The Prodigal…What? Part 2

These moments of escape are not to be despised. They come too seldom - Virginia Woolf

Rossi watched as Pip pottered around the living room, tidying up the piles of her kit he'd left out. Pip doing housework of any kind was an unusual enough event that it was worth observing, if just for its novelty value.

The clothes he'd washed went straight in the bin – none of them had survived her year away. Much of her stuff got simply bundled up and shoved in the bottom of the closet. Out of sight, out of mind was the order of the day, it seemed. The condoms raised an amused smirk from both of them – they'd never bothered with them, they knew they were both clean and it wasn't like he could get her pregnant. They got thrown in a drawer with a shrug. They had a variety of potential uses for survival when out in the field as she had been, but were of little use to either of them now she was home. The new whetstone went in the kitchen, the contents of the wash kit either binned or tucked away in the bathroom. The .22 casing stayed on the table, unlike the solitary 9mm round, which was nowhere to be seen, something Rossi hadn't noticed until that point.

With one last thing left to deal with, Pip had halted in the middle of the room, weighing the curved knife in her hands as if deciding what to do with it.

"Where did you get that?" asked Rossi when she didn't move.

Pip jerked, disturbed from her contemplation of the blade. She sat down next to him and shoved the knife deep under the sofa, as if to bury it out of reach. "Spoils of conquest," she muttered. "He didn't need it anymore and it was expected of me to take it as a trophy."

"The paedophile?"

Pip nodded and snuggled into him. "I don't really want to talk about it. Is that ok?"

Rossi lifted his arm so she could get closer. "Of course. You ought to at some point I think, but it doesn't have to be now."

The film she'd resumed had ended hours before, and dawn was finally starting to think about making an appearance. The heating was on, and the apartment was starting to feel more like a home and less like a walk-in freezer. Despite all that, Pip shivered against him.

"How long can you stay?" she asked. "I mean, I'm guessing you've got to go to work today, but…"

"I've taken some leave," interrupted Rossi, who'd forgotten to tell her that. "I'm not going anywhere. In fact," he added as the idea that had occurred to him the previous afternoon resurfaced. An idea that would kill two birds with one stone. "How about you and I take a little trip? You've never seen my cabin, fancy a couple of weeks or so in Little Creek with just me and my dog for company?"

Pip jumped off the sofa like she'd been fired from a rocket. "How soon can we get going?"

"Hello Hotch."

Rossi watched as Pip and Mudgie romped in the long grass outside the cabin, amid much laughter and playful yips and barks. Mudgie's muzzle was by then almost completely grey, yet his old dog had reclaimed some of his puppyhood in their game and was frolicking happily in the overgrown garden with her. His heart had sunk when his cell rang – he knew who it was without looking. Either Hotch with a case, and it was not the time for Hotch to cancel his leave; or Hotch had received news of her return.

"Where are you?" asked Hotch sharply. "I'm at her house with your car, but you're not here, and neither's she."

So, Hotch wasn't calling about a case. He was also pissed, and knew Rossi well enough to look for them at Pip's place first, rather than his own house. Rossi allowed himself a moment's congratulation. He'd been right about getting out of her apartment. Even after months of poor treatment and too much alcohol, the braincells still worked.

They'd packed up and driven out to the cabin in her truck. Leon had knocked on her door just as they were about to leave, intent on returning her keys having heard movement upstairs. Rossi had loaned him the vehicle on and off while she'd been away, continuing an arrangement Pip had always had with the young man.

Pip had been so pleased to see her truck, cooing and murmuring to it as she ran her hand over the shiny chrome. Leon had taken good care of it as always, and in the circumstances, Rossi had suggested she drive to reacquaint herself with her beloved pickup. He'd forgotten what it was like to be a passenger when she was driving, but the journey out to the cabin had been practically sedate compared to her previous style. She still took risks he wouldn't have done, but there was less sense of "getaway driver" about her manner. Mudgie had enjoyed himself immensely, perched on the back seat with his nose out of the window the entire way.

"We're at the cabin," Rossi replied. "If you're calling to drag me back in for a case, I retire," he added lightly.

"You know damn well I'm not," said Hotch sternly. "Don't bullshit me around Dave, we've known each other far too long for that. I wanted to talk to you both face-to-face and I'm starting to think you anticipated that."

"You're talking to me now, Aaron," said Rossi evenly. "What's on your mind?"

He had anticipated it, but far later in the game than Hotch assumed. He should have packed them up and come out to the cabin the previous evening, like he'd originally intended. Pip had distracted him, one way or another, but that meant that they'd only just kept ahead of Hotch. They were lucky it had taken more than just yesterday afternoon for the news to filter down to him; it was barely eight in the morning and they'd only arrived twenty minutes ago. Pip's crisis of self-doubt in the early hours had done them a favour in the end.

He'd done it for all the right reasons, and would do it all again, but Rossi had essentially lied to his supervisor for a whole year. Hotch obviously wasn't going to be impressed to find that out. Add to that the way Pip had bullied her way back into the FBI, and Hotch turning up unannounced looking for answers wasn't a huge deductive leap. Rossi hadn't been sure he could trust himself to justify his actions to his friend's face without sharing more than he ought to, which is where the idea to come out the cabin had come from in the first place. Having the initial discussion over the phone was easier, and would let them say to each other what they needed to, without either losing their temper.

"You could have mentioned Harker wanted her job back," said Hotch shortly.

"She didn't tell me until after I'd seen you yesterday," Rossi replied, admitting in that sentence that he'd known she was back and not said anything. "Is there a problem?" he asked carefully.

"I don't know, Dave, you tell me," replied Hotch, with a mocking edge to his tone. "You obviously know all about it but I just got broadsided with this at some ungodly hour of the morning. I woke up to find Strauss hammering on my door, not the way I wanted to start my day, believe me; in order to tell me something I would have preferred to hear from you. She's not happy, and to be honest, neither am I."

"No change there, then," muttered Rossi uncharitably under his breath. "Pip leapt at the chance to come back before I even knew it was a possibility," he said for Hotch's ears.

Just like she'd leapt at the chance of hiding away from the world at his cabin for a while. A chance to explore what was going on between them without real life getting in their way.

"I take it you two are…" asked Hotch resignedly when Rossi didn't offer any further information.

"Oh, we are now. Very much so," said Rossi smugly. "Many times over." He grinned at the choked noises of embarrassment Hotch was making, and decided to push his luck. "I haven't been this horny since I was a teenager," he added lewdly.

"Dave!" cried Hotch indignantly. "Jeez, stop...please, that's far more information than I needed."

Hotch sighed despondently, but Rossi could hear the levity in that sigh. A vast improvement on the hurt and disappointment so evident before.

"A simple "yes" would have been sufficient," scolded Hotch. "You realise I'm now scarred with those mental images for life."

Rossi chuckled, the smile remaining as Hotch continued.

"I've told you already my opinion of the two of you; that's not an issue here, it never was. Whatever you were before didn't affect the team, so I'm not going to get involved now. Strauss doesn't know and if it's what you both want, that's the way it will remain. She won't hear of it from me. I don't care, unless you hurt her, in which case you're on your own."

"Thank you, Aaron." That was one hurdle cleared, at least.

Hotch took a deep breath. "However, much as I hate to publicly admit that I agree with that woman on anything; our objections stem from the fact that we have no record of what Harker was doing during the year she was at the Pentagon. Nothing. Not even a single sheet of paper with her name on, redacted into insensibility and uselessness. She was supposed to be JJ's admin support, and I've already got JJ's records, heavily edited and incomprehensible as they are. It's like Harker was never there." Hotch paused. "There's no question she's qualified for the AST job having done it for years, but the wording on this…" Rossi could hear Hotch furiously rattling a piece of paper at the phone as if hoping Rossi could read it. "These reinstatement papers are more like orders, and from a long, long way up. What the hell was she doing there?"

Rossi's smile had long faded. There had been no provision made, no alterations to official records made to explain her absence. He was starting to think Pip wasn't supposed to have made it back at all, and he wondered what it was she wasn't telling him. There was always something. "Her job," he replied shortly, already feeling the familiar frustration that came with trying to untangle the complicated woman currently rolling on the grass playing tug-a-war with his dog.

"Dave, do you know something?" Hotch asked seriously. "Did you know all along? Something you shouldn't, something that you still can't tell me?"

That was the question, the one Rossi had been waiting for. He was incredibly grateful to Hotch for just asking, instead of throwing it as an accusation; something his long-time friend had every right to do in the circumstances, if he so wished. In the garden, Pip stood, brushing herself off. Mudgie twined himself around her legs, ignored for the moment. She'd caught Rossi's body language in her peripheral vision and was now watching him closely.

Rossi gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile, and took the plunge. "Yes."

"She wasn't at the Pentagon with JJ, was she?" asked Hotch slowly, after a moment's pause.

"No."

"If I ask you anything else, will you tell me?"

"No." There was another pause while Hotch considered that. "Sorry," added Rossi into that silence. Although given the same choices again, he wouldn't change a damn thing and he was pretty sure Hotch already knew that.

Hotch snorted his understanding of the sentiment perfectly. "I'm sure." He cleared his throat, and changed the subject, calling a truce. "Is she up to it?" he asked. "Don't misunderstand, it's happening regardless, it's clear this is non-negotiable," he added quickly.

"She's one of us, Hotch. She belongs in the BAU." Of that, Rossi had no doubt.

"That's as maybe, Dave, but I need to know whether she's able to come back."

Pip had resumed her game with Mudgie, trusting him to deal with whatever it was that him all tensed up. Trusting him to tell her later. That in itself, was all the reassurance Rossi needed to be able to reply completely honestly.

"She will be."

Pip hadn't asked him what the phone call was all about, but the question had been clear on her face as soon as Rossi stepped outside.

"That was Hotch."

Pip nodded. "I figured. I ought to have told him myself I was coming back, but H…my friend advised to let it feed down from above." She shrugged. "She'd fixed everything else, I figured I'd take that bit of free advice, considering how rarely she does anything for free."

The identity of Pip's friend was something Rossi thought he might know, in general sort of terms, at least. The woman was well-known, in urban legends whispered amongst law enforcement and denied in the halls of power. She'd been everywhere, met everyone, knew everybody. But none of those myths had a name, just a series of aliases, and none of the stories explained who she actually was.

Pip sighed and leaned into him. "Is he furious? There's a glaring void in my résumé, one that you obviously know more about than you really ought to. A gap that no amount of righteous indignation on his part will fill. He's been herded into a corner, being ordered to take me back. I know how much he hates having no options."

"He's not too happy, but the worst has passed," said Rossi with a reassuring smile. "I told him you'd be ready, and you will be. Everything else, including everything I kept from him, he'll just have to learn to accept. He knows I wouldn't have changed a thing."

Pip considered him. "I was right about you," she said cryptically.

"Oh? How so?" asked Rossi curiously.

"I knew you'd understand," replied Pip. "Earlier, you asked me to trust you. I agreed, because I've already trusted you with my life. I told you far more than I ever should have, the night I left. The op was so highly classified and compartmented, one wrong word from you could probably still have me terminated for compromising it. If I trust you with my life, then the least I could do is return the favour."

Frustrated at being ignored once more, Mudgie reared up arthritically on his hind legs, planting a sloppy dog-kiss on her face and a matching pair of muddy paw-prints on her chest. Pip laughed and theatrically fell over, much to Mudgie's excitement. He pranced gleefully around her, barking happily as if he'd just achieved something worthy of note.

"You playing, Dave?" asked Pip mischievously, and hooked a leg around his ankle before he had a chance to reply. Rossi fell half on her and half on a pile of last fall's leaves. Pip laughed and they tumbled over and over together on the ground, laughing and mock-wrestling. Every now and then, one of them would let the other win and let the victor steal a kiss.

Covered in leaf litter and panting for breath, they ended up laying on the ground side by side, holding hands and looking up at the morning sky. Mudgie joined in, draping himself across the both of them with a huge doggy grin on his face.