Chapter 11

Hotch awoke to the sun shining through his bedroom window. He smiled when he realized that Kahlan was still in his arms. He glanced at the alarm clock, 6:07. He didn't have to get up yet, so he closed his eyes and reveled in his memories of the night before. Kahlan had shown him several things that had pleasantly surprised him. At one point in time, he had felt his eyes rolling into the back of his head as waves of pleasure went through him in a way he had never experienced before. He would have asked her how it had happened, but at that particular time he wasn't exactly interested in talking. It had left him covered with goose bumps and more turned on than he had ever been before, and the only thing he was worried about was his savage need to make love to his wife and try to please her as much as she was pleasing him.

He felt his manhood twitch with the memories. No. Behave yourself. You got enough last night to last the week. He smiled. Or the next month. Kahlan started to stretch, and he knew she was waking up. She finally opened her eyes and smiled at him. He smiled back at her. "Hey you."

"Hey, yourself. You sleep well?" She asked as she scooted back up against him.

"Oh yeah," he told her and leaned down to kiss her on the head.

She smiled again and looked at the clock. "What's on the agenda today? Does the team have to preform surveillance on any of the targets?"

"No. We are in charge of profiling the group and trying to figure out what we can about them. We have to see if we figure out where these guys are."

She moved to sit up at the head of the bed. "How long had the cabins been empty?"

"Not very long. Why?" He asked as he sat up, too.

"You going to question Tenner again?"

He studied her. "You want to question him again?"

She chuckled. "Nah, I think it would just as effective if you just threatened him with a return visit from me before you started to question him."

He laughed. "You're probably right. He might have something else we can use, but if the leader of this group kept everything hidden from his men, I don't think Tenner would know a whole lot about future plans. He could give us the background information needed to build a profile, though."

"So do you want me to do anything specific?"

He smiled. "I hear that you're the expert on finding people."

She furrowed her brows. "Chuck told you that?"

"Yep, and you found Demitri while every other person had no idea where he was."

"A lot of good it did me," she told him dryly as she got out of bed.

Hotch got out and grabbed her and turned her to face him. "But you found him. Had you actually had backup, things would have ended a lot differently."

She nodded. "That's true. Who did you want to find?"

"After questioning Tenner, I hope to have a few targets."

"You going to babysit me?"

He chuckled. "Nah. I hope Chuck will be back by the time you're needed." She raised her brows in surprise. "What? I trust you. I know you'll call for backup if it's needed."

"Of course I will," she told him with a smile.

"And taking them alive will give us more people to question," he emphasized. She winked as she went to the bathroom.

"Oh, you mean you don't want me to be too pig headed?" She joked. He winced at his previous choice of words. She laughed. "I think you're spending too much time with Mike."

He smiled. His brother-in-law were a little country, funny as hell, but more country than he had ever been. He liked it when Kahlan's extended family was around. They were ordinary people with ordinary jobs, and they were a refreshing change to most of the people he had to deal with at the bureau.

XXX

After mentioning to Tenner that Kahlan would gladly meet with him again, he had given them several names of other Rebellion members. He had also told them where he and several of the men were from. He gave them all he knew about Han and everywhere they had been since he had joined the group over two months ago.

By the end of the day, Hotch and the team were working on a profile of the group and their leader. Kahlan and Chuck were also hunting several of the members. By eleven that night, they had their first suspect in custody. By midnight, they knew what the next target was going to be.

The whole team sat around the conference room table in silence; none of them wanted to believe that the terrorists were actually planning on using explosives at parks filled with families and children. The brief silence was broken when Morgan slammed a fisted hand down on the table. "I can't believe these sons of bitches are actually going to hit the parks!"

"We need to get SWAT and everyone in place," Hotch started as he looked at his watch. He looked at Garcia. "Have the team leaders here within thirty minutes. We need to have everything in place by six." Garcia nodded and got up to go get things rolling. Kahlan got up and started for the door behind her. "Where are you going?" Hotch asked her as he stood up.

She smiled. "I have an idea," is all she said and left.

Morgan shot Hotch a look, and Hotch shot Chuck a look. "I don't know," Chuck told them as he shrugged.

By the time Hotch stepped out of the conference room, Kahlan was nowhere to be seen. As he walked to his office, he silently thanked God that the kids were safe in Pennsylvania. Tomorrow would have been one of the days the boys played soccer at one of the targeted parks.

By the time Hotch was done getting everything set up with the team leaders, Kahlan was back. "Are you going home?" Kahlan asked from his doorway. Her voice startled him, and she chuckled.

He looked at his watch, 1:47. They only had a little over three hours to be in place to stake out the parks, but he knew he shouldn't go home beucase he didn't think that he'd actually be able to get any sleep. He also knew, though, that he couldn't just sit around in his office and wait for the time to come. Kahlan walked over and stood behind his chair. She started rubbing the tension out of his neck as if she could tell what he was thinking. He groaned and bent his head down to let her access his stiff muscles even better. "I don't think going home would do much good," he told her as she moved to massage his shoulders.

"Then let's go take a drive or something. Staying here will just add to your tension."

He groaned again as she used her knuckles to work out a particularly stubborn spot in his right trapezius muscle. Once the offending muscle finally relaxed, he turned to look at her. "And where would you want to drive to?"

"Wherever. Do we have to have a destination to just take a relaxing ride in the car? We haven't done that since before Joey was born."

"Oh. I thought maybe you had a specific place in mind since you disappeared for almost an hour." She pinched one of the muscles along his spine. He jumped even though it didn't really hurt. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Why do you always think I have an ulterior motive for everything I do?"

He chuckled. "Because you almost always do."

She cuffed him lightly on the back of the head. "That's not fair." She went around him and he ducked his head because he thought she was going to hit him again. She chuckled and reached down to grab his hand. "Come on," she told him as pulled him into a standing position.

"Only if you tell me where you went and what you did."

She smiled. "All you had to do was ask."

"And yet you're not answering."

She pulled him out of his office. "I'll tell you in the car," is all she said as she let his hand go and headed for the elevator.

Reid and Mack saw Kahlan and Hotch and then looked at Chuck questioningly. "What?"

"Where are they going?" Mack asked him as they watched the couple disappear behind the closing elevator door.

Chuck shook his head. "Why do you all always think I know what she's doing?"

"You mean you don't have some sort of secret connection that allows you two to always know what the other is doing?" Morgan joked as he came up behind them.

Chuck huffed. "That would be scary." They all laughed.

XXX

Hotch finally fixed Kahlan with a sideways look as he drove down the basically empty road away from Quantico. "So?"

Kahlan smiled. "I called in a couple favors to try and make the parks less crowded tomorrow."

He sighed. Well, that explains it. "And?"

"I know a certain person at the health department. Apparently several young boys have come down with Mono, and it is her duty to make sure all recreational sports are cancelled until they can look into it further."

Hotch smiled. That would keep a lot of families out of the parks for the rest of the week at least. "And what else have you done?"

"That wasn't enough?" She asked him innocently.

"Not when you said 'favors', as in plural," he told her as he reached over and held her hand.

She chuckled. "I also know a certain man at the weather center."

"And?"

"Apparently the air quality is going to get dangerously low tomorrow."

"And since it's supposed to be overcast, that will actually be believable," he told her with a smile and brought up her hand and kiss the back of it. "Have I told you lately how amazing you are?"

She giggled. "Ummmmm. No."

He chuckled. "You are an amazing woman Kahlan Hotchner."

"Yeah, but only because I have an amazing husband." She pulled his hand to her and kissed the back of it.

XXX

By the time they got back to the BAU, Hotch had relaxed a little more. They had driven to the Potomac River and walked hand and hand along its bank until it was time to get back. They found Mack asleep at her desk, Reid asleep at his, and Chuck asleep on the couch in Hotch's office. "Is he going to attack me if I wake him up?" Hotch asked Kahlan in a whisper.

"He's not asleep."

"He's snoring. He has to be asleep."

She smiled. "Watch this." She reached grabbed a piece of waded up paper out of Hotch's trash and threw it at Chuck's face. He caught it effortlessly. Hotch's look of shock made Kahlan laugh. "Told you."

Hotch shook his head. "You two are really scary sometimes."

Chuck smiled. "How could anyone sleep knowing what we're facing?" He asked as he stood up and stretched.

"Reid and Mack don't seem to be having a problem," Hotch told him.

Chuck looked out the door and smiled. "Ahhh, to be young again," he told them wistfully as he headed out to wake the younger agents up.

Hotch shook his head. "Yeah, because he's so old." Kahlan laughed.