Here it is! Finally the last chapter! I want to thank everyone for reading and sticking through with this story! I appreciate all the reviews and comments and suggestions! you all are amazing and I'm very grateful!
Happy Reading
"Well, well, well it looks like we have everyone here. Well almost everyone." The director looked at Hotch then Rossi, "I hate Rachel's flight was canceled I really wanted her to be here." Henry whimpered in the background. The director held up his phone and directed his next comment towards Rossi, "I double checked to see if you were telling the truth about her flight, just in case you decided to lie."
"I had no reason to lie." Rossi said.
"What do you want?" Hotch asked standing in front of JJ with both of them standing in front of the rest of the team, who was sparsely huddled behind them.
"I never got the book I was promised. My associates let me down."
Hotch stepped forward and felt JJ grab the upper part of his arm, as if to stop what she saw coming next. Hotch had to ignore her, if risking his own life meant saving everyone else's he had to do it. "Take me to get the book. Let everyone else go."
"No so fast." The director shook his finger at him. "I need three people at least, but I should probably take four for good measure."
All the men, Emily and JJ took a step forward minus Garcia who was seconds from breaking down and Darcie who was thinking of the life growing inside of her.
"Why the hell is this book so important to you anyways?" Morgan asked.
"It contains the secrets of rulers throughout the Ming Dynasty, secrets that could unlock history and besides the recovery of the book is worth millions."
"You have no intention of letting any of us live, do you?" Emily asked.
"Correct Agent Prentiss." Henry started crying, the director turned his head and yelled, "Shut up you brat!"
JJ started to go towards her son, "Leave him alone!"
Hotch wrapped his arms around her waist and held her back, knowing the consequences of a physical encounter might bring more trouble than it's worth.
"It's okay Henry. Mommy is right here. You're such a big boy."
"Stop with the sentiments, please, your making me sick." The director said, making a fake gag face.
Rossi stepped up, level with Hotch and JJ, "How do you expect to make millions being a wanted fugitive?"
The director stuck his nose in the air, as if this had already been hatched out and how clever he was to think of it, "I have connections in China with a written agreement already signed, promising me the money with the safe return of the book. Then once I have the money I will retire in Mexico."
"So you're just in it for the money?" Morgan asked.
"Mostly, but before I hand it over I plan on reading it. I am quite versed in the Chinese language."
JJ still concerned for her son's safety asked, "So are you just going to keep a bomb strapped to our kids until we arrive in China?"
The director snickered, "You see the detonator for that particular bomb…" he walked over to the boys. Jack was fighting with all he had to hold in his tears while Henry whimpered.
Rossi took another step forward as if for some purpose. He now was standing in front of the whole team.
The director continued, "You see the detonator is hidden on my vehicle parked right outside. Once I choose the four of you that will go with me, I will drive you to an isolated location where you will be put into a plane. Once on the plane and bound by my American associates, who are waiting for us as we speak, I will deactivate the bomb and no harm will come to your kids."
"How can we trust you?" Reid asked, "You already said you're not going to let us live."
"The four who come with me will surely die, yes, but the rest of you will be back here safe and sound."
"We need a guarantee." Emily told him. "Because if you're going to blow them up then we might as well fight you right here."
"You don't want to die with so much to gain, so it's safe to say with you in here you're going to blow us up." Hotch told him.
The director pulled out his gun, "Yeah but I have a gun and you don't."
Rossi changed the subject and asked, "What happens when the bomb is deactivated?"
The director points at the flashing green lights emanating from the right corners of Jack and Henry's bomb vest. "These lights here will stop blinking and turn red." He then points to a switch, "The switch will flip, separating these joints. The kids can then remove the wired vests without being harmed."
Rossi started poking in his ear as if it was itching, this didn't go unnoticed by the profilers.
"So whose with me?" The director announced, ecstatically.
Everyone took another step forward, even Garcia; However there was hesitation from one, Darcie, and reasonably so. The director pushed through the agents, all eyes following him, "And what's this? The prodigal daughter chooses the coward's way out, not offering to stand up and sacrifice her life."
Hotch clinched his fists. Darcie's behavior was unusual. He protected, "Leave her alone. You have us."
The director grabs her arm forcefully and jerks her through the cluster of agents, making his way back to the front of the pack.
Reid takes after her, "Leave her alone!" He yelled at him, barely grasping Darcie's hand as it was pulled violently from his.
The director jammed the gun into Darcie's temple, just as she nearly caught her balance, "I wouldn't if I were you."
Reid backed away.
Hotch watched as his daughter was dragged to the front of the room. There wasn't any fight in her eyes, but fear and her hands clutched her abdomen. Hotch's heart dropped, she is pregnant.
Rossi then inquired, so what's to keep us from overpowering you, finding the detonator and disarming it ourselves?"
"I'd never thought you'd ask." The director pushed Darcie behind him, next to Jack and Henry. He reached into his pocket and pulled out another detonator and stuck it back in his pocket. "If you fight there is a chance it may go off, so I wouldn't try."
Out of the corner of her eye Emily saw a faint string of dark figures moving past the window. She nudged Morgan.
Morgan made a facial expression letting Emily know he saw. He looked back to the boys, who were sitting behind the director and saw the green light had stopped flashing and turned red. The bomb was deactivated. It was a matter of moments before the switch would set of a noise, separating the vest joints, so Morgan spoke loudly and tried to distract him, making sure the director wouldn't hear the switch flip, "So what do you do if the bomb's been deactivated?" Morgan almost smiled when he saw the joints on their vests disconnect during his sentence, the director hadn't heard and didn't know the bomb was disarmed.
Darcie was standing next to the boys, after the director pulled her to the front of the room with him and she saw the vests disconnect, making it possible to remove them. Quietly she pulled them off while the rest of the team kept the director's attention. The team could see the boys were going to be okay. They had the director in their back pockets; the gun was all that was holding them back.
"Agent Morgan, I pegged you for a better listener than that. I have already explained the logistics of the bomb."
Morgan kept going, "So if the bomb's been dis-armed, does the detonator you placed in your pocket work?"
The director looked annoyed, with what seemed to be redundant questions. Morgan was trying to get him flustered, distracting him and it seemed to be working.
Like any good girlfriend, Emily stood up for Morgan, "He's just asking are there any trick switches?"
"Good idea, but I didn't deem it necessary. You see I knew by just endangering the children there was no way you would fight me and you all would come quietly. However if you are curious I can create the most intricate bomb with enough switches and detonators to even stump the greatest of minds."
"Oh, so you're a narcissist too, imagine that?" JJ said, almost smiling as the vest was lifted off her son.
"There's one thing you didn't count on." Rossi said.
"What's that?"
"A lie." Rossi said nonchalantly at the director. "Rachel's plane wasn't actually canceled."
The director's face became flush, Rossi's statement had made him second guess himself, "I don't know what kind of profiling game you are playing, but I doubled checked her flight while you were on speaker phone with me, remember? When I was giving you orders to pick up everyone?"
Rossi noticed Darcie had scooted the children out of harm's way if a physical encounter ensued. Slowly Rossi started taking small steps towards the director, "Oh I remember but see there was the small matter of an inside man, one you trusted, Agent Perry, I believe."
The director shook his gun at Rossi, "You shut up! Right now! You're lying!"
Rossi shook his head, "No, the only lie I told was about the canceled plane. See earlier this evening Agent Perry tipped us off about your plan, holding out as long as he could. To be honest he almost waited too long. Anyways, Rachel's plane arrived from Texas and she was at the airport about the time I got the tip, so she pulled some strings and made the flight look as if it had been canceled. In fact she's waiting outside right now."
"You're lying!" The director screamed.
Just then Hotch's front door was kicked in with Rachel entering first as a herd of agents and SWAT swarmed in behind her. "I wouldn't bet on it." She yelled.
The director swiveled to his left, still overlooking that the boys were not sitting in their chairs.
He pulled out the detonator to try and detonate the bomb. He wasn't about to be taken alive and was going to take as many as he could with him.
In the midst of chaos and with his instinctive reactions to what was happening he had been too distracted to look behind him and when the bomb didn't detonate as his thumb repeatedly pressed the detonator he finally looked and saw to two empty chairs.
Hotch took advantage of the director's distraction, kicked the gun out of his hand and pummeled the director to the floor. Morgan and Prentiss followed suit helping Hotch subdue the director.
Reid hurried to Darcie's side.
JJ ran to Henry picking him up in her arms, telling him everything would be okay.
Shawn and Garcia hugged.
Rachel holstered her gun and walked to Rossi's side, by this time Morgan and Prentiss had the director pinned. Rachel met eyes with Hotch and threw down her cuffs, "Do the honor's little brother."
"Gladly." He replied.
Other agents and officials carried him away leaving the team inside the house; while the commotion outside continued.
"It's over, it's really over." Garcia cried.
JJ also had tears running down her cheeks, she smiled and agreed, "Yes it is." She squeezed Henry a little tighter.
"Are you okay?" Reid asked Darcie.
"Yeah, I'm perfect." She told him, falling into his embrace.
Emily and Morgan stood side by side, clasping each other's hand. In the closeness they almost delve in for a hug but resisted.
"Told you I had a plan." Rossi said to Emily.
"I never doubted you for a minute." She replied.
Rossi pulled the tech bug out of his ear, showing it to the team before he wrapped his arm around Rachel and planted a kiss on her succulent lips.
Rachel placed her hand on Rossi's cheek, flashing off a ring that was noticed by Morgan. The one and half carat diamond twinkled in the light, placed beautifully in a cathedral setting, firmly attached to a gold band. Morgan couldn't help himself, "Rossi you sly dog."
"What?" Rossi said, acting innocent and shrugging his shoulders.
Morgan walked up to him and patted his back, "You got yourself engaged without telling us?"
Rachel blushed.
Hotch by this time was holding Jack, with one arm, resting him on his hip, while the other was wrapped around JJ. He noticed the red hue blushing his sister's cheeks and said, "Well it's about time."
"As long as she doesn't leave me standing at the altar." Rossi joked.
"Not a chance." She told him.
The room then began to fill with squeals of excitement and rounds of congratulations for the happy couple. After Hotch set Jack down and gave a hearty hug to his sister and Rossi he walked over to Darcie. He embraced her and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah dad, your prodigal daughter is perfect." She said mocking the director's previous comment.
"Ha ha." He said, eyeing her suspiciously.
Darcie exchanged the suspicious eye look, matching his perfectly. Garcia severed their curious and questioning glances, "So our get together will be more of an engagement party. This requires planning and I have so little time." She looked at her watch, "Only around seventeen hours." Her mind went into thinking about how she would make their time at the honkytonk one night they would never forget. They all definitely had something to celebrate.
"I'll help." Emily said.
"Count me in." JJ said for the first time, sounding like herself as if an incredible burden had been taken off her shoulders. She felt whole again, like she could move on and get past all this.
Reid spoke up next, "Since were making announcements…" He paused, because everyone got quiet and all eyes were on him.
"What is it Reid?" Morgan asked.
"Uh…"
"Go ahead." Darcie encouraged, still trying to figure out if her dad knew. He had eyed her too suspiciously to not know.
"Were going to have a baby."
JJ sat down a now calm Henry, who began running around with Jack. "Oh Spence, congratulations!" She said embracing him.
Hotch hugged his daughter and Darcie said, "You figured it out didn't you?"
"I am a profiler." He joked. Then Hotch moved out of the way so everyone could get in their hugs.
"Well this causes for a celebration all around!" Rossi said, "So if there is no more announcements…."
"Wait!" Jack yelled. "I declare Henry as my brother."
JJ and Hotch looked at one another, then down at their two sons. They could only hope, Jack was foretelling of their imminent future.
"Can I mom?" Henry asked.
JJ knelt down to Henry, "Jack declared it, so it sounds official. What do you think Hotch?"
"That sounds just about perfect."
Rossi again took the room, "I don't know about you all but I'm wide awake, what do you say we have an early morning breakfast, my place. Me and my beautiful fiancé will do the honors. We can make it a celebration. What do you say?"
Hotch looked around at his team that had become his family and said, "Just when you think your day can't get any more perfect, it does."
"Amen to that." Emily agreed.
Garcia stuck her hand in the middle of everyone, palm facing down and said, "To family."
One by one each person piled their hand in the center, even Jack and Henry, forming a tight nit huddle.
"All for one." JJ said.
"One for all." They all finished.
Their hands pressed downward then flew up in the air…pause the frame…imagine the faces, all of them smiling, un-burdened and closer than ever before, a bond never to be broken, marking a new beginning, a time to reflect, rejuvenate and move forward with a hopeful future.
The day just doesn't get any better than that.
There you have it! I wanted the director to live because in his case I felt living for him was more suffering than dying. He would have to suffer the humiliation and rot in prison with some of the same people he could have very well put away in his early career.
I hope ya'll enjoyed. I'd love to hear your comments, good or bad about what you thought! Thanks for sticking with me through this one!