Erin frowned a little when she noticed the commotion in the bullpen. When David hadn't stopped in to tell her where the team was headed, she assumed that it was a local case, but that didn't account for the thrum of activity that seemed to fill the air. Shaking her head a little, she went inside and found a few unfamiliar faces there, visitor's badges clipped to their shirts, and Erin tried not to frown too deeply as she made her way up to Penelope's office, knowing that she would probably have the answers that Erin wanted.

Without knocking, Erin went inside, closing the door behind her softly just in case Penelope was on the phone. "Hey, Erin."

Swiveling around, she saw that Penelope was still tapping away at her keyboard, not looking at her. "How did you know it was me?"

Penelope finally turned to look at her, a wide smile on her lips. "You wear a distinctive perfume, and you're the only one who comes into my office and closes the door. Usually, the others just leave it open. What can I do for you?"

"Why do we have so many guests in the bullpen?"

"Missing child case, and apparently, it ties into some previous child abduction cases that happened in the area in the past. I take it that Rossi didn't fill you in before he got to work on this?" Erin shook her head as she took a seat on the sofa. "Typical man. But since you're here, that give me the opportunity to ask a few questions of you. First and foremost, how are you doing?"

She took a deep breath as she instinctively rubbed her bad shoulder. The wound had healed well, though she had been left with a wicked looking scar. A part of her knew that she should be grateful that she hadn't ended up with the wicked network of scars that Aaron had, or that she was still alive where Haley was not. Still, her vanity was such that she didn't care for the ugly mark, not even when David brushed his lips against it while they were making love. "Physically, I'm doing much better. My shoulder aches when it storms, but I was told that was to be expected. Mentally, there are days when I struggle. But I'm putting on that stiff upper lip for David and my children. I'm more worried about Aaron, truth be told. He's very much like me, however, and we don't open up to anyone. Even David doesn't know all my secrets yet, and we've been together for five years now."

Penelope nodded as she rolled over to her in her chair. "Somehow, I think that Helen might know the most about you out of all of us. Because you need to have someone that you would trust with everything close to your right hand, who can act for you, in case you're incapacitated."

"I'm surprised that you understand that, there are quite a few people who wouldn't." Penelope shrugged a little. "You're a rare soul. Do you want to see pictures of Catherine?"

The other woman blinked at the abrupt subject change before giving her an excited nod, and Erin slipped her phone out of her suit pocket and called up her picture roll and tapped on the newest picture that she had taken of Catherine before handing the device over. "Hey! This is the dress that I bought for Elise!"

"Yes. We kept all the sweetest things that didn't get much use, since babies grow so quickly. I assumed that we'd pass them on to our girls when they had their own children, but then little miss decided to grace us with her presence."

Penelope looked up at her, a dreamy look on her face. "That is so sweet," she breathed out before starting to flip through the pictures on Erin's camera roll. "And is our little Cath doing well? I was surprised that she was able to come home so quickly, since Elise had to be in the hospital and she was closer to term when she was born."

"She's healthy and growing. We'd like to see her have a little more weight, but she's going to be tall, or at least, that's what I think since she's so long right now. Our little lovebug. Though I just know that he's going to start calling her Kitty, or Kitten, and that is going to led to so much confusion, since he calls you Kitten. Though I do like the sound of Cath. Maybe that will stick as her nickname, if we say it often enough."

Penelope nodded before flipping to the next picture. "Oh my gosh, is that Hotch?!"

Erin frowned as she looked towards the phone, and Penelope turned it towards her, showing off the picture of Aaron holding Catherine, Jack and Elise fast asleep and cuddled up close to him as he smiled warmly up at the phone. "Yes. He doesn't smile very often, but when he does, I see him in Elise all the more. This goes no further than us, but I am so glad that we told him the truth before Haley died, so that it didn't come as a surprise to him when Foyet was ranting. I mean, everyone else on the team was shocked, but Aaron wasn't."

"Yeah. God, Erin that was such a terrible day."

"It was," she replied, watching as Penelope went back to looking at the pictures. "And I wanted to thank you again for helping me pull together the photo book. Aaron loved it, and it's been so great to be able to bond over our daughter. We'll never be close friends, which is as it should be, but things are much less fraught now." She glanced at her watch. "And now I'm going to be running late for a meeting. I'm sorry to cut this short. And if you see David before noon, tell him that we need to talk when he has a moment."

"I'll do that, Erin," Penelope said as she handed the phone back to her. "Seriously, you have created the most beautiful blended family out of the chaos that caused it."

Erin gave her a soft smile as she slipped the phone back into her pocket and turned to leave the room. While she didn't need to hear praise like that, it was nice to know that others recognized what she and David had worked so hard to build over the last few years. As she made her way out of the bullpen, she passed by Agent Jareau and an older woman, who'd clearly been crying, and she felt her heart lurch in her chest, wondering if that was one of the parents of the missing child. Quick tears pricked at her eyes as she thought about how she would feel if someone had taken one of her children.

Shaking her head slightly to try and keep the tears at bay as she headed back to her office knowing that she would have to quickly regain her composure so that she wouldn't look like a mess at her meeting. Helen met her at the door with a printout of the agenda, along with her coffee cup. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Helen."

"I'm certain you'd have another, equally as competent, assistant. I'm ordering Chinese for lunch, is there anything in particular that you'd like?"

"Sesame chicken sounds delicious today. Make certain you put it on my tab," she said as she took the proffered items from Helen's hands. "And take it easy, there shouldn't be too much happening today, since Alpha is home, and I can get updates by going into the bullpen for myself." Helen nodded as she gave Erin a quick wink and smile before going over to her desk, allowing Erin to make her way over to the elevators and pressing the up button, not really looking forward to the meeting ahead.