. Now she was just a happy little girl again.

"Yes I know. Your mommy just told me," JJ said and stroked her checks.

Hotch walked up to Emily and put an arm around her waist. Emily looked at him, "What was wrong with Sophie?"

"Let's talk about it when we get home," Hotch said and kissed her temple.

---

Hotch and Emily heard noises coming from Sophie's room. They walked up the stairs to it and opened the door a little and saw Sophie sitting up in her bed with her eyes closed and hands folded.

"Dear God, I know I haven't talked to you before, but I really need you to help my new friend, Alyssa. Her daddy is very mean to her and he does things that a daddy must not do. So please help her. Amen."

Emily felt a tear run down her check. Hotch had filled her in on the situation with Alyssa. She wiped the tear away and walked in and sat on the side of the bed. Emily pulled the clovers tight around Sophie and kissed her forehead. "You have to go to sleep now, sweetie."

Sophie nodded, "Will you sing for me first, mommy?"

"I will, but then you have to sleep afterwards, okay?" Emily asked and laid down next to her on the bed.

"Okay." Sophie cuddled up against her mom's side and closed her eyes.

While Emily sang Hotch just stood by the door watching them. After three songs Emily kissed Sophie good night and she and Hotch decided to go to bed, but neither of them could fall asleep. They both kept thinking about the things Sophie had told them about Alyssa.

Emily turned to Hotch and said, "We have to do something about this, Aaron."

He could hear the pain in her voice and wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. "Tomorrow, then I drop Jack and Sophie off at school, I'm going to talk to some of the teachers and find out what is going on."

"I really hope it isn't true."

"Me, too"

---

The next morning Hotch walked down the hall to the class room with Sophie's hand in his. The little girl quickly found her seat as Hotch walked up to the teacher.

"Excuse me, Miss Brooks."

The young teacher sniffled and wiped tears of her checks as she turned around. "What can I help you with Mr. Hotchner?"

"What's wrong?" Concern filled his body again.

"Alyssa Miles was killed last night."

"What happened?"

"Her father finally got to her. I knew he was abusing her, but no one would listen to me and Alyssa kept denying it."

"Has he been arrested?"

"Yes he got arrested this morning."

"Good."

Hotch slowly turned around and walked back to Sophie. She was sitting at her little desk looking around at everyone. Hotch kneeled in front of her and she put her small hands on his checks.

"Why does everybody look so sad daddy? Why is Alyssa not here?"

Hotch looked down. The lump in his throat grew bigger with every question that she asked.

"Why are you sad, daddy?"

Hotch felt tears run down his face as he said, "Alyssa is not coming to school, sweetie."

"Why?"

"Something bad happened to Alyssa. She's with the angels now."

"So she's not coming back?"

"No sweetie."

"Why daddy? Why did she lie? Someone could have helped her. Her daddy was a bad man; you could have made him go away." Hotch didn't know what to tell her to make her feel better, so he just took her into his arms and held her tight as she cried and kept asking why.

"Why did Alyssa lie?"