The dog whimpered giving her hand a quick lick and leaning on her lap. 'Finally.'

"You can't be serious." Morgan exclaimed. "Hotch cannot be a dog. For all we know the unsub place the necklace on the dog. That is his MO. Take a victim. Leave a dog."

Hotch sighed. 'He isn't wrong.'

"Hotch?" Emily called.

'Yes?' He turned towards his agent.

"Can you find Reid?" Emily asked.

Hotch scoffed, pushing himself off the ground. Trotting over to the boy wonder, he sat in front of the boy. 'Now what?'

"Rossi?"

'Am I going to have to point each one out?' He walked over to Rossi.

"Emily." She spoke.

Hotch ran over to her sitting beside her. 'Are we done? Can we figure out how the hell we are changing me back now!'

"Oh god." Morgan gasped quietly. "Hotch is a dog. Do you know what this means?"

Rossi glanced at the freaking out agent. "That we need to find the unsub and turn Hotch back."

"No-well yes, but that also means we have all 6 victims in kennels." Morgan whispered.

The entire team froze at the thought of what they must be going through. "Alright, let's work that out when we get back to the station. Right now, we need to get the forensics team out here and process the scene. We can't let anyone know."

Reid quirked a brow. "Who would believe us?"

Hotch chuckled laying down on the floor. 'Point taken.'

Time jump:

Hotch laid splayed across one of the planes couches. He held his eyes closed, but was wide awake. It was weird. He could hear so much more than before. The ticking of Rossi's watch. The low beating of Emily's heart. Morgan's music from his headphones. He sneezed at getting a whiff of Rossi's cologne. He never knew just how strong that thing was. It burned his nose. Using his paw to cover his nose, he heard a low chuckle. Peeping over his arm, he caught JJ's grin. 'You are enjoying this way too much'.

Reaching over for him, she ran her hand over his head. His fur was soft and to her surprised it felt just like his original hair. "We will find a way to change you back."

Hotch closed his eyes, leaning into her touch. 'I know.' Opening his eyes, he exhaled slowly. 'Not being able to hold you right now really sucks.'

Emily glanced at her boss, then back to Rossi. "What are you going to tell Strauss? We can't just not show up with Hotch and a dog in his place."

Hotch lifted his head, turning his gaze to the rest of the team. 'Shit, I forgot about that.'

Rossi sighed. "Erin needs to know what happened. In the mean time we will keep him hidden. We can say Hotch decided to take an absence of leave."

The loud growl causing everyone to freeze. All eyes turned to the large dog standing in the planes aisle. If they hadn't known who it was, they would seriously be freaking out right now. Hotch bared his teeth at Rossi. 'I am not going to be pulled out like some pet!'

Emily leaned in closer to Rossi. "Don't think he liked that."

"Aaron, I don't know if you have noticed but…you. Are. A. Dog." He emphasized each word. "We can't exactly play that off."

Hotch knew he was right, but that wasn't going to stop him. Trotting over to the back of the plan, he used his snout to slide open the door to a closet. Back when he was a newbie, they used to have a K-9 with the team. That was until his was killed in the pursuit of an unsub. He knew they kept his vest in here somewhere. Finding it at the bottom of the box, he grabbed it and carried it back to the team.

Morgan reached for the vest, raising a brow. "You can't be serious?"

Hotch snorted. 'Yes.'

"Given the situation, I'd say that is the best option." Reid added. "It will give us a cover to have him on cases. Not to mention it will help a lot with the cases."

"How so?" JJ stood from her seat, standing just behind Hotch.

"Dogs have ten times better senses than humans. They can smell and hear things we can not." He explained. "He can pick up on a things we miss."

Without realizing it, Hotch allowed his tongue to roll out of his mouth in a toothy grin. 'Have I ever mention you're my favorite.' Seeing the unconvinced look on Rossi, he sighed. Grabbing the vest in between his teeth and dropped in on Rossi's lap. Trotting back to where JJ had been sitting, he grabbing his badge and handed it to Rossi. 'I am still the unit chief.'

Rossi glanced down at both the vest and badge. With an annoyed groan he tossed his hands up in defeat. "You're the boss."

Hotch humptf. 'Damn right.'

"What about Garcia?" Reid asked the one question that no one had wanted to bring up.

Hotch paled from the inside. 'Oh shit.'