The stress headache that Erin had been fighting all day was still lingering, and she wondered if she would hear from David that evening, since she knew the team was headed home. Sam, at least, had texted her to let her know, so as not to worry. But not a word from David or Aaron. A part of her knew that was because she had reacted so poorly the previous day, but she missed talking to her fiancé. Even if he seemed intent on vexing her so on this last case. Sighing, she rubbed the back of her neck and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around her body before making her way over to the mirror and looking at her reflection. She looked exhausted, and sad, and Erin knew that if she wasn't breastfeeding, she'd be drinking a bottle of whatever she could first pull out of David's liquor cabinet in the hopes of ending up mind numbingly drunk. Even if the last time that had happened, it had not ended well for her. Except for the fact that she had Elise as an end result.
Letting out a frustrated breath, Erin shook her head before rubbing her head with another towel, quickly drying her hair off before pulling on the loungewear she had selected to relax in before heading to bed. She had just reached the bottom step when she heard the door start to open, and she knew that they were home. Turning towards the door, she took a few steps forward only for Aaron to follow David inside. "I know that you said you didn't want to see us, stellina, but Aaron convinced me that we needed to apologise to you in person. I know that I didn't call to talk to you after you hung up on me, but that was because I knew you needed some time to cool off. And I suppose that I can admit to being an ass, too."
Erin nodded as she finally looked at them both clearly. Each man held a bouquet of flowers, and Erin began to feel tears gather in her eyes as she cocked her head to one side. "The flowers were my idea. If we had gotten home at a decent time, we could have gone to a proper florist, and bought you something more appropriate. You'll have to make do with what we could find at the grocer."
"They're beautiful, thank you," she whispered as she took the bouquet from Aaron's hand and stuck her face in the middle of the blooms, breathing in deeply, letting the heady scent envelope her senses. All too readily, she discovered that that was the entirely wrong thing to do, as she thought about the fact that Haley would never have the opportunity to receive flowers like this again and promptly burst into sobs. One of the men took the flowers from her arms, while the other touched her shoulder lightly, and she turned into the broad chest and curled one hand into the fabric of his suit coat, which clued her into the fact that Aaron was the one holding her close.
"What's wrong?" he quietly asked as he led her into the living room, and she shrugged against him, not really knowing how to put into words what she was feeling. It seemed like six months of pushing aside the way she felt over Haley's murder had finally backfired and she was feeling all those emotions at once, the tears streaming down her cheeks as she allowed Aaron to pull her down onto the sofa. Moments later, David was sitting on her other side, and she instinctively turned towards him, allowing him to bundle her close to his chest as she moved her head around until she heard his heartbeat clearly in her ear.
"Erin, you need to talk to us. What's wrong?"
"Everything! You both ran headlong into an entirely too dangerous situation, one in which both I and the Director told you to stay away, and think that you can just dismiss my feelings as being hysteria. I don't want to lose either of you, I don't want my children to lose one of their fathers. I am so fucking sick of losing." Her sobs choked out her words, and she buried her face in David's shirt once more, her shoulders shaking from the force of her sobs. And then, in the background, she vaguely could hear Catherine start to wail, and her heart broke all over again. "I…"
"I'll check in on her, Erin. Stay here with Dave." Aaron rubbed her knee softly before getting to his feet and leaving the room, which allowed her fiancé to more fully pull Erin into his lap. She burrowed all the closer to him as her sobs petered out, and Erin pulled away from his embrace so that she could look up into his eyes.
"Erin, has this been eating at you since Cat was born?"
She nodded, reaching up to wipe away a few of the tears that clung to his cheek before leaning in and kissing him fiercely. "You know that I don't talk to people, that I don't open up. Even to you, though I love you so. And I think that that is coming back to hurt me. I snapped at you, when I didn't mean to, and then you didn't talk to me. I thought that maybe I had finally pushed you away, and that I would lose everything I've gained in these last five years. I can't take another loss. I can't."
David's eyes filled with fresh tears before he lowered his head to rest against hers as he breathed calmly in and out. Soon enough, she was able to sync her breathing with his, feeling a sense of calm spread through her chest as she felt her eyes grow heavy. "I should have been a better partner to you, and seen that you were suffering. I think that you're far too good at wearing a mask, and I need to be better at taking that mask off to see how you're truly feeling. Come on, let's head up to bed."
"What about Catherine?"
"Hotch has her, and if she needs to be fed, he can bring her into our room. You need rest, and a lot of it. Thank God tomorrow is Friday, so you can take a half day."
"I have too much to do to leave early, David."
"And it's just too bad that I already talked with the Director about it, and you're leaving at one, along with me. Whatever is left will be done on Monday. Let me take care of you." He gently pushed her to her feet before hooking an arm around her waist and guiding her up to their bedroom. It was nice of him to take control like that, and she relaxed as he undressed her before pulling a cotton nightgown over her head and smoothing it down her body. "Now, let's get you into bed, and as soon as I've changed, I'll curl up around you and sing until you're asleep. If Hotch needs to, he'll bring Cat in here, okay?"
She nodded heavily as she slipped into bed, feeling like her head was already weighing her down before she even touched the pillow, a broad yawn splitting her lips as she tried to make herself comfortable. It was a losing battle to keep her eyes open as David settled the covers over her body, and she quit fighting as she listened to his movements around the bedroom before he finally got into bed next to her, curving his body to protect hers as he hummed lightly, the soothing sound of his voice soon lulling her to sleep.