Fighting Wars

Chapter 6

Jennifer wakes up and reaches out for Aaron but doesn't find him. She sits up rubbing her eyes and looking around the room. Maybe he had to go in earlier. She tells herself she gets ready but constantly feels uneasy. She finally slides some shoes on and walks to the kitchen. A slip of paper sits on the counter with a note written in Aarons neat print handwriting. She reads it and shoves it into her pocket. She quickly feeds Sierra and rushes out the door to the office.
    She runs into the office and everyone looks at her uneasy. She waves to the roundtable room and sits down putting the note on the table. "What are we going to do?" Kyrsten asks. "We have to find him." Derek says Jennifer nods rubbing her temples. Emilie walks in with a file "I wish we could but a child, Luke Richardson,  went missing just like the other in a mall last week." Jennifer nods "Aaron should be fine, let's go to that mall stat." They nod and rush out to the SUV's to the mall.
    "Has anyone gotten out?" Emilie asks sliding on her vest running in with the commander of SWAT. He shakes his head "No one has been in or out for the past 10 minutes we locked it down the second we heard he was missing." Jennifer nods and Emilie says "I'd like to talk to the family." He nods and they all run into the mall with all of the people together in the food court. The head SWAT member leads them upstairs to the room where all announcements are made. There sits the family of Luke Richardson, "Mr and Mrs Richardson my name is Jennifer Porter I am with the FBI can you tell me what Luke was doing before he wandered off?" They nod and she says "He was looking around and saw a pair of shoes in a store window. He never really liked playing with robots but he loved a good pair of running shoes so he could play tag and soccer with his friends at school." Mr. Richardson nods and says "I thought that it wasn't masculine enough so I said no. He cried and begged but I still said no, we were on our way to the food court so I told him that I would buy him some ice cream instead." Jennifer nods and writes it down. "So you went downstairs and he turned around and went back to the shoe store?" Emilie asks, they nod and Mrs Richardson says "He just wanted a pair of shoes now he's gone." Jennifer looks to Emilie and she says "We're going to find him I promise." They nod and Jennifer stands and steps outside the small communications room. Derek stands up from the bench and says "You good?" Jennifer shakes her head and rubs her temples "I just can't get Aaron off my mind, I can't help but worry about him." He nods and says "We're all worried about him. We just need to keep our heads in this case and get this kid back to his family." She nods and he says "You really do love him don't you." She nods. He pulls her into a hug. "Jennifer, we are a team not only that but we are a family." She nods and he lets go. "You're like a sister to me, okay. Don't forget that." She smiles and he says "Come on let's go find Luke." She nods and they catch up with Charlie and Kyrsten at the shoe store.
    "Alright here's the thing, the camera shows them walking past the first time but no one comes back at the time between that and the time before the announcement went off." Kyrsten says zooming at every possible angles of the hallway and mall. "After Luke let go of his father's hand he disappeared." She says slumping back in the chair, Jennifer nods and then notices someone on the camera. "What about them? That bag seems extremely heavy for just some spring shopping spree." Kyrsten zooms in and sees what Jennifer is talking about. "You're right." She whispers. "See if you can follow them." Charlie says, Kyrsten nods and says "I can try." We follow the camera for about 20 minutes then the figure disappears into the crowd. Jennifer picks up her phone and calls Emilie. "Emilie, we found someone, they are wearing black jeans worn out vans and a dark gray sweatshirt." Jennifer says "Alright I'll stay here with the parents. Go get searching." Emilie says, she hangs up and they all run down to the food court looking for a man who fits this description.
An hour later Jennifer raises her wrist with her communicator watch. "I found him. By the little caesars." She adjusts her vest and walks in the direction of him. She looks in the corner of her eye and sees Derek and Charlie. She walks behind the unsub and raises her gun to his head. "You're coming with me." She says, he turns around and Jennifer is stunned by who she sees.
Emilie picks up her ringing phone and Charlies soft voice says "Emilie does Mr. Richardson have a twin?" Emilie shrugs and says "Let me ask." She turns to the parents and asks "Do any of you have a twin?" Mrs. Richardson shakes her head yet Mr. Richardson nods "I have one, he came here with me." Emilie nods and puts her phone back to her ear. "Yes he does, what's up?" Charlie sighs and says "Because he's our unsub." Emilie nods and says "Get him to tell you where he is we only have an hour left." Charlie pauses and says "We will, find what you can about this twin." Emilie nods and hangs up.
"Where is he!" Derek exclaims slamming his hands on the table. The twin doesn't budge. "Come on we can be here all night." Charlie says leaning against the wall. "I've got time, the boy doesn't though... did you know that he has asthma?" Jennifer walks out of the room and up to where Emilie is. She swings the door open and says softly but forcefully "When where you going to tell me Luke had asthma?" They look at each other and then back to Jennifer "We never thought about it." Jennifer shakes her head and walks out. Emilie holds the door open and calls after her "Go get him Jennifer!" Jennifer smiles and runs down the hallway.
She leads a group of SWAT down one hallway Derek leads another in the opposite direction and Charlie leads another upstairs. "Luke!" Derek kicks down a storage room door and runs inside. They knock over crates after crates filled with odds and ends. "Luke!" Charlie calls running down the closed stores. "Luke!" Jennifer calls kicking down a door. Lights are on in this room. They pulls apart the room crates flying everywhere and all the things stored inside are shoved aside.
Jennifer opens a metal box and there's Luke "I got him! Medics!" she calls. She takes his pulse and then checks his breathing. Nothing. She bends over and starts CPR. "Medics!" Jennifer calls. She breaths the tune to staying alive, it seems childish but it works. Paramedics file into the room with an AED. the paramedics set it up and Jennifer backs away while the machine scans little Luke Richardson. It shocks him once and scans again. It shocks him again and he coughs. they unhook him from the AED and Jennifer pulls him into a hug "My name is Jennifer Porter, I'm with the FBI I'm going to take you to your parents okay?" he nods and she helps him up. "How old are you?" Jennifer asks he looks up to her and smiles "Five." She smiles and she leads him up to the room.
"Luke!" His mother says tears streaming down her face. Jennifer steps to the side watching the happy family reunion. "You did good Jennifer." Emilie says Jennifer smiles and Derek and Charlie walk up the stairs. "Got him?" they ask Jennifer nods and says "One person found, now let's go find Aaron."
There's only one thing more precious than our time, and that's who you spend it with. - Unknown