Story I – Chapter 4

Kahlan tried to swallow as she woke but alcohol increased dehydration prevented it. Once grief and drink fueled fogged cleared from her brain, she realized her phone was vibrating. She sighed heavily and grabbed it off the nightstand. She sighed as she realized she was sleeping on what would have been Hotch's side of the bed. She pulled her phone close to her face and tried to focus on who was calling. A small smile came to her lips as she realized it was Rossi. "Hey, Dave," she answered and ran a hand through her hair she could feel sticking out all over.

"Morning, Kiddo. I didn't know if you'd be awake yet, but I have coffee if you want some company."

She could tell he needed the company as much as she did. "Yeah. Coffee sounds good. Just give me a minute to not look like a horror film extra."

He chuckled. "It sounds like you actually got some sleep."

She forced herself to throw her legs over the side of the bed and sit up. "Yeah, and I had the strangest dream."

"I bet. Give me a text when you want me to come," he told her.

She ran a hand down her face. "Yep. I'll just. . ." her words dropped off as she turned to look towards the bathroom.

The scream that erupted out of the phone made Rossi pull it away from his ear for a second as he winced. "Kahlan! What's wrong?" he asked desperately as he ran to the room he knew she was staying in. He heard the phone hit what he imagined was the floor, and his heart jumped into his throat as he sped up.

"What?" Hotch asked with narrow eyes as he as sat up still half asleep.

Rossi forced the keycard into the slot and slammed the door open. His eyes took in Kahlan tangled up in covers sitting on the floor bedside the bed and he shook his head. "What the hell, Kiddo?"

Kahlan looked at him for a second and then looked back towards the bed slowly lifted her hand with her finger pointing.

The little wall that jutted out to set apart the entry blocked Rossi's view of what had her so traumatized so he took a tentative step forward and peered around the corner, and the blood drained form his face. When he saw Hotch sitting on the far side of the bed obviously just woken up, he crossed himself in true Catholic manner. "Jesus, Mary, Mother of God," he mumbled under his breath.

"Hey, Dave," Hotch offered as he got up.

Kahlan quickly scrambled out of the covers and ran to Rossi's side. "You see him, too, right?"

Rossi nodded with wide eyes, unable to find his voice.

"What?" Hotch asked as he looked back and forth between the two people he loved the most.

"That wasn't a dream?" Kahlan asked him quietly.

Hotch shrugged. "Apparently not. I'm still here."

Rossi looked at him and then turned to Kahlan. "He's been here all night?"

She winced. "I don't know what time he got here, but yeah, basically. I thought I was dreaming."

Rossi looked back at Hotch and frowned. "How?"

Hotch licked his lips and took a step towards him but he and Kahlan both backed up a step. "Oh come on, Babe. We're going to have to do this again?" he asked with pleading eyes. "I'm really here and I'm really alive. Please believe me."

Kahlan shot him a cold look that warned him not to come any closer and then looked at Rossi. "He can't be alive. His heart isn't beating."

Rossi looked back and forth between the two. "Your heart. . ."

"And if you look closely, he's not breathing either!" she pointed out.

Hotch took a deep breath. "Yes I am."

"You just did that on purpose. You're not breathing unless you make yourself."

Hotch stilled and concentrated on his chest and felt fear crept up into his gut when he realized she was right. "Oh shit."

"Oh shit?" Rossi asked. "What the hell is going on, Aaron?"

Hotch flopped his butt down onto the bed, placed his elbows on his knees, and dropped his head into his hands. "I don't know," he muttered between his fingers.

"Oh no!" Kahlan exclaimed as her face paled even more

Hotch's head snapped up to look at her. "What?"

"They didn't. . . Ahhh. . . They didn't do the autopsy already, did they?" she asked him in a tone slightly above a whisper. Removal of organs during an autopsy would explain why he wasn't breathing or had a beating heart.

A look of horror spread across his face as he stood up and his hand flew to the 'V' in the scrub shirt he was still wearing and he pulled it down and out to look at his chest. He'd never been so happy to not find a massive 'Y' shaped cut marring his flesh. He looked at her and smiled. "No."

She relaxed a bit but she wasn't sure why she was so relieved; he was still dead and standing there and talking to them and that should have freaked her out more than it actually was. She took a deep breath as her eyes darted around for a few seconds and she went to him and pulled his shirt up so she could see his flesh. Her eyes searched him and she frowned and then spun him around and pulled the back of the scrub pants down to reveal his bare butt.

"Hey!" he exclaimed as he pulled them back up and twisted out of her hands as he righted the pants.

She shook her head as she backed up and shot a look to Rossi "That's not Aaron!"

"What?" Rossi and Hotch both yelled at the same time. Hotch straighten his shirt out. "Yes I am," he insisted.

Rossi looked at Kahlan as she moved even closer to him. When he noticed her eyeing Hotch's pistols sitting on the dresser, his stomach clenched. "Why do you say that?" he asked her.

She swallowed hard as she eyed Hotch with cold eyes. "He doesn't have any of the scars he's supposed to. That is not our Aaron!"

Hotch's eyes darted around as he tried to figure out what it meant. He shook his head and looked at them. "Yes, I am. I don't know what's going on, but I swear to you. I am the Aaron you both know and love."

Kahlan looked at Rossi. "Call the hospital and see if Aaron's body is still there."

Rossi balked. "Yeah right! I can see it now. 'Excuse me, but would you be so kind to tell me if one of your stiffs got up and walked out of there last night?' I'm not sure if they'd laugh or hang up first."

She rolled her eyes. "Or you could tell them you've set up for Aaron's remains to be transferred home and want to know if he's been picked up yet."

Rossi gave her a small grin. "That sounds a lot better," he agreed and pulled out his phone and turned away from them.

Hotch wilted. "Kahlan, please. . ."

She pointed at him. "And you hush!"

He huffed and flopped back down onto the bed. What the hell is going on?

Rossi got to the right department and asked what Kahlan had wanted him to, and he shot her a concerned look. "So he's still there?" he asked to clarify.

Kahlan took a step closer to Hotch's pistols as Hotch's head snapped up and looked at Rossi. The fear she could see in Hotch's eyes broke her heart a little more.

"Would you actually go in and check for me. I thought they were supposed to have him picked up by now," Rossi urged the tech. He waited silently as he heard the man moving and a cooler door opening.

After a few more moments, the tech snorted. "Actually, Agent Rossi, he has been picked up. I guess the paperwork just hasn't been filed in the right place yet. I'm sorry."

When Rossi shot Hotch a look, Hotch relaxed a little more knowing Rossi was getting good news. "That's fine. Thank you for checking for me," Rossi told the younger man and ended the call. He turned to Kahlan. "Hotch's body is not there."

Kahlan licked her lips as she studied the man sitting on the bed. As much as she wanted to believe that her husband had come back to them, she just wouldn't allow herself to believe it was a good thing, yet.

Hotch saw her looking and stood up again. "I swear it's me. Ask me anything!" he pleaded as he looked at them both.

Kahlan shot Rossi a look as her mind raced. She and Hotch had already had that discussion at one point in their life together. Rossi cleared his throat and took a step closer to the man he really wanted to be who he was claiming to be. "You remember that case with that hired hitman in Commack, Long Island?"

Hotch's eyes studied him as he squared his shoulders. "Your hometown, of course."

"What did everyone on the team think, but I later talked to you about?"

Hotch smiled. "Because of what you said to Judge Schuller to rile him up, the team thought you had slept with his wife, Emma, when you were in town one time, but you confessed to me that you never did. You also confessed to me that you loved her and should have married her all those years before when you were both young."

A smile made its way onto Rossi's face and he looked at Kahlan. "That's him. He's the only one I have ever told that to."

Kahlan bit her lip as she studied Hotch some more. "So what then? A normal human being doesn't get up after being dead for several hours and go back to the people he loves."

Rossi sighed and finally sat down in a chair. "There has to be some explanation."

"That's what I keep telling her," Hotch insisted as he stepped closer to them.

Kahlan held up and hand in warning. "Yeah, but the only things that come to mind aren't really good things."

Hotch stopped and his jaw dropped. "You think I'm evil?" he asked as fear spread through him like a wild fire. He knew how sensitive she was on that subject. "That maybe I'm some zombie or something?"

Kahlan gave him a look that said that was exactly what she was thinking. "But you can't be a zombie. I don't think they can talk."

Hotch huffed and sat back down on the bed. "So what then?"

She shrugged. "There are several things you could be."

Rossi crossed himself again as he looked at the man he loved and prayed Kahlan wasn't right. "Could someone have raised him from the dead?"

Kahlan frowned. "A necromancer?" Rossi nodded and hated himself for even thinking such a thought. Kahlan sighed. "From what I understand about them. . ."

"But that stuff's not real!" Hotch insisted.

She looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "This coming from a dead man who is walking and talking without breathing and without a beating heart?"

He wilted; she did have a point.

"And the study of raising the dead goes back to ancient times, but from what I understand, there has to be a spell or something done at the gravesite. Hotch hasn't been buried yet," Kahlan pointed out.

"Yet?" Hotch asked with a squeaky voice. That's scarier than thinking someone had done an autopsy on me.