Chapter 7

Hotch woke up to his alarm. He had slept decently and actually felt rested. He was about to wake up Rossi when there was a knock on the door. He opened the door to find Kahlan. He shivered as soon as the cold air hit him, so he opened the door to let her in. She was holding a drink carrier with three cups in it.

"Morning," she told him as she set the drink carrier down on the little table. "Thought you guys might want a coffee." She smiled at him and then looked to Rossi's sleeping form in the far bed.

"Thank you. When did you get up?" Hotch asked her as he went to kick Rossi's bed. Rossi moaned and opened his eyes.

"I've been up since about 5:30." She turned, grabbed one of the coffees, and walked over to hand it to Rossi.

"Bless you child," he told her with a smile as he sat up to take the cup.

She returned the smile and then grabbed her own cup. "I'm ready when you all are," she told them and headed for the door. She went out it quickly and went to her own room.

Hotch sat at the table, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and took a drink of the coffee.

Rossi got out of the bed and joined Hotch at the table. "You know if she hadn't kidnapped part of our family, I would actually like her."

Hotch almost spit out his coffee and ended up choking and coughing on it. He shook his head as he gave Rossi a look.

"What? Don't tell me you don't feel the same way."

"Well, the whole kidnapping thing has stopped me from feeling that," Hotch told him sarcastically. "I'm going to get dressed." He grabbed his bag and went to the restroom.

It was Rossi's turn to shake his head.

About a half an hour later they were on their way. Within a few hours they were pulling up to the FBI building in Salt Lake City. Garcia had called ahead to have them prepare a conference room, and had all of their files transferred there. A couple of the local agents were lined up to help if needed, too.

JJ and Reid were already in the room. They were setting up white boards like they had at Quantico. Hotch noticed they had a new board set up for the boys who had gone missing in the nineties. Under two of those boys' pictures there was a picture of a decimated corpse. DNA had matched two of the boys to John Does also found in the nineties. Hotch could tell by the bodies that the boys had died at a young age. Hotch noticed that Kahlan was focusing on the bodies, and before he could ask JJ and Reid for on update, Kahlan ran out of the room to the nearest trashcan and threw up. He went to stand beside her. Reid brought over a bottle of water and a paper towel. Hotch took them and nodded his thanks. JJ looked at her with a sad look, but went back to what she was doing.

Once he thought Kahlan was done he handed her the paper towel. She took it and wiped her mouth. "Thank you," she told him as she finally stood up. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

"You don't have to apologize. I would have stopped you from seeing them if I had known they were there."

She looked at him, clearly embarrassed. "Restroom?" she asked as she looked around. Hotch looked around, too, pointed her to it, and gave her the bottle of water. She took it with another 'thanks' and went to the restroom.

Hotch noticed the paper towel crumpled up in her hand. Is that blood? Hotch took a deep breath and headed back into the conference room. JJ and Reid gave him and Rossi the update on their time spent in Utah, and it accumulated in 56 possibles for the partial license plates that belong to white pick-up trucks. Local agents were running them all down, and so far they had found a couple promising ones. JJ had told them that her team would check those out personally.

Rossi was starting to get worried about Kahlan and went to search for her, but he found her at an empty desk outside the conference room. He walked up to her. "You ok?"

"Yeah. I just didn't think you all would want me in there in the way," she told him with a small smile.

Morgan and Blake showed up about an hour later. They gave everybody their update and added to the description of the unsub's vehicle. The Idaho police had a witness statement that said the white pick-up was a four door, but they had never had a plate to go with it. After checking the list of possibles, it narrowed it down to 26 and only one promising one. They speculated and theorized for another hour and then a local agent brought in lunch.

Hotch went and asked Kahlan if she wanted something. She chuckled weakly. "No, thank you. I don't think my stomach could handle anything right now." Hotch gave her a small smile. "Would you mind if I go outside and get some air?"

Hotch considered it for a moment. "I'll join you," he suggested. He thought she would object, but she didn't. She followed him through the building, but he stopped at an empty room. "I have to talk to you first." He led her into the room and shut the door. He looked at her a moment and thought she looked pale. He took a deep breath, and asked her, "What's up with the pills?"

That caught her off guard and she studied him for a moment. "That's none of your business."

"Oh really? I think it is," Hotch told her forcefully. "I've seen the pills."

She gave him a shocked look. "How dare. . ."

"How dare I? Because you have my son, that's how I dare! I have every right to know what's wrong with you."

She shook her head and started to walk towards the door but he stopped her by grabbing her arm. She jerked away from him, and he could tell by the look in her eyes that she wanted to do a lot more than that.

"You're taking a bunch of pills, you don't eat, and you just threw up blood. What am I supposed to think?"

"What, you think I'm going to die or something and you won't get your son back?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking."

She actually laughed.

"I don't see where any of this if funny," he told her seriously.

She took a deep breath. "I have an ulcer. I developed it about a month after Wyatt went missing. Stress makes it act up. Don't worry; I'm not going to die."

He took a deep breath. Her story did make sense, and since had pushed her that far he decided to keep pushing. "So the stress of losing your son has made you physically sick, and yet you continue to keep my son from me. You know how utterly devastating it feels to not know where your son is, but you choose to put me and JJ through it. I don't understand how you can do that," he told her as his eyes watered.

"Because I thought that it was the only way to get you to help me," she told him truthfully.

"And if I promise you I will still look for your son, would you let them go?"

She stared at him. She couldn't tell if he was serious or just trying to trick her. She licked her lips.

"Seeing those dead boys upset you because you don't know what has happened to your son. Do you have any idea of the horrors I have witness? Don't you think I have imagined every damn one of them happening to my son?" Tears began to fall down his cheeks. "But I've come to realize that you won't hurt them."

"Oh really? How do you know that I won't hurt him?" She asked but Hotch could tell there wasn't any malice in her voice.

"Maybe because you cried when you realized there were other boys missing, too, maybe because you threw yourself in front of a truck to save that little boy, maybe because you hated that asshole Jenkins, and maybe because you threw up after seeing those dead boys. I think it's obvious."

She just stood there searching his face.

He took another deep breath. "Please tell me where Jack is," he pleaded. It had been too long since he had seen or talked to his son, and he didn't think he could take it anymore. "You know how it feels to not be able to see your son, to not be able to hold him, to not be able to tell him you love him." His lip quivered as his heart pounded in his chest. "God! Please tell me where he is." Through his own tears, he could see she had teared up, too.

She couldn't handle seeing him in pain, especially since she knew she was the cause. She could handle his anger earlier, but his pain was more than she could take. She knew he was a strong man, and to see him break down cut right through to her heart. "Go," she cried. "Go home and go to your son."

"What?" Hotch asked confused.

"Go home. They will be there before you get back." She started to turn away.

He grabbed her arm, and turned her around. "Where are they?"

She looked him in the eyes and gave him a small smile. "You were right. I could never hurt them. I didn't want to do what I did, but I honestly felt like I didn't have a choice. They don't even know they were kidnapped."

"What? How could they not know?" He asked not understanding.

"I approached Jessica and Will with this." She took something out of her coat pocket and handed it to him.

He took the leather wallet from her and opened it up. Staring out of the wallet was a picture of Kahlan in a perfect forgery of an FBI ID. He was starting to understand.

"I told them that your team had come across an unsub who threatened your families, and that they had to go into protective custody to be safe until you all caught him. They got the boys and some stuff and have been in a hotel since. Two associates of mine have been there to guard them to keep up the charade. They haven't been scared, not once, and Will and Jessica never even questioned it."

Hotch didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He had wondered what she had done to get through Will and Jessica. It was the perfect plan; she had used his own job against him. "So you could call them right now, and I could talk to Jack?"

She pulled a phone out of her pocket. Hotch noticed it wasn't the phone she had been using around them. "You want me to dial it now?"

"You never planned on hurting them, even if we decided not to help you." It wasn't a question, he was stating the truth.

"No, but I had to make you think I would. I thought it was the only way to get you all to help me."

He was about ready to tell her that she could have just asked, but she had and she had been turned down several times. He didn't know what to say.

"And now you're going to arrest me, and I'm never going to find my son," she told him as she started crying.

"No."

She broke down even more as she thought he was agreeing with her.

"You're not going to be arrested, and we are not going to stop looking for your son," he told her as he took her by the shoulders.

She studied his face. She couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. "You can't tell me don't want to run to your son, and throw me away and hide the key for putting you through it all."

"I am going to see my son tonight," he told her with a smile. "But you are going with us to end this charade officially so none of them realize what was actually happening."

She nodded, it was the least she could do to make sure she didn't cause any more damage.

"Then, as soon as we have an unsub narrowed down, we will fly back out here and find out about your son."

"Why? Why would you continue to help me after the pain I have put you through?"

"Because somebody has to, and you are in just as much pain. You have waited far too long and have been turned away by too many people. I will see this through."

She almost fell to her knees in relief as she realized he was being serious. "Are you sure your team will feel the same way? That Agent Jareau won't still want to kill me?"

"I will talk to them. They are good people, and I think that they will agree to help you, but if they choose not to, then I will do it by myself." He wiped his face, stood up straight, and looked her in the eyes. "I promise I will find out what has happened to your son. I cannot promise he will still be alive, because that isn't up to me, but I promise you will know one way or the other."

She couldn't help herself, she hugged him, and he hugged her back. It had been tearing her up inside to put them through the illusion that their sons were in danger, and now that it was over she felt relieved. She also felt hope because they were getting close to finding out about her own son. She had been waiting so long that she felt like she was never going to find out what had happened. She let him go. "I don't know how I will ever thank you for this."

"Don't worry, I'll think of something when this is all over," he told her with a small smile. "Stay here. I will go talk to my team." She nodded.

Hotch walked back into the conference room. They had finished eating and were back into the files. Rossi noticed him first, and he could tell Hotch had been crying. "Where's Kahlan?" Rossi asked with concern as Hotch closed the door. Everyone else stopped what they were doing and looked at him. He took a deep breath and let it out.

"It's not the boys?" JJ asked getting upset.

"No, JJ, the boys are fine." He told her as she looked at him questioningly. "I just had a talk with Kahlan. She said that she couldn't lie to us anymore. She told me what she did to get us to believe the boys were in danger," he started.

"To make us believe that they were in danger? They aren't in danger?" JJ asked quickly.

Hotch proceeded to tell them about the elaborate charade Kahlan had used and about how she couldn't do it any longer. He thought JJ was going to faint when he told her they were going home to get them. She was still mad, but she told him she understood why Kahlan had done it. He finished telling them how he promised to see the case through, but he wouldn't hold it against them if they did not want to help.

"Please, like you could do it alone," Rossi joked with him letting him know he would help.

"I saw the report of what happened to those two boys," Reid said as he nodded to the dead boys. "Somebody has to put that monster away, so it might as well be us."

"You know I got your back, Hotch. Always," Morgan told him.

"Yeah, we can't back out now," Blake told him.

Hotch looked at JJ. She smiled. "If I get to go home and see Henry and Will tonight, I will do whatever is needed to make sure those other mothers get to find out what happened to their sons."

Hotch thanked them and went back to get Kahlan. He told her what he team had said, and she started crying again.

Within an hour, they were all on the jet and headed back to Virginia.