daylight (jemily)

Chapter Forty Four

After hanging up the phone, JJ went back into the hospital room. She saw Dr. Montgomery still working on the baby.

Everything had calmed down a little, and it was just to two of them in the room, along with the baby.

JJ took a few steps closer. "Is the baby going to be alright?" she asked hesitantly.

Dr. Montgomery formed a small smile. "She's pretty strong, I think she'll be okay. She was freezing cold, but the effects of the hypothermia aren't severe. She must've not been out there for more than a day."

"It's a girl?" JJ smiled. Dr. Montgomery nodded. "Yeah, she's a baby girl. Any idea what happened to her?"

"We don't know yet," JJ sighed. She couldn't understand who could leave such a sweet, little baby alone in a dumpster to die.

Dr. Montgomery was holding a bottle of formula to the baby's lips, but she only faintly cried and refused to drink it.

She tried for a while, continuing to rock her, but it didn't work. She just writhed around uncomfortably.

"How come she won't eat?" JJ asked. "She must be hungry."

"It's probably a combination of the trauma and everything that's happening, she doesn't feel safe. Extreme stress can cause babies to refuse food. I'm just hoping she'll eat soon or we'll have to put a feeding tube in," Dr. Montgomery told her.

A nurse came in holding a clipboard. "We've got the results back at the lab, whenever you have a moment," she said.

Dr. Montgomery nodded. "I'll be there in a second." She set the bottle down next to the bed, looking slightly defeated.

"I can watch her while you're gone," JJ offered, stepping to the side of the bed.

Dr. Montgomery smiled. "Thank you, I'll only be a few minutes," she said, handing the baby over to JJ. She grabbed her stuff and left the room, leaving JJ and the child alone together.

JJ sat in the hospital bed, cradling the baby close to her again. Soon the faint cries of distress faded away. She stared quietly up at JJ and cooed softly.

The baby was pale with a mop of silky, light brown hair. She had big brown eyes and rosy cheeks, possibly from the cold.

JJ took the bottle from the table and held it to her lips, coaxing her to latch on to it. The baby still refused, shoving her little face into JJ's chest.

"I know, I know," JJ sighed. "I get it. I don't like to eat when I'm stressed either."

She gently walked her fingers over the little girls body, and smoothed back her hair. "You have to eat, though. It's really important. You'll feel so much better after you do eat."

JJ attempted again, holding the bottle to the baby's lips. This time, the baby grabbed it with her two hands and began to suck on it. It was like she could actually understand what JJ was saying.

"Oh, that's a good girl," JJ cooed, grinning. "That's yummy, isn't it?"

The baby took down the whole bottle easily. The whole time she stared at JJ with her judgmental looking eyes.

"Ah, don't look at me like that," JJ sighed. "That wasn't that hard."

A few minutes later Dr. Montgomery walked back into the room. "Sorry that took me so long, there was- hey, look at that!" she exclaimed when she saw the empty bottle. "Looks like you've got the magic touch."

JJ smiled shyly, continuing to rock the little girl. "She seems so quiet now," she noticed, remembering how she wouldn't settle down only a couple moments ago.

"I think she's just feeling better," Dr. Montgomery shrugged. "If I was left alone in a cardboard box, hungry and freezing cold, I'd feel much better after I was warm and fed."

JJ nodded, watching the baby's eyes drift open and closed, as she was on the verge of falling asleep. "I can't believe she's faced so much and she's only a couple months old. She's just a baby. I don't understand why this would happen to her," she sighed.

"There's a lot of evil people in this world. I'm sure you know that better than most," she agreed. "The only thing we can do is to keep her safe from now on. Did you give her a name?"

"Me?" JJ asked, slightly confused. Why would she have the right to name her?

"Yeah, why not? She's a human being who deserves a name, and whoever left her in that box shouldn't be the one to give it to her. You found her," Dr. Montgomery said.

JJ couldn't exactly argue with that logic, but it still felt weird to name a baby that wasn't her own.

She thought about it for a bit before choosing. "She looks like a Lyla to me," she decided. "What do you think?"

"I think that's beautiful," Dr. Montgomery responded. "Are you going to stick around? We're moving her up to a floor in the peds unit."

"I have to stay until my boss tells me otherwise," JJ said, standing up with the baby still in her arms. She followed Dr. Montgomery to the elevator. "That's good, I think Lyla could use the company," she said.

___

JJ hung out in Lyla's new hospital room and started to loose track of time. It wasn't until Emily walked in that she realized how late it had gotten.

"Hey, did Hotch want me back? I didn't get a message," JJ said, reaching down to check her phone. She was surprised to see it was already seven pm.

"He doesn't need you back," Emily smiled. "We caught our guy."

"Really?" she asked. It was rare that they were able to catch an unsub that quickly, and to JJ to entire day had gone by in a flash. "Who was it?"

"His name's Jacob Weldon. When you found the baby, we figured she must be connected somehow. Since she was left in the exact same spot as the last victim, we figured that he most likely had custody of the baby. We profiled him to be aged twenty five to thirty. We had Garcia look for any men in the area that matched that age and had a three to six month old baby," Emily explained.

"There weren't that many. Weldon was the only one who fit. Apparently he knocked the baby's mom up about a year ago, her name was Natalie. She was an addict, but she planned on raising the baby alone, so she kept it. Last week she died of an overdose and CPS left the kid with Weldon. He was killing surrogates for Natalie, I guess he resented her for leaving him with the kid," she continued.

"I can't believe someone could do that," JJ sighed, cradling Lyla and rocking her softly. She had another bottle earlier and was now fast asleep. "Does the mom have any family that can take her?"

"No, Natalie's parents are both dead and she had no siblings. A social worker's going to be here within an hour, she's looking for a foster placement for the baby," Emily told her.

"Oh," JJ nodded. "I think I'll stay until she gets here. I don't want to leave the baby alone."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Emily smiled. "I'm going to go to the cafeteria and get something to eat. I'll bring you up some dinner." She leaned down and kissed JJ's head. "I'll be right back."

She got up and started to walk out, but JJ stopped her. "Hey, did you find out what the baby's name is?" she asked. She had given her the name Lyla, but she must have a real name, right?

Emily smiled sadly. "It was listed as undecided on the birth certificate and we didn't find evidence of one anywhere. I don't think anyone ever named her."