And here's part 3. Things get dark in this one.

THREE: Rachel Weeping

Twenty minutes later, Hotch, Beth and Jack had settled into the hay compartment of the horse trailer.

"I'm so sorry about this," Hotch said as he helped Beth arrange pillows and blankets.

"It's okay," she answered. "I'm just sorry we all have to be in such close quarters."

"I won't be sleeping yet anyway. I need to go meet up with the team if I can. Will you be all right here without me?"

"Yes... but do you have to go tonight?"

He looked around the cramped space. "Well... they did get along without me last night. But that means I lost a day on the case."

"It's okay, daddy," Jack said. "We've got everything we need, just like home. We'll be okay."

"He's right," Beth said. "Even if I were to go into labor, it's going to take at least half a day, right? You'll have plenty of time to get back."

"Yeah..." Hotch picked up his briefcase. "Jack, you stay right here in this trailer until I get back, understand?"

"Yes, sir," Jack answered.

"And do as Beth tells you."

"I will."

Hotch leaned down to hug Jack goodbye. Then he took Beth's hand for a moment. "I'll keep my phone on at all times," he told her.

"Okay," she said. "Be careful."

Hotch took his car through the crowded streets on his way to the temporary headquarters his team had set up at the sheriff's station. The area was somewhat familiar to him; his grandparents had lived in Bethlehem. It was a small town, and he had loved to visit it in his childhood. Not only was it quiet and charming, but visiting his grandparents gave him time away from their abusive son. He doubted anyone there would remember him now.

The station was full of activity when he arrived. It took him three tries to find anyone who could spare a moment to point him in the direction of the FBI's borrowed office.

"How's Beth?" Garcia asked when he finally joined his team.

"Ready to go into labor any time," Hotch replied.

"Were you able to find someplace to stay?" asked JJ. "Everything was so crowded when we got here. Will and the boys are sharing with Morgan, and the rest of us are together."

"We found a place," Hotch said. "Not glamorous, but it has a roof and it's dry." He knew if he gave details, the others would be in an uproar. "What have we got?"

"There's a situation in this town that needs our attention. Last year, not long after we first started hearing about the rogue comet, a baby boy was kidnapped from the Bethlehem hospital. He was found dead two days later. Since then, similar incidents have been cropping up. At first, the interval was a month; then it became a few weeks, and now it seems like an infant boy is kidnapped and murdered in Bethlehem every week or so."

"It's a small town," Hotch said. "At this rate the unsub will run out of victims."

"Which may be why his victimology seems to be evolving," said Prentiss. "At first, the victims were all newborns, but lately there have been a few that were several weeks old, up to the oldest so far, who was about five months."

"Just how many babies have been killed?"

Prentiss looked down solemnly.

"If all the cases are the same unsub, there have been sixteen so far," Morgan supplied.

Sixteen baby boys killed in less than a year. And he's accelerating. "Race?"

"Eleven were Jewish," said Garcia. "The other five were white or mixed-race. All of them were born in this town and all of them came from families that had ancestors here, not families that had moved here without a previous generation having lived here before."

"So, it stands to reason that the unsub grew up here," Hotch concluded. "He has a grudge against someone with a long history in this town, or perhaps even against the town itself."

"Why infanticide?" asked Prentiss.

"Maybe his wife cheated on him," suggested Morgan. "She got pregnant with someone else's baby and he agreed to raise it, but he hates the kid and wants to kill it. So, he kills other babies to satisfy that urge."

"Or maybe he's the cheater," said Hotch. "Maybe he passed through this town and had a little too good a time with some local girls and now he's paranoid about finding out he has a child. It could ruin his current relationship."

"Are we sure the unsub is male?" asked JJ. "A woman might hold a grudge against a man born and raised in this town and has made it her mission not to let any other boys grow up the same way."

"But most of them were Jewish; there's an angle there too. It might be racial, religious or both."

"I think twenties for the age range," said Morgan. "Early thirties at most. And I think male is much more likely."

"White male in his twenties," Hotch reviewed. "Has something against the town or individuals in the town. He keeps killing because he either isn't sure he's killed the right target, or because he can't kill the right target and has to kill surrogates. His preferred target is likely Jewish, but he'll kill caucasian babies sometimes... possibly because he can't be sure of their lineage. Judaism is passed through the mother; if only the father has a history in this town, he might be killing them just to be thorough."

"I'll look into that angle," said Garcia. "I'll see if the white babies' moms grew up in town or not."

"Okay. Let's get the profile to the police. With all the evacuees here, the population is temporarily up about fifty percent, but fortunately the visiting population hasn't been targeted. That keeps our victim pool low."

"Although," said JJ, "a lot of the evacuees chose to come to Bethlehem because they have family here. So, some of them could be targeted."

"True." Hotch stood up. "We need a press conference first thing in the morning. I'm sure the town is already aware of the unusually high occurrence of kidnapping and murder of their baby boys, but parents need to be put on high alert. If we don't find the unsub soon, there will be more deaths."

Hotch tried to enter the trailer quietly, but Beth and Jack both woke up as he came in.

Jack switched on a flashlight and sat up. "Daddy?"

Hotch leaned over the hay bales where they had made Jack's bed and scooped his son into his arms. Thank God Jack's too old to fit the victim profile... I have roots in this town, too. "Everything's okay," he said softly. "Go back to sleep."

Jack gave his father a squeeze and lay back with a sleepy "Okay..."

"He's been really good," Beth reported as Hotch came to sit beside her.

Hotch nodded at her stomach. "And how's he been?"

She smiled. "Pretty good, too. But I think he wants to come out soon."

"I wish he'd wait. And I wish they'd recall this evacuation so you could be more comfortable."

"This really isn't that bad. I like horses. And it doesn't really matter what kind of bed I'm on at this point; I can't get comfortable for long at a time."

"Have you been to this... 'one-horse' town before?" Hotch asked, masking his interest in the answer with an attempt at humor.

"A long time ago. My mother grew up around here. There's a little synagogue downtown... Her side of the family is Jewish, and my dad converted."

Hotch's heart sank. "My father's side was Jewish. His parents lived here, too."

"Wow, small world."

Our family history makes this baby appear to be at least half Jewish... if he's born here, he'll be near the top of the potential victim list.

"Are you okay? You look worried."

"I'm just wishing you could be somewhere with real walls and air conditioning and plumbing..."

"Speaking of which, I'm going to need a trip to the bathroom before I go back to sleep. Sorry."

"It's fine." Hotch picked Jack up and hoisted him against his shoulder. "Let's go.

The spliced family made their way into the hotel. The public first-floor restroom was co-ed—not that a "women" sign would stop Hotch at this point. He wasn't going to let Beth out of his sight for long; not in a place as crowded as this.

He leaned against the sink counter while Beth was busy in a stall. He nuzzled into Jack's soft hair and kissed his face. "I love you," he whispered. Jack slept on. "You okay in there?" he called to Beth.

"Yeah. Everything just seems to take twice as long now..."

"No hurry."

When she came out, Hotch patiently waited while Beth washed her hands. He pulled paper towels from the dispenser on the wall and handed them to her.

"Thanks," Beth said, taking the rough towels from him. "You've been really amazing through all of this."

He looked down, not sure what to say. The last thing he wanted to do was upset her, but he still wasn't sure how he expected things to work out. "Maybe I just don't know what else to do," he murmured.

She threw away the damp towels and put a hand on his arm. She hesitated. "It'll be okay. You'll see." Her voice was tight and he could see the warning signs of tears in her eyes.

This is crazy, right? This baby can't really be the son of God... But if he's not, that leaves only two options—someone raped Beth and her attacker is nine months in the wind, or she had an affair or a one-night stand and is lying about it. Neither was a pleasant option, and while the first would be painful enough for them to work through, the second would be a personal betrayal. Still, after months of mulling it over, Hotch was beginning to think he might be able to forgive it. He just wished he could know for sure.

"Beth... if—"

The bathroom door opened and Hotch clamped his mouth shut as two women entered together. The newcomers smiled at them before going into stalls.

"Come on," Hotch told Beth quietly. He ushered her out of the room, across the lobby and back out to the horse trailer.

"What were you going to say before those girls came in?" Beth asked, barely above a whisper, as she lay back down on her bed of blankets and hay bales.

Hotch hung his jacket on a hook probably intended to hold a bridle and began loosening his tie. "We can talk about it later," he said. "Right now, we need sleep."

A minute later, he was lying down on the other side of Jack. The makeshift bed was surprisingly comfortable. The smell of the animals next door wasn't too overpowering, either. At least the kind people who had lent them the space cleaned the horses' traveling compartment on a regular basis. It didn't take him long to fall asleep.

I know there probably can't be much real suspense here because everyone knows this story, but I hope it's holding your interest anyway. :p