Chapter 3

When Chuck saw Kahlan get in her car and go in the opposite direction, he started his Jeep. Cam reached for the door handle. "We'll get together tonight. I'll do some checking and find out what he's been up to all these years."

Chuck swallowed hard. "I can't believe she is with him," he told him weakly.

Cam looked at his friend. "Let's not jump to conclusions. We need more information before we can figure this out."

Chuck nodded. "Yeah."

"Are you going to be alright?"

Chuck sighed heavily. "Yeah."

Cam looked at him for a long moment and then got out of the vehicle. "I'll see you tonight."

"Yeah."

XXXXX

After going over the particulars of the case, Hotch split the team up to go to the two newest crime scenes, and Det. Green volunteered to take Hotch and Rossi to the ME's.

As the other four agents made their way to the SUV's, JJ shook her head. "Did you see the way she was looking at Hotch?"

"Yeah. Like he was piece of meat or something," Mack injected.

"Hotch better watch himself around her," JJ agreed.

"Hotch would never. . ." Reid started.

"Of course not, but she doesn't know that," Mack pointed out.

"Hotch is a big boy, and he can take care of himself. Don't worry about her or him. Worry about the case," Morgan told them and got in the first SUV. Mack moved to get in the passenger seat but not until after she shared look with JJ.

JJ got in the second SUV, and Reid joined her.

XXX

Later that evening, when Hotch got to the hotel for the night he called Kahlan.

"Hey, Hun," Kahlan answered with a smile in her voice.

"Hey, Babe."

"Wow, that bad, huh?" She could tell from his tone that the case was going to be a rough one.

"Yeah. We got a brutal unsub and no evidence."

"Ouch. You have to wait for more bodies then, huh?"

He sighed heavily. "Yeah."

"Well, try to relax. You guys will solve it."

Her genuine belief in him and his team made a small smile come to his lips. "Yeah." He heard Joey in the background begging to talk to him and it made him chuckle. "How are the boys?"

"They're good. I was worried about them getting bored, but they spent the afternoon outside once Jack got home. Wyatt got all of his school work done today."

Hotch chuckled again. "I guess it's not really a punishment, is it?"

"No, but that's alright under the circumstances."

"Yeah. Let me talk to her before she has a fit." Kahlan laughed. 'Daddy says he doesn't have time to talk to you,' he heard her say. "Kahlan!"

"Oh my God, you should have seen her face!" she told him through laughs.

"Give her the phone."

"Hey, Daddy!" Joey told him when her mother finally gave her the phone.

"Is Mommy being mean to my little Angel?"

"Yes!"

He laughed and spent the next five minutes hearing about all of the exciting things she was doing in school. Once she was done, she told him she loved him and gave the phone back to her mother.

"Well, I've got to get the kids in bed. You need to take a shower, relax, and try to get some sleep," she told him.

"I will."

"No staying up all night going over the case files, Aaron."

He smiled. She knows me so well. "Just one more time."

She chuckled. "Try to get some sleep, Hun. I love you."

"I love you, too, Babe. I'll call you tomorrow night."

"Yep. Be safe tomorrow."

"Yes Ma'am."

XXXXX

Chuck walked into a little bar and found Cam at a little table in the back, his laptop open in front of him and a beer waiting for Chuck.

CHuck took the beer as he sat down and took a long drink. "So?"

Cam licked his lips. "Seems like he has been a busy man since '96," Cam started. Chuck raised his brows, impatient for him to go on. "After he. . . left, he disappears for a while but then shows back up in '99 working in the private sector."

"Doing what?"

"Handling security, merc work, pretty much anything that he could his hands in. As of right now, he is the CEO of Dark Arrow."

Chuck half choked on his beer. "What?"

Cam shrugged.

"So why is he here? What is he doing with Kay?"

"I don't know. His office is based out of California, so I have no idea what he is doing here."

Chuck took a deep breath. "We're going to have to ask her."

Cam shut his laptop and took a drink of his beer. "Yeah, but then we are going to have to confess to following her."

Chuck shook his head. "I can't believe she is messing around with him. Why wouldn't she tell us?"

Cam could tell Chuck was getting pissed. "Because she knows we don't like him."

Chuck huffed. "That's putting it mildly. If he has pulled her into something. . . I'll kill him!"

"It might not be anything like that," Cam offered to try and quell his friend's anger. "He might have just been in town and wanted to have lunch or something."

"Twice?"

"You never know."

"After what he did, she shouldn't even be looking at him, let alone having lunch with him. How could she?"

Cam took a deep breath. "That was a long time ago."

Chuck got up roughly. "I don't care how long ago it was. You know what that did to her!"

Cam got up and picked up his computer. "Yeah, Chuck. I know."

"I'll give her all day to tell me tomorrow, but if she doesn't I'm going to confront her about it," Chuck told him as they headed to the door.

"Alright. Let me know if you want me there," Cam told him as he headed to his car.

XXXXX

Hotch was about to go take a shower when a knock on the door stopped him. He opened it expecting to see Rossi, so he was shocked to find Det. Green standing there. "May I help you detective?"

"I'm sorry to bother you here, but we just got in the tox screens in from the ME. I thought you may want to see them," she told him nicely.

"Come on in," Hotch offered as he opened the door all the way to allow her entry. He didn't notice the smile on her face as she walked in because it was gone by the time she turned around.

She handed him the reports. "Looks like our killer has some sort of pharmaceutical connection."

Hotch read over the reports. Each of the four victims had some sort of drug in their system: one had ketamine, two had rohypnol, and one had diazepam. "The range of drugs will make it harder to narrow down the unsub."

"It would be easier if just one kind had been used?" she asked and he could tell she was interested in learning.

"It will make it harder, not impossible. I'll get my analyst on this first thing in the morning."

"Alright. I will see you at the station," she told him and headed for the door. "Have a good night, Agent Hotchner."

"You, too," he told her and she left. He looked at the door for a second or two, put the reports down on the little table, grabbed his pajamas, and headed for the shower.

XXXXX

Before the team could even consider breakfast, Det. Green called to let them know they had another victim. Hotch, Rossi, and Morgan went to the site, while JJ, Reid, and Mack went to the station to start on the geographical profile and victimology.

Rossi shook his head as he looked at their newest victim. It was a teenaged boy, and while the other victims had all been older, the boy's head was bashed in and he had been shot and stabbed in the chest just like the other four victims.

"If it wasn't for their IDs being left on the bodies, we would have a hard time identifying them with as badly as they are beat," Det. Green told them.

"The level of violence suggests the unsub knows these victims," Rossi pointed out.

"Can we say that it is a man?" Green asked the profilers.

"No. The gun and whatever is used to beat them could be used by either sex," Morgan told her.

"Have you seen a woman be this brutal?" Green asked clearly not believing it could actually be a woman.

"We don't want to narrow the profile down without having evidence to suggest other wise," Hotch told her.

XXXXX

"You seem to be in a bad mood today," Kahlan started as she and Chuck drove to their training session with the young CIA agents. "Cassie still not sleeping?"

"No. Cassie's fine," Chuck told her as he looked at her out the corner off his eye.

"Then what's eating you?"

He huffed. "Is there anything going on that you need to tell me about?"

"What do you mean?" she asked as she looked out the window.

He pulled to a stop at a red light and fixed her with a look. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

She studied him for a second. "You followed me."

He could hear the anger seeping into her tone. "What was I supposed to do with you disappearing and not telling me where you were going?"

She shook her head and looked back towards the window. "It's nothing you need to be concerned with."

"So you are into something! God damn it, Kay! Why the hell are you even talking to him?"

"I have my reasons." She glanced up at the light; it was green but he wasn't moving. "You need to go."

He huffed and hit the gas a little too roughly. "You're really not going to tell me what you're doing?"

"No."

He shook his head. Then I guess we'll just have to keep an eye on you through covert means.