Aaron frowned a little at the unfamiliar car in their driveway. He had gotten home a little earlier than planned, and had hoped to spend the afternoon with Erin, since he knew that she didn't have classes after one on Thursdays. Pulling into the garage, he tried not to overreact as he climbed out of the car and entered their house, his hand brushing against the butt of his gun as he walked towards the voices he heard in the kitchen.
"Darling, you're home! I wasn't expecting you to arrive so early, but then again, I forgot to check my phone to see if you had texted. I want you to meet my linguistics professor, Doctor Alex Blake."
He extended his hand towards the woman, who appeared to be the same age as Erin, and she shook it firmly. "Actually, Erin, I believe that we met in passing, many years ago. You work for the BSU, don't you?"
"Well, it's the BAU now, but yes. Did you need our help at some point?" he asked as he went over to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup before taking a seat at the table across from them. Glancing down, he noticed that there were a number of pages spread out there, and he wondered what they were working on.
"Actually, no. I worked there during the Amerithrax case. Unfortunately, my linguistic analysis of the letters that were sent in was not used the way it should have been, and I was the one to take the fall for that mistake. So I went back to the private sector and have taught full time since. You also know my protégé, Spencer Reid."
"Small world," he said before taking a sip of coffee. "What are you helping Erin with?"
"Erin wanted a little more guidance on one of our larger projects for the semester, and I was more than happy to oblige her, when she offered to make coffee for me. That, and I find it admirable that she would want to further her education at this point in her life." There was something in her smile that told Aaron there was more to the situation, and he desperately wanted to ask her what she thought she knew. However, with Erin present, that would not be possible, since he didn't want to make things weird.
"And you just decided to come to our home to do that? You couldn't do it on campus?"
Alex cocked an eyebrow upwards as she shrugged. "I don't have classes today, and rather than ask Erin to wait around on campus for me, I thought that it would be easier to come here. Seriously, if you think that I have bad intentions, call David Rossi, he can vouch for me."
Aaron nodded as he relaxed in his chair a little, continuing to drink his coffee. Erin shot him a tense smile, as if she was embarrassed about the fact that he was grilling Alex, and he made a small gesture of contrition with his hands before pushing away from the table and heading towards the door. "I'll just be in the living room, then, while you work here." Erin nodded as she also relaxed a little, her smile widening for just a moment before she bent back over the book open in front of her. Alex nodded her head sharply at him before he left the room, and he fought hard to keep his step light as he headed into the living room and set his briefcase onto the coffee table before pulling out the files that he needed to work on.
A few minutes later, he heard footsteps behind him, and he set down the paper he was going over before glancing up to see Alex standing in the doorway. "I only have a few moments, since Erin thinks I'm using the bathroom. I want to reiterate to you that I don't have nefarious plans for your wife, but you are right to be questioning my motives. I knew, from the moment she answered my first question of her in class, that she wasn't from this time. Speech patterns are the hardest thing to change and disguise. I'm using her speech patterns to help further my knowledge of the language of that period of American history."
"And you can just accept that?" he asked skeptically.
"My husband works for Doctors Without Borders. There have been stories that he's told me that help me to understand that perhaps the world is not quite as black and white as we would like it to be. And your wife is a delightful woman who I will be glad to call my friend when we finish this class." This time, the smile on her lips was much friendlier, and he felt himself nod in response. "Now, I need to get back to Erin before she wonders where I wandered off to."
"I sort of thought that you had disappeared to talk to my husband, Alex, after the looks that you two exchanged earlier. Are things good between you now?"
Aaron chuckled as he nodded, seeing Alex flush as she also nodded. "I had to clear the air, since we have a similar background. Are you ready to start back on the project?"
"I believe so, yes." Alex nodded before leaving the room, and Erin went over to his side, bending to kiss him tenderly. "Not every person we meet is going to be an unsub, darling. And I think it's sweet that she is trying to cover up the fact that she knows my background by wanting to help me with this project."
"You know that she knows?"
"It's rather difficult not to, when she calls on me more than the other students in our class. I don't mind, since I truly like her, and I do need extra help with this project, since there are some research methodologies that I am not the most familiar with. But I really do need to get back to her, her time is precious, after all. And when we're done, you should be done with the work that you brought home and we could go for a walk around the block?"
"That sounds lovely, Erin," he murmured before kissing her once more. Nodding, Erin waggled her fingers at him before turning and leaving the room. He let out a soft sigh as he went back to the work that he was doing. He shouldn't have been quite so surprised that Erin had known more than she had let on, since she was so quick on her feet, but he had been so worried that Alex was a bad agent that he hadn't truly taken time to consider if Erin had already factored in every possible scenario. And Erin wasn't Haley, when it came down to it. She was a little more fierce than Haley had ever been, and knew how to hold her own.
His phone rang, and he picked it up, seeing Penelope's name on the display. "Hey, Garcia, what can I do for you?"
"You left earlier than I thought you would today, Boss Man!"
"I wanted to get home to my wife, but it turns out we have company at the moment, so I'm currently working on wrapping up the paperwork for the case we just finished. What do you need?"
"I was going to ask if I could drop by after work today, but if you've already had company, you're not going to want to see my face. Is everything good?"
"Yes, Erin's just getting help on her linguistics project. And perhaps you could come over Sunday, when we're done with church? I know that Erin likes visiting with you just as much as I do."
"That sounds like the perfect plan! Except, how about you all drop by my place, and I'll have lunch made for us? That would be one less thing for you to have to worry about."
"I won't say no to that," he replied with a chuckle, making a note on a scrap of paper to remind him of their plans for that day. "Now, I am under a sort of time crunch, since Erin wants me to have this finished by the time Alex heads home. I hate to cut this short, but…"
"Every minute you can spend with her is good. I get it, I feel the same way about Derek." He had to fight his natural inclination to chide her about that, but she seemed to know that she had said a little too much. "You didn't hear that! We're not ready to go through all the red tape that will make our relationship kosher with Cruz. I'll see you Sunday!"
Before he could say another word, Penelope had hung up, and Aaron laughed as he set the phone aside and took a deep breath. Life, it seemed, was getting into a normal rhythm once more, and he found himself looking forward to what their future would bring.
