Chapter Thirteen – Hell With An Eye

Author's Note: Hotch's dream is from the episode 100 (5x7). Keep in mind that as Bill gets better the dreams are going to be diverging more and more from what happened in the actual episodes.

Hotch went down faster than any of the others had. Within ten minutes of being injected with the drug he was asleep at Emily's feet. Emily stayed close by, ready to help him if he needed it. Or more realistically, when he needed it.

Emily wasn't the only one keeping an eye on her boss. The rest of the team was too, though Rossi was watching closer than the others. Hotch may have started to move on, but Rossi knew his friend. The dream would likely cause the wound Haley's death had caused in Hotch's heart to open up again.

Olivia noticed the pensive looks the agents were giving their leader, and it made her uneasy. They seemed to already know what was coming. For now Hotch seemed to be sleeping peacefully, but she knew it wouldn't last long.

"It's going to be bad, isn't it?" she whispered to Morgan.

He glanced her way and frowned.

"Why do you think that?"

Olivia arched an eyebrow at him, and Morgan immediately gave in. It made sense that Olivia had figured that out. After all, they were being pretty obvious.

"Yeah. Really bad."

He wasn't sure if he should say more. It really wasn't his place, but Olivia would probably piece it together eventually. She didn't push for information, and he decided it would be best to give her the basics.

"An unsub we'd been after for awhile killed Hotch's wife. Would have killed his son too if Hotch hadn't gotten there when he did."

Olivia's breath had caught at the first sentence, and she'd stared at him in shock as she listened to the rest. No wonder they were all worried.

0~0~0~0

There were tear tracks on his face, and he had no idea why. Hotch rarely cried. He could count the number of times he had let tears fall as an adult on two hands. So why was he crying now?

The pure white room he'd been surrounded by was suddenly flooded with red. Staring back at him from all of the walls was the eye of providence drawn in blood. No matter where he looked, he couldn't escape it. The Reaper. George Foyet.

"Haley."

It was a whispered word, but that was all it took to break the spell of the room. The floor beneath Hotch's feet suddenly gave way, and he fell. Hotch felt like he was being torn in two. While he could feel the steering wheel under one hand and a cell phone in the other, he wasn't in a car. Or at least not all of him was. All he could see was a blur around him until his rapid flight from the room slowed outside of a white house with a gated driveway.

He knew the house even though he only saw it for an instant before he was ushered right through the walls to hover above the living room. Jack was playing with his toys while Haley stood beside him. Only a short distance from them both was Foyet.

Hotch nearly panicked and desperately called out to Haley to run, to get away, but she didn't seem to hear him. It was then that he heard his own voice drifting toward him from the phone in Haley's hand.

"If you touch her…"

He was rather proud of how deep and commanding the words were. Foyet didn't seem to be impressed. As Foyet moved toward her, gun in hand, Hotch could see her flinch. The fear was obvious in her eyes, but he could tell she was trying not to show it to Jack.

Hotch didn't even hear the words that followed, unable to take his focus off of Haley. Never before had he seen her so afraid and yet so strong. At one point she seemed to almost crumble until his own voice rang out again.

"Show him no weakness, no fear."

Hotch knew that was much easier said than done, yet Haley managed it somehow. He wanted to draw her into his arms, hold her, protect her, tell her how proud of her he was, but he couldn't move. When Jack took the phone Hotch's heart leaped into his throat.

"I need you to work the case, Jack."

Even as the familiar conversation happened in front of him, Hotch could only watch Haley's face. She was so close to tears. So close to completely falling apart.

"Hug your mom for me."

Jack immediately moved to his mom. Hotch saw the instant Haley's expression changed. It was in her eyes. She knew this would be the last time she ever got to hold her son, and he didn't blame her in the least for holding him as tight as she did. Hotch could only watch in agony as Jack darted off to do as he'd asked.

Then the gun was at Haley's head and tears streamed down her face as Foyet stroked her cheek. The next moments were a blur. He only caught bits and pieces of their last conversation.

"You're so strong…"

"… sign up for this…"

"…neither did you…"

"He needs to know you weren't always so serious, Aaron."

Tears were streaming down Hotch's face again as he tried to reach for her. He had no idea how she'd managed to stay so strong and so calm through all of this. She deserved so much more than she'd gotten. He'd failed her.

"I love you," he whispered even though he knew she couldn't hear him like this. "I love you, Haley."

The sound of three gunshots ripped through the air, and Hotch was sent spinning out of control.

0~0~0~0

Emily had been expecting Hotch to cry out, to scream at Foyet, to rage against the unfairness of it all. She hadn't been expecting to hear Hotch softly murmur his wife's name. When she looked down at his face again, she found he was crying silently in his sleep.

"Hotch…"

Reaching down, Emily gently wiped the tears away. It probably was a useless gesture since they would be replaced by more in a second, but she wanted to do it anyway.

"Emily?" JJ asked softly, her eyes filled with worry.

Emily simply shook her head and brushed away her own tears. Hotch was going to need her to be strong. She couldn't lose it now.

0~0~0~0

"You should have taken the deal."

The sinister voice echoed around Hotch as he ran up the driveway. The house in front of him swayed and bucked, at times appearing to duplicate. Everything was blending together and shifting to the point that he couldn't make sense of it. The instant he reached the knob and pushed the door in the movement stopped and the world became still and silent.

He held his breath as he made his way into the house. While he knew deep down what he was going to find, he still didn't want to accept it. The blood trail was a neon sign flashing in his face on the white carpet. Before he'd really started to climb the steps he was at the top and standing over her.

His Haley.

Her plaid, purple shirt was covered in blood, as was her porcelain skin. Hotch couldn't find any part of her that hadn't been graced with her own blood. Even one foot, the shoe missing, had streams of red coursing over it like the veins running beneath her skin. Veins where blood no longer actively flowed.

Hotch desperately wanted to stay there, rooted to her side, but he knew he couldn't. Jack was still out there, and Foyet was still free. He whirled, firing into the flowered curtains hanging by the window with a wordless growl. The curtains ripped from the wall as the person hidden behind them fell. Hotch shoved them aside in defiance and stared down at Foyet's body.

He didn't have a second to react when Foyet's eyes snapped open, and he launched his attack. Hotch went down, and Foyet was immediately on him. They traded round after round of punches, neither getting the upper hand. Then Hotch felt the floor disappear beneath his feet, and he went tumbling down the stairs.

It took him awhile to pull himself together after the fall. Foyet's giddy laughter hung in Hotch's ears as he tried to get his feet under him again.

"I'm going to tell him that it was all your fault."

With that, Foyet disappeared from the top of the stairs and headed down the hall.

Jack. Jack. Jack!

He had to get up. He had to go after Foyet. Had to stop him from killing Jack.

Hotch made it to his feet and started forward, but it felt like he was wading through jello. Time seemed to be in slow motion. Hotch couldn't get there fast enough, and he watched in horror as Foyet walked into his office. As he struggled forward he saw Foyet lift the lid to the storage bin Jack was hiding in.

Suddenly time returned to normal. Hotch was on Foyet in an instant, yanking the man away from his son's hiding place. The two went down and Hotch didn't waste a moment in connecting his fist with Foyet's face.

Again, and again, and again.

For Haley. For Jack. For Sam Kassmeyer. For all of those people Foyet had killed. For all of the lives he had destroyed.