Alex sighed as she parked her car in the shared parking lot between the Methodist church and the middle school that Erin had attended when she was young. She hadn't planned on making this journey, hadn't wanted to spend the holiday season taking care of a friend who didn't keep in touch, but here she was, back in New Hampshire, and ready to set aside her own aching heart to take care of Erin's breaking heart. Getting out, she shouldered her bag and made her way over to the crosswalk, looking both ways before she crossed the street and went up to the familiar door and knocked softly.

She knew that Erin wasn't expecting her, but that she was home, as there wasn't anywhere else for her to be, and she tried to wait patiently for her to answer the door. It took longer than she thought it would, and Alex shivered as the wind cut straight through her coat to burrow into her bones. The longer that she waited there, the more she wondered if she had made a mistake in coming, but Karen had sounded desperate on the phone, since Erin had sent all her children home following the funeral, and wasn't answering them in anything more than one or two words when they called on the phone.

Finally, the front door opened a crack, and when she waited for Erin to welcome her inside, Alex found that she just heard footsteps walking away from her. Letting out a long sigh, she let herself in and closed the door behind her, knowing that Erin would pitch a fit if she left it open for the cold to seep inside. "Which one of my children begged you to come check on me?"

"Karen called with concerns about how you kicked them out after the funeral, since you have to take care of the house. She didn't want you to do this alone, and if you wouldn't let them be here, she figured that it might as well be me, since we both know that I don't take no for an answer. Though if you had told me that your mother had died, I would have come to the funeral, too."

"Why? To watch me mourn for the last parent in my life?"

"No, to support you through your loss. I was there for you, in the Academy, when your father passed away, and I know the pain that comes with losing your mother. Just like I know that you've been shoving me away as we grew closer to each other."

There was a long pause which allowed Alex enough time to get her boots off and drop her bag by the stairs before making her way into the living room. Erin was curled up in her mother's rocking chair, the granny square blanket that she had made for her as a graduation present wrapped around her waist in an effort to keep the warmth in, and Alex tried to school her face into a neutral expression, knowing that Erin wouldn't want anything akin to pity on her features. "Stop looking so sad for me, Lexie. I can't bear to cry any more tears."

"She was like a mom to me, Erin. I can't just turn those feelings off, I'm sorry." Alex sank down onto the sofa and pulled the other blanket off the back of it, wrapping it around her body as she struggled not to cry. "God, Erin, did you know this was going to happen? Is this why you've been pushing us all away?"

"Yes."

Alex wasn't expecting the honesty in that small, quiet, word, and she looked up at her friend to see that, despite her wants, she was crying again. "Come here."

Erin nodded as she slowly rose to her feet, wrapping the blanket around her like a poncho as she trudged over to the sofa before collapsing down next to Alex, curving her body to fit into the spaces that Alex had left. "I want my mom back, Lexie," she managed to gasp out before starting to sob. She nodded as she contorted her body a little, wanting to be able to curve her arm around Erin's shaking shoulders. Finally, Erin almost crawled into her lap as she buried her face in Alex's hair, continuing to sob as Alex rubbed her back in slow, soft, circles. "She didn't want my children to know what was wrong, how serious it was, and since she was the last of her siblings, and I was an only child, it was just me to take care of all the details. And now I have a house, my childhood home, and it feels so empty."

"My house felt like that when Mom died. Like all the life was sucked out of it in a moment." Erin nodded as she burrowed closer to Alex, her tears never lessening as she clung to her. Soon, though, Erin had managed to cry herself to sleep, and her weight became a heavy, welcome, thing on Alex's body. Carefully, she shifted how they were positioned so that Erin would be a little more comfortable before she spread the blanket over them. She was a little tired from the drive, and it was easy enough to allow her eyes to close heavily as she followed Erin into sleep.

Alex didn't know what woke her up, but she came to sudden wakefulness to find Erin staring down into her face. "I didn't mean to fall asleep on you."

"If I know you as well as I think I do, you probably haven't been sleeping well since before Christmas, and my coming here allowed you some measure of safety that allowed you to drop your guard and rest. You probably still need more, but this was a good start. Even if our backs are going to ache as soon as we try to get up."

Erin nodded, though she continued to stare into Alex's face as if she wanted to ask something, but didn't quite know how to frame it. "When is James coming?" she finally murmured, and Alex sucked in a low breath as she shook her head. "Where is he?"

"Somewhere in the Middle East, last I knew. We don't really keep in touch these days. I had to admit that things were fundamentally broken in our marriage when he started spending more time either at the hospital or with his students than being home with me. It would have been nice to have my friend to talk to about that, but I understand now why she was pushing me away."

"Then you won't mind?"

Alex knew what she wanted to do, and shook her head a little before allowing her eyes to close as she anticipated the soft brush of lips against her own. It had been too many years since they had kissed, but she still remembered the way that Erin always started out hesitant, as if she couldn't quite believe that she was being allowed to kiss her. She had seen the way Erin had kissed Alan or David, and knew that what they shared was different to her in some way that Alex could never quite put her finger on. Usually, when she wanted to deepen their kisses, she'd flip Erin onto her back, but there was no chance of doing that on the sofa, so she was forced to let out a mewling little whine against her lips as her hands fluttered down to Erin's hips, trying to pull her down closer. "Please?"

"Not just yet, Alex. We don't want to start something that we can't finish on the sofa. And you need to get your things put away. I'm assuming you're going to stay?"

"For as long as you can stand me. I have enough clothes in my bag to last a week, and can wash them when necessary, so yes. I'm going to stay."

"Good. This is going to be a larger task than I imagined. Momma had pared down a little in the last two years, but there is still so much stuff and I don't know what to keep, what to donate, and what to throw away."

"What about your children? Maybe they want some things, too?"

"I have the will, which specifies what they've inherited."

"That doesn't really answer the question. There could be things that aren't listed that might have sentimental value to them."

Erin sighed as she slipped off Alex, wrapping her blanket around her shoulders as she gestured for her to get up. Alex nodded as she awkwardly got to her feet, cracking her back as best she could to try and work out the kinks there. "Follow me upstairs."

"Okay," she replied as she copied Erin by wrapping her blanket around her shoulders. It was a bit eerie to walk through this house once more and to know that it would be the last time she might do so, as Erin would most likely sell it. "I can carry my own bag."

"Hush. And where's the rest of your things? Or didn't you bring your laptop with you?"

"I figured that we'd be working out things while I was here, so I only have my phone. Everything else can wait."

Erin nodded as she continued making her way upstairs, and Alex knew that she was deliberately avoiding answering the question about the objects that might hold sentimental value for her children. She made a mental note to text Karen and ask her to get a list of items from Bruce and Tabitha, along with herself, that Alex could use to create boxes for them when they finally were ready to leave the property. "All right, in here."

Alex frowned a little as she was led into Erin's childhood bedroom, seeing that it was clearly lived in at the moment. "Erin?"

"You remember that there are only two bedrooms in this house, and I am not about to let you ruin your back on the sofa for the length of your stay. The mattress is brand new, as I bought it when I came up here to stay with Momma until the end. I just, I can't stay in her room, Lexie, and I wouldn't ask you to sleep in there, either."

There was a pain in Erin's voice that tore at Alex's heart, and she nodded as she closed the distance between them, looking into Erin's eyes before wrapping her in a tight hug. It had been too long since they were physically affectionate with each other, but the sweet kisses earlier told her that it wouldn't be unwelcome. It didn't shock her when Erin melted into her as she dropped Alex's bag to the floor in order to snake her arms around her waist and hold her close as she breathed in deeply. Alex remembered that this was her usual way to go about things, when she didn't want to start crying, and so she said nothing, allowing Erin to take her time and control how long the embrace lasted. "At least I know that this will be the warmest bed I've slept in lately. You are still a furnace, yes?" she gently teased when Erin pulled away from her to swipe her fingers beneath her eyes and clear away the tears that had escaped despite her best efforts to control them.

"I am, yes. David always bitched about that, but there was nothing I could do to control my internal body temperature. You and Alan just took it in stride and wore less to bed."

"Rossi was always too set in his ways. I don't know how Krystall deals with him now, decades later."

Erin giggled quietly at first before it turned into her full, rich, laugh, and Alex grinned crookedly to hear that sound pouring from her lips, since she knew that it had most likely been too long since she had allowed herself to laugh. "They deserve each other. After the way he left me following the Curtis ordeal, well, I have no love lost for him. I wish that I could say differently, but life has taught me that sometimes the bitter comes with the sweet. He helped me heal from my addiction, but that wasn't quite enough to bind us together following all the secrets and lies that came to light when John tried to kill me and used the team to get at me."

"You had no idea John was behind it until that awful night in New York City."

"Ah, but I did not tell David the full truth of what was once between us and how that colored our reactions to the Amerithrax debacle." Erin elegantly crouched down to pick up Alex's bag and brought it over to the bed before opening it and starting to take out her clothes. Alex knew that this was a clue that she was getting a little too personal with her statements, and she let out a soft sigh as she began to help Erin put away her belongings, laying out her makeup and brush next to Erin's on the vanity. "I didn't want to share you and what we had with him. I loved him, but there were parts of his personality that I knew I would have to overlook so that we could live together. But he felt like I had betrayed him by not revealing our physical relationship, that John told him something I should have been the one to reveal. But there are some things so precious and delicate that you can never share them, because they'll break."

Erin placed the last of her undergarments into the top drawer of the dresser before turning to look at Alex, and she gave the woman a small smile before licking her lips delicately. "I told James, because he needed to know that there were times when we got a little too close during that case. I didn't tell him how intimate we were, because, like you, I wanted to keep those tender moments to myself, but I think he knew that we never really stopped loving each other after connecting in the Academy."

Erin nodded as she closed the drawer before drifting over to the bed and taking a seat. "We keep coming back to each other, Lexie. As if our lives have been dancing around in circles that sometimes overlapped." She nodded as she took a seat next to Erin, reaching out for Erin's hand and holding it lightly as she waited to hear if Erin would say more. "You are probably the only person in my life now that knows which smiles I fake and which are real. You just didn't care for the longest time to realise that fact."

"I had a lot of hurt and anger to with through before I could see that you were hurting just as much." Alex released Erin's hand so that she could reach up and caress her cheek softly, feeling like the moment they were sharing called for that. "Even though the heart I was breaking was my own, I still shut you out because that was the easiest thing to do after feeling so betrayed. But perhaps, since we keep circling back around to each other, now is finally the right time to be together. We don't have the societal pressures on us to have a family, to settle down, and we can just be ourselves. It might be nice to not leave you again. It might be nice to start over here, in this house that you grew up in. If that's what you want."

"And still, you can read my deepest thoughts. I don't want to leave Quantico, it was my home for so long, it's where my children are, but there's something about home that calls to me. Do, do you think that we could start over here? That we could find the promise we desired so badly when we were young?"

"I think that I might like to try. And if things go south, I can return to Boston, and you can stay here, where your heart is. But I truly think that we can heal together, at last. It will be hard, I know that much is true, but we can make it work."

Erin gave her a trembling smile as she nodded, leaning in to kiss Alex softly. "And you'll help me sell and pack and everything? It all seems to be so much, and I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. Until you showed up. Then things just felt right, for the first time since Momma died." Alex nodded as she allowed Erin to push them back against the mattress, and it was easy, so easy, to take hold of her hand and thread their fingers together this time as they stared at the ceiling. "I know that it will take time, but perhaps we'll have all the time in the world now. If God wills."

"If so," Alex replied as she turned to look at Erin, tapping her thumb against her hand as she smiled gently. "I hate that driving takes so much out of me. I feel ready to sleep for a month, even though I know that I'll wake with time. Let me nap for a little longer, and then we can get supper started?"

"I think that we can do that, yes," Erin said as she threw her blanket over Alex and scooting in close before resting her head against Alex's shoulder. "Sleep well, Alex."

"You, too, Erin," she replied, kissing the top of her head lightly before closing her eyes and allowing sleep to claim her once more.