A/N: Sorry for the long update. If you read this story before, I've made a few changes so please reread the previous chapters. Thanks!

"And you're sure the person you saw was Foyet?" asked Rossi for what Hotch felt was the hundredth time today. He wasn't the only one; pretty much everyone on the team had been asking him this all day, as if he was joking or was on drugs when yesterday. The only person who remained quiet for the most part, was Prentiss.

Yet, he still couldn't blame them. He was very certain that he had seen the face of his ex-wife's murderer running away from the scene last night. And of course, that person was long dead. Hotch couldn't even bring himself to lie and say that could have been someone else he had seen because what he had seen was still very clear in his mind. That man was Foyet.

As he excused himself, the rest of the team gathered around to discuss what Hotch was saying. Morgan, noticed Emily was being rather quiet and asked, "Hey Em, what are you thinking? That maybe Hotch needs some rest so that he can stop seeing things? Or do you think Foyet came back as a zombie?"

Prentiss was almost as uncomfortable as Hotch was but answered, "I don't know. Maybe we should just wait until Garcia gets results back." Garcia was currently calling the cemetery where Foyet's body was buried to confirm he was dead. JJ was travelling there as well, to confirm his identity once they retrieved the corpse.

Reid, noticing Prentiss' odd behaviour asked, "Has Hotch talked to you about his feelings about this case? Everytime we've tried to talk to him the past few weeks, he just gives us vague answers and hardly responds at all."

Prentiss had a difficult decision to make here. Either continue to trust Hotch or tell the team everything. Neither was a good option for her. Even if she told the team what Hotch had been thinking, they would probably try to remove him from the case, which would not only get them further away from solving this case, but strain relationships within the team in future cases. But if she didn't tell them, she wouldn't even know what Hotch would do next. He might do something crazy and put himself in serious danger.

"I think we should just look at the evidence again", she said. "We haven't really had time to dissect them properly with all this talk about Foyet and Hotch."

"That's true", said Morgan. "Just yesterday we found this right?" He held up a photo of the blank card they found yesterday.

"Hang on", said Prentiss. "That looks really familiar."

Rossi took a look at it when Reid said, "Yes, doesn't it look just like a police ID card? I mean, I know most of the lettering has faded away and we can't retrieve it back, but you can still somewhat guess what it is because of the spacing and size of the letters."

Rossi said, "Yes, it could be."

Prentiss couldn't help saying, "Or it can be an FBI card".

"FBI? That seems unlikely", said Morgan.

"Well, it's not like the FBI haven't had rogue members before", she argued back, rather persistently.

"Or it could be an imposter, posing as a policeman or FBI agent. We've also had plenty of cases where that has happened."

"Ok, I'll ask Garcia to search every Manhattan policeman and FBI agent and see if any discrepancies turn up". As Morgan goes to contact Garcia, he said, "I hope you guys still know this is a long shot. I mean, it might not even be an ID card at all. It could even just be a business card."

Prentiss, Rossi and Reid nodded.

"What about this?" Rossi holds up a photo of the piece of plastic they found.

As Prentiss looks at it, she suddenly realized something.

"Wait a minute? Foyet wore a mask when he was active right?"

Reid and Rossi look at each other.

"Well...yes, but..."

"But shouldn't we try to analyze this without adding in Foyet?"

Prentiss hated the implication of what Rossi was saying, even though it was understandable that he would think that: that Hotch was just seeing things, like a dead man brought back to life.

Carefully choosing her words, to both not offend Rossi or encourage the notion that Hotch had gone off the deep end, she said, "I think we should trust Hotch. Just for a little bit longer. I mean, he's our captain and he's always come through for us."

"Are you sure this is the professional side of you speaking? Or are you arguing for Hotch for some other reason?" Rossi argued back.

Before Prentiss could reply, Reid said, "Well, normally I wouldn't agree Rossi, but we've already tried examining this on its own, and we've come up with nothing. It wouldn't hurt to go along with Hotch's idea, at least for now."

Rossi sighed but decided to go along with it. "So, if I recall correctly, Foyet's mask was black. Just like this piece we have here."

Reid added, "And it was plastic, if I'm not mistaken."

"I'm pretty sure it was confiscated after Foyet died but we can get Garcia to contact the Boston police and see if they still have it in evidence."

"Alright let's do that."

Rossi stood up and stretched his arms. "Well, it looks like we have a lot of waiting to do before we get any results back. I'm going to get some coffee. You two want some?"

They both shook their heads. Reid said, "I'm going to go talk to the ME again and see if she has any updates for us. Also to see if we missed something related to our victims."

Prentiss was then left alone and after a while, she got bored and decided to walk outside to look for Hotch. As she was, she bumped into him, as he had decided to come back inside.

"Are you alright?" she asked, concerned.

He nodded. "How is the case going?"

"Well, I managed to convince them to take your perspective on this."

Hotch rarely showed emotion but he couldn't help expressing surprise on his face at the moment. "You actually convinced them that what I saw was real?"

"Not exactly. I just told them to go along with it because it's the best lead we have right now."

Hotch's face fell upon hearing this. Emily frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"

"'Go along with it'?" he said, in a voice that was struggling to remain calm.

"I didn't mean it like that", Prentiss said.

"Then what do you mean exactly?"

"I meant to them, they were going along with it. But you know I believe you Hotch."

"I'm sure you do." Hotch sighed. "At this point, I'm not sure I even believe myself."

"At this point, you should just go away."

Hotch looked like he had been slapped across the face. Emily felt sorry for him but she had to continue. "Crying about people believing you isn't going to be helping anyone. There are innocent people that have died and even more people that are still going to die because of this guy. Instead of thinking about protecting them, you would rather just sulk around because no one believes you."

"You guys are supposed to be my team!" Hotch almost yelled.

"I know we are. And I do believe you, even if no one else does. But just because we're a team, doesn't mean we'll always be on the same page. However, that doesn't mean they don't respect you anymore, Hotch. That's something you should know."

Hotch looked away, unable to meet her eyes.

"We're doing this for the victims, Hotch. Not for ourselves."

For a second, Prentiss thought he would turn around and leave, but he said, "Okay, I'll come back in and work you guys then." He walked past Prentiss without a glance at her.

For a few moments, Prentiss grew worried and was scared that she was too harsh on Hotch. After all, hasn't the guy gone through enough? She then walked back to the conference room and took one look at the board where information about the case was posted, particularly the victims. This one look was enough to convince her that she had done the right thing. "This isn't about Hotch, me, Reid, Rossi or the rest of the team. It's about them. Getting justice for the innocent people who were murdered. It's about the people who are going to get hurt next. And it's about the unsub. Finding out his psychological profile to stop him once and for all."

"Well, I've got some news for you guys."

"Welcome back, JJ."

"Lucky you, you get the longest break from this case", said Rossi.

JJ smiled and said, "So, I just found out that Foyet's body is still there." The team glanced at each other but said nothing. "I heard Morgan was still looking for his mask. Should we call him back?"

"I think we should let him do his job", Reid said. Since Hotch was at the table now and looking in an even worse shape than before, he didn't want to offend him. Besides, they still had to follow all possible leads. Just because Foyet was still buried underground didn't mean that the mask was going to be in its proper place.

"I have to go", Hotch said suddenly. Before anyone could react, he stood up and began walking towards the exit.

"Hotch, wa..." Reid stood up as well, ready to stop Hotch, when Rossi put his hand on his shoulder.

"Just let him. He's dealt with enough. And maybe with him gone, we can try seeing this case from a different perspective."

Prentiss watched guiltily as Hotch walked away. She knew that while her conversation with Hotch earlier wasn't the only reason he was leaving (the discovery of Foyet's body still in its proper place probably had the most to do with that), it was one of them.

"While we're waiting for Morgan, I have something to tell you guys. The ME just told me that she missed something when she was looking over Ethan Jones' body. That's the unsub's third victim."

"So, what was it she missed?" asked JJ.

"Well..."

As Hotch was walking back, he was feeling worse than ever. "Foyet's still dead. I guess everyone was right. I have lost it. I think I'm going to take myself off the case. It will be for the best", he thought.

"No one could ask any more from me. I've helped solve hundreds of cases before this. This one just isn't for me."

As he entered his room, he decided on taking a drink. He normally didn't drink, outside of special occasions, but of course, the circumstances were different now. Just as he was about to give in to the temptation, he remembered Prentiss's talk with him earlier.

"We're doing this for the victims, Hotch. Not for ourselves."

That was the line she said. The one that stood out to him.

Slowly, he put the drink down and repeated the phrase, spoken in Prentiss' voice, over and over again, in his mind.

"Okay, Emily. You're right. I can't give up now. Too many people are depending on me."

Hotch takes out the case file and looks it over. There still isn't much on it but that doesn't deter Hotch. For some reason, he feels rejuvenated. And then he spots it. He grabs the picture of the card with its wording wiped out. It was very difficult to see but he could make out the faint letters. This was definitely an FBI card. Not only that, but Hotch could make out a few things about the name. It was relatively short overall and he couldn't identify an actual letter. The only ones that were even remotely workable were the second or third one in the first name and either the fourth or fifth in the surname."

"Is that a 'G'? It looks like it", he thought, looking at the letter in the first name. He tried to look harder but it still seemed like a 'G' to him. "I should call Garcia and ask her to check FBI member's with their first names with 'G' as the second or third letter. That should narrow the search a lot..." he thought sarcastically.

That's when Hotch saw it clearly.

"My God, that's not a 'G, that's an 'O'. And that letter in the surname, the fourth or fifth one, that one is a 'T'. Hotch got too distracted on solving this mini-hangman game to call Garcia. Or to notice the footsteps outside his door.

Just as the answer came to him, the door suddenly opened. "He must have lockpicked it. He wouldn't even need to use a more sophisticated method, even though he could. After all, this hotel's security was terrible", was Hotch's only thought before the man who entered raised a taser and pointed it directly at Hotch. Hotch was only able to look at the man's face for a few seconds before he got knocked out. Unfortunately, the face was being obscured by a mask. A mask that was black and plastic. A mask that had a chip in the jaw area. A mask that Hotch previously saw worn several years ago, by a man named George Foyet.