Aaron frowned to find an unfamiliar car in their driveway a few days later, and despite knowing that Erin could take care of herself quite well, when she was completely healthy, he still worried about her now that the pregnancy had been so high risk. Having an unknown visitor at their home instantly made him on edge, and he carefully pulled into the garage before parking and heading inside. Though it was probably overkill, he still kept one hand on his service weapon as he listened for voices, only to find Jessica and Jack in the kitchen.
"You're home. Good. I'm going to take Jack outside, since you can look after Erin now."
"Who's here?"
"Some woman named Alex Blake? They've been talking for the last thirty minutes, and things have gotten heated at times."
From the look on Jessica's face, Aaron knew that she had wanted to check in on her, but knowing Erin, she had probably glared at Jessica when she had peeked her head into the living room. "That bad?"
"Yes. There's trouble brewing there, and I need to get Jack out of here before that bubbles over into a full-blown fight."
He nodded as she took hold of Jack's hand and led him outside. Aaron let out a deep breath as he set his briefcase down on the kitchen table, pouring himself a cup of coffee as he kept an ear out for their conversation. Within minutes of the front door closing, the storm broke, and he heard Alex start to yell at Erin. "…invite me here if you aren't going to tell me anything? All I've heard is how sorry you are, and not one word of why!"
He peeked his head inside the living room to see that Erin was facing the doorway, and Alex, and she shook her head a tiny bit, trying to let him know that she was all right. But from the way that her hand trembled on her baby bump, Aaron knew that she was close to breaking down. "I still don't like talking about what happened in Wyoming, and that's all you want to focus on. I don't have amends to make from that time in my life, Alexandra. I just have to set right what I did to you during the Amerithrax case."
"From what I understand, what happened with Amerithrax is a direct result of what happened in Wyoming! You managed to wrap the Director and Rossi around your little finger and get them to do your bidding because of that case! I've been thinking about something that Aaron accidentally revealed to me the other day, and after putting two and two together, I have to ask. Whose baby did you have? Dave's or Director Shepperd's?"
The blood drained from Erin's face as her hand pressed into her flesh, her eyes filling with tears as she locked eyes with him. "Neither," she whispered as the first tears began to run down her cheeks.
"That's bullshit, and we both know it."
"It's not. Do you know how many people know the truth about what happened in Wyoming?" Alex shook her head. "Ron, Eric, Penelope, David, and Aaron. I wish that I trusted you enough not to use the information that I could tell you about that case against me, but with how angry you are? I know that I can't take that chance. It would destroy me once more to have you look at me and then use the truth as a knife to cut the heart from my chest. I have to think about this little one that I'm incubating, because she is so desperately wanted by all of us. I would devastate Jack if I lost his little sister."
To his shock, Alex's shoulders slumped a little as she nodded. "How do you know that you're having a girl? You're not that far along, are you?"
"No, but Jack prayed that Aaron and I would get married, and then he prayed that this would be his sister. The fact that I'm even pregnant is enough of a miracle to have me trust his discernment. After all, out of the mouths of children, the truth is spoken."
"That is true, yes." Alex hesitantly reached out to touch Erin's arm, and Aaron watched his wife meet the other woman's eye steadily.
"You can come in here now, darling. I, I think that the tone of our conversation is about to change, and I want you by my side as I tell Alex this story from my past."
"Are you certain? Just a few moments ago…"
"I have to trust her. I have to give her the ability to destroy me, since I destroyed her once. Right? That's how trust works, placing your worst memories into the hands of a former friend and letting her decide what the best course of action is." Erin reached up and wiped her cheeks free from the current tears that had fallen as she beckoned him over to the sofa.
Aaron quickly came over to her side, taking a seat between her and the arm of the sofa as he gave Blake a look of warning, letting her know that if she dared say anything, there would be repercussions. From the tiny dip of her chin, he knew that she had gotten the message, and Aaron wrapped his arm around his wife's waist as he waited for one of the women to speak. "All right, what do you have to tell me?"
"I'll preface this story with the following warning. When I told Aaron this, I sobbed uncontrollably. So when I do start to cry again, I am not trying to manipulate your feelings in any way. All right?"
"I understand."
Erin leaned back against Aaron's chest as she took a few deep breaths. "I was specifically chosen for the Wyoming case. It should have been just Ron and David going out there, but the unsub had a specific type. Young and blonde. Even as we were creating the profile here, I knew that that was the reason I had been chosen for that case. Still, after we had headed out there, I hadn't quite grasped all the ramifications of what was about to occur. Do you remember anything about that case?"
"Just that it was brutal."
"That might just be the understatement of the millennium. The unsub was kidnapping, raping, and torturing women of a certain age and a certain look. A look that I fit quite well."
Aaron could tell the exact moment that Alex understood what Erin was intimating, as it was her turn to have the blood drain from her face as she shook her head. "Erin, you don't have to continue. I think that I understand, finally."
"He destroyed something in me, Alex, and he left me someone beautiful. Someone I could only hold for a few minutes before the adoption agency whisked her away to be placed with her new family. Eric wouldn't let me keep her, no matter how much my heart desperately wanted her. My beautiful Georgia, who I am so blessed to know now, was raised away from me because it would have reminded my husband too much of my shame."
"Fuck that."
Aaron was surprised by the vehemence in Alex's voice. "I could have said no, but I was too ambitious."
"Again, fuck that. You were manipulated into a situation that had no good outcome, you were assaulted, and then you had to give up your child because she wasn't your husband's. I understand now, why you changed, why you clung to me in the years after Wyoming. I wish that you could have told me."
"I couldn't. I just, I felt so lost, and if I thought about her, about what had happened to me, I would never have moved on. And I needed to move forward. But I clung to you, because you were safe. You wouldn't hurt me like the others could. And I still destroyed you, in the end. Because I was so insecure about my position, and with Eric, and I stupidly thought that you might still be my friend, after it all."
Alex scooted closer to Erin and reached out for her hands, holding them carefully as she looked into her eyes. "I would have understood so much better if I had known from the beginning how much you were struggling. We were so close, and yet you still thought you couldn't trust me. Because of the stigma that surrounds assault. God, I want to punch Ron in the face!"
"It wouldn't solve anything, other than getting you fired again, Alex. And I know that it is going to take us time to get to a place where we can trust each other like sisters again, but I truly hope that we can eventually move forward to that place. Please, just tell me that there is a tiny shred of hope? I think that I need something as I face the uncertain future of my pregnancy."
"Yes, there is some hope, and maybe more than a tiny shred. It might be the size of a sparrow."
"And is that sparrow perched in my soul?" Alex nodded, and Aaron felt his brow furrow, not quite catching the reference that the two women quite obviously understood. And then, to his surprise, Erin and Alex closed the distance between them, and were hugging tightly as Erin burst into tears. "I wish that I could blame this all on the hormones coursing through my system, but since Eric died, I've just been more emotional. Aaron doesn't seem to mind, which is so different from what Eric expected of me."
"And yet you loved him to the bitter end, didn't you?" Erin nodded against Alex's shoulder. "I understand. Now, I think that your husband might say no to this, since you're supposed to be on bedrest, but do you think that it would be all right if we took a short drive to our ice cream shop? I feel the need to bring back something to make up for my lack of grace."
"I think that I'm fine to go with you!"
Aaron cleared his throat, and Erin turned to look back at him, giving him a thoroughly innocent look. "That won't work all that well on me, darling. You know that I am going to follow the doctor's instructions to the letter of the law. You are supposed to stay here. But…"
"Yes?" they asked in unison, and Aaron wondered if this was what life would be like with them as friends. Shaking his head a little, he drew in a deep breath and blinked a few times.
"But if you promise to not get out of the car, I will allow you to go with Blake. If you're not home in an hour, I will call."
"And you'll keep calling every ten minutes until we're home?" Erin asked, a slightly teasing tone in her voice. He nodded, and she rolled her eyes a little as she carefully got to her feet, rubbing her bump. "We'll be fine, I promise. Call Jessica and have her bring Jack home, and we'll bring treats back for the entire house." Reaching out her hand to Blake, she helped the other woman to her feet and guided her over to the doorway. "We have to leave as quickly as I can go, otherwise he might change his mind, and I truly want to breathe some fresh air this afternoon." Blake gave her a conspiratorial wink before meeting his eye and giving him a soft nod, as if to tell him that she would look out for Erin on their little trip outside. Somehow, he knew that she would protect his wife, as if the air between them had truly been cleared that afternoon, and he felt a small sense of relief even as his heart thumped a bit faster in his chest at the thought of Erin taking a slight risk by going outside.