Birthday Every Day

Chap 9 "Set Up"

Alexis' POV
A good two weeks had passed. JJ dropped off her son. "Hey Henry," I sighed. We got into the car. "I have to take you with me." Hector dropped Henry and I off at Hotch's apartment. I rang the doorbell. Hotch opened the door. "Hi."
"Good morning," Hotch smiled.
"We appreciate you giving us a drive again," I sighed.
"No problem," Hotch replied. "Anytime."
"Thanks," I smiled. I saw Jack. "Alright, Jack. Let's get you packed up." I sighed as I helped him pack his bag. "You're all set."
"LAPD!" some guys busted in.
I held both kids close to me. Hotch held out his gun. "I'm on the job," Hotch replied.
"Drop the weapon," the guy stated.
I recognized his voice. "Hector?" I asked.
"I'm Aaron Hotchner, with the FBI," Hotch replied a he held his gun.
"We know who you are," Hector replied. "Lower your gun."
"Who sent you?" Hotch asked.
"Hotch," I sighed.
"Daddy, what's going on?" Jack asked.
"It's okay, Jack," Hotch nodded.
"Lower your weapon," Hector replied. "On your knees. Now!"
"Daddy," Jack replied.
"It's okay, Jack. It's just a big misunderstanding," Hotch nodded. "I'll be back."
Hotch left with two of the members. "Stay right here," I sighed. I walked up to Hector. "What the hell is going on?"
"Uhm, we got a call," Hector replied. "We had to respond."
"Well, I gotta get going," I sighed. "I have to take the kids with me." I drove them to the FBI BAU office with me. We walked inside. "Hey guys."
"Uncle Spencer!" Henry ran up to Reid and gave him a hug.
Jack clung onto my arm. "Why don't you go wait in your dad's office?" I nodded. Jack left. "It's bad."
"What happened?" JJ asked. Henry went to join up with Jack. "I thought they'd be safe with Hotch."
"Yeah, that's what I thought," I replied. "I brought them here because I thought it'd be the safest place for them. JJ, notify the schools, please." I sat down. "I know I'm not part of the team but what's going on?"
"He's being held by the DOJ," Rossi sighed.
"They should be defending him, not charging him," I sighed.
"Since you know a lot of this, you need to be here with us," Reid sighed. "Would you like to help us?"
"I can," I sighed.
"She can't," JJ nodded. "You have to take care of the kids and your kid."
"Yeah but what are we going to do with Jack?" I asked. "I can't necessarily take him to my place. Hector was the one who took Hotch in."
"His voice has been mashed together by the many conference we held to the public," Garcia replied as she walked in. "Uhm, no, I cannot confirm it. I'm going to need some more help."
"Alexis, we can use your help," Reid looked at me.
"I don't know if I can," I nodded. "I don't even work here. I was just going to be with Jack and Henry. I just happened to be at Hotch's so he can give me the ride here."
"You did turn in an application, right?" Rossi asked. I nodded. "Let's see." Rossi went through a couple papers. "Ah, look what I found in the approved file." Rossi showed me the paper. "Now, let's get to work."
"Garcia, play the recording," I nodded. Garcia did. "How did they do that?"
"Spoofing tech makes it seem like it's coming from Hotch's cell and using his voice, that takes skill," Garcia nodded.
"It's subtle, but his inflection changes," Reid replied. "It sounds like the words are spliced together."
"Yeah, let's look up all the BAU press conferences led by Hotch," I nodded.
"Doing that," Garcia nodded. She found the conferences and we posted them on the board. "Anything else?"
"Not right now," I sighed. "He's held by the DOJ and that makes sense because it's the internal affairs and the parent of the bureaus but still. They should be defending him, not charging him." I looked at the board. "That's a good start, but they're not gonna listen to anything we have to say until we give a viable suspect."
"Especially with explosives in play," JJ replied. "They planted enough on Hotch to make it look like he was ready to blow up a city block."
"Okay, back to basics," Rossi stopped her. "Someone's framing Hotch. Who would want to?"
"He's put away a lot of people," Reid sighed. "We've seen the lengths that Chaz Montolo went to against Morgan for revenge. We shouldn't underestimate anything."
"Not even Montolo could pull this off," I nodded.
I looked out the conference window at Jack. "But that SOB had what was coming for him," a voice came from the door.
I looked. "Morgan," I smiled. I jumped out of my seat and hugged him.
"Hey baby girl," Morgan replied as he hugged me.
"I only got a few things to say," I nodded as we let go of each other. I playfully punched him. "That was for quitting right when I was signing up."
"Well, tech goddess over there asked me to come in a help a few old friends," Morgan smiled. "Let's bring Hotch back."
"Yeah, well, it's complicated," I sighed. "This is multi-faceted, calculated for maximum disruption. Attacking Hotch in his home, separating him from us."
"We should focus on unsubs that are sophisticated enough to carry on this coordinated of an attack," JJ nodded.
"Garcia, how are you doing with the cell spoofing technology?" I asked.
"Okay, there's a few of them," Garcia nodded. "There are higher apps other than a shadow cell. There are Spoof Me, The Storm, Gamercall -"
"Wait, that middle one," JJ replied. "The Storm? That was Antonia's message to Hotch."
"There's a storm coming, and you'll be swept away," Reid stated.
"I don't know about you, but this feels like a massive storm," I replied.
"It can't be a coincidence," Morgan replied. "But there's no way she could've pulled this off from inside prison."
"Yeah, but she knew about it enough to toy with Hotch," Reid replied.
"Anybody want to go slap that smirk off her face?" JJ asked.
"She's been pulling strings since you met her," I sighed as I looked at the file. "She wanted our attention, but why?"
"Narcissism," JJ replied. "We each spent time with her, a lot of it. But she didn't mention the storm until Hotch went back to question her again."
"That was after you solves the case," I replied. "She's probably getting back at you because of the strings you guys pulled just to use her to solve the case."
"It was a retort, after Hotch exposed her past," Reid looked at me.
"And her son," JJ sighed.
"Oh no," I nodded. "No, no, no, no, no." I looked at JJ. "Go and question Antonia. I'm going to do everything in my power to keep anything from harming the kids. Except, the safest place they will be is here."
Jack walked in. "Aunt Alexis, is my dad okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, he's fine, sweetheart," I sighed as JJ left. "Come here." He walked to me and I gave him a hug. I crouched down. "Look, we're going to be here for a while. Go back to the office, and write down what you and Henry want to eat. I'm going to send Agent Morgan in there with you. When you get done, give him the list and he'll go get it for you, okay?" Jack nodded. "Alright, go." Jack left and I stood back up. "Morgan, I need you to take care of the kids while I help work this case."
"I got it," Morgan nodded as he left.
JJ walked back in. "Anything?" I asked.
"Asher Douglas is Antonia's son," JJ sighed as Garcia pulled up a picture. "He lives in northern Virginia."
"Early 40s is old for a swatter," Reid replied.
"But he's a match in every way that counts," Garcia sighed. "He purchase the storm spoofing software, he bought several audio splicing programs."
"That's how he was able to make the call from Hotch's cell and sound like him," I nodded.
"Something about this doesn't fit," Reid replied.
"It fits enough for me," Rossi sighed. "Let's go."
"I'll meet you guys there," I sighed. "Hotch is depending on us." They left. I walked to Hotch's office and closed the door behind me. "Alright boys. Henry, I have to go and help your mom so you be good to Agent Morgan, okay? You too, Jack." They nodded. I pulled Morgan off to the corner. "We're going to arrest Antonia's son with probable cause because of the 911 call that was placed. So, I'll let you know how it goes." My phone rang. I looked at it and it was JJ. I picked up. "Yeah?"
"Don't worry about coming," JJ replied. "We got it covered here."
"Okay," I nodded. "Thanks." I hung up. "I am going to stay here with the kids for a while. I'm just helping out in the case until it's over."
"Why the BAU?" Morgan asked.
"I couldn't do the LAPD," I sighed. "Too risky and my husband works there. Right now, I'm having issues. He busted in Hotch's door with the kids there. I can't trust him right now." I looked at Morgan. "I have to make sure everything's alright before I take these kids home with me. I gotta go, but I'll see what I can do to solve this case." I got into one of the SUVs and went to meet the team at Asher's house. I put on my vest and walked inside. I got the gun out of the car and clipped it to my pants. "Guys." I walked inside. "What do we have?"
"A prion break is happening tonight," Rossi sighed.
"That's great," I sighed. "Let's go. We need to get Hotch back." We got into the SUV and it was dark. "Okay." I was with JJ and she was driving. "I think the break out already started at VA Max. This is exactly the larger plan we profiled."
"We're five minutes out," JJ replied.
"He's had another group he's been working with on the inside," I sighed. "By the time we clear Hotch, they'll be gone." JJ stepped on the gas. "Oh, great." We got to the prison and got out of the car. "I'm Agent David."
"Warden Nabb," he shook my hand. "Your call came in. It's too late, agent."
"Have you located Eric Rawdon?" Reid asked.
"Not yet. The rioters still control three blocks, and the fires inside have spread us thin," Nabb nodded. SWAT got there. "We can't get in there."
"Warden, this isn't a riot," I replied. "It's a break."
"They'll never get over the wall," Nabb replied.
"They may have some other way out," JJ nodded.
"Whoever told me that FBI agents are smarter, they're definitely right," I sighed as I took a step back and looked at the building. "Let's see. Every part of this plan has been meticulously crafted."
"We got a distress call that some of the prisoners got to the gun safe," Nabb looked at me. "First priority is to secure the control room."
"Let's go in," I sighed. We went in. "I got one." I pointed my gun at him. "Where are the others? How are they getting out?"
"Shhhh," the prisoner replied.
"Freeze!" JJ exclaimed. The prisoner JJ saw decided to run. We went after him. Gunshots were heard and we had a SWAT officer in front of us. They covered us. We got the prisoner down. I checked for a pulse. "He's gone."
"Yeah," I nodded. I heard clattering. "Shhh." I listened as I holstered my weapon. "Do you have a light?" One of the SWAT officers handed me his flashlight. I got under the bed and saw a vent. "Captain, we got a tunnel."
"I'll report that to Rossi," JJ sighed.
I went with the captain and I was in the serial killer wing. The SWAT officers left me there. The doors started opening and I held up my gun. "This can't seriously be happening," I sighed.
"Agent Inthavong?" asked a guy. I held my gun up at him. "It's me, The Zodiac Killer."
"Oh shit," I whispered. "This isn't good." I grabbed my radio. "JJ, Reid, back up, now!"
"On our way," JJ stated.
I shot my gun at one of the prisoners as he came at me. "Don't do this," I sighed. I saw Hotch and more SWAT officers. "Look behind you, Mr. Zodiac." Hotch started taking down some of the prisoners but not the ones that had their hands up. I relaxed. We started hearing gunshots. "That's Reid and JJ." Hotch left the room. I went with Hotch. "We gotta find that bomb."
"Ivory Tower," Hotch nodded.
We got into the SUVs and went there. They started to shoot. We opened the doors to the SUV and shot back. We shot at the helicopter and it blew up. It crashed on the ground. I sighed. "Alexis, you're bleeding," Reid replied.
I looked at my arm. "It's just a flesh wound," I sighed. "It's alright." We got that done and went to Hotch's office. Henry was asleep. Jack was drawing. I got Henry and walked him out of the room. "Let's go to your mom." I walked Henry out to his mom. "JJ."
"Henry," JJ smiled as he ran to her.
"You guys are an amazing family," I smiled. I walked to Hotch's office. Jack was asleep. "Hotch, just be his dad for now. That's all you can do."
"Alexis," Hotch sighed. He gave me a hug. "Thank you."
"For what?" I asked.
"Being the woman you are," Hotch nodded. "Will you be Jack's godmother?"
I smiled. "I'll love that," I nodded. Our phones beeped and we looked at it. We met in the conference room. "We have a problem."
"What is it now?" JJ asked.
"Three more prison breaks in three different states, all organized by Rawdon's partners from his last bombing attempt," Hotch replied as he crossed his arms.
"The local field office got a head start because of what we did," Garcia replied. "They stopped the bomb threat, but -"
"Who didn't they catch?" Rossi asked.
"All have serial killer wings just like VA Max," I sighed. "They were released first to cause maximum chaos and occupy law enforcement. A lot of them were killed or recaptured, but not all of them."
"How many got away?" JJ asked.
"As of right now, thirteen serial killers," Garcia sighed. JJ dropped her head. "One of which is Peter Lewis."
"Mr. Scratch," Reid stated. "That's why he testified against you. He was part of their plan all along."
"So we have to catch him again," Hotch nodded. "Along with twelve other murderers."
We all looked at each other. "Alexis, you up to catch thirteen murderers that we only know the profile to?" Morgan asked.
"Just give me a file and the basic break down," I nodded. "I'm ready to run this train just like the rest of you."