Fic: the shield and the sun

[uberniftacular]

Title: the shield and the sun
Fandom: Criminal Minds
'Verse: Instead of My Saints
Characters/pairing: Hotch, Gideon, Derek, Penelope, JJ, Erin Strauss
Rating: G
Summary: Gideon and Hotch go to the foster center to bring home Derek.  Penelope comes too.
Warnings: none

 

Gideon and Hotch bring Jenny with them the day they go to the foster center to bring home Derek.  They’d had a conversation with her the night before, about her getting a new brother, during which she nodded solemnly the whole time like she understood, then ran off to play in typical 5-year-old fashion the minute the conversation was over, as if it were just like any other discussion she’d had with her parents.  As a consequence, Hotch is a little nervous, though it doesn’t show on his face.  Gideon isn’t, and that does show.

 Erin Strauss, their caseworker, meets them at the door.  Inside, she leads them to the waiting room where they had met with her and Derek before.  The room reminds Hotch a little of some of the interrogation rooms he’s been in, with the large windows providing a view from the hallway.  Through the windows, he sees Derek sitting on the floor.  Next to him is a slightly chubby girl with blonde pigtails and bright pink glasses that seem too big for her face.  She’s playing with blocks, giggling hysterically when she manages to knock the tower over towards Derek, who spends more of his energy keeping the blocks from falling onto her head than protecting his own.  Strauss turns the doorknob, opening the door at the same time as she opens her mouth to speak.  Before a word can escape her lips, however, Jenny darts under her arm and into the room.

 Derek looks up suspiciously when she runs in, protectively moving a little closer to the bespectacled blonde.  Jenny runs directly up to Derek, a luminescent grin on her face as she brightly introduces herself.  “I’m Jenny, are you my new brother?”  Derek nods slightly before being interrupted by the other girl.  “He’s Derek.  I’m Penelope, and I’m coming with you too!”

 Jenny cocks her head in confusion.  “But…Mommy only said I’m getting a brother.”  Penelope giggles, looking over Jenny’s shoulder at the group of adults standing in the doorway, engrossed in conversation.

 “Mommy?” the pigtailed blonde inquires.  “Who’s Mommy?”  Jenny’s confused look doesn’t dissipate, as she turns around and points to Hotch.

 “That’s Mommy.  The one with more hair and shinier shoes.”  Out in the hall, Gideon gives Hotch a sidelong look and a barely-concealed smirk; Hotch returns the look with a raised eyebrow.  Penelope giggles again, wrinkling her nose slightly.  “My mommy was a girl.”  Jenny’s confusion fades somewhat upon hearing this.

 “I think my first mommy was a girl, but I don’t remember her,” she tells Penelope with a smile, grabbing a block and placing it on top of the newly-growing tower.  Both girls continue building the block tower, Derek stepping in to steady it when it begins to tremble.   When Derek approaches, Jenny looks up, tongue between her teeth in concentration.

 “Do you talk?” she asks, eyes wide with innocence.  Derek looks at her, startled.  “Yeah, I talk.”  Jenny’s face brightens in a wide grin, and she returns her attention to Penelope and the block tower that’s now almost as tall as she is.  Derek’s attention follows hers, hovering to make sure that if the tower falls, it won’t fall on Penelope.

  As the children interact, Hotch and Gideon watch.  Strauss wordlessly hands over copies of Penelope’s file as soon as the first bubbly words leave Penelope’s mouth.  Hotch and Gideon quietly read over the file, exchanging glances from time to time as they arrive at critical information:

 Father: Mark Schaffer, location unknown

Mother: Astrid Garcia, deceased

Step-father: Jose Garcia, deceased

Siblings: 4 elder brothers, in various foster care facilities

 When they come to the listing for Penelope’s arrival at the foster center, a look of clarity comes over both their faces.  Penelope had arrived at the center only two days after Derek’s arrival.  Hotch doesn’t have to look at Gideon to know that they’re both thinking the same thing: the temporal proximity of Derek’s and Penelope’s arrivals in addition to the fact that both had been separated from siblings in the foster care system seems to be the cause of the apparent strong bond between the two children.  A quiet discussion with Strauss confirms their belief: she tells them that Derek and Penelope had become inseparable during Penelope’s first day at the center.

 Hotch and Gideon watch Derek’s protectiveness of Penelope with interest, occasionally glancing back at their copies of both children’s files.  Penelope’s enthusiasm brings small smiles to both their faces, smiles that grow wider when they glance back up at each other.  The agreement is made wordlessly, just a few eyebrow raises and nods before Hotch asks Strauss for the additional paperwork.  While waiting for her to return, the two men finally enter the room.  Jenny doesn’t even look up from her block structure, tongue poking out from between her teeth in concentration.  Penelope, on the other hand, looks up at Hotch and demands, “Are you my new mommy?”  Hotch gives Gideon a wry smile, then crouches down next to Penelope.

 “Yes, I am,” he says as he reaches out his hand for her to shake.  Penelope’s face breaks into a glowing grin, and she leans forward to shake Hotch’s hand vigorously.  On the other side of the block tower, Gideon is holding a quiet conversation with Derek, and a brief nod between Hotch and Gideon is all the communication they need to say that everything is settled, before they go back to their respective conversations.

 When Strauss returns, the signing of the paperwork is routine and brief.  Derek has been in the system long enough to know when it’s time to get ready to go, so he helps Penelope put away the blocks and gather her belongings.  Both children are prepared to leave as soon as the paperwork is signed; Derek looks a little bored, but Penelope is bouncing and happily chattering away with Jenny.  Hotch and Gideon share another smile as they look at their new, larger family, bid Strauss goodbye, and lead their children out the door.