Disclaimer: as always, I own nothing, no copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: I'm apologize to the many people following this story for the long lapse since my lapse. I'm in the midst of an oppressively strong storm of writer's block. Anyway, I went through and corrected some typos in the previous chapters.

Aaron Hotchner was not in a good mood.

Some people thought he was never in a good mood,but that was not the whole truth. The whole truth about Aaron, like the truth about most of us, is that he was a complex person. He had an outward persona of being very serious, because he thought that was the best way to be an effective leader and agent. There were many times he let his guard down with friends and family. His problem was that years ago, his family walked away from them. He always thought, or at least hoped, that it was a temporary condition. Then Hayley, his ex-wife, was killed by George Foyet. So, Aaron was raising his son Jack alone.

So, there were two Aaron Hotchners; the serious, intense agent, and the loving, gentle father. He told himself he was happy and content with his life. He had control of his world.

Then the man named Archer appeared.

Aaron had already started to worry about Spencer Reid's sanity and well being. Reid actually thought this Archer was his imaginary friend from childhood. This stranger knew things about all of them he couldn't or, more to the point, shouldn't know. Hotch had a sense this Archer was something, no someone, different than anyone the team had ever encountered.

What bothered him most, though, was there was something familiar about Archer. He just couldn't figure out what.

On top of all of this, Emily was back in the US.

Emily.

If he was being honest, part of the reason Hotch was upset was guilt over his decision to fake her death. At the time, it seemed like the best thing to do for everyone's protection. Hotch saw how it wore on everyone, especially Reid. But he still believed it was the right thing to do. With Emily dead, Doyle would undoubtedly focus on looking for Declan, and that's how they would catch him.

It would work, if Emily kept a low profile.

Apparently she hadn't.

But what was she doing here now? And why had she gone to Reid? And who attacked her? Was it Doyle's men? And what did any of this have to do with Archer?

All these thoughts swirled in his head, and put him in a bad mood by the time he arrived at the hospital.

When he got there, JJ was out front waiting for him.

"So what's going on?" he asked.

"It's hard to explain, exactly."

"You said you know Archer."

"When I was kid," she said. "He doesn't look like he's changed. I mean, it doesn't look like he's aged at all."

"What happened?"

JJ paused. She recognized the tone of Hotch's voice, it wasn't what she expected. She expected to hear Hotch the drill sergeant grilling a subordinate. Instead he was using the gentle tone his used when interviewing survivors and families' of victims. That gentle tone of voice was one of the only reason she would tell anyone the truth about Archer.

"He saved my life as a kid."

"How?"

She hesitated. "It's going to sound strange."

"Well Archer vanished in the middle of an interrogation, we still don't know how. I don't see how anything can be stranger than that."

"When I was a kid I was almost eaten by a monster. I would have been, except he killed it."

"A monster?"

"It looked like a dragon, or at least what I always imagined dragons would look like. Then he appeared out of nowhere and killed it."

Hotch was trying to process what she was telling him. In spite of what he told her, he was having a hard time believeing any of this. "How did he kill the monster?"

"With arrows. He shot it in the eye and it broke apart." She paused for a moment, and studied his facial expression. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"It's….a little stranger than I thought it would be. I mean, if anyone else told me that, I don't know if I'd believe them. The truth is ever since Archer walked into my office a few days ago, it's just felt like things stopped making sense."

"That's how I felt after it happened. No one believed me as a kid. My parent took me to a shrink, so I stopped telling people. I'd almost forgot it happened, then he appeared in my house tonight. Right while I was talking with Spence."

"He's here? And Emily?"

"It's hard to explain. Somehow she got here from Amsterdam."

"Amsterdam?"

"She was tracking Doyle and she got shot."

"In Amsterdam? How long ago?"

"Maybe an hour ago."

"Then how did she get here?"

"I don't know. Spence said he heard her and …"

"Heard her where?"

"In his apartment."

"Here. In the US?"

"I know how it sounds."

"I suppose Archer's behind all of this."

"I don't think so. He seemed genuinely surprised by all of this. I think it wasn't him doing it at all. He seemed to think Reid and Emily did it themselves."

"How could that be possible?"

"The same way a dragon could appear at a Church campground in Virginia."

"Are they still here."

"I think so."

"Let's go talk to them."

They walked into the hospital.

A/N: The next few chapters are going to spent in this hospital.