Chapter 5
Tuesday morning, Dave ambled into the kitchen through the garage door with Mudgie beating him in. He knew the code to the garage doors. He smiled at Cait cooking breakfast with Hotch sitting at the kitchen counter without a tie and open dress shirt. "Please tell me by you two getting up so late, you finally slept last night." Beans happily barked as Mudg came into the living room.
Aaron looked up from his laptop and looked at Cait. "Good call Doc," he smiled.
Dave dared to walk through Cait's kitchen and looked over her shoulder. "You're making me scrambled eggs. I assume bacon is involved as well," he smiled.
"I'm making this for my husband and me that finally slept last night and we're starving. You just get the scraps."
"Ouch," Dave said, putting his hand over his heart walking away.
"Not so fast stud." Dave looked at her. "You're on toast patrol," she pointed.
Aaron smiled. "Busted." Dave laughed.
"How are the boys," Dave asked, dropping in four pieces of wheat bread into the toaster. Aaron gave him the update.
As the three of them worked together to get the kitchen clean, Aaron's cell rang. He looked at the caller ID and put it on speaker. "Does Early Plumbing and Heating ring a bell with you around your neighborhood," Banks asked.
"Honestly Tom, I couldn't speak to that. I'm not around much during the day. But it's not our usual provider of that service. Why?"
"Their van is driving through the neighborhood a little slower than normal. We're just being cautious. Does it ring a bell with Cait?"
"I've never noticed them around here before; but that doesn't say much," Cait replied. "I'm only around during the day in the summer and our holiday break. And honestly, I don't monitor the traffic on the street. It's usually pretty quiet."
"We'll keep an eye on it just as a precaution."
"Thanks Tom," Aaron said, ending the call. He looked at Cait while pulling on his suitcoat. "You ready to head out?" Cait nodded. The three said their good-byes to the dogs and headed to Quantico.
Getting off the elevator together, Cait went to her office. Hotch and Dave entered the BAU, carrying their briefcases. Morgan was leaning against Prentiss' desk. Aaron eyed the usual morning coffee klatch. "No Garcia?"
"Mama and her squeeze are heads down in the lair."
Emily slapped his back. "Inappropriate."
"Thank you Prentiss," Hotch said, heading up the steps. He stopped and looked at them. "We do have other cases to work on." JJ and Tara shared a look. Hotch went into his office.
JJ looked at Dave. "Anything?"
Dave shook his head. "Other than two Hotchner's finally getting some sleep last night, nulla." Reid just shook his head.
"Is this part of Lewis' game," Tara asked.
"Very likely," Dave said, heading to his office.
A little after two, the teams' cells pinged with a message from Garcia. Avengers assemble! NOW! Reid looked up from his files as Prentiss, JJ and Tara quickly got out of their chairs. "Round Table room," Prentiss said, swiftly walking past his desk to the steps. JJ and Tara were on her heels. Reid quickly caught up.
Dave came out of his office and sped down the catwalk. "Anderson," he said, looking over the railing, "get Dr. Barkley. Now."
"On it sir," Anderson replied. He rose and quickly headed to the glass doors.
Hotch joined the team a minute later as Morgan flew in from the breakroom steps. Cruz came in thirty seconds later. "Where's Garcia," he asked. Cait came in, escorted by Anderson.
Garcia blew in with Kevin. "We cracked it," she said, punching the remote.
"Garcia, hang on a second," Cruz said. He looked at Anderson. "It's all set?"
"Yes sir," Anderson said. He looked at Garcia. "I need the remote please." She handed it to him with a question. Brian pushed two buttons and Banks, Jackson and Laughlin appeared on the video screen. He handed the remote back to Garcia. "All the teams are tied in to us for a video update."
"Good work Anderson," Cruz smiled.
"Thank you Brian," Hotch added.
Anderson nodded to them, starting to leave.
"Stay Anderson," Cruz said. "I might need you." Reid smiled at him.
"Garcia," Hotch asked.
"Kevin and I finally cracked through the anarchists' security firewall. It was brilliant. But like the one in Berlin, it finally came down." She pushed a button. "The brilliance of their firewall is complements of this man. Meet Doug Martinson," she said. "Back in my bad days, he was running in the same circles I was. From what Kevin and I have figured out, he's the computer guru; but nothing more. Here's the guy you want to watch." Another picture appeared. "This is John William Beecher."
"Aka The Mechanic," Kevin said. "He's the guy that gets things done. From what Garcia and I uncovered, he has multiple ties to terrorists groups around the world. He's the one that supplied the blueprint for Rawdon's bomb you thwarted that he got from a terror cell in Sierra Leone."
"Any of them have ties to Early Plumbing and Heating," Dave asked. Garcia and Kevin started typing.
"Dave, their van came into the neighborhood again a little after one," Banks reported. "It followed the same route, taking a left at the intersection south of us. The drone lost sight of it again."
"Making it look like they were returning from a lunch break," Reid profiled. Morgan pointed at him.
"Yahtzee," Garcia said. "Martinson has been employed by said company for over twenty years."
"He's a union certified plumber and heating specialist," Kevin added.
"I'll get the NSA to expand the drone's search," Banks said.
"Do you have addresses for their residences," Laughlin asked.
Kevin pushed a button, putting up the information. "Mike, I'll coordinate that," Cruz said. "You stay focused on your end."
"Got it Mat," he said.
"And we're not a part of that," Morgan asked.
"No Derek," Cruz said. "With this possibly being personal against the team, we've got to let other agents handle it. I would suggest you all get back to Jamaal and Lisa's house though." He looked at Anderson. "Can you get that started for me?" Anderson nodded and headed out the door.
"I agree," Laughlin said.
"I'll second that," Jackson said. "They're obviously doing a sweep to see if they can see any extra LEO presence in the area. But I'd like to get the Woodbridge PD involved. Just to give them a heads up on the van with notification to us if they see it to let us know with a do not approach order."
"Under those parameters," Banks said, "I'd buy in on that."
"I agree," Laughlin said. Morgan silently agreed, nodding the team out the door, minus Hotch.
Cait looked at the rest. "Come get me when you have something," she smiled. "I've got my own work to do." She looked at Aaron. "We stick to the same schedule?" He nodded with a small smile. Cait left.
Two hours later, Anderson had everyone on video conference again with Cruz, Hotch and Cait in the Round Table Room. "The two teams executed a lawful raid on the two residences," Cruz reported. "Martinson was at home and arrested. He immediately lawyered up. Beecher is in the wind, along with Martinson's work van."
An hour later, Aaron and Cait drove home. Other than the radio, they sat in silence, each absorbed in their own thoughts. Walking into the home, Cait shut off the alarm and went into the kitchen, pulling off her shoes. She looked at Aaron who came in with two beers. "What do you want for dinner," she asked, giving loves to Beans and Mudgie. The dogs moved to him. Opening a bottle and handing it to Cait, he rubbed down the two labs as well. "How 'bout Chang's since the boys aren't around?"
"Works for me," she smiled. Aaron, pulling his tie loose, texted Dave. Chang's for dinner. What does the team want? We'll have Jamaal come over and get it.
-00CM00-
Standing in Jamaal and Lisa's basement, Dave and Morgan watched the lights shut off in the house next door a little after eleven. The rest of the team was taking a nap. "Wish that was me and Savannah," Morgan whispered.
"Do you think they're going to sleep tonight," Rossi whispered back.
A little after midnight, one of the teams embedded in the woods radioed in. "We've got movement. Two individuals, wearing backpacks and black clothing moving up hard and fast from the southeast."
Dave softly whistled at the team that quickly got to their feet as Morgan reached for his night vision goggles, putting them on the top of his head. Dave opened the egress door. "Go, I'm right behind you." Morgan stepped out of the small door and quickly traversed the ladder from the large window well to the lawn. He took off running, pulling down his goggles. "I got them," he radioed, racing across the large expanse of lawn that separated the two homes.
"Team one moving," the command center radio crackled. "Team two moving." Yet the large expanse of the lot of the Hotchner home that the family enjoyed was a lot of ground for those two teams to cover coming out of the woods.
Aaron pushed Cait out of bed. "Grab your weapon and get into the kitchen." Cait snatched her Bureau issued Glock off her nightstand and headed to the kitchen. Both of them were wearing t-shirts and shorts. That woke up the dogs sleeping by the French doors. Aaron flew into the great room a step behind Cait.
Morgan came into the yard as one of the two broke off and raced towards the doors of the master bedroom, brandishing a hammer with a long-stemmed nozzle attached by a tube to the backpack in the other. "FBI!" Morgan shouted. The individual raised his hammer to break a glass in the patio door of the bedroom.
Morgan stopped, set his feet, and fired a shot. The individual dropped to the ground. The shot had Mudg in full protection mode. Cait looked to see Beans, the family lover, standing next to Mudg with her hair up matching her father's.
Morgan raced up with Dave right behind him. The second one kept running towards the patio area. "US Marshalls! Halt!" Aaron and Cait heard. The dogs began growling.
The second individual quickly found the latch to open the door around the fenced in area of the pool. "Hotch," Dave radioed, "he's in!" The black clothed individual appeared at the French doors.
Mudg and Beans protectively barked at the doors. Mudg jumped up at the door, baring teeth. Beans did the same barking loudly. A window broke with a nozzle coming in. Aaron and Cait both saw the spray of gas at the two dogs. They both violently shook their heads, jumping down from the door. Aaron leveled his gun and fired.
Pulling off the hood of the first suspect, Prentiss radioed. "This one is Beecher." JJ knelt down and checked the carotid artery in his neck. She shook her head. "He's dead." Lewis and Reid blew by them.
Morgan and Rossi raced into the patio area with the first team of Marshall's ten feet behind them. They quickly approached the prone man, bleeding out on the cemented patio. Morgan reached down and pulled off his black hood. "It's Lewis," Rossi said. Morgan did the same as JJ and looked at Rossi, shaking his head.
"Both suspects down," Rossi radioed. Morgan stood up and looked in the French doors. He shook his head. "Dave," he pointed.
Rossi looked in to see Cait pulling the heads of the two dogs into her lap, lovingly petting them as they lay on the ceramic tile floor on the other side of the doors. Aaron moved to her.
The two of them watched one tear and then another run down Cait's face. "Thank you both," she whispered. "We love you." Beans was barely breathing. Mudg being ten pounds heavier was laboring to breathe.
Aaron knelt down and engulfed his wife with his left arm, rubbing Beans' neck with his right hand. "It's OK girl," Aaron softly said. "We all love you." Beans barely opened an eye and softly hit the floor with her tail wagging once. Morgan used his gun to gently knock out the rest of the broken glass that Lewis had punctured and reached through to unlock the door. He opened the door and let Rossi enter.
Dave holstered his weapon and knelt down and petted Mudg as Beans took her last breath. Aaron pulled Cait closer as she shed tears. Aaron wiped one away. "Go my good friend; I love you," Dave whispered. Mudg joined Beans on the other side of the family pet rainbow bridge.
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A/N: *points* The box is in its usual spot. *sets out a second*
Please! Before all you loyal readers of this storyline get the noose ready – hear me out. This Family storyline of mine is usually all happy. And I love writing that. But after a while, as a writer, I need to expand my horizons with it. Like I said in the opening chapter, I looked for a way to add something more to this rather than just the happy family. This is what came to mind. I've got to be more than just sappy, happy Rockie with this storyline. I make no apologies. And for the record; I don't really know if the gas that Peter Lewis used would truly kill two larger dogs. Writer's prerogative. And I bawled writing it.
That said, please bear with me. I've gone into the deep valley of sad before with this family. And gave you the happy at the end. Do you really, really think I'm gonna stray from that?
Nulla is nothing in Italian.