A/N: I had this entire chapter written and was in the middle of editing it when something happened, and the bulk of the chapter went away, and I could not get it back. Therefore, I was forced to rewrite it again from the beginning, else this chapter would have been posted two days ago. With this chapter, this story will begin winding toward the finish line.

Chapter 47

It seemed like several hours had gone by while Hotch lay in bed, staring out the window. But in reality, only a few minutes had passed. He had been staring at the clear blue sky when he heard the door open. Glancing around to see who was coming in, he sneered when he saw Doctor Correa walk into the room. And the sneer turned into a growl when he spotted Rossi a few steps behind him.

"Get out of here!" Hotch raised his voice as he focused on Rossi. "I don't want you here!"

Rossi paused. His best friend's outburst caused the entire room to become cold to the senior agent. With a glance over his shoulder, the agents standing guard quietly left the room. They wanted no part of this.

Even Doctor Correa sensed the tension forming as he glanced at Rossi, then focused on his patient. "Agent Hotchner, now that Agent Rossi is here, I'd like to exam…" He never got to complete his sentence.

"I don't want him here!" Hotch yelled staring at the doctor. "And he knows why I don't want him here! Get out, Dave!"

Rossi looked at Correa. "Doctor, can you give us a few minutes? I promise you'll be able to examine Agent Hotchner shortly."

Correa nodded his head. "There's another patient I'm supposed to examine after I was finished here. I can check on him instead and examine Agent Hotchner later."

"Thank you."

Alone, the senior agent moved the hard plastic chair closer to the bed, and sat down with hands clasped between his knees, forearms resting on his thighs.

"Aaron, we really need to talk."

Hotch arched an eyebrow. "About what?" he asked warily.

"You. I understand why you're angry with me. In case you've forgotten, I'm a profiler and a damn good one."

"Dave, just leave me the hell alone and go away."

"No way, Aaron. You're not avoiding me this time. Talk to me."

Hotch glared at Rossi in a way he only did suspects. He wanted Rossi to let it go, and go away, but that wasn't about to happen. He did trust the older man with his life…but right now he didn't think he could share his feelings with him. He frowned and turned away from his friend.

"Why?"

"You're angry at me because I had a female psychiatrist assigned to treat you. That's one reason you're angry, isn't it? But there's another reason, isn't there?"

Hotch rolled his eyes. "Yes. Satisfied?"

"No, not by a country mile. Let's try again, shall we?" He waited for several minutes, and exhaled. "Look, it's obvious you need to say something to me about Doctor Carson. So say it and not let's not beat around the bush anymore."

"You had no right, Dave," Hotch turned his head toward his friend. "You knew I would have trouble opening up to a woman about what happened, but you chose one anyway. How could you do that to me? How? Were you trying to embarrass me on purpose? Is that it?" He turned away again.

"I would never set out to embarrass you on purpose, Aaron. I wouldn't do that to you. After all we've been through over the years, don't you trust me?"

Hotch faced his friend again. "Of course I trust you. I trust you with my life. That's what makes what you did hurt so damn much."

"You just said you trust me with your life, Aaron. If that's true, then trust me now."

Hotch didn't speak, but keep his wary eyes on his best friend.

"Aaron, you have no idea how my heart broke seeing you in that much pain knowing there was nothing I could do about it. And believe me, when the doctor told us you would recover completely physically, I was thrilled. So I decided the only thing I could do is make sure you healed mentally as completely as you would physically. And the only way to do that is by finding the best shrink there was. And I didn't care where or how much it cost. So I had Garcia search for a doctor until she found one."

Rossi sensed Hotch was listening despite not looking at him, and that to him was progress.

The older man continued. "Then she found Doctor Amanda Carson who happened to work in this hospital. She specialized in treating people who suffered the same trauma you did. And after reading her credentials, even if she had been out-of-state, I would have paid out of my pocket to bring her here. I was positive she could help you. So positive that I overlooked her being a woman, and asked her if she would take you on as a patient. I was ecstatic when she said yes, because whether you believe it not, you are worth the best. Now you might not believe you're worth it, Aaron, but your team, Jack, and Jessica, all believe you are."

"You auditioning to be my shrink now?" Hotch asked sarcastically.

"I'm aware you have a shrink now, Aaron. And let me add your attempt at stand-up comedy needs work." A small smile appeared but disappeared shortly after seeing his friend's face.

Hotch sighed wearily and rubbed his forehead. "I'm sorry." He hoped he didn't sound ungrateful. "Look, Dave, I appreciate everything you've done for me. I really do. And you're right, I do have a psychiatrist, and I'm fine. So you don't need to worry about me. None of you do. End of story."

"Yes, you do have a psychiatrist, but you are not fine…not mentally anyway."

That caught Aaron's attention, and Rossi spotted the younger man trying to hide it.

"Why would you say that?"

"Never mind why. Call it intuition. In case you forgot, Hotch, I am a profiler and a damn good one. Also, I can read you like one of my books."

Hotch snorted and turned his head away. Rossi heard him mumble something unintelligible but let it slide.

"So I was right about it being because Doctor Carson is a woman. And it's that fact that causes you to even admit that is why you are unable to express your feelings to her. You've convinced yourself she's going to find you a disgrace as a man." He saw Aaron's lower jaw grinding and knew he was right. "Aaron, the only person who finds you a disgrace as a man is you. Nobody else. Just you."

The senior agent was met with stony silence from his friend. And try as he did, Rossi was slowly becoming frustrated with Hotch's pigheadedness.

"Hotch, listen to me! I am not talking as your subordinate, but as your friend. But I must to tell you, you are trying my patience! I understand you are angry because I chose a woman doctor to handle your case. I get that. But keep in mind I wanted the best doctor I could find because my friend deserves the best. The fact that the doctor was a woman didn't occur to me. Now if you want me to apologize for that, forget it. I am not going to sit here and tell you I'm sorry for choosing a woman, because that wasn't a priority to me. What was a priority to me was getting the man I love like a son, the best doctor I could find to help him."

Hotch squeezed his eyes shut and his lower lip trembled as he fought to keep the tears at bay. He was at war within himself.

"And as I said before, only you find yourself a sad excuse as a man. Nobody else does. Aaron, you are not a sad excuse for a man. You aren't even close. You are the best man I know. What was done to you should never have happened. And before you say anything, I know the other thing you're angry about is because you feel you should have stopped him from raping you. But you're wrong."

Aaron looked at Rossi with tears staining his face. "But I did allow it, Dave. I let him do disgusting things to me and did nothing to stop him. Even you must see that."

Rossi shook his head. "Aaron, I really hope Doctor Carson does all she can to give you a dose of reality. You can't even see what's right in front of your face."

Hotch seemed to be now giving what Rossi was saying serious thought, and the older man felt a glimmer of hope that he was finally getting through to his friend. The senior agent waited a few minutes, but was met by silence.

Rossi decided to continue. "You want to know something else?"

"I'm sure you'll tell me anyway." Hotch explained listlessly while avoiding looking at the older man.

"You were denied the chance to defend yourself against your assailant."

"That's not true," Hotch lied now staring at Rossi.

"Liar. Aaron, you'd realize it too if you weren't so damn pig-headed!"

Aaron frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Like I just told you. You never had a chance against your assailant because you were drugged. Aaron, you understand Rohypnol makes a person unable to stop their attacker as well as wipes clean the victim's memory of what happened just as I do. That is what happened to you. You are more than capable of defending yourself against an attacker. But you didn't stand a chance this time. And no matter what this bastard did to you, you didn't allow any of it, my friend. In no way, shape, manner, or form. You were drugged on purpose so you weren't able to fight back.

"Aaron, your attacker realized he wouldn't be able to do what he did to you any other way unless he first rendered you incapable of defending yourself. So he made sure you were drugged and unable to stop him. You weren't able to fight back and protect yourself. In your current state, it just wasn't possible. So you thinking you allowed this bastard to do what he did is wrong. You can't take the blame for something that wasn't your fault. You didn't ask to be attacked. Nobody ever asks to be attacked. It's all that bastard's fault! You need to stop blaming yourself for something that was out of your control. And the sooner you realize that, the sooner you can cease blaming yourself for letting it happen. Truth of the matter is, my friend, the moment you were under the effects of the Rohypnol, you were unable to help yourself in any way."

Hotch didn't respond, but he maintained eye contact with the older man. Rossi was able to tell Hotch was giving serious consideration to what he had said, and that to him, was progress.

He let out a deep breath through his nose and briefly hung his head. When he raised it, Hotch saw the saddest and most apologetic expression he had ever seen in his subordinate's eyes.

"Aaron, I will never, ever, forgive myself for leaving you alone in the BAU that night. If I had been here, you wouldn't have gone to the Serendipity alone. And I would have been able to keep an eye on your drink to make sure you didn't get drugged, and you wouldn't have been…y'know. So if you want to blame someone, then blame me. I blame me anyway, so what's one more." Rossi stared at the younger man understanding that if Hotch did shift the blame to him, he would learn to live with the knowledge that their friendship would end. The most he could hope for then is that with time, Hotch would forgive him, but their friendship would never again be the same, if there even was one.

Hotch swallowed the lump in his throat. With more tears rolling down his cheeks, he didn't bother wiping them away. But what he did instead, was reach out his good hand and grip Rossi's hand tightly in his. A small smile appeared on his face watching the tears roll down the older man's face.

"I…I don't blame you, Dave. I can never blame you. You're my best friend. And I know you would have stayed and gone with me if you suspected something might be wrong and I might be in danger. And I'm…I'm proud to call you my friend, and I love you like a father. Always will."

Rossi's smile widened. "Te Amo, Aaron. Te Amo." He put his other hand on top of Aaron's. He was about to say something else when his cell phone rang. With a sigh of annoyance, he reached into his jacket pocket and removed the phone, checking the caller ID. "It's Emily. I have to take this. I'll be right back." He struggled out of the uncomfortable chair and walked toward the door. As he grabbed the door handle, he looked back at his friend. "Don't try and sneak out while I'm gone, Aaron. I'll be right outside," he teased with an amused grin.

After he left, Hotch grabbed the bed's remote and raised the head of the bed to a slightly sitting position. Glancing again out the window, he saw that the weather outside had turned overcast with a threat of rain. He spotted a single bird flying past his window.

Rossi and the team seem to believe I am the same man I was before the attack. Can they be right? Have I been directing my anger at the wrong people as a way of avoiding facing my problems? Have I really been running away from things? Can the answers really be that simple?

With a glance at the telephone on the table beside his bed, Hotch grabbed the receiver and pressed several buttons. The person on the other end picked up on the third ring.

"This is Aaron Hotchner. If it's okay, I'd like to make an appointment if possible." A slow smile appeared. "Thanks."

Morgan hurried through the doors of the BAU and noticed JJ, Reid and Prentiss hurrying forward to meet him.

"Emily just told us," Reid said looking shocked. "The Rohypnol rapist is really Nathan Foyet?"

"I'm afraid so, kid," Morgan replied grimly. "I've already got Garcia searching everything she can on the bastard and his late cousin, and will hopefully find a current address."

"So all we can do now is wait?" asked JJ.

"'Fraid so."

"So what do you want us to do while we wait?" asked Emily. "There must be something we can do in the meantime. I hate sitting around doing nothing while that bastard walks around free."

"Did you reach Rossi?" asked Morgan.

"Yeah, I did. Needless to say he was as shocked as you and I were," said Prentiss.

"Is he gonna tell Hotch?" asked Morgan, worried.

"He says he will but isn't sure how yet. He also said he's gonna stay with Hotch for awhile. So uh, Derek, while he's gone, he wants you in charge of things."

Morgan's eyes widened in surprise as he stared at the brunette. "Me?"

Prentiss shook her head and kept her face impassive. "It shocked me too. Didn't see or understand the logic behind his choice either." A smirk appeared letting the man know she was teasing him.

Morgan caught on right away to what Emily was doing. He grinned. "Busted, Princess," he replied. He then looked at his three team members. "Okay. You asked me what we're gonna do until momma finds something. I'll tell you what we're gonna do." He studied each teammate as he addressed them individually. "JJ, I want you to help Baby Girl. Between the two of you you should be able to get us something on Foyet and Doctor Caswell seeing as he seems to be on the run."

"I'm on it," the blonde replied walking away hurriedly.

"Emily, I want you to contact Detective Moeller. Update him what's going on and have him gather all the officers he can and come to the BAU. I've got a feelin' Foyet won't go quietly, and Caswell might not either if they're together. Then I want you to get a SWAT team to standby for now. We're gonna need all the backup we can when we locate these bastards."

"On it," Prentiss said walking away.

Alone now, Reid looked at his best friend. "What do you need me to do?"

Morgan clamped the younger man on the shoulder. "Kid, while Garcia's doing her thing, you and I are gonna have Kevin Lynch pull up the blueprints of the hospital. And in particular, the floor where Hotch's room is located. Then we're gonna go over it thoroughly. I need the location of every door, room, closet, exit, and every other place somebody could use to hide from us and get to Hotch. I want to have men at every place this bastard might use. We're not gonna let 'im lay so much as a finger on Hotch again."

Reid nodded. He was afraid if Foyet got his hands on Hotch again before they were able to stop him, Hotch might never recover mentally. And looking into Morgan's eyes, Reid saw Morgan felt the same way he did, and was positive Prentiss, JJ, Rossi and Garcia did as well. They would put a well-placed bullet in Foyet's head before letting him so much as touch their boss and friend again.

"Let's do it," the genius replied with determination.

Rossi re-entered Hotch's room looking pale and shaken causing Hotchner to worry.

"Dave, what is it? What's wrong?"

The senior agent studied his friend's still bruised face with deep concern. He didn't want to tell him the truth, and remind him of the man whose name still caused nightmares for Hotch when he thought about his late wife.

"I…Aaron…we need to talk…now."

Hotch's eyebrows knitted and a quiet panic appeared to be growing.

"Why? Did something happen to the team? Or to Jack, Jessica, or my brother Sean?"

Rossi swallowed the lump in his throat as he sat back down in the chair. He reached out and took his friend's hand.

"No, everybody's fine. Don't worry. But we do need to talk. That was Emily on the phone.

"You told me earlier. Dave, you're scaring me. What's happened?"

"Aaron, Reid arrested Agent Hemminger earlier outside Jessica's house. He's been spying on her and Jack." He noticed Hotch about to reply but held up a hand stopping him. "Don't worry. Jack and Jess are both fine. Nothing happened." He would tell his friend about the sting operation later…much later. "But I need to discuss something else with you, and you're not gonna like it."

"Let me decide what I'll like or don't like, Dave."

"Okay. Emily told me she and Morgan questioned Hemminger and found out he met face-to-face with the Rohypnol rapist about you."

"Who is he, Dave?" Hotch's grip on Rossi's hand tightened.

"That's the part you're not gonna like, Aaron."

"Who. Is. He. Dave?" Hotch's voice rose, and Rossi sensed the fear emanating from his friend.

"Nathan Foyet. He is…was…The Reaper's cousin." The older man waited for the explosion he was sure would come.

"No!" Hotch shouted. The heart monitor began going crazy as his heart rate increased. He also snatched his hand away from Rossi and rubbed the center of his chest. It had become difficult to breath. Foyet! No. No. No. Not a Foyet again! His head fell back on the pillow and to the side. Images began to swim in front of his eyes. He looked in Rossi's direction but couldn't even see him now. He thought he heard his panicked cries, but wasn't sure anymore as the voices all seemed jumbled together now. There were voices saying things, but he couldn't understand what they were saying. All he heard were alarms. Suddenly darkness overcame him and he lost consciousness.

Now alone in the hallway after having been asked by the doctors and nurses to wait outside Hotch's room, Rossi panicked. He was more than scared; he was terrified. He grabbed his cell phone and pressed speed dial for the number he wanted.

"Hey, Rossi," Morgan answered. "How's it going? How's the Boss-man?"

"That's why I'm calling, Derek." Rossi struggled to keep his voice normal, not wanting to alarm any of the team.

But Derek sensed the older man had something on his mind, and he became alarmed right away. "Rossi, has something happened to Hotch?" The black man glanced at Reid and then put the phone on speaker. "I just put you on speaker, Rossi. Reid's here with me. Now what happened to Hotch?"

Rossi bit his lower lip and tears welled in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. "I told Hotch about Foyet. Derek, he…I'm not sure what exactly happened, but he suddenly had an attack of some kind. I'm waiting for the doctor who's still in the room with Hotch."

Derek's jaw dropped as he and Reid eyed each other. Reid was struggling to rein in his emotions.

"Rossi, it might be possible Hotch had a panic attack," the genius replied.

"Maybe. I mean, he might have. All I do know is it scared the shit outta me when it happened, especially when he grabbed his chest. Possibly realizing there's another Foyet out there after him might have been too much for him to handle. But I refused to keep that information from 'im."

Hearing about Hotch was scary enough to Morgan who could only imagine how Rossi felt. He was present when it happened.

"Rossi, Hotch is a fighter. He won't give up and neither should you. We have to have faith that he'll come back to us."

"I…I'll try. What's going on there?"

Morgan repeated what the team was doing while Rossi listened.

"Sounds good to me. Sorry I can't be there with you, but there's no way now I can leave Aaron after this. You and the others just be careful and get this bastard and save that little girl!"

"We intend, too, man." Rossi suspected there was something else Morgan wanted to say but was hesitant.

"What's going on, Morgan?"

"Rossi, what happens if Foyet's flown the coop so to speak? We're gonna need a Plan B."

"Let's worry about that if we have to, Derek."

"I realize you're right. No sense looking for trouble if there ain't none. Look, I gotta go. Take care of Boss-man, and let us know if there's anything we can do for 'im, man."

"I will. Oh, and Derek, if you want to do something for Hotch, there is one thing you can do for 'im."

"What's that?"

"You can end this bastard once and for all."