Hotch made it out of Kara's room without notice. He hoped no one was still awake considering the time. He wasn't able to get her to settle into bed until three in the morning. He believed her when she said she had insomnia but he assumed it wasn't this bad.

He pushed open his door and shut it behind him, beginning to ready himself for the night, the last couple hours running through his head.

—

Hotch held Kara. She had shifted as soon as he wrapped his arms around her. She wrapped her arms around him. He picked her up, her face buried in the curve of his neck.

His heart caught in his throat. He hated her father as soon as she said something. He tightened his grip on her as he carried her over to her bed. He sat down, and pulled his arms from her, but she wouldn't let go. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He scooted to where he was able to rest his back against the headboard. He wrapped his arms around her once again. His hand trailed up her back until it rested at the base of her neck, fingers gently tangling with her hair.

"It's okay baby." He murmured. "I'm here. He can't hurt you anymore."

They sat like that for an hour and a half before her grip on him started slipping. She was falling asleep. He cradled her head in his hand and shifted, allowing her body to sink to the bed. He wanted to stay, but he couldn't. He pulled the covers over her and brushed the hair from her face. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. He made sure her alarms were set before he slipped out of her room.

—

Hotch awoke the next morning. He was able to sleep a couple hours before his alarm went off. He quickly readied himself for the day, tying his tie in the mirror. He grabbed his briefcase, slipped on his shoes, and was out the door within twenty minutes.

Rossi was already waiting for him in the lobby. He lifted his coffee when he spotted his friend. "You look like hell." He huffed, "Long night"

"I had more sleep than I normally do." Hotch returned with a shake of his head. He took a seat next to his older friend and took the coffee that was offered. "But you could say that."

He hated Kara's father, and that's all he had been thinking about before he fell asleep. Which led to worse sleep than he usually had. He took a sip of his coffee. His heart had been racing all morning at the thought of her dad and what he had done. How it gripped her mental health.

Rossi frowned. "What's wrong?"

Hotch raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Just thinking. This case mostly." He lied easily, watching Rossi nod in silent agreement.

The team shuffled out of their rooms and down to the lobby about ten minutes later. They showed up one at a time aside from JJ and Prentiss. Those women had always been attached at the hip.

He exchanged quiet good mornings with everyone, not fully looking up from his drink and the paper until Kara came down. He caught her gate out of the side of his eye and peeked up. She looked better, but not one hundred percent. Ever since her nightmare, the idea of her father had been eating at her. She still acted like herself, but the bags under her eyes had become more noticeable. She was mentally eating herself from the outside in. His brow furrowed, but he didn't say anything. He looked around the team. "Garcia's got some names for us." He motioned towards the door with his head.

The team split off into their respective vehicles. Hotch stepped behind the wheel, Rossi beside him, and Kara in the back.

"You good kiddo?" The older man asked, looking over his shoulder as she buckled. She nodded.

"Yeah, I'm just worn out." She looked over to Hotch now. "I sleep better when you're there, though. So I appreciate you coming over."

Hotch nodded. He reached his hand back towards her. She took it in both of hers and squeezed. The touch was reassuring enough. "Thank you." She murmured.

"Of course."

Neither of them minded that Dave was there. He was the only one who knew and would for awhile, plus he didn't seem to mind at all. He was glad the two had each other. And seeing the smiles on their faces when they were together was enough for him.

—

"Okay, so I've got four names for you." Garcia's peppy voice crackled through the phone. She had been digging when the others went to sleep, promising herself to take a nap once she found them, which she was able to do, but until her favorite crime fighters needed her again, she would most likely be at home in her bed.

As soon as the team made it into the locker room, Hotch called Garcia and set the phone in the middle of the table.

"Aaron Wagner, Otto Peterson, Gunther Daniels, and Luke Hardy. Wagner, Peterson, and Daniels play football at Monticello while Hardy plays basketball. All of them hung out with our victims on various occasions. From social media posts, they all seemed very close." She continued. "Those are also the only four still on campus that fit your profile."

"So if it isn't one of these our guy could already be home and we won't find him, right?" Prentiss voiced with a quiet sigh. She prayed that one of these kids was who they were looking for or more people could get hurt.

Garcia nodded. "Several kids have already left campus. Theres only about five hundred kids still on campus, but many students in off campus living."

Hotch nodded. He looked around the team. "We don't have much room here, but we need to bring in all of these boys at once. Make sure they know it's just for questioning concerning the death of their friends."

Everybody nodded.
"Morgan take Wagner, Prentiss Peterson, Rossi Daniels, and Reid Hardy."

Everyone left the locker room to grab their possible suspects and Garcia hung up after sending the room numbers to everyone. That left DeBruin, Hotch, and JJ in the locker room. "JJ, go talk to Patrick about these four. See his files on them, grades, attitude, anything you can find."

The woman nodded and headed out of the room.

That left Hotch and DeBruin. "What's up?" She sat on the table.

He raised an eyebrow and looked up from his file. His eyes found hers. "Hmm?"

"What's bothering you."

"Nothing." He said easily before returning his eyes to the file. She huffed, but didn't say anything. She slid off the table and looked at the file he was looking at. It was closed. She nudged her shoulder against him. "C'mon. Talk. Nobody's here and somethings bothering you." She sat in one of the chairs, crossed her legs, and looked up at him expectantly. "For God's sake Hotch that file isn't even open." She paused and shook her head. "And you obviously want to talk or you would've sent me with Morgan, or Reid or anyone." Her gaze softened.

Hotch had never dated a profile, so he hadn't expected all of her deductions. However, she was right. "I'm worried." He said after a moment of silence.

"About this case?"

"About you." He met her eyes. He sighed quietly and sat in front of her. "About us, about…a lot." Not being able to comfort her, or be there for her had started to eat at him. Lying to his team was eating at him. He hated it. He had done a lot of thinking over the weeks when she was recovering from her gunshot wound.

She swallowed. She knew why he was worried about her. She was in her head more and more everyday as she continued to think of her father and the nightmare she had. Him being worried about them made her scared. "Why us?" Her voice was quiet. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Not like that." He murmured. He reached out and rested his hand on her knee. "Not like that at all. I'm sorry, that's not what I meant."

She relaxed a little. "Okay, than what?"

"I want to tell people about us." Ever since Rossi had suggested it yesterday, that's all that had been on his mind. They needed to. It was only right. The team wouldn't turn their back on them. He was certain, or well mostly. "Reid saw us, and you lied to cover it up, and look where we are now. They're going to start digging through your past because they know somethings off and-"

"I don't want to tell anyone." Her voice was firm and she shook her head. "People don't need to know."

Hotch frowned. "Kara, we can't run anymore. It's now or never." It wouldn't be long before Garcia was asked to look up her dad and uncover things that shouldn't be read.

It was getting harder, to be in their relationship and nobody know about it. She understood that. They had been together for almost a month, most of it included her sitting back in Quantico with Garcia due to her injury, but now that they were back in the field together.

All they did in their free time was be together. Wether it was out or at one of their places. They were always together, so the change from work to home was massive. It was hard to switch back and forth at times because all she wanted was to be near him. "I don't want to tell anyone." She repeated, meeting his eyes.

"Why not?" He was stern. Not angry, but he couldn't see why she didn't want to at least tell the team. "They're family. Why are you so scared to?" He imagined this conversation would've been the other way around considering he could lose his job if it got out and people thought it put his focus on her instead of his work.

She shook her head. "I just don't want to." She didn't want to because that made it real. It made everything real. She would be dating her boss. Falling in love with someone that she shouldn't have ever even thought of being with.

He looked at his shoes. His brow furrowed. "You don't want people to know." He was an over thinker, especially from his own past. But he liked Kara, and his feeling were developing quicker than he expected. He shook his head. He couldn't understand. He was happy, was she not? "I don't understand." He mumbled.

She shook her head. She was about to respond, but Morgan stepped into the room. "Wagner's room was trashed, there was blood on the floor. Somebody got him Hotch."

Hotch stood up. The previous emotion that was on his face was gone. "Did anybody else find anything?"

"Rossi's on the phone with Garcia, Daniels had bloody clothes in his room. Prentiss and Reid have their guys and are bringing them in."

"Let's go." Hotch said with a nod. He glanced at Kara, expecting her to follow as he followed Morgan out of the building and the to SUV.

She took a moment to regain herself, unable to switch off her emotions as fast as Hotch had. She regained herself and followed after.

Hotch opened the trunk of the SUV and tossed out vests before putting on his own. He stepped it around his body and stepped up into the SUV.

The drive the Bankston was thirty seconds, but Rossi was still on the phone with Garcia when they arrived.
"We're triangulating his cell phone now." He informed the three. Hotch exchanged a vest of Rossi's phone. "How close are you, Garcia?"

"I've almost got him." She fell silent, the ding of her computer filling it. "Got him. He's in the woods right outside the University, but then the cell service cuts out."

"Thank you." He hung up the call and tossed the phone back to Rossi. "Daniels is our guy. He's in the woods, most likely heading back to the dumpsite. Rossi you're with me, Morgan, DeBruin, go." He pointed towards the woods.

DeBruin and Morgan pulled their guns from their waist and headed into the woods. The dumpsite wasn't far from the road, most likely so Daniels could see it as he passed, but he could've run further into the woods. He had a huge lead on them. If he was smart, he would've run home by now, but his need to kill was too strong.

They walked in silence, listening to the wind through the trees, the brush under their feet. Finally they hit the dumpsite. Sure enough, Daniels was there next to Wagner's still form. She swallowed. "Gunther Daniels, step away from the body." She called, taking a cautious step forward.

Morgan stepped in front of her and started circling around to the other side. Hotch and Rossi joined the mix as soon as they heard DeBruin's voice.

"Put down the knife." She continued.

"They deserved it." Daniels raised his head. However, he obliged and put the knife down. "They deserved every bit of what I did."

"Nobody deserves this." Morgan stepped in with his handcuffs and put them on the unsub's wrists.