Chapter 11

While Hotch and Rossi waited for Chuck, Hotch put in a call to Garcia to have an APB put out on Kahlan's car and had her search the traffic cams to see if she could figure out where Kahlan went. Chuck ran in through the door and found Rossi sitting at the table and Hotch pacing in the kitchen. "Do you have any idea where she might be?" Hotch asked before Chuck had even stopped moving.

"No, but Cameron can track her," Chuck told him as he took out his phone. After a few moments, they heard him talking to the computer genius from Kahlan's old team. "No, she's not at her house," Chuck told him with concern.

Hotch's shoulder's slumped a little more as he held up a little glass vile for Chuck to see. "Is this what he's tracking?"

"Son of a bitch!" Chuck yelled as he looked at the locator that had been their key to finding Kahlan. "No, Cam, the locator's here. No, we're not sure yet. Yes, I will call you as soon as I know anything," Chuck ended the call and took the locator from Hotch. "If she's removed this, then I have no idea how to find her."

"Where was that thing?" Rossi asked not really sure he wanted to know.

"We all have one injected into our forearms," Chuck told him sadly.

Rossi winced, that meant she had dug it out on her own. "Still, though, you guys used to track people for a living, right?"

"Yeah, but tracking's the easy part. Kahlan was the expert who did the finding, so we could do the tracking."

"Alright, we know he targeted Hotch to get Kahlan to come out. Do you think he wants her dead?" Rossi asked Chuck.

Chuck looked at Hotch then looked back to Rossi. Rossi could tell he didn't want to answer the question in front of Hotch. "Just answer him, Chuck," Hotch told him.

Chuck took a deep breath. "Eventually, yes."

"Meaning he wants to get his hands on her first, not just kill her out right," Hotch said through shaky breaths as he slid down the back of one of the chairs.

"What's your honest opinion? Do you think she can get to him first?" Rossi asked Chuck.

"I don't know. Fifteen years ago, of course, but now that she's been out so long, I really don't know," Chuck told him and shook his head.

"What will he do to her if he gets his hands on her?" Hotch asked him desperately.

Chuck blanched. "I'm not answering that!"

Hotch jumped up and grabbed the front of Chuck's shirt and slammed him back against the wall. "Tell me!"

Rossi jumped up to stop Hotch, but Chuck put up his hand to stop him. "Aaron, I know you're really hurting and mad right now, and if you need to beat the shit out of someone to make you feel better, you go right ahead and swing. I will let you take out all your anger on me, but I will not answer that question."

Hotch let him go roughly. "I'm going to Garcia. I can't sit here and do nothing," Hotch told them as he grabbed Kahlan's laptop and started for the door.

"Hotch, wait up," Rossi told him as he caught up with him. Chuck joined them and they all got in Rossi's car and headed to the BAU. Hotch took Kahlan's iPod out of his pocket, and turned it on. It showed the playlist screen and Hotch saw two playlists had had never seen: A Playlist for Aaron and A Playlist for the Kids. He felt tears pricking at the back of his eyes as he touched the playlist she had made for him. He didn't recognize the first song on the list, so he put in one of the ear buds in and pushed play. 'I will Always Love You by Dolly Parton' started to play in his ear. He drew in a ragged breath as he listened to the beginning of the song. Once it finished the first chorus, he couldn't take it anymore and jerked the ear bud out of his ear as tears streamed down his face. He wished he hadn't listened to the goodbye song as he turned the iPod off and put it back in his pocket. Both Rossi and Chuck saw what he was doing, but neither of them questioned him about it. Hotch spent the rest of the ride staring out the window trying to get ahold of his emotions.

Hotch went straight to Garcia's lair as Rossi stopped to tell the team what had happened. "Oh sir, I am so sorry. I tracked her down Russell Road and onto 95 north, but I have found her again yet," Garcia told him.

He set the laptop down. "Can you get into this?"

Garcia rolled her chair to it and smiled. "Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem," she told him as she hooked a line from her computer to it and started typing. "Ut-oh."

"What?" Hotch asked her with concern.

She typed a little more. "Damn. The encryption is too tough for me to crack, maybe I can try. . . "

"That's fine." Hotch told her and turned to Chuck. "Think Cameron can get into it?"

Chuck looked at the screen. "It looks like something he may have set up. You want me to take it to him?"

Hotch shut it and picked it up. "No. Get him to come over to the house this evening." Hotch wasn't about to let the only thing that may help him find his wife out of his sights. Chuck nodded and took out his phone.

"Keep checking the cams, Garcia," Hotch told her as he headed to his office.

"You think we'll find her?" Garcia asked Chuck.

"I don't know, Pen. I really don't," he told her and followed Hotch.

XXX

That evening, the whole team plus Chuck and Cameron were at Hotch's house. Rossi had Chinese delivered and they all ate and discussed theories and ideas while Cameron worked on Kahlan's laptop. "Hello," Cameron said and everyone stopped talking. "Finally. She's better at computers than I ever gave her credit for," he mused as he searched her desktop. Hotch went to look over his shoulder. Her background was a family portrait they had taken when Joey turned three, and Hotch's chest tightened as he thought about having to face the kids without her. Cameron brought up her email and looked at the last messages. "Well, now we know how she found out about the pictures," Cameron told Hotch as he brought up the pictures.

Garcia plugged her laptop into Kahlan's and started tracing the email.

"You think he's going back to Baltimore?" Reid asked. They had found out from a file Kahlan gave them that Mordecai grew up there.

"Possibly, but if it were me, I'd go someplace new so none could find me," Chuck told him. Hotch gave him a dirty look. "Well, I'm just trying to put myself in his shoes. Isn't that what you guys do to find your unsubs?"

"Ahhhh, Hotch," Cameron started and by the look on his face and his tone, Hotch didn't want to know what he found.

Hotch walked back over to him and looked at the screen. "What?"

"These files are for you and the kids," Cameron told him as he opened the icons. There were several documents that were dated into the future.

Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose. She left us letters in case she doesn't make it back. "Don't open them," he told him as he walked into the kitchen.

Rossi got up to follow him. "Hotch?" Rossi found him with his back to him. He was gripping the countertop so hard that his knuckles were white with the strain.

"It's like she knows she's not coming back, Dave," Hotch told him weakly.

"You can't think that, Aaron," Rossi told him as he put his hand on Hotch's shoulder.

"It's not what I think, it's what she thinks. She's left files for us to read, she's left songs she wants us to listen to, I. . I can't think. . ."

"Aaron."

"What am I gonna tell the kids?" Hotch asked him and he started crying.

"You tell them she had to go take care of a few things and that she'll be back. You have to believe she'll be back, Aaron."

"But Wyatt knew there was something wrong. I promised him I would protect her. How can I ever face him again?" He asked through sobs.

"Wyatt knows you both. If something happens, he'll know you did your best to prevent it." He turned Hotch around to look at him. "You don't know; she might hunt him down, kill him, and be back in a couple days. Don't write her off yet," Rossi told him with a small smile.

"I know, but. . ." Hotch took a deep breath and wiped his face. "I just have a really bad feeling about this, Dave."

XXX

Kahlan followed a man down the street. It wasn't Mordecai, but she knew it was one of his associates. She watched him go into an apartment building and she waited on the street, watching the building. Within minutes, she saw lights come on in the ground floor apartment. She smiled, walked up to the building, and quickly slipped in the door. A quick pick of the lock and she was inside the man's apartment. She quietly walked down the hall and saw the man sitting on a couch and watching TV. She shook her head. So easy. She put the barrel of her pistol to the back of his head and he froze, a beer inches from his lips. She cocked it to let him know she was serious. "Where's Mordecai?"

He flinched slightly. "I don't know who you're talking about."

"Wrong answer," she told him and hit him over the head with the butt of her pistol.

He grabbed his head as he rolled off the couch and stood up. "You fucking bitch!" He yelled as he took out a knife.

Kahlan smiled at him and put her pistol back in its holster. "If you tell me where he is, I'll let you live."

He laughed. "Yeah, we'll just see who's still standing when this is over," he told her as he made his way around the couch toward her. He weaved the knife around as if trying to show off his talent with the blade.

She just stood where she was waiting for the obviously stupid man. When he finally got close enough, he lunged at her with the knife. She sidestepped it with ease and brought her right elbow up to meet the man's face as his momentum brought his face past her. He screamed and grabbed his nose. "You'll pay for that, Bitch!" He lunged at her again and she sidestepped it again but took his legs out from under him and his momentum took him to the ground. She rolled him over, stripped him of his knife, and was on him in a split second. She could clearly see the fear in his eyes.

"I'll ask you again. Where's Mordecai?"

"Fuck you!" he spit.

She shook her head. "Wrong again," she told him and plunged the knife into one of his eyes. She got up and dusted herself off, straightened her ball cap and left the apartment.

XXX

"You want me to stay?" Rossi asked Hotch as they watched everyone else drive away. They hadn't come up with any leads as to where Kahlan or Mordecai might be, and Hotch finally sent them all home.

"No. I think I'd rather be alone if that's ok," Hotch told him as he headed back inside.

Rossi followed him. "You're not going to go running off are you?"

"How can I when I don't know where to run to?" Hotch asked him as he sat down on the couch heavily.

Rossi walked over to Hotch's drink cabinet and poured Hotch a scotch. He gave it to him and sat in the chair opposite him. "She will come home, Aaron."

"And I'm just supposed to sit and wait?"

"No. We will continue to look for her and him, but you can't just give up on her. Trust in your wife, Aaron."

"I did trust her, and she cuffed me to that damn pole!" Hotch yelled as got up and slammed the drink on the coffee table, spilling most of it.

Rossi finally realized that was what was bothering him the most. "She felt she needed to protect you."

"I'm the one who is supposed to protect her!"

"Hotch, Mordecai could have killed you at any time. He's not our type of unsub. This is Kahlan's fight and she knows it."

"So you're perfectly fine with what she has done?" Hotch asked getting more and more pissed.

"No, but I understand why she did it." Rossi stood up and walked to Hotch. "She gave us our chance to get him, Aaron, and when we couldn't do it, and he continued to threaten you. Well, she just took things into her own hands. She sees this as her responsibility."

Hotch knew Rossi was right, but it still didn't make him feel any better. "She shouldn't have gone alone!"

Rossi pursed his lips. He knew there would be no talking to Hotch with the mood he was in and the hurt still so fresh. "Try to get some rest, Aaron. I'll see you in the morning at the office."

Hotch took a deep breath and nodded as his phone rang. He took it out quickly and sunk back into the couch. "It's the kids."

Rossi winced. "You want me to stay?" Hotch shook his head and answered the phone with as cheerful a voice he could muster. Rossi patted him on the back and let himself out. He walked to his car and took out his phone to call Chuck.

"Hey, Rossi. How's he doing?"

"About as good as can be expected. You think Mordecai is still after him? That maybe he was just trying to get Kahlan out of the way?"

"I don't think so, but I have a few friends keeping an eye on the house just in case."

Rossi looked around and he didn't see anyone. "Here at Hotch's?"

"If you could see them, Dave, they wouldn't be very good at their job now would they?"

Rossi smiled in spite of himself. "I guess not. Keep me posted on anything you all find."

"Of course, make sure you do the same, even if Aaron doesn't want to include us."

"I will. Talk to you later, Chuck."

"Yep."