The Long, Lonely Road Ahead

The following events take place after Hotch’s divorce but prior to JJ’s giving birth.

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The Long, Lonely Road Ahead

Chapter Thirty-One

“Oh my God! Aaron!” I shouted. I ran back down the stairs, frantic, but he was sitting in the doorway, his phone still in his hands. He was speckled with debris—glass and wood fragments, and blood. “Are you okay? Aaron, are you okay?”
“What… what just happened?” he asked, stunned.
“I don’t know,” I said, standing up to look down the walk. There were a couple of small fires that were quickly being put out by the snow on the ground. The police officer who’d been holding the parcel was dead, obviously, the remains of his body burned and twisted by the bomb that had exploded. Three other police officers were rushing from their cruisers and I could hear a siren in the distance. “What did he say to you?”
“A package had been delivered,” Aaron said. I helped him to his feet. He staggered into the kitchen and I sat him down at the table. I pulled out some paper towel and wet it. “He said it was addressed to you and me.”
“Both of us? Were you expecting anything?” I asked, and then I stopped. “Oh. It was a bomb?”
“I guess so,” he said. He put his hand to his face and wiped at some blood that was dripping from a cut in his forehead.


The sirens grew louder and I went to the front door to find a fire truck and an ambulance, as well as three more cruisers pulling up to the house. I stood in the doorway, watching the police and firemen begin their work over the dead body of the officer. Aaron walked up behind me, clutching the wet paper towel I’d left on the counter. “Who would send us a bomb?” I didn’t answer. A paramedic walked up to the house and looked at Aaron.
“Sir? Were you in range of the bomb when it went off?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. She took the paper towel from him.
“You need to come with me, Sir. You need medical attention,” she said. She looked at me.
“I was in the house when it went off,” I said.
“You’ll probably need to make a statement,” she said. “I’d put on some pants if I were you.” “Uh, yeah, good idea,” I said, but I couldn’t seem to move as she lead Aaron away to the ambulance. I could hear him speaking as they walked away.
“I’m fine. I don’t need to go to the hospital,” he was saying. A black SUV drove up and Morgan, Rossi, and Prentiss got out. Rossi went immediately to Aaron. I wondered how they’d gotten here so fast, but I figured they must have been called by the police as soon as the bomb went off. Morgan and Prentiss jogged up to the house.

“Terra! What happened?” Prentiss asked me. Morgan looked at me and shooed me inside.
“It’s freezing out here. You need to put some clothes on,” he said, shooting a look at Prentiss.
“But Aaron…” I began, walking backwards into the house with Morgan in front of me.
“He’ll be fine. Rossi’s with him,” Prentiss said. “Come on. We’ll go find you some clothing. Where are you staying?”
“Upstairs,” I said. She took me by the hand and lead me upstairs. Morgan walked back out to the scene of the explosion.
“Where are your clothes?” Prentiss asked me when we’d reached the bedroom. “Is this Hotch’s bedroom?”
“Uh… yeah,” I said, sitting down on the bed. I put my head in my hands. “I can’t believe they’d go this far. I can’t believe they’d do this.”
“Who would do this? Do you know who did this, Terra?” Prentiss said, sitting down on the bed next to me. “Was this aimed at you? Or at Hotch?”
“It was meant for me. I mean, he said it was addressed to both of us, but I’m pretty sure it was meant for me,” I said. I got up and went to my clean clothing, picking out a pair of jeans, socks, and a black sweater. “I need to go to Aaron. He’s hurt.”
“You can’t do anything for him, Terra,” Prentiss said from the bed. “He’s being helped. Right now, get dressed and we’ll take you back with us to the BAU. Okay?”
“Uh, sure, I guess.” I pulled on my socks and jeans, then tied my hair back in a ponytail. I pulled the sweater over my head and stood, lost for a moment. “I can’t believe this happened. I didn’t even get a chance to take a shower. I didn’t finish my coffee. We were… we were just… and then the doorbell rang… and…”
“Come on. We need to find your boots and a jacket. Do you have a purse?” she said, leading me back downstairs.
“No. Just a wallet and my phone,” I said, pulling my shoes and jacket out of the hall closet and slipping them on. I put my stuff into my pockets and we walked out of the house.


“Who’s going to lock up? And Aaron had files he was working on, on the kitchen table. What if someone finds them who isn’t supposed to see them?”
“We’ll take care of it. Don’t worry about that,” she said, opening the door to the SUV. I paused at the door, looking over at the ambulance. Aaron was sitting on the edge of the back of the ambulance, Rossi standing over him. They were talking while a paramedic picked bits of something out of Aaron’s face.
“I need to talk to Aaron,” I said, walking away from Prentiss. She tried to grab me, but I shook her off and headed to the ambulance. “Aaron!”
“Terra, come on. He’ll be fine,” Prentiss called, following me.
“Terra,” Rossi said, standing between me and Aaron. “He’s fine. You need to go with Agent Prentiss.”
“Aaron,” I said, walking around Rossi. Rossi put his hands out to stop me, grabbing my arms and I stood for a moment, fury flaring in me. “Let me go or so help me, you’ll be sorry.”
“Terra, calm down,” Aaron said, standing up. The paramedic tried to get him to sit back down, but he waved her away. “I’m fine. Really.”
“You’re not,” I said, pulling away from Rossi. I put a hand to Aaron’s face. “You’re hurt. This was my fault. If I hadn’t been here…”
“You didn’t send the bomb,” Aaron said, a quizzical look on his face. “How could this possibly be your fault?”
“It was meant for me,” I said, and I could feel the tears start. I tried to swallow my anger and grief, but it was hard; the tears slipped down my cheeks. “And you got hurt. I let you get hurt.”
“Are you okay?” he asked, his face serious. He had small cuts all over his face and in his neck. I touched him again and he flinched with pain.
“Oh.” I pulled my hand away as if I’d been burned.
“Terra…” He pulled me towards him and held me tightly.
“Aaron, this isn’t the time or the place,” Rossi said.
“Just give me a minute, David,” Aaron said over my head. He looked down at me, his arms around me. “I’m fine. My ears are ringing again, which is something I’ll have to watch. My hearing hasn’t been one hundred percent since the last bomb that exploded near me,” he said ruefully. “But if you’re all right, then you need to go with Emily and Derek. They’ll keep you safe. And you need to tell them everything you know about this, or anything you suspect about it. We need to figure out where this came from, or who sent it. Okay?” I nodded and he wiped a tear from my cheek with his thumb. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. And I’m fine. I really am.” He kissed me and I kissed him back before clasping him in a fierce hug.
“Come on, Terra,” Prentiss said, as Aaron let me go. “We’ve got to go.”
“Okay,” I said. Aaron nodded at me and I nodded back, wiping my face on my sleeve. “I’m coming.”

We ended up back in the conference room, with me on one side of the table and Prentiss and Morgan on the other. I sat, a cup of fairly awful coffee clasped in one hand, wishing I were with Aaron. They sat, watching me, and occasionally asking me questions.
“So who do you think sent the bomb?” Morgan asked me. “Surely you’ve got some idea?”
“I don’t know. I got this call yesterday afternoon after we’d come back from a run in the park,” I said.
“You went running together in the park?” Prentiss asked. “Did you take an officer with you? Or an agent?”
“Not that I noticed. They might have been following us,” I said with a shrug.
“Tell me about the phone call,” Morgan said.
“I went to the kitchen to get some water, and my phone rang,” I said. “There was no caller ID, but sometimes Pen’s number doesn’t show up, eh? So I answered it.”
“And?” he prompted.
“And it was some guy. He told me not to tell the DA anything or I was going to die,” I said.
“Did you tell Hotch about it?” Morgan asked. “Tell me you told him.”
“I turned off my phone,” I said, holding up the Blackberry. “I didn’t want to bother Aaron with this. At the time, it seemed like just an empty threat.”
“They had your phone number,” Prentiss said. “You didn’t think they’d be able to find where you were?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think,” I said, putting my head in my hands. I rubbed my temples.
“An officer is dead because you didn’t think,” Morgan snapped. “A good man, who had a family.”
“Yeah, well, obviously that wasn’t intentional,” I snapped back. Rossi walked into the room at that point. “How’s Aaron?”
“He’s at the hospital. They’re checking out his hearing. He didn’t need another bomb blast, that’s for sure,” he said, taking a seat. “So, what do we know?”
“The MPD are going to bring the bomb fragments here for me,” Morgan told him. “If I can figure out what kind of bomb it was, maybe I can get a bead on who sent it.”
“Apparently Terra received a threatening phone call yesterday but she didn’t tell Hotch about it,” Prentiss said.
“Do you think it’s connected to the bomb?” Rossi asked me.
“I’m pretty sure it is, yeah,” I said.
“Have you received any other threats since then?” Rossi picked up my phone.
“I turned off my phone and haven’t turned it on since.” I shrugged.
“I’m going to turn it on and see what we’ve got,” he said, doing as he said. We waited as the phone came on. Seconds later, the voice mail indicator beeped. “Okay, we’ve got voice mail. May I listen to it?”
“Of course,” I said. “Let me put in the access code.” That done, we listened.
There were five new messages from five different people.

“Say anything to the DA and you’re dead. Remember that, bitch.”

“If you talk about the Patriot Militia at all, you’ll wish you’d never been born. And we’ll kill your little FBI agent lover boy too.”

“The Silverados say hi, Terra. You’ll find out how real soon and you’ll be sorry.”

“If you talk to the DA about any of us, we’ll make you sorry. Wanna live? Don’t talk.”

“You owe us for Josiah. You’re a dead woman.”