Chapter 4
Hotch and Kahlan silently made their way down the passage in the cave. They had one more unsub and two children to find, and those were the ones they knew about. Hotch silently seethed. They had yet to find the cop the woman had said was in on it. It made sense to him, though, because that would explain why they had had so much trouble with the case. He shook his head.
"Hun?" Kahlan asked as she put a hand on his back.
"He's a cop."
She took a deep breath and could understand his anger. "You all thought it was someone connected to the case."
"But we had no idea it was five guys."
She could tell he was getting mad at himself. "All of the DNA belonged to one man, Aaron. That's not your all's fault."
He huffed but then he froze when he heard crying, crying that was made up of soft, little whimpers like from a child. His heart clenched as he sped up slightly.
When they got close to another chamber, Kahlan pulled him to a stop and used the camera to look around the corner. The screen showed two heat images sitting on the far left. "Looks like the kids," she whispered.
He nodded as she panned the camera around to see if it picked up anything else. Where is he? He took a chance and glanced around the corner. "I think I can see a light coming from a corridor on the other side."
Kahlan looked at him and knew immediately that he wanted her to stay with the kids and him to go on alone. "Aaron!"
"You can protect the kids," he insisted.
"We can get them out and then come back in," she countered.
A scream filled the air and set her teeth on edge, and she knew her argument was as dead as the two bodies they had found earlier. He raised his brows to see if she had anything else to say. Her eyes hardened. "Why do you have to be so damn stubborn?!"
He grinned. "Cause I was made for you."
She huffed. "I swear, Aaron. If. . ."
"I'll be fine!" he insisted and started into the room.
They could tell the children couldn't see them in the dark, so Kahlan approached them slowly to try not to scare them too much. "Hey there," she tried in her most motherly tone and they both startled and grabbed onto each other. She watched Hotch disappear down the passageway and then took out a flash light. She shined it on herself. "I'm here to help," she tried as she squatted down. They kids eyes went wide and they both jumped up. Her heart sank when she saw them tied to hook that had been pounded into the rock wall. They were both dirty, but they looked basically alright. "My name's Kay," she told them with a smile as she got closer to them. "What's yours?"
The little boy licked his lips and looked at the girl. He smiled. "Travis and this is my sister, Agatha."
Kahlan took out her knife and cut the ropes holding the kids back and then held out her arms to invite the kids to her. The boy moved instantly, but the little girl hesitated for just a second and then quickly followed her brother. "I'm going to get you out of here," she assured them softly as she squeezed them.
Once she let up they pulled back and she took one more look to where her husband disappeared and then took a deep breath and looked back to the kids. "Can you walk?" she asked Travis who she thought was a couple years older than Agatha. He nodded, so she picked Agatha up in her arms and started back the way they had come. "Come on. I have friends waiting outside," she told them. A gunshot rang out and made Travis slam himself into her legs as Agatha whimpered. Kahlan squatted down and put her arm around Travis. "It's ok," she tried. God, please let it be ok!
Once they calmed down a little she started them forward again going a little faster. She wanted to get them to safety and go find her husband as fast as possible. She was a little worried about using the flashlight to light their way but she knew she had to so the kids could see, and she prayed that the last unsub was behind her.
After several minutes, a whistle made her relax even more. Chuck came around the next corner quickly followed by Morgan, Michaela, JJ, and Mack. Kahlan handed Agatha off to JJ as Mack picked up Travis. She gave them a smile. "This is JJ and Mack and they're going to take you out." Travis nodded, and Kahlan squeezed his hand. "I have to go back in a help my friend."
He nodded again and the girls took them back the way they had come with Morgan going with to keep guard.
"Cam and the rest of them are searching the other passages. So far three others have been rescued," Chuck told her.
Kahlan nodded and then turned her flashlight off and put her glasses back on as she headed back towards Hotch. "We heard a scream, and then after we split up I heard a shot."
Chuck got in beside her and put his hand on her back. "He'll be fine," he tried with a smile.
"He better be or they'll be hell to pay," she told him as she sped up a little more. Chuck shared a look with Michaela and she shrugged.
Another gunshot spurred Kahlan into a run and Chuck jumped to try and catch up with her. "Kay!" As soon as he made it around the next turn, he ran into her back before he could bring himself to a stop.
She almost tumbled over from it. "Damn it, Chuck!"
He straightened her as he ducked his head. "Sorry."
She shook her head as she stared at the fork in the passage ahead of her. Chuck and Michaela silently waited for her to decide what to do. Kahlan took a deep breath as she eyed both passages and then shined her flashlight onto the ground. Nothing indicated which way Hotch had gone, and she looked at the passages again.
"Split up?" Michaela asked.
Kahlan inhaled through her nose and then pointed to the left. "You two head that way."
Chuck clenched his teeth. He didn't like the idea of Kahlan going alone, but he also knew Kahlan was not going to let Michaela go alone because she wasn't seasoned enough yet. He looked at his best friend. "Ten minutes. If we haven't found him, we meet back here."
She eyed him for a second and then nodded. She gave him a grin. "And don't shoot my husband on accident!" she joked to try and lessen the stress she could see building in his eyes.
"I wouldn't dream of it. I know what you would do to me," he told her and then laughed as he headed down the passage with Michaela on his heels.
Kahlan took a deep breath and started forward. She was starting to get an uneasy feeling and she didn't like it one bit. She cracked her neck. If you have hurt him, I will kill you. No one will be able to protect you! She moved her pistol to her left hand and pulled her knife back out with her right as she made her way further into the cave. The steady downward slope of the passage told her she was getting pretty deep into the ground and she imagined a natural spring running through there at one point in the past. She also started to feel humidity and wondered if there was still water in the cave somewhere.
Her heart skipped a beat as she saw a foot jutting out around the next corner. It was big enough to be one of Hotch's and with the way the glasses bathed everything in a shade of light green, she couldn't tell if it was her husband's or not. She held her breath as she approached it. She stole a glance around the corner and her breath left her in a rush of relief because it wasn't Hotch. She kneelt down next to man and felt for a pulse. He moaned and she flipped him over. He was wearing a deputy's uniform and she half growled and then flipped him back over and then took a zip tie out of her pocket and restrained the man's hands behind his back. She smiled to herself as she saw blood in the man's hair and knew that Hotch had hit him. As she stood up, she kicked him. "That's for making me think my husband was the one who was lying here!"
She took a deep breath to calm herself back down and then started down the passage again. A shot, one that seemed very close, made her freeze. Now who's shooting at whom? She shook her head and took off at a run.
As she came into the next large opening, her heart sank. Hotch was falling and man with a gun in his hand was standing just inside another passage on the far side. "No!" she screamed as she aimed and the man went down with a bullet between his eyes as she still headed for her husband. The slope of the floor tilted downward drastically and moss and moisture that covered the rock made her slip and slide and she ended up falling into and over Hotch as he tried to catch her. They both ended up tangled up in a heap. "Aaron!" she exclaimed as she realized he wasn't dead.
"Jesus, babe!" he exclaimed just as loudly as he tried to right himself.
She pushed him over and started running her hands all over him.
"I'm fine! I slipped, that's all," he tried knowing she was checking him for wounds.
She finally took a breath and relaxed a little. He gave her a grin. "Nice shot."
She smacked him in the gut right below his vest and the air gushed out of him. She crossed her arms. "That's for making me think you were hurt!"
Once he could breathe again, he shook his head. "I wasn't trying to! I literally fell as soon as you came in!"
She huffed.
"What? You fell, too!"
"I was running to you!"
He pulled her to his chest. "I know, but I'm ok."
She took another deep breath and wrapped her arms around him. "I was scared."
He squeezed her a little tighter. "I know, Babe. I know."
After a few moments, he pushed her away and looked at her. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," she assured him and then looked at herself. "Well. . . except for being filthy now."
He chuckled and stood up. He slipped twice, but got himself steady and then helped her up. "We got them."
She nodded. "I saw the guy you knocked out."
He huffed. "And I thought that was the end of them."
She shook her head. "Everyone is in here searching. God knows how long it will take or how many there really are," she mused as she reached back and rubbed her shoulder where she had been hit with the bullet.
He went up the slope and held his hand out to help her up. She took it with a smile and he put his arm around her. She winced when she saw a dead woman lying on the ground close to where the man had been standing. Hotch saw what she was looking at. "She was gone by the time I got in here." She squeezed him to offer some sympathy because she knew it had bothered him. "I was heading back out when he came into the room and then I turned to face him and slipped down that slope. I didn't even see it with these damn glasses on."
She nodded. "I didn't see it either."
"Let's get out of here and let everyone else handle the rest of the search."
She smiled. "Sounds good to me."
When they got to the first junction in the passageway, Hotch stopped and looked at his wife. Kahlan looked at him with raised brows. "Aaron!"
He shifted a little and looked away from her.
She let out a laugh. "You don't know how to get back out, do you?"
He ran his hand through his hair as he studied the passages in front of him. He looked at the ground, but the rock there didn't offer any clues. He finally drooped and looked at her again. She laughed again, and he shook his head. "Shut up, Kahlan, and show me the damn way. I wasn't focused on which way I was going in my hurry to catch the unsubs and save people!"
She giggled and then took his hand and led him to the right. "What would you have done if I wouldn't have shown up?" She also knew he lost all sense of direction in the dark.
He held his head up. "After I took care of that last guy, I would have sat down and waited for one of you, obviously."
She laughed again.
XXX
Rossi about collapsed in relief when Hotch and Kahlan finally emerged from the cave. He walked up to them as he studied them. He shook his head. "Do I even want to know what you two were doing?" They were both covered with mud, slime, and dirt.
Kahlan shot her husband a look and then detached from him and went towards her people without a word.
Hotch gave Rossi a cocky grin as he leaned in close to him. "Doing it in a cave has always been one of Kahlan's fantasies."
The shock on Rossi's face almost made Hotch bust out laughing but his face stayed passive and he just shrugged a little and followed his wife. Rossi stared after him and then looked back to the cave. There's no way. He watched as Hotch gave Kahlan's shoulders a little squeeze before he went to the throng of police and such. Rossi shook his head. There's no way. Hotch wouldn't do that. . . would he?
XXX
By the time it was all over and the cave had been completely searched, a total of seven unsubs had been either killed or apprehended, four bodies had been found, and eight people had been saved. Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose and then surveyed the scene around him. People were everywhere; there were local police, state police, press, ambulances and EMTs, dog units, his team, Kahlan's people, and victims with their friends and family. It had been a long day and the sun was starting to set and he was glad things were drawing to a close. He felt a hand on his back and turned to see his wife. She gave him a smile. "I think the others can handle it from here, don't you?"
He took a deep breath and looked around him again.
"Go. I can wrap this up," Rossi insisted.
Hotch licked his lips and then looked at Rossi. "You sure?"
"Yes! Go! Take a damn shower! That slime you're both covered in stinks!"
Kahlan huffed and Hotch shook his head as he grabbed her hand. "You heard the man."
She smiled and they went to one of the waiting SUVs to head back to the hotel.
*The new story is added to the website under the 'More' button. I have also added some of Kahlan's people to the 'Character Photos' page.
talesofhoffer. com - no spaces - for those of you who don't know.