Chapter 4

With daybreak came the massive search for Hotch. JJ and Garcia had arrived at the house a few hours before and had been on the phone and computer throughout the night coordinating the search; their leader was out there somewhere and they were going to find him.

Garcia shook her head at Rossi as she looked up from her computer; the GPS on Hotch's phone wasn't working or he had shut his phone off, which he never did. Rossi was hoping they could have tracked him down that way.

At the first light of day, County officers along with the BAU team sans their leader headed out into the woods pairing off to follow the grid search map created by JJ.

About an hour into the search, the officer paired with Rossi found Hotch's gun at the base of a tree and Rossi's heart sank. They searched nearby calling out Hotch's name to no avail. Calling in the find, Rossi looked fearfully at the large drop off up head, hoping to God that they wouldn't find Hotch's body at the bottom of it.

Finding a safer place to manoeuver, the officer and Rossi slowly made their way down the slope, the rest of the team radioing in that they were on their way.

It was Prentiss who spotted Hotch's belongings in the brush.

"Here!" she shouted; worry evident in her voice. The team started to move to where she was pointing, when Morgan stopped, something had caught his eye.

"Guys!"

Eyes turned to Morgan who was on one knee, a hand covering his mouth shaking his head slowly in denial.

A large hunting knife was jammed in the crevice of two large rocks and nearby, splattered blood stains on the rough rock strewn ground.

Please God, not Aaron's! Rossi thought as he glanced upward at the top of the high slope his mind imagining the horrific possibility of what might have happened.

Morgan stood up turning slowly in a circle taking in the surrounding area.

"Hotch!" he shouted. "Hotch! Aaron! …Can you hear me?"

Only the birds in the treetops answered back.

"We should have looked for him earlier!" argued Morgan.

They were back in the County sheriff's office; after hours of searching for Hotch they came up empty. The blood on the rocks was confirmed as both Hotch's and Ezral's, and with Hotch's gun and belongings left behind they could only assume that the suspect had taken their leader.

If Ezral was the one more badly hurt, Hotch would have brought him in already and if Hotch was dead Ezral most likely would have left his body to be found.

"I tried to follow him...he wouldn't answer me...the damn trees swallowed him up in seconds." Rossi's face was laden with guilt as he leaned against the desk staring at the board set up with all the info they had on Ezral.

"Wouldn't answer...or maybe couldn't, Rossi. It was too dark to see anything, we could have been walking into a trap." stated Reid, glancing at Morgan before he turned his gaze back to the same board Rossi stared at.

"Yeah, just like Hotch did." muttered Morgan, "We should have kept looking..."

Garcia poked her head into the office.

"I thought you might be hungry." She held up a bag of sandwiches from a nearby deli. "I had one of the officers go on a run."

Morgan smiled sadly, "Thanks baby-girl."

"My pleasure."

She moved to the table placing the wrapped sandwiches neatly down.

"Garcia, has..." started Rossi, unwrapping one of the sandwiches.

"No sir...I've checked and re-checked. I'm even running a program right now to check over the stuff I already checked in case I missed checking something, which I never do." she saw the look of defeat on their faces.

"But don't worry...I haven't given up. We'll find Bossman, we'll bring him home. I'm sure of that!" her voice held more hope than her heart, but Garcia forced a smile.

"I'm sure of that." she repeated more softly, grasping Morgan's shoulder lightly. He patted her hand gently.

"Okay, enough, I'm off… I'll let you know the moment I have an update." With a fancy turn in her bright yellow pumps, she left the room.

Rossi smiled slightly. "I'm happy she's on this team."

Morgan nodded as he tossed Reid a sandwich. "So am I…so am I."

The cellar was moldy, damp, but Mason smiled as he clicked the handcuffs into place. He had stripped the agent down to his boxers dropping him onto the floor in a corner of the room and handcuffed the man behind his back to the wall; he stood back and grinned.

"Not so high and mighty now are you, Agent Hotchner?"

After leaving the path, Mason had made his way to an old truck he kept hidden near a back road for emergency situations like the very one he was in. He dumped Hotch's unconscious body in the bed of the truck covering him with a tarp then drove until he left the County far behind then many more miles after that until reaching a small remote house that he used as a second base, a home away from home so-to-speak.

Mason had come across the dilapidated house a few weeks back, abandoned and in need of heavy repair; using a generator for power and cleaning up the place he had made himself at home. He had no ties to this place, so the FBI wouldn't know about it which was exactly what he wanted.

"You have anything to say to me?" Mason asked the unconscious man. Hotch lay quiet, so Mason kicked him in the stomach.

"Okay then." He turned off the one swinging lightbulb and stomped up the stairs slamming the door behind him.

A few minutes later a soft groan echoed from the dark cellar. Hotch's eyes fluttered open then slowly closed.

JJ stood in the doorway to the small office Garcia had situated herself in typing furiously away on her computer. Seeing she was oblivious to her presence, JJ walked in pulling up a chair.

"Anything?" she asked softly, setting a mug of freshly brewed coffee down for the IT tech.

"No, there's nothing! I'd tell you if there was something!"

Frustrated, Garcia glanced at JJ, then at the mug, then back at her screen, her hands never leaving the keyboard.

"I...I'm sorry J.J. I ...we have officers checking all of Ezral's old haunts and re-interviewing everyone who knows him; but it's like...he just fell off the earth...and took our Bossman with him!"

"He may still be alive, Garcia..."

"But...but it's going on twenty-four hours and we know what usually happens to abductees by now…and...and Jack, who's going to tell Jack?"

JJ bit her lip, holding her sorrow at bay. Hotch's son had recently lost his mother, he couldn't lose his father too.

After finding out who the officer was who gave away Ezral's name to the press, JJ used her contacts and within an hour the officer had been fired, any pension in his future doubtful. He had been trying to impress a woman of all things by showing how much he knew about the case.

Hotch could be dead because of a man's ego.

"We'll watch out for Jack, Penelope. He's not going to lose his dad. Hotch will find a way to get back to us, you can count on that."

Garcia nodded, "He's Papa Bear...he's gotta come back to us." she whispered.

JJ stood and squeezed Garcia's shoulder. "I'll let you get back to work." she straightened her jacket and left the room hoping the fear she was feeling would not show too much on her face. She was the BAU's front person and she would keep up a determined front while hiding her dread over the loss of her boss and friend.

He was flying; the night's cool breeze rustling his clothes and he felt like he could fly forever, then suddenly the ground was beneath him bringing with it an explosion of pain. Hotch gasped, his eyes snapping open, then flinched as something brushed against his face.

Blinking slowly, he tried to focus, but found himself surrounded by darkness; faint squeaking noises and his stuttered breath the only things breaking the silence around him. He groaned heavily; the pain he was feeling like shattered glass throughout his body. Another brush against his face made him more alert and he drew his head back; the movement causing a kaleidoscope of colours to splash against his eyesight.

"Wha…whas…" he garbled, the words alone sending another wave of pain shooting through him, his head throbbing.

Biting his lip against the pain he struggled upward until he was leaning against an unseen wall, his legs stretched out in front of him; he could feel the cold metal of the restraints against his wrists as he yanked forward feebly.

"'H'llo?" the word hung in the darkness, his voice scraping across his throat like a razor causing him to cough violently.

Hearing a noise above him, he glanced upward as a sudden light from an open doorway appeared, making him squint; a small staircase coming into view.

Someone was coming…

"Hey...h-help…" he rasped.

Mason sauntered down the stairs and clicked on the overhead light, sneering at the sight of the disheveled Agent. Kicking a rat that was scurrying past aside, he squatted down next to the man.

"'Bout time you woke up…"

"My..m'clothes...Wh...where'm I?" Hotch shivered.

"You're with me." Mason's smile did not reach his eyes.

Hotch's face showed his confusion.

"Who...who r'you?"

Mason blinked, anger surging forward in him like a tidal wave.

"Who am I?"

He grabbed Hotch by the sides of his head slamming it against the wall; his face inches away from Hotch's pain glazed eyes.

"Do you think this is some sort of game?! You thought you had me, but now, I have you…and I can do anything I want to you! You're nothing! A nobody!"

Specks of darkness encroached on Hotch's vision as he panted, struggling to stay conscious; suddenly his eyes widened.

"N-no. Oh...no...My…tell me…tell...my name...I don't kn-know...I..." with a panicked gasp Hotch's eyes rolled into his head and he fell silent.

Mason stared at the unconscious man for a moment then sneered and shoved his head aside, Hotch slipping sideways to the ground.

He doesn't know his name? Could be a trick…

Mason stood glaring at the agent, then yanked off the light and headed up the stairs.

He'd have to think about this…

Prentiss found Rossi standing by the edge of the woods, the sky a rich orange as the sun slouched to its bed.

Over the last two days, the team had returned and conducted several more sweeps of the woods along with the help of County officers; there was still no Hotch, no more clues to his whereabouts, adding to the worry over their leader's well-being.

Prentiss stood next to him, staring into the woods. "Strauss called," she said. "She wants us back at the office; there's another case."

Rossi slowly nodded, his eyes never leaving the woods where his friend disappeared.

"Tell her… I'm not going anywhere."

Prentiss glanced at him, then turned and walked back to the house.

-TBC-