Chpt. 27

So here we go, the next chapter. Just so you know, I have read that the name Laila is supposed to mean Guardian Angel. If I'm wrong, lemme know; and the boy's name of Michael, well we'll see.

Hopefully I will be getting around to dirty Mr. Dunbar this chapter. If not I apologize now, and will try to make it happen in the next chapter definitely; but Dunbar is the ultimate goal for this chapter.

Since that night at Hotch's apartment where he asked her the names she had thought about for the twins nearly three weeks had passed. In that time Alecta and Hotch had done a little more shopping for her maternity clothes and some extra stuff for the babies; although she did eventually put a halt to that by saying that they needed to leave enough space in the nursery for the actual babies. They had also been to two doctor appointments to make sure the pregnancy was coming along smoothly, and it was. The babies were coming along nicely. There was even a shot of the little girl shoving her brother a little bit as if to make it well known she owned the lease on the space. The doctor couldn't help but laugh at the babies; they were active little devils.

"Laugh if you want, my daughter, Sofie, is just as bad as this little girl. And it's kind of worse; she can talk now. So…"

Beyond that life had been rather uneventful. Oh, there had been the odd sighting of the diplomat here and there at the most awkward moments for Alecta. And Jack had kept her informed about whether he saw that strange car around again. And he had seen the car, incidentally meaning that he saw Mr. Dunbar, at least four times in the past three weeks….and that was just sighting that Jack had made…there was no telling if he had been around at other times that nobody knew about.

Near the end of that third week, the team was finally called in on a case. It was in Western Pennsylvania, not too far away from Amish country or the Ohio state line. It was a small town area. If it wasn't for the murders that were taking place it would be a great little area to live. The case was about an UNSUB that was murdering pregnant women; they were all different hair/eye colors, but there did seem to be a favorite type. Brunettes. Petite brunettes. Before they had even touched down in PA, Hotch was already chewing nails.

The case had only taken four days to shut down. The UNSUB was an OBGYN that had been killing single pregnant women that had come to the clinic that he worked at. Apparently, his mother had been single when she brought him into the world, and his younger brother. She worked as a prostitute and was always gone all odd hours of the day. There were times that she would bring 'John's' home…the younger baby would be in a cradle in the same room as she turned her tricks, the older child, hiding in a closet or armoire of some sort. He watched it all as his mother earned her living flat on her back. In his later years he came to understand that those men weren't his uncles, and his brother likely had a different daddy from him…not that he would know the difference. Neither one of them had ever met their fathers. And then you factor in the fact that she was an abusive drunk when she wasn't tricking…..it was only a matter of time before one of her boys snapped. The UNSUB tried to rationalize what he was doing by saying he was saving those unborn children from having the life he had. Never mind the fact that none of these women were drunken prostitutes that turned tricks in front of their children. One woman had even been the widow of a soldier that had recently died in a skirmish in Iraq. He had died only three months before. It was bad enough that he had died protecting his country and would never have seen his child in the first place, but then to have his widow and unborn baby die in such a horrible way….and the family that was left behind. It was awful. Garcia went through a box and a half of tissues when they learned the fate of that young woman. Alecta was angry she wasn't able to go on the case as well, but doctor's orders….she had been through enough stress during this pregnancy to last two lifetimes he had said….if only he knew the half of it.

And of course she had started showing finally. By the time the gang hand gone on the case she was huge. Hotch had to admit she hadn't been lying; her babies might have been late bloomers in that respect, but they'd more than made up for it.

The day that they had caught the case, prior to this she had come to the office and brought lunch for everybody. She showed up in a pair of her new maternity jeans that she was actually quite proud of; they didn't look like regular maternity pants. And she had on a t-shirt and a cardigan that was a soft fuzzy material and was a creamy color. The t-shirt, Hotch laughed until he had tears in his eyes when he first saw it; apparently it had come in the mail earlier in the morning. It was a gift from Kevin, he had sent it almost immediately it seemed after being sent a more recent picture of the progress of Alecta's pregnancy.

Across the front, right about where her pregnant belly sat, were the words 'Mt. Everest'.

During lunch with the team, they had all gotten such a good chuckle off of it all that Alecta called Kevin up, leaving a message that said 'You're a dick, you know that right?' but unable to contain the humor in her voice before hanging up.

Most days during the case when the work load wasn't horrible, Garcia was able to get together with Will and Rachel and take Alecta and the children to dinner. It gave them all a chance to get to know each other better and blow off some steam all at the same time. Alecta even offered to keep Henry for Will to give him a night to himself if he would like it; she said that Sofie and Emma could come over, and the kids could have their own little slumber party.

On Wednesday, Alecta, Immogene, and Kong had managed to locate where this Mr. Dunbar (Andrew was his first name) lived. While he was still in school, around about 3:30 they picked the lock on his home and let themselves in. They quickly searched the premises and found his 'study'. Some of the shelves are lined with old video cassettes and some newer DVD's; these aren't Disney movies though. Taking two or three off of the shelf and playing them, the three friends discover that this maniac has made videos of himself sexually abusing some of the children he has taught over the years. Alecta knew what she had to do. This man was stalking the boys. He had been parked outside of JJ and Will's house watching them. He had been showing up at various places around town watching the boys, watching the team….like that night at the restaurant. He wasn't going to stop what he was doing until he got his hands on the boys, and Alecta wouldn't let that happen.

"You two can go, wait for me in the car, and park up the road. I'll be out when I'm done."

Immogene and Kong had started gathering up as many of the videos as they could carry in the bags that they brought with them. Dunbar was going down one way or the other. Both of her friends nodded in the affirmative when she made her declaration.

Within a matter of minutes, Kong and Immogene were gone. Alecta sat at the man's dining room table drinking a glass of water, waiting. He came in the house around 4:15, whistling a little tune that he had in his head. He hadn't noticed Alecta sitting there in his dining room as he turned to lock his front door, until he heard the gun clicking. He turned around with a curious look on his face.

"We have a lot of ways this can work out Mr. Dunbar. We can do this the easy way, or we can do this my way. But I promise you my way….it's ever so much more painful and….messy. And don't let my current rotund state fool you. I am still capable of inflicting great pain on you until I get the results I want."

"Then perhaps you should tell me what it is that you want."

"Jack and Henry, leave them alone. Come near them again and I will kill you on the spot."

"And just who the hell do you think you are?"

"I'm Jack's nanny. What's it to ya? Never mind who I am. I know who you are and what you are. And if you come near Jack and Henry again, if you lay so much as ONE finger on them, I will cut it off and feed it to you slowly….before I kill you. Now, I'm going to leave. I've taken the liberty of liberating your movie collection seeing as you won't be needing it anymore. Remember what I've said, think over your next actions carefully. I wouldn't want you to make any life altering decisions on the fly."

With that Alecta walked out of the house and up the street, making it about 30 feet before Kong and Immogene pulled up along-side of her at the sidewalk letting her in the car.

Everything was all set; the kids would stay over on Friday night. School had started back in last week and a half, and it would give Henry and Jack a chance to talk shop or whatever young boys discussed about elementary school these days. In the days prior to the sleep over Alecta had gone over with Jack several times what to do in case of an emergency.

He was to take Henry and the girls and hide in the closet in his bedroom, taking the emergency phone that she'd given him with them. He would first call 911 to tell them that someone had broken into his house and give his address and apartment number….they had gone over it several times to make sure he knew it by heart. She also talked him into keeping a baseball bat in his closet close by, just in case something bad happened, he would have some small way of trying to defend himself. Perhaps Hotch wouldn't approve; but Hotch wasn't here, and she wasn't going to leave that boy empty handed.

The night of the sleep over, they had inflated an air mattress and laid it out on the living room floor, having moved the coffee table off to the side, so they could flop out and watch some kids movies and stay up as late as they wanted. Alecta was sitting on the sofa watching it with them, not even attempting to get down in the floor….she kept picturing a turtle turned over on its shell. Yeah, the idea didn't appeal to her. Up each sleeve she had a dagger that was held in place by their own little straps. And there was a gun that was sitting wedged between the cushions to her left. The kids knew about it, and they had remained cool about it. Jack and Henry knew that with their parents jobs they were sort of vigilante and had guns in the house, although theirs usually stayed locked up in the safe. Jack was privy to the situation at hand and said nothing about the fact that she kept hers in the sofa cushions. And Sofie and Emma were used to their mother's ways, they were not fazed.

They were watching 'Toy Story' and laughing at something that Buzz Lightyear had said when Alecta heard the knob of the door jiggling. She heard the sound of something slipping between the door itself and the door jamb as if someone was trying to pop the lock.

"Kids, get up now and head for Jack's closet. Jack, you know what to do. Call 911, then call your father. Be as quiet as you possibly can. And be careful." She had whispered to them as she clicked the TV off.

"Mommy, what's going on?"

"Sofie, please just go with the others and get in the closet."

"Come on Sof. We gotsa go, mommy said."

Once the kids were out of the room and she had heard the closet door shut, she stood and got into position in the area that would be behind the door when it opened. The man on the other side of the door must have figured that she would be waiting for him. When he came through the door, she stuck her gun out, and he managed to disarm her quickly. A struggle ensued. There was some hand to hand combat. During the struggle, Alecta had knocked Dunbar to the floor where he scrambled to grab her gun, spinning around and shooting her in the chest. He missed her heart by mere inches. Alecta collapsed to the ground onto her back. Dunbar scrambled around some more until he was climbing on top of her, wrapping his hands around her throat trying to strangle her. With a flick of her wrists her daggers shot out of the end of her sleeves, in a last ditch effort to save her own life and the lives of her babies, she brought her wrists up to his neck, jabbing both blades into his throat, causing him to collapse on top of her. She pulled them out then, using her legs to shove him off of her and roll him onto the floor where he lay bleeding out. The world around her started going dark, she could hear the sirens in the back ground.

"Thank God, Jack…." She mumbled.

As she blacked out she could hear Sofie, 'Mommy! Mommy! You killed my Mommy!" with that she turned to the man and kicked his dead body so hard he rolled onto his side. All Alecta could think was 'Sofie, don't disturb evidence. Control your temper.' She blacked out just before the EMT's and first responders could make it into the apartment to the sound of Jack telling the people they weren't going anywhere until their Uncle Mac got there.

Post AN: So, I got to Mr. Dunbar after all. I'll be damned. This chapter fell out of my head quickly. Can't wait to see what happens with chapter 28.