Chapter 1

"Ma'am, I am sorry, but we just don't do private cases," Garcia tried to explain to the teary-eyed woman standing in front of her. "We don't take cases unless the local authorities ask us for help, and if the local authorities haven't thought your son's case is part of. . ."

"So because the pathetic excuse for law enforcement in my town doesn't see that these cases are connected, that they aren't willing to see the obvious, your team can't help me?"

"I'm sorry, but no," Garcia understood the woman's frustration, but there wasn't anything the BAU could do.

"Well, maybe once your team checks this out, they reconsider," the woman said flatly as she threw an envelope onto Garcia's desk and walked out.

Garcia looked at the envelope, but Morgan walked into her office. "You ready for lunch, Mama?" She smiled, grabbed her bag, and walked out of her office putting her arm in Morgan's.

XXX

After a great lunch spent with JJ, Reid, and Morgan, Garcia went back to her office. She started going through the files in her 'inbox' but the envelope caught her attention. As she opened it, she wondered what the woman thought would change anything. Inside the envelope were two flyers. Garcia's hand went to her opened mouth as her breath caught in her throat. The two flyers chilled her to the bone.

As tears came to her eyes, she stumbled as she tried to get up from her chair and ran to the conference room. The team was in there doing a post case debriefing. They all looked up with surprise as Garcia rushed through the door. Garcia froze, looking back and forth between Hotch and JJ. Seeing how disturbed the analyst was, Morgan jumped up. "What is it, Baby Girl?"

"I'm. . . I'm not sure. . . but. . ." she handed Morgan the flyers.

Morgan quickly looked them over. "What the hell?" he wondered as he, too, looked at Hotch and JJ.

JJ, extremely scared, yelled, "What?"

Morgan walked up to the table and put the flyers down in front of his boss and JJ. As Hotch slowly took in what was in front of him, the blood drained from his face. Staring back at him from the table were pictures of Jack and Henry, both listed as 'Missing' on flyers like so many other children in the world. JJ grabbed the flyer with Henry's picture, panic clearly making its way to the surface.

Hotch stood up, not as panicked as JJ, but clearly upset. "Where did these come from Garcia?"

As Garcia told them the story about the woman, JJ got out her cell and called Will.

"So this woman is threatening, what? That she'll do something to Jack and Henry?" Rossi was trying to figure out what it all meant.

"Will's not answering," JJ said franticly.

"Jack's at school. I would have heard if something had happened." He told them, but was only trying to convince himself of the statement. They all waited in silence as he called the school and JJ tried her home phone.

"Yes, this is Aaron Hotchner, I was. . ."

"Oh, good. We were so worried about you. . ." the secretary started.

"What?"

"Well, when Ms. Brooks came in to pick up Jack, she told us there had been an incident. We were all hoping that everything was alright," she explained.

Hotch's face grew even paler. He didn't want to alarm the woman, so he played along. "Yes. Thank you. I was just wondering if I needed to pick up any work for Jack."

The whole team could tell by Hotch's face and body language that something was very wrong. As soon as he hung up with the school, he tried Jessica's cell and then Jessica's house. Neither he nor JJ got an answer. On the verge of panic himself, Hotch looked at Garcia who had started crying.

"Ohhhh, sir. I didn't realize. . ."

"What was her name, Garcia?" Hotch asked trying to stay calm and focused.

"Ummm. . . I'll go get the file." She ran to her office with Morgan behind her.

"You can't be mad at Garcia, guys. She didn't know," Blake told Hotch and JJ.

Reid was hugging JJ. She pulled away from him and looked at Blake. "Of course not. She couldn't have realized that psychotic bitch would come after our sons," JJ said truthfully.

"Of course not," Rossi agreed. Hotch nodded his agreement, not sure he could trust his voice.

Garcia came back carrying her laptop. Morgan handed Hotch the file folder that held everything Garcia had received from the woman. "Kahlan Hunter, age 40, lives in Reliance, SD." Garcia started to rattle off everything she could find about the woman. Hotch tuned her out as he looked over the file Garcia had accumulated from the woman. JJ joined Garcia and Morgan to look at the computer screen. Rossi, Reid, and Blake took turns looking over the items in the paper folder once Hotch was done with them. Reid was spreading them out on the conference room table, already starting a profile in his head. After all of the information was sorted and organized, they all stared at the table. Hotch picked up a print out of an enlarged photo of the woman's driver's license, committing the woman's face to memory with lethal intent.

"Hunter's son went missing three years ago. After no leads, the search was called off after two weeks?" Blake thought that seemed a little too quick to drop a missing child search.

"And since then she had taken it upon herself to do some research and found these other missing kids. Eight boys, most from different states, and all with some of the same characteristics as her own son's abduction." Reid picked up the narrative.

"She took her findings to the local police in all of the cases and none of them saw the connection?" Rossi asked with disbelief.

"There were only seven boys at the beginning. When she couldn't get anywhere with them, she came to me. First, she sent me a letter. Then eventually she sent me the email." Garcia started. "I told her we couldn't do private cases the first time she contacted me six months ago. I told her to go back to the police. I tried to tell her that if she could get them to invite us in that we'd. . ." Garcia took a deep breath.

"It's not your fault, Kitten," Rossi assured her.

She nodded and went on. "She begged me to help her. She insisted that the abductions were connected. She thought that meant FBI involvement since they crossed state lines, and she was right. I then gave her the information to the office I thought she should contact. I don't know how that went. That was two months ago. Then she showed up here this morning with the information on the newest boy. I again stressed to her that we couldn't get involved and that's when she gave me the envelope."

"We need to find her," JJ told them.

Garcia noticed how red JJ's face was. "I'm sorry, but I didn't get any contact information from her. I didn't know. ." Garcia started to tear up again.

"We will find her, Baby Girl," Morgan reassured her.

She nodded and went back to her laptop. "The last hit on her credit card was her flight to Dulles last night. If she is staying anywhere, she had to use cash."

Hotch finally stood up again. "We need to check out our houses. Morgan, Reid, Blake, you three go with JJ. We need to see if there is any evidence. . ." He couldn't bring himself to say anything else. They all knew what he was thinking, and they were all silently praying they didn't find any blood at the scene. JJ quickly walked out of the room followed by Reid and Blake. "Morgan," Hotch stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Keep a close eye on her," Hotch told him seriously, obviously referring to JJ. Morgan nodded and headed out the door.

Rossi had keys in his hand. Hotch looked at him questioningly. "I'll drive," Rossi told him as he patted Hotch's shoulder as Hotch walked past him.

XXX

As Rossi pulled into Hotch's driveway, he immediately noticed the woman leaning up against Hotch's garage door. Before he could say anything, though, Hotch was out of the vehicle and heading down the driveway before Rossi even brought the SUV to a stop. "Hotch!" Rossi yelled as tried to grabb Hotch's arm and missed.

Hotch advanced on the woman quickly, and one of his hands went straight to her throat. Rossi threw the SUV in park, jumped out, and ran up to Hotch. Hotch's long fingers wrapped around the woman's throat with ease. Rossi noticed that Hotch wasn't squeezing, though, thankfully. Hotch's stare was even more deadly than it usually was, and Rossi was worried that Hotch was going to kill the woman right there in his own driveway.

"Go ahead, kill me. I basically died when Wyatt went missing. You at least have a chance of seeing your son again," Kahlan said flatly. Rossi noticed that the woman wasn't even scared as she stared Hotch in the eyes.

"Hotch!" Rossi yelled at him. Hotch's nostrils flared as he tried to get his anger under control. "You're not helping Jack by doing this!" Rossi was hoping he was getting through to his friend.

Hotch loosened his grip a little. He was truly on the verge of strangling the life out of the woman. Finally, the agent in him forced reason into his mind and he let Kahlan's neck go. With a sound like a growl, he moved away from her.

Kahlan didn't move. She just stood there as she watched Hotch. As Hotch moved further away, Rossi put himself between them. Rossi couldn't believe what Hotch had almost done. Hotch ran a hand over his face.

Rossi looked at Kahlan. "So, let me get straight. Your son goes missing, you connect it to other missing boys, and when you don't get the help you want, you kidnap our son's in retaliation?" Jack and Henry were considered the whole team's kids as they all considered themselves one big family.

"Not in retaliation. More of an insurance policy," she told him flatly.

"What?" Hotch yelled getting closer to her. Rossi stopped him with a hand on his chest. Hotch was too angry to think, so Rossi had to do enough for the both of them.

"So, we find your son, and we get ours back?" Rossi asked as he kept Hotch in his peripheral view.

She nodded. "When you find Wyatt, when you find all of those boys, Jack and Henry will be returned to their homes."

"And Will and Jessica?" Rossi didn't like the way Kahlan didn't speak of them, and he was worried something had already happened to them.

"Of course."

"And what's happening to them in the meanwhile?" Hotch asked frantically.

She turned to Hotch slowly. "I guess I'll leave that up to your imagination being that's all I have had for the past three years."

The look on Hotch's face scared Rossi. He looked like he was about ready to lose it and do more than just strangle the woman. Rossi stepped closer to him, hoping he would be able to stop Hotch from doing something drastic. "And if we can't find your son?" Hotch asked her through clenched teeth.

"You all are the best. Do you doubt your team's ability?" Kahlan asked him with a smirk.

Hotch stood there. He knew there ways for bodies to be disposed of. What if there was nothing for them to find? What if they found the other boys but not her son?

As if reading Hotch's dark thoughts, she added, "There is bound to be some evidence of what happened to my son and those other boys," she added coldly.

"And where will you be during this whole thing?" Rossi asked her with a glance at Hotch.

"Wherever you want me to be," she returned to her dispassionate voice. "You wanna lock me up? So be it. You want me where you can see me? Fine. You want me to help in the search? Great. I don't care what you do to me as long as you find my son!" Her voice rose in anger with the last statement.

Hotch shot Rossi a look. They were thinking the same thing. If she was willing to give herself up, then she must have someone else holding them. She wouldn't just leave them, would she? "Someone else is watching them?" Hotch asked. Hotch studied her face, but it didn't give anything away, and she didn't answer. "How do we even know they are still alive?"

"You don't," she deadpanned.

Hotch took another step toward her. Rossi put a hand on his shoulder because he could tell he was about to lose it again.

"And now you have an inkling of what I've been going through," she told him coldly.