Chapter 6

After his third yawn in the first hour, Rossi told Hotch to pull over so he could drive. Once they were stopped, Hotch got out and stretched. "You want the back so you can lie down?" Kahlan asked him.

"Sure, thank you." He told her as they all traded seats like they were practicing a Chinese fire drill. Hotch reclined his seat and noticed that Kahlan's bag was awfully close to his head.

"Do you mind?" Kahlan asked Rossi as she put her hand up to the radio.

"Go ahead," He told her with a smile and she turned it on. Static, so she hit the search button. The only station available was a farm news channel. Rossi looked at her. "No."

She chuckled and turned around in her seat. "Would you be so kind as to hand me my iPod out of the little pocket on the side of my bag?" she asked Hotch.

Hotch rolled onto his side, unzipped the pocket and felt for her iPod. He noticed the bottle of pills was also in the pocket. He grabbed the iPod and handed it to her. She thanked him and plugged it into the radio.

"You're not going to kill me with anything horrible on that thing are you?" Rossi asked with a smile.

"I have a little bit of everything on here, but if you don't like a song, just tell me and I'll skip it."

Hotch watched her from the back seat. Under the cover of the music, he stealthfully removed the bottle of pills and opened it. There were several different pills in the bottle. Some he recognized as some sort of supplements, but some of the others were definitely prescriptions. He put the bottle back and pulled out his phone. He texted Garcia and told her to look and see if she could find any medical records for Kahlan. Garcia said she would and then gave him an update on the woman's family members. She had three older sisters and a mother, all living in Virginia. Garcia had tracked them down, but none of them seemed to have anything to do with Jack and them missing. She promised to keep looking, though. He put his phone away and leaned his head back to rest.

The next thing he knew, they were pulling into Bellvue. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and realized the town was about the same as Chadron. While they were huge compared to Reliance, they only had a population of about four thousand. Kahlan directed Rossi to the Jenkins' residence. Their son Michael was the second to the last boy to go missing, but it was still over a year ago. Kahlan introduced them, but there wasn't a warm reception or even a 'thanks' from the parents. Hotch noticed six kids around the house, and he gauged their ages between fifteen and two. They also found out that Michaels's stuff, the little amount that wasn't taken by the other kids, had been boxed up and stored away because they needed the room. By the time they left, Hotch had the feeling the parents didn't even miss their lost son, and that made him extremely angry. Kahlan had warned them that the family was a little 'off', but Hotch could have killed the boy's father. How could anyone not care about a missing child? Jack was missing and Hotch was doing everything he could to find him, and yet this asshole didn't even care. Rossi got them quickly out of there as soon as he noticed Hotch's mood started to turn away from professional.

Kahlan slammed the back door as she got into the vehicle. Apparently Hotch wasn't the only one pissed off. Once they were on the road, Hotch noticed that tears were falling down Kahlan's cheeks as she kept clenching and unclenching her teeth. Hotch hit Rossi on the leg and nodded to her in the back seat.

Rossi turned around to look at her.

"I swear, when I talked to them about Mike, they were not like that," she told him as she stared out the window.

"When did you see them?" Rossi asked in a gentle voice.

"About a month after it happened."

"A lot of things change in a year."

"They don't care about their son! I don't even think those sons of bitches even love the kids they still have!" She finally looked at him. "How can they keep having kids if they don't even love the ones they already have?"

Rossi knew the tears were for the missing boy, not for the parents. "I don't know. I really don't," Rossi told her truthfully.

She wiped her eyes, and took an angry breath. "When you all find them, will he have to go back to them?"

Hotch noticed she didn't say 'if'. He also didn't like the way she assumed they were alive. Not that there was anything wrong with her having hope, he just wasn't sure if they didn't find them alive how it would affect Jack.

"They are still his parents," Rossi told her. He understood her anger, though, and made a mental note to have Garcia check to see if there had been any reports against them.

She shook her head. "Where to now?"

"Our next stop is Salt Lake, but we'll stop for the night on the way," Rossi told her.

She reclined her seat and closed her eyes. Within minutes she was asleep.

Hotch studied her in the rear-view mirror. He watched her breathing, and when he was sure she was asleep he turned to Rossi. "Check on the team to see where they are. It would be nice for all of us to be able to meet up at the Salt Lake office."

Rossi took out his phone and called Morgan.

XXX

Hotch pulled into a hotel by Rawlings, WY. Rossi turned around to wake up Kahlan. She had slept since they left Bellvue and she had murmured and cried out in her sleep a few times. Rossi could have sworn that she had called out for her son once, too. He reached back and shook her leg. She instantly grabbed his hand and twisted it at the wrist causing severe pain.

"Hey!" Rossi yelled as he almost went over the seat.

She finally realized what she was doing and quickly let go. "I am so sorry," she told him wide eyed.

Rossi rubbed his wrist and gave Hotch a quick glance. "It's alright. I didn't mean to startle you."

She ran a hand through her hair and then rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Where are we?" She asked as she looked out the window.

"Rawlings. We're going to stop for the night," Hotch told her. "We'll get our rooms and then go grab a bite to eat."

She quickly got out of the vehicle and grabbed her bag. Hotch gave Rossi another look and then they also got out and got their bags. Kahlan was already walking toward the hotel office. It was a little hotel, where all of the rooms had an outside entrance. "What the hell was that?" Hotch asked Rossi as they slowly walked to the office.

"I have no idea, but I think our Mrs. Hunter may be a lot more than she seems."

"You think? The average house wife doesn't know a move like that."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that would have brought me to my knees had I been standing."

They both looked at each other and continued into the office in silence. Kahlan already got a room for herself, and Hotch wasn't sure that was a good idea, but he didn't want to talk about it in the office. Rossi went ahead and got a room for him and Hotch to share. The office attendant smiled at him and Hotch. "Enjoy your night," she told them with another smile as they left the office. Kahlan laughed.

Hotch looked back to the woman through the office windows. She was still smiling. He looked back to Kahlan. "What?"

"Really?" Kahlan asked with raised brows as she glanced back into the office and laughed again.

"What?" Rossi asked clearly not getting it either.

"Come on." She looked at the two agents and shook her head. "Nothing."

"Ut-uh. Out with it." Rossi told her as they walked to their rooms.

"She thought you two were a couple," she told them laughing again.

Hotch shot Rossi a horrified look. "No way," he denied it.

Rossi looked back toward the office. "Oh Aaron, don't deny your love for me," Rossi joked with him as Hotch opened the door to the room.

Hotch rolled his eyes at him, threw his bag into the room, and started walking back to the SUV. "I'm going to move the vehicle." Rossi and Kahlan both laughed again.

Kahlan opened up the room next to theirs and went in it still laughing.

Hotch got back into the room. "You think we should let her stay in there alone?" Hotch asked Rossi nodding toward the room next door.

"Where she going to go?" Rossi asked as he sat on one of the beds.

Hotch looked at the wall as if trying to see through it. He shook his head. "I just don't like the idea of not knowing what she's up to." Hotch took out his phone and texted Garcia to tell her to keep an eye on the hotel phones.

"You want to go eat now?" Rossi asked him before he took off his coat.

"I'll go check with her," Hotch told him going out the door and knocking on Kahlan's. Kahlan answered the door with what Hotch assumed were her pajamas in her hand. "You don't want to go eat?"

"No thanks. I'm going to take a hot bath and try to go back to sleep, if that's alright." Hotch studied her face. She did look exhausted and maybe in a little pain. "I promise, I won't go anywhere."

"Alright. We'll be back in about an hour."

"I'll be here," she told him with a small smile and shut the door.

Hotch heard the lock and went back to Rossi. Against his better judgment, they went to the restaurant without her. As they sat there waiting for their food, Hotch found himself trying to figure out Kahlan again. The only thing he knew for sure about the woman is that her son was missing. Everything else about her was definitely in shadow.

"So what happened at the gas station?" Rossi asked, pulling Hotch out of his thoughts.

Hotch raised his brows, he had forgotten that Rossi still didn't know. "She said she slipped and fell?"

Rossi nodded. "I thought maybe you two got in an argument, but after that move in the SUV, I don't think it would have been Kahlan on the ground had that happened."

Hotch gave him a look of shock but smiled. "I don't know about that." He took a drink of his soda and leaned in closer. "She dived in front of a moving pickup to save a little boy." Hotch told him.

Rossi knew from Hotch's tone that Hotch was impressed. He raised his brows in surprise. "Really? Since you were impressed I would assume that the boy would surly have been hit."

Hotch nodded. "She's quick."

Their food arrived and they started eating in silence, both of them trying to figure out what it all meant. Once he was finished, Hotch took out his phone, called Garcia, and put it on speaker.

"Command me, my liege."

"Any medical records?"

"Yes sir, but nothing for a while. Last thing I found was a routine physical two years ago. May I asked what you're trying to find, sir?"

"She has prescription pills, and I want to know what they are for."

"I haven't found any prescriptions except for an antibiotic four years ago for a sinus infection."

"I want you to dig deeper, Garcia. There is something in this woman's background, and we need to find it."

"Something like what?"

"I don't know, but I think she had some sort of training."

"Training? Ohhh, you think she's a spy or something?" Garcia's voice rose an octave. "If that's true, though, what does that mean for. . ." she didn't finish the thought, but Hotch knew exactly who she was talking about.

"Just find me something, Garcia," he told her and hung up.

Rossi looked at him. "You really think she's actually a spy?"

"No, but she's had some sort of training. It wouldn't make sense for her to be a spy."

Rossi nodded. "If she was, she wouldn't need our help to find her son."

Hotch got up and put on his coat. Rossi went to pay the check, and they walked back to the hotel.

"Why don't you just ask her?" Rossi suggested.

"Like she'd talk to me," Hotch told him as they walked past the office. Hotch noticed the office attendant smiling at them again. Hotch groaned and Rossi laughed. Hotch opened their door.

"You won't know unless you try. She's seems a lot more open now."

"You think she'd tell me the truth?"

"It depends on what the truth is." Rossi said as he grabbed his bag and headed to the bathroom. "I'm hitting the shower."

Hotch watched him go and looked at the wall joining their room with Kahlan's.