The Children are Missing

Chapter 9

"You need to clear up a couple of things for us," Hotch told her trying to sound as off-handed as he could.

Kahlan took another drink of her beer and studied both agents. After several moments she smiled. "Just a couple?"

Rossi laughed a little. Kahlan could apparently read Hotch better than Hoch could read her.

Hotch shot Rossi a quick glance. "Yeah, like how two Marshalls ended up thinking they were actually performing an assigned duty."

She took another drink and raised her brows. She leaned her head to the side a little as she bit her lip. "Someone owed me a favor."

"Well, that cleared that up," Hotch said sarcastically.

She smiled. "What? I answered truthfully."

Hotch shook his head and took another drink, and Rossi smiled. Hotch tried to figure out another question that she couldn't evade so easily. "Why are there ten years in your history were you don't exist?"

Rossi almost choked on his scotch with that. He shot Hotch a look.

"Well, let's just get right to the point, huh?" Kahlan asked him with raised brows. Hotch shrugged. "I could have sworn that was supposed to be taken care of," she mused and took another drink.

"Yeah? And who was supposed to do that?" Hotch asked with narrowed eyes.

"An old colleague of mine."

"And where would that colleague happen to work?"

"In Virginia," she said simply.

Rossi watched them like he was watching a tennis match, and he was sure Kahlan was winning.

Hotch took another drink and sat back in his seat. "Where exactly in Virginia?"

"Right now, I think he works in Langley."

Hotch raised his brows at that. Anyone who knew anything about Langley, knew that's where the CIA headquarters was located. Hotch didn't want to just come out and ask her if she had worked for the CIA. All of her answers so far had been too evasive, and he didn't think she would answer that directly either. "Have you ever traveled outside the US?" The CIA didn't operate within the US, at least, they weren't supposed to.

"I would assume you didn't find a passport on file."

"No."

"I would have to have a passport to travel out of the country."

"You didn't answer the question."

"Maybe it's on file in the ten years you seem to be missing," she told him with a smile and took another drink of her beer.

"Exactly what were you doing in those ten years?"

Rossi took a drink of his scotch. And here we go.

"Oh, I don't know. A lot of things, I guess."

Hotch ran a hand down his face. He could tell she was enjoying this. He finally decided to just come out with it, so he leaned in closer to her. "Are you now, or have you ever been a spy?"

Rossi almost choked again obviously not expecting Hotch to be so blunt.

Kahlan laughed at Rossi, but asked him, "you ok?" Rossi just nodded.

"Are you going to answer the question?" Hotch asked her as he tried to read her face.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

Hotch shook his head. She's avoiding the question. That has to mean the answer is yes.

She studied him for a moment keeping her eyes steady.

Come on, move your eyes so I can tell if you're lying or not, Hotch thought as he matched her stare.

"The word 'spy' is so archaic," she told him without moving her eyes.

Rossi laughed. He really was enjoying the verbal sparring match.

"Being a spy would mean that I have worked in other countries to try to gain their secrets, and I can honestly say I have never done that," she told him with a sly smile.

"Alright, spy was the wrong word. Let me go with 'agent'."

"So you're asking me if I am now or have ever been an agent?" She asked him with a little laugh.

"I guess I am." Hotch asked leaning back in his chair and emptying his scotch.

A waitress suddenly appeared with another round and an order of hot wings. Rossi emptied his glass and handed it to the waitress with a thank you.

Kahlan avoided answering the question as she grabbed a wing and started to eat it. She gestured to the wings, offering them some. Rossi took one with a laugh. He knew what Kahlan was doing. She exaggerated her chewing making Rossi laugh even harder. Hotch rolled his eyes and took a wing.

She took another drink and became serious again. "Which agency are you suspecting me of working for?"

"I don't know, that's what I am asking you," Hotch told her as he put the chicken bone on the side of the plate.

"I can tell you honestly, that I don't work for any of them," she told him with a serious look.

"Yeah, but what about 'worked' as in past tense?"

She wiped her hands on a napkin. Hotch could tell she was trying to figure out how to answer without actually answering.

"I can truthfully tell you that no agency's name has ever been on one of my paychecks," she told him with a smile apparently satisfied with the completely ambiguous answer.

Hotch shook his head. He felt like he questioning a slippery eel.

"Does it really matter what I did over ten years ago?"

"Yes, it does."

"Why?"

"I'm just trying to figure some things out."

"What is it you want to know specifically?"

"Where did you learn that move you used on Rossi?"

She smiled and looked at Rossi. "I am sorry about that."

"I'm fine, but I would like to know how you did it," Rossi told her.

"Maybe I'll have to teach you when this is all over. It would actually be benifical for your whole team to know," she told him seriously.

"Where did you learn it?" Hotch asked again.

"Maybe my dad taught me. He was in the army, as I'm sure you know."

"Why can't you just give me a straight answer?"

Kahlan lost all pretense of joking. With a serious look, she stared Hotch down. "You know what, I want you to really think about it, and make sure you truly want to know the answers, before you ask me again."

Hotch stared at her for a moment. Then he looked at Rossi. Rossi shrugged, he wasn't sure what to make of it. Just then a woman bumped into Hotch.

"Oh. I am sorry," she told him.

"That's fine," Hotch told her as he leaned out of the way.

The woman smiled at him, and winked as she swayed a little as she tried to take a drink of her cocktail but kissed the straw completely.

Kahlan rolled her eyes at the woman, but she was too interested in Hotch to get the hint. Rossi laughed at the younger man who was oblivious to the drunken woman's obvious advances.

"Come on honey, I can show you a better time over here," she told him as she pulled on his coat.

"No, thank you," Hotch told her as he tried to pull away from her and still be a gentleman. He looked pleadingly at Rossi.

"Oh come on, you'll have a better time with me," she told him as she tried to get close to his face.

Hotch leaned away from her, almost falling out of his chair.

"Well, I can give you a better time than that bitch," the woman said gesturing toward Kahlan.

The smile on Kahlan's face disappeared. "Excuse me?" she asked the woman quietly.

Hotch could tell by the look in her eyes that Kahlan wasn't going to let the insult slide, so he stood up and put himself in between the drunk woman and Kahlan. "Look, I think you better go," he told the woman as he tried to push her away for her own safety.

"What? She your wife or something?" the drunken woman asked.

Kahlan stood up quickly. Rossi jumped up, too, he wasn't sure what Kahlan would do to the woman. Kahlan shot Rossi a quick smile but stepped next to Hotch. She then put her arm around Hotch's waist, kissed his cheek, and leaned forward to face the woman. "Not yet, but he's still all mine." Kahlan told her with a smile. The woman finally looked at Kahlan, and even though Kahlan wore a smile, the drunken woman couldn't ignore the malice she saw in Kahlan's eyes. She finally moved away from Hotch and went back across the bar.

Kahlan let go of Hotch as she gave Rossi another smile. Rossi sat back down and returned her smile.

Hotch just looked at her, clearly puzzled by what she had just done. Kahlan and Rossi looked at each other and they both laughed.

After she stopped laughing, Kahlan finished her beer and stood up. "I better head to my room, before I get into trouble."

Hotch looked at Rossi. She hadn't answered any of his questions, not exactly. He knew, though, that was about all he was going to get.

Rossi stood up and smiled at her. "Yeah, it is getting pretty late for an old man like me."

"I never said you were old," Kahlan told him with a smile.

Hotch stood up, too. "We'll walk with you."

They all put on their coats. Kahlan put a five on the table for a tip and headed to the bar to pay the bill.