The Hunting Hour - A Criminal Minds Fiction

Chapter 28: The World Out There

Miss Marion took Bella to the principal's office and explained to the man the girl was going home early. Of course he was very understanding. So Marion sat with Bella outside the school so the girl could get some fresh air.
After a little while Penelope and JJ arrived.

"Oh baby" Garcia said running to the girl. She hugged Bella who just stayed quiet as tears kept streaming down her face.

"Garcia, take her to the car" JJ said and Penelope went with Bella.

"What exactly happened?" JJ asked the French teacher.

"She was sobbing in the bathroom and she kept saying she wanted to go home" Marion said.
JJ made an understanding face.

"Thank you for calling us" JJ said.

"It's alright" Marion said.

.

JJ drove to the BAU while Garcia sat on the back with Bella. The girl stayed quiet all the way.

"I wanna go home" she whispered to Penelope as JJ parked the car.

"We can't go home right now bunny. We're working" Garcia explained feeling bad.
Isabella just hugged her and tried hard to keep her tears in.

"It's okay honey you'll stay with us. It's gonna be alright" Penelope said. She let go of the hug and wiped Isabella's face. "Let's go" she said and they got out of the car. Bella held her hand tight.

"Do you want to stay with me in my office?" Penelope asked completely forgetting about what happened there.
Isabella looked scared immediately and said no as tears filled her eyes again.

"She'll stay at the conference room with me. Come on" JJ said grabbing the girl's hand. Bella followed her to the conference room and everyone but Hotch was there.

"Hello" Rossi said.

"Hi" Bella said embarrassed.

"Come sit with me. I might need some help with this. Could you try to help me?" Rossi asked showing her some papers.
Bella shyly walked to him.
"All you have to do is put it in order. Can you try that?" He asked.

"Sure" she said very low and took a seat next to him.

Derek gave him a thankful smile.
The girl sat there and helped Rossi organize some files. Later Bella played chess with Rossi in his office. Around 2, Rossi noticed the girl was getting tired.

"Do you want to take a nap? That couch is not that bad" he told her. Bella shook her head no and she looked very serious.
"Hey. No one is going to come here." Rossi said and she just looked down at the floor. "That's what you're scared of, isn't it?"
She nodded and tears filled her eyes.

"Come here with me. Let me tell you something" he said grabbing her hand and guided her to the couch. They sat beside each other.
"What happened at Penelope's office was horrible. And I understand why you are scared, Bella. I do, I really do. But we are here and we are not letting anything bad happened to you" he said.

"But all of you were here last time too" Bella said as a tear fell.

"Do you remember anything from when he got you?" He asked her.

"Yeah" Bella said.

"And what do you remember?" Rossi asked.

"I woke up and my arm was hurting and I tried to move away but I couldn't" Bella said as a few tears escaped. "And then I woke up in there" she added.

"Do you remember who the man in the office was?" Rossi asked.

"Not really" Bella said.

"He had just started working. Doyle had his family and said he would exchange them for you" Rossi explained.