Chapter 7:A little step forward
A/N: Here is chapter 7! We'll see if Emily is (as you guessed) pregnant or not. We'll see Jack and Henry in the BAU, some cute scenes with the boys trying to rebuild the relationship with the team. We'll also see what's on the encrypted file and what happened with the 911 call. And of course what happened to Matt.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer in chapter 1
Previously
"Matt… Mattie, hey don't close your eyes, you hear me?" she tightened the hold she had on him but she got no answer from the shaking man. The only thing she heard him whisper was a soft "I'm sorry" and she felt as if he ripped her heart out with it.
Chapter 7
Emily walked to the pharmacy next door, Jack was still sleeping, so was Henry, she was glad that none of them had woken up at night, not even when she got out of the bed. She let Derek and Savannah back in Penelope's apartment and found the closest pharmacy she could find. This would be her tenth since she first noticed she was late. Nine tests so far and five came back positive, four negative, four stab wounds to her heart, five heartbeats skipped. This would be her tenth (probably eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth maybe fourteenth too). She was going to get her answers… there would be no more wondering.
She quickly picked up three tests and run to the counter, paid for them and walked out of the store. She was anxious, her hands were sweating, it wasn't that she didn't want the answer, she did, she wanted the answer but she wasn't sure if she was ready for it. A positive test, another, would mean that she and Aaron would finally get what they were trying for five years ago, what Doyle took from them, but then other troubles would arise, she wasn't young, she'd have to be really careful, and her body had sustained a lot of damage over the years, was she going to be able to carry full term? What if she wasn't? What if she miscarried? Or what if she was a bad mother, what if the baby hated her? She had to stop herself at that point, that or she'd drive herself crazy.
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The ambulance rushed Matt to the ER, JJ didn't let his hand till the doctors had practically removed her from his side. The whole way he was in and out of consciousness and the doctors rushed him to a room. She walked to the waiting room led away by a nurse who had enough of her screaming. Dave rushed to her side first; he helped her down to a chair and sat down next to her.
"Did we cause it Dave?" she had fresh tears rolling down her face. Her eyes were red and swollen, "No cara, don't do that, we don't know what is wrong with him." Dave was thinking the same thing, no matter what he said to JJ the result was the same. This mess kept going on and on. If whoever planned it wanted to destroy them he was succeeding, in their try to get Hotch out of custody the soonest they ignored themselves. They let fatigue get the best of them, tiredness to cloud their minds, they were losing the fight.
"Family for Mateo Cruz?" a doctor in light blue scrubs appeared and Dave followed JJ who jumped from the plastic seat. "Tell us." Dave said.
"Well Mr. Cruz is alright, he had a bad case of exhaustion and a mild case of dehydration which caused his blood pressure to fall rapidly which caused the sweating and the fainting. He'll be alright, we'll keep him for the rest of the night here for observation but you can see him." The doctor squeezed JJ's arm sand she let the first smile in hours graze her lips. "Thank you doctor." She said softly and Dave smiled to the doctor in appreciation. "See cara, he's fine." JJ nodded, still smiling even through her tears "Matt's a fighter."
"He is cara. Do you mind if I go first, I need to talk to him for a while before I go back to Quantico." Dave said.
"It's fine, I'll go get some coffee from downstairs, I'll stay the night." "You sure will cara" he said.
Dave saw JJ walking down the hall to the elevators and waited till she disappeared behind the closing doors before turning around and walking in the room the doctor told them Matt was.
Opening the door as softly as he could he saw the younger man lying on the bed, he looked ill, he doesn't remember the last time he saw him like that. Not even after being tortured and almost stabbed to death he look that bad.
"Hey, it's Dave. I'm sorry, I don't know… I used to run the BAU at first with Jason and Max and then just Jason, but now Max and I don't talk to each other and Jason is dead. I've worked in the BAU for many years, many years now. I don't know how to run the team anymore, it's not mine to. It's Aaron's team, and Aaron isn't there. My son died the day he was born…" Dave stopped and took a few deep breaths. He didn't know if Matt was awake or not, but he needed to tell him why… apologize. "I never saw him grow up but if he did, I think we would be like Aaron, at least I hope he would be. I latched onto him, and he became my son. To see him being dragged into the FBI building like some common criminal in handcuffs… his hands behind his back… I think it broke me a little… maybe a little too much. I took it out on the wrong person, I guess I wanted someone to blame and you were there, acting secretively, if the shoe fits right? I'm sorry… you didn't deserve that. So sorry for that… I hope you can forgive me." Dave reached his hand and gripped Matt's on the bed. "It's okay." His voice was barely above a whisper but Dave heard him, he saw the man struggling to open his eyes failing but trying again. "Here to bail me out." Dave let a laugh at his words "No, son tonight you stay here, you rest, eat, drink some water and tomorrow we'll see." The groan Matt let was almost childlike and Dave barely contained his laugh. "JJ will stay with you tonight, don't worry we won't let you with the wolves, I gotta go back to Quantico. Get better." With a last squeeze to the other man's hand Dave left the room, he walked down the hall with his head held high, but all that was a past when the door of his car closed and he broke.
JJ walked in the room, she was relieved to see Matt awake. "Matt" she breathed his name in relieve. A faint smile crossed his pale lips and he weekly tried to get up from the bed. "Don't even think about it." She scolded him and walked to his bed. JJ sat down on the chair Dave was sitting before and reached for his hand which still laid limply on the bed. "I'm so sorry Mattie. I should have known better than accuse you of such thing." The tears she thought had stopped started rolling down her face again. He turned his head and looked at her, "Don't worry Jen, just don't worry about it. It was my fault as much as anyone's; I should have told you guys." She smiled and squeezed his hand smiling.
They spent the rest of the night in silence, with only the occasionally sign from Matt stating his boredom.
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"I haven't managed to decrypt the file but I did found the 911 call, it was traced back to Hotch's cell phone." Penelope was now walking up and down, she was hyperventilating, "Garcia do you have the recording?" Dave asked "Sure" she walked back to the laptop she had left on the table; she pressed play knowing full well that it couldn't be good
"Today will change everything"
"Excuse me sir?"
"Today will change everything."
"Hotch? Guys it can't be Hotch right?" Kate said. "Why would he do that? It's not Hotch." The last part of her sentence held finality as if she wasn't going to believe that Hotch was talking although his voice was what they all heard.
"Play it again Pen."
"Em."
"Play it again."
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Emily walked in Penelope's apartment, she looked around, Derek was still sleeping on the couch, Savannah in the kitchen looking through Penelope's cabinets for anything to prepare breakfast with, there was no sign of the kids so she guessed they were still asleep.
"You got it?" Savannah asked her. Emily had no idea why she told her suspicions on the other woman, it's not like they knew each other that well, but maybe that was the reason… they didn't know each other that well.
"Yeah, going to take it now." Savannah smiled at Emily who nodded and turned to the bathroom. She closed the door and took a deep breath, her hands gripped the sink, she gripped the white marble till her knuckles were white looking at the sink and the paper bag she had dropped there. There, there was the answer…
Was she ready?
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"What are you doing here?" Dave asked
"Dave not now. Penelope, play the recording again and raise the volume." Her voice was stone cold; she was looking at the laptop, avoiding all stares.
"Emily! Where are the boys?" Emily turned her head to Dave, "In Aaron's office" she turned to Penelope, her eyes were empty, something that scared her blonde friend. "Now, play the recording Garcia." Her cold tone froze everyone in the room. Penelope pressed play again and raised the volume. Emily heard the recording and frowned, "Something doesn't add up, the sound, it's obvious it's Aaron but… but there is something." Emily stopped and walked away from the laptop to the other side of the room, she stood in front of the windows looking at Aaron's office. "It's like the words are place together. Like… like they come from different sources." She said turning back to look at the team.
"It's subtle but the inflection changes." Spencer said, Emily was right, something in the audio was wrong.
"We should look at all the press conferences led by Aaron." Emily said. "Garcia, pull all audiences, start looking for the words today, change, will and everything. Reid, I want you here, helping Garcia, try to find how they would do it. Garcia I want to focus on the encrypted file, just pull the tapes and give them to Reid. Tara, the DOJ had a reason to get counterterrorism to put Aaron under surveillance, you and Kate go find Jordan Todd, she worked at the BAU few years back, tell her I need a favor and tell her that family sticks together. Dave, call Joy, and tell her to be careful, someone is targeting us and I don't know to what extend we need to be sure, then call Will. Tell him to be careful and as soon as his shift ends to come here, go to the hospital be with JJ and Matt, actually inform all of our families. Alex, I want you to go through all the people Aaron put away that have the ability to pull this off." Emily turned on her heel to leave. Tara's voice stopping her "What about you?"
"I'll go have a chat with Antonia Slade." Emily said through her teeth.
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Five minutes the box said five minutes, it's been almost five and Emily's nerves were over the roof. She couldn't look at the test. She just couldn't she had to.
Taking another deep breath she turned and took the plastic stick in her hands, it was…
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"Well well, that's a face I never saw before." Emily looked at the woman in front of her
"My name is SSA Emily Hotchner, you are right we never met before." Slade raised her head; she looked at the brunette woman with renewed interest.
"Hotchner huh."
"Yes, Hotchner, tell me where can I find your son." Emily was met with silence from the older woman "Your son is on a shoot first, ask questions later list right now in everyone's list. SWAT and FBI's especially. You want to know an interesting fact about SWAT? They don't like being manipulated, and that's what your son did. He manipulated them into arresting agent Hotchner. They will kill him! Tell me where to find him."
"I want him taken into custody alive." She said Emily straighten her spine.
"Of course you do, thing is I can't promise you that. And frankly I wouldn't mind seeing him with a bullet in his head." Emily said, her voice was stone cold, almost scared herself. Was she really willing to let a man die?
"You are not going to let them kill him, you took an oath and like you hubby you are too straight laced to break it."
"That was true… till yesterday, when your son had armed men hold my husband in gunpoint in front of my son. Give me his name, or I swear to god I will shoot him myself and throw his corpse at your feet."
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"Hey" Anderson peaked into Hotch's office, Jack was sitting on his father's chair, Henry was sitting on the couch, both had a stack of papers in front of them along with crayons. "Can I come in?" Henry lowered his head to the papers in front of him again and Jack shrugged. Anderson walked in and closed the door behind him.
"I'm sorry for what happened. I really am, but we are trying our best to help your dad. Is there anything I can do?" he sat down on one of the chairs in front of the desk. Jack raised his head from the paper and looked at the man in front of him "Well, I want to see my dad, but Emmy said I couldn't. Can you go see him? Make sure he's alright, tell him I miss him?" Anderson smiled with a sad smile that never reached his eyes "Sure bud. I can do that." Anderson's smile fell and he got up. walking out of the room he couldn't stop the tears from falling, he left the room closing the door behind him leaning against the metal he let the tears fall, those kids, so young, so innocent seen so many horrors in their young life.
"Anderson." The young man took a deep breath, he knew the confrontation was coming, he didn't look forward to it but he knew it was coming.
"Yes agent Rossi."
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His head was spinning, his ribs hurt, breathing was difficult. He knew challenging Seaton was a bad idea; his brain had told him that, his pride though, beaten and broken, stepped on and bleeding was driving him. We wanted to annoy the bastard, he wanted to get the upper hand once. He wanted control for the first time in the last goddamn 29 hours, he wanted it and he got it for a few minutes, but now his whole body was aching.
He had a swollen cheekbone, split lip, bruised or possibly broken rips and his left knee hurt like hell. He wanted to curl, grip his ribs maybe ease the pain a bit but he couldn't, he was still tied to the goddamn table, his arms stretched over his head, his chair pushed from underneath him , lying on the cold ground difficult to breathe, the pain only maximized.
The door opened but he didn't even bother to get up, "Agent Hotchner?" a voice, a familiar voice, he knew it. He gathered all his strength to try and get up but the owner of the voice was already by his side, his hand was on his back helping him sit down, "Anderson" the young man steadied him, "Are you ok? What happened? Seaton did this?" his eyes were scanning him intensely.
"It's nothing, what are you doing here." Hotch tired to divert the younger man's attention from himself.
"I'm sneaking in, Jack sent me, Agent Prentiss brought him here along with Henry, he told me to tell you that he misses you, and he wanted me to make sure you were alright, I guess good thing I didn't let him come with me." Hotch's eyes opened and focused on Anderson, "Emily is here with Jack?" the left side of his mouth twisted in a half smile, "Yeah, agent Prentiss went to speak to Antonia Slade, Agent Blake is searching old files, find any potential UnSubs with a grunge on the BAU and you particularly, I contacted her and Agent Callahan and they both came to help. Agent Rossi is calling all family members to get them here, under protection, and then he's going to be with agent Jareau and Chief Cruz in the hospital."
"Who is in the hospital why?"
"Chief Cruz had a case of severe exhaustion and mild dehydration which caused his blood pressure to drop and he collapsed, but he's alright now. Agent Jareau spent the night there with him, he is to be released today. Dr. Lewis and Agent Callahan went to find Agent Todd try and get some information on the case from her. And Dr. Reid is looking for any press conferences help by you in the past years where the UnSub could have taken the words for the 911 call." Hotch gave him a pained smile, which fastly turned into a grimace of pain, Anderson reached his hand and gripped Hotch's shoulder. The older man froze under his hand, "Is there anything I can get you, some ice maybe?" Hotch nodded his head negatively, "No, thanks Anderson, you are already in trouble if they find you here, thanks for the information, and it's Lewis, Peter Lewis, he gave probable cause to put me under surveillance." Anderson nodded and took his hand from the older man's shoulder.
"Let me help you up." Anderson reached under his armpits and gripped him tightly while Hotch used his still cuffed hands to grab the table and steady himself. As soon as the older man was standing Anderson picked up the thrown chair and raised it up again, helping the injured man to sit.
"I gotta go, but the team sends their love, and they told me to tell you to stay strong and they'll find the truth, they are right they will, we all will."
With that the younger man squeezed Hotch's hands and turned leaving the room and the battered man alone once more.
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Anderson follower Rossi in the second's office, "Is there anything I can do for you sir?" Anderson was trying to keep his voice as professional as he could.
"Yes, I want you to take a seat, I already apologized to Matt for my behavior, and you deserve one too. The way I treated you wasn't fair, it was horrible and you didn't deserve it. I am not trying to excuse myself, it's just that seeing Hotch like that, arrested leaded away in handcuffs like a common criminal… it's like losing a son, and that's a pain I can't go through again. After losing Jason especially I can't lose Hotch. This whole situation puts an enormous amount on pressure on all of us and I chose to unleash it to the wrong people, the ones trying to help. And for that I am going to be forever ashamed of. I am sorry." Anderson was starring at Rossi speechless. "We're fine agent Rossi, you are forgiven." The younger man gave him a tight but real smile and got up, "I need to go… Agent Hotchner's son wanted me to make sure that his father is alright, I'll try sneak in the interview room and talk to him.
"Tell him we love him, and to stay strong because we'll find who did this."
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"Asher Douglas, that's Slade's son." Emily said. Her jaw was set. She was trying to calm her rapidly beating heart since she left the prison, but was unable to. She walked to the board where three pictures of Aaron were taped there. She slowly traced her finger on his face, three press conferences, she was present in two of them, they were back when they first got together, she remembers the one which the last picture comes from, she was so worried at all the things that could go wrong, the UnSub was targeting cops and they had just put a bright red X on Aaron's back. She was scared to death that she was going to lose him. The only one she didn't watch live was the one in the middle but it was oh so special to her heart. She was in Paris, alone and she just needed to see his face, so she did it she googled him and the first link was an USNT News video, "Unidentified human remains found on Jacksonville beach" and his face, his handsome face was there. She had clicked it and let his voice lull her to sleep, even if he was talking about missing people, some of them already dead…
"Oh my god!" Emily turned her head away from the pictures on the board "What's wrong Garcia?"
"I know how the UnSub got all the personal information on Hotch. The encrypted file, it was a Trojan horse. Oh my god! Hotch had told me he had some problems with his laptop and I gave him a format, this was a trap, I downloaded WinZip for him and there is a new virus going around, I just never thought that this was dangerous because I downloaded from a verified link. The Trojan horse installed itself on the dark side of the hard drive, it's making uninstalling impossible. As soon as it was installed it scanned Hotch's computer and sent out any and all personal info Hotch had in his laptop. All the pictures, all the addresses, everything he ever had, even if he deleted it. So if he had scanned his driver's license in the past it would be found."
"Aaron has a flash disk with all his and Jack's, Haley's, mine and Sean's personal information. He has it locked in the safe, it's a precaution. After everything that happened in the past, he didn't keep any paper information on any of us at home, he had everything he needed in digital form all well kept away, and all password protected and encrypted. Basic level of encryption but still."
"Well they did it though; they used this as a way to get them. They had almost complete power over his computer, they placed the order from there making it look as if Hotch ordered the explosives." Dave said. Emily nodded and sat down on a chair. "We need to get Slade's son. Dave you and Reid take a SWAT unit and go, take him down, dead or alive."
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Anderson walked fast back to the BAU, he was nervous always looking behind his back, checking if anyone was following him, watching him, he felt as if someone was watching him since he left the interview room. It was stupid he knew that, but the whole sneaking around had him being a bit paranoid.
Pushing the glass doors he saw the Alpha team ready to go. "Hey wait up!" he walked to agent Rossi and pulled him aside, "I spoke with agent Hotchner, he told me that Peter Lewis was the one who gave the DOJ probable cause."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know, Hotch didn't knew either, we need to find the tape, we need to know what Lewis said, but I think it's bigger than we thought." Dave nodded to the younger man "You are right Anderson, look go find Kate and Tara, they went to find Jordan, she'll probably be able to get us the tape." Anderson nodded and walked fastly out of the bullpen, David followed him outside the glass doors with Reid hot on his heels.
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"Look, I want to help you guys, I really do but I need some time." Jordan said she wanted to help them; the whole thing was crazy, who in their right mind would have suspected Hotch, SSA Aaron Hotchner of all people, as a terrorist?
"Hotch doesn't have time, we need everything you have about the case fast." Tara tried to reason with the woman for the millionth time. "Please, we don't have time."
"They are right Jordan, someone from your department, probably SSA Seaton already took a swing or two on Hotch, I've seen him, he had a swollen cheekbone, split lip and was lying on the ground. Jordan if we lose any more time who knows what Seaton will do to Hotch. Emily and Jack will be crushed without him." Tara and Kate turned to the other side of the room, Grant Anderson was standing there, his hands crossed over his chest, their mouths were in think lines. Jordan looked at them, a look or pain on her face
"Alright guys, I'll try get the files as soon as I can, just give me a couple of hours."
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"Alex did you get anything from the files?" Emily asked the older woman when she saw her entering the room, her face was unreadable, hard and frozen. "I did. It's not good."
"What?"
"Hotch arrested the NSA director few months back, now the man made some threats that he was going to regret it. All that didn't seem important, but I checked and he had often interactions with another man who has a huge grunge with Hotch, Peter Lewis. Over the years Hotch butted heads with a lot of dangerous and powerful people. One of them is still out there with a grudge and a destroyed political career that would benefit from having Hotch proven as the worse of the worst. Former Undersecretary Jackson. Hotch had her spending the last year and a half of her term in hearings about integrity. And if he was so easy to threaten an Interpol officer when Emily was missing I don't even want to think of what he might have done to ensure her safe departure from the country, Hotch is strong-head, he doesn't pull punches, he dives head first in everything he loves. That's bound to piss off people." Alex left the files on the table and sat down on the chair she occupied before.
"Aaron never shied away from confrontation; I always told him this was going to get him into trouble…"
"And apparently it did." Everyone turned their faces to the door on the other side of the room, there she was, a woman they thought they wouldn't see again, a woman that owned them nothing.
"I knew you would forget us." Penelope said through her tears as she walked to the brunette standing at the door and wrapped her arms around her.
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"Excuse me for a moment." Anderson said and walked a bit farther away from Tara and Kate who were waiting at an empty office Jordan led them. He walked outside and searched for a bathroom; he walked inside and locked himself to a stall.
"Thanks for calling me back Elle, I really appreciate it."
"It's fine Anderson, you said Hotch was in trouble, what kind of?" the man smiled slightly and proceeded to let her in on everything they had so far on the case. "We need your help. I know that the offer Chief Cruz made you right now is not something you want to consider but it's not about that. Right now is about Hotch and about Jack; he doesn't deserve to lose his father, especially after losing his mother so brutally. If you don't want to come back, to the BAU, to us, that's fine but don't… don't punish Jack for the mistakes we did."
Elle took a deep breath from the other side of the phone, "Alright, I need to find a babysitter first, I can't leave Gideon alone."
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"Hey" Jordan walked into the office she had sent Tara, Kate and Anderson to wait. "I found what you asked, and I also searched the security tapes from the room Hotch is held, it was Seaton, I'm so sorry I didn't believe you guys." She said, her big brown eyes were sincere, the BAU agents whispered their thanks and Anderson pressed a reassuring hand on her shoulder before leaving the room.
Jordan walked to the chair and sat down; she wrapped her arms around her tight. This was such a mess… few years back she had promised herself she left the BAU and she would never look back again and for a while she had managed to do just that. But then, then Cruz called with his stupid offer, and the same feeling of rush came over her. It didn't last long, of course, but it was such an amazing feeling while it did. But now… now everything crumbled down like a paper town.
How to stop this?
Tara and Kate walked in the conference room; they saw Emily, Penelope, Alex and another brunette woman sitting there. "Elle! I'm so glad you made it!" Anderson walked by them and went to the new face in the room hugging her lightly. He let the woman from his arms and she turned her attention to the other two women that looked at her "Hey, I'm Elle Greenaway." The woman with the shoulder length brown hair smiled and reached her hand to them "Hey, I'm Tara Lewis." Tara took Elle's hand smiling and stepped aside to let Kate introduce herself "Kate Callahan, nice meeting you."
"Pleasure is all mine" Elle said smiling, she liked those two, things had changed in the BAU in the last ten years she hadn't been there. She liked the changes she saw. The terror that she feared would consume her didn't seem to linger that much longer there anymore.
"What did you get?" Emily said, she got up from her seat and walked to the two other women "Did Jordan helped?"
"Yeah, she did. You know that Hotch told Anderson that Peter Lewis was the one who gave the DOJ the probable cause to put Hotch under surveillance, well Jordan gave us the tape with his testimony." Kate stated, they looked at each other, debating whether or not they should tell Emily about everything else that happened in the damned interrogation room, one look at their eyes and they all agreed that right now wasn't the time.
"Here" Tara paced the disk to Garcia who quickly walked to her laptop. Emily nodded to her and they all gathered around the blonde woman to hear what was on the disk.
"Last year dosed agent Hotchner with a strong dissociative drug"
"What does this drug do?"
"I try to get my victims to see their worst nightmares, but agent Hotchner, oh, he went to his own direction."
"What do you mean by that?" Emily felt her throat constricting, she knew what this bastard had done to Aaron, sort of, but this was a very sensitive matter and Aaron still felt uncomfortable to talk about it.
"He started rumbling about how I killed his team, which I expected it, but then he started to laugh, like he was delighted. And I have to be honest with you, that moment I was scared of him… of what he would do to his own team, his son."
"Turn it off!" Emily said turning her head away, "The bastard is lying! Aaron wouldn't be happy if anything happened to the team, and what's this bullshit about him being a danger to Jack? Aaron would rather die before he hurts Jack!" Elle looked around the room, all the doors were closed but she knew that the building had paper thin walls. She walked to the rumbling woman and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder "Emily, we know that, we need to know what Lewis said to them, if this is too much then go, take a walk clear your head, go be with Jack and Henry, do what helps." Elle said, Emily rose her head and looked straight into Elle's eyes, a small smile grazed her lips, it was short lived but it was enough to reassure Elle that Emily was alright.
"Continue Pen."
"I was scared of whom that man really was."
"Did he say anything else? You mentioned that he was rumbling."
"He started talking about his wife, about how I killed her and that he would make me pay, but the sardonic smile was on his face, it was like he was enjoying it. And then after a while he started laughing darkly telling me how I did him a favor by getting rid of the dead weight on his shoulders that the Bureau had dump on him. He told me that he was glad to see Dr. Reid's brains blown out of his head, joked saying that he wasn't that special after that. He talked about how glad was that the blood had painted TA Garcia's clothes red because her obnoxious colored clothes were giving him a headache. Then he proceeded and said how SSA Morgan wasn't that tough guy anymore, while he was dying at his feet. He called his so called friend, SSA Rossi and insufferable fifteen year old crybaby that would finally stop bothering him, he seemed to freeze when I asked him about SSA Jareau but then… then he smiled even wider, and said 'That bitch deserved what she got'. But what really scared me was the ease he talked about me killing his wife. He called her a 'dead weight', 'a slut', 'an insufferable bitch' he said how he wished she had died four years back so he wouldn't have to risk his career for her worthless self. The look on his face was dark and scary. He talked about how glad he was she never got pregnant because at least he doesn't have another dead weight."
"Stop it please. I… I need to." Emily had paled considerly and she walked out of the room in shaky legs. Tara looked at the rest "Go on, I'll find her" and with that she left the room. She looked around trying to locate the distraught woman. She finally found her hiding away in Morgan's old office.
"Need company?" Emily stayed silent; Tara took that as an invitation, hoping she wasn't wrong and steeped in closing the door behind her. "You can't let what Lewis said about Hotch get to you. We all know that it's now true." Emily raised her head, slowly whipping the tears from her eyes
"I knew that." The puzzled look on Tara's eyes made Emily continue "Aaron and I have been trying to have a baby for years. We got married in 2008 it was after a case in Vegas, we got a little drunk and our subconscious took over, we've been dating for a little over three months. Aaron would say how he had already planned our life for us. We woke up found we got married, we gave it a try. When the whole Doyle fiasco happened, I was pregnant. Barely a month, Aaron didn't knew, neither did I. I lost the baby, when Doyle stabbed me I lost the baby. It took me three years to tell him. Aaron wanted that child so much… I saw him mourning, breaking down. He would never consider the baby as a dead weight. Someone fed him information, and Lewis being the psychopath he is twisted them in a way that'll cause most harm." Emily had mostly pulled herself back together. "It worked. The bastard succeeded."
"He got to you." Tara said as a matter of fact and now that much as a question. "He got to all of us."
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Reid and Dave got Slade's son, they managed to do so fast and calmly. What he told them though… they still were trying to wrap their heads around it. They should have known, they should have known that the whole mess wouldn't go away that fast. They should have known that they would face trouble.
"We need to find out when they are planning on detonating the bombs; we need to know who the target is." Dave said
"And most importantly to keep Eric Rawdon from succeeding." Reid added.
The two of them drove to the BAU this thing was so much more dangerous than they thought. Dave parked the car and ripped the Kevlar vest from his torso, "Rawdon couldn't have planned this on his own, there is something missing here. Something isn't right. He doesn't have the needed intelligence to pull this whole thing off. The whole plan was too sophisticated. We need to find out who wants Hotch destroyed so badly and has that much power to pull it off." The two men walked to the elevators "Well Hotch has pissed off too many people in the past. It's normal that he has many enemies in this city."
"He's also the son in law of a very powerful ambassador and in dept to a quite powerful congressman. He is liked among the attorneys in the city, the general U.S. attorney as well. He's not someone to be messed with. Not to mention that he is friends with the FBI assistant director since their first steps in the bureau."
"Do you think that maybe we should start calling favors?" Reid asked as soon as they were in the safety of the elevator.
"I am not sure but maybe we should. At least so we can get Hotch transferred to our custody." The doors to the elevator opened and the two men came face to face with Anderson "Sir, we got something, and Mrs. Greenaway is here." Spencer's eyes widened "Elle?" Anderson smiled softly and nodded, Spencer's smiled widened and left Dave behind walking to the conference room. "What did the team found?" Dave asked
"Well, there is a possibility that Peter Lewis is working with Brian Cochran." Dave closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "This is a mess" he murmured under his breath "did Jordan got us the testimony Lewis gave?"
"Yes sir, the team already saw it. It's bad sir." Dave patted Anderson's shoulder "Good job Grant, go to the hospital, be with JJ and Matt, don't let them out of your side, I trust you to keep an eyes on them all the time. When Matt is discharged get them to my place." Dave searched in his pockets and found the keys he was looking for "Here, take the keys." Anderson took and the keys and nodded to the older man. Both of them walked into the bullpen, Anderson walking to his desk and picking his things up and Dave walking up the catwalk.
He was planning on going to his office, he really was but as he passed Aaron's office he looked inside and saw Jack sitting on his father's chair. For a moment, just a short moment he thought it was Aaron. The boy was probably doing his homework, not writing gruesome reports but their posture was so similar. He smiled and turned back entering the room.
"Hey boys." Both boys turned their heads and looked at the older man entering the room. "Anderson sent me to tell you that your dad is alright. And that he misses you too." Dave said. Jack lowered his head again focusing on the open book in front of him "And why didn't he came here?"
Dave took a deep breath; the boy apparently had got Aaron's tone too. "Because he needed to go get Aunt JJ and Uncle Matt from the hospital." Henry looked at Dave with his big blue eyes wide."Is mommy ok?" Dave turned to the younger boy and sat down next to him "Of course she is bud. Uncle Matt was feeling a bit ill so we got him to the hospital."
"Is it because of me?" Jack asked his little hazel eyes filled with worry and guilt. My god father and son couldn't be more alike even if they tried. "No, it's not. Uncle Matt had a lot of work and he didn't take care of himself that well. He was just too tired." Jack nodded but the feeling of guilt didn't leave his eyes completely.
"Uncle Dave, can I go see my mommy? I was really mean to her." Henry said, his eyes filled with tears and Dave smiled despite his own. "Sure bud. Let me get Uncle Grant to get you. Jack would you like to go with Henry?" Jack looked up, he seemed to consider it for a while "Sure, but I want to talk to Uncle Spencer and Miss Tara before." Dave smiled and nodded "Sure big guy."
Anderson was mesmerized at the picture he looked in front of him in the office of his unit chief. The two boys seemed to have filled the gap with Rossi and he was glad about it.
"Grant, can you please come over for a bit." The younger man nodded and walked to Rossi. "Can you get the kids to see JJ and Matt?"
"Sure."
"Good. Get Henry ready and Jack and I will be here in awhile."
Dave led Jack to the conference room where he knew the rest of the team was. Emily and Tara had just returned, they were sitting on the couch, Tara was chatting with Alex who was sitting on a chair in front of them and Emily was looking at her phone. Penelope was starring at her computer with Elle discussing with Reid the case. Everyone stopped what they were doing when they saw the door open.
"Jack, baby what's going on?" Emily got up from her seat immediately and walked to the boy gripping Dave's hand as tight as his small one could.
"I need to talk to Uncle Spencer and Miss Tara." He said silently to Emily who smiled widely.
"Of course." She kissed him on the forehead and stood up taking his hand from Dave. "Spencer, Tara, Jack need to talk to you, how about you go to Dave's office?"
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The door closed behind Emily, Jack, Tara and Spencer when Kate walked back in the conference room. "Dave, we need to tell you something, something we learned from Jordan." Her voice was dark making Dave freeze. "What?" he asked.
"Seaton, he… he took a swing on Hotch, maybe more." Dave's eyes widened and he turned to Garcia, she gasped and the tears he hoped he would never see in her eyes again making another appearance.
"Garcia, hack into the security tapes and find out what Seaton did, enough is enough!"
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"You wanted to talk to us Jack?" Spencer said, he sat down on the chair next to Jack who was sitting next to Emily on the couch. Tara moved a chair from Dave's office and placed it across from Emily and Jack.
"I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you. I don't hate you. I know you are worried about my daddy and you aren't the bad guys. I was just worried about him too. But now Uncle Grant went and saw him and told me he is alright." A small smiled brightened his little face and Emily smiled at his enthusiasm. Spencer smiled widely while Tara's smile was tight and while Jack didn't notice Emily certainly did.
"It's okay Jack" the boy smiled at Spencer and walked to him, Spencer pulled the boy in his arms and hugged him tightly. "Don't worry we'll get your dad back." he said softly in the boy's ear.
"Thank you uncle Spencer." Jack kissed Reid on the cheek and smiling climbed off his lap going to Tara. She got out of the chair and kneeled in front of Jack. "You don't have to apologize Jack, when we are worried; we all do things we don't mean. Families forgive each other." She smiled and hugged Jack who wrapped his smaller hands around her
"Thank you Aunt Tara."
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A/N: The end of chapter 7, voila! Lots of things happened in this one. Next one we'll see Hotch again. The team will race through time to get Hotch out. Also I am thinking of going the canon way and bring Hayden in the story as well. I am not so sure about it. I will defiantly be bringing Joy, Shawn and Kai. As always let me know what you are thinking, if you liked the chapter or not.
And a little something till next time…
She used every favor she had, every string she could she pulled, she didn't care at all. All that really mattered was that her husband was in the building and she had to see him. And so she did, she threatened and yelled and begged and everything. And it was worth it. As she walked to the interviewing room she knew it was all worth it.