Aaron watched the news from his hotel room having snuck back in, as he still wasn't sure if the police had told the people that ran the hotel that he had been killed and that his body was missing from the morgue.
He would think in a place like this that such a story as someone dying by getting caught in the crossfire would be news, but he might be the story for tomorrow. He knew one thing and that was he was gonna have to leave the city until this story died down, especially if they mentioned about the body being missing.
Aaron cursed silently in his head, as he really didn't want to leave unless Dannika came with him, but he well knew that she had a job and a life here in Dupar Woods. He was sure that she had family and friends that she wouldn't want to leave, especially for relative stranger.
She might be his mate, but she didn't know that, as they had just met less than 24 hours ago. There was no way that somebody wouldn't come and check on him, even if that was just one of the hotel employees if there was a story about him being killed on the news.
He would hate to have to go underground a few weeks, maybe a few months until the story died down. He might have to tell Dannika about the bond he shared with her, though it was really much too soon, but what choice did he have? Especially if he had to leave for weeks or months.
Aaron cursed again long and inventively in his head before slamming a fist down on the arm of the chair he was sitting in, which was in front of the large vid screen. His hand hurt for only a split second before it went back to normal.
Aaron went to bed and he hoped there would be a report on the news tomorrow, so he knew what course of action he needed to take.

~~~Aaron and Dannika~~~

The next day, Aaron called Dannika after she had gotten off work for the day and asked her if he could see her at her apartment.
The news report hadn't been as bad as it could've been, but he still needed to leave town until the police forgot about the dead body that went missing from the morgue if he was lucky that wouldn't take more than a few weeks.
Luckily, for him, human memories, tended to be short and also faded over time. In this case, the sheriff's department would have so many cases that they wouldn't recognize him in a few weeks when he came back to town. Dupar Woods might not be somewhere like Chicago, but still, Dannika had told him the sheriffs department had enough cases that his would fade from memory and end up in the cold case file, so long as he didn't bring attention to himself.
Aaron finished his link conversation with Dannika and prepared to leave his room. This was probably not gonna be a pleasant conversation and he expected Dannika to be shocked at the news he imparted, perhaps even angry.
Luckily, for him, the story about the disappearing body appeared to be local and hadn't been picked up by other news stations in other cities in the state or nationally, which is why it wasn't as bad as it could've been.
Aaron, checked the hallway by opening the door to his room only a little, and when he saw it was clear, he rapidly headed for the stairs instead of the elevator and walked quickly down six floors to the lobby, and then looked out the door before he exited it to make sure that no one saw his face. Aaron kept his head down on purpose so that he looked just like another guest at the hotel headed somewhere.
Luckily, for him, the employees at the front desk were busy with a customer and the other people in the lobby didn't look in his direction.
So far so good, Aaron thought as he hurried towards the front double doors that led to the sidewalk outside the hotel.
He needed to find some other place. He could stay for a day or two, even if that was an abandoned warehouse. It was a good thing he always carried some cash with him and not just credit cards for situations exactly like the one he was in. Carrying so much cash wasn't exactly safe considering there was so many criminals in the world, but in this case, it was lucky he did. He knew he had told Dannika that he would need to visit the ATM machine, but so long as he was very careful with the thousand dollars he had in his wallet it should last him for a few days. He was lucky that the man that had killed him hadn't robbed him and stolen his cash and credit cards and other valuables or he really would be in a pickle and the situation was bad enough as it was.
"I've decided I need to find somewhere else to stay for a few days even if that's an abandoned building," Aaron told Dannika once they met up. "I'm lucky the sheriff's department hasn't towed my car."
"That's only because that idiot Davey is in charge," Dannika said. "How he ever made detective I have no clue, as he has as much subtlety as a bull in a China shop and doesn't have an ounce of logic or common sense in his entire body."
"I'm going need a new car," Aaron sighed. "So is there anywhere I can hide out for a day or two until we see if things die down enough for me to be able to stay in town?"
"There are warehouses that are abandoned that I'm sure you could use to hide out for a day or two, but there's gonna be no heat or air conditioner or other luxuries," Dannika warned him.
"And where is the bus station?" Aaron asked next.
"It's not far from that section of warehouses, a few blocks, so you should be able to walk it in a few minutes," Dannika said. "So does that mean you're leaving?"
"I don't want to, especially without my car, but it's probably not safe to continue driving it and I am only lucky I haven't run into any cops. I parked several blocks away from your building so that you can't be connected to me until this dies down, I won't be responsible for you losing your job."
"That reminds me I had to report your body is missing and while I know you're not dead, I couldn't exactly tell my superiors that," Dannika said. "Fortunately, for both of us, the videos are overwritten every 36 hours and it's been over that, so because the crime wasn't discovered right away and by the time the police got around to checking the videos, there is no indication of what happened to the body. So long as no one saw you anywhere near the morgue then we were in a good position, but that doesn't mean you don't need to be careful.
"That's rather fortunate," Aaron said his shoulder slumping a little in relief. "You were right about not using my credit cards until I'm sure this has been forgotten about, but that thousand dollars I had in my wallet isn't gonna last forever and I still have to pay my hotel bill even if that's anonymously."
"Don't you have any family that could pay your bill for you?" Dannika wanted to know.
"I'm afraid not, I have friends of course, though most of them have no idea what I am, so how could I explain that I woke up in the morgue and about all that's happened here? I might need to move somewhere else entirely, because I'm not about to tell most people what I am," Aaron said.
"You have quite the conundrum," Dannika told him. Her tone was sympathetic. "I understand your frustration as your nice quiet life has suddenly been upheaved."
"That's the understatement of the year probably the decade," Aaron told her. "Still, so long as I lay low for the next few weeks, everything should be OK."
"I'll help you in anyway I can," Dannika offered, really beginning to like Aaron Hotchner, as he hadn't asked to be killed just by stepping into an alley to take a shortcut to wherever he's been going or perhaps he'd only been exploring the town since he was a visitor. He hadn't had a chance to retreat before those men had killed him, just because his foot had hit a soda can that had been on the ground at the mouth of the alley.
"That's very generous of you considering I could've gotten you in trouble just because I woke up on your autopsy table and started looking for an exit. I could get you in a great deal of trouble and I'm sorry about that."
"It's not your fault that those idiots shot you with a modified stunner," Danika told him. "I'm assuming you were taking a shortcut somewhere that you could walk to as the town is pretty big."
"Just exploring some of the town," Aaron said. "Admiring the old-fashioned architecture."
"Why when you don't live here?" Dannika asked curiously. "I can understand wanting to admire the architecture as some of the buildings are quite impressive and they date back to the 1700s but as far as exploring in the town, why bother when you don't live here?"
"Because I wanted to?" Aaron shrugged. "Who knows I might've decided to move into the area before that recent incident where I was killed when I was just minding my own business. The guys in the alley, one of them anyway, sure did have a fast trigger finger. I didn't have time to duck, as I saw his trigger finger press, the firing stud on the stunner, and then I was waking up in the morgue."
"So what you remember is, it was only one other man that fired at you?" Dannika said.
"From what I can remember, yes," Aaron agreed. "Of course, the other one might have fired too, but the second weapon might've only been a stunner, not one modified to kill for all I know. If that's the case, though, I didn't see it, as I was dead by then. You know I might have expected what happened in a bigger city somewhere like St. Louis or New York but not in a town with only 100,000 people. I'll be more careful in the future whenever I'm about to walk down an alley. Lesson learned."
"I would think you to avoid alley's even in a small town," Dannika said.
"I do at night, but it should've been perfectly safe in the middle of the day, even though the alley was overshadowed because of the tall buildings on either side. Those men would've been noticed anyway as they were holding weapons on each other after all. I mean, how stupid can they be? Yes, they were fairly deep in the alley, so it was fairly dim because of the tall buildings and the position of of the sun. They were not near where I was standing and if I hadn't kicked that damn soda can I would have withdrawn and called the police," Aaron said. "The one that killed me reacted like lightning, really super fast."
"He must workout there to have such fast reflexes," Dannika said.
"If that's the case, he sure didn't look it, because from the brief look, I saw he was a skinny beanpole of a guy and he didn't look like he had any muscles. Of course it was only a brief look into a dim alley. Besides, it's very possible, he was born with fast reflexes as a baby and managed to keep them as he got older. I've known some people in the past with super fast reflexes. His aim was certainly spot on."
"How can you be so blasé about it?" Dannika asked Aaron in astonishment. "I mean that guy killed you for no reason other than you accidentally kicked a soda can at the mouth of the alley. He didn't even bother to ask you what you were doing there he just reacted."
"Some people just react instead of asking questions and people are killed all the time because of that," Aaron told her calmly. "I won't say that he hasn't made a mess of my life, but it will pass, and I'll simply have to be more cautious when entering alleyways in the future, even in the middle of the day.
"You ask how I can be so blasé about it and the fact is, that I've been around for a very long time and have encountered a lot of situations that most people don't, though I won't say, I've ever been killed by a modified stunner before still my point is valid."
"It could get much worse, so I'm gonna count my blessings that it isn't as bad as it could be. I might have to stay in an abandoned building for a few days and go somewhere else for awhile, but I'll be back after the gossip dies down and the news stops reporting about how my body is mysteriously missing from the morgue. I might look different when I return, though. Have brown hair instead of black, green eyes instead of brown that kind of thing."
"Why would you come back at all even though I know I asked you to stay for a few days," Dannika ask curiously. "You did ask me about bus lines, but you're leaving most of your luggage behind, I am assuming."
"I packed up a few things before leaving the hotel room. I bought a cheap duffel bag at the gift shop keeping my head down the whole time. Really, it's just a couple of changes of clothes, but I left basically everything behind because it's bad enough that the body is missing from the morgue when the police get around to discovering what hotel I was in I wanted it to look like no one has been there so I only packed a few essentials. I'll have to buy everything else. I even left my razor, toothbrush and toothpaste behind as I can buy those as well," Aaron said.
"I'm sorry you had to leave most of your things behind," Dannika told him.
"It's OK, they are just clothes and I can always buy more," Aaron said simply. "I've had to start over before and while it's annoying, it can be done, though I've never had to start over because I was killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That particular scenario is a first for me and hopefully, the last."
"I don't know how you can be so calm about it, as I'm sure I'd be in a tizzy if it happened to me," Dannika said.
The two talked for awhile softly, as they sat in Dannika's apartment and Aaron asked Dannika to drop him off at the warehouse and meet him tomorrow. He also asked her to bring dinner and that he had some things to talk to her about before he left town for awhile.

~~~Aaron and Dannika~~~