Annabel Lee ─ emily prentiss

eight

IN THE sleepless pursuit of a spree-killing UnSub, Emily didn't answer her phone for anyone but her team. She didn't even realize someone else had called until they all returned to their hotel semi-defeated, having found the UnSub but watching him blow his brains out instead of being apprehended. Alone in her room, she'd played the message.

"Hey, it's Bel." Bel sniffled and let out a thick cough. She sounded stuffed up, nasally. She'd been crying. "You're probably working or something right now, but I just wanted to tell you that CPS came earlier. I don't think they're moving me, but things..." She let out a sob she tried to mask as a whimper. "Things are worse. But I promise I can take it. It's okay." She paused. "So yeah. Um. I guess that's it. Stay safe, Emily."

Emily sat down on the bed and slumped forward. She played the message again, closing her eyes as she listened to the pain in Bel's voice. Her mind drew a vivid painting of Bel crying alone in that cold, bare bedroom. She knew the Howells hurt Bel again, probably much worse than the other day, but she had neither evidence nor a claim from Bel to justify calling the state again.

It was after 2 AM in New York then. By the time the team was up and out the next morning, the East Coast school day had already begun. Calling would be pointless. When she got back to Quantico, Emily used her office computer to creep on Bel's high school and find out the dismissal time: 2:45. At 3 o'clock, she slipped away from her desk into an empty conference room. She called Bel's number back. Bel picked up after two rings.

"Hello? Emily?"

"Yeah. Hey. I'm so sorry I missed your call. We were on an important case, and it was in Oregon, and by the time—"

"It's okay." Bel laughed. "Really."

She kept walking, heading for work. She worked under the table for a shitty burger joint, taking counter orders and waiting tables. It sucked, but it paid her phone bills, and her manager understood her situation. He understood that someday, she would have to quit with just a few days' notice because of a new placement.

"What happened when CPS came?" Emily asked. Bel exhaled heavily. She kicked a stray rock on the sidewalk.

"Nothing. The CPS lady asked me about what happened and looked at the cuts on my hands. Then she asked Fred, who told her that the glass broke accidentally and I tripped onto it. She looked around, asked a few stupid questions, and just said, 'Don't let this happen again.' I don't think I'm going anywhere."

"'Don't let this happen again'? That's it?" Emily didn't understand how anybody, especially someone whose job it was to protect kids from abuse, could hear a kid tell that story, could see the injury and brush it off as nothing. She didn't understand how CPS could see the locks on every cabinet and on the outside of Bel's door and still believe whatever story the Howells told.

"Hitting a kid with a glass bottle isn't illegal unless it causes injury, and she bought his story about me tripping. Even though I don't know how the hell I would have tripped if I wasn't going anywhere." It wasn't Bel's first CPS rodeo. She knew they believed whatever meant less paperwork.

"It should be illegal," Emily muttered, because how was that acceptable? "What happened after CPS left?"

Bel spent all day deciding what she would tell Emily, or, rather, what she wouldn't. Physical discipline, even with a belt, was allowed as long as it didn't cause an injury. Emily was a mandated reporter, but she had nothing to report if she couldn't see the injury. If CPS showed up again, the Howells might actually kill her.

"Nothing they aren't allowed to do," she said. "I just panicked on the phone last night. I mean, it is worse, but it's nothing I can't handle."

Whether they were breaking laws or not, the Howells were still hurting Bel. No kid deserved to be beaten like that, regardless of its legality. But Emily's gut told her that Bel was covering for the Howells out of fear. Unfortunately, she had neither physical proof nor an allegation from Bel, and she hadn't seen Bel or the house since the Fuller case. CPS would laugh in her face. She also knew what the Howells might do to Bel if CPS came again and didn't remove Bel from the house. She needed all her ducks in a row.