AN: So this is the next story that I had planned on writing for a while. This picks up somewhere around where the last chapter (26) of 'Who Are You' left off. The BAU team has gone with Alecta back to her home town having been given two weeks off from the Dragon Lady of the BAU. Anyway, let's see what unfolds, yeah.

"I wasn't safe. I wasn't permanent. My life was a fiction I had created, like an alien who comes to earth and tries to pass as human. The affections of my friends meant nothing to me, directed, as they were, toward a person who wasn't there. There was nobody home."
( Robert Goolrick, 'The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life')

It's what made me, saved me, drove me crazy, Drove me away than embraced me, forgave me for all of my shortcomings, welcome to my homecoming. Yeah it's been a long time coming.
(DIDDY - COMING HOME LYRICS)

Chapter 1:

The flight had been short and uneventful. They had been allowed to use one of the FBI jets to get there, since it was a short notice sort of move. Immogene had come back on her own way to the airport and dropped off a suitcase full of clean clothes and necessary items for Alecta; this way Alecta wouldn't have to chance setting foot back in the compound again. The worry about that was two-fold; not only did the girls worry about any possible risks as far as security goes, but they also worried that in her current emotional state, Alecta would torch the place; and there was still a lot of stuff to get out of there.

When everyone had arrived back at Rossi's, this included Hotch and Jack, Hotch walked into a door frame in Rossi's house when he saw Alecta standing in the living room going through one of her bags, making sure she had everything in it that she needed. She was standing there in a pair of faded, old jeans that had holes in the knees. They surely highlighted her best assets. And on her feet was a pair of silver and white 'Sketcher' flip-flops. She was wearing a deep purple camisole top that was slightly ribbed. Her hair was down, and most of it was draped over her shoulder from where she had been bent down examining her bag, with a few bits here and there that tumbled back down her back. There was a top tied around her waist that was various shades of purple in a plaid design, it also had a metallic silver thread that was woven throughout it for effect.

"Daddy…you alright?"

"Yes, Hotch. Are you ok?"

Hotch looked at Rossi, who was trying so hard not to laugh that he nearly had tears in his eyes, Hotch mouthed 'asshole' over to Rossi who had to go back into the kitchen before he died laughing.

"Yes Jack, I'm fine. I just wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

In the meantime Alecta had turned when she heard Hotch smack into the door frame, and heard Jack ask his first question.

"What were you paying attention to daddy?"

"Jack, did you pack your toothbrush?"

"Uh, Hotch, what happened man?"

"I was just going over my mental check list and making sure I remembered to pack everything…"

"And in the process forgot to pay attention to those pesky doorways; didn't ya boss man?"

"Penelope."

Penelope bit her lips together to help stifle a laugh as she walked past the men. She damned well what had caused Hotch to walk into the doorway; it was the same thing that had caused men to walk into doorways and trip over their own two feet for nearly 20 years, if not more.

"So, Lex, are ya done packing? I think so; Immogene did a good job. She knows the stuff I usually like to take with me."

"Well, if everybody is ready, let's get this show on the road." Rossi, as always, was taking charge.

The team, along with Penelope and Alecta and the kids made their way out to the air strip and jumped on the plane. The flight was uneventful; the two sets of twins were playing, along with Jazzy. Sofie and Emma absolutely adored their older brother. The two Rachels conversed. Kevin had gone ahead with his parents two days ago to make sure everything was ready for the guests. The older twins were good at art, as was their brother, and they were making drawings that they would then pass to the smaller children to color. Sasha drew a picture for Jazzy that looked like a cartoon version of the little girl that was holding a bouquet of various flowers with a letter in an envelope. She passed it to the little girl who squealed with delight and had just set to work on the bouquet; her biggest decision was what color to pick first.

Alecta was reading a book about the possibility of Dracula being alive and the old fight between him and Sultan Mehmed II.

"You don't actually buy into any of that do you?"

"Ok. I don't buy into all of that."

"You're being sarcastic."

"Very good doctor Reid."

"How can someone with any amount of education and common sense believe that he still lives?"

"Because, I saw the son of a bitch!" she gritted through her teeth.

With that Alecta slammed her book shut and got up and moved over by her children and watched them color.

Hotch had looked up from his card game with Jack when he heard Reid and Alecta start talking. He hadn't thought much of it until he heard Alecta raise her voice. Again he looked up and saw her leave her conversation with Reid and go over to her kids, she didn't even seem to notice that he was watching. Hotch made a mental note to ask Reid and Alecta what this little disagreement was about.

Alecta smiled to herself a bit as she stooped down by her daughters and Jazzy, watching them color. Of course she noticed Hotch watching her. She had noticed a lot about the way he acted towards her for days now….and especially the last couple of hours since he walked into the wall at Rossi's house. It was cute, the way he thought he was being all covert…and failing.

Once the jet reached the private air strip about 2 ½ hours later, the door was slung open and everyone began to make their exits. Once down on the tarmac, and after helping the three little girls, Alecta looked around and saw Kevin walking towards them. He was still so very handsome, she'd nearly forgotten how much so.

"You alright baby?"

"Yeah, mama I'm fine. I just remember him as the boy I left behind, that's all. Let's do this."

As Kevin walked closer, Alecta noticed some other fellows getting out of the other SUVs. By the time Kevin was hugging Alecta she could clearly see who had gotten out of the driver's seat of the vehicles.

"No." she began backing away as they came closer. Kevin saw her panic rise in her eyes.

"Lex, calm down, they're my deputies."

"Make 'em stay away from me. Please."

She was scooting behind Kevin, trying to put a little distance between her and the men that walked towards them.

"What's wrong doll face?"

Alecta looked over her shoulder at Morgan. Her eyes were weary again.

The men stopped walking and stood a solid 15 feet away from Kevin and Alecta.

"They used to give Lex shit back when we were in school…' feeling her shaking behind him. "They gave her A LOT of shit back then. Lex, it's cool. They aren't like that anymore."

Alecta walked a little closer to the men, glaring at them, 'If you want me to forgive you, you're earning it." With that, Alecta walked to the SUV that Kevin had driven and climbed up in the passenger seat.

Mrs. King merely walked past the young men glaring at them.

"To think I helped your mommas change your diapers." She gave them a disapproving 'tsk', clicking her teeth with her tongue and joined Alecta in the car.

"K? Did we just see what we thought we…"

"Uh, yes. Long story. Maybe later."

"Not such a long story. Jake, enough said."

"Victor, how 'bout you and the fellas just give me a little while to work on Lex…it'll be ok."

"Well, K., we wish you luck with that one." The deputy known as Ratliff mumbled scratching the back of his head.

"Funny, Ratliff. If ya'll want to jump in the other trucks, we can take ya'll out to the diner and get something to eat before we go out to the house. Or would you like to head to the house first and unload the luggage and relax for a spell?"

Leaning out the window and yelling Alecta made the decision, "Head to the damned diner first, my tape worm's waking up. Don't let these skinny broads make that kind of decision; are you insane?"

Garcia started laughing so hard. It was the first time she had really laughed that hard since Alecta came into the picture; sure she had giggled here and there, cracked a few jokes…but she hadn't laughed a good hard laugh in weeks. But this had her in stitches. Hell for that matter, even JJ and Prentiss were laughing. Rachel was shaking her head in humor at her mama.

About 15 minutes later the convoy made it through town. It was a small down town area with a lot of quaint little store fronts; mom and pop places to be sure. There was a little local hardware store. There was a bank, the front of which nearly looked out of place; it had huge columns that seemed to touch the sky. It reminded you of a Greek revival sort of style. It was sandwiched in between two less imposing buildings; one looked like a local lawyer's office and the other was a dentist's office judging by the sign above the door…it was an older sign, there was no telling how long it had been up there. There was a small shop that sold infants and children's clothes; it looked like it was pretty expensive stuff, too. There were a few little restaurants; a small little sandwich shop, a decent little dine-in place that, judging by the décor, would be a little more expensive, but still somewhat reasonable.

Near the end of the down town area the group came to a little diner. It was an old cinderblock building, the outside was a little dingy, not badly though. Once inside, they looked around. There were about 15-20 tables that were in the general seating area, there was a bar, with about eight barstools around it, with a register at one end. Behind the bar was a commercial grade refrigerator that held some of the deserts and things. On the opposite end of the bar from the register was a stack of newspapers; some of them were entire editions, some were in sections from where the patrons would take the parts they wanted to read and leave the rest behind. On the wall near the door was an old article in a frame that discussed the opening of the diner under the management of Kevin's parents and the good job that everybody in town thought they were doing. The windows had curtains on them that were red gingham with matching table cloths. The seating along the walls were done with booth style seating, and the few tables in the middle of the floor were done with average table and chairs. There was one booth in the back corner that could seat a larger party, and you still had room to pull up a few extra chairs around the outside. This booth was taken up by a decent sized group of older gentlemen; they were sitting around sipping coffee, and reading bits of the newspaper. Likely they were to blame for the paper skeletons on the counter top at the bar. They had on their various jackets over their short sleeved oxford style work shirts and their navy blue colored work pants. Just about every one of them had on some sort of baseball cap that was advertising something that had probably been out of business for the better part of twenty years. There was a room beyond the general dining that looked like it was the sort of spot that larger groups could gather; it was dark, not being in use at the time.

At some of the other tables were some of the locals that were eating their lunches, not a care in the world about the strange group that had just entered the building.

Alecta looked around and smiled. Seeing this must remind her of the slim few things she missed about being home. She saw a little Hispanic man wandering around the tables in his little apron, checking on the customers. Her smile got bigger.

Leaning over to speak in a whisper to Hotch, 'Watch this.'

"Escobar!"

"Puta?" the man turned to look at where the sound had come from.

"Puta is not my name."

"Yeah, and Escobar isn't mine. Where have you been? I haven't seen you in so long." The little man wiped his hands on his apron and reached out to hug Alecta, which she returned.

"Oh I've been everywhere. Guys this is Esteban Morales. These are my friends from work. We're in town for the old man's birthday."

"Ah, I knew if we got you back here it would be because he gave you the guilt trip. I was right."

"How's Maria and the kids?"

"They are good. How long are you in town for? Maria will want quesadilla night when she finds out you are here. You know, my little one, Yesenia, she is getting tall. She is 10 and already almost as tall as you are."

"The last time I saw even a picture of her, she was in diapers. I will have to call Maria and talk about quesadilla night for sure."

"Bring your friends; God knows we always have enough. I have to get back to the kitchen and help out. Are you staying?"

"Yes. Of course."

Walking over to the bar, Alecta grabbed one of the coffee pots off of the warmer and a dishful of packages of sugar and creamer and walked over to the table load of old men and started topping off their coffees. As she began to pour, the old men looked up and smiled.

"Well, I'll be damned, he did get you to come back didn't he?" one of the old men exclaimed as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled Alecta into his lap as she kept pouring for some of the old guys close by.

"Hey Ray. I missed you, too." She put the coffee pot down and wrapped an arm around the old man's neck and gave him a little squeeze. Suddenly the old timers came to live in animated conversation. They all wanted to know where she had been, what she had been up too, why she had stayed away so long, what brought her back. They were firing questions at her as fast as she could answer the one before it. While she was sitting on old Ray's knee she reached over to the plate in front of some other old guy, she called him Horace, and grabbed some of the bacon off of his plate.

"Hey now, young lady…"

"Well old man, order me some food already, I'm starving."

"Lex…"

"Oh snap, I gotta go sit with my friends…don't want them to get lonely." She said as she snatched a piece of sausage off another old guy's plate, causing that old man to smack her on the ass.

"For that, you're buying me a drink later old man." Alecta giggled as she walked away.

Between Alecta, Kevin, and the others they were able to push a few tables and chairs together to make a space big enough for everybody.

Once they got seated, the team looked around some more. There were various pictures up on the walls. Some of them were of local historical land marks; others were of some of the local people over the years. There was a big one surrounded by several other smaller ones on one wall that had a young Kevin and Alecta sharing a swing; they were sitting face to face, both of them holding on to the ropes that held up the swing, their foreheads resting against each other. In the picture, Alecta had a huge smile on her face as if that was the happiest she'd ever been in her life. One of Kevin's arms was around her back to help hold her steady; Alecta's hair tumbling down her back, some of it over his arm, flowing out behind her. There seemed to be a slight breeze according to the movement in the photo.

Alecta and Kevin jumped up from their seats and ran behind the counter and started fixing drinks for everybody. It wasn't long before the food came out.

"We didn't place an order yet,' Rossi mentioned and everyone else seemed in agreement.

"This is what you're getting. It's what Miss 'Ouisa does when she has friends over. She fixes her best fried chicken, mashed potatoes with the brown gravy, the green peas….hey, did she set aside…yes, there they are..cucumbers in vinegar; those are mine, but if you're a good boy, Rossi, I might share. There are a few fresh tomatoes for anyone that wants a tomato sandwich. Ya'll can have those…I don't like soggy bread, no thanks. Ooh! Biscuits, hell yes."

As they sat down, she and Kevin started their assembly line eating again. It was just like the first night that everyone met Kevin. He'd take stuff off of her plate that had made it on there that she didn't really care for. She drank the foam off the top of his glass of soda.

Soon the group was joined by a young man whose name was Jeff, everybody called him Jeffey though. He was Rachel's fiancé. And, as soon as he sat down, he and Rachel started much the same sort of thing. It seemed to run in the family.

Hotch and the team sort of chuckled a bit when, just before she started eating, Alecta poked her belly as if to wake the baby up.

"Now, please let me eat this. It's miss 'Ouisa's fried chicken. I'll love you forever. You can make me sick later if you want, but let me eat the chicken."

"Where are your mom and dad?"

"They are out at the house, putting some finishing touches on. They will be here pretty soon."

Jazzy was sitting on Rachel's knee, eating her piece of chicken and a few mashed potatoes. Sofie was, not surprisingly sitting on Alecta's knee, she was going to town on her food. And Emma was sitting on Kevin's lap taking a drink out of his soda, getting a bit on the tip of her nose and smacked her lips when she was done. Sasha, Eva, and Oleg were sitting to the right of Alecta and they were busy getting their grub on as well. They really liked the food. They hadn't had any fried chicken like this since they were toddlers like Sofie and Emma. And it was just so good to them.

And just as predicted, about another 10 or 20 minutes later, the Easons showed up and got their own plates and sat down. Things were rather uneventful after that. That is until the door opened and a dark cloud descended on the diner.

Looking up, Alecta put her fork down and handed Sofie off to Sasha. Alecta stood slowly, and took an attack stance a few steps from the table.

"I heard you were back in town, just had to come see it myself. The rumors are true then. Are those my grandchildren? Would ya look at that."

The large man began to step toward the table; Alecta was not backing down, she shoved him back a bit.

"You can't stop me from seeing my grandchildren. I will see them you know?"

Alecta did the first thing that popped into her head. She grabbed a knife off of a table close by, and stabbed it through her father's hand and it stuck into the table.

"If you ever come near my kids again, it won't be your hand that I stab the next time."

With that she turned around and went back to the table and announced that it was time to go. Since everyone was basically done eating anyway it wasn't that big of a deal to pick up and leave. Kevin put himself between Alecta and her father as they walked past him to leave; Rossi kept her mother to his side, as far away from the man as he could get her, and stared him down as they went past. And of course Hotch and Morgan both gave him their best stony glares.

On the edge of town the convoy pulled off onto a dirt road and drove for another one or two miles down that. As they turned onto the road, there was an old rundown shack on the left, Alecta practically had to crane her neck to keep it in sight as they went past; soon enough she was sitting back in her seat, just as quiet as ever and stared out of her passenger window. There were corn fields on one side, with tobacco growing on the other. It seemed to be a good year for both. Everything was green and crisp.

There was some acreage that had woods on it scattered throughout the drive. There was a fork in the road; Kevin, leading the parade, took the right fork. Looking out across some of the open fields that led back to the left, you could see large oak trees that grew sporadically here and there. Soon they came to a stretch of the road that became tree lined, oaks and pines jockeying for dominance along the route. And soon they saw it. The house. It was huge. There were two groupings of four enormous columns that were separated by some steps up to the porch. The porch was elevated, there was a cellar to the house as the first floor. As the porch expanded, there were more columns that lined it, with railing between. There was a second story porch as well; both porches seemed to wrap around nearly the entire house, or at the very least ¾ of it, with the second story porch being screened in. the house was brick, old brick, you could tell just by looking at it. The yard was nicely manicured, not fancy, but neat; they let the house speak for itself. The house was done in an antebellum style mostly, but there were hints of Colonial here and there if you paid attention. The drive way curved around in front of the house.

Pulling to a stop, everyone got out and began getting their bags out of the trucks.

"God lord Davis, you didn't tell us you had money like this."

Chuckling, "And this is actually just the back of the house, you haven't even seen the front. In the old days when the house was originally built, the true front faced the river. When we go in, you will be able to still look out and see it."

"And this is your house, right Kevin?"

"Yes sir, Agent Rossi. To get to Lex's old house, you would have made that left at the fork in the road. And that old shack up at the top of the road…that belonged to the Gatling's that we told you about."

Within a few minutes, everyone was given a tour of the house and shown to their rooms.

As it turned out there were 10 bedrooms and six bathrooms.

Hotch and Rossi were bunking in the same room, there were two king sized beds in there. The same for Morgan and Garcia, they would share a room; after some of the things Morgan had learned over the past couple of weeks, he felt a whole lot better about being able to stay close to Garcia while they were here. All four of them would be sharing a bathroom. Then Reid and Prentiss were sharing a room, as well as JJ and Will, and the four of them shared a bathroom as well. Sasha and Eva had their own room, and they shared a bathroom with Oleg who had his own room. Sofie, Emma, Jazzy, Jack, and Henry were all in a room together, courtesy of some bunk beds that were in that room. Sofie and Emma took one set of bunks, Jack and Henry took the other; and Jazzy had a big double bed all to herself. She didn't have to share with anyone.

With the exception of the children's room, all of the bedrooms came with two king sized beds, and each room had their own fire place, although it looked as though the Easons had tricked out the fire places with some sort of gas logs.

Kevin got his own room, as did Alecta, though they shared a bathroom. And then there was Kevin's parent's room and restroom.

The bathrooms were all fitted with retro touches; small tiles on the floor in a black and white pattern, likely installed in the 1930's. The sinks looked like they were straight out of the 30's or 40's as well, with silver and white fixtures on them; claw foot tubs, with the 'gooseneck' shower heads. Behind the tubs were little windows that allowed the bather to look out onto the open acreage below with stained glass in the transoms above. Everything was so…it was simple, yet elegant all at the same time. It's as if the Easons didn't work too hard to decorate the house, they let the house do all the work for them, and it worked.

Everyone was getting settled into their rooms and picking out who was getting which bed. Once that was done they began heading down stairs.

"Where's Davis?" Reid asked as curiosity got the better of him.

"She's probably in the ball room,' Kevin stated matter of factly.

"Dude, you have a ball room in this joint?"

"Yes Agent Prentiss. It's not huge, but it was original to the house. A lot of the older homes in the area had them. It would hold about 50-75 people at a time. You should go see it, you'll love it as much as she does." Mrs. 'Ouisa smiled with pride over the idea of her ball room.

Instead of going straight to the ball room, everyone sat around and got some drinks. It wasn't until about 15 minutes later when Alecta still hadn't come to join everyone else that Hotch went looking for her. Going up the stairs, several feet down the hall on the right, there was a double archway that was the hiding place of two pocket doors that just so happened to be opened. He stopped in the door way and saw her. She was standing there, admiring a double portrait. As he entered the room he cleared his throat a bit.

"Oh, hey. Why does it not surprise me that you were the one that came looking for me?" Alecta asked as she jumped a bit.

"What's the story behind this painting?"

"It's a rare double portrait. The artist was somewhat local. Local for our times; back in the 1780 or 1790's when this was originally painted, the artist lived about one or two towns over, and that was a big deal. He would have had to travel by horse drawn carriage to get here. And of course supplies weren't cheap back then for some people."

"Who are they? They look just exactly like you and Kevin."

"The man's name was Ezra, and the woman's name was Abigail. One of them was his ancestor, one was mine. I'll let you puzzle over which one is which."

"And yet, the two of you were planning on getting married or something at one time."

"Oh don't sound so shocked. You're from Virginia. You may be 'city people', but I know you come from some kind of old money, ya'll have this, too. Everybody in this town is related by blood or marriage, no shocker there. The entire county only has about 12,000 people in it. That doesn't even equal ¼ of the population of the DC/metro area on its own. The population hasn't fluctuated much in close to 300 years. Our families have married and dispersed several times over the generations."

"What do you come in here for?"

"Well for one it is one of my favorite rooms in the house. And for another, I like to stop and say hello, and pay my respects. It's been ages since they last saw me, and I them."

"They can't see anything. It's a painting. They've passed away a long time ago."

About the time that Hotch got the last words out of his mouth, a medium sized wooden trinket box flew off of the mantle and hit the floor, although it did not break.

Looking at him slyly, "Apologize."

"Say what?"

"Yeah, if you want a peaceful night's sleep in this house, you better apologize. Abigail is none too happy with you right now."

"How do you know it was her?"

"Well she likes to throw things; I guess this is where I get the knack for that from. Ezra would have merely smacked you for besmirching him. Apologize."

"Who should I apologize to?"

"Well to Abigail for one. But she would call it even Stevens if you just apologize to me for thinking I made the story up."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. If you don't you'll be sorry."

"How sorry?"

"How do you like waking up on the floor?" Alecta snickered as she walked out of the ballroom, 'remember, apologize."

Of course as she made her way down the hall, Hotch leaned over and picked up the ancient box and placed it back on the mantel, thinking to himself 'they don't make 'em like that anymore'. But then he wasn't sure if his thought was about the box, the mantel, or Alecta. His own thoughts were becoming confused. Great. She was going to keep him unsteady on his own two feet. Quickly and quietly he made his apologies to Lady Abigail and made his way down the hall to the top of the stairs. It wasn't that he necessarily believed what Lex was telling him, but he didn't like the sound of being shoved out of bed by an angry woman that had been dead over 200 years either. He just didn't want to test the theory out.