*For anyone who has read this story before, there aren't any plot changes. I've just gone though and edited the mistakes I have found.

Chapter 3

"You might want to tell them to pack warm clothes. It's still cold up North," Kahlan told Hotch. He was the only one left in the room, so Kahlan assumed she was supposed to stick with him. Hotch didn't say anything to her. So he's ignoring me. I can't blame him, though. She sat down on the floor next to her bag and reached in it and took out a bottle of Tylenol. After shaking several pills into her hand, she put the top back on the bottle and tossed back the pills without water. She put the bottle back in the bag and just sat there, waiting.

Hotch texted the team and told them to remember their coats. He also noticed Kahlan taking the pills, but he focused on the file in his hands. They were going to go to her hometown first. South Dakota had a below average 'missing children' report compared to most states, but Hotch figured that had a lot to do with the overall low population of the state. He knew from Garcia's research that the town was extremely small, as were most of the small towns in South Dakota. He also knew that she wasn't from the town; she had just been living there for the past ten years. Apparently the woman had moved around a lot, but her husband was from there. He had died when Wyatt was two in some accident. Wyatt was the woman's only child.

Rossi came back into the room quickly. He had his bag in his hand, ready to go. He glanced from Hotch to Kahlan, apparently checking to make sure Hotch hadn't killed her in their absence. "Go get your stuff. I'll take her to the jet," Rossi told Hotch. Hotch looked at Kahlan then nodded to Rossi and left the room. Kahlan stood up, grabbed her bag, and looked at Rossi. "You in a hurry to get home?" Rossi asked her.

"No, just in a hurry for you all to start. I don't understand why you need to go to Reliance if all you're doing is interviewing families, I'm right here," she told him.

"We're not just interviewing, we're checking out the sites of the abductions, too," Rossi told her.

XXX

Rossi put Kahlan in the seat all the way in the back of the jet, and made sure Hotch and JJ sat as close to the front as possible. In fact, he had considered trying to put Hotch in the cockpit, but he knew Hotch wouldn't go for it. South Dakota was going to be the first stop, but the flight was still going to last four hours. Rossi knew Hotch wanted Kahlan with him, but Rossi was worried that Hotch wouldn't be able to keep a lid on his anger. Rossi had argued with Hotch through texting that Reid and Blake should be paired and take Kahlan with them, but Hotch was adamantly against it. Rossi figured that Hotch wanted the woman around to keep an eye on her. He wanted to profile her, but she wasn't making it easy. She never backed down from a stare from any of them. Rossi figured she was either fearless or crazy, and either one could mean a lot of trouble.

Hotch watched Kahlan as she stared out the window. She had head phones on, and he assumed she was listening to music. He thought she looked tired. She was probably up all night planning on how to abduct Jack and Henry, he thought with disgust. He shook his head. Concentrate on the damn case, Hotchner! He looked at the file in his hands but his gaze drifted back to Kahlan. Her leg was shaking, and Hotch couldn't figure out if it was nerves or impatience.

Rossi caught Hotch staring at Kahlan again, and he cleared his throat. Hotch glared at Rossi for a second, but went back to studying his file. Rossi knew that if Hotch figured out a way to find Jessica and them, there wouldn't be any chance of stopping him from ripping the woman apart. JJ would probably beat the shit out of the woman, but Rossi didn't think JJ would kill her. I just hope that getting Hotch on the ground and into the case will keep him occupied.

Garcia popped up on the screen beside them. "Hey crime fighters." She looked around at them, clearly looking to see if Kahlan was within screen shot.

"What's the news, Mama?" Morgan asked.

"We have a problem," she started and then took a deep breath.

"Just one?" JJ asked sarcastically.

Garcia gave her a small smile. "The eight boys we thought were connected have actually turned into fifteen boys."

"What?" Blake asked confused.

Hotch noticed that Kahlan took the headphones off.

"My search of missing boys under the age of ten brought up way too many to ever sleep peacefully again, but when I factored in the creepy postcard, it brought up seven more boys. The really weird thing about those seven is that they went missing in the mid-nineties. They are from the same states, though, with one from each."

The team started going through the photos that had arrived on their tablets. "Those boys would be in their twenties by now. If they were never found, they have to be dead," Reid pointed out.

"It almost seems like whoever is doing this, is on his second set of boys," Blake injected.

Hotch noticed Kahlan wipe a tear from her cheek as she turned further into the window. So, she can feel something. "And you're sure they were never found?" He asked Garcia.

"They were never removed from the missing lists, and I can't find anything on them as adults."

"We should look into John Does found in the targeted states and see if any match the missing," Rossi told her.

"By your command," Garcia told him and signed off.

"So he either took time off in between the sets, or he kept them until they reached a certain age," JJ wondered.

"We aren't even sure it is a 'he' yet. Women are capable of abduction," Hotch told them quietly with a glance at Kahlan. He saw her huff. Damn, she's got good hearing.

"Hotch is right. This may not be a sexual sadist, this could be a mother looking for a son, or even someone making a family," Reid pointed out.

"There is a lot of land in all of those states. If someone wanted to dump a body or several bodies, it would be really hard to find," Morgan added.

"Why during the fall?" Hotch wondered.

"Harvest," Kahlan injected from the rear of the plane.

"What?" Hotch asked her.

"Harvest season. It's the only time of the year when a bunch of strangers show up in town. Any other time of the year a stranger would stand out like a sore thumb in most of the towns. That's the thing with small towns, everyone knows everyone," she explained. "That's what gives us the illusion of being safe," she added sarcastically.

Reid clicked the laptop to bring Garcia back on. "What can I do for you, my spindly genius?"

Reid gave her a strange look. "Can you track groups who travel around to harvest crops?" he asked her.

"If they report the earnings or advertise their services, I can. I will add that to my search," and she signed off again.

"She won't find anything. The combiners were the first people I tracked down," Kahlan told them flatly.

"Is there anyone else you want to scratch off the list? Or maybe someone you would like to add?" Hotch asked her with disdain.

She stared at him. "Sorry. I'll shut up."

Reid looked at Hotch with concern. When he didn't get a reaction from him, he looked at Rossi.

Rossi got up. "Hotch, can I talk you a minute?" Rossi asked him as he headed to the galley area.

Hotch rolled his eyes, but got up to follow the older man. Rossi pulled the curtain shut behind them. "Hotch, that woman has been trying to find her son for over three years. We should be asking her for any and all information that she has gathered. Unless, of course, you would rather not use her information and spend a bunch of wasted time tracking down things that have already been tracked down."

"I can't think of her as a victim, Dave. All I see when I look at her is an unsub who is responsible for my own son to be missing."

"Then maybe you should stay on the jet and go back home. She can help us if we let her, and I would think you would want the help so we can solve this case as soon as possible."

Hotch ran his hand down his face and took a deep breath. "You're right."

"Yep."

"I can't promise I can be nice to her, but I will try to keep the bastard in me from coming to the surface," Hotch confessed. Rossi gave him a small smile and patted him on the back as he walked past him to go back to his seat.

Rossi noticed that Kahlan had put her headphones back on and the music was loud enough that everyone knew she couldn't hear what they were saying. Well, that's subtle. Rossi shook his head. Apparently Hotch wasn't the only stubborn one on the plane. If I live through this, it will be a miracle. Rossi shook his head and went past his seat to Kahlan. He sat down in front of her and waited for her to acknowledge his presence.

After a couple of deep breaths, she removed the head phones and turned off her music. "I'm sorry I stuck my nose in. I will keep my comments to myself," she told him and went to put her headphones back on.

"Actually, I would like to hear about any other theories you may have," Rossi told her nicely.

Kahlan looked at him, trying to figure out if he was sincere. "Alright. I figured that they strike in the fall because of the harvest. They, he, or she, would be able to blend in with all of the extra traffic in and out of town. I checked out all of the groups who were in the towns, and none of them have worked all of the states. The distance between all of the towns is too great for the same company to be able to actually work all of the harvests," she explained.

"So the company in Reliance wouldn't be able to harvest the crops there and move on to harvest the crops in all of the other towns?"

"Harvesting would be done by the time they could get to all of the states. It's not possible for one person to work all of them."

"So you ruled them out. Is there anyone else that you have come across that seems more promising?"

"Do you really think I would need your all's help if I had an idea of who it was? Believe me, if I had thought I had found the person responsible, I would have spent the rest of my life following him until I either found my son or knew what happened to him."

Rossi knew that was the truth. "Still though, for someone to use the harvest as a cover he would have to have knowledge of farm life."

"Or at least live around it. I've never worked on a farm, but I understand the basics just by being around those who do."

"Do all of these families with missing sons live around farming communities?"

"All of the ones in the smaller towns are. Farming and ranching are the ways of life in these states except for the bigger cities."

"Ranching? Is there anything specific going on with them during the fall?"

Kahlan considered for a moment. "Calving is in the spring, but I guess there are a lot cattle sales going on in the fall, but ranchers are more geared toward preparing for the winter months. The ranchers themselves stay pretty close to home because of all of the work they have."

Rossi processed the information and went to get up. "Thank you," he told her and went back to the team.