"You left me there, with nobody!" She said, glaring at him, his bedroom had turned into a vicious, verbal war zone. "What was I supposed to think?"

"You had my parents," he reminded her.

"They hated me! Your mother made me feel like shit every time I walked in the room."

"She made everyone feel that way, welcome to the fucking family! My dad loved you."

"He did?" She paused, the thought never occurred to her.

"Of course he did! I never left you anywhere that you weren't safe and cared for."

"It didn't feel that way."

"You could have talked to me…"

"How do you say, 'I don't feel comfortable with your parents?"

"Well, I didn't feel comfortable with yours either." He fired back, "I was never good enough for them."

"We didn't live with mine." She said.

"We didn't have a whole lot of other offers!" He said, "Well, you had a good one, 'ditch the guy." He said bitterly. "After that, you could have anything you wanted."

"I'm sorry-"

He shook his head, "don't start lying to me now. You didn't pack any of my stuff, when you moved to Quantico. I came home to an empty basement apartment and heartbroken parents."

"I didn't know if you wanted to move, my dad put down half the deposit-"

"We were married! Of course I wanted to live with you."

"At the time, I wasn't sure how much that meant to you," Erin said with a shrug. "I felt abandoned, David. You married me and then you dumped me off on your parents and I barely saw you. Why didn't you just come to me and tell me that you regretted making a hasty decision and marrying me? I would have understood and given you the divorce. Anything would have been better than being cast aside, left to be a burden on someone else."

"I didn't abandon you, I went to work!"

"You were gone for two weeks and called me twice."

"It was long-distance."

"At seven cents a minute, I'm sure that $1.07 each would have put us out to pasture."

He had the decency to look sheepish, "I needed to focus on the case." It was a lame excuse, but it was mostly true. "The BAU was brand new, I needed to make us look good."

"For the funding, I know." She said and he was surprised when he didn't see her roll her eyes. "The fact is, you were gone the entirety of our marriage."

He held up his hand, stopping her. "You ended it, not me. I wanted to come home to my wife."

"If you're expecting me to tell you I regret it-"

"I'll dig out my ice skates because Hell's frozen over-"

She nodded, "if it helps, I do think about it sometimes."

"Me too…" he said and turned towards the door, "now that we've stumbled down memory lane-"

"Tripped on the cracks, more like." she scoffed.

"I think we better get some sleep while we still can." He said and led her out of his bedroom. He wasn't about to put his ex wife in his bed, that was a recipe for disaster.

He pulled the blankets back from his bed and crawled in. This sucked.

Like clockwork, the sun rose at 6:00AM, Dave rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. Usually, Mudgie would jump on him, begging to go outside. Without him, Dave's routine was broken, he was a little out of his element. He groaned and sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Suddenly, the night's events slammed into his brain. Holy shit, his ex wife was in his guest room. He put his feet on the floor and threw his robe over his shoulders. He needed coffee. This was too much for 6:00am. Shaking his head, he went to the bathroom and splashed cool water on his face. What the hell was he thinking, bringing Erin here? She needed real help, not the kind of help he could give her. Water rushed down the sink and Dave tried to send his problems with it, but it was too late to turn her away now. Even if that was the best course of action.

Closing the bedroom door, he padded down the hallway, tying the robe around his waist. If Erin was awake, he would make breakfast. Hopefully, she was sleeping. She couldn't yell at him in her sleep. Light peeked through the crack in the door, he groaned inwardly she was awake.

"Erin?" He asked, putting his ear to the door. He knocked once, "are you awake?"

The door flew open, Erin's eyes were wide and bloodshot, "where the hell am I?"

Holy shit was an understatement.

"It's okay, Erin." He said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "You're safe. You're at my house."

She nodded, the night's events slowly dawned on her. "That…" she caught herself on the doorframe, "Yeah," she nodded…"That sounds right." She said, moving further inside the bedroom. "I guess you should come in," she said, still blinking confusedly.

He stepped inside the room, surveying her. "How'd you sleep?"

She shook her head, her hand trembled against the four poster bed. "I didn't."

"It's still early and…" he trailed off looking for the right words. "I don't have any plans." What the hell was he doing? One night was fine, but actually offering his guest room? He must have hit his head in the middle of the night. Still, the words flew past his lips. He agreed to take care of her and he never broke his word. "I think you should lie back down for awhile until you're feeling better."

She nodded, but her thoughts wouldn't leave her head and she couldn't piece them together. "That...sounds okay," she said faintly. "David- I.." she pressed her hand to her forehead, "I'm so confused!"

"I know," he said gently, "It's okay." He took her by the arm and led her to the bed. "It's okay," he repeated, more for himself than her. He pulled back the blankets and picked the pillows up from the floor. "You're safe."

"What am I doing here?" She asked.

"Crazy, right?" He said, genuinely happy that they could be civil for a few minutes.

"No, David, I'm serious. How did I get here?"

It dawned on him, she really couldn't remember him driving her to his house. He knew he needed to tread carefully.

"I brought you home with me." He said, "If you want, I can take you to the rehab center." He offered even though he knew she wouldn't take it.

"Why?" She asked, crossing her arms. "Why the hell would you bring me here?"

"To help you dry out," he fired back, "because I want to see you get your life back."

"It's not like you cared before!"

"Jesus, Erin, if you want to rehash old history again at least wait till I've had my coffee. Now come here and let me help you" He reached for her to help her on the bed.

"I can do it!" She snapped, shoving her palm in his chest.

He let go of her and took a step back. His hands shook in frustration, what the fuck was he thinking bringing her here? "Erin, I need you to stop making this harder than it needs to be and let me help you."

"Or what! You'll dump me off somewhere?"

"Only if I thought it would help but I wouldn't subject anyone to this."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, picking the blankets off the floor.

"Doesn't matter," he shook his head, dismissing her. "It's too early to argue." He picked up her phone from the nightstand and checked the battery level. "Text me if you need anything. I'll be downstairs."

She shook her head, "Don't bother." Why didn't he understand how much he hurt her? It should have been water under the bridge, but she couldn't let it go. Sure, she could ignore him at work, but being here in his house dredged up all the feelings she thought she'd summoned to the deepest pits of her psyche.

Too bad, she had to remember it, sober.