"Are you ready to head inside and clear the house, Grant?" Erin asked as soon as she heard James on the phone with Aaron. He gave her a tight nod, and she was surprised to feel a feral smile spread across her lips as she straightened her shoulders and released a deep breath. "Let's get this done and neutralize them before Aaron and his team arrive. We'll head upstairs first, but we need to walk as lightly as possible. When David was here a few weeks ago, I could hear his and John's footsteps above my head because they weren't trying to conceal their movements. Which leads me to believe that the floors are thinner than normal."

"Good to know, ma'am."

"I like it better when you call me Erin," she said, parroting his earlier words back at him. "We're on equal footing here, Grant, since I am no longer with the FBI. For all intents and purposes, I am dead."

"And yet, I will still defer to your vast experience." He reached out and patted her shoulder softly before giving her a small nod. Her head bobbed in acknowledgment as they carefully made their way back to the cabin. The door was easier to open this time, since Erin knew what to expect, and she cautiously cleared the front room before beckoning for Grant to follow her inside. Once the door to the cabin was closed, she pointed towards the stairs, and then crept up them, praying that there wouldn't be a creaky one.

Somehow, they reached the landing without making a misstep, and she let out the breath she had been holding as she pointed to the first door on the left. Grant nodded, and then she was opening it and heading inside the bedroom. Erin felt more than heard Grant follow her inside, and they did a quick sweep of that room before moving on to the next door upstairs. Again, there was no one there, and Erin felt herself begin to relax a little. Though it had been nearly a year since she had been doing actual field work, Erin found that she slipped right back into the rhythm of clearing a house, and she and Grant quickly cleared the other rooms on that floor, finding nothing there.

Daring to take a moment to talk, she turned to Grant and rested her hand on his chest. "The downstairs is where we need to be careful. Because we're that much closer to the basement, and while I feel that that is where they all are, we can't lower our guard."

"I know," he quietly replied. "At least this is a small cabin, so there's not too much to search before we get to the real target. So, we'll start at the back of the ground floor and make our way to the basement door?"

"That is the plan, yes." She gave him a tight smile before blinking back sudden tears, feeling like she was about to throw up from her nerves. "I will not break down until Alex is safe."

"Of course you won't, you have a backbone of iron, Erin." He winked quickly, the gesture seeming to make her feel better. "Let's head downstairs, and clear that floor. The sooner we get this done, the sooner Alex will be safe. Right?"

"Right," she said with a nod before turning around and creeping down the stairs just as carefully as they had gone up them. Once they were on the ground, Erin jerked her head towards the back of the house before starting down the hall to the far back room. There was no one there, or in that closet, and she shuddered to find that the rest of her wardrobe was contained there. "I would have been here forever, if I hadn't escaped," she breathed out as she shivered. Grant squeezed her shoulder kindly as she turned to look up at him.

"But you rescued yourself. You were never a damsel in distress."

She nodded before they cleared the rest of the back rooms, including the closet space beneath the stairs, and then she was leading him out to the living room. There was still something about the view that took her breath away, and she had to remind herself for the reason why they were there, as a part of her just wanted to sink down on the sofa and stare at the trees until Aaron and the team arrived. Even though she and Alex were no longer a part of their team, she knew that they would come help them out. At least, that was the hope she was holding on to in that moment.

Grant touched her shoulder lightly, causing her head to turn quickly as she looked up at him. "Yes?" she whispered.

"This room is clear, we need to move on if we want to reach the basement before all hell breaks loose," he murmured in her ear, and she nodded as she turned away from the window and continued to go through the rest of the ground floor. The closer they got to the kitchen, the louder the voices of David and John grew, and she began to make out what they were arguing about as they stepped into that room.

"This is all your fault, John! If you hadn't been so focused on possessing her, on breaking her will until you could mold her into your perfect little slave, we wouldn't be in this situation right now! And what are you going to do about Alex? There is no way that this can just be handwaved away!"

"I would say that you didn't do your job properly. You were supposed to wrap her around your fingers when she was in rehab, to get her believing that you loved her, and that sleeping with her meant more than just a random shag when you had that itch. I did that in less time, by depriving her and then supplying her with her desires. If I had just had three more weeks, that's when the real fun would have started."

Erin felt sick to her stomach at their back and forth, knowing that their arguing would only lead to greater anger and instability between the two men, which would put Alex in more danger. "We have to go down there, and see if we can assess the situation before Aaron and the others get here," she said in a strained whisper, hoping that the raised voices downstairs masked the sound of her own. Anderson nodded, giving her a tight smile. "And watch the fourth step down, it does squeak," she murmured as she shook out her shoulders, trying to rid her body of the sudden case of nerves that she felt at this decision. A part of her just wanted to throw the locks on door to the basement and wait for backup, but as the arguing voices grew louder and angrier, she also knew that there was the very real possibility that Alex could end up hurt, and she would never forgive herself if that happened.

"Everything will be fine. Do you want me to go first?"

Erin gave Grant a tight nod, feeling more at ease with him taking the lead, even though she knew that she was entirely capable of leading. Her emotional attachment to Alex was already clouding her judgement, however, and she wanted to have as clear a head as possible to hopefully rescue her friend.