Chapter 41, January

Hotch sighed, it was the seventh day that the team had been in Maine. The case wasn't an overly complicated one; the snow was just hampering everything. The weather was fine when they got there, but it had snowed every day since. Either they were stuck in the hotel and not able to do anything, or they were stuck at the station and only able to keep going over the files and evidence again. Their unsub was a serial rapist, and he had attacked three women already. In the beginning, the unsub had been able to keep traveling and that just led them to feeling anger at their lack of mobility. The local sheriff had snow mobiles on their way, but they were trapped over a hundred miles away because another massive storm. They had warned the public and they hadn't heard of a new attack in two days, so they all hoped the unsub was trapped somewhere, too.

Hotch paced in his room, even if they caught the guy immediately, they probably wouldn't be able to get home. Cabin fever was definitely settling in for his whole team. He sat down on the bed roughly. He couldn't stand knowing there was an unsub out there that he couldn't even attempt to go find. He knew his team felt the same, and they were all in foul moods. Garcia couldn't even get Morgan to smile when she had called him earlier, and Hotch knew that something would have to change soon, or his team was going to blow. He even found himself a little short when he had talk to the boys earlier, and he had to apologize. They, of course, said it was fine, but he hated that he was letting the case and the weather get to him so much. He picked up a pillow off the bed and screamed into it. He smiled; he felt a little better after the release of tension, but as he sat there looking around the room, it disappeared quickly. With a huff, he got up and left his room to go find Rossi. Rossi always knew what to do and say to make him feel better.

XXX

Two days later, and a break in the weather, the snowmobiles arrived and they were able to travel. The finally had a chance to run down a few leads and in one more day, they had their unsub. As happy as they were about that, the incoming weather told them they wouldn't be flying home any time soon; and the teams moods kept getting darker and darker. The next day, Kahlan suggested that he get the team together and go out for lunch, so he figured he would before they all got trapped in the hotel, again.

He asked them, and they all agreed. As soon as they all stepped out of the hotel, they were attacked. Snowballs rained down on all of them from all directions. After the initial shock of it, they all realized who was throwing the snowballs. Will, Kahlan, Garcia, Wyatt, Jack, and Henry stood there laughing at them. "Wow, for being top trained FBI agents, you guys sure were easy targets," Will told them in his heavy accent. JJ stood in shock as Henry threw another snowball at her; hitting her square in the face.

"How. . . When. . . What?" she sputtered as she wiped the snow off her face.

Garcia laughed. "Kahlan said you all needed some company," she told them as she went up and hugged a shocked Morgan, which actually was a ruse to put snow down the back of his shirt. He screamed and reached down and got a handful of snow. She screamed and took off running.

Hotch walked up and gave Kahlan a hug after he made sure her hands were empty. "How did you all get here?"

"You seem to forget I lived in South Dakota. This was nothing to drive in with the right vehicle," she told him with a smile as Jack and Wyatt snuck up behind him. He leaned in to give her a kiss. She deftly avoided it and helped the boys take him to the ground. He was quickly buried in the snow with screams and laughter. As he finally escaped, Hotch quickly grabbed Jack and rolled him in the snow.

Reid laughed and Wyatt ran after him with a snowball; Reid screamed and took off running.

Blake stood there laughing until a snowball hit her on the right shoulder. Her head snapped to the right. There stood her husband. He had been home for only two days before they had left to go to Maine. She stood there shocked, and he went to her and pulled her into a hug.

Rossi stood there watching it all, smiling. He had known Kahlan was on the way with the rest of his extended family. He had given her the go ahead as soon as they caught their unsub. This is what makes life worth living.