Chapter 13

The team and Kahlan headed in their SUVs to the Doorknob to eat. The restaurant was quite busy, so they couldn't all sit together. Hotch told them it was fine, and told his team to use it as a break and that they would discuss things once they found a hotel. Hotch, Rossi, and Kahlan sat at a square table in the main dining area, and the rest of the team sat together at a large table in a separate dining room.

Hotch and Rossi sat across from each other, so that left Kahlan to be in the middle no matter which side she chose. She knew they did it on purpose, too. With a sigh, she sat down and waited for the questions to start. The waiter saved her, though, as he showed up and took their drink order. Hotch noticed how the waiter was just a little too friendly to Kahlan. Really? She's sitting with two men and he's going to flirt with her? He's either brave or stupid, Hotch thought as he glared at the man. Kahlan didn't seem to notice. Rossi almost laughed as he watched them. Once the waiter left, Rossi turned to Kahlan. "I know you probably won't answer, but you must know that I have to ask. Where did those images come from?"

She gave him her best smile. "A friend."

Hotch smiled at that. Well, she did answer.

"You know that's not what I meant," Rossi told her.

She smiled at him again. "Fine. I guess it doesn't really matter anyway." She took a deep breath. "A friend in the CIA."

"You have friends in some very interesting places," Rossi stated.

"Yep."

"Are these friends, people with whom you have worked before?"

"There are no records of me ever working with them." Parry

"So you have worked with them unofficially," Rossi said as he tried to formulate his next question.

Hotch smiled. Now he knew why Rossi had enjoyed himself so much as Hotch tried to interrogate her.

Kahlan silently waited for Rossi to ask another question, but the waiter brought their drinks and took their food order.

The side of Hotch's top lip rose just a little as the waiter's hand grasped Kahlan's for a moment as he took the menu from her. Rossi thought Hotch was going to actually growl.

"I suppose you want to participate in the raid in the morning?" Rossi finally asked her.

"Of course."

"And how could we best utilize your abilities?" Rossi asked with a grin. Apparently he thought he had her cornered.

"In any capacity you could devise. I am extremely adaptable." Parry.

Rossi glared at her. "Which capacity would you prefer?"

Her brows flicked up, impressed by the question. Hotch almost laughed as he watched her try to formulate an answer that wouldn't give anything away.

The waiter saved her again, though, as he brought their salads. Hotch snorted as the waiter made sure to give Kahlan extra dressing. Kahlan glanced at Hotch. "Aaron, my love, would please pass me the salt and pepper?" She asked as she exaggerated the first part of the question and caressed his neck with her hand. The waiter huffed and quickly left. Rossi just shook his head. She giggled and excused herself to go to the restroom.

"Really, Aaron? Why didn't you just challenge him to a pissing contest outside?" Rossi asked as he laughed.

"Well, that was rude. He had no right to flirt with a woman sitting with two men," Hotch told him defensively. "I didn't think she noticed it."

"She did notice it, but was choosing to ignore it." Rossi shook his head again. "At least she stopped it before you had to embarrass yourself."

"Shut up and eat your salad."

"She's stalling. I think I finally have her."

"I wouldn't count on it."

She returned and started in on her salad.

"You haven't answered my question," Rossi reminded her with a cocky grin.

"Which position I would prefer?" she asked, and Rossi nodded. "Which ever position your team is weakest in." Thrust and kill!

Hotch openly laughed and Rossi hung his head in defeat.

The rest of the meal was passed with small talk. They made their way to a hotel and Hotch gave them thirty minutes before he wanted to meet in one of the hotel conference rooms to plan out everything for the morning. Kahlan was getting her clothes ready for the next day when she heard a knock on her door. She figured it was Hotch, and her look of shock as she opened the door made Rossi smile. "What can I do for you Agent Rossi?"

"Please, call me, Dave," he told her as he entered her room uninvited.

She looked at him questioningly as she shut the door. "Have a seat," she offered as she sat in a chair.

"No thank you," he told her as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I need to talk to you, and I don't know if you're going to like what I have to say."

She raised her brows at the way he was acting. "Then I suggest you just get on with it."

"Aaron is my best friend," he told her as he started to pace.

"I can see that."

"In fact, I really rather think of him like a son." He stopped and looked her in the eyes. "I don't know what's going on between you two, and I know it's none of my business. . ."

She smiled. "It is your business, if you care about him. Just say what you want to say."

"I don't want to see you toying with him. I don't want to see him hurt," he told her very seriously.

She could definitely see the paternal nature of the man in front of her, and yet, she could clearly hear the veiled threat in his words, too. She smiled warmly at him. "Dave, I would never toy with any man. I am not that kind of woman. Yeah, I may flirt with the best of them, but I would never lead a man on."

He studied her face. "I don't want Aaron falling for you if you have no intention of reciprocating."

She stared at him a moment. "Maybe he's not the only one falling," she said softly.

Rossi considered her for a moment then walked up to her. He pulled her up to stand before him, and put his hand on the side of her face. "Tomorrow is important for you, and I'm also worried that if it doesn't work out for you, that you may blame him."

"Never," she told him sincerely. "I promise."

Rossi let his hand drop. "You also have to realize that if arrests are to be made, Aaron will want to make them."

She knew what he was implying. "Afraid I'll lose my temper?"

"You have a temper?" He laughed. "No, but I may be afraid of what you will want to do."

"I promise to do only what needs to be done."

Like that wasn't ambiguous! I swear that must be her middle name! "Well, I guess I will see you downstairs." He patted her shoulder as he walked by her to the door. He opened it as Hotch was about ready to knock on it. "Hotch," Rossi nodded to him as he stepped past him into the hall.

"Rossi," Hotch said as he looked back and forth between Kahlan and Rossi. Rossi just smiled and continued down the hall. "What was that about?" he asked her as he shut the door.

Kahlan smiled at him. "He made me promise to behave myself tomorrow."

Hotch believed that. "Speaking of tomorrow," he started as he moved further into her room. "You know, I should not even let you go with us." She started to argue. "If something were to happen to you, the whole team could actually get into a lot of trouble. You are officially just a civilian, correct?"

She bit her bottom lip as she considered him. He was right. If something were to happen, he could lose his job for allowing a civilian in on a FBI raid. "What if I told you that the badge I used to approach Jessica and Will was real?"

He gave her a puzzled look. No. She can't be in the FBI. Can she? "Are you going to explain how it's real?"

"I think that's a conversation that will take longer than we have right now. But I can tell you that you would not be held liable for anything that might happen to me."

He shook his head. He thought she was telling him the truth, but how could he be sure? He could bet his own job on it, but his teams' jobs?

"Aaron, I know this is difficult for you, and I promise to sit down and answer all of your questions when we have the time; but I think you are going to need me tomorrow. The six of you are going to need all the help you can get if everything goes to shit, and I don't trust those local cops to back you up properly."

He frowned as he considered what she said.

"Look, I will not engage, I will stay completely out of the way unless I am needed."

I will not engage? God, now it sounds like she's got military training. Shit! I just can't seem to get a handle on her. "Alright. As long as you promise to stay in the capacity of just back-up."

"Of course," she told him with a smile.

He shook his head. He had a sinking feeling that he had just made a deal with the devil. "Am I ever going to know everything about you?" he asked with a smile.

She grinned. "You will if you stick around long enough."

And what the hell are you trying to say now? He ran a hand across the back of his neck. "Come on, they're probably waiting on us."

He was right. The whole team was already discussing the satellite photos Kahlan had provided. They were trying to guess the purpose of the buildings. They paused as Hotch and Kahlan walked in and joined them at the table.

"I would say our biggest problem is approach," Morgan told them. "We can't all take the road in and not expect them to try and stop us."

"And while someone is trying to stop us, who's to say what is happening back at the house," JJ added.

They all considered the photos as they thought about a solution. "We could send in a group up the road as a decoy, and let them go out to stop them. Then the other groups could come in from different directions to raid the house and other main buildings," Hotch suggested.

Kahlan smiled at him. Which is exactly what I would do.

"How do we get in there to flank them?" Morgan wondered. "ATV's?"

"I have studied the terrain, and I don't think the areas leading up to the main part of the property from the north or the east are accessible by ATVs." Reid pointed out.

"Any of you all ever go horseback riding?" Kahlan asked with raised brows.

Reid studied the map some more. "That might work."

"You want us to go riding in there on horses?" Blake asked as if she thought Kahlan was crazy.

"I'm not saying that you should go riding in there, guns blazing like some old western. I'm saying use the horses to get close enough to your target to approach on foot," she clarified.

Hotch liked the idea. "Have any of you ever ridden?" he asked his team as he realized it was one subject that had never come up before.

"I used to," JJ admitted.

"Yeah, once, like twenty years ago," Rossi told him with a frown; he clearly didn't enjoy it. "Have you?" he asked Hotch.

"Some, but it has been a while." He turned to Kahlan. "Have you?"

"Of course, I have lived in South Dakota for over ten years. I would also assume that the sheriff and his deputies know how, too."

Hotch studied the photos a little more. He looked at Reid. "Can you drive an ATV?"

"I can ride a motorcycle. I wouldn't think it would be that much different."

"It's easier," Morgan told him.

"Blake and the Sheriff can approach the house from the road; Morgan, Reid, Rossi, and a deputy can approach on ATVs from the west; JJ, a deputy, and I will approach from the east on horseback; and Kahlan and the other deputy can come in from the north on horseback as back up." He paused to let that sink in and see if there were any objections. Getting none, he went on. "Once you're close to the house, Morgan can take the deputy and enter the house from the front, while Reid and Rossi can enter it from the rear. The rest of us will hold our positions and enter the house if needed. Of course, we also have to clear each of the buildings as we approach them." They all nodded their agreements. "I want all buildings cleared before the house is breached, so we are going to have to keep track of our timing and let each other know what's going on."

Reid took the photo that was the zoomed out the farthest and drew a grid on it to let them all know which buildings each group would be responsible for clearing. He then took each of the other photos and separated them into groups so that they could each have one that showed the buildings they would be searching.

JJ took out her phone and called the sheriff to see if they could even get horses and ATVS to use in the raid. Cook assured her that he could get them, but that they probably wouldn't be able to get them to town until about 8:30. JJ relayed the information to Hotch, and he had to agree, of course. Cook also told her that he could get the deputies from neighboring counties to help if they needed them. Hotch thought it was a good idea and asked for five more men, and added that if they could help he would need three more horses. Cook assured her that everything would be ready for them to meet at the station at 8:30.

"I'm sure you all realize that since some of the boys from the nineties are still there, that if Holt puts up a fight they will probably join him," Hotch told them all somberly. "I don't need to remind you all that extreme force needn't be used unless that is the only possibility." They all understood. None of them wanted to have to shot someone who was a victim.

"As far as that goes, even some of the younger boys may join in the fight," Reid pointed out. With a worried look from JJ, he added, "some of them have been there for several years."

They all looked at Kahlan. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I know none of you will hurt any of those boys on purpose. But you must do what you have to do to keep yourselves and each other safe." JJ gave her a small smile.

They split up into their groups to discuss the details of their part of the raid.

Kahlan looked at her section of the property. All she had to worry about was a big barn and then be back up for anyone who needed it. She liked it. She also knew that coming in from the north gave her the advantage of higher ground. She would be able to see most of the property from her vantage point and that let her be able to keep an eye on everybody else. She wondered what type of rifles the sheriff had at his disposal, so she quickly looked up the sheriff's number and texted him about it. Within seconds he told her she could use either use his 30-06 deer hunting rifle or his 220 Swift varmint rifle. She chose the 220 for its long reaching capability and asked for the deputy with the best rifle skills to be paired with her. He agreed.

An hour later, Hotch told them all to go to bed and to be ready to go by 8:15. JJ pointed out the hotel served breakfast, so they would not have to leave to find food. They all said their goodnights and headed to their rooms.