When The World Stops | Completed

Chapter 64: Welcome Home

We stayed in New York to see the case through. Deanna, without any relatives able to take her in, was put in the state care system. Luckily, when she felt able, she'd be allowed to return to her school.

Spencer and I laid in bed, holding hands, staring at the ceiling. He knew I hurt, I'd tried so hard, and it stung that it wasn't enough.

"What do we do about Deanna?" I asked. "I don't want to see her stay in the care system, it's just... it's not good."

"There is one option." Spencer hesitated, "If... if you want to consider it."

I turned to face him, "You mean adopt her?"

"I do." He looked at me.

"Are we ready to?"

He hesitated. "It's almost impossible to be ready for children. We said we were ready for a kid, we got twins. She's a good kid, she's smart, we could do it."

"She'd have to move to DC with us."

"We should ask her." He said, "If you want to look into it as an option for her."

"She's got summer break soon, right? We could bring her down to DC, have her meet the kids, look at schools, all of that." I thought out loud, "If she even wants to."

And so the process began.

***

"Hotch, I know this is unprecedented, but-"

"You want to adopt Deanna, don't you?" he cut me off. "But you need to consult me first, since she's been involved in two cases."

There was no use even trying to hide anything from him.

"Correct." Spencer said. "Well?"

"I think it's a good idea. I'd recommend psychological examinations from a non-FBI psychologist, and there may be some issues with crossing state lines, but I'll help you with it." Hotch smiled at us. "You've asked her?"

I nodded, "She's interested, we have some details to work out, obviously, but we thought checking with you before proceeding would be the best route to take."

"You're absolutely correct, that was the best option." He smiled at us, "You're doing the right thing."

***

"There are some details of the case we need to debrief about before you move forward with this," Hotch sighed as we sat down in his office. "I know you don't like to do this, but..."

"We have to." Spencer finished. "It's FBI protocol, we both know that."

"Let's go over the details of the case first." Hotch opened the folder. "Deanna DeMasi's parents was supposed to be the fifth child killed during this spree. Her parents were the fifth pair of parental victims, along with the homeless girl. She managed to escape being killed through hiding in a secret compartment in her closet. The unsub killed the fourth set of parents, kidnapping the Hendersons, and searched for Deanna. We don't know exactly when, but he left before police were called in."

"We believe it was after Deanna called me, correct?" I asked.

Hotch nodded. "It's possible it was only a short time before police arrived, as the parents may have been disguised."

We went over the next few hours of that day in detail: finding Deanna, taking her to the hospital, finding discrepancies in her story, putting her under police 'protection'. It had been a combination of custody and protection; we had no idea what role she played in the case.

"We now know, as you're both aware, that the unsub wanted her to be pinned for the murder of her parents, giving him time to finish the last kill and escape." Hotch continued, "He was ultimately targeting her due to her involvement in the Son of Sam copycat case."