Fic: The Time Has Come to Be Gone 5/5
Rossi motioned for Hotch to continue to run, he’d go and check on Morgan. Of the two of them, Rossi figured he’d at least be able to move Morgan if he was in need of serious medical attention. Hotch had started bleeding through the makeshift bandage on his shoulder, and Rossi wasn’t sure how long adrenaline was going to continue to obscure the pain.
He reached Morgan and gently shook his shoulder. “Morgan? You with me?” he asked quietly.
The man’s groan wasn’t exactly coherent, but it was a start. He started to get to his feet, but collapsed and groaned again. “Shit,” he breathed. “I think my ribs are busted.”
Prentiss joined him at Morgan’s side. “Looks like the Winchesters are distracting it for now. Come on, let’s get him out of the way.” She looked over at Rossi ruefully, “it’s not like I can do much else at this point besides throwing this thing at it.” She waved her empty gun menacingly at the Diyahali, which was currently alternating between chasing Sam and Dean Winchester.
Whenever it got too close to one brother, the other would yell, shoot, or similarly draw the attention of the creature away. The lizard would then start to chase him and the process started again. Rossi marveled at the teamwork the two showed. Despite the earlier insults and bickering, the two had come up with a workable plan to stall the rampaging monster with little more than a nod and a raised eyebrow.
“What are you idiots waiting for?” Dean yelled over. “Get him out of here!”
Rossi repressed an urge to flip the brat off and braced Morgan on his shoulder. Between him and Prentiss, they were able to move Morgan back into the station. Rossi stopped short when he entered the main office. Gently lowering Morgan onto the floor, he stopped to fully appreciate the view.
JJ was handcuffed to one of the desks Hotch had handcuffed the Winchester brothers to earlier. Reid was on the floor trying to pick the lock with a paperclip, having apparently freed himself from the other desk. He was muttering under his breath and hadn’t noticed Rossi’s arrival.
“How much longer?” JJ was asking when she looked up and saw Rossi.
“Almost there,” Reid replied, jiggling the paperclip. “Got it!” he announced triumphantly.
“Glad to see you could have had a successful life in crime,” Rossi said dryly. Reid looked up, horrified to be caught with his pants metaphorically down. “Is this the new method of watching prisoners?” he teased.
Rossi felt a twinge of guilt at the dismayed look on JJ and Reid’s face, but it was just too much fun to tease the younger two agents.
JJ chose to ignore him, placing an arm on Reid’s shoulder to prevent him from trying to explain. “What happened to Morgan?” she asked. “He doesn’t look so good.”
“There’s a giant lizard thing outside, it got Morgan pretty good,” Rossi replied.
“Another giant monster?” JJ replied. “Oh wow, that’s not a phrase I ever thought would be coming out of my mouth.”
“Reid, I want you to stay here and help Morgan,” Rossi instructed. “Prentiss, JJ, we’re headed to the armory, then back out.”
As Reid opened his mouth, undoubtedly to argue how he could help, Prentiss snapped, “Reid! I’ll cuff you to the desk myself if you try to go out there. Morgan got hurt because he couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. Please, can you just watch him for us?”
He nodded, and they left quickly for the armory. The door was propped open, but the room was bare. Not even a box of ammunition remained.
“Shit,” JJ said, voicing their collective thoughts.
* * * * * *
Prentiss left the station and quickly darted for cover in the shrubs near the front of the building. Things didn’t look good-the monster, a Diyahali Rossi had explained on the way out, had turned over all three cars in the parking lot and was currently stalking Dean Winchester.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hotch tending to Sam Winchester. The man’s back was covered with blood, but he was attempting to shake off Hotch’s concern.
“Sammy? You ok?” Dean shouted to his brother.
“Fine,” the other man replied. “Got any ideas? I’m out of bullets.”
“Me too. Damn yokels didn’t have more than two rounds in the armory. But I’ve got an idea.”
Sam groaned slightly, in pain or at the idea of another of his brother’s plans JJ wasn’t sure.
“Well,” Dean replied, “I’m going to need a distraction.”
“We can do that,” Prentiss replied, gesturing at herself and JJ. At Rossi’s glare, she lowered her voice and said. “We need to get Hotch out of here. He doesn’t look good.”
Hotch’s shirt had completely soaked through in blood and his face was ashen.
Prentiss explained further, “It’d take both JJ and I to move him and we’re still mobile. It’d be better to have the two of us working the distraction and you moving Hotch.”
Rossi nodded slowly. It was times that these that JJ appreciated her newest coworker. He was clearly unhappy at leaving the two women in danger to help Hotch, but Prentiss made sense. He ran over to Hotch quickly, then quickly supported his uninjured shoulder.
JJ started yelling and waving her arms to allow her coworkers access back into the building.
“What do you want us to do?” Prentiss yelled to the brothers as JJ ran.
“Well,” Dean replied. “I’ve got this nifty sword and Anna told me to practice.”
“What, you’re a dragon slayer now?” Sam replied. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”
“And so it goes,” Dean replied merrily.
“Shut it, you’re no Billy Pilgrim,” Prentiss replied. “What do you want us to do?
“Distract it!” he instructed as he sprinted for the front entrance stairs, freeing the swords from its makeshift scabbard.
Prentiss noticed JJ slowing across the parking lot, so she raised her own hands and started shouting. The lizard turned its head yet again and charged her. Prentiss had really been hoping it was losing interest in their running game of cat-and-mouse. Weren’t reptiles supposed to be relatively lazy predators?
She could see Dean Winchester scaling the building determinedly and suddenly got a terrible premonition of where this plan was headed. She locked eyes with Sam Winchester and saw her dismay mirrored on his face.
“You’re really going to have to stop letting your brother make plans,” she yelled.
“You’re telling me?” He replied with an eye roll. “You ready for some lizard herding?”
The both started running towards the building. The Diyahali followed them, as expected, and they reached the front door. When the lizard was getting uncomfortably close to their location, a dark shape flung itself off the roof and managed to land on the mammoth lizard’s back.
Dean started hacking at the monsters unprotected back, finally making an impact on the Diyahali. It bellowed in pain and tried to buck the intruder off, as if it were a champion bull at the rodeo. Dean grabbed its neck and started hacking at the base of its skull.
One, two, three powerful chops later and the head landed at Prentiss’ feet. Its eyes slowly dimmed and its teeth settled uncomfortably close to her toes.
Dean rolled off the Diyahali’s back with a loose grace. “And you thought my plan was stupid,” he accused his brother smugly.
“Your plan was stupid,” his brother replied. “You got lucky.” Sam walked over to the body and kicked it twice. “I can’t believe that worked.”
The body exploded suddenly in a burst of fire, sending entrails and blood soaring into the air and leaving the body a smoldering wreck in the middle of the parking lot.
“Holy crap!” JJ exclaimed, trying to look for cover from the raining guts, blood, and gore. She was, like Prentiss, generally unsuccessful. They looked like extra from a bad horror movie, Prentiss thought disgustedly as she took in the bloodstained appearance of her compatriots.
“Sweet!” Dean exclaimed. “Self-cleaning, man that makes things a heck of a lot easier.” The man seemed completely unperturbed at the goo streaking down his face. He turned to his brother, swore, and then tackled him.
“What the hell jerk?” Sam asked as the two wrestled, finally using his weight to flip and pin his brother.
“Your head was on fire,” Dean replied. “Just trying to keep that massive brain of yours intact, you ungrateful bitch.”
Sam let his brother go to gingerly pat his hair, evidently finding a crispy spot towards the back. When he turned back to give his brother a hand off the ground, JJ could see a baseball shaped burn on the back of his skull. She winced in sympathy, head wounds hurt.
* * * * * *
Waiting in the relative safety of the office was hell, Hotch decided. Though he knew he wouldn’t be much help outside against the Diyahali, it wasn’t in his nature to sit passively waiting for rescue. Though there were occasional crashes and shouts, for the most part Hotch had to strain to hear what was occurring outside. His shoulder throbbed angrily, reminding him yet again of his failure earlier in the evening.
He should have done something about Prentiss’ odd behavior. He had noticed her unusual anticipation to interview Dean Winchester, but hadn’t acted on it. Not only had he failed her, but his inaction had almost led to the death of his suspect, himself, and his team.
Reid, luckily, appeared more upset that he couldn’t see what was happening outside. When Rossi had helped Hotch into the office, he found Reid camped out near the window. Morgan lay propped up against the wall, his face ashen but his breathing steady and his eyes alert.
“I should go back out there,” Rossi said awkwardly. At Hotch’s nod, he turned on his heel sharply and left.
There was a terrible irony at work here, Hotch thought, where the able-bodied men are waiting to be saved by two women, two convicts, and an old man. He hadn’t realized he had spoken out loud until Reid corrected him.
“More of a reversal situation than irony, Hotch. There’s nothing inherently contradictory in our actions from our words,” Reid said. “Although, if you were aiming for a literary definition of irony, I suppose this could be ironic in that the men we arrested for murder are actually innocent and now protecting us. Though I fail to see how JJ, Prentiss, and Rossi would fit in.”
Hotch knew from long experience that further attempts to clarify would result in lectures on the importance of word choice, so he simply nodded his head in time with Reid’s pauses and continued to watch the door.
When it opened only minutes after Rossi left, Hotch was surprised. He hadn’t noticed any appreciable difference in the noise level outside, but following the older agent was JJ and Prentiss, as well as the Winchester brothers.
“What happened,” Hotch asked as soon as Rossi entered the room.
“I’m not too sure myself,” Rossi replied. “They came in as I went to help.” He dropped heavily onto a nearby desk. “Is it ding dong the witch is dead?”
“Don’t even joke about witches man, I can’t deal with that shit right now,” Dean Winchester replied tiredly.
“Yeah,” Prentiss confirmed to her injured coworkers, “it’s dead.”
“So what was it, exactly?” Reid asked. “Morgan was saying you called it a Diyahali? And it looked kind of like a giant lizard?”
“Yeah, the Cherokee called it a Diyahali,” Sam Winchester finally answered after a brief but silent battle of will with his brother.
It was like watching Jack and his friends, Hotch thought incredulously.
“According to Cherokee legends, a Diyahali is a giant lizard that lives in the mountains. Unlike its smaller peers, this one eats people,” Sam explained.
“Like those two cops,” Dean interrupted.
“Yeah,” Sam agreed quietly. “When we were researching Thunderbirds we ran across the legends.”
“So it’s a Cherokee monster?” Reid asked curiously.
“It was named by the Cherokee,” he replied. “But monsters aren’t exactly specific about who they attack. We use the Cherokee name ‘cause it’s best described in Cherokee stories.”
“Though it might have been nice if they’d added a little more detail about how to kill them,” Dean added. “Lucky that beheading worked.”
“Does it sometimes not work?” JJ asked sickly.
“Usually works,” Sam replied. “Kills wendigos, vampires, rawheads-course the hard part is always getting close enough to go for the head.”
“Doesn’t work so well with zombies,” Dean reminded his brother.
“Right. Or really demons, spirits, old time gods,” Sam rambled. “For those you usually need to destroy their power center, earthly body, or grave. It kind of depends on what you’re facing.”
As Reid continued to pepper Sam, the large man matching Reid’s rapid-fire questions easily, Dean approached Hotch and Rossi. “So what’s happening next?” he asked quietly.
Hotch didn’t pretend he didn’t know what Winchester was asking. “We’re going to have to take you into custody. And then think of someway to explain the monster.”
“The Diyahali exploded,” Prentiss interrupted. “There’s just the body of the two night officers and a lot of property destruction to explain. And we know those charges are bogus now-why do we have to take them into custody?”
“You want to let them go?” Hotch asked incredulously and a little too loud judging by the sudden attention focused on him.
“They saved our lives!” Prentiss argued, “They saved my life, Hotch. I was trapped in my own body by that…thing, and I’m pretty sure I’d still be if it weren’t for them. And hey, the giant lizard didn’t eat me, so that’s another one I owe them. So forgive me for thinking we’d do the right thing here,” she finished sarcastically.
Arguments rang out from his other agents as well, from Reid, “It wouldn’t be fair!”, to JJ, “Can’t we just dismiss the charges?”, and surprisingly Rossi, “I think we should all talk about this before making a decision, Aaron.”
“Can we maybe vote on the jailing innocent people thing?” Morgan chimed in.
“This isn’t a town hall meeting,” Hotch replied slowly, looking each of his teammates in the eye. “The law is the law, we don’t get to decide when to uphold it-even in the face of new information. We arrest them, we transport them to the nearest federal penitentiary, then we go home. Got it?”
He ignored the mutinous look of his teams face and focused on their unhappy nods. He turned to the brothers, who had so far been quiet in the debate. “Are you going to come quietly?”
“I just want to point out something here,” Dean started. “Technically, I’m the only armed person here-and half your team is injured. We’ve got work to do, saving the world big. Don’t exactly have time for all this bullshit.”
“Look,” his brother added. “We do good work. Even Henricksen recognized that before he died. Can’t you just give us a head start or something?”
“Wait a minute, Henricksen knew?” Prentiss asked.
“He captured us, demons attacked the station, he let us go,” Dean summed up succinctly.
Hotch saw Prentiss stiffen slightly and Dean nod slightly at her questioning look. However, he had a more pressing question, “So how did Agent Henricksen really die?”
“A demon,” Sam explained softly. His face was full of guilt as he continued to explain. “Lilith.”
“As in Adam’s first wife?” Reid asked curiously.
“As in the first demon created by Lucifer,” Sam responded. “She killed everyone in the station. News claimed it was a gas leak, but it was her. That’s why we need to be out there-you guys can’t protect people from this, we can.”
“No offense, but if you two can do it, I’m pretty sure we can,” Rossi said.
“I’ve been training for this for over twenty-five years and I’m not sure what to do,” Dean challenged. “Look, I get that you think you need to take me into custody, but there’s no reason to hold Sam.”
“Dean!” his brother objected sharply. “Shut up!”
“Agent Hotchner, would that gel with your ethics?” Dean Winchester asked, ignoring his brother’s protests completely.
“If we take you into custody and let your brother go, he’s just going to break you out or at least try,” Hotch replied. Both brothers shifted uncomfortably, which he took as agreement. “You can’t protect your brother from this Dean. There are warrants for both of you.”
Hotch sighed. This conversation wasn’t going anywhere. As much as he wanted to let the Winchesters go, he couldn’t. He didn’t approve of vigilantism, even if it was against creatures that threatened the lives and safety of the same members of the public he had sworn to protect, the Winchesters had to face responsibility for their actions. Based on tonight’s encounters, he’d be one of the first witnesses on the stand for the defense-if the St. Louis PD even had enough for a trial.
His team clearly wasn’t happy with him. JJ looked ready to practice her kickboxing with him, Reid’s puppy dog eyes were at full effect, and Rossi looked disappointed. He could hear Prentiss mumbling in Russian under her breathe, always a bad sign-she tended to use Arabic for death threats, Spanish for swears, and Russian for personal insults.
He couldn’t let his team go down this road though. Let two suspects go, and where would they end up? Their role wasn’t judge, jury, or executioner-they identified and apprehended suspects. Not to mention the fact that Strauss was already looking at his team closely; after Foyet’s escape and subsequent death at his hands, the Section Chief had renewed her interest in the team’s day-to-day affairs. When she found out his team allowed two of the FBI’s most wanted to slip through their fingertips, his team would be lucky to escape with their jobs.
“JJ, I want you to get in touch with the mayor, try to explain the damage the best you can. If the fire department hasn’t arrived, call them next. Dave, I want you to take Morgan to the hospital. Reid, go with him. Prentiss, you’re with me,” Hotch ordered. “We’ll be heading to the hospital too, but there are a few things we need to take care of first.”
Sam raised his head tentatively, “And us?”
“We’re prepping you two for transport to St. Louis,” Hotch replied slowly. “It’s time to face the music.”
* * * * * *
The sun had finally peeked over the horizon; it’s bright rays casting strange shadows over the rubble of the Jackson Police Station. A small, dark part of Hotch would always treasure the look on the mayor’s face when he finally saw the destruction-the man was the very definition of gobsmacked. He could only nod dumbly at Hotch’s hastily concocted story of terrorists attacking the station.
JJ was currently talking the shaken man through the report to the Department of Homeland Security; hopefully she would flesh out their cover story in the process. Normally the press of duty would oblige Hotch to be present in helping JJ lie to the local and federal authorities, however, he currently had to deal with the Winchesters.
“You’re a real dick, you know that, right?” Dean Winchester asked as he met Hotch on the remains of the front steps. Both he and his brother were handcuffed for the ride to the holding cells at the St. Louis regional office. It seemed the few hours of rest the brothers had caught while Hotch’s team sorted out the mess hadn’t helped his disposition.
Dean turned towards Prentiss, who was watching Sam. “Just make sure you stick to the design I drew and you should be good. Since Sammy and I got inked we haven’t had a problem. And remember...”
“Salt forms a barrier, anyone can create holy water with the right prayers and a rosary, and iron repels spirits,” Prentiss recited dutifully. “Got it. And if that doesn’t work?”
“Try to find a professional,” Sam replied.
“Only be careful of who you find on the Internet. The Ghostfacers have a decent site, but they’re a bunch of idiots who are more likely to get you killed,” Dean added.
Hotch shot Prentiss a look over the top of the car as he helped Dean into the backseat. He would be having a talk with her about all this-when had she talked to the brothers about supernatural defenses?
“I’m much obliged for such a pleasant stay,” Dean snarked as Hotch moved to shut the door. Prentiss had already secured Sam, and the two brothers were crammed into the bench seat of the rental SUV uncomfortably.
“But now it’s time for you to go,” Hotch finished, enjoying the shock on Dean’s face as he completed the song lyric. He shut the door with smirk and walked back to join Prentiss.
“Planning on getting ink?” he asked Prentiss quietly.
“One tattoo and I don’t have to worry about possession anymore. Seems like a small price,” she replied evenly. “We talked for a while, they gave me Supernatural Monsters and Other Things That Want to Kill You 101.”
Before Hotch had a chance to reply, the engine of the SUV roared to life and peeled out of the parking lot.
“Guess I didn’t secure them well enough,” Hotch said to a chagrined Prentiss. “I’ve heard this kind of thing can happen when you don’t have any squad cars for transporting prisoners. And the prisoners get a hold of a paperclip, somehow.”
“Shouldn’t we go after them?” Prentiss asked as they watched the truck speed east.
“You know, I think that’s a job for the locals,” Hotch replied. “It’s time for us to go home.”
"Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." G.K. Chesterton
* * * * * *
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Hotch walked through his front door, dropping his keys into the nearby bowl, and headed into his study, absently looking for his bottle of whiskey. He bent down to the gun safe and locked his service pistol in with the push of a button. He was looking forward to his weekend with Jack, hopefully spending some time with his son would erase, or at least dull, the horrific scenes from the latest case.
The things humans do to each other, he thought morbidly as he raised the glass to his lips. After taking a long drink, he absently bent down to tie his shoelace. He pulled his second gun from his ankle holster and pointed it at the man standing in his home.
“Chill G-man,” grinned Dean Winchester. “You’d think you’ve seen a ghost or something.”
“What are you doing here?” Hotch questioned, looking around for the younger Winchester brother.
“Sammy’s stealing your wireless in the den,” Winchester replied to his unasked question, ignoring the verbal one. “You should probably pick a harder password.”
Hotch raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“We were in the area, thought we’d say hi,” Winchester offered unconvincingly. “Maybe grab a beer?”
“What’d you do?” Hotch asked tiredly, finally lowering his pistol. Winchester had disappeared into his kitchen; there was no point in continuing if his intruder was absolutely unconcerned with the threat.
“Just cleaning up a little ghost problem in DC” Winchester responded, going through his refrigerator. “Dude, your milk is way past its expiration date.”
The deliberately casual answers made the hair on Hotch’s neck stand up, same as when Jack told him the monster under his bed ate the last of the cookies. “Where in DC?” he asked suspiciously.
Winchester refused to look at him.
Sam Winchester’s voice floated through the open doors, “Dean, it doesn’t look like the story’s going mainstream-Secret Service probably doesn’t want it getting out. Damn it, that another government agency after us.” He continued, “That just leaves the State Department, the FDA, and the Coast Guard, right?”
Dean Winchester grimaced and shouted back, “You’re forgetting about that black dog in Tahoe-I don’t think the Coast Guard has though.”
Hotch knew his mouth had dropped open throughout the course of this exchange, but at this point he could care less. “You two exorcised a ghost from the WHITE HOUSE?”
His shouting brought Sam Winchester into the room, holding a laptop to his chest protectively. He had healed from the events, Hotch refused to call it a battle, in Missouri and his hair was finally growing in.
Hotch took a deep breath, counted to ten, then glared at both men. “What kind of idiots are you? How is sneaking into the White House and exorcising a ghost keeping a low profile?”
Sam shrugged his massive shoulders, “It had to be done. Otherwise it would have kept killing visitors-already got fifteen before we arrived.”
Hotch sighed, thinking back longingly on the days when he captured fugitives instead of harbored them. “All right, you can stay the night. But I need you gone tomorrow morning-and don’t tell me where you’re going, please.”
After a quick fight over who got the guest bedroom and who slept on the coach, the Winchesters were settled for the night. Sam won using the most impressive puppy-eyed look Hotch had ever seen and that included attempts by his son, Garcia, and Reid (and one memorable time from Garcia and Reid).
The next morning Hotch woke to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Unsurprisingly, the Winchesters were gone, but they left a note along with the pot of coffee. It was a phone number with a short note-“The time has come to be gone. It’s time to ramble on-Jimmy and Robert.”
THE END
References within the story
Link to When You Are Done (sequel)
He reached Morgan and gently shook his shoulder. “Morgan? You with me?” he asked quietly.
The man’s groan wasn’t exactly coherent, but it was a start. He started to get to his feet, but collapsed and groaned again. “Shit,” he breathed. “I think my ribs are busted.”
Prentiss joined him at Morgan’s side. “Looks like the Winchesters are distracting it for now. Come on, let’s get him out of the way.” She looked over at Rossi ruefully, “it’s not like I can do much else at this point besides throwing this thing at it.” She waved her empty gun menacingly at the Diyahali, which was currently alternating between chasing Sam and Dean Winchester.
Whenever it got too close to one brother, the other would yell, shoot, or similarly draw the attention of the creature away. The lizard would then start to chase him and the process started again. Rossi marveled at the teamwork the two showed. Despite the earlier insults and bickering, the two had come up with a workable plan to stall the rampaging monster with little more than a nod and a raised eyebrow.
“What are you idiots waiting for?” Dean yelled over. “Get him out of here!”
Rossi repressed an urge to flip the brat off and braced Morgan on his shoulder. Between him and Prentiss, they were able to move Morgan back into the station. Rossi stopped short when he entered the main office. Gently lowering Morgan onto the floor, he stopped to fully appreciate the view.
JJ was handcuffed to one of the desks Hotch had handcuffed the Winchester brothers to earlier. Reid was on the floor trying to pick the lock with a paperclip, having apparently freed himself from the other desk. He was muttering under his breath and hadn’t noticed Rossi’s arrival.
“How much longer?” JJ was asking when she looked up and saw Rossi.
“Almost there,” Reid replied, jiggling the paperclip. “Got it!” he announced triumphantly.
“Glad to see you could have had a successful life in crime,” Rossi said dryly. Reid looked up, horrified to be caught with his pants metaphorically down. “Is this the new method of watching prisoners?” he teased.
Rossi felt a twinge of guilt at the dismayed look on JJ and Reid’s face, but it was just too much fun to tease the younger two agents.
JJ chose to ignore him, placing an arm on Reid’s shoulder to prevent him from trying to explain. “What happened to Morgan?” she asked. “He doesn’t look so good.”
“There’s a giant lizard thing outside, it got Morgan pretty good,” Rossi replied.
“Another giant monster?” JJ replied. “Oh wow, that’s not a phrase I ever thought would be coming out of my mouth.”
“Reid, I want you to stay here and help Morgan,” Rossi instructed. “Prentiss, JJ, we’re headed to the armory, then back out.”
As Reid opened his mouth, undoubtedly to argue how he could help, Prentiss snapped, “Reid! I’ll cuff you to the desk myself if you try to go out there. Morgan got hurt because he couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. Please, can you just watch him for us?”
He nodded, and they left quickly for the armory. The door was propped open, but the room was bare. Not even a box of ammunition remained.
“Shit,” JJ said, voicing their collective thoughts.
* * * * * *
Prentiss left the station and quickly darted for cover in the shrubs near the front of the building. Things didn’t look good-the monster, a Diyahali Rossi had explained on the way out, had turned over all three cars in the parking lot and was currently stalking Dean Winchester.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hotch tending to Sam Winchester. The man’s back was covered with blood, but he was attempting to shake off Hotch’s concern.
“Sammy? You ok?” Dean shouted to his brother.
“Fine,” the other man replied. “Got any ideas? I’m out of bullets.”
“Me too. Damn yokels didn’t have more than two rounds in the armory. But I’ve got an idea.”
Sam groaned slightly, in pain or at the idea of another of his brother’s plans JJ wasn’t sure.
“Well,” Dean replied, “I’m going to need a distraction.”
“We can do that,” Prentiss replied, gesturing at herself and JJ. At Rossi’s glare, she lowered her voice and said. “We need to get Hotch out of here. He doesn’t look good.”
Hotch’s shirt had completely soaked through in blood and his face was ashen.
Prentiss explained further, “It’d take both JJ and I to move him and we’re still mobile. It’d be better to have the two of us working the distraction and you moving Hotch.”
Rossi nodded slowly. It was times that these that JJ appreciated her newest coworker. He was clearly unhappy at leaving the two women in danger to help Hotch, but Prentiss made sense. He ran over to Hotch quickly, then quickly supported his uninjured shoulder.
JJ started yelling and waving her arms to allow her coworkers access back into the building.
“What do you want us to do?” Prentiss yelled to the brothers as JJ ran.
“Well,” Dean replied. “I’ve got this nifty sword and Anna told me to practice.”
“What, you’re a dragon slayer now?” Sam replied. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”
“And so it goes,” Dean replied merrily.
“Shut it, you’re no Billy Pilgrim,” Prentiss replied. “What do you want us to do?
“Distract it!” he instructed as he sprinted for the front entrance stairs, freeing the swords from its makeshift scabbard.
Prentiss noticed JJ slowing across the parking lot, so she raised her own hands and started shouting. The lizard turned its head yet again and charged her. Prentiss had really been hoping it was losing interest in their running game of cat-and-mouse. Weren’t reptiles supposed to be relatively lazy predators?
She could see Dean Winchester scaling the building determinedly and suddenly got a terrible premonition of where this plan was headed. She locked eyes with Sam Winchester and saw her dismay mirrored on his face.
“You’re really going to have to stop letting your brother make plans,” she yelled.
“You’re telling me?” He replied with an eye roll. “You ready for some lizard herding?”
The both started running towards the building. The Diyahali followed them, as expected, and they reached the front door. When the lizard was getting uncomfortably close to their location, a dark shape flung itself off the roof and managed to land on the mammoth lizard’s back.
Dean started hacking at the monsters unprotected back, finally making an impact on the Diyahali. It bellowed in pain and tried to buck the intruder off, as if it were a champion bull at the rodeo. Dean grabbed its neck and started hacking at the base of its skull.
One, two, three powerful chops later and the head landed at Prentiss’ feet. Its eyes slowly dimmed and its teeth settled uncomfortably close to her toes.
Dean rolled off the Diyahali’s back with a loose grace. “And you thought my plan was stupid,” he accused his brother smugly.
“Your plan was stupid,” his brother replied. “You got lucky.” Sam walked over to the body and kicked it twice. “I can’t believe that worked.”
The body exploded suddenly in a burst of fire, sending entrails and blood soaring into the air and leaving the body a smoldering wreck in the middle of the parking lot.
“Holy crap!” JJ exclaimed, trying to look for cover from the raining guts, blood, and gore. She was, like Prentiss, generally unsuccessful. They looked like extra from a bad horror movie, Prentiss thought disgustedly as she took in the bloodstained appearance of her compatriots.
“Sweet!” Dean exclaimed. “Self-cleaning, man that makes things a heck of a lot easier.” The man seemed completely unperturbed at the goo streaking down his face. He turned to his brother, swore, and then tackled him.
“What the hell jerk?” Sam asked as the two wrestled, finally using his weight to flip and pin his brother.
“Your head was on fire,” Dean replied. “Just trying to keep that massive brain of yours intact, you ungrateful bitch.”
Sam let his brother go to gingerly pat his hair, evidently finding a crispy spot towards the back. When he turned back to give his brother a hand off the ground, JJ could see a baseball shaped burn on the back of his skull. She winced in sympathy, head wounds hurt.
* * * * * *
Waiting in the relative safety of the office was hell, Hotch decided. Though he knew he wouldn’t be much help outside against the Diyahali, it wasn’t in his nature to sit passively waiting for rescue. Though there were occasional crashes and shouts, for the most part Hotch had to strain to hear what was occurring outside. His shoulder throbbed angrily, reminding him yet again of his failure earlier in the evening.
He should have done something about Prentiss’ odd behavior. He had noticed her unusual anticipation to interview Dean Winchester, but hadn’t acted on it. Not only had he failed her, but his inaction had almost led to the death of his suspect, himself, and his team.
Reid, luckily, appeared more upset that he couldn’t see what was happening outside. When Rossi had helped Hotch into the office, he found Reid camped out near the window. Morgan lay propped up against the wall, his face ashen but his breathing steady and his eyes alert.
“I should go back out there,” Rossi said awkwardly. At Hotch’s nod, he turned on his heel sharply and left.
There was a terrible irony at work here, Hotch thought, where the able-bodied men are waiting to be saved by two women, two convicts, and an old man. He hadn’t realized he had spoken out loud until Reid corrected him.
“More of a reversal situation than irony, Hotch. There’s nothing inherently contradictory in our actions from our words,” Reid said. “Although, if you were aiming for a literary definition of irony, I suppose this could be ironic in that the men we arrested for murder are actually innocent and now protecting us. Though I fail to see how JJ, Prentiss, and Rossi would fit in.”
Hotch knew from long experience that further attempts to clarify would result in lectures on the importance of word choice, so he simply nodded his head in time with Reid’s pauses and continued to watch the door.
When it opened only minutes after Rossi left, Hotch was surprised. He hadn’t noticed any appreciable difference in the noise level outside, but following the older agent was JJ and Prentiss, as well as the Winchester brothers.
“What happened,” Hotch asked as soon as Rossi entered the room.
“I’m not too sure myself,” Rossi replied. “They came in as I went to help.” He dropped heavily onto a nearby desk. “Is it ding dong the witch is dead?”
“Don’t even joke about witches man, I can’t deal with that shit right now,” Dean Winchester replied tiredly.
“Yeah,” Prentiss confirmed to her injured coworkers, “it’s dead.”
“So what was it, exactly?” Reid asked. “Morgan was saying you called it a Diyahali? And it looked kind of like a giant lizard?”
“Yeah, the Cherokee called it a Diyahali,” Sam Winchester finally answered after a brief but silent battle of will with his brother.
It was like watching Jack and his friends, Hotch thought incredulously.
“According to Cherokee legends, a Diyahali is a giant lizard that lives in the mountains. Unlike its smaller peers, this one eats people,” Sam explained.
“Like those two cops,” Dean interrupted.
“Yeah,” Sam agreed quietly. “When we were researching Thunderbirds we ran across the legends.”
“So it’s a Cherokee monster?” Reid asked curiously.
“It was named by the Cherokee,” he replied. “But monsters aren’t exactly specific about who they attack. We use the Cherokee name ‘cause it’s best described in Cherokee stories.”
“Though it might have been nice if they’d added a little more detail about how to kill them,” Dean added. “Lucky that beheading worked.”
“Does it sometimes not work?” JJ asked sickly.
“Usually works,” Sam replied. “Kills wendigos, vampires, rawheads-course the hard part is always getting close enough to go for the head.”
“Doesn’t work so well with zombies,” Dean reminded his brother.
“Right. Or really demons, spirits, old time gods,” Sam rambled. “For those you usually need to destroy their power center, earthly body, or grave. It kind of depends on what you’re facing.”
As Reid continued to pepper Sam, the large man matching Reid’s rapid-fire questions easily, Dean approached Hotch and Rossi. “So what’s happening next?” he asked quietly.
Hotch didn’t pretend he didn’t know what Winchester was asking. “We’re going to have to take you into custody. And then think of someway to explain the monster.”
“The Diyahali exploded,” Prentiss interrupted. “There’s just the body of the two night officers and a lot of property destruction to explain. And we know those charges are bogus now-why do we have to take them into custody?”
“You want to let them go?” Hotch asked incredulously and a little too loud judging by the sudden attention focused on him.
“They saved our lives!” Prentiss argued, “They saved my life, Hotch. I was trapped in my own body by that…thing, and I’m pretty sure I’d still be if it weren’t for them. And hey, the giant lizard didn’t eat me, so that’s another one I owe them. So forgive me for thinking we’d do the right thing here,” she finished sarcastically.
Arguments rang out from his other agents as well, from Reid, “It wouldn’t be fair!”, to JJ, “Can’t we just dismiss the charges?”, and surprisingly Rossi, “I think we should all talk about this before making a decision, Aaron.”
“Can we maybe vote on the jailing innocent people thing?” Morgan chimed in.
“This isn’t a town hall meeting,” Hotch replied slowly, looking each of his teammates in the eye. “The law is the law, we don’t get to decide when to uphold it-even in the face of new information. We arrest them, we transport them to the nearest federal penitentiary, then we go home. Got it?”
He ignored the mutinous look of his teams face and focused on their unhappy nods. He turned to the brothers, who had so far been quiet in the debate. “Are you going to come quietly?”
“I just want to point out something here,” Dean started. “Technically, I’m the only armed person here-and half your team is injured. We’ve got work to do, saving the world big. Don’t exactly have time for all this bullshit.”
“Look,” his brother added. “We do good work. Even Henricksen recognized that before he died. Can’t you just give us a head start or something?”
“Wait a minute, Henricksen knew?” Prentiss asked.
“He captured us, demons attacked the station, he let us go,” Dean summed up succinctly.
Hotch saw Prentiss stiffen slightly and Dean nod slightly at her questioning look. However, he had a more pressing question, “So how did Agent Henricksen really die?”
“A demon,” Sam explained softly. His face was full of guilt as he continued to explain. “Lilith.”
“As in Adam’s first wife?” Reid asked curiously.
“As in the first demon created by Lucifer,” Sam responded. “She killed everyone in the station. News claimed it was a gas leak, but it was her. That’s why we need to be out there-you guys can’t protect people from this, we can.”
“No offense, but if you two can do it, I’m pretty sure we can,” Rossi said.
“I’ve been training for this for over twenty-five years and I’m not sure what to do,” Dean challenged. “Look, I get that you think you need to take me into custody, but there’s no reason to hold Sam.”
“Dean!” his brother objected sharply. “Shut up!”
“Agent Hotchner, would that gel with your ethics?” Dean Winchester asked, ignoring his brother’s protests completely.
“If we take you into custody and let your brother go, he’s just going to break you out or at least try,” Hotch replied. Both brothers shifted uncomfortably, which he took as agreement. “You can’t protect your brother from this Dean. There are warrants for both of you.”
Hotch sighed. This conversation wasn’t going anywhere. As much as he wanted to let the Winchesters go, he couldn’t. He didn’t approve of vigilantism, even if it was against creatures that threatened the lives and safety of the same members of the public he had sworn to protect, the Winchesters had to face responsibility for their actions. Based on tonight’s encounters, he’d be one of the first witnesses on the stand for the defense-if the St. Louis PD even had enough for a trial.
His team clearly wasn’t happy with him. JJ looked ready to practice her kickboxing with him, Reid’s puppy dog eyes were at full effect, and Rossi looked disappointed. He could hear Prentiss mumbling in Russian under her breathe, always a bad sign-she tended to use Arabic for death threats, Spanish for swears, and Russian for personal insults.
He couldn’t let his team go down this road though. Let two suspects go, and where would they end up? Their role wasn’t judge, jury, or executioner-they identified and apprehended suspects. Not to mention the fact that Strauss was already looking at his team closely; after Foyet’s escape and subsequent death at his hands, the Section Chief had renewed her interest in the team’s day-to-day affairs. When she found out his team allowed two of the FBI’s most wanted to slip through their fingertips, his team would be lucky to escape with their jobs.
“JJ, I want you to get in touch with the mayor, try to explain the damage the best you can. If the fire department hasn’t arrived, call them next. Dave, I want you to take Morgan to the hospital. Reid, go with him. Prentiss, you’re with me,” Hotch ordered. “We’ll be heading to the hospital too, but there are a few things we need to take care of first.”
Sam raised his head tentatively, “And us?”
“We’re prepping you two for transport to St. Louis,” Hotch replied slowly. “It’s time to face the music.”
* * * * * *
The sun had finally peeked over the horizon; it’s bright rays casting strange shadows over the rubble of the Jackson Police Station. A small, dark part of Hotch would always treasure the look on the mayor’s face when he finally saw the destruction-the man was the very definition of gobsmacked. He could only nod dumbly at Hotch’s hastily concocted story of terrorists attacking the station.
JJ was currently talking the shaken man through the report to the Department of Homeland Security; hopefully she would flesh out their cover story in the process. Normally the press of duty would oblige Hotch to be present in helping JJ lie to the local and federal authorities, however, he currently had to deal with the Winchesters.
“You’re a real dick, you know that, right?” Dean Winchester asked as he met Hotch on the remains of the front steps. Both he and his brother were handcuffed for the ride to the holding cells at the St. Louis regional office. It seemed the few hours of rest the brothers had caught while Hotch’s team sorted out the mess hadn’t helped his disposition.
Dean turned towards Prentiss, who was watching Sam. “Just make sure you stick to the design I drew and you should be good. Since Sammy and I got inked we haven’t had a problem. And remember...”
“Salt forms a barrier, anyone can create holy water with the right prayers and a rosary, and iron repels spirits,” Prentiss recited dutifully. “Got it. And if that doesn’t work?”
“Try to find a professional,” Sam replied.
“Only be careful of who you find on the Internet. The Ghostfacers have a decent site, but they’re a bunch of idiots who are more likely to get you killed,” Dean added.
Hotch shot Prentiss a look over the top of the car as he helped Dean into the backseat. He would be having a talk with her about all this-when had she talked to the brothers about supernatural defenses?
“I’m much obliged for such a pleasant stay,” Dean snarked as Hotch moved to shut the door. Prentiss had already secured Sam, and the two brothers were crammed into the bench seat of the rental SUV uncomfortably.
“But now it’s time for you to go,” Hotch finished, enjoying the shock on Dean’s face as he completed the song lyric. He shut the door with smirk and walked back to join Prentiss.
“Planning on getting ink?” he asked Prentiss quietly.
“One tattoo and I don’t have to worry about possession anymore. Seems like a small price,” she replied evenly. “We talked for a while, they gave me Supernatural Monsters and Other Things That Want to Kill You 101.”
Before Hotch had a chance to reply, the engine of the SUV roared to life and peeled out of the parking lot.
“Guess I didn’t secure them well enough,” Hotch said to a chagrined Prentiss. “I’ve heard this kind of thing can happen when you don’t have any squad cars for transporting prisoners. And the prisoners get a hold of a paperclip, somehow.”
“Shouldn’t we go after them?” Prentiss asked as they watched the truck speed east.
“You know, I think that’s a job for the locals,” Hotch replied. “It’s time for us to go home.”
"Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." G.K. Chesterton
* * * * * *
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Hotch walked through his front door, dropping his keys into the nearby bowl, and headed into his study, absently looking for his bottle of whiskey. He bent down to the gun safe and locked his service pistol in with the push of a button. He was looking forward to his weekend with Jack, hopefully spending some time with his son would erase, or at least dull, the horrific scenes from the latest case.
The things humans do to each other, he thought morbidly as he raised the glass to his lips. After taking a long drink, he absently bent down to tie his shoelace. He pulled his second gun from his ankle holster and pointed it at the man standing in his home.
“Chill G-man,” grinned Dean Winchester. “You’d think you’ve seen a ghost or something.”
“What are you doing here?” Hotch questioned, looking around for the younger Winchester brother.
“Sammy’s stealing your wireless in the den,” Winchester replied to his unasked question, ignoring the verbal one. “You should probably pick a harder password.”
Hotch raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“We were in the area, thought we’d say hi,” Winchester offered unconvincingly. “Maybe grab a beer?”
“What’d you do?” Hotch asked tiredly, finally lowering his pistol. Winchester had disappeared into his kitchen; there was no point in continuing if his intruder was absolutely unconcerned with the threat.
“Just cleaning up a little ghost problem in DC” Winchester responded, going through his refrigerator. “Dude, your milk is way past its expiration date.”
The deliberately casual answers made the hair on Hotch’s neck stand up, same as when Jack told him the monster under his bed ate the last of the cookies. “Where in DC?” he asked suspiciously.
Winchester refused to look at him.
Sam Winchester’s voice floated through the open doors, “Dean, it doesn’t look like the story’s going mainstream-Secret Service probably doesn’t want it getting out. Damn it, that another government agency after us.” He continued, “That just leaves the State Department, the FDA, and the Coast Guard, right?”
Dean Winchester grimaced and shouted back, “You’re forgetting about that black dog in Tahoe-I don’t think the Coast Guard has though.”
Hotch knew his mouth had dropped open throughout the course of this exchange, but at this point he could care less. “You two exorcised a ghost from the WHITE HOUSE?”
His shouting brought Sam Winchester into the room, holding a laptop to his chest protectively. He had healed from the events, Hotch refused to call it a battle, in Missouri and his hair was finally growing in.
Hotch took a deep breath, counted to ten, then glared at both men. “What kind of idiots are you? How is sneaking into the White House and exorcising a ghost keeping a low profile?”
Sam shrugged his massive shoulders, “It had to be done. Otherwise it would have kept killing visitors-already got fifteen before we arrived.”
Hotch sighed, thinking back longingly on the days when he captured fugitives instead of harbored them. “All right, you can stay the night. But I need you gone tomorrow morning-and don’t tell me where you’re going, please.”
After a quick fight over who got the guest bedroom and who slept on the coach, the Winchesters were settled for the night. Sam won using the most impressive puppy-eyed look Hotch had ever seen and that included attempts by his son, Garcia, and Reid (and one memorable time from Garcia and Reid).
The next morning Hotch woke to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Unsurprisingly, the Winchesters were gone, but they left a note along with the pot of coffee. It was a phone number with a short note-“The time has come to be gone. It’s time to ramble on-Jimmy and Robert.”
THE END
References within the story
Link to When You Are Done (sequel)