Chapter 171

Alex was quiet for most of the car ride back to the hotel where she sat in the back seat with Phoebe who was sleeping on her lap. Ryan glanced at her in the rear view mirror and the expression she had on her face was somewhat unusual, because he thought the night went pretty good. They pulled into the parking lot at the hotel and he opted to take Phoebe while Alex carried her diaper bag. When they got into the room Alex undressed into sleepwear and got into bed scrolling through her phone to send her mother a text.

"Is everything okay?" he eventually managed to ask and she nodded.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. It wasn't too bad hey." She smiled and he nodded getting under the covers next to her. She texted her mother that they needed to talk but didn't manage to wait up for her reply so she closed her eyes and drifted in and out of consciousness waiting for the daylight to arrive so they can go home. She'll have to find this character who is apparently her brother, and her mom will have some explaining to do.

*back at home*

"I'll unpack tomorrow I have no energy left right now." Alex said when Ryan unpacked the car, Phoebe managed her way onto the couch and laid her head on her mother's lap as she fell asleep, seems like her parents weren't the only ones feeling the effects of their week away.

"Do we have to go to back to work tomorrow?" Ryan asked taking a seat on the couch next to her laying his head on her shoulder.

"Yes. We've been loathing for way too long and I'm actually looking forward to catching some bad guys again." Alex said stroking a hand across the little hairs in the back of his neck. "That friend of yours who works upstairs on fourth floor who deals with missing people or finding long lost people or something like that, is he still there?" Alex asked and Ryan looked up at her nodding his head.

"Yeah last time I checked. Why? Are you looking for someone?" He asked and she shook her head.

"Shelby asked me to look into it, she's trying to find out where her parents are. She wants to try and reach out to them somehow without Caleb knowing about it." Alex said and Ryan looked at her with furrowed brows.

"I can ask him tomorrow. Or give her his number and then she ask him herself. He's a nice guy I'm sure he'll help out." He yawned and got up. "I'm gonna go take a nap I've missed my bed. Will you manage with Phoebe?"

"Yeah I want to makea few calls and let grandma know we're home safe." She answered waiting until he was out of sight before she took out the picture of Luca and stared at it for some time deciding to call her mother and ask about it.

Running a hand through Phoebe's hair she smiles down at how peaceful her daughter is sleeping, one hand resting at the top of her mother's pregnant belly. Alex dialed Sita's number and waited for her to answer. She didn't even bother greeting her mother when she answered the phone as she got right into it, "Ma, I'm about to ask you something that I found out yesterday and I need you to be honest with me."

"Well its good to hear from you to Alex." Sita laughed waiting for her daughter to say what is on her heart.

"Did dad cheat on you with Hazel Kumar, and do I have a brother named Luca?" She asked and the silence from the other side made her wonder if her mother was still on the line.

"Who told you that?"

"It doesn't matter who told me just answer the question, ma."

Sita sighed deeply before she confirmed it. "This is not something I want to discuss over the phone Alex."

"If grandma didn't tell me about it, would you have told me?"

"I didn't think it was relevant Alex, too much has happened and he doesn't even have a relationship with me or had one with your father." Sita tried to explain.

"That doesn't justify the fact that you've lied to me for most of my life. I'm working on finding him and trying to figure out where he fits in. I've expected a bit more integrity from you ma." She said softly and ended the call blowing out a long steady breath. Mentally telling herself to take it one day at a time until she can get to the bottom of this. And it was still early days so she didn't see the need to tell her husband about it, not until she is 100% sure that they are related.

She had no idea where to start but hopefully by the morning she'll manage with the contacts of her husband to track her so called brother down and then she'll take it from there. She needs to cool down first and let her mother tell her what she knows before she takes it any further, and decided that Ryan doesn't need to know about it.

She carried Phoebe to the nursery and laid her down in her crib, walking further down the hallway she opened the door to the room that will soon belong to their new baby. She had no idea what they'll do with all the boxes that were stacked there but she was certain that they'll probably store it in the garage. A few photo frames and a tin of pain caught her eye, she walked over to the corner of the room and bent down to pick it up. A framed picture of her very first sonogram was in the frame, you can barely even make out what it looked like. The rest of the frames were empty. She scratched around in the boxes some more and came across wooden letters that spelled their baby's name and she couldn't help but smile at how excited her husband is about all of this. She's just hoping and praying that when they go to find out the baby's sex in a few weeks that it won't turn out to be the opposite as he bought light blue paint also. And he was sneaky by hiding it in boxes since he knew how much she hated wanting to unpack those boxes. On the spot she decided that she'll have to do something to thank him, but she won't let it slip that she found these new baby things hidden. Sometimes he just amazes her and she can't thank him enough for being in her life.

Grabbing the car keys she wrote a quick note and pasted it on the fridge heading to the shops to buy her husband something special. She had no idea what but she's certain she'll find something once she enters the shop.

Ryan woke up surprised to see that Alex didn't come to take a nap but he assumed she was downstairs. Until he saw the note on the fridge that explained her absence, he walked into the nursery to check on Phoebe who was still sleeping soundly before he decided to catch up on some paperwork and reply to the emails he didn't read. He had no idea how much it would be and he was certain that the vacation notification didn't mean anything to these people they just wanted their answers. It wasn't until he saw the email about the new recruits that he realized how much work he has to get through since they are starting tomorrow, and he had no idea who he'll be working with and had to familiarize himself with the profiles of the new FBI agents

Alex walked around the shopping center absentmindedly not really knowing what she is looking for when the jewelry shop caught her attention. She walked inside and stared at the watches on display.

"Hi ma'am, can I help you with anything?" The sales lady asked friendly.

"Hi, yes. To be honest I have no idea what I'm actually looking for, I just know that it needs to be special. Like really special." Alex said and the lady nodded confusingly until Alex started laughing.

"Okay, uuhhhhmmm, it seems like you're really not knowing what you're looking for." The lady smiled and Alex nodded. "May I ask who it's for? And what is the price range that you're comfortable with?"

"It's for my husband. I'll close my eyes and go for any price right now, I'll deal with the debt later." Alex decided as the lady showed her around the shop while they were looking at watches. The sales lady took pointed out some watches, but it was the gold Rolex watch with the black background that caught her eye as she pointed towards it. The lady took it out of the display case and showed it to her, not sure if she should show the price, but Alex decided that it was well worth it as she handed over her credit card.

"There you go ma'am, I hope your husband likes it."

"He better like it, or we're getting divorced." Alex smiled as she walked out of the shop content that she found something although she still felt like she needed at least one more item to pair it with. Deciding on a suit. How original since he had loads of it but she'll get him one anyway. In the display the mannequin was dressed in a dark blue suit and a crisp white shirt and Alex decided that's the one she was looking for. As she entered the shop ready for her last purchase before she heads back home.

Ryan checked up on Phoebe a little while later and helped her out of the crib when he saw she was awake. She handed her father her empty bottle and walked out of the room to the corner of the living room where her toys was stacked to start playing, when her mother entered.

"Nice to see the two of you finally decided to get up." Alex commented when she entered with the grocery bags, she left Ryan's gift in the car and decided to wait until he was in the shower or something to bring it in and hide it somewhere in the house.

"Because you were gone for ages. Is there more bags?" he asked and she shook her head indicating the two she was carrying were the only ones.

"I wasn't gone for that long, stop lying." She unpacked and got a light dinner started. "What are you busy with?" She asked when Ryan was still busy scanning the profiles of the new agents who was about to start working the next day.

"We have a few new agents starting tomorrow, and I'm gonna need to pair them with some people who know the drill on how things work, just until they find their feet for the first few days." He started and Alex nodded looking at him waiting for him to continue his story on where this is all going.

"And, because I have such an amazing wife, who is an amazing mother, and an even better FBI agent I was hoping you'd be willing to mentor one of the guys just for like a week or five or seven." He shrugged.

"It better be a week and not five. Let me first see who this person is. It's a pitty I'm pregnant what if he was really handsome and we could've eloped and started a new life together because we fell in love, like in the movies." She said and Ryan put the file down he had in his hand that he was about to hand over to her.

"Yeah, uuhhmm on second thought maybe Nimah would be a better mentor." He laughed and she hit his shoulder lightly.

"I'm kidding, let me see." She took the file he put down and opened it. "Harry Doyle, welcome to Alex's academy. Okay so what do I need to do?"

"Just take him out on a case with you from start to finish, and allow him to do the paperwork. You're gonna have to go over it though and show him the ropes but allow him to be a central part of the case and report back on his progress by the end of the week." Ryan explained and she nodded.

"Got it. Not that difficult." She shrugged kissing him quickly before attending to the food in the kitchen again, turning the heat lower. "Phoebe, come on time for bath bub." The little girl looked up at her mother and then down to the toys she was playing with as if it is a really hard decision to make where she had to decide whether to bath or continue playing with her toys. She eventually got up and grabbed Barney, leading the way upstairs towards the bathroom.

Alex ran the bath water while she undressed Phoebe and once the little girl was undressed she picked Barney up again ready to get into the bath with the purple stuffed animal. "No Phoebe, that's not going to work. Come on put it down please. You have other toys to play with in the bath." Alex explained but the little girl persisted that she wanted Barney.

"Noooooooooo mama." She started and sat down on the floor kicking her legs out while she's crying, throwing the stuffed animal on the floor and it slid across the white tiled floor.

"Okay, this is not going to work Phoebe. You are not taking Barney into the bath with you." Alex said calmly trying to get her daughter to listen to her above her screams.

"Noooooooooo Ah –wex. Daaaaadaaaaaa." She continued hitting the floor as she laid down, while Alex looked at her toddler waiting for her to calm down, Ryan appeared in the doorway looking between his wife and his daughter who were the opposite of each other in terms of their emotions at the moment. Phoebe highly upset about something while Alex sat on the floor looking at their daughter calmly.

"What's going on?" he asked confused looking between the two of them.

"She wants to take Barney into the bath with her, and it's gonna get wet and you know she falls asleep with it so by bedtime it won't be dry and we'll have another problem to deal with then." Alex told her husband who was on the verge of giving in to his daughter's demands just so she can stop crying and get out of her state of distress. "And don't even think about it Ryan Booth." She said and he lifted his hands in surrender.

He walked over to where she was crying, sitting down next to her as he picked her up. "Alright look at me Pheebs." He said calmly and wiped her face with his forefinger. "What's wrong, why are you crying?"

She sobbed looking at him with wet eyelashes making her lashes look even longer and fuller than they actually are. Blinking rapidly she laid her head on his chest. "Ma-ma." She sobbed pointing towards her mother, who was still sitting on the floor looking at the two of them wondering where her husband is going with this and hoping it'll come to the same conclusion of not taking the purple dinosaur into the water. "What did mama do?" He asked and it took her some time before answering.

"Mama, no Bah-nee baf." She ended her sentence and Alex couldn't help but smile at the fact that they can make out what she is saying, making her realize that her baby isn't such as baby anymore. "Okay, but you have other toys to play with in the bath Pheebs. If Barney gets into the bath with you it's gonna get wet and you won't be able to take him to bed with you." Ryan explained not knowing if she understood but she was calmer and he hoped that she understood what he meant. "Okay? Come on wipe your face now." He said and with the back of her hands she wiped her tears once more getting out of her father's embrace.

"Please pick Barney up and bring it to me." Alex asked and she obeyed handing it to her mother. "Thank you. Are you feeling better now?" Alex looked at her and she nodded her head as her curls bounced around her head, and she helped her into the bath where she played with some ducks and a pink ball. "She's not even two yet and this is how things are going." Ryan sighed looking at Alex who nodded her head. "I know, but you've manage to calm her down, so I'm sure when terrible twos arrive you would've had enough practice by then." Alex laughed at the expression on his face as the two of them sat down next to the bath looking at their daughter playing happily. Its crazy to think that when she was born they had no idea what to do and now they've become a team by taking on this parenting thing.

Hey guys! Someone asked for a hi-jack happening on their way back, but I really didn't know how to write that in I do however have an alternative idea that I'm willing to share (I'll have to go through my emails and PM the reader who requested that in hopes of making up for the hijacking not happening.) Here's another one hope you enjoy, I'm on vacation yay! Hoping that I won't have to re-write any subjects that I may have failed (so let's all hope that I passed everything). Thank you for all the lov and the new follows and favourites. Thank you for reading.

Lovies-S