It was hard to ignore the butterflies that had started fluttering in her stomach as she fiddled with the now fully charged phone. Erin had already had a refill on her coffee, trying to draw out the inevitable. Finally, she pushed the mug away from her and pulled the piece of paper out of her purse, looking at the number there.

With shaking fingers, she dialed and brought the phone to her ear, waiting to connect with Clyde. "It took you long enough to call me, Erin," he drawled, and she rolled her eyes a little, finding him a bit overbearing in his demeanor. "But that time has allowed me to pull together everything that I need to get you started on your new life."

"I'm sorry? What new life? I need to take down John Curtis before he gets to David and Lexie!"

"And you can't do that if you're constantly looking over your shoulder for the ghost of his presence. When I sent Emily and her team after Ian Doyle, we came up with backstories for them all, turning them into different people so that their loved ones wouldn't be targeted. Remember, her mother was an ambassador, so it was of the utmost importance that these be ironclad. Now, your contact will meet you at a place of your choosing, and will explain everything else that will be happening from here on out. I just have one last question."

"And that would be…?"

"Do you trust me?"

Erin paused a moment before she answered, needing to be certain of how she felt. "I think that if I didn't trust you, I wouldn't allow this to happen. And I suppose that I should be grateful to you for this, since you are affording me this opportunity to do things on my own terms."

"You are most welcome, Erin. Now, where should I tell your contact to meet you?"

She knew she couldn't return home, or head to David's home, and heading back to the graveyard she had just left was off limits, too. "I suppose that a safe place would be where David's son is buried. There aren't many people who know where that is, and John never worked with David, so there would be no way that he would know where that is." Erin briefly explained where the graveyard was, along with where in the cemetery James's grave was. "All right, I'll head out there after I finish this Americano. I can't let good coffee go to waste."

"There is that. I'll tell her to expect you by 4:30, and you'll know her by the red carnation behind her ear. She will ask you for the codeword, which will be arugula."

It was an odd codeword, but it made sense, so she nodded a little before answering. "All right, understood. I hope that I live to tell the tale."

"I hope you do as well, Erin. Happy hunting."

They hung up, and Erin took a deep breath before scrawling the code word on her slip of paper and stuffing it back in her purse. Quickly downing the rest of her drink, Erin brought the mug up to the container before scurrying out to her car and quickly making her way over to the other cemetery. She had to do a bit of backtracking to get there, and she was careful to take backroads, just in case John, or someone working for him, had picked up on her movements.

Arriving there with a few minutes to spare, she parked and weaved her way through the headstones until she came to the spot where Carolyn and James were laid to rest. Letting out a tiny sigh, she once more sank to her knees and reached out to trace James's name chiseled into the stone. Humming lowly in order to keep herself together, Erin found herself staring at her watch, focusing on the seconds ticking by until she was to meet her contact.

An almost familiar throat cough got her attention, and she looked up into a very familiar face. "Arugula?" she questioned, watching the woman nod a little before squatting down to look into her eyes. "I didn't realise that you were in the States right now."

"I'm running an op for Clyde here, and he asked me for a favor. I never took you to be the self-sacrificing type, ma'am."

Erin shrugged a little as she held out her hand to Emily, letting her help her to her feet. "I've changed since you've left us, but even before that, you were able to see my softening at Jennifer's wedding. This is just the next natural step as I make amends for my previous behavior."

"I see." Emily gave her a small smile as they started to walk down a path that led to a more secluded area of the cemetery. "Did Clyde fill you in on everything that was going to happen today?"

"All he told me is that I'm going to have a new identity, a way for me to hide in plain sight while I try to find a weakness in John's plans and exploit that until I can take him down."

"Sort of." Erin didn't like the sound of those words, and she gave Emily a sidelong look, seeing the frown on her lips. "We're catching a private jet to California, and then I'll take care of your car, dropping it off back at your home."

"I'm sorry?"

"We need to get you away from here for a while. When you're out of sight, you're out of mind," Emily started, only for Erin to cut her off with a sharp hand movement. "What?"

"John will not let this go."

"Yes, but if you're not here, and there's no sign of where you went, this might anger him enough, to the point where he'll start to slip up and make mistakes. That will be when you can come home and go after him. It's all about being five steps ahead of your prey. It's the one thing I forgot when I was dealing with Ian." Erin gave her a jerky nod as they continued to walk. "And if we're going to head out in time, we need to get moving."

"All right," she murmured, still not feeling completely confident in this plan. But she had never had to deal with something like this, being a part of the BSU for so long. "Please be careful with my car, when you get back here."

"I will, I promise." Erin gave her a sharp nod as she led them back to her vehicle, slipping behind the wheel and sitting there as she waited for Emily to get in. She must have taken a beat too long before starting the car, as Emily touched her arm lightly. "Anytime now."

Erin nodded and started the car, starting to drive out of the cemetery. "Where are we headed to?"

"There's a small private airfield outside the city, where no one would think to look for you. We planned this so that you could feel some confidence with this plan. Once we're underway, I'll brief you on your new life, and all that comes with it." Erin pursed her lips as she allowed Emily's words to sink into her mind, knowing that she would find her life irrevocably different from the moment she stepped onboard the plane.