Strauss stops drinking and Rossi thinks thing are looking up again but she soon starts acting out of character and they start having problems in their relationship. Unbeknownst to Rossi, Strauss has started drinking again. Things get real rocky and he notices the changes in her and how she is acting again, like she was before when she was drinking. He starts to suspect she is drinking again but doesn't want to accuse her and possible ruin her progress and their relationship if he is wrong.

Erin has become even better at hiding the alcohol around the house, now that she is living with David and in her office.

David and Erin attend a big fancy Agency function. When he excuses himself to go to the bathroom, he comes back and sees her replacing an empty glass on a waiter's tray, before taking another drink and downing it quickly. Rossi notices her looking around for him but where he is standing, her view is blocked of him, even though he can see her.

Erin's attention is diverted by someone coming up to make small talk with her. Dave quickly makes his way over to her and sees her with the glass with Alcohol in her hand. The conversation ends just as he walks up. He politely takes the glass from her hand, saying in a voice to low for anyone but her to hear, that they are leaving, now. She tells him not to be silly. It was just one drink as she couldn't let people see her not drinking as she doesn't want anyone to suspect she has a problem with alcohol. Rossi calmly tells her that unless she wants to discuss it right then and there, which would create a scene, she was going to continue smiling, quickly make their excuses and leave with him right now.

Erin does as David says because she desperately doesn't want anyone to know she has a drinking problem and she knows that as angry is David is (he may look calm and like he is smiling to anyone who doesn't know him as well as she does, but she can tell his smile is fake; She knows his temper is more volatile the quieter he speaks.

Strauss also thinks at this point she can convince him that it was just one drink in a social situation, no harm, no foul. Little does she know, Rossi saw her drink more than one glass and that he had suspected she had fallen off the wagon before tonight.

She tries to start a conversation in the car on the way home but he lets her know quickly that in the interest of them safely arriving home, they need to table the discussion while he is driving.

Once they get home, he suggests she go up and change while he locks up as it is going to be a long discussion and she might want to be comfortable for it. Rossi is really trying to buy himself time to calm down before he says or does something he will regret.

David pulls off his jacket and loosens his tie but his mind won't let go of the fact that she is lying to him and still sneaking around drinking.

He starts to search the house. Rossi finds quite a few of her hiding places and as he finds the bottles and flasks, he gathers them and puts them on the living room coffee table.

David is shocked by the number of bottles he has found, just downstairs but in no way deludes himself into believing that he has found them all. He hears Erin coming down the stairs and tells her he is in the living room. She has a smile on her face until she walks in and notices all the bottles of Alcohol.

Strauss tries to act like she doesn't know anything about the alcohol. When that doesn't work she tries to seduce him into forgetting about them. When he rebuffs her, she gets angry and starts a fight.

David is not going to let her divert him away from the real issue. He asks her how many more she has hidden away down stairs. Then he asks her how many does she have hidden upstairs. She angrily tells David it is none of his business and that she is a grown woman and she can drink if she wants to.

Rossi tells her she has to make a choice, once and for all: him or the Alcohol. He tells her he can't live like this any longer. David implores her to remember how it almost destroyed her the first time. He reminds Strauss of all she lost the last time she was drinking and that she was slowly but surely gaining it back. Rossi asks her does she really want to throw everything she has away again, for a drink?

Next he tells her that he loves her more than she will ever know but he just can't stand by and watch her destroy herself again. He reminds her, he promised her that he would stick by her side every step of the way as long as she fought this demon, but now that she has stop fighting it, as much as he wants to stay, he just can't.

David says to Erin, "You are the love of his life and I would lay down my life for you, without reservation but I will not sit back and enable you to kill yourself slowly with alcohol. I just can't do it Erin".

He gathers up the bottles on the table, puts them in the box he had placed on the floor next to the table before carrying it into the kitchen. Strauss asks him where he is going with them. He tells her to pour them out. She tells him not to do that. Her words fall on deaf ears.

She then begs, pleads, and threatens him to try to keep him from dumping the alcohol down the kitchen sink. Desperate to stop him, Erin tries to physically pull him arm back but he is stronger and fueled by his righteous anger. His arm doesn't budge. When he has emptied the last bottle he demands that she tell him where the rest are hidden around the house. She lies and tells him there are no more. Rossi shakes his head and calls her on her lie. She sticks to her story and promises him she is through drinking.

David says "okay Bella", even though he doesn't believe her. He walks around her and heads upstairs.

Strauss stares at the sink for a few minutes and checks a few of the bottles to make sure there is nothing left in them. She goes to one of her secret hiding spots, that Rossi missed in the Kitchen and takes out a miniature and downs it, before popping a few breath mints, then going into the living room as she thought he would have returned to sit in there.

Erin sits down and waits for him, thinking he is either upstairs changing or just needs a minute to himself to calm down, then, he will come find her and they can make up, now that she has convinced him that there is no more alcohol in the house.

She hears Rossi come back down the stairs and calls out to him that she is in the living room. He come into the room and she notices he is carrying a couple of suitcases. Erin can't wrap her rational mind around the fact that David is actually leaving her. She mentally grasps for explanation that she desperately wants to be true, that he is just going on a case but she knows if that were true, he would just have his go bag, not his suitcases. Still she is desperate not to believe the reality of the situation and stands up and shakily walks over to him saying, "Did you get called in on a case"?

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