Annabel Lee ─ emily prentiss

seventeen

This is no work of art, but a bitch needs to update.

★★★

WHEN Emily woke up at about seven AM, she got out of bed and crept down the hall as quietly as she could in case Bel was still sleeping. Bel's door was shut. Emily knocked gently and received no response, so she eased the door open. Bel was fast asleep, curled up into a ball beneath the covers. She looked so peaceful and so innocent. Emily didn't understand how anyone could ever hurt this girl.

She closed the bedroom door and padded downstairs to make coffee. She would really need it, because they had ten thousand things to do today. Their case worker was dropping by to meet Bel for the first time. They had to go grocery shopping and possibly school supply shopping if necessary, since Bel started school tomorrow. Then they had to meet with the final few candidates for the position of watching Bel when Emily traveled for work.

Emily felt terrible that her job meant Bel needed a glorified babysitter. 14 was too young to stay home alone for days at a time but old enough to feel demeaned by needing a "teen sitter," the least offensive term for it Emily could find. She'd met with five or six people already and narrowed it down to two final candidates for Bel to meet. Naturally, she called in a favor to have them thoroughly vetted—she'd gotten closer to Penelope when working from Quantico the past few days so she wasn't just not working, and Penelope agreed to run background checks (both candidates were clean) under the semi-unserious condition that Emily brought Bel to Quantico to meet the BAU team for real. Bel was very much on board, both curious about Emily's coworkers and excited to see where FBI agents worked.

The slightly outdated coffee maker made an awful screeching noise as it brewed. Before today, it never bothered Emily, but now that there was someone else sleeping upstairs, it sounded loud and shrill enough to break glass. She winced, praying Bel was too far away to hear.

She sat down at the kitchen counter with her coffee mug and stared into space as she sipped it slowly, trying to quell the anxiety creeping up on her. What if Bel's first full day here was a disaster? What if the sitter search was a bust? What if there wasn't time for everything they needed to do? There were an infinite number of ways things could go south, and Emily's brain seemed intent on reminding her of all of them.

Somehow, even though she was consumed with anxiety about Bel, she managed to briefly forget that Bel was literally in her apartment. When Bel came downstairs, it scared the living hell out of Emily. She nearly dropped her mug.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry." Bel's blue eyes went wide. "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I was just stuck in my head." Emily set her mug on the counter and tapped the stool next to hers, knowing Bel would be too hesitant to sit down unprompted. "How'd you sleep?"

Bel shuffled over and sat down. "Surprisingly well. Usually I sleep really badly my first night somewhere, but I guess a week of almost no sleep caught up to me. I've never slept alone in a bed that big before."

Even at Evelyn's house, she slept in a twin bed, albeit one with a very expensive mattress. Having so much space to herself felt weird, even a little lonely, considering the only times she'd ever been in a queen bed were with one or both of her parents beside her.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Emily asked. Bel shrugged; it was too soon to tell. "I don't really have a lot by way of breakfast food. I have some cereal in that cabinet over there, but it's nothing exciting."

Bel went to where Emily was pointing and opened the cabinet. She grabbed a box of shredded wheat cereal.

"Is that okay? We can go out if you want." Emily didn't know what kids ate these days. Was that even something that changed? Jesus, she was clueless. She felt like a toddler who'd been handed a baby for the first time ever—she had no fucking idea what to do.