Chapter 13
"Why are we still here?!"
"You need to calm down, Cullen." Mason stood in the corner of the living room watching the agent pace back and forth; Hotch stopped and stared at him incredulously.
"You want me to calm down? The people who are after us now know where we live and they're on their way, how is this not bothering you?!"
You'll find out soon enough…
"I'm not bothered, because you have my back."
"They're after both of us, Mason." Hotch's voice was flat, dark.
Mason nodded. "And they'll keep tracking us unless we end it here, brother."
"What to do you mean by end it? Wait, you...you want us to kill them?"
Mason raised his eyebrows in an evident show of that's exactly what I want us to do.
"I have a plan Cullen, but we're running out of time."
Suddenly Hotch's chest tightened, his eyes glazing over...
When I am home, I am in this silent panic because I know that I have to be as good as I can, as fast as I can, because any minute the phone is gonna ring and my time is up.
"Cullen?"
Don't schiz out on me now Hotchner, we're almost done.
"Cullen!"
Hotch flinched, his eyes clearing.
"You with me?" Mason asked.
Hotch's mind felt muddled.
"I'm … Mason, you're my brother…of course I'm with you."
Hotch shook his head to clear it, his eyes narrowing.
"What's your plan?"
The sun had begun to set, the sky a beautiful mixture of reds and orange as the SUV pulled to a stop down the path and out of view from the house.
When the call came through to Prentiss she thought her heart would stop.
The team thought she was strong and things didn't bother her, but this was Hotch; he had given her a chance, allowed her to stay on the team, to prove herself.
If he was broken…she wouldn't give up on him. So when Garcia called and told her about the email, when she forwarded the directions to her phone, Prentiss, eyes heavy with tears of relief almost screamed at Morgan to step on it; she didn't though, didn't have to Morgan already had the pedal to the floor.
The team moved quietly up the path slowly moving to the periphery of the trees as the house came into sight.
Rossi pulled out binoculars, "There's no movement." he stated a moment later.
Morgan moved forward, the others following. As they neared the house guns raised, he motioned Prentiss and Reid around back as he and Rossi moved toward the front door; if this was another dead end he didn't know what they would do, the team needed Hotch back.
Morgan was just about to kick down the door when the sound of another door banging open from inside and Prentiss' shouts of "Stop! FBI!" resounded making both he and Rossi spin and race around the side of the house.
They saw Reid and Prentiss racing to the woods behind the house.
"Reid!" Morgan shouted.
The two men raced after their teammates, Rossi's mind falling back to months ago, his heart sinking.
This is just like before...
Darkness started to settle over the woods.
"Reid, Prentiss talk to me" hissed Morgan.
Prentiss' out of breath voice came through his ear comm.
"One male, baseball cap, plaid shirt."
"Ezral?"
"Unknown."
"Reid?" Morgan's voice was tight with worry as he called out to their other team member.
"He's up ahead." Reid's voice whispered through the comm.
"Can you see who it is?" asked Rossi.
They were racing almost recklessly now through the trees, while unbeknownst to them, a shadowy figure followed quietly but just as quickly behind them, a sleek blade in hand.
He ran through the woods, a smile plastered on his face.
The adrenaline rush was amazing, the BAU so predictable.
He knew they would chase him, he was counting on it; the hunting knife held tight in his hand a reminder of what was to come.
A shout from behind him.
"Stop!"
Then a shot; the bullet whizzing by his head missing him by inches.
He continued to run and as he came to a sharp bend in the path, he smoothly stepped off it and crouched low behind a tree gripping the knife…
Any second now…Any second…
Any second now…Any second…
Thought the shadowy figure following the two agents, smiling as he gripped his knife tightly.
Rossi was a few feet in front of Morgan, when a gunshot echoed through the woods, he looked back at Morgan just in time to see someone come rushing out from among the trees slamming the younger agent face down to the ground As the figure raised an arm high over his friend, the glint of a blade in its hand, Rossi aimed his gun…
"FBI!" he shouted.
The person's back was to him…he couldn't see their face.
...then he fired twice as the person's arm descended towards Morgan; the figure jerking and falling sideways to the ground.
"Morgan!" Rossi ran toward the younger agent who had sat up scrambling backwards, his gun trained on the downed figure.
"I'm okay, I'm okay."
Rossi moved over to the still person.
"Who is it.?" Morgan asked. "Rossi?" Morgan got to his feet.
Rossi crouched and felt for a pulse, there was none to be found. He pushed the body slightly to get a look at who he had just killed.
"It's Ezral, he's dead." exhaled the older man, a hint of shock in his voice.
Suddenly, both agents stared at each other wide-eyed then at the trees ahead.
They had heard a gunshot…
And if the man on the ground was Ezral…
Both men turned and raced deeper into the woods, Morgan's hand pressed to his ear comm.
"Prentiss, Reid, hold your fire! Hold your fire!"
Moments later they rounded a turn on a path and suddenly there was Reid struggling on the ground, a man in shadows on top of him, the glint of a blade between them, the man pushing it downwards as Reid struggled to hold him at bay.
Without slowing, Morgan barreled into the man at full speed, both of them tumbling down a small nearby incline.
Stunned for a moment, Morgan then quickly got to his feet, pulling his gun on the man who lay unmoving, his back to him.
The sun had finally descended, the last of the day's light gone casting the woods into darkness as Morgan pulled his flashlight out, using his foot to turn the man onto his back, hoping they were was so very wrong...so very…
The man didn't even twitch; his baseball cap had fallen off; Morgan raised the flashlight and as the light flicked over the man's face, Morgan felt his knees buckle and all the breath go out of him; he dropped to the ground and holstered his weapon. Aiming his flashlight directly over the man's face, he saw the blood dripping from the side his head from where it had connected with a tree.
They weren't wrong.
No no no no no!
"Hotch?!" Morgan cried out.
He heard the rest of them rushing up behind him; their flashlights cutting through the darkness like laser beams.
"Morgan, you okay?" asked Prentiss.
As they crowded around him he heard them gasp.
"Aaron? Oh no…" said Rossi softly as he knelt next to Morgan.
In the darkness of the woods, Hotch lay unmoving under the shocked stares of his team.
-TBC-