A Fathers Daughter: Alternate Ending

*Alternate* Epilogue: Cara's POV

Eleven Years Later

"Cara!" Jack yells from across our small apartment, "come on! I can't be late for move in, otherwise my roommate is going to get the better bed!"

I laugh and walk out of my room, "I'm coming, I'm coming!" I grab my keys off the hook and pick up my purse, "you do realize that we're only about thirty minutes away from campus right?"

"I know," he says, rolling his eyes, "but that doesn't mean we get to be late!"

I shake my head and we walk out the door. We walk towards my black four door jeep that's filled with the freshman essentials.

"Can I drive?" He asks, raising his eyebrows at me and reaching for my keys.

"Hell no!" I tell him, bringing my keys to my chest and out of his reach, "remember what happened the last time I let you drive my car?"

"That wasn't my fault," he says, throwing his hands up in surrender, "that other car came out of nowhere."

I raise my eyebrow and laugh, "really? A parked car came out of nowhere?"

He rolls his eyes again but smiles, "okay, fair enough."

We get into the car and start the drive to Boston University, the place Jack will call home for the next four years.

It's hard to believe that it's been 11 years since I faked my death and kidnapped Jack Hotchner.

Faking my death was surprisingly easy. I took the plan right out of my father's playbook. I drew a pint of my blood every couple of weeks, kept it in the fridge until necessary. Then I asked Jeff to go to the abandoned cabin and make it look like I put up a fight. I also gave him the finances to buy a different pair of shoes (in the wrong size) and new tires for his truck so he could avoid the tracks being traced back to him.

I also gave him my dagger necklace to leave at the scene. It broke me a little bit to give that up, but it's the one thing that I wear without fail. So it was truly the only thing that could be left behind that would make it believable that I was dead.

That night, I drove with Jack six hours to Charlotte, North Carolina before stopping at a motel. Jack woke up as I pulled in and asked what was going on.

I told him that our job put his dad in danger again. That a cold case from before I started at the BAU came up again and the suspect was sending threats to his father. In order to keep him safe, he asked me to hide him, since I'm the only person that wasn't around when the case happened, kind of like when he and his mom had to go away.

Jack didn't ask anymore questions after that. We went into the motel and I dyed both of our hair dark brown. I cut mine short before changing my clothes. We tossed our clothes in different dumpsters before we hit the road again, stopping for breakfast first.

We continued our journey south, stopping only to sleep, eat, or get gas. We stayed in San Antonio, Texas for the next three months. I started homeschooling him and picking up odd jobs to earn some extra cash. I had plenty of money stored away, but it's dangerous to travel with too much cash on you. Also keeping all of your money in a discrete offshore bank account is increasingly difficult when you're trying to remain off the grid. But we made it work.

We had to move every four to eight months and it was hard on him but I tried to keep him as socialized as I could without drawing too much attention. We both know, even now, that I'm not his real parent but I love him as if he was mine and he tells me that he loves me too. It made me even more determined to give him his best chance and to put his needs ahead of my own, something my mother tried and failed to do so many times.