heart like yours (jennifer jareau)

1. fifteen

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"i am trying to make myself digestible. i am trying to make myself easy to love." - i.b vyache

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"Missing child in Wilmington, Delaware. Eleven-year-old Billie Copeland was last seen on the playground at 4:30 yesterday afternoon," JJ announced, putting files down around the round table just twenty one minutes later.

Delilah grimaced, picking up the file and flicking it open. These type of cases were her specialty, the field she'd worked in before joining the BAU team, the type of case that inspired her to join the FBI in the first place because of her own experience with cases against children.

"That's...twenty hours ago. Child abduction response plan says we get notified immediately. What happened?" Hotch asked.

"Well, there was reason to believe she was with her father. Her cell phone shows a call to him around the time of the disappearance," JJ said.

"So, they've since ruled him out?" Gideon asked.

"He called the mother about an hour ago," JJ said.

"That doesn't mean he isn't involved," Gideon said.

"He's on his way to the family home, so you can talk to him there. But the local police are now considering this a stranger abduction," JJ said.

"Twenty hours late," Derek said.

"Long-term stranger abductions of children Billie's age are rare. They represent only of one percent of all missing cases per year," Spencer said. "But they are usually more likely to be fatal. Of the children that are abducted and murdered, 44% die within the first hour. From that point forth, their odds of survival greatly decrease. 75% are gone after three hours," Spencer said. "Virtually all of them are dead after 24," Spencer finished.

Delilah stared down at the case file for a few seconds before closing it over.

"Which means we have just under four hours to find her," Hotch said.

"Shall we go?" Gideon said quickly, marching out of the room.

"Delilah, this is your area of expertise. Where do you want to start?" Hotch said.

"Who's going where?" Delilah asked.

"Well, I'll go to the abduction site. Gideon can take the family. We'll split the rest," Hotch said, following Delilah out of the room.

Delilah hummed.

"I'll go to the abduction site with you, first. I want to know what ruse was used to get Billie," Delilah said.

Hotch nodded.

"Okay. And you're okay to do this?" Hotch said quietly.

Delilah nodded.

"Yeah. I'm compartmentalizing to fuck, remember?" Delilah smiled weakly. He nodded.

"I trust you," he said.

"Thank you," Delilah said. He nodded.

"Any time," Hotch said.

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Delilah walked with Hotch, Derek and the lead detective on Billie's case through the park, looking around the area with a frown as she looked to see how visible the abduction site was from the rest of the park.