The Escape: Part 4/7 [FanFic]
Title: The Escape: Part 4/7
Author: Tooks
Pairing/Characters: Aaron Hotcher/Emily Prentiss, Emily Prentiss/Ethan, Emily Prentiss/George Foyet, Jason Gideon/Lil Foyet, George Foyet/Lil Foyet...Jack and Sam are also in this.
Rating: FRAO
Summary: With the death sentence of wrongfully convicted best friend, Sam Kassmeyer, set Private Investigator Aaron “Hotch” Hotchner decides he can’t let it be carried out without a fight. But when fighting back includes breaking Sam out of prison Hotch’s limits are tested.
Beta'd by: Always helpful and incredibly awesome pink_siamese
Fanmix & Art by: Incredibly cool queenmidalah...art post here!
Additional Notes: This is "The Blonds Case" for the au_bigbang. Set in the Noir, "Living For the Night" (thanks to let_it_linger21). Rather than give warnings per-section let's just say there's going to be violence and sex abound, sometimes combined and some involving a teen, mild incest, and a character death. This section is in Hotch's POV.
The rest of the night I use to drink myself to sleep. When I wake up I find I’ve broken my bathroom mirror at some point. Oh well, it’s not the first time.
I shower, shave, and dress before heading out to see Jason, let him in on the plan. It isn’t that I want him to help, I know he’d rather stay out of most investigations and crime-fighting these days, but I think he should know about the plans to save Sam. He was friends with the man as well after all.
The drive to Nightingale’s takes me into the afternoon hours so I use the back entrance to Gideon’s apartment above where he’ll have his lunch. I give a few firm knocks and wait, listening. It’s fast, light, feet that approach the door. Not Gideon. Perhaps the lady he’s been so secretive about? I smile a touch, torn between hoping I’m not interrupting and being a little excited to meet the woman who’s made my old boss so light and almost carefree as of late.
What answers the door chills my blood. It’s Lilith Foyet, daughter of Officer George “The Reaper” Foyet and his soon-to-be ex, Jennifer “JJ” Jareau. She’s petite, blonde, and sixteen; a psycho-killer in the most disarming package available.
“Well if it isn’t Captain America himself?” She giggles.
I’m not fooled. I let her fool me once, but never again. Even knowing she’s close to my son, that she saved his life once, and that Gideon cares for her enough to take guardianship of her, I will never accept her. Never let my guard down around her. Never.
“Is Jason here?”
“He’s…indisposed.”
“Cut the shit and go get him.”
It isn’t until she leaves me at the door to get Jason that I truly note her state of dress. Or undress more like. No pants and one of Gideon’s favored dark blue button-down shirts sans most the buttons. Her hair’s down and mussed like she’s just wrestled a bear to the ground.
I step into the apartment. I am greeted by Jason coming out of his bedroom in slight disarray. Hair uncombed, pants rumbled, belt lacking, and only an undershirt for a top.
What. The. Fuck.
“Aaron,” Jason smiles almost awkwardly. “What a surprise.”
He knows what I see, he knows what I can read into the sight, and his reddened-face tells me I’m right in the assumption.
“What the fuck, Jason?”
Jason’s smile falters. “Maybe we should go down to the bar to talk?”
“What the fuck?”
I hear Lil start to laugh some from the bedroom.
“Aaron, this isn’t the time or place.”
“Do…do you even…”
Lil steps out in her jeans. “Calm down,” she laughs more and her eyes roll. “You’d think you’d never caught two people post-fuck or something.”
“You’re a sixteen-year-old sociopath and not a part of this conversation!”
“Who is?” she counters smoothly, heading towards us with that cat-like slink she always carries with her. “You? Jason?” the devilish grin spreads wide and wicked, “Sam Kassmeyer?”
One can forget how strong their friend is until he’s holding you back from killing a teenage girl. It isn’t until we’re outside his door that, with a final shove into the opposite wall, Jason and I stop fighting one another.
“How the fuck does she know?”
“I told her,” Gideon answers with that look he would give others as they edged towards their breaking points. He’s prepared to stop me if I snap, but he’ll implore me not to with his eyes until that moment.
“Why? Why would you do that?” I’m pacing. I whisper almost to myself before addressing my old friend directly. “Why would you do that, Jason?”
“Because she can help.”
“How in the hell can she possibly help?”
“She has access, can gain access, to places and people we can’t.” I snort and he continues. “People like Sam.”
I pause mid-step and just stare. My face becomes a blank slate. “I don’t want her going anywhere near Sam.”
“Not even if she can help him?”
“How would she do that? Kill him before his execution?”
“Aaron.”
“Don’t even start, Jason. You of all people should know her kind can’t be saved or tamed or whatever the fuck it is you’re trying to do with her. She’s a killer. She enjoys it.”
“I know. But she’s also saved lives, including Jack’s.”
“You’re fucking her!”
“That…doesn’t have anything to do with my opinions on this.”
“Really?”
“I’m not under any delusions about what she’s capable of.”
“So you know you’re sleeping with someone capable of murder without remorse?”
“Do you trust me, Aaron?”
“I used to. I don’t know what to think now.”
Jason frowns just a touch, like he saw this all coming but hoped it wouldn’t. “Do you believe me when I tell you I only want to help Sam?”
I sigh. “Yes.”
“Then trust when I say she can be a help to you and to Sam.”
I don’t. I never will. But rather than continue what seems to be an endless debate I sigh. “I need to get to the office. I’ll…I’ll keep you posted.” I turn to leave when Jason calls me back.
“Aaron, she wants to help. She’s not her father.”
“She’s a killer.”
“Yes, but she’s not her father.”
I shake my head and walk away. If my old friend says anything else I block it out because I hear nothing until I’m starting my car once again.
“Red Rover, Red Rover, Hotch, are you there? Over!” Garcia’s voice chimes over the car-radio Kevin had installed for us.
“I’m here.”
“You forgot to say over.”
“Garcia.”
The woman sighs, drops some of the chipperness in her tone. “How about some lunch?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You’ve already eaten?”
“No.”
“Well I’ll have some food waiting for you here then,” she announces, forever undeterred by my foul moods. “Just head on into the office, Hotch, okay?”
“Okay, Garcia.”
“Thank you, Boss-Man.”
“Welcome.” I can feel my lips turning up into a smile.
***
I arrive at the office to a grinning Garcia and spread of food on one corner of her desk that I know she fetched especially for me. I smile.
“You know you really didn’t have to run out and get me all that food.”
“I’m not about to let my favorite boss go hungry.”
I take the coffee in one hand already knowing she’s made it perfectly, like always, before opening the box of donuts. I chuckle a little. I have a weakness for the cop cliché of donuts. I could eat them at virtually any meal. “Even got the seasonal ones with sprinkles this time.” They’re a secret favorite of mine that Garcia knows I only eat when the others aren’t around…if Morgan found out I’d never hear the end of it, I’m sure.
“Actually,” a voice comes from my inner office, “those ones are mine.”
I turn and there he is, in a fine Italian suit, mobster extraordinaire, David Rossi. We still don’t always see eye-to-eye, but over the years we’ve gained one another’s respect and trust enough to occasionally work together. He gives me information and connections and I help him with blackmailers and other gangsters. It’s a rocky relationship between ex-cop and mobster sometimes, but a trusting one for the most part.
“Mr. Rossi.”
“Can we talk?”
“I don’t know if I have the time just now.”
“It’s about your friend, Kassmeyer.”
“How do you know about him?”
Rossi smiles. “I hear things.”
I pause a moment, unsure exactly how to read the statement, before grabbing a donut with a smile to Garcia and heading towards Rossi. “How about we talk in my office?”
“Sure.”
I close the door behind us, let Rossi find a seat as I go to mine. I set the donut aside and look at him for sometime, let the awkwardness of the silence come, before speaking. “How do you know about Sam?”
“I’ve always been aware of his imprisonment, of course, who hasn’t? But it wasn’t until I had an insider from the prison call me about an hour or so ago telling me how Emily and a man had been in there, asking questions, that I started putting things together.”
“Putting things together?”
Rossi gives a smile that can only be described as mischievous. “You’re going to try and break him out.”
I sit, mute, unwilling to give up either facts or feelings.
“Do you need help?”
“I need your insider to stay silent.”
“She can help.”
“She?” My lips curl into a little smile. “Of course. She.”
Rossi just smiles. “Like I said, she can help.”
“Well, I’m not sure how. Though if I need her I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“Why are you doing this, exactly?”
“Helping my friend?”
“Turning down help for your friend.”
I lean in on my desk some. “I’m not turning down anything, Rossi, I just don’t know how she can be help.”
“Her name’s Ashley, Ashley Seaver, and she’s a nurse at the infirmary. She could be a big help in getting him out.”
“I still don’t see how. It isn’t as if she can walk him out the back door.”
Rossi stands with a sigh. “You can’t either, you’re going to end up needing help getting Sam out.”
I stand when he does. “Rossi, I…I just don’t want to bring a bunch of people in on this that I don’t know or don’t trust completely. I want this to remain discreet and, if possible, easy.”
“There’s nothing discreet about breaking a man out of prison, Aaron. Nothing easy about it either so you better prepare for a very bumpy ride.”
When Rossi steps out of my office, all smooth-talk to Garcia as he leaves, I slump back down in my chair and eat my donut. So far nothing is going quite as planned…or it wouldn’t be if we even had a real plan. We don’t. I don’t. Instead I have people involved I don’t trust and a mobster warning me things will only get worse.
***
In the end it’s Dr Reid’s friend, Ethan, who calls a meeting up at my office. My core team shows up with smiles full of hope and I can only pray that means good news. That it means Ethan’s come up with a plan and that Morgan’s heard good things at the office. Only one person is missing.
“Where’s Dr Reid?”
Ethan smirks at me. “Grabbin’ somethin’ for us.”
I get the sense there’s a great deal more to that statement, but I don’t get the chance to call him on it.
“No signs of any potential leaks on my end,” Morgan cuts in. “So far as anyone at the station is concerned everything’s on schedule with Sam.”
“Even with Foyet?”
“If he knows anything he’s not giving any indication of it, but I’ll keep an eye on him.”
“Good…good,” I nod. “Keep an eye on him though.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Garcia chimes in. “Now I know you said not to, Hotch, but I talked to Kevin last night about all this.”
“Garcia.” I know she means well but this is just another person I’ll have to depend on to be honest and true. Even having accepted Kevin’s help in the past I don’t know if I want Sam’s life depending partly on a man who dresses like a Vaudeville performer.
“I know, Hotch.” She knows what I’m going to say. “But he can keep an ear out for extra chatter on the police radios for us and let us know if something seems off. I swear, he won’t do anything else but listen and inform.”
I give a small smile. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to have an extra pair of ears on the cops.”
“Especially since I still gotta work and be out in the field most the time,” Morgan points out.
Emily, who’d remained quiet in her spot next to Ethan, finally speaks. “Ethan and I went to visit the prison. Ethan talked to Sam.”
All worries are suddenly forgotten in favor of this news. “How is he?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t talk to him, Ethan did.”
My eyes flick immediately to Ethan.
“He’s fine,” Ethan assures me with a faint smile. “He knows what’s comin’ too.”
“What’s that? Have you figured out a set plan?”
“I have.”
The words set all of us on edge.
“Well,” says Morgan. “What the hell is it, man?”
“We need to kill him.”
“Excuse me?”
The room holds its breath.
Ethan looks around. “It’s the safest way to get him out and make sure no one’s looking for him after.”
I nod stiffly, knowing Ethan’s probably right but wishing he wasn’t.
“How…how do we do that?” Garcia asks, lip almost quivering in worry.
Ethan smiles over at her. “We either find a friendly already in the prison to fake the attack or, somehow, get someone in to do it.”
“I could do it,” I offer. “It wouldn’t take much to get myself arrested, we could even have Morgan do it.”
“Aw, it’d be my honor to faux-arrest ya, Hotch,” Morgan chuckles out.
“But no one’s going to buy you attacking Sam,” Emily says.
“She’s right,” Ethan points out. “We’d need someone who could believably want to hurt, kill, Sam.”
I look at him. “How about you then?”
Ethan laughs. “Nice try, but I need to make sure all the pieces stay in play and on track.”
“Rossi said he knows a nurse in the infirmary, could she do it?”
“She might be better at getting Sam out once he’s in the infirmary. Her and…”
Ethan stops as the door opens and Dr Reid and the last person I ever wanted in on this walks into the room.
“Jack!” Garcia cheers in utter delight as she rushes to give my grown son a hug that elicits an “oof” from him. Garcia apologizes as she steps back. “Oh, I’m sorry Jack.”
“I’m fine, Pen. Really, I’m okay. I wouldn’t lie.”
“What are you doing here?” I try to maintain curiosity in my voice even as I have another feeling that I express in a quick glare to Reid.
“Reid tells me you might need help so…” He shrugs. “I’m here to help.”
“That…” my eyes go back to my son, “that’s very kind of you to offer, Jack, but I’m not sure how much you could do.”
Ethan stands and goes to shake hands. “So you’re Hotch’s kid?”
Jack smiles as he heads farther into the room. “Yeah, Jack. You must be Ethan, Dr Reid’s friend, right?”
“That’s me. Reid tells me you’re a doctor or something?
“I’m an EMT.”
I see Ethan’s eyes light up a little. “Perfect. You’re just the type of person we need for what we’re planning.”
“Really?” Jack’s smile grows, clearly excited at the prospect of helping.
“No!”
“Hotch, he, uh, he could really be a help,” Reid countered.
“No.”
“Hotch,” Emily warns.
“No!”
Morgan and Garcia eye each other, debating if they should take up the cause, but both seem to decide better of it.
Jack gives a sigh as he turns to me. “Can we talk?”
“We’re talking here and I’m respectfully declining on your offer.”
Jack gives a snort of a laugh and turns back to Ethan. “If you need me, let me know, Reid can find me.”
“Jack” I call out and he turns on his heel. “This is not up for discussion, I don’t want you involved in this.”
With an eye-roll my son leaves. The tension in that silence spreads and suffocates.
Only Garcia makes the effort to break the spell. “He looked good.” The attempt falls flat.
To Be Continued...
Next Section:
The Escape: Part 5
Previous Section:
The Escape: Part 1
The Escape: Part 2
The Escape: Part 3
Author: Tooks
Pairing/Characters: Aaron Hotcher/Emily Prentiss, Emily Prentiss/Ethan, Emily Prentiss/George Foyet, Jason Gideon/Lil Foyet, George Foyet/Lil Foyet...Jack and Sam are also in this.
Rating: FRAO
Summary: With the death sentence of wrongfully convicted best friend, Sam Kassmeyer, set Private Investigator Aaron “Hotch” Hotchner decides he can’t let it be carried out without a fight. But when fighting back includes breaking Sam out of prison Hotch’s limits are tested.
Beta'd by: Always helpful and incredibly awesome pink_siamese
Fanmix & Art by: Incredibly cool queenmidalah...art post here!
Additional Notes: This is "The Blonds Case" for the au_bigbang. Set in the Noir, "Living For the Night" (thanks to let_it_linger21). Rather than give warnings per-section let's just say there's going to be violence and sex abound, sometimes combined and some involving a teen, mild incest, and a character death. This section is in Hotch's POV.
The rest of the night I use to drink myself to sleep. When I wake up I find I’ve broken my bathroom mirror at some point. Oh well, it’s not the first time.
I shower, shave, and dress before heading out to see Jason, let him in on the plan. It isn’t that I want him to help, I know he’d rather stay out of most investigations and crime-fighting these days, but I think he should know about the plans to save Sam. He was friends with the man as well after all.
The drive to Nightingale’s takes me into the afternoon hours so I use the back entrance to Gideon’s apartment above where he’ll have his lunch. I give a few firm knocks and wait, listening. It’s fast, light, feet that approach the door. Not Gideon. Perhaps the lady he’s been so secretive about? I smile a touch, torn between hoping I’m not interrupting and being a little excited to meet the woman who’s made my old boss so light and almost carefree as of late.
What answers the door chills my blood. It’s Lilith Foyet, daughter of Officer George “The Reaper” Foyet and his soon-to-be ex, Jennifer “JJ” Jareau. She’s petite, blonde, and sixteen; a psycho-killer in the most disarming package available.
“Well if it isn’t Captain America himself?” She giggles.
I’m not fooled. I let her fool me once, but never again. Even knowing she’s close to my son, that she saved his life once, and that Gideon cares for her enough to take guardianship of her, I will never accept her. Never let my guard down around her. Never.
“Is Jason here?”
“He’s…indisposed.”
“Cut the shit and go get him.”
It isn’t until she leaves me at the door to get Jason that I truly note her state of dress. Or undress more like. No pants and one of Gideon’s favored dark blue button-down shirts sans most the buttons. Her hair’s down and mussed like she’s just wrestled a bear to the ground.
I step into the apartment. I am greeted by Jason coming out of his bedroom in slight disarray. Hair uncombed, pants rumbled, belt lacking, and only an undershirt for a top.
What. The. Fuck.
“Aaron,” Jason smiles almost awkwardly. “What a surprise.”
He knows what I see, he knows what I can read into the sight, and his reddened-face tells me I’m right in the assumption.
“What the fuck, Jason?”
Jason’s smile falters. “Maybe we should go down to the bar to talk?”
“What the fuck?”
I hear Lil start to laugh some from the bedroom.
“Aaron, this isn’t the time or place.”
“Do…do you even…”
Lil steps out in her jeans. “Calm down,” she laughs more and her eyes roll. “You’d think you’d never caught two people post-fuck or something.”
“You’re a sixteen-year-old sociopath and not a part of this conversation!”
“Who is?” she counters smoothly, heading towards us with that cat-like slink she always carries with her. “You? Jason?” the devilish grin spreads wide and wicked, “Sam Kassmeyer?”
One can forget how strong their friend is until he’s holding you back from killing a teenage girl. It isn’t until we’re outside his door that, with a final shove into the opposite wall, Jason and I stop fighting one another.
“How the fuck does she know?”
“I told her,” Gideon answers with that look he would give others as they edged towards their breaking points. He’s prepared to stop me if I snap, but he’ll implore me not to with his eyes until that moment.
“Why? Why would you do that?” I’m pacing. I whisper almost to myself before addressing my old friend directly. “Why would you do that, Jason?”
“Because she can help.”
“How in the hell can she possibly help?”
“She has access, can gain access, to places and people we can’t.” I snort and he continues. “People like Sam.”
I pause mid-step and just stare. My face becomes a blank slate. “I don’t want her going anywhere near Sam.”
“Not even if she can help him?”
“How would she do that? Kill him before his execution?”
“Aaron.”
“Don’t even start, Jason. You of all people should know her kind can’t be saved or tamed or whatever the fuck it is you’re trying to do with her. She’s a killer. She enjoys it.”
“I know. But she’s also saved lives, including Jack’s.”
“You’re fucking her!”
“That…doesn’t have anything to do with my opinions on this.”
“Really?”
“I’m not under any delusions about what she’s capable of.”
“So you know you’re sleeping with someone capable of murder without remorse?”
“Do you trust me, Aaron?”
“I used to. I don’t know what to think now.”
Jason frowns just a touch, like he saw this all coming but hoped it wouldn’t. “Do you believe me when I tell you I only want to help Sam?”
I sigh. “Yes.”
“Then trust when I say she can be a help to you and to Sam.”
I don’t. I never will. But rather than continue what seems to be an endless debate I sigh. “I need to get to the office. I’ll…I’ll keep you posted.” I turn to leave when Jason calls me back.
“Aaron, she wants to help. She’s not her father.”
“She’s a killer.”
“Yes, but she’s not her father.”
I shake my head and walk away. If my old friend says anything else I block it out because I hear nothing until I’m starting my car once again.
“Red Rover, Red Rover, Hotch, are you there? Over!” Garcia’s voice chimes over the car-radio Kevin had installed for us.
“I’m here.”
“You forgot to say over.”
“Garcia.”
The woman sighs, drops some of the chipperness in her tone. “How about some lunch?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You’ve already eaten?”
“No.”
“Well I’ll have some food waiting for you here then,” she announces, forever undeterred by my foul moods. “Just head on into the office, Hotch, okay?”
“Okay, Garcia.”
“Thank you, Boss-Man.”
“Welcome.” I can feel my lips turning up into a smile.
***
I arrive at the office to a grinning Garcia and spread of food on one corner of her desk that I know she fetched especially for me. I smile.
“You know you really didn’t have to run out and get me all that food.”
“I’m not about to let my favorite boss go hungry.”
I take the coffee in one hand already knowing she’s made it perfectly, like always, before opening the box of donuts. I chuckle a little. I have a weakness for the cop cliché of donuts. I could eat them at virtually any meal. “Even got the seasonal ones with sprinkles this time.” They’re a secret favorite of mine that Garcia knows I only eat when the others aren’t around…if Morgan found out I’d never hear the end of it, I’m sure.
“Actually,” a voice comes from my inner office, “those ones are mine.”
I turn and there he is, in a fine Italian suit, mobster extraordinaire, David Rossi. We still don’t always see eye-to-eye, but over the years we’ve gained one another’s respect and trust enough to occasionally work together. He gives me information and connections and I help him with blackmailers and other gangsters. It’s a rocky relationship between ex-cop and mobster sometimes, but a trusting one for the most part.
“Mr. Rossi.”
“Can we talk?”
“I don’t know if I have the time just now.”
“It’s about your friend, Kassmeyer.”
“How do you know about him?”
Rossi smiles. “I hear things.”
I pause a moment, unsure exactly how to read the statement, before grabbing a donut with a smile to Garcia and heading towards Rossi. “How about we talk in my office?”
“Sure.”
I close the door behind us, let Rossi find a seat as I go to mine. I set the donut aside and look at him for sometime, let the awkwardness of the silence come, before speaking. “How do you know about Sam?”
“I’ve always been aware of his imprisonment, of course, who hasn’t? But it wasn’t until I had an insider from the prison call me about an hour or so ago telling me how Emily and a man had been in there, asking questions, that I started putting things together.”
“Putting things together?”
Rossi gives a smile that can only be described as mischievous. “You’re going to try and break him out.”
I sit, mute, unwilling to give up either facts or feelings.
“Do you need help?”
“I need your insider to stay silent.”
“She can help.”
“She?” My lips curl into a little smile. “Of course. She.”
Rossi just smiles. “Like I said, she can help.”
“Well, I’m not sure how. Though if I need her I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“Why are you doing this, exactly?”
“Helping my friend?”
“Turning down help for your friend.”
I lean in on my desk some. “I’m not turning down anything, Rossi, I just don’t know how she can be help.”
“Her name’s Ashley, Ashley Seaver, and she’s a nurse at the infirmary. She could be a big help in getting him out.”
“I still don’t see how. It isn’t as if she can walk him out the back door.”
Rossi stands with a sigh. “You can’t either, you’re going to end up needing help getting Sam out.”
I stand when he does. “Rossi, I…I just don’t want to bring a bunch of people in on this that I don’t know or don’t trust completely. I want this to remain discreet and, if possible, easy.”
“There’s nothing discreet about breaking a man out of prison, Aaron. Nothing easy about it either so you better prepare for a very bumpy ride.”
When Rossi steps out of my office, all smooth-talk to Garcia as he leaves, I slump back down in my chair and eat my donut. So far nothing is going quite as planned…or it wouldn’t be if we even had a real plan. We don’t. I don’t. Instead I have people involved I don’t trust and a mobster warning me things will only get worse.
***
In the end it’s Dr Reid’s friend, Ethan, who calls a meeting up at my office. My core team shows up with smiles full of hope and I can only pray that means good news. That it means Ethan’s come up with a plan and that Morgan’s heard good things at the office. Only one person is missing.
“Where’s Dr Reid?”
Ethan smirks at me. “Grabbin’ somethin’ for us.”
I get the sense there’s a great deal more to that statement, but I don’t get the chance to call him on it.
“No signs of any potential leaks on my end,” Morgan cuts in. “So far as anyone at the station is concerned everything’s on schedule with Sam.”
“Even with Foyet?”
“If he knows anything he’s not giving any indication of it, but I’ll keep an eye on him.”
“Good…good,” I nod. “Keep an eye on him though.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Garcia chimes in. “Now I know you said not to, Hotch, but I talked to Kevin last night about all this.”
“Garcia.” I know she means well but this is just another person I’ll have to depend on to be honest and true. Even having accepted Kevin’s help in the past I don’t know if I want Sam’s life depending partly on a man who dresses like a Vaudeville performer.
“I know, Hotch.” She knows what I’m going to say. “But he can keep an ear out for extra chatter on the police radios for us and let us know if something seems off. I swear, he won’t do anything else but listen and inform.”
I give a small smile. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to have an extra pair of ears on the cops.”
“Especially since I still gotta work and be out in the field most the time,” Morgan points out.
Emily, who’d remained quiet in her spot next to Ethan, finally speaks. “Ethan and I went to visit the prison. Ethan talked to Sam.”
All worries are suddenly forgotten in favor of this news. “How is he?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t talk to him, Ethan did.”
My eyes flick immediately to Ethan.
“He’s fine,” Ethan assures me with a faint smile. “He knows what’s comin’ too.”
“What’s that? Have you figured out a set plan?”
“I have.”
The words set all of us on edge.
“Well,” says Morgan. “What the hell is it, man?”
“We need to kill him.”
“Excuse me?”
The room holds its breath.
Ethan looks around. “It’s the safest way to get him out and make sure no one’s looking for him after.”
I nod stiffly, knowing Ethan’s probably right but wishing he wasn’t.
“How…how do we do that?” Garcia asks, lip almost quivering in worry.
Ethan smiles over at her. “We either find a friendly already in the prison to fake the attack or, somehow, get someone in to do it.”
“I could do it,” I offer. “It wouldn’t take much to get myself arrested, we could even have Morgan do it.”
“Aw, it’d be my honor to faux-arrest ya, Hotch,” Morgan chuckles out.
“But no one’s going to buy you attacking Sam,” Emily says.
“She’s right,” Ethan points out. “We’d need someone who could believably want to hurt, kill, Sam.”
I look at him. “How about you then?”
Ethan laughs. “Nice try, but I need to make sure all the pieces stay in play and on track.”
“Rossi said he knows a nurse in the infirmary, could she do it?”
“She might be better at getting Sam out once he’s in the infirmary. Her and…”
Ethan stops as the door opens and Dr Reid and the last person I ever wanted in on this walks into the room.
“Jack!” Garcia cheers in utter delight as she rushes to give my grown son a hug that elicits an “oof” from him. Garcia apologizes as she steps back. “Oh, I’m sorry Jack.”
“I’m fine, Pen. Really, I’m okay. I wouldn’t lie.”
“What are you doing here?” I try to maintain curiosity in my voice even as I have another feeling that I express in a quick glare to Reid.
“Reid tells me you might need help so…” He shrugs. “I’m here to help.”
“That…” my eyes go back to my son, “that’s very kind of you to offer, Jack, but I’m not sure how much you could do.”
Ethan stands and goes to shake hands. “So you’re Hotch’s kid?”
Jack smiles as he heads farther into the room. “Yeah, Jack. You must be Ethan, Dr Reid’s friend, right?”
“That’s me. Reid tells me you’re a doctor or something?
“I’m an EMT.”
I see Ethan’s eyes light up a little. “Perfect. You’re just the type of person we need for what we’re planning.”
“Really?” Jack’s smile grows, clearly excited at the prospect of helping.
“No!”
“Hotch, he, uh, he could really be a help,” Reid countered.
“No.”
“Hotch,” Emily warns.
“No!”
Morgan and Garcia eye each other, debating if they should take up the cause, but both seem to decide better of it.
Jack gives a sigh as he turns to me. “Can we talk?”
“We’re talking here and I’m respectfully declining on your offer.”
Jack gives a snort of a laugh and turns back to Ethan. “If you need me, let me know, Reid can find me.”
“Jack” I call out and he turns on his heel. “This is not up for discussion, I don’t want you involved in this.”
With an eye-roll my son leaves. The tension in that silence spreads and suffocates.
Only Garcia makes the effort to break the spell. “He looked good.” The attempt falls flat.
To Be Continued...
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The Escape: Part 5
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The Escape: Part 1
The Escape: Part 2
The Escape: Part 3