A few seconds later, the door to her room opened once more, and Aaron entered, though David was nowhere to be seen. She frowned a little, watching Aaron shrug as he approached her and pulled the chair in the room close to the bed before taking a seat. "Dave and Garcia decided to run home for a little while. There wasn't time to get you anything to wear home, and there's nothing for the little miss to wear. I, I was going to get something for her soon, but I've run out of time."

"Well, she's here now, and since she's going to stay, as she has a name, there is plenty of time for you to find the perfect gift for her. So, everyone knows the truth about Elise now."

"I sort of figured that out when JJ asked me if what Foyet had said was true. I didn't deny it, because you didn't deny it when speaking to that man, but I think that it will take some time for them to grow accustomed to this truth. We've been lying to them for so long, and they know that I can't stand liars, so it's a bit of cognitive dissonance that they have to deal with."

She nodded as her shoulders slumped. "I thought that might be the case. I don't mind that they know, because the truth needed to come out at some point. I think we were always driving towards that, once Haley went into the Program. I never thought that it would end like this. I thought that she would come home and we could start to build an extended family of sorts." She blinked a few times, trying to stop herself from crying, but it was a losing battle. Instead, she looked down into Catherine's face and stroked her cheek as she allowed the tears to flow silently.

"I think that I would have liked to see that, Erin. You were a good friend to her and Jessica over the years, something I didn't think possible."

"I didn't think so, either, honestly, given how things started between us all. But the years were kind, and the love we have for our children helped to soften those jagged edges between us. Please, if nothing else comes out of this hell, can we keep that up? Can I still be friends with Jessica? I feel like we've all lost so much today, that I don't want to lose any more."

"I think that we can arrange that between us all." Aaron reached out and rested his hand on her shoulder, causing Erin to look over at him and she saw that he was trying to keep from crying himself. There were so many cuts and bruises showing up on his skin already, and she let out a soft sound of sorrow and grief as she realized that she couldn't reach out to comfort him as well. Not with her shoulder immobilized and Catherine being in her good arm. "She's larger than Elise was."

"Catherine was an easier pregnancy than Elise's was. Up until the end that is. From the sound of things, she wasn't even in the NICU, not like Elise was. How are you physically doing?"

Aaron shrugged a little as he scooted the chair even closer to her side, focusing on Catherine as he took a few moments to think. "I refused the pain killers they offered me in the ER after they reset my broken nose. Surprisingly, he didn't damage it as badly as he could have, so thank God for small blessings. I'll have new scars on my back, since we crashed into a lot of glass in the house. And I don't want to scare Jack and Elise, but my hands are pretty bandaged up right now. I didn't realise that teeth could cut you quite so badly until the nurses were cleaning those wounds and they stung from the alcohol used."

She nodded as she let out a deep sigh. "Thankfully, I was out of it when they operated on my wound. And I don't think that I'll be able to take strong painkillers, since I want to breastfeed Catherine, like I did Elise."

"Do you think that I could hold her?"

"Of course. You didn't have the opportunity to hold Elise when she was this small, so yes. You'll have to pick her up, since I don't think that I can hand her over." Aaron gave her a small smile as he leaned over and carefully transferred Catherine into his arms. Erin sighed when Catherine let out a tiny little cry before snuggling into Aaron's chest. "Is it possible to fall in love with your baby in seconds? Because the moment that David gave her to me, I just knew that she was the perfect last child for my family. I know that David is happy she has blonde hair, like me, but I was hoping that she'd have dark hair, so that Elise wouldn't be the only brunette in the family."

"Her hair could darken. Mine was light, like Shawn's, when I was born, only for me to end up like this."

She laughed a little as she nodded. "That might be nice, yes. Oh, god, Aaron, I hope that what happened to me didn't affect her too badly. I was so fucking stupid," she said, her voice cracking on the last words.

"You were placed in a position that you shouldn't have been. Foyet knew how to manipulate people and get them to do what he wanted. He paralysed people with fear, he did it to you, he did it to Haley, he did it to his previous victims." His eyes met hers once more, and that was when she noticed that he was quietly crying as he rubbed his thumb back and forth across Catherin's chest. "You expect your flight instinct to kick in, that you'll find the strength to do something, but it just doesn't happen sometimes."

Erin knew that he was thinking about when Foyet had stabbed him, and she nodded a little as she pressed her lips together in an effort to not full on sob. "If I had at least thought to grab my service weapon, perhaps I could have shot him before he injured anyone. All my training, all the hours I spend on the shooting range, it all meant nothing because I didn't have the right tools." She started to cry harder, which seemed to have an effect on Catherine, since she started to whimper and wriggle in Aaron's arms. "You're not David, you never will be, but can I ask you to do something for me, until he gets back here?"

"What is it, Erin?"

"Would you please hold me? I suddenly feel like I'm going to shatter, and with him not here, you're the closest thing I have to a friendly face, even though we're…"

"It's water under the bridge at this point, Erin. You were there for Haley when she died, you tried to protect them all and nearly died as a result. And yes, I will let you rest against me as we wait for Dave to get back here with things for you and Catherine."

"Thank you," she murmured as she scooted over to the opposite side of the bed as best she could, hissing in pain when she jostled her injured arm. Gently, he took a seat next to her before handing Catherine back to Erin so that she could cuddle her baby close to her chest as Aaron carefully settled his arm around her shoulders, allowing her to drop her head onto his chest as she started to sob once more, Aaron soon joining her in her sorrow as they held each other and tried to start to heal from their shared trauma.