Chapter 8: A Meeting


The feeling of his Blackberry vibrating against his leg knocked Hotch out of his blissful sleep. He slowly rolled onto his back and pulled out his oversized phone. He looked at the digital display and his stomach dropped. His alarm had been going for three whole hours and he hadn't even noticed. "Shit," Hotch said as he got up and started to strip out of the suit that he had slept in. Hotch had planned to hit the hospital on his way to his meeting with Strauss, but now there was no way that that would happen. As it was, it looked like he might be late to his meeting with Strauss. He peeled off his bandages from the day before and threw them away. He looked in the mirror and was relieved to see that his wounds were already starting to heal up nicely. He then quickly ran into the bathroom, turned on his shower, and jumped in. Besides being somewhat late, Hotch was feeling great.

He had needed every ounce of sleep that he could manage and he had gotten a full 12 hours the night before. His mind was finally at ease, knowing that his whole team had made it through the terrible day that was yesterday. Hotch was still awash with questions about what had happened. He hoped that his meeting with Strauss would fill in some of the blanks but had a feeling that he'd be leaving with more questions than answers. He did still feel bad that he let his guard down, letting his entire team get shot. He also felt bad about the way he had acted when he got back to Quantico the night before. He felt like he was off base in being angry with Strauss and the gate attendant, knowing that he must have just been under a lot of stress.

Hotch quickly washed his hair and turned the shower off, grabbing a towel from the rack and starting to dry himself off. When he felt like he was dry enough, he wrapped his towel around his waist and went back into his bedroom. Hotch got some bandages and replaced the ones that he had taken off of his back. He flipped through some of the suits in his closet and picked one for the day. He got dressed slowly, still aching from the day before, although the sleep and hot water had helped a lot. He got in front of the mirror to straighten his tie out and put his suit jacket on. He then moved over to his bedside safe and typed in the combination. He pulled out his service pistol and took out the magazine.

Grabbing a box of ammunition from his closet, he loaded his clip back up and then slammed it back into his Glock. He racked a round and then put it into his holster, after which he placed it onto his belt. He did the same with his back-up weapon and then put that in an ankle holster, strapping it to his lower shin. He also grabbed his credentials and put it into the breast pocket of his suit jacket. After this, he moved into the bathroom. He put a tissue into the neck of his suit coat and started to shave. For being through a shooting and an enormous amount of stress, he couldn't help but think that he was looking pretty good. Hotch finished shaving and then brushed his teeth and combed his hair. Satisfied that he was his professional self, he moved back to the bedroom.

Hotch did a once over in the mirror and then walked into the kitchen and poured some coffee that was on an automatic timer into a thermos. He then went over to his computer and took the SIM card out, putting it back into his phone. He quickly glanced at the computer and realized that he was cutting his time too close. Grabbing his keys, he half jogged out the door. He took the stairs two at a time and paused as he got to the door to the outside. He had just jogged down four flights of stairs and he was just slightly out of breath. This was good news, knowing that he was starting to heal. He also realized that his hearing was much better than yesterday, although still slightly impaired. He looked out and saw that the sun was out in full force, something that had been relatively common, although autumn was in full force.

He threw on his sunglasses and then exited his building. He unlocked his SUV and jumped in, starting it up. He looked at the clock and did something that he never would have done a week ago. He put on his red and blues, intending to get through traffic much faster. This wasn't even close to protocol, especially because he was just going to be late for a meeting. In the back of his mind, however, he had an inkling that this meeting wasn't going to be full of good news. He had allowed the BAU to be attacked and half of his team had been frighteningly near death. He was surprised that his team was so compassionate towards him, as he was supposed to look out for them, something that he had failed miserably at during the past couple days. Now he was afraid that he would be disciplined by Agent Strauss. Hell, Strauss had come down on him for much less than this. That's when the realization hit him. Hotch had forgotten the shell casing that he had found the night before back at his apartment and he didn't have time to go back and get it. "Great," Hotch mumbled aloud, knowing that he'd be obligated to tell Strauss about it and that this would only compound her anger.

He got within about five miles of Quatico and flipped his lights off. He was now relatively close to making it on time. He got a few hundred yards away and winced. The same gate guard from last night was manning the guardhouse that he had to pass through. He hit the button on his armrest and his window started to creep down. Grabbing his credentials from the breast pocket of his jacket, he slowly creeped his SUV to a stop in front of the pylons. The gate guard moved towards him, and, realizing whom it was, started to scowl immediately.

"Well, look who's back," the man said, taking Hotch's credentials and just quickly glancing at them, now very familiar as to who he was.
"About that, I'm very sorry. I was suffering a concussion last night and had some increased aggression. I promise you that it'll never happen again and I apologize for what happened last night," Hotch said, trying to make up for his rudeness the night before.
"Well, thank you for your apology. Agent Strauss should be waiting for you, have a nice day," the guard said, his scowl turning into a slight smile, although Hotch couldn't tell whether he was being sarcastic or not.

Hotch felt better anyway, having apologized to the gate guard and having the man at least feign understanding. Hotch drove down the winding road to the looming building in front of him and looked into the parking lot. The lot was relatively full so he drove down one of the aisles. As he did, he noticed that there was some crime scene tape around two SUV's. He looked at his clock and found that he had about 10 minutes to spare, time that he had made up by weaving through traffic. He put his SUV in park and jumped out. Seeing a crime scene tech on the other side of the SUV's, he worked his way around to the front of the vehicles.

"Good afternoon, sir," the tech said as Hotch came around the front of the SUV. The tech was a shorter man with glasses, already looking a little sunburned from being out in the bright autumn sun.
"Good afternoon," Hotch replied, adding, "Can I ask you why these two SUV's are taped off?"
"These two are the two vehicles that the intruders used as transports yesterday," the tech said, swabbing the grill of the vehicle.
"I see, would you mind if I took some pictures of the vehicles?" Hotch asked.
"That shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't touch anything. We haven't had the chance to fully process the vehicles yet," the tech said, putting his swab into a tube.
"Thank you, I'll be quick," Hotch said, already taking out his Blackberry.

He quickly erased the pictures from the previous day, having backed them up on his computer already. He then activated the camera feature on his phone. Looking into the windows, he realized there was really nothing to photograph. Both of the SUV's were extremely clean and were totally empty. Having nothing else to photograph, he took a picture of the VIN number on each of the SUV's and then went around back, taking a picture of both of the license plates. He then put his phone back and jumped back into his SUV, thanking the surprisingly open evidence tech as he did.

Hotch found an empty parking spot a few slots down and shut down his Suburban. Getting out, he straightened out his suit and adjusted his gun. He found his stride and started walking towards the building in front of him. As he got close, Hotch took his sunglasses off and put them in his breast pocket. He flashed his creedos to the security guard that welcomed him in and then walked over to the elevator bank. He hit the "Up" button and then took a second to look around. It amazed him as to how quickly people could get back to work as normal. The building must have been let off of lockdown just a few hours ago and the place was once again buzzing with activity. Hotch heard a ding behind him and turned around to an empty elevator. Getting in, he hit the "7" button and waited for the elevator to start moving. It started to creep slowly upward and he watched the numbers tick off above him, much like the terrorists did just a day ago, although in a different elevator, one that was still being processed. The number 7 appeared above him and the elevator dinged. The doors quickly opened and Hotch was puzzled at what he saw. There was blood, shell casings, and scorch marks everywhere and evidence techs were bustling about. Hotch had no idea that any terrorists and made it up to this floor. He again felt terrible, figuring that they had escaped his capture. He moved through the group of techs and started to walk towards Strauss's office. There was a secretary outside of her office and she buzzed Strauss as she saw Hotch walking towards her. Hotch made his way closer and the secretary spoke up.

"Agent Strauss is almost ready for you. If you would just take a seat for a moment, she'll be right with you," the busy secretary said.
"Thank you, m'am," Hotch said, moving to the two cushioned chairs that looked like they could have come out of any doctor's office in America.

As he sat down, Hotch looked over at Strauss's secretary and realized that he could profile quite a bit about Strauss by just looking at her. The young woman was a short blonde with blue eyes, being very attractive. This probably meant that Strauss wanted to put a good image forward. However, the woman was dressed in a pantsuit, as was she during the various other times that Hotch had saw her. Hotch figured that this must have been Strauss's doing and it also showed that Strauss was afraid of not being taken seriously. It was also the reason that Strauss always wore pantsuits herself. Hotch was knocked out of his quick round of profiling by a telephone ring at the secretary's desk. The secretary said a few words and then hung up.

"Agent Strauss will see you now," the woman said, Hotch getting to his feet as she spoke.

Hotch walked in and closed the door behind him. Agent Strauss was reviewing what looked to be a medical chart from the hospital that he had been at, and she looked up at him, taking her glasses off and closing the file, setting it off to the side. Her blonde hair looked much like it always did. Her calm, cold demeanor was still about her, sending a chill down Hotch's spine. Her gray eyes pierced through him and he moved towards the single chair in the room, placed directly in front of Strauss's desk.

"Good afternoon Agent Hotchner, can I get you anything before we start," Strauss said, once again seeming sincere.
"No, m'am," Hotch said, eager to get down to the root of the meeting.
"Well Agent Hotchner, I don't like to mince words and I want to give you this report without interruption. Everything I'm about to tell you has been cleared by the director and he has also approved everything. If you agree to listen without interruption, I'd like to start right now," Strauss said, her voice more stern than before.
"Ok, m'am, go ahead, I'm listening," said a confused but curious Hotchner.
"Ok, as you know, yesterday a group of intruders infiltrated the FBI building here at Quantico. They came in two SUV's. We believe that these SUV's were stolen and equipped with lights to look very much like our own. These men were also outfitted with state of the art body armor and weapons. We don't know where their base was but we hope to find it very soon. We know that they had a relatively easy time getting past our security measures. We don't know why this is but are again hoping to find out very soon. These men then split into two groups. One of the groups took the elevator up to the floor that the BAU was on and the other group took another elevator up to this floor, attacking the men and women that I work with. These men shot up both floors and then detonated vests of explosives, killing even more agents. In total, they killed 37 of our agents yesterday, injuring countless more. I have been reading the files on your agents and they are all lucky to be alive. Unfortunately, there were many other agents who were not so lucky. In light of all this, I have spoken to the director and we have come to the conclusion that the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI be shut down until further notice. And I'm not just talking about this case, I mean shut down completely. Your unit took heavy losses and your work area has been destroyed beyond repair, requiring an entire renovation. Your team in particular isn't even able to function currently, all being severely injured. We will review our decision in three months, but until that time you're agents will get paid leave and will not be allowed to work any cases for the FBI. Do you understand what I have said, Agent Hotchner?" Strauss finished.

Hotch stared back at his superior agent in disbelief, his mouth agape. He figured that this meeting wouldn't be good for him but he never expected it to turn out like this. His team, no not just his team, the entire BAU had been dismantled and not one word had been spoken to him about it. The worst part was that he couldn't even appeal to a higher-up, as the director himself was one of the responsible. Hotch looked at the stone-faced ice queen in front of him and tried to regain his composure.

"I - ma'm - I - I respectfully disagree with your decision. My team is already on the mend and will be fully healed in the matter of a week. We don't need an official workspace. Just throw us in a room somewhere. I mean, hell, all of you guys are still working and there are still scorch marks on the wall outside. I think that it would be a huge mistake to shut down the BAU for three full months. There are departments out there who need our help. We'd like to work this case but we'd be content not to if you'd just let us back on the job. Please take my petition under consideration," Hotch said, trying to contain his anger but getting louder as he spoke.

"First of all, Agent Hotchner, I suggest you calm down. I'm sorry, but the decision has already been made. I'll call you in for another meeting in three months but until then I expect you and your team to behave," Agent Strauss said, after which she opened up another file and made a "shoo-ing" motion with her hand. Hotch couldn't control his anger at this point. He jumped out of his seat and moved towards the door. He opened it and stepped out, slamming it as hard as he could when he cleared the jam. All of the secretary's looked up as Hotch stormed down the hallway and punched the button on the elevator with much more force than was needed. The doors opened and Hotch stepped in. He saw one of the 7th floor bureaucrats running to make the elevator but he quickly hit the "Close Doors" button. He could really care less about anyone but his team right now. His mind was racing and he felt a strong need to get to the hospital and tell his team.

Hotch got out of the elevator and started to jog through the lobby and out the door. He didn't know why but he was starting to feel a festering anger towards this building. It had taken almost everything from him and now it wanted to take his team and even his job from him. He knew that he couldn't let it, knowing that his team would agree with him. They needed to do one thing, whether it was working against orders or not. They needed to solve this case. Hotch was now relieved that he had left the casing at home and that he had taken all of the pictures that he did.

Hotch ran to his car and started it up. He pulled out of his parking spot and squealed out of the parking lot. He was going well over 40 miles per hour as he came up to the gate. He saw the look of fear in the gate attendant's eyes as the man rushed to press the button that lowered the concrete pylons. The man hit the button and Hotch just cleared the pylons as they sunk into the ground. He put his sunglasses on and then simultaneously put his lights and sirens on. Hotch couldn't care less about being disciplined now, how could they take anything more away from him. His one care in the world right now was his team and he was on his way to the hospital to fill them in on the news that he had just received. He had an easy way to do this, taking out his phone and pressing a button, ending a recording that had been going for the past fifteen minutes.


(I'm so sorry it took so long for this update. I've been really busy with finals but it's over now and I should be able to start updating the story with greater frequency...)(Hope you've enjoyed it so far...)(I live on reviews so please, please leave one for me...)(I'll try to update as soon as I can but you can expect Chapter 9 to be up in about a week or two...)(Thanks for reading...)