Jemily(Unexpected Love)

Connection

Emily POV 

Once I had gotten a description of the unsub from Melissa and explained to the team what she had told me about her home life, we went back and interviewed the kids from the other families. It took some time but they all came from abusive homes. Same stories, abusive fathers with mothers who would stand by and watch it all happen. We figured that the unsub came from a similar home life and felt like he was alone, with no one to help or protect him. As he got older, he found kids just like him from broken families and did what no one did for him. 

We tried to find things that tied these families together. The kids went to different schools, parents worked different jobs, went to different churches, different doctors. Whoever our unsub is, he had to have been close enough to the families to find out that there was abuse going on in the home. Garcia was doing her magic to find even the smallest correlation. "I think I may have found something." 

"Tell us baby girl." Answered back Derek.

"Okay so I looked back at some medical records and found that although each family saw different doctors in different areas, they all at some point attended the same ER at least once. Like Melissa with her broken arm."

"Okay, so they all attended the same ER at least once. That still doesn't narrow down who it could be. There are doctors, nurses, orderly's." Mentioned Rossi.

"Yes, but any time a child comes into the ER for an injury, regardless if it is actually an accident or may involve foul play, a social worker speaks with the families and the kids involved. And in each other cases, the same social worker signed off on the paperwork. Jeffery Riley." A picture popped up on the screen and it was a dead ringer on Melissa's description.

"Okay hold on, in order for these kids to be able to be sent back to the custody of their parents the social worker needs to sign off saying it is a safe environment. If Riley knew what these parents were doing to their kids, he sent them back into those homes anyway." I said. 

"Even if he has suspicions, if no allegations were being made, they can't keep the kids away from the parents." Hotch added. 

The team went to go grab Riley. I went to go check on Melissa and she was sleeping hugging that stuffed animal for dear life. I couldn't understand how parents could do that to their own kid. She hasn't even lived a full life and she has  experienced so much pain. As horrible as it was what Riley did, was he in the wrong? He may have gone at it the wrong way, but I understand why he did it. 

I got a call from Garcia, "Yeah."

"Okay so I looked into any family members and there doesn't seem to be any. The mother was an orphan as a child and the father lost both his parents a couple of years ago. Neither had siblings."

I sighed knowing what that meant, "so foster care."

"Sorry Em."

"Yeah." I hung up. I was frustrated. She didn't deserve this, any of this. I had one of the officers at the station call for a social worker to come in to talk to Melissa. 

When the team came back they interrogated Riley. He admitted to everything we knew. I went out to take in some air.

JJ POV

I know this case has taken a toll on Emily. Cases with kids like this usually do. I followed her outside and saw her sit on a bench near the station. I sat down next to her and out my hand on her back. I rubbed her back for a bit while she took some deep breaths. 

"It's not fair JJ." She said looking at me.

"It isn't." I agreed.

"She deserves a good family, a good life. You and I both know how foster care works, the chances of her getting a good family are slim. She's older, she'll most likely get lost in the system."