When Kate woke up, she was in the back of a truck. At first she was relieved, thinking that the Zorgens had given her an accidentally small dose and she was still with them, still not transferred.
Her reality dawned on her as she tried to move, but the drug still prevalent in her system made her sluggish and her tight bonds made it even more difficult.
She fought back tears as the truck continued down a dark road. She was lying in the back seat instead of sitting. Kyle was nowhere in sight. The stereo system was different.
The driver's head was different.
She closed her eyes, trying to fight back desperate sobs. She'd been transferred. She'd been transferred and she'd missed one of her best opportunities to get away from these bastards. Alex had covered his tracks too well. She'd been more than out cold when it had happened.
And now...
Kate, the eternal optimist, slowly came to terms with the fact that it was very unlikely she'd get out of this alive.
Derek paced around the interrogation room. Donna refused to look at him; her arms were folded tightly over her chest. It had been thirty minutes and he still hadn't gotten a word out of her.
He looked at the glass; he couldn't see Hotch but he knew that the Unit Chief would be standing on the other side of it, watching.
Derek left the room, not even glancing at Donna.
"Hotch, I think we're going to have to mention that Alex killed Kyle," Derek began without preamble.
Reid and JJ were the first to speak.
"No!" They both exclaimed.
"If we tell her, she has no reason to tell us where Kate is, whether Alex was the one to kill her or us," JJ said. "She might think we killed both of them and are just telling lies! She has nothing to gain if Kyle is dead."
Reid nodded. "I think it would be extremely unlikely for her to give us any information if we told her of Kyle's death," he said, placing a file on the table. "It's all in here. I've been reading up on it."
"But she'll feel betrayed by her lover, the father of her son," Rossi began.
"She has no reason to trust us," Cruz interrupted. "It's a close call, Morgan."
The Section Chief raked a hand through already messy hair. "What about you, Garcia? Are you making any progress on Alex's computers?"
"Not really," Garcia answered, videoing in from the Zorgen house where she was camping out with Hotch, Anderson and other agents from the Unit. "Everything is just super encrypted. It's like if I make one misstep, everything will just be gone." She groaned. "And another wall! This freak knew how to write passwords."
"You can't just use a password bypass program?" Rossi asked. "Surely those exist. Surely you've brought them into existence yourself."
"Thank you for the compliment, but I have to play by Zorgen's set of rules right now and it's going to be hard enough to get in even doing that," Garcia replied.
Hotch moved into view on the camera. "What about you? Are you getting anywhere with Donna?"
"We have a decision to make, Aaron," Cruz began. "One that I'm going to give to you."
There was a moment when Hotch looked terrified; then his expression steeled and he stood up straighter. "What?"
"Do we tell Donna about Kyle's death and lose any potential leverage," Morgan began, folding his arms. "With the chance that she sees Alex for what he really was and hope that she'll give up where Kate was being taken? Or do we go with what we've got?"
Hotch thought. He stepped out of view of the camera and Reid and Rossi just looked at each other for a moment. JJ stared at the file in front of her, her eyes not seeing what was written there, and Cruz cursed under his breath.
"Do it," Hotch said. "Tell her that Alex killed Kyle, and then himself. Tell her she's all alone in the world and that she's going to go to jail for as long as we can put her there...unless she helps Kate."
"Got it," Morgan said.
"Take JJ with you," Hotch ordered, and Cruz didn't veto it, though it was his investigation. "Give Donna a remembrance of approaching motherhood. Of how her son was the only good part of her life with Alex Zorgen. How he took him from her, as he took everything from her in the end."
"Do you want some water?" JJ asked as she stepped in, joining Morgan in the interrogation room. "I know you've been sitting here for awhile."
"I'm fine," Donna said. She watched JJ's progress as the heavily pregnant woman maneuvered herself into a chair. "Why are you still working? Can't they get someone else to take your spot?"
"I don't want to leave," JJ laughed. "Not yet, but thank you for the concern."
"I have no idea why you'd want to stay," Donna said, avoiding looking at Derek. It was obvious that he had become the FBI presence in the room...Kyle's enemy...her enemy.
"I like helping people," JJ related. "I like to help women, like you, get out of terrible situations."
"My situation wasn't terrible," Donna denied. "I loved my son and I had a certain attachment to Alex too. He...took care of me in a way that no one else ever did."
"How so?" JJ asked softly.
"He was one of the first men to love me," Donna said. "One of the first men to see me as beautiful."
"Didn't that come at a price, though?" JJ asked, leaning forward. "Didn't being seen as beautiful by Alex mean no man ever seeing you again? Didn't it mean night after night of being raped—"
"It's not rape if we're married," Donna said.
"For the record, it is," JJ said, her voice like steel. "But Donna, you never married him."
"I did!" She insisted, her voice getting higher. "Maybe not on paper but who needs that! I married him in my heart."
"Did he marry you in return?" Derek asked, breaking into the conversation.
Donna met his eyes with what could only be called hatred.
"Did Kate talk to you?" JJ asked before Donna could speak. "Did you see Kate? Did you talk to her?"
"I did," Donna said. "But like I told her. I'm not telling you a damn thing while my son is in danger. Where is he? Where did you take him? Let me see him! Is he in danger?"
She was almost screaming by the end of it. JJ resisted the urge to reach across the table and shut the woman up.
"Kyle is in no danger," JJ said. "We don't have him in custody."
Donna almost immediately quieted down. "What do you mean? He got away? Are your agents out looking for him, hunting him down like a dog?"
"No one is searching for him," Derek said and Donna again relaxed.
"So what? You let him go?" She asked.
"We let him go free," Derek agreed. "Or Alex did."
"Donna, your husband...Alex...he murdered Kyle and then he committed suicide himself."
JJ spoke the words slowly, making sure Donna heard every single life crushing word.
It took a few seconds.
"I don't believe you," Donna said, and then she was screaming, lunging across the table. "Shut up! Don't tell me lies! Kyle isn't dead! He can' t be!"
JJ darted out of Donna's way just in time, getting up so quickly she was surprised her body managed it. Derek moved forward and pinned Donna's flailing arms behind her back as the woman sobbed.
"No, no, no," Donna cried.
"We can show you pictures," JJ said loudly, above the woman's sobs. "We can prove it."
"Not Kyle, not Kyle," Donna begged. "No. No!"
"Alex killed him," Derek said, and slowly released Donna as she grew limper; stopped fighting.
"I know who bought Kate," Donna said, after a long minute where the only sound was her crying. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose on her shirt before Derek could give her the kleenex box. "He's a man named Lucas. I don't know the last name and I don't know where he lived. But he was one of Alex's...regulars." Her voice broke.
JJ and Morgan looked at each other, both realizing that they were still very far away from a full answer.
"We need a bit more than that," JJ began.
"I don't know more than that, other than what he did," Donna said.
Against his better judgment, Morgan asked the question hanging in the air. "What does Lucas do to his victims? How long does Kate have?"
"Maybe another hour," Donna said listlessly. "I don't remember exactly."
"What does he do?" JJ asked.
"Garcia, I need to check cases where the victims were found with their hands cut off, and their ankles," JJ said, bursting back into the room.
"I'm already on it, Cruz gave me the info," Garcia said, pounding away at her keyboard. "Still, he also said Donna gave Kate an hour."
"I know we need more," JJ said, her voice almost sharp. "Derek's trying, one more time."
Derek burst from the interrogation room. "She gave me Alex's password to an encrypted document that has Lucas's address on it," he shouted.
That was when everything became a blur, of Garcia asking for the information and Morgan passing it along even as the team suited up to go into the fray.
It was a moment before Garcia's use of a very explicit swear word got their attention.
"What?" Cruz asked, as Morgan, Rossi and Reid paused in putting on their Kevlar.
"Hotch just left," Garcia said. "Anderson told me. He took the car and just left."
A/N: In the episode (10x23: The Hunt) Meg is bought by Colin Dupley. Kate, in this story, is not, because Colin's preferences were towards younger women.
