CHAPTER 23

Hotch watched the team leave his office and head back to the bullpen before sitting back down at his desk. He sighed and shook his head. The meeting could have gone better. But it also could have gone worse. Much worse.

When he told them that Dave and Emily were talking this morning after confirming for them what they had seen on the birth certificate, a wave of relief came over the room replacing the anxiety and nervous energy in the room when they first entered.

At least for the most part. It was clear to everyone in the room that Derek was angry.

Before he could consider how to approach Derek, there was a knock on her door followed by the door opening a couple of seconds later. When Hotch looked up, there was Katie Cole standing in his doorway.

Hotch stood up and said as he walked around is desk, "Katie, come in. It's good to see you."

"You too, Hotch. Sorry I couldn't get here sooner. We had a couple of back to back cases and I couldn't get away." Katie walked over to him and they exchanged a hug.

Stepping back from her, he gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. As she sat down, he walked over to the door to shut it. "I understand. I called because I was told that you may know about a case we are looking at?" Hotch said as he walked back around his desk and sat down in his chair.

"I'll help if I can. What was the case?" Katie asked.

Hotch took a deep breath before looking directly at her as he answered, "It involved Henry McRae and Peter Howard. I was told that it had been your case."

Katie's eyes widened as she gasped before answering, "Wow. Yes, it was. It was a tough case." She paused and looked down before looking back at him and asking, "what is the BAU's current interest in the case? Please don't tell me that either of them have a chance of getting out." She moved up to sit on the edge of the seat and looked at him, worried.

Hotch shook his head before saying, "no, nothing like that. It has become personal to the team. Very personal. We were hoping you could give us some information."

Katie looked back at him quizzically for several seconds before replying, "Sure. What do you mean by personal?"

Hotch smirked as he observed Katie's obvious careful assessment of him while she waited for him to answer. She had been out of the BAU for years however like for all of them, it was hard to turn off the profiler's instinct.

Hotch had discovered over the years that talking to a profiler was completely different than talking to someone outside their profession. But unlike most of the team, Katie like Dave and Cooper had known him as a rookie profiler and learned his tells before he had enough experience to shield them. So they along with Gideon and Max Ryan had always been able to read him more than he'd like.

Jolted back to the seriousness of the case, Hotch sobered before he stood up and gestured towards the door as he said, "let me show you."

Katie looked at him intrigued by the range of emotions she saw flash across his face just before he stood up. Not sure where they were going or what she was about to see, Katie stood up and followed him out of his office and down into the bullpen which as empty except for Reid. He walked over to Reid before saying quietly, "Can you join us in the workroom?" Reid nodded as he and Katie followed Hotch out of the bullpen.

As they were walking down the hall, Hotch pondered that Dave and Emily needed to hear what Katie had to say probably more than any of them. As they reached the door to the workroom, Hotch swiped his badge and was surprised when they walked into the room that Dave was already in the room, pacing. As he looked at him curiously, Dave said, "Emily got called in for a meeting with Donaldson."

Hotch nodded and looked down at his phone to send Emily a text message that Katie was there and to come to the workroom when she was done.

Though Emily had agreed before Hotch first contacted Katie that he could share with her why they were asking, Hotch still wanted Emily to know Katie was in the building so she could come and talk to her if her schedule allowed it.

Looking back up, Hotch saw Katie walk over to Dave to greet him, "Dave, it's good to see you. It's been a while." as he pulled her into a hug.

"Hi Katie. Thanks for being here." Dave said as they both moved a step back.

Katie smiled briefly at him before saying as she looked back and forth at Dave and Hotch, "sure. I'm happy to help. I have to admit I was surprised when Hotch mentioned the which case you are looking at. They were convicted and have been in jail for years. What's going on with this case?"

Hotch could see the uneasiness cross Dave's face. Knowing it was going to take some time to explain everything, he gestured to the table and said, "let's all sit down. As I mentioned, our interest in this case is personal for this team which is why we are working out of this room instead of the bullpen."

They all nodded and moved towards the table. Once everyone was seated, Katie looked to Hotch who was sitting next to her and said,"in what way is it personal?"

Before Hotch could say anything, all of them heard Dave say in a quiet voice from across the table, "it's Sophia. We found out what happened to Sophia."

As he finished, all of them could see as Katie sat up straight in her chair, looking back at Dave with a complete look of surprise on her face.

After a few moments, she gathered her thought and exclaimed, "WHAT!? Your Sophia, Dave?"

Hotch looked at the interaction intrigued but confused. He had rumors early in career that Rossi had had a child. However until he arrived at Dave's house the night before, he didn't know if those rumors were true.

However, it was obvious that Katie knew much more about this part of Dave's life than Hotch or the current team had known. With just a name, Katie knew exactly who Dave was talking about and that she had been missing. Reid was looking on with similar interest, cataloguing the interaction.

At Katie's question, Dave nodded before she continued, "but how? I looked through the demographics for all the kids and Sophia wasn't there."

"We approached the case a different way. They had changed her birthday and where she was born. She was one of the children that wasn't identified." Hotch interjected.

Katie looked down at the table and shook her head before saying quietly, "I can't believe she was there the whole time and I missed it."

Dave looked up at her confused before he said, "What?"

Katie looked up at him with unshed tears in her eyes as she said without looking away from him, "Dave, I know you didn't believe she had died. I also know that it wasn't your choice to stop looking for her. On cases I worked I kept my eye out. If nothing else, I wanted to bring you some concrete information about what happened to her. And I wasn't the only one."

As she finished, Dave looked down at the table and nodded. Katie was right. He hadn't believed that his baby had died and it hadn't been his choice to stop looking for her. He looked back up at her as he said, "I never knew you were doing that."

She nodded before she replied, "I didn't want to get your hopes up. So tell me how you found her."

Dave and Hotch exchanged looked and Dave nodded at him. Hotch turned to Katie and put his interwound hands on the table in front of him before he began, "a few weeks ago, the woman who my wife grew up believing was her mother died..."

"...wait, I thought we were talking about ..." Katie interrupted.

Dave nodded at her confusion before stating, "it will make more sense in a few minutes."

Katie nodded back at him before turning her attention back to Hotch as he continued, "when the estate went into probate, she gained access to a safety deposit box left to her by the man who she thought was her father, which contains among other things, her adoption papers. She hadn't known previously that she was adopted.

I recognized who McRae and Howard were when I looked at the adoption papers from when I worked in the prosecutor's office. I had just started there when they were preparing to take this case to court.

After I told her about what I know about the case against them, she wanted to know more about how she came to be adopted. I contacted someone I knew in the prosecutor's office and that is how we got access to all of these records with some help from Strauss."

Katie nodded before sighing as she said, "that's probably because last I heard, there were still people out there who were involved, particular in the money end. They want to preserve the records for future cases."

"That is our understanding as well." Hotch nodded before he replied, "the team has been going through the records and yesterday, Reid presented to the team a link between the adoption papers and Mildred Taylor."

"Emma's mother." Dave added.

Katie looked around at the three men in the room with her before asking, "but how did you find the link? We looked after we cracked the case and then the prosecutor's office worked on it for 2 years."

Hotch nodded and gestured at Reid and the dry erase board before saying, "I'm going to ask Reid to explain since he found the link. Dave, do you want to switch seats so you can see this too?"

Explaining all the documents had been Hotch's rationale for asking Reid to come down with him and Katie. The presence of Dave was an added bonus especially after seeing Dave frustration at the documents when they walked in. Hotch recalled that Dave had slipped out of the room the night before shortly after they had begun.

Reid walked up to the front of the room and as Hotch and Dave switched seats he quickly organized the documents. Once everyone was settled at the table he used the documents to explain what he found as he had done with the team the day before. He stopped intermittently as he presented each document to Katie and Dave to allow them to review each piece of evidence.

"So the number that couldn't be identified is the docket number for the adoption?" Katie asked as she went back through all of the paperwork as Spencer finished.

Reid cleared his throat before answering, "yes." before he paused before continuing, "at least in this case it was."

Katie looked up at them as she said, "so with a list of McRae's cases, they could potentially identify the rest of the children." After the rest of them nodded, she turned her attention to Hotch and asked, "have you shown this to the prosecutor's office yet?"

Hotch shook his head as he said, "not yet. Reid just found the connection yesterday. I'm meeting with the ADA on Monday and plan on showing her at that time." The meeting had been set up before Reid found the connection because Hotch was going to present to her what he had found on the financial side of the case concerning William Reid. Now he planned to review both pieces with the ADA.

"What is it Katie?" Dave asked concerned as he noticed Katie repeatedly going over the documents.

Katie sighed and looked over at him, knowing that what she was able to say was probably going to upset not only him but at least Hotch as well. As much as she wanted it to be true for her friend, there was a huge piece of this that wasn't adding up for her.

Taking a deep breath, she said, "I see the evidence but have you done anything to verify what you suspect." After he shook his head, she lowered her eyes as she said, knowing her words were going to hurt him, "I'm sorry Dave but I've seen pictures of Emma and I see you and I just can't see the two of you having a child with blonde hair."

Dave looked up and looked over at her confused before looking over at an equally confused Hotch and Reid before exclaiming, "Blonde? What do you mean?"

Katie pointed to the documents and said, "these show that Aaron's wife is your daughter. I've met his wife and I don't see it."

As Hotch listened to her, he remembered the last time he had run into Katie and the reason for the confusion was suddenly clear. He looked over at her and an increasingly upset Dave and said calmly, "Katie it was my ex-wife Haley that you met. We divorced 4 years ago and she was killed in a car accident over 2 years ago." As he spoke, Hotch could see Dave taking in what he was saying and visibly relaxing.

Hotch pulled his wallet out of his pocket and took out a picture and handed it to Katie before he said, "this concerns my wife Emily. We've been married for 3 years. Haley was Jack's biological mother though Emily adopted him after Haley died. The baby is Natalie, my daughter with Emily.

Looking down at the picture, Katie could now see why the profilers were so willing to believe what the documents were indicating. However, given how this criminal group operated, her concern still stood.

As she handed the picture back to Hotch she said, "Beautiful family Aaron. Thanks for clearing up the confusion. But you both need to consider verifying the findings of these documents especially considering how many basic changes they made. I'm certain the ADA will say the same thing. It was standard for the court proceedings when they tried the original case."

"We'll need to talk to Emily." Hotch replied as Dave nodded.

Katie looked thoughtful before looking over at Dave and asking, "How well do you know her? Emily?"

Dave looks over at her and says, "I've seen her just about everyday for the last 4 years. The first I saw her I thought I was looking at Emma." As he said it, there was a nostalgic look on his face.

Katie looked at him confused before asking, "Really?"

Dave looks at Hotch and then back to Katie before saying, "she works here as an agent. She used to be on our team but is now Unit Chief of the training team. It was who I mentioned to Aaron about being in a meeting when you first came into the room."

Before anything else could be said, the lock released on the door and in walked Garcia, JJ and Morgan. Introductions were made before the group settled around the table. After everyone was seated, Hotch asked Katie about her knowledge about the case. Unfortunately a check of his phone had the message from Emily that she was still held up but would be down as soon as she could.

Katie sat back to gather her thoughts and to push down her annoyance at the scowls that Agent Morgan had been shooting at Dave since he walked into the room. Leaning forward in her seat with her elbows on the table, she looked at the assembled group as she started,

"I first became involved with this case because the BAU had been asked to consult on a series of kidnappings that were similar but not close enough to be conclusive that it was the same perpetrator. As it turned out it wasn't always the same person doing the actual kidnappings though they all worked for this group.

One day, I got a call that there had been another kidnapping from a mall though this time, they had a lead on who did it. Before that, the kidnapper and the baby would disappear without a trace.

I quickly headed to the command post and learn that at the mall where the kidnapping had occurred, there were some teens recording each other with camcorders and happened to catch the kidnapping happen along with good video of the actual UNSUB. One of the kids was able to sneak out to the parking lot and identify the car used to get away as well as the direction they headed.

As the police canvassed the mall, they came across surveillance video at one of the stores which gave them a license plate number. An APB was issued and we were contacted a short time later by several truck drivers who were travelling on the same road as the car and heard about the APB from their scanners. Several unmarked cars were scrambled onto the road to follow the car without it being obvious that they were being followed.

When the car came to a warehouse, we assembled several teams, surrounded the warehouse and went in and arrested everyone. The baby was thankfully fine and being prepared to turned over to his new adoptive parents. After a check at the hospital, he was returned to his anxious biological parents while the rest of us tried to make sense of what we had just walked into.

As we waded through the evidence, it quickly became clear that this was bigger than a single kidnapping or only a single UNSUB was involved. As a continuation of our luck, Mr Howard happened to be at the warehouse that day. As we would find out during the investigation, that rarely occurred but on this particular day, he was going to be personally handing over the baby.

With his then known involvement and arrest, we were able to get the warrants that we needed. Judge McRae was arrested as he tried to flee the country. The social worker that had been their partner was arrested in Canada and was extradited. Several other arrests were made though we all knew there were more people involved given the size and scope of the illegal activity and that they had been in operation for over 20 years."

Katie paused and took a drink of water before continuing, "as we investigated, we learned how they started. If you can believe it, they had good intentions at the beginning. It was initially a reaction to a number of infants being abandoned in unsafe places by parents who didn't want them and/or couldn't take care of them. Many of whom died of exposure. You need to remember at this time Safe Haven laws didn't exist. The three men had come together to discuss how they could decreased the number of abandoned babies."

"So you want us to be thankful to these people?" Derek asked outraged.

Katie glared at him briefly before saying calmly, "no not at all. I'm just pointing out what we found in the investigation. The evolution in the actions of the group. I thought as profilers it was what you would want to hear."

Hotch said, "We do Katie."

She looked over at him and nodded before continuing, "They came up with the plan to offer parents money to bring them unwanted babies who they would then adopt out. Mr Howard was already working as an adoption attorney. The information was slowly put out there and over the next couple of years, it gave them a steady intake of babies that could be adopted.

Then very quickly, they became greedy as they also had attracted through word of mouth an elite clientele who came to them to adopt and were willing to pay a premium for what they wanted. And from there things escalated, accepting babies that legally couldn't be put up for adoption such as in Dave's case to later the kidnappings. They better than most people knew what they were doing was wrong and they didn't care and just keep doing it because of the money and power it gave them.

After we had a solid case, we handed it over to the prosecutor's office for trial. I was offered a Unit Chief position with Crimes Against Children and decided to accept it which is what took me away from the BAU." Katie paused and looked around the table at the group before continuing, "does anyone have any questions for me?"

As questions were being asked and answered, Dave could feel his anxiety rising. Knowing he needed to get out of the room, he reached over and touched Katie's arm to get her attention. When she looked over at him, he said, "I need to go. Thank you for coming and sharing what you know. I'm glad to know now that you didn't stop looking."

Katie gave him a sad smile before they briefly hugged. Looking at him, she said, "I know you and the rest have had my back too. Take care and let me know what you need. And remember what I said."

Dave said, "I will." before he nodded to the rest of the team and walked out of the room, not ready to talk to any of them yet.

####

Emily was sitting at her desk making progress on some busy work that Donaldson had assigned to her during their meeting that morning, frustrated that she couldn't go down to talk to Katie Cole. Emily was hoping that the former profiler could help her make sense about everything she had learned over the last few weeks.

However, she knew that the team was not supposed to be in there during work hours and until she had completed her task for Donaldson and sent it to him, she couldn't risk go in there. If she did and he came looking for her, it could cause trouble not only for her but for Aaron and his entire team as well as Katie.

While she had been waiting for some searches to process, she had called Mr Anders to discuss with him what she had learned and what should her next steps be. After briefly updating him as she had learned over the last few days as Aaron had already discussed with him the concerns about her adoption, he had suggested she come into to meet with him ASAP to discuss her legal options.

Before they had hung up, he had gently suggested that she talk to Dave about a DNA test saying it would strengthen her case when they went to court along with the evidence since there are inconsistencies with her original birth certificate. She had said she would talk to him.

Now she wasn't sure what to do or how to approach him with the request. She didn't want to hurt him after hearing that morning what he had said. Or for him to become angry with her. The ironic thing was that this type of dilemma was generally one she would go to Dave to talk through with her.

Before she can think anymore about it, her computer dings that the searches that she was running are done. Refocusing her thoughts back to her assignment, she completes what she needs to before emailing the whole thing off to Donaldson.

Relieved that that is finally done, Emily takes a deep breath while standing at her desk. Shaking her head, she knows that she just needs to talk to Dave and explain to him what Neil suggested. He had been the one to suggest she talk to Neil and had offered his help.

Walking out of her office, she lets her team know she will be on her cell. As she arrives in the bullpen, she sees that no one from the team is there. As she starts down the hall towards to workroom, she sees Dave walking towards her.

As he approaches her, Dave stops and says awkwardly, "Hi Em."

Emily smiles at him briefly before saying, "Hey Dave. I was hoping to run into you. There is something I need to ask you."

"Of course." Dave said before looking around them and pointing out an empty conference room across the hall. Once they were inside, he closed the door to give them some privacy before continuing, "let's talk in here. What can I do for you?"

Emily took a deep breath before starting, "after my meeting with Donaldson and while I was waiting for some data, I called Neil like we talked about this morning."

"Good. I'm glad. What is the plan?" Dave said calmly as he took in Emily's nervous demeanor. He could tell she was close to just changing her mind about asking whatever it was she was going to ask and he didn't want that to happen.

"I need to go in and see him. He did make one other suggestion that I would need your help with." she said.

Dave looked at her and reached out and took her hand as he said, "of course. What do you need? I was serious when I said I would do what I can." He could feel the tension radiating off of her.

Emily looked down at his hand on hers and took a deep breath before quickly rambling, "I'm happy to hear you say that. What he suggested was a DNA test. He said that I would most likely need one for court. And because of the difference on the birth certificate…."

Emily stopped but did not look up at him when he squeezed her hand. Dave could sense her body stiffen and could see evidence of a cringe even without being able to fully see her face. He could feel his angry grow at what she had experienced growing up that she was this worried about making a simple request. She was this nervous to ask that they do a simple test. One that yes would have great ramifications but it wasn't like she was asking for one of his kidneys. Though he knew that even if she was, he wouldn't hesitate to do that either. He sighed and resolved to make sure that he would make sure she knew she could always come to him.

Dave closed his eyes and focused on calming his anger, knowing that if Emily saw it, she would believe that it was directed at her and not at the circumstance of how she grew up.

Once he felt calmer, he squeezed her hand again before raising her chin with the other hand until she was looking at him. He smiled at her as he said, "Emily, it's fine. Katie recommended a DNA test as well for the same reasons. Also she said that in the initial case, they did them with all of the kids." Dave was relieved that at his words, Emily was visibly relaxing. Knowing he was on the right track, he continued, "tell you what, let's head down to Evidence Processing now and have one of the techs collect the samples. We should have the results in a couple days and you will know when you go into see Neil."

"Are you sure you have time now? You looked like you were headed somewhere." Emily asked hesitantly. She wanted to get the test done but didn't want to inconvenience Dave since it was only her that needed the results for court.

Dave smiled at her before saying, "Nowhere that can't wait."

"Thank you." Emily responded quietly.

"There's nothing to thank me for, kiddo." Dave replied as they walked out of the room and down the hall towards the elevators. He was pleased that they had gotten over another hurdle.

####

After Dave left, Derek huffed and crossed his arms in front of him.

Hotch looked at him and raised he brow before asking, "Is there a problem?"

Derek stood up and started pacing as she said, "Yeah, man. He just walked out again. Did he walk out on Em too? I thought you said they were talking this morning."

"They were talking until Emily got called into a meeting with Donaldson. Dave drove her in so we could ride home together. That meeting is why she isn't here right now." Hotch replied while trying to keep his cool because he knew blowing up at Morgan right now wasn't going to help any of them. He relaxed somewhat when he saw Morgan relax as he processed what Hotch had said.

Before anyone could say anything else, Katie's phone started beeping. Hotch looked over at her and asked, "Is everything OK?"

Katie sighed and shook her head while still looking down at her phone. After typing in a response to the message, she looked up at the group and said, "I need to get back to the office. Something has come up. Before I go, I need to say something." She paused and looked around at the group before continuing, "I've known Dave for a long time. I started here a few years after he and Gideon started the BAU. All of us from that time knew about Sophia though from your reactions, it seems that none of you did". She paused again and paced in the room as she said, "he wanted to find her. To raise her. The commonly accepted opinion though was that she had died but Dave didn't believe that."

"Then why did he stop looking for her." Morgan asked, calmer than he was a few minutes earlier though still with a perceptible edge to it.

Katie shook her head and looked at the group sadly before saying, "that isn't my story to tell. But he did look for years and could never get anything definitive on what happened to her. I'm guessing he still has all of his research squirrelled away somewhere." She smiled at the slight head nod from Hotch, knowing that he had just confirmed it for her.

Katie stopped pacing and put her hands on the back of the chair that she had been sitting in before saying, "before I leave, I want to leave all of you with a few thoughts. When it came down to it all those years ago, Dave had two horrible options to consider about what happened to his daughter.

On one hand, she was dead. For a parent that is the worse pain imaginable.

On the other hand was that his child was out there somewhere and he had no idea if she was being taken of properly. After working in this job, I'm sure all of you can understand how that possibility would be terrifying. For him. For any of us.

Which of those options is 'better'? Either would be hell.

I understand that you all empathize with what Emily has and is going through. I do too. I'm glad she had so many people that care for her around as she works through this new normal.

But also consider that Dave has also been through hell. The hell no parent should ever have to go through."

Katie turn and looked right at Hotch before saying and she picked up her bag, "Aaron, I would be happy to talk to Emily if she would like. Just have her call or text me and we'll set something up."

Hotch stood up and met her at the door and gave her a hug before he said, "Thanks Katie. I'll let her know. Thanks for coming out here today."

"Happy to help. It was nice to meet all of you." Katie said before she gave one last wave to the group and walked out of the workroom.

Hotch looked over at his team still sitting at the table and said, "OK. Let's get back to work before anyone comes looking for us."

AN: In Chapter 24- the DNA results are in. Dave overreacts at a misunderstanding and has to accept the consequences. I will try to have it up next week but most likely it will be the following week.