"We're being instructed to do what?" Garcia demanded loudly.
It had been over a month since SSA Aaron Hotchner had gone missing and while his team had not made any significant progress in locating him they still met daily in the round table room to review their case notes and to develop any new avenues of investigation they may have thought of.
"You are being instructed to step down," Chief Cruz repeated from where he was standing in front of the room. "Agent Hotchner has been missing for 30 plus days and there has been no ascertainable progress made in locating him. There are other cases which need your attention and which have a higher probability of being resolved."
"Now, I am not saying to abandon your search," Cruz hurriedly added. "I, for one, certainly don't intend to. However, I am just saying that you need to put it on the back burner for now and pull it out when you have time."
"Have time, Man?" Morgan thundered. "We never have time. We're always bouncing from one case to another."
"Has anyone in the Great Beyond considered the fact that Hotch isn't the only person missing?" Garcia hurried to point out. "From what I have discovered, our Boss Man has lots of company. Don't the other victims' families deserve answers?"
"We are aware of that," Cruz told her. "However, the longer a case drags on the less the possibility of a positive outcome. And, that needs to be taken into consideration when there are new cases coming in every day."
"We have consulted on and helped to resolve at least seven cases while we were looking for Hotch," JJ pointed out. "It's not like we have been completely neglecting other cases."
"We have a solid profile of the group that took Hotch," Lewis added. "And, they can't be spending all their time at sea. They have to be coming ashore somewhere sometime. We just have to figure out where and when."
"They can't have unlimited food supplies on board their boat," was Reid's opinion. "They have to be getting fresh food somewhere, otherwise they will be suffering from scurvy and scabies and – "
"Okay - Okay," Rossi felt it was time to get practical. "Who is going to be taking over as unit chief of this team?"
"Yes, who is going to be our new boss man?" Garcia chimed in.
"Me – I will be taking over," Cruz admitted. "Effective immediately I will be in charge of this team."
"In that case, Sir," JJ enunciated the title clearly. "I suspect I had best start determining our next case."
"Don't bother," Cruz told her. "We already have a case which has been designated Top Priority."
He handed a piece of paper to Garcia. "If you will access this file," he told her. "We can get started."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
The team had been in South Dakota for almost a week when the phone call came.
"Speak and you shall be heard," Garcia answered her BAU landline.
"Jessica?" she immediately questioned the caller. "What is going on? Slow down and take a deep breath and then tell me – Okay?"
She listened intently for a minute. "All right," she responded. "Let me see if I can locate Will. You know, JJ's husband. You do know him, don't you? I will have him pick you and Jack up and bring both of you in here to the office where you will be safe. In the meantime, I'll contact the team and see what they think. Is that okay?"
"Super. Now just sit tight – Help is on the way!"
A short time later, she was on the phone with Matt Cruz. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Sir," she began. "But something just came up here."
"That's okay, Penelope," he replied. "I know you wouldn't be calling me if it wasn't important. What's happened?"
"I just got a call from Jessica, you know, Hotch's sister-in-law," the tech began. "And she's really scared."
"About what?" Cruz asked.
"It seems that for the past week or so she has had the feeling that she and Jack were being watched," Garcia continued. "She's never been able to spot anyone or anything, but she's just felt creepy. Anyway, this afternoon after she picked Jack up from school, she just couldn't shake the feeling that they were being followed and it kept getting worse. So she packed both of them into her car and drove to the nearest police station. Then, after they got inside, she called me."
"There was no indication that anyone was stalking her?" Cruz verified.
"No one that she could see," Garcia told him. "However, you know how you get that feeling at the back of your neck? Well, she had it really bad. I know her and she's not the type of person who imagines things. So, after I spoke with her, I tracked Will down and made arrangements for him pick her and Jack up and bring them into the office. I hope that's okay, Sir?"
"You did the right thing, Penelope," Cruz assured her. "After the way Agent Hotchner just disappeared we need to make sure his family is safe. Where are she and Jack now?"
"They just arrived and are in the conference room talking with Agent Anderson," Garcia explained. "He was in the office when they came in and they know him and trust him, so I thought maybe he could find something out from talking with her. He has several ideas of where to go from here but is waiting for your approval."
"I'll talk with him," Cruz decided. "From what you're telling me, I think that maybe a safe house for the night might be a good idea. Have you checked for any security cameras that may have caught her and Jack during the past several days?"
"Not yet, Sir," was the quick reply. "But I am on it right now."
"In the meantime, I'll talk with Agent Anderson," Cruz told her. "And one of us will get back to you and let you know what we will be doing."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"So, you did find something, Garcia?" JJ asked. The team had finished their case in South Dakota and returned to Quantico where they were now sitting in the conference room.
"Yes," Garcia put several pictures on the screen. "It looks like these two individuals are on several of the security tapes I found that have Jessica and Jack on them. However, there never is a clear enough picture of either of them to run facial recognition."
"One of them appears to be carrying a camera in this picture," Rossi pointed to one of the photos.
"Maybe they are trying to look like tourists," Lewis suggested. "That way they could take pictures and blend in and no one would question it."
"But why would they need to take pictures?" Morgan questioned. "Presumably they know what their intended targets look like."
"Maybe they need the pictures for something else," Reid proposed. "Maybe they are using them to persuade Hotch to do something."
"Hotch would do anything to protect Jack," JJ observed. "The same way I would do anything to protect Henry and Michael."
"But, what would they want Hotch to do?" Lewis wondered. "It's not like he has top security clearance or anything like that."
"We profiled that these were terrorists," Rossi said thoughtfully. "So what else is there?"