Stepping off the elevator at five minutes to nine, Dave felt a wave of relief wash over him to know that he had made it on time, despite the accident that had backed everything up. Glancing into the bullpen, he saw that everyone was already in there, working hard at their desks, and he smile a little as he went in, heading over to Derek's side. "Hey, do you think that you could get everyone assembled in the conference room while I put my stuff in my office? I have some news that I think will be quite welcome for everyone here."
The man nodded a little as he got to his feet. "Let me guess, you're tired of all the paperwork and finally wore Erin down, getting her to agree to come back to us already."
"Something like that, yes." He patted Derek's shoulder before making his way up to his office, trying not to pause outside Hotch's office, knowing that there might be time to talk to him after the briefing, if he was lucky. Setting out the files he had taken home, but not looked at, Dave took a deep breath before picking up his phone and heading into the conference room to wait for everyone to gather.
JJ was the first in the door, and she gave him a warm smile as she took a seat at the table next to him. "How are things going at home?"
"They're going, better than the day before, and that's all that we can ask for."
She nodded and reached out to pat his hand as the others filed in, taking their seats. Hotch was the last one in the door, and he closed it behind him with a firm thud. "All right, Rossi, why have you gathered us here today?" Derek drawled as he looked at him.
"I have good news for us all. Erin has graciously agreed to come back to work on Monday, which means this is our last day of enforced grounding. I don't know what our first case will be, but we won't be cooped up here any longer."
"That is the best news I've heard all week! After a month of being stuck here, except for that one case, I am looking forward to being out in the field again!" Emily gave him a wide grin as she got to her feet. "Though that means I have to finish up that paperwork before Strauss gets back. You're a little easier on us than she is," she teased as she and Derek headed for the door. The others nodded in agreement, following after Emily, except for Hotch, who remained seated.
"Well, I imagine that you're glad to have Penelope back come Monday, too," he said as he stared at his friend.
"It will be nice to have her back. Will she be holding Erin's hand through the cravings?"
There was a snide undertone to Aaron's words, and Dave frowned as he shook his head. "That's not her responsibility, Aaron. She's Erin's friend, and she might spend a little more time in her office for the first few weeks back, but it won't be excessive. Knowing Erin, she'll most likely chafe at the hovering before too long, and then everything will be back to normal. Right?"
"Sure." Again, the dismissive, snide, undertone cut at Dave's heart, and he let out a deep breath. "Now, I suppose that I should get my paperwork finished, too." Pushing away from the table, he stalked from the room, and Dave stared after him, knowing that it would take more time to get their friendship back to a good place. Leaving the conference room, he went down the stairs and exited the bullpen to head over to Erin's office. Helen was working away at her computer, and he smiled as he came to a stop in front of her desk, clearing his throat to get her attention.
"Oh! Agent Rossi, what can I do for you?"
"I'm actually here to give you some happy news, Helen. Erin and I were talking last night, and she told me that she was ready to return to work. Now, I know that she'll want to jump in head first and come back at full speed, but I don't think that will be best for her mental health."
"And you want me to watch over her while you're out on cases. Because I know that you're planning on keeping her close to you when you're here."
He frowned a little, wondering how transparent he had been for Helen to pick up on the state of things. "I trust that what you suppose will go no further than the two of us? Because neither of us are ready to think about a relationship, and I need her to be healthy, mentally and physically, before either of us takes that next step. And given how Aaron is not that happy with me right now, I need to also make certain that the team can come together again."
"Of course, sir, your secret is safe with me. And Alan, well, he was a jackass, and things would have come to a head eventually. They were only staying together for Allie's sake."
"That's right, Erin named her daughter after Alex," he murmured, watching Helen frown. "Sorry, it's just a thought for the next thing on my list that I need to do. Between the three of us, I think that we should be able to make certain that Erin is going to be okay. Because that's all I want."
"That's all I want, too, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
He nodded, remembering that she would have access to the personnel records. "Yes. I need the current phone number for Doctor Alexandra Blake. The last I knew, she was located in Boston, teaching at Harvard. I'm assuming that the Bureau have kept her records up to date?"
"Give me two minutes," Helen replied, the soft smile never leaving her lips as she turned back to her computer and began to tap away at her keyboard. "You know, Penelope could probably find you this information much quicker than I am."
"Yes, but then she would want to know why, and the fewer people who know that I'm in contact with Alex, the better for the time being. Because sometimes, miracles don't work out, and I don't want to get anyone's hopes up."
"This is very true. And I will say a prayer that you're successful in your endeavors," she said as she wrote something down on a sticky note. "I've included her home, mobile, and office numbers. According to her schedule, she should be headed into office hours in ten minutes. Good luck."
He nodded, taking the sticky note from Helen's hand. "Thanks, I hope that I can make some headway with her. And thank you for all that you've done for me in this last month. I really appreciate it."
"It was my pleasure to help you, sir, because you were so willing to help Erin when she needed it."
They nodded to each other before he went back to his office and took a seat behind his desk, watching the clock until it finally turned 9:16, and with a shaky hand, he picked up the receiver before dialing the office number that Helen had given him for Alex Blake. He listened to it ring three times before a somewhat familiar voice answered. "Hello, Doctor Blake speaking. Who is this?"
"Alex, this is actually someone from your past."
"David Rossi, you are the last person I ever expected to hear from on a Thursday morning. What can I do for you?"
"I have something to discuss with you, and I would like to ask that you listen to me before you hang up or tell me to fuck off."
"That does sound rather serious. Let me put a note on my door that I've cancelled office hours for today, and then we can talk." He listened to her rummage around on her desk, humming beneath her breath a little before he heard her chair squeak. "All right, I'm back. What do you want to discuss that you think will anger me?"
"I don't know if you heard in the news, but there was a helicopter crash in California about a month ago, where an entire family was killed?"
"Yeah, I did hear about that, it was a blip on the local news the day it happened. Why?"
"That was Erin's family." He heard her exhale forcefully, before she started to mutter some lyrics beneath her breath. "This happened after she was released from rehab, and so, she couldn't be with her children on that celebratory vacation."
There was a long pause, and he knew enough to not prod her, to let her reply organically. "What, what were they celebrating?"
"Allie being declared cancer free. That was what caused Erin to spiral for the second time, because she was uncertain if her daughter would survive cancer. It turns out fate had something much crueler in mind for her, something I would never wish on my worst enemy. And full disclosure here, Alex, but we've been growing closer since that incident, and I know that she reached out to you while she was in rehab, to ask about making amends…"
"Did she ask you to call me?" There was a hard edge to Alex's voice, and he let out a deep sigh, knowing that he may have just muffed up this entire endeavor. "Well?"
"No, she has no idea that I'm calling you, and she would probably harangue me for interfering in her private affairs. But you were Allie's namesake, and I know that it might help Erin to heal, just a tiny bit, if you were to reach out in a letter. Maybe. I don't know, I could be making everything worse by doing this, but she tried to follow after them twice, and I find myself wanting to do anything that might pull her out of that depth of despair. And I know, it sounds like I'm trying to guilt you into this, and you can't be guilted into a personal decision, but I just don't know what else to do."
"Are you taking care of her, then?"
"Yes, along with our technical analyst, Penelope Garcia. We were the ones who pulled her away from the edge of the roof the night of the accident. I've never heard someone cry like that before."
"I think I can hear that sound in my mind, Dave. Listen, I can't make you any promises, you know what happened between us and how deeply it hurt me. But thank you for letting me know about Erin's family. No one deserves to lose everyone all in one go like that. At least I still had James when we lost Ethan. I have to go, I'm sorry. I need to make certain that I look presentable for my class in an hour."
Before he could another word, Alex had hung up, and he was left holding a dead line to his ear. Exhaling forcefully, Dave could only hope that something he had done that day would change things for him and Erin, because she needed a good thing to happen to her, to show her that the world wasn't completely against her. And maybe that would mean Alex might just reach out to her in time.