Here it is...the final chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 53

The following morning, Aaron Hotchner, as usual, was the first one to arrive at the BAU. In a way he was grateful nobody else was around as he needed more time. More time to think as how best to explain what he had uncovered last night to the others. While he walked up the steps to the catwalk and inside his corner office, he turned on the overhead lights and left the door open. He rested his briefcase on the floor beneath his desk, and sat in his chair when he heard the 'ding' of the elevator. He looked up having an idea who was arriving, and wasn't the least bit surprised when he saw Rossi exit the elevator. A smile graced his lips as he reached for the top file folder sitting in his 'in' box and lay it open in front of him.

Rossi, trudging up the steps, smirked the moment he spotted his best friend in his office seated behind his desk, staring at him with a devious grin on his face. He stood in the doorway of Hotch's office, leaning against the door-frame. He had one leg crossing the other above the ankle with his briefcase in one hand and the other stuffed in his pants pocket.

"I figured you'd be the first one in," Rossi said with a grin. "Did you have a good night? Read something of interest?"

The Unit Chief looked up at the older man and leaned back in his chair, case file forgotten momentarily. "Matter of fact I did. I finished the journal last night and uncovered a couple of interesting things including the answer to Andrew Carter's true rank."

The senior agent's eyebrows arched with interest. "Care to share this knowledge?"

The younger man sighed. "I want to wait until the others arrive and have everybody meet in the conference room. I want to go over everything one time and not have to repeat myself."

"Makes sense." Rossi looked at his watch. "Well, the others should be straggling in soon so I shouldn't have long to wait. I'll head to my office and await your call for the meeting." He straightened and headed to his own office leaving Hotch alone with his thoughts and files.


It was forty-five minutes later before the rest of the team arrived. When he saw them, Hotch promptly left his office and walked out onto the catwalk. Midway of the catwalk, he leaned against the railing gripping it so tightly his knuckles turned white as he stared below at the others. It was time the Unit Chief decided. He noticed the others look up at him from their desks and that JJ and Garcia were visiting Morgan and Prentiss.

"Conference room, everybody," Hotch said as he turned and headed for the conference room himself not waiting for a response. Once he entered the conference room, he took a seat at the head of the table to wait. He watched the others walked in and take their seats; Garcia in her usual place beside Morgan, and Reid on the opposite side of the table beside Prentiss. JJ beside Rossi who sat beside Hotch. The Unit Chief, looking around the table, clasped his hands atop the table and waited for everybody to settle in their seats before he began.

Right away he noticed his technical analyst looking worried and arched his eyebrows.

"Garcia?" he asked quizzically.

"Sir, did we…or did I do something wrong?" the tech analyst asked.

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

She bit her lower lip. "Well…to be honest, Mon Capitan, you never call a meeting first thing in the morning unless somebody did something wrong. So naturally I thought…"

The corners of Hotch's mouth curled upward showing his dimples. "You and the others can relax, nobody did anything wrong. I promise. I called this meeting because I finished the journal last night. I also discovered a few things, including the truth about Sergeant Carter and why, Garcia, you couldn't find anything on him."

Garcia's lower jaw dropped and her mouth formed a perfect 'O' in surprise as she stared at her boss.

"Sir? I don't understand. I swear I tried everything possible to find Sergeant Carter. I even tried looking in places I shouldn't and…" She was becoming agitated.

Hotch held up his hand stopping her tirade. "Stop. I know you did your usual excellent job. But the reason you couldn't find anything on Sergeant Carter…" he glanced quickly at his media liaison then back at Garcia. "…and JJ was right when she referred to it weeks ago."

Garcia and JJ both appeared confused and waited for the Unit Chief to continue.

"JJ suggested that it might be possible that Lieutenant Carter and Sergeant Carter were one and the same. And she was right. Sergeant Carter never existed which is why you couldn't find anything on him."

While JJ looked justified, Garcia still appeared confused. "Sir, I'm not quite sure I understand what you're saying. Are you telling me there is no Sergeant Carter?"

"That's exactly what he's telling you, kitten," Rossi said causing the tech analyst to look from Hotch to him. He had suspected this to be the case, but didn't want to say anything in case he was wrong. "For some reason, Lieutenant Carter either needed or wanted to stay at Stalag 13 but couldn't because Hogan was the only American officer allowed. Therefore, and Aaron can clarify this I believe, the only way he could remain at Stalag 13 was to become a noncom. So Lieutenant Carter became Sergeant Carter. Care to elaborate, Aaron?" Rossi looked at the Unit Chief.

"Dave's partially right, Penelope," Hotch explained. "Lieutenant Carter escaped from a camp for officers and came to Stalag 13 for help returning to London. But while he was there, he learned about Hogan's underground operation and wanted to help them. But being an officer, he wouldn't be allowed to stay there. So they sent him on the escape route to London, but instead of following it, he came back to Stalag 13. So my guess is after that Hogan made arrangements with London for him to stay, created a backstory for him as a sergeant, and got him captured by the guards and assigned to his barracks as Sergeant Andrew Carter."

"But why would they want Carter to stay, Hotch?" asked Emily. "He must have served some purpose that they needed or wanted for them to go through all that trouble."

"He did," Hotch explained. "He knew about chemistry and explosives, and London wanted Hogan's men to branch out into sabotage so they wouldn't have to keep giving the sabotage assignments to the underground."

"So Carter became Hogan's demolitions expert in a manner of speaking," Morgan added, understanding.

"That's correct," the Unit Chief said.

"That must have been rough keeping Carter's true rank secret from the Germans as well as the other prisoners," Morgan said.

"It was at first," Hotch explained. "But it got easier as time went on, and a matter of life-or-death which I guess is why only the prisoners in barracks two knew the truth. They couldn't risk the Germans knowing the truth."

Garcia whistled and feigned wiping her brow. "I'm glad that solves that mystery," she said. "I thought for a minute I was losing my touch."

Morgan looked at the tech analyst with his dazzling smile. "Perish the thought, Baby Girl," he said. "Nobody is better than my Sweetness."

Smiling in return at the bald agent, she gently patted his cheek with her fingertips. "You are my hero. I can always count on you, my love."

JJ smirked at Garcia. "Did you ever doubt it?" she asked. "Morgan's slightly prejudice where you're concerned, or didn't you know that?"

Throughout everything, Spencer Reid had been quiet. He had been staring directly at his Unit Chief the entire time.

"Hotch, you said there were a few things you found out last night," he said. "Can you tell us what those were?"

The Unit Chief sighed. "My grandfather made his peace with Captain Fuchs in the end."

"Really?" asked Reid with wide eyes. "How come he changed his mind?"

"He discovered that Fuchs had more to lose than anybody else like his wife and infant son," Hotch explained. "He also understood that if it hadn't been for the German officer doing his part in Hogan's rescue plan and with Hochstetter, they all would have ended up in front of a firing squad."

"Was there anything else?" asked Reid.

"Yes. Hochstetter came back to Stalag 13 a second time concerning the same thing, and Hogan spun a cover story." He repeated the story Hogan had told Klink and Hochstetter while in Klink's office.

"And Hochstetter believed him?" asked JJ.

"Apparently so," Hotch exclaimed. "Fuchs came out to Stalag 13 a week after he got out of the hospital, and told Hogan and his men that his boss sent a report to Berlin outlining the same information that Hogan had told him and Klink while in Klink's office with a few variations."

Rossi chuckled. "Seems like Hogan managed to fool the Gestapo when he needed to."

"Yeah," said Reid. "But I bet it wasn't as easy as fooling the Kommandant," he added.

The Unit Chief smirked. "I agree. Something tells me my son, Jack, although only five years-old, could fool Klink."

"C'mon, Hotch," Morgan chuckled. "Nobody can be that stupid or dense, and don't forget Klink was a Colonel. I mean…he must have had some intelligence to make colonel."

Emily smirked. "That or he must have known somebody who pulled some strings."

Snickers were heard from the group including from Hotch. After a few minutes, everybody quieted down so the Unit Chief could continue.

"Emily, JJ, I'm sorry that you didn't get to help much, but please know that even the small contribution you both made did help solve this mystery. So don't feel that simply making out those lists of the heroes' survivors wasn't important."

Prentiss and JJ exchanged looks before both women studied their boss.

"Thank you for saying that, Hotch," Emily said. "Because, and I'm sure I speak for JJ as well, that we both felt we didn't really do anything to help you."

"In fact…" Hotch continued. "I want to thank all of you, especially Dave, for your contributions in helping me find out as much as I have. And I do still have more questions…" His eyes fell on Rossi. "…but I'm afraid I'll have to wait six more months before I can get those answers."

"Can you wait that long, Hotch?" asked Morgan quietly.

"I really don't have much choice in the matter. It's the way it has to be. But at least I'll have someone to go to when the time comes for the answers I need."

"But are you certain he can give you those answers?" asked Reid. "I mean, after all this time, it would be a shame to find out he can't help and you end up back where you started."

Hotch let out a deep breath and studied the young genius. "That's a chance I have to take," he said. "But somehow I think Colonel Hogan's grandson can supply the answers. Rossi has promised to introduce me to Bobby Hogan when the time comes as that was a request of Bobby's, and I must adhere to it."

Rossi smiled at Reid. "Don't worry yourself, genius. Bobby Hogan will definitely have the answers to whatever questions Aaron may have. Of that I am sure."

Garcia looked at her boss. There were tears rolling down her cheeks despite her joyous smile. "Sir, I know right now you don't have all the answers you seek, but let me say that I am…that we are so happy for you right now."

Hotch smiled. "Thank you, Garcia."

"You're welcome, my liege."

Hotch smiled as he studied the people seated around the table. His team, his close friends, his family. These people had helped him get to this point. And along the way, they had helped him find some of the answers and gain insight into the people his grandfather was involved with during the war. Answers to questions he didn't even know existed to begin with much less needed to be asked. If anything, he promised himself he would share what he found out from Bobby Hogan when the two men met face-to-face in the months ahead.

Until then, all he and anybody could do is wait. Again he looked at the others who stared at him, waiting for future instructions.

"That's all right now, everybody," The Unit Chief said. "Let's get back to work. These case file reports won't write themselves." That said, he started to his feet as did the others as they followed his lead.


The day had dragged on for what seemed like an eternity, and Hotch was able to leave the office at a reasonable hour and return home. He was exhausted and glad for once he didn't have to research anything concerning the journal, nor read any more of it. Right now, all he wanted to do was have a drink to settle his nerves and relax.

After he tossed his keys into the dish near the front door, he walked to his liquor cabinet. Picking up the bottle of Scotch Rossi had given him for his birthday the year before, he poured some of the liquor into a Tumbler. Holding up the glass, he sipped the alcohol, and enjoyed the feel of it as it slid down his throat. Bringing the glass with him, he walked up the stairs and to his bedroom. He continued to sip the liquor as he sat down on the edge of his bed and looked around the bedroom until his eyes landed on one corner of the room. In that corner sat the box in which were the other nine journals. Sitting the glass on the corner of the night table, Hotch got up, approached the corner, picked up the box, carried it to his bed and sat it on the mattress.

He raised the lid of the box and stared at the remaining journals. Picking up the one on top, he looked at the cover on which had been printed: 'MORE FAIRYTALES OF A PAPA BEAR. Volume 2.' He sat back down beside the box, and stared at the journal. Opening it, he began to read the first page.

The End