A Second Chance

The Necklace

"Hey Sophia, is everything okay? Is it your head?" Prentiss asked, getting right back into mom mode.
"No I'm fine. I just can't sleep and was wondering if you were still up," the girl said shyly as she lingered in the doorway.
"Yeah come on in," Prentiss offered and made room for her on the bed.
Sophia took a seat next to her mom and asked,
"What are you watching?"
"Oh nothing, so what's up with you?" Emily asked as she turned the tv off, giving her daughter her undivided attention.
She looked down at Sophia, who looked lost in her thoughts.
"Sophia," she said softly.
The girl looked up.
"Are you okay?" Prentiss asked in the same soothing voice. She could sense there was something wrong.
The girl's brows furrowed and it was clear she was debating whether or not to tell Emily what's been going on.
"I keep having these dreams. I've had them for as long as I can remember," Sophia started off by saying.
"I'm alone in the woods and I'm looking for someone or they're looking for me. Anyways, I'm lost and confused and I don't know where I am or how I got there. Either way I can't find them, and when I realize this I start to freak out. I get scared because I know someone's looking for me but I don't want to be found. So I start running and as I run farther and farther from where I was, but I get closer and closer to the person I'm running from and I don't know how to protect myself from them. And then I wake up in a sweat and I don't know what to do or how to get the dreams to stop."
She paused to take a break and look at her mother's concerned face.
"Then I realized I was running from you," Sophia said quietly.
Emily heart dropped.
She was at a loss for words. Her daughter just admitted to her that she was scared of opening herself up to her after being abandoned. She took a deep breath then looked over at her daughter and her face softened.
"Listen, I'm sorry, Sophia. For everything . You didn't deserve what happened to you when you were younger or anything that's happened in the past two years. I shouldn't have lied to you for so long," Emily said sincerely.
"And I shouldn't have left you in the park. You were too little and too innocent and I'm sorry," Prentiss said.
Now it was Sophia turn to be speechless.
"Dreams have a way of revealing how we really feel but try to hide. So what do you think your dream is telling you?" Emily asked her.
"At first I thought it meant to run and keep running from you so I wouldn't get hurt again, but with everything that's been going on, I think I'm finally able to understand why you had to give me up. But I guess I still don't trust you completely and I feel like you'll just up and leave again if I get too close," Sophia told her with a stone cold face similar to that of her mother's.
"I don't plan on leaving you again. I need you to know that your safety was always my number one concern and it still is, which is why I was hesitant to let your father train you at first," Emily started to say.
Sophia just continued to stare at the woman. Emily paused.
"What are you thinking about?" Prentiss asked the girl who was clearly lost in her thoughts.
"I just-" Sophia started to say but stopped.
"You what?" Emily asked.
"I feel like I should've known who you were when I first met you."
"Oh honey, no one told you. They didn't give you a reason to suspect anything," Prentiss said to her.
"But still I just feel like I was stupid for not realizing sooner," the girl said.
"You're not stupid," Emily told her sternly.
"Did you know?" Sophia asked her.
"Did I know you were my daughter?" Prentiss wanted to clarify and Sophia nodded.
"When I first saw you I thought you looked a little familiar but then I realized what I was seeing was just a younger version of myself," Emily said with a smile.
"You really think we look alike."
"Oh sweetheart, it's very clear you're mine. Minus my nose," Emily joked.
That made Sophia give her a little smile.
"You know, one of my favorites part about living here is seeing people who I resemble. I've never had that before," Sophia told her truthfully.
"Yeah you stole my looks, kid," she joked.
"Are you sure Ian's my dad? I don't think I really look like him. And Declan and I look nothing alike," she stated.
"Oh I'm sure you're his child. And you're wrong. You've got his smile," she said lowly.
"I never noticed," Sophia stated.
Emily nodded and tried to think of something else to say.
"So, you're actually happy living here?" Prentiss questioned changing the subject a little.
"Well, now both of my parents are here, plus my brother. And I don't have to go to school anymore, so yeah. I'm pretty content here," the girl answered with a smile.
"What about you? How did it feel to get kidnapped and then kidnapped again and dragged here?" Sophia asked.
"It's an adjustment, but I really do love being able to see you everyday and take care of you," Prentiss said.
"I have to say, it is nice having a mom again," Sophia told her.
Emily smiled and then put her arm around her daughter and Sophia rested her head on her mother's shoulder. After a few second, Sophia broke the silence by saying,
"Do you think I'll ever be able to see JJ again?"
When Sophia asked that, it broke Emily's heart a little.
"I hope so. I miss the team too. But I know they're looking for us. We just need to wait."
"Do you think they're going to kill Ian when they find us?" Sophia wanted to know.
"I don't know, sweetie," Prentiss said.
"I wish he wasn't a criminal," the child said quietly.
"Me too," Emily replied.
"What's going on with you guys anyways?" Sophia asked as she picked her head up.
"What are you talking about?" Emily asked, dragging out the question.
"Well, are you guys like together or doing it on the side or something?" Sophia asked.
"Excuse me!" Emily exclaimed and lightly smacked her daughter on the arm playfully.
"What? Declan and I were just wondering if mom and dad were getting back together," she said and nudged her mother.
"There's nothing going on between us, so I don't know what you and your brother are talking about," she said and rolled her eyes and smiled.
"Did you love him?" Sophia asked.
Emily looked at her daughter and gave her a sad smile.
"It's complicated," she said.
"No. It's a yes or no," Sophia told her.
"Your father and I have a bit of a history and not all of it is us playing house when I was undercover. Remember when he supposedly died about six years ago?"
Sophia nodded.
"He was coming after me for turning him in. He kidnapped me and tortured me and in the end he 'killed' me," Emily explained using hand quotes around kill.
"I had to fake my own death for about seven months until my team was able to capture him," Prentiss explained.
"So you two tried to kill each other?" Sophia asked.
Emily nodded and said,
"Like I said, it's complicated."
"But you guys lived together for so long and you even slept together. How does that turn into killing each other?" Sophia didn't understand.
"You have to remember I was undercover the entire time. I was only there for a profile."
"So why is he so nice to me?"
"Because you're his flesh and blood," Emily told her.
"Ian would never hurt you or Declan," she added.
"What about you though?" Sophia asked.
"Oh, I'm not scared of your father," Emily told her seriously.
"I think he's still got a thing for you," Sophia told her with a look.