The Lake House Chapter 7, a criminal minds fanfic

Less fluff, more fun, and maybe some danger. :D

Criminal Minds characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

The Lake House

Chapter 07

Lily returned from the bathroom to find Aaron gone. With the space inside the cabin being severely limited and entirely visible from any one point, the front door was her only option. She cracked it open just a fraction and saw nothing. Opening it a little further, just enough to poke her head around, even glancing along the long, wooden porch showed no sign of him. She took a thick coat off the back of the door, slipped her feet into large boots and stepped out onto the front porch. As she turned from closing the door a huge snowball caught her square in the chest. She stood there, shocked, with small pieces of snow trickling down inside her top. She looked up to see Aaron's laughing face.

"Gotcha," he exclaimed. He pointed to his left. "That's your pile." There was a huge pile of snowballs ready made.

She grinned and skipped down the stairs as nimbly as she could in the oversized boots. As she reached the bottom step, she flung her arm along the railing, throwing an armful of snow at him with a huge whoosh. He stood there with his mouth open, full of snow, as it dripped off his head, down his neck and onto his chest.

"Oh it is on." He cried.

"No no no I'm not ready." She laughed, diving for her pile of snowballs and gathering as many in her arms as possible. She ran several steps away from him, catching a big one in the back of the neck before finding her footing and turning to him with a smirk and firing three off in quick succession, getting him on the back, chest, then legs. Only just in time, because he was throwing his two at a time and she ended up on her ass in the snow as she tried to back away from them.

She scrambled away from him to hide against the side of the cabin while she made some more instead of having to pass him to get back to the pile he'd made for her. Landing a few on his head as it moved away from her she heard him curse and fall over. A few minutes stretched by and she thought he might be up to something sneaky as he was being way too quiet. As she sat listening she heard a tiny movement from above and looked up just in time to catch two hard snowballs right in the face and neck. They were thrown hard enough to sting; she'd have to tell him to ease up. It took a moment to wipe enough snow out of her face to see and she moved quickly to the front of the cabin only to see his head poking out from behind a large snowfall, snowball in hand.

"Hey don't throw so hard; those ones stung." She wiped her hand over her face. "How'd you get down off the roof so fast anyway?"

Aaron looked at her in growing horror. He made it to her in three long strides, swiping his hand across her neck and coming away with a handful of crimson snow, still dripping with blood.

"What the…" she gasped. "Aaron is that blood?"

"I wasn't on the roof, Lily." He said through clenched teeth, helping her wipe the rest off her neck and chest while she swiped at it with frantic hands, a high keening noise coming from her throat.

"Come, get inside quickly." He grabbed her by the arm and practically dragged her back into the cabin. He pushed her in first, backing in after her with his eyes sweeping thoroughly over the white landscape before closing the door tightly and slamming the deadbolt home. Instead of getting a towel he pushed the axe into her hands and made her stand facing out of one corner of the room while he took his service weapon and started to search every inch of the cabin.

Lily panted desperately as she watched him disappear down the trapdoor into the basement. She relaxed a little at his shout of "All clear" but stayed where she was, shaking, as he did the same with the bedroom, bathroom and ceiling crawlspace. Finding nothing and no-one he went back to her.

"Blood, Aaron, so much blood. What if it's human? Oh god I need to get it off." She was gingerly peeling the coat away from her skin. He helped, throwing the coat into the kitchen sink when it was finally off.

"It's not human. Lily listen it's not human, I promise. My cousin's family owns a slaughterhouse in Texas, I know the smell; it's beef blood. Cow blood, honey, not people." He pulled the boots off her feet and followed her into the bathroom where she stepped into the bath fully clothed and turned the shower on hot and hard. She was whimpering under her breath as she peeled off layer after layer. Even her underwear was soaked with blood and she stripped off those last, crimson articles of clothing, leaving her naked. She was still shivering in horror, her teeth chattering and making it difficult to speak. He shucked off his sweater, boots and socks and stepped under the water with a washcloth. He started gently washing her down, using extra shower gel to get rid of the smell, which could linger.

She was quieting a little and he continued stroking over her skin tenderly. It was the most intimate act he had ever shared with anyone in his whole life and he felt humbled by it, by her, by the explicit trust in her eyes as she watched him. He shampooed her hair gently, rinsing thoroughly until the water ran clear instead of pink. Just as he was about to turn off the water she stopped breathing, her unfocused gaze telling him she had just realised something important.

"Panties." She whispered. As non sequiturs went that was a winner. As he watched, her entire body broke out in goosebumps despite the hot water.

"What about them, honey?" he brushed a strand of silky, wet hair off her cheek and cupped her face to direct her eyes upward to look at him. It took a moment but they did focus on him eventually. "Do you want me to find you some?" She shook her head violently, strands of hair flicking across her skin and his.

"I remembered something. Where they had me, the building after, not the truck. They had me chained to a big old Victorian radiator, the thick cast iron kind. There were panties on it. Drying." Her eyes widened in realisation. "Aaron, they weren't mine." Her fingers gripped his arms tightly. "Oh god. Ohgodohgodohgod. They weren't mine! What if they have someone else? What if they have another woman there; what if she's been there this whole time? I've spent almost a week with the man of my dreams and she could have been being raped and tortured and oh god the whole time I was too busy having fun to remember." She turned away from him with a cry of despair and promptly threw up over the drain, tears streaming down her face.

He rubbed her back gently until she could stand again, then gathered her into his arms and held her tightly against him. They couldn't stay there indefinitely so he coaxed her to step out of the bath. He stripped off his own sodden clothes and wrapped them both in huge, fluffy towels. He patted her hair gently with a smaller towel while he collected his thoughts.

"This changes things." He said quietly. "If there's a chance they've taken someone else, and given their nasty surprise for you earlier, I need to call in my team."

"Can they get to us? With all the snow I mean." She looked troubled still.

"They should be able to, even if they have to take a helicopter, although something more subtle and quiet might be better so as not to scare off these characters." He handed her the towel so she could finish drying her hair. "I'm going to go call them and let them know. You go get dressed and make us some coffee, OK?" She nodded mutely, wrapping the towel around her head and her arms around his waist for a tight hug before letting him go.

He strode to the living room and pushed aside the painting above the fireplace to uncover the door to the safe. The satphone inside was still fully charged, thankfully, and his call went straight through to JJ.

"Hey, Hotch. We had a pool going as to how long it would take before you got bored." He heard the amusement in her voice and smiled; he'd missed his team.

"JJ, I wish it were that. But I think there's a case here, and that myself and my companion are in some danger. I need you to get the team out to my cabin in Montana ASAP. The last leg will be difficult. You could charter a helicopter but I'd prefer you come by stealthier means." He scrubbed his hand over his face in frustration.

"Damnit. OK, Hotch, we can be wheels up in about ninety minutes; will you stay reachable on the satphone?" He could hear her shuffling papers and her chair scrape on the floor as she hurried off to round up the team.

"Yes, I'll keep it on. I'll keep you in the loop. But I'm probably not going to wait for you to get here, there may be at least one other victim and there's a minimum of two unsubs."

"Are you going to try and contact them, Hotch?" JJ asked warily.

"No, JJ, I'm going to hunt them." He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"We." Lily's eyes were on his as she spoke.

"Lily, it's not safe for you to go with me." He shook his head, not liking the idea of her putting herself in harm's way.

"Bullshit. The safest place possible is by your side. And I'm not helpless. They made me take self defence and weapons training before they let me work with the police back home. The only reason I didn't get a chance to put up a fight was because the bastard tied me up while I was asleep." She twined her fingers through his.

"But still…" It was difficult to argue with her logic.

"Aaron, when I said I go where you go I meant it. And it starts now, not later when we're safe. Remember our deal, I protect you, you protect me, we protect us." He could hear JJ's puzzled noise on the other end of the phone and knew she had heard that. The team knew he wasn't seeing anyone, so he could look forward to many questions later.

"OK, JJ, correction: we are going to hunt them. I'll explain when you guys get here. We'll give you as much information as we can before you leave. Make sure Garcia is standing by for my uplink." He squeezed Lily's hand, accepting her support and determination.

"OK, Hotch. I have the team in the war room now. We'll be wheels up ASAP and Garcia is waiting on your uplink. I'll speak to you from the air."

"Thanks, JJ. Speak to you later." He ended the call and wrapped his arms around Lily's waist, allowing himself a few minutes peace where all he had to know was that he was warm and held.

But he had to move eventually, so he stood up and gathered his thoughts before speaking.

"There's no rush. But we're going to need a lot of energy. You worked as a sketch artist back home; can you draw pictures of the two men as best as you can remember?" She nodded. "Check the desk by the fire; there are pencils and paper inside. I'm going to cook us something substantial so we have plenty energy later when we need it."

"OK. What do you want me to do with the pictures once I have them finished?" She was already looking through the desk and gathering pencils and different types of paper.

"Just scan them in the printer and call the number on the satphone marked Garcia. She'll tell you how to send them. All you need to tell her is 'two male unsubs' then give her a verbal account of what happened to you in as much detail as possible. But I'll sit with you for that part and we'll do it on speakerphone. I don't want you to have to trawl through those memories by yourself." She nodded her assent and sat down at the desk, turning on the reading lamp as she chose a thick paper for her sketches. He could see her take a deep breath to steady herself before she let the pencil touch the paper. When he was happy that she wasn't finding the activity overly traumatic he moved to the kitchen to start on their meal, bringing her a small bowl of oatmeal to get her metabolism going while he was cooking the rest.

Lily's hand flew masterfully over the paper, bringing to life in sharp detail first one and then both faces she'd hoped never to see again. She left the eyes until the very last; it was the only way she could bring herself to do it at all. Having them staring at her the whole time, as she normally would have started with the eyes and worked outward, would have been more than she could stomach, even for just the quarter hour it took to complete both pictures. As it was, it took a lot for her to draw their eyes looking into the camera, as it were, and not to one side. She sighed in relief when she was able to turn them face down to scan them in the printer.

"O, Captain, my Captain?" came the female voice on the other end of the line. Lily looked at the satphone for a moment before replying.

"Ah…our fearful trip is done?" Was this some kind of code or password she was supposed to navigate?

"You're not Hotch." Came the voice. A little flat, a little hostile.

"Um. No. Aaron's in the kitchen. Cooking. He said to tell you 'two male unsubs' and send you the sketches I drew of them. He said you'd tell me how. I'm on his laptop in his cabin in Montana." She twiddled the pencil between her fingers as she waited for an answer.

"How do I know you haven't kidnapped him?" Garcia sounded suspicious.

"Aaron." Lily called. "Garcia says how can she be sure I haven't kidnapped you?"

"Tell her I said not to call me 'honey'." His amused voice floated back to her.

"Aaron says not to call him 'honey'." She heard Garcia sigh in relief.

"Aaron huh? Well, my lady fair, it seems that you are in luck. Penelope Garcia, Goddess of all things Technical, Oracle of the Information Superhighway at your service."

"Hi Penelope, I'm Lily. Can you tell me how to send you these pictures?"

"That I can. There should be a short lead in the back of the laptop. Slot that into the back of the phone and press the 'sync' button on the keypad. That's it." Lily did as she was told and chuckled at the progress bar on the screen, which Garcia had obviously programmed to show a little Aaron nodding dog style doll dancing Gangnam style across to the other folder.

"He loves it really." Garcia guessed what she was laughing at. "Having me tested for drugs afterwards was just a sign of affection." They both laughed. "OK, Lily, I have both pictures here. And damn you're good; they're almost like photos. I'll send them to the team while my facial recognition software does its magic. Did Hotch tell you to give me any details about these guys?"

"Ah. He said to tell you what happened in as much detail as possible. But he wanted me to wait until he could sit with me for that. It's…going to be hard." She heard Garcia's soft breath of realisation.

"You didn't just see these guys did you? You got away from them?" Lily hummed the affirmative. "OK I'll wait on that. Call me back when he's back with you. And, Lily?"

"Yes?"

"There's nowhere on Earth safer for you right now than with my boss. I hope you know that?"

"Yes. Yes I think I do." Lily felt some of her nerves settle at Garcia's words. "I'll talk to you in a bit, Penelope. Thank you for your help."

"Any time, my lady. And tell Hotch I called him 'honey'."

"Will do." Lily laughed as she ended the call.

She wandered into the kitchen to find Aaron washing some dishes, a delicious smell coming from the oven. She hugged him from behind.

"Penelope said to tell you she called you 'honey'." She felt his stomach jiggle as he laughed softly.

"That's our Garcia. Best technical analyst in any government agency. And a more wayward, independent soul you'll never find. I'll be done with these in about ten minutes, then we can call her back and give her your story. Do you think you'll be up to it?"

"Yes." He hadn't expected such a forthright answer, but such was her way. He knew she felt deeply guilty about the fact that there could have been another victim, one who could have suffered far worse than she did, and that this was her underlying determination. She would put herself through whatever she had to and he would share as much of it as she would allow.