Whoo, so this chapter was so freaking hard to write because I always feel like I fail with coming up with and writing actual cases. But it was slow at work yesterday and I was reading up on some stuff and came across what turned into the inspiration for the case (I've known I needed a case since I started the damn fic and still couldn't come up with one lol). Three more chapters after this one, and a HUGE thanks, as always, to those that have read and reviewed. You guys just light up my life.

Walter and Paige stared at Hotchkiss, neither one moving a muscle.

"Well?" She asked impatiently.

"Uh," Paige said, "what was the question?"

"Walter and Paige!" She snapped. "The O'Briens. Can you please take me to them?"

Paige glanced at Walter in absolute horror. What if, now, in the depths of an emotional train wreck, he said something that he would regret? "That's…that's us."

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Hotchkiss asked.

"That's…that's a valid question." Walter stammered.

"Yeah?" She asked. "I'm glad you think so." She put a hand on her hip. "So. Today is a special day, huh?"

"Valentine's Day," Walter said, nodding. "Yes."

"So…what gifts did you give each other?"

"I uh, I gave her flowers," Walter said. "Bright, brightly colored ones. I must confess I don't know what type they were, but she likes them."

"Do you have any photographs?"

"No," Paige said. "They're at home."

"Most people will post photographs of their significant others' gift to them on social media."

"I'm really not that active on social media," Paige said. "What with the seriousness of the job, and all. And I probably would have taken pictures, but we had to take our son to school."

"Our son?" Hotchkiss asked.

"Well, Walter is Ralph's step dad." Paige shivered at the breeze that had picked up out of nowhere. "Can we finish this inside?"

"Certainly. So, Paige," Hotchkiss asked as they entered the garage. "Walter got you flowers."

"And chocolate covered pretzel sticks," she blurted, glad that Hotchkiss was looking at her and not Walter – his face would have immediately given away her lie.

"What is the significance of those?"

"I like salty sweet things," she said, glancing over her shoulder as Happy and Toby descended the stairs, Grace in her mother's arms. "Initially it was just a pregnancy craving, but not anymore."

"A pregnancy craving, you say?" Hotchkiss's eyebrows shot up. "So you and Walter are having a baby."

"No," Walter said quickly. He glanced at Paige. "No?" She shook her head, and he looked back at Hotchkiss. "No."

"I mean when I was pregnant with Ralph," Paige said.

"Ah," Hotchkiss said. "I was going to say, a baby, that'd be a pretty unheard of extreme if you were in a fraudulent marriage."

"Dude," Toby whispered to Walter. "I told you."

"What did you get Walter, Paige?" The agent asked, scribbling something on her clipboard.

"Oh," Paige said, ready to explain that he liked buying the latest gadgets stores had to offer and making his own improvements on them, but she decided to go with a simpler answer. "He's getting his present later," she said breezily, then, realizing how that sounded, lowered her voice slightly. "If you know what I mean."

Sylvester coughed.

"I am sorry about earlier," Paige said. "You just caught us at a bit of a bad time. See, this job is really stressful, and sometimes we get into little fights about it. But we're fine. Really. We've never been…" She trailed off, feeling like more in love was an inappropriate way to end the sentence, given the current circumstances. "We've never been happier."

Hotchkiss didn't believe a word she was saying, and Paige was almost grateful at the garage door rapidly swinging open, causing all of them to jump.

"Hey team," Cabe said. "Got a job."

"I'm sorry," Hotchkiss said. "It will have to wait. I'm conducting an interview with the O'Briens."

"You're gonna have to postpone this at least a little bit," Cabe said. "Because we have a case. And we need all hands on deck."

"Unfortunately we have to…"

"Unfortunately," Cabe said firmly, "this can't wait and we need all hands on deck, as I just said." He handed a file to Paige. "Early last year, a team of researchers from Switzerland developed drones that used artificial intelligence algorithms to detect man made paths through the wilderness. The drone will follow such paths if one is picked up. A couple of months ago a group from Sacramento began to put together their own prototype, and on Friday they headed out into the woods of Colorado to run a series of tests. Problem with tests is…"

"Sometimes they fail," Sylvester said.

"Uh huh. We've got six high profile government researchers lost in the wilderness and two others with nothing but failed technology."

"They didn't have a…plan for where they were going?" Happy asked, cocking her head as she rocked Grace at her hip.

"They couldn't," Cabe said, "or else the people prepping the drone technology wouldn't be able to say for sure that they didn't inadvertently help the drone along. They were confident it would work."

"That was awfully stupid of them," Walter muttered.

"It is decidedly not anyone's finest moment," Cabe said, "but that doesn't change the fact that it's going down to thirty five degrees where they are tonight, and rain is in the overnight forecast. They are calling us because of our success in locating those hikers a few years back."

"Does anyone else remember the massive forest fire that accompanied that particular mission?" Sylvester asked, his voice higher than usual.

"Complete accident," Toby said. "Plus, you heard him, it's going to rain there tonight."

"It's gonna be okay, Sly," Paige said, reaching over and squeezing his arm encouragingly. "Oh my God," she snapped at Hotchkiss. "Am I not allowed to comfort my friend?"

"I just find it interesting that you haven't touched your husband since Agent Gallo arrived, and here you are with this man."

"We don't touch all the time. Do you want us to act fake because you're here? Doesn't that go against your entire point of being here? We're a real couple. Real couples don't touch all the time. What in the hell do you want from us?"

"Paige," Walter said. "Honey. I know this is stressful. But we need to focus on the researchers right now."

"You're right," she said, feeling like she should reach out and touch him, but worried that he might break if she did. Hotchkiss didn't know Walter, and it was possible that she couldn't detect the distress in his eyes, but Paige could. Paige knew those eyes, and he was barely holding it together. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Alright," Cabe said. "We're putting two helicopters in the air, on either side of the search zone. We'll use our technology to try and locate the team."

"Someone has to stay home with Grace," Toby said.

"I'll do it."

"No," Hotchkiss said, eyeing Paige suspiciously. "You're coming along, and so am I."

The wind that was trailing through downtown Los Angeles was nothing compared to what the helicopters encountered over the Colorado wilderness. Paige sat in the corner, wedged between the wall and her husband, with Toby on his other side and Hotchkiss sitting across from them, staring intently. "You realize we're not going to start making out on this helicopter ride, right?" Paige asked. "We're on a job."

Hotchkiss simply gave a tight lipped smile and said nothing.

"Okay," the pilot said from the front seat. "We're going to be dipping down pretty low, only about ten feet above the tree line, since I know your technology doesn't work as well in this weather. Be careful around the open doors and if you drop any of your machines, they're gone for good. We only have time to make one pass before the weather gets too bad, and we can't waste any time going back for anything when we'll barely have time to rescue the researchers if we find them."

"Gotcha," Toby said. He looked around Walter to Paige. "Do you think it was a mistake leaving Grace with Sly?"

"No," Paige said. "You know how good he is with her."

"I know Happy would rather you stay behind with her."

"Yeah, well," Paige muttered, glaring at Hotchkiss.

"I'm only doing my job," the older woman said.

Walter grunted as he prepared his laptop.

"Alright, going down," the pilot said, glaring at Toby through the mirror when the behaviorist snickered. "Agent Gallo and Mrs. Curtis just sent me a message, they've begun their search. Let's do this thing."

The helicopter descended, and Paige looked out the window as the trees – barely visible in the rapidly receding light – seemed to rush up to meet them. "Oh," she said fearfully.

"Don't worry," Walter said. "We won't get close enough to them to cause any problems."

He scooted closer to the side door, bracing his feet against it for security. "Scanners aren't picking up anything yet," he said. "But we have a lot more ground to cover."

The wind picked up, causing the helicopter to rock slightly. Toby put his hand on top of his head and pushed down. "What?" He asked Hotchkiss. "You heard the pilot man. We can't go back for anything and I really like this hat."

Fifteen minutes passed in relative silence – if one could consider the whipping of the wind and the slow tapping of the beginning of a rainstorm against the helicopter relative silence. Paige almost didn't notice any of that. The lack of any conversation between the four people in the back of the helicopter was just as loud.

"We can't go as fast in this weather as we'd like," the pilot said, practically having to shout to be heard. "We're running out of time. This storm is getting intense. We're approaching lightning season in Colorado, you know."

"We've only covered a third of the ground we were supposed to," Walter said. "And we've taken up almost three quarters of our time. Unless we get really lucky, really fast, these researchers have already been missing for almost two days.

"They'll be hungry, cold, dehydrated," Toby said. "They probably won't survive tonight."

There was unintelligible – and barely audible, to those in the back – communication over the com system in the front of the helicopter. "That was Agent Gallo and Mrs. Curtis," the pilot shouted. "They've found them! They just need our help to pick them up! Brace yourselves!"

The helicopter banked suddenly to the right, and Walter yelped as his laptop slipped from his hands and plummeted below. At the same time, the pilot cursed as the helicopter descended farther, just scraping the tops of the pine trees. He made another sharp turn.

Paige didn't know whose yell was louder – Walter's as he tumbled out of the helicopter or hers as she lunged to grab him and missed.

"Walter!" She screamed. "Walter!" She jumped up, ignoring the pilot's scream for her to sit back down. "We have to get him!"

"We can't!" The pilot shouted. "I'd love to, but I barely have control of this craft! And we have six people to save! Six! Six against one!"

"Walter!" She dropped to her hands and knees, staring out into the blackness. The storm was coming in, and quickly, but she could still hear, through the wind and the rain and the clattering of the remaining equipment inside the helicopter, the sound of the trees brushing against the bottom of the craft. We're not that high. Trees can slow a fall. He's alive. I know he's alive.

"Paige, don't!"

Toby realized too late what she was about to do. By the time the words were out, Paige was already falling.