For the Love of a Daughter (A Criminal Minds Fanfic)

Chapter 15: I'm Gonna Stand by you

Danny tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the bell to ring, barely paying attention to his History teacher going on and on about some war that happened hundreds of years ago. It was nearing the end of the second period and there was still no sign of Aria. He was officially worried.

She should've been here already. He thought.

After what seemed like forever the period finally ended and Danny was the first one out the door. As he made his way to his locker, he pulled out his phone and saw that there were no new messages. He dialed Aria's number again but it went straight to voicemail. He sighed then shoved his phone back into his pocket. He was a few steps away from his locker when he ran into Izzy.

"Hey. Have you heard from Aria yet?" He asked her.

She shook her head. "No. I was hoping you did."

"Not since she sent me that text earlier. She said she was running late but it's been over an hour already. She's not replying to any of my texts."

"Mine either." Izzy said.

"And her phone keeps going straight to voicemail." He sighed. "Do you think something happened to her?" He asked worriedly.

"Don't jump to any conclusions." She replied, slightly annoyed. "She did say she was gonna be late."

"Yeah, by like 20 minutes. Not over an hour."

"Maybe she got held up. Her bus could've broken down. Or maybe there was an accident on the highway and she's stuck in traffic." She reasoned.

"Maybe." He said, unconvinced. "I just have a bad feeling about this." He told her.

She frowned. "You do know that Gia's your twin and not Aria, right? Pretty sure that spidey twin sense thing doesn't apply to her."

He shook his head. "Yeah, whatever Izzy. Look, I have a free period before lunch. I think I'm gonna head over to the manor to find out what's going on."

"Yeah. That's a good idea." She agreed. "I'd go with you but I have PE and I can't afford to skip another class or else Simmons will fail me." She told him. "Keep me posted, though?" She asked as she grabbed her gym bag from her locker.

He nodded. "Have fun with Simmons." He called out as she rushed off towards the gym but not without giving him the finger first.

He shook his head, not feeling the least bit offended by Izzy's gesture. It was nothing new. Grabbing his backpack and car keys, he shut his locker then made his way to the school's parking lot, eager to find out what was keeping Aria from school.

Aimee made her way up the staircase, ignoring the looks she got from the BAU team. They probably heard everything she just told Aaron but she didn't care. She needed to say her piece since she didn't really have a choice in dealing with what would happen to Aria.

Opening the door to the first room on the right, she slowly walked inside, closing it behind her. The scent of Aria's perfume hit her nose as she looked around the room. It was mostly tidy except for a few clothing items scattered around and the bed was unmade, which made sense considering the fact that Aria was running late. She wouldn't have left her room in that state if otherwise.

She picked up Aria's favorite grey hoodie, which had previously been hers. She made her way over to the bed and sat down, clutching the hoodie tightly to chest as she inhaled the familiar scent of her daughter.

Please let her be okay. She prayed. Please let her come back to me safely.

"How're you holding up?" Dave asked as he walked back into the dining room.