The Agent and The School Teacher

Chapter Eighteen: Thank You

JJ took me to a room with a round table in it where the rest of the team were waiting for us. Agent Prentiss met me at the door and hugged me. I didn't fight her.

"We're going to find them." Aaron said gently, contrasting from his tone last night and earlier this morning. I nodded, sinking into a chair. "Garcia, what do you have on the ex-husband?"

A blonde woman in a crazy, bright blue outfit stepped up to the monitor, pulling up a picture of Ben. It looked like a mugshot.

"Benjamin Adler, age thirty-three, he has been in and out of jail for several counts of possession, public disturbance, and Driving under the influence, but since he got out of jail six months ago, he's been clean in the eyes of the law. There's even records of him being enrolled in Narcotics Anonymous, so it looks like after four stints in the clink, he decided to get his life together."

"But that doesn't make any sense," JJ said, "If he was getting his life together, why kidnap his kids? Why would he risk going to jail again?" Suddenly, I remembered my dad, when I was a kid, talking about stressors, and significant events that trigger unsubs to act out.

"His stressor." I said, causing all of them to look at me.

"You know what it is?" Aaron asked. I nodded.

"Yes. So do you." HE furrowed his eyebrows. "If Ben really was trying to clean his life up, that would explain why he came by my house. He came to get his family back. But I wouldn't hear of it and then you showed up and..."

"I told him I was your boyfriend so he would leave." Aaron remembered. I nodded.

"So, he was taking the actions to get his family back, only to come home to find what he thought was another man taking his place." Morgan explained. I internally winced at his choice of words. Aaron opened his mouth to say something when the door flew open. I furrowed my eyebrows as my Dad and Jackson stood there. It all made sense, however, when I saw who was suspended between them.

Ben.

"Carlton..." Aaron said, clearly just as shocked as I was at the sudden appearance of Ben.

"Aaron. It's been a while, so I thought I'd bring you a present." He said, shoving Ben forward. 

"A worthless, pathetic,  dirt bag. He knew it was on top of your Christmas list, so we both pitched in." Jackson added. Normally, I would've found their quips hilarious. But I couldn't take my eyes off of Ben. He just stared at me.

"Elizabeth-"

My hand-print was marked red onto his face before I even realized what I was doing. Then Aaron's hands were on my shoulders, attempting to pull me away from him, but I fought against him.

"Where are my kids?!" I shouted.

"I don't have them!" He exclaimed. "I have been trying to explain that to these two all the way over here, I don't even know what the girls look like now!" I stopped as I realized that he really didn't. I wasn't a big social media person, so there weren't any pictures of them online, and I hadn't allowed him to see them. But that doesn't mean he couldn't have been stalking us.

"Carlton, I assume you remember where the interrogation rooms are?" Aaron asked. Carlton smiled at my dad before he and Jackson led Ben out of the room. My Mom was stood in the doorway now, looking terrified. I saw Aaron share looks with his team, and without even saying a word, he told JJ and Agent Prentiss to keep my mother distracted and told Morgan, Dr. Reid, and David to begin interrogating Ben. This left us alone in the room. Aaron turned to me.

"What was that?" He questioned. I shook my head.

"I don't know," I answered honestly, "I don't know anything right now, other than I have to get them back. Its my fault they were taken and-"

"How?" I just looked at him.

"He came to my house yesterday, Aaron. And instead of being outside, watching my daughters, like I was supposed to be, I was inside feeling sorry for myself because of what happened with you this morning." I said. "I was so distracted by something that, now, seems stupid and so unimportant, and now I have no idea where my kids are."

"You couldn't have anticipated that-" Aaron started.

"Yes I could have!" I shot back. "I knew that him trying to take them was a possibility, and I left them in the care of other people who didn't know about our situation the day after he showed up! I'm a moron-"

"Stop." He grabbed my shoulders, surprising me by how firmly he said it. Not yelling, like he had last night. It was his Agent voice, I assumed. "Talking about who's fault it is is not going to make us find them any faster. You have to stay calm, and think rationally, because Charlotte and Sadie need that right now. I know that's easier said than done when its your kids but you have to try. They need you, and we need you in order to find them." I nodded. "And as for this morning-"

"I don't want to talk about that right now-"

"You were right." I stopped, furrowing my eyebrows. "I didn't realize it right away, but after thinking about it all day, I realized I was trying to turn you into Haley. I'm sorry, for snapping at you, and for providing you with more stress." I nodded.

"Thank you." He nodded too. 

"Now, we're going to go monitor the interrogation. Are you going to be ok?" I nodded again. "Alright." He put a hand on my back, going to usher me out of the room.

"Aaron?" I asked. He stopped, looking at me.

"Yes?" The words I wanted to say filled my head, but wouldn't come out of my mouth. Thank you for doing this, thank you for all the help you've been, I'm sorry for this morning, all of that. So since I couldn't form it into words, I stood on my toes, wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him. He hesitated for a moment, but eventually wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me back.

"Thank you." I whispered. I felt him nod before pulling away and allowing him to lead me out of the room.