Chapter 2

Hotch silently sat in his seat on the jet. The whole team knew how worried he was. The laptop came alive and JJ was in Garcia's lair with her. "Kahlan's car is at the courthouse," JJ told Hotch. Rossi noticed Hotch wince ever so slightly. "We can't get through to any of the responders yet, but Will is in route to check on things personally."

"Thanks, JJ. What do we know of the unsubs?" Hotch asked her.

"I don't think anyone really knows anything yet. Everything is still too chaotic, but as soon as information starts to roll in, you'll have it."

Hotch's phone vibrated. He took it out and his breath hitched in his chest when he saw it was his wife. "It's her," he said quickly and the answered. "Are you alright?" Hotch asked Kahlan quickly as soon as the call connected.

"You know, huh? Yes, Aaron. I'm fine."

"Thank God!" Hotch exclaimed and everyone knew she was fine.

"I was just stepping out when the first shot rang out. Do you have the details?"

"No, but Paxton has recalled us. We are in route now."

"Why are you all handling a courthouse shooting?"

"Five courthouses were hit at the same time."

"What?!"

"Yeah. Apparently it's already been claimed, but we don't have any specifics yet."

Kahlan was silent, but Hotch could hear her moving through the street. "Terrorists! God damn it!"

"That's what we're thinking."

"There were three shooters here."

"Jesus Christ!"

"And they had automatic weapons."

"So they are armed and organized. Did you get a look at one?"

She huffed. "Homegrown."

"No!"

"Sorry, Hun."

"That'll make them harder to find."

"Yep. I'll call you back," she told him quickly and ended the call.

"What?" Rossi asked as soon as Hotch took his phone away from his ear.

"Kahlan saw one of the shooters."

"One of them?" Mack asked quickly.

"She said there were three and he was an American. They had automatic weapons." Hotch noticed looks of anger and concern on his teams' faces.

"We should have some more information by the time you all get here," Garcia told them. Since Kahlan was alright, she was focusing her efforts on searching the cameras around the courthouses for footage on the shootings.

Hotch phone went off again. "Yeah, Babe?"

"I think I found you a calling card."

"What? Where? Don't. . ."

"Jesus, Aaron, I'm not some inept local cop. No offence Will."

Hotch heard Will laugh in the back ground. His phone vibrated and he quickly looked at a picture of a little card with a symbol on it. He winced; he should have known Kahlan knew better than to touch it before it could get processed. "Sorry, Babe." Garcia suddenly received the same image and displayed it on the computer screen for the team to see it. It was a red semicircle with a piece that came up out of the center of it. Hotch put his phone on speaker. "I got you on speaker," Hotch told Kahlan, and he realized Garcia had connected to the call, too.

"That symbol look familiar, Reid?" Kahlan asked.

"I thought that's what it was," he told her.

"That's from Star Wars," Mack told them, and they could hear Kahlan's laughter.

"You know, Mack, I like you more every day," Kahlan told her. Hotch saw Mack smile.

"Well, why don't you all let us normal people in on it?" Rossi asked impatiently.

"That's the Alliance Starbird; the symbol for the Rebellion," Reid started.

"The good guys, you know, like Han and Luke and them," Kahlan added.

"They were rebelling against the Galactic Empire and their control over everything," Mack finished.

"So we have a bunch of Trekkies playing terrorist and shooting up a bunch of courthouses?" Morgan asked flabbergasted. They could all hear Kahlan suck in her breath and it matched the looks on Garcia's, Reid's, and Mack's faces. "What?"

"Derek, the next time I see you, I am going to hit you!" Kahlan told him. Hotch shot Rossi a look; they could all hear the anger in her voice.

"Why? What'd I say?" Morgan asked quickly.

"Never call a Star Wars fan a Trekkie. That's like a slap in the face!" Mack told him.

"My poor Chocolate Thunder. You are so dead!" Garcia told him as she shook her head in sympathy.

"Trekkies like Star Trek, Morgan, not Star Wars. You can start a war by saying something like that," Reid explained.

"I didn't know!" Morgan tried to plead his case.

"And if our unsubs are even a quarter as touchy as these guys are, you could have gotten yourself shot," Rossi pointed out.

"He still might!" Came Kahlan's voice.

Hotch chuckled. "Well, if we can leave geek central and get back to the case at hand. . ."

"You better watch it, Aaron. I know where you sleep," Kahlan told him and everyone laughed.

Hotch shook his head.

"So they are rebelling against the judicial system?" JJ mused to try to bring the discussion back to the case at hand.

"And if they think they're the good guys. . ." Rossi started.

"Then, they'll think you all are the bad guys," Kahlan finished for him, and Hotch could hear the concern in her voice.

"We're starting to get reports in from the scenes. We'll have it all complied by the time you all get here," JJ told them.

"I want to split up and head to each of the scenes," Hotch started. "Morgan and Reid, I want you all to go to Alexandria and Arlington. Rossi and Mack, you two go to Stafford and Leesburg. I'll go to Manassas and meet up with Kahlan and Will."

They all nodded.

"I'll see you then," Kahlan told him and ended the call.

JJ looked at Hotch. "Hotch."

Hotch looked at her quickly because of her tone. "What?"

"Will texted me. Kahlan lied about being fine."

"What?"

JJ licked her lips. "He thinks she's been shot."

"She sounded fine. . ." Hotch started, but then shook his head angrily. "That's why she had to let me go."

JJ shrugged. "I don't know, but Will wanted me to tell you. He thinks she was shot in the side, and from witness accounts he's heard, it's because she was helping to get them under cover."

Hotch let a breath out through his nose. "I'm going to kill her." He shook his head again. "Tell Will to try and get her looked at, and tell him thanks, please." He didn't think it could have been that bad because he hadn't felt anything, but it still bothered him that she'd lied about being hurt.

JJ gave him a small smile. "I will."

XXX

Hotch stepped out of the SUV and he immediately saw Kahlan and Will. He quickly took in her clothes and his heart skipped a beat at all of the blood on her right side. Once he was close enough, Kahlan turned and saw him. Hotch fixed her with his best stare. "Kahlan Lavonne Hotchner!"

Kahlan winced and then looked at Will. He suddenly found the ground very interesting, and she knew he had told on her. "Thanks, Will." Anyone who was standing in between Hotch and his intended target quickly moved out of his way when they saw his face. He advanced on his wife quickly. She smiled. "Hey, Hun."

"Don't you Hun, me. Has she been checked out?" He asked Will.

"Yes, and. . ." Will started.

"And it's just a scratch," she finished for him.

Hotch's look told her he didn't believe her. "When I'm done here, you will go to the hospital," Hotch told her in a tone that told her not to argue.

She sighed heavily. "Fine. Come on," she told him as she led the way through the crowd. "Lt. Jefferies, this is SSA Hotchner from the FBI." Kahlan introduced Hotch to the ranking local officer on the scene.

"Glad to meet you, Agent. I can't tell you much more than Agent Dunmire, here. It seems like she's got the best information as she was on scene when it happened."

Hotch nodded. He had wondered what Kahlan had done to be part of the investigation. She had pulled out her FBI alias. "You were just coming out when it started?" He asked her.

She nodded and led him toward the street. "Your shooters were here, there, and over by that tree," she told him as she got to the edge of the courthouse lawn and pointed out where the shooters had been. "The card was stuck in that same tree."

Hotch looked the scene over. "Any idea where they went?"

"The one I saw took off across the street. With all of the chaos, I lost him behind a line of busses," Kahlan told him sheepishly.

"Any witness accounts of vehicles?"

"Not so far," Will told him. "With everyone running in all directions, no one knows who the shooters were."

"Sorry, Aaron. Had I'd known what we were dealing with, I would have gone after him," she told him and he could tell she was disappointed with herself.

"Are you even armed?" Hotch asked her.

"No."

"So what? You were going to chase down a man with an assault rifle?"

"Yeah?" she told him slowly, not quite knowing what he was getting at.

Hotch shook his head. "Of course you would have. Think you saw him well enough for a sketch?"

"Of course."

He smiled; he knew she would have. He turned to Will. "Are you actually working this case?"

"No, but I called my boss and told him I was here. He said I could help out until things settled down, but he wants me in this afternoon."

"Well, thank you for everything. I think it would be alright if you head back," Hotch told him. "If this escalates, they're going to need you."

Will glanced at Kahlan and patted Hotch on the shoulder and then made his way to his SUV. Kahlan pulled on Hotch's arm. "What do you know?"

"Nothing really, yet. Let me find out all I can here and then. . ." Hotch started but then noticed several FBI agents show up, and he smiled. Kahlan looked at him questioningly. "Anderson!" Hotch yelled at one of the young agents.

The man jumped, and then quickly ran over to Hotch. "Yes, Sir?"

"Do me the favor of escorting my wife to the hospital. She needs to be checked out."

Anderson looked at Hotch, then at Kahlan, and then looked like he was going to faint.

"Aaron, I don't need a babysit. . ."

"You will go with Agent Anderson, and you will behave," Hotch told her with enough of an edge in his voice that any normal person would have been shaking with fear. He turned to Anderson who swallowed hard. "She will not leave the hospital until she has been cleared, and you have talked to the attending physician personally! Is that clear?"

Anderson nodded quickly. "Perfectly clear, Sir." Anderson had screwed up once in Hotch's eyes, and he wasn't going to do it again, especially with his wife. "Right this way, Ma'am," Anderson told her as he gestured to the SUV he had just gotten out of. She shot Hotch a look, but went to the SUV without another word.

Hotch watched them drive away. He figured she was mad at him, but if she wasn't going to take care of herself, then he had to do it. His phone vibrated. He took it out and looked at the message from her. 'You're so hot when you're mad!' He shook his head as he chuckled and went to find out all he could about the scene.