Chapter 30

Rossi was the first one to notice the blip move on the screen. He sat up and stared at the screen and watched the man make his way down the street.

Kahlan could tell the agents wanted to jump up and start to follow him. "There's no sense in letting him have a chance to notice us. Let him get to where ever he is going, and then we'll move," she told them in her motherly tone.

"What's the range on that thing?" Morgan asked, clearly impatient. They were already a few blocks away from the man.

"About five miles. Calm down, Morgan. Now is not the time to try and rush things."

He huffed but stayed in his seat. Kahlan could tell they were all worried about what was happening to Hotch in the man's absence. She was worried, too, but she couldn't let her feelings rule her. If she had done that, she would have killed the man on the street just for all of the things he was suspected of doing. She pulled out her phone and called her son to help pass the time. JJ took the hint and called her husband.

After she hung up Rossi asked where Wyatt was. "He's with my sister and her family in Manassas."

XXXXX

The hit man looked at his watch. He figured he still had a few hours before he had to worry about the agent. The effects of LSD itself could last for twelve hours, let alone all of the other things he had mixed in the bottle. He decided to go and get a couple hours of sleep in his rented room.

XXXXX

Hotch was trashing about on the floor, trying to get the hallucinated rats off of him. He managed to rip his shirt and his skin to pieces in the process. Once the rats were gone, though, he found himself and his team enveloped in darkness so thick it felt like ink. Out of the corner of his eyes he kept seeing flying misty figures. He could hear their eerie voices, but he couldn't understand what they were saying. He slowly lost every one of his team members in the darkness. He called out for them, but they apparently couldn't hear him. He cried uncontrollably as he desperately tried to find them.

XXXX

The blip had stayed stationary for over twenty minutes and Rossi decided it was long enough. They left the restaurant and made their way to the location in Morgan's SUV. They pulled up on the curb down the street. They could clearly see it was a place for sleeping rooms. "You don't think he's got Hotch in there do you?" JJ asked from the back seat.

"I wouldn't think so," Morgan told her.

"Do you think he noticed you following him?" Kahlan asked them.

"No way," Morgan assured her and got a smile on his face. He thought he knew where she was leading with the question.

"Be careful," Rossi told him as he got out of the vehicle.

"Always," Morgan told him with his famous smile.

They all watched him cross the street and approach the office. Within minutes he disappeared into the building.

Morgan made his way to room 5-C, and knocked roughly on the door. "Spence! Open up, damn it. I know you're in there!"

The door was thrown open and the hit man, looking thoroughly pissed, looked Morgan up and down.

Morgan searched the little room with his eyes quickly. "You're not Spence!"

"Obviously not!"

"Sorry man. Spence was here last week. You know where he is?" Morgan asked as he slurred his speech a little.

"No, and if you know what's good for you, you'll leave," the man told him menacingly.

"Dude! No need to be so pissy!" Morgan told him and headed down the hall.

The whole car visibly relaxed as Morgan made his way back to the SUV. "Nope," is all he said as he shut the door.

"Damn it!" Rossi said as he hit the dash.

"You better pull out of here. We can keep an eye on him from a few roads away," Kahlan told Morgan and he started the vehicle and drove away.

XXXXX

The darkness dissolved around Hotch, and he found himself in an ancient gnarled forest. He was still searching for his team, but all he kept finding were victims of unsubs. Horrible, mutilated bodies lay everywhere. He cried for them, for the suffering he couldn't stop before they finally found each of the unsubs. When he came to a pile of dead children being consumed by a massive tree's roots, he fell to his knees. He threw up as he realized the tree and the pile of children kept growing. The dead faces were asking him, "Why didn't you save us? Why can't you stop the pain?"

"I'm sorry!" Hotch cried out to them. "I'm so sorry!"

XXXXX

Three hours later, Morgan noticed the blip move. He hit Rossi's leg to wake him up. The movement also woke up Kahlan and JJ. They watched the blip go out onto the street and it started moving too fast for him to be walking. Morgan started the SUV and pulled out his parking space. They followed him at a distance for over forty minutes. Rossi shook his head as he realized he was heading back towards Quantico. Morgan pulled over once they realized the blip had stopped. They waited and watched. The blip slowly moved from the street and apparently entered a building that wasn't on the map. After five minutes of the blip not leaving Morgan pulled out and approached the building slowly. The dark building looked abandoned as he drove by it and turned onto the first street past it. They all looked at each other, and Kahlan opened her door to get out.

"Whoa! Where do you think you're going?" Morgan asked her.

"To go see if Hotch is in there," she told him slowly, wondering why it was even questioned. She got out and shut the door. Morgan shot a look to Rossi. Rossi sighed heavily and they got out of the vehicle.

"There are procedures. We need to get a warrant. . ." Morgan started as he made his way around the vehicle towards her.

Rossi was about to say something when he saw a pistol in Kahlan's hand. He almost chuckled when he noticed it was a Walther PPK. Really, James Bond's gun? She must have had it in an ankle holster.

"You go right ahead and do that," she told Morgan with a smile.

"We need to wait for SWAT," JJ told her.

"You might need to. I don't."

Morgan and JJ both looked at Rossi, apparently thinking he could say something to persuade her.

Rossi looked at Kahlan. He could see the determination in her eyes. He reached and pulled his pistol out of its holster.

Morgan was shocked. "We don't even have probable cause!"

"I can't ask you to join me," Kahlan started. "But if you think Hotch has time for all of those procedures, then you go ahead and wait. I'm going in," she told them and walked towards the building.

Rossi looked from JJ to Morgan. "The procedures be damned!" he told them and followed Kahlan.

Morgan ran a hand over his bald head as he watched them leave. None of them even had their vests with them. He looked at JJ. JJ gave him a small smile and took out her own pistol. Morgan nodded and they ran to catch up with Kahlan and Rossi.

The four of them quietly made their way to the building's side entrance. Rossi checked the door, but it was locked.

One look at the steel door, and they knew there would be no breaking it down. Kahlan smiled and pulled a lock pick set out of her back pocket. Morgan shot Rossi another shocked look as Kahlan bent down and picked the lock. Within seconds they were in the building's stairwell. Morgan opened the door to the first floor. Without words, they made their way quickly through and returned to the stairs.

XXXXX

Psycho made his way over to Hotch. He was lying on his stomach, and for a moment Psycho thought he was dead. With a quick feel of Hotch's pulse, he knew that Hotch was still alive and when Hotch screamed out, Psycho knew he was still tripping. He smiled as he looked at his watch.

XXXXX

The foursome made it through five more floors, and JJ was beginning to wonder if the hit man was even in the building. Once they got to the seventh floor, they heard a bone chilling scream as Rossi opened the door. "That enough probable cause for you?" Kahlan asked Morgan vehemently.

"Yeah," Morgan said as he winced at the sound and they prepare to enter the floor.

Kahlan followed Rossi down one hallway, and JJ followed Morgan down another. Another scream quickened their pace. Both groups emerged at the end to find a large opened area in front of a bank of windows. They immediately noticed Hotch lying on the floor. The hit man was rummaging through a bag as he knelt down with his back facing them.

"Freeze! Federal Agents!" Morgan yelled as he, Rossi and JJ stepped forward with their guns aimed at the man. Kahlan started making her way behind them to Hotch.

The hit man froze. "Let me see your hands!" Rossi yelled. The man slowly raised his hands, they were empty. Morgan ran up to him and cuffed him. Kahlan ran to Hotch. He was lying faced down, but his body was twitching slightly. She noticed a pile of puke not far from his face. She knelt down and rolled him over gently. Her breath hitched in her chest as she saw his purple and black torso and all of the scratches all over him. "Aaron?" she asked as tears fell from her eyes. Hotch convulsed a little and she held on to him tightly.

"What did you do to him?" Rossi demanded of the man.

"Once you're able to find out, it will be too late," he told them with a smile.

JJ had her phone out calling for an ambulance. Morgan held onto the man and Rossi rushed over to Kahlan and Hotch.

"Aaron? It's ok, help is coming," Kahlan tried to tell him. She wasn't sure if he could hear her or not.

Suddenly Hotch was fighting her. She tried to hold him, but he was too strong and broke away from her. Rossi moved in behind him and wrapped his arms around Hotch's chest, effectively holding him in a bear hug. "Hotch! Hotch, it's us. You're safe now." Rossi tried to tell him in his ear.

Kahlan noticed Rossi's eyes tearing up. She took one more look at Hotch, and her anger became more than she could handle. She jumped up and advanced on the man responsible. "Morgan, you and JJ need to go down and show the medics how to get up here," she told him in an icy tone as she stared at the smiling man.

Morgan didn't know what to think of her. He could see the danger in her eyes. He didn't blame her, he wanted to kill the man, too, but he couldn't just let her kill a defenseless man who was already in custody.

"I'm not going to kill him, but we need to know what he's given Hotch!" She didn't want Morgan and JJ to be witness to what she was about to do, but she would do it with them there or not. "Rossi!"

"Go Morgan, JJ, get those damn medics up here!" Rossi yelled to them. Morgan shot him a look then looked back at Kahlan. She smiled like a cobra about to strike, but if Rossi trusted her, then he had to, too. He shoved the man to his knees and let go of him. JJ met Morgan at the stairs, and with one more look at Kahlan they went out the door.

The hit man smiled at her. "You think you can make me talk, bitch?"

She could tell he recognized her from earlier. "Yeah I do," she told him with a smile.

He blanched as she took out a knife hidden at her waist. "You can't hurt me. That would be against my rights!" he demanded.

"Did somebody inform you that you have rights?" she asked coldly.

The realization made him fill with fear. "Your Federal Agents, you can't do this!" he yelled, and she kicked him in the face and made him fall over onto his back.

"I never said I was an agent." Kahlan told him as she knelt down beside him. She winced as Hotch screamed again. She used her knife to cut through the man's belt.

"You should just tell her what she wants to know!" Rossi yelled at him. Rossi wasn't sure what she was going to do to the man, but he had a feeling she would make him talk eventually no matter how tough the man was.

She was slicing through the man's jeans, and he was frozen with fear. He didn't want to fight her and have her stab him. "Alright!" he screamed, his voice a few octaves higher than what it was before. Kahlan stopped and looked at him. "It's a mixture of hallucinogens."

"When?" Shit! She wanted to scream.

"About ten hours ago."

"Don't move," she told him as she got up and started rummaging through the man's bag. She found the little white bottle. "This?"

"Yes."

She opened it and noticed the dropper and knew how he had administered the drug. She noticed Hotch had settled down and Rossi was just holding him. She walked back to the hit man. "What is your name," she asked him as she knelt down and threatened his manhood with the point of her knife.

He didn't think she was bluffing. "Pat. Patrick O'Harin," he told her as he almost cried.

She looked at the weak man with disgust. She held the knife up and swung down hard at his face. She turned the knife around at the last second as he cringed and slammed the hilt of it into the man's temple, knocking him out. She glanced at Rossi. He gave her a smile of approval. She gave him a devilish grin and opened one of the man's eyes and but two drops of the liquid in it. Rossi laughed. She ran back over to Hotch and knelt down next to Rossi.

Hotch's breathing was slowing down. She reached up and felt his pulse. It was weak and erratic. "Come on, Aaron. You're safe now. Just hold on, help's on the way," she told him tenderly as she caressed the side of his face.

Hotch started shaking again and he reached up and grabbed her hand forcibly. She looked at Rossi with concern. Hotch's eyes started to flutter open. His eyes were darting around, and they couldn't tell if he saw them or not. "They're all dead," he said weakly.

"No, Aaron. They're fine. It's just a dream," Rossi told him tenderly as he stroked Hotch's hair. Kahlan noticed Rossi's tears and she felt her own fall down her face.

"Dead. . . dead. . ." Hotch said as he closed his eyes and started sobbing against Rossi's stomach.

"It's ok," Rossi tried to sooth him. "It's ok, they're fine." They had no idea who Hotch was talking about, but Hotch stopped shaking so much as Rossi continued to stroke his hair.

Morgan and JJ busted through the door followed by two medics. They rushed over to Hotch. "He's OD-ing on hallucinogens," Kahlan told them as they got out of the way to let the medics in to do their work. One of the medics nodded and took a syringe out and jabbed it into Hotch's chest.

Morgan walked over to the hit man and checked for a pulse. He had actually thought Kahlan had killed him. He didn't want to know why the man's pants had been sliced open. The man let out a small whimper and started to shake. Morgan knew why, too, as he shot a look to Rossi and Kahlan.

"What? Apparently he had taken some of his own drugs," Rossi told him innocently. Morgan noticed Kahlan's face didn't give anything away.