Dave followed the paramedics up to the seventh floor, knowing that the pace they were taking would allow him to calm his nerves a little. If they had been running, he knew that he would have been unable to get his emotions under control, and that would do Erin no good. Alex was chatting easily with the woman pushing her, and he tried not to listen in on the conversation, since it wasn't his place to know all the intimate details of what had happened to her at Curtis's hands.

Finally, though, they were turning into a spacious private room, and Penelope leapt to her feet as she bustled over to their sides. "Oh, thank God that you're here! I was starting to get worried that something had happened. I know, it's a reaction from everything that's happened over the course of the evening, but I just…" She burst into tears, and Dave pulled her into a tight hug as the paramedics got Alex settled on the other hospital bed.

"We're here, and we're all fine. Has, has she woken up yet?"

"Yes, darling, I'm awake now."

Her voice sounded like Heaven to his ears, and he let go of Penelope to go over to Erin's side, sinking down into the chair that Penelope had just vacated. He picked up Erin's hand, threading their fingers together as he locked eyes with his beloved. "You don't know how good it is to see your face, sweetheart."

"I can only imagine that it's as good for you as it is for me." He nodded as he brought her hand to his lips, kissing it softly before allowing his tears to start running down his cheeks. "Did you arrest John?"

"No, I had to use lethal force. I've already handed my service weapon over to Aaron, and we'll go through the necessary paperwork once you and Alex have been released."

"Okay. I hate to say this, but I'm so tired."

"Go to sleep, then, bella. We'll all be here when you wake up."

She nodded and her eyes fluttered closed as she took a few deep breaths before her breathing evened out into the steady thrum of sleep. He glanced over at Alex, watching as the same doctor from earlier examined her. Penelope drifted over to his side, lowering herself onto the floor as she rested her head against his legs. "That bastard seriously bruised her. And her wrists are raw from the rope that he used."

"I know, Kitten. I'm just glad that he's dead. I shouldn't say that, but I can't find it in my heart to be even an iota of forgiving towards him." She nodded as she let out a deep sigh. "I don't know how Erin would have held it together if he had carried through with his plan. He knew that you would be able to trace Alex's phone, and that we would track her down. He had her tied to a chair that was rigged to explode when he pressed a button. That was why I had to shoot him, so that we all would live."

"Then you did your job. That's all we can ask of anyone. Thank you for keeping our family safe." He nodded as he reached down and stroked her head a few times. The silence that fell over the room also quickly lulled him to sleep, and the next thing he knew, he could hear low voices talking back and forth. Stretching, he found that he was alone with Erin and Alex, and he wondered where Penelope had gone.

"She and the others went to pack up our hotel rooms, darling. Alex and I are going to be free to go at eleven, thanks to your quick thinking. Of course, that's still about eight hours away, but at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I cannot wait to be home, Davie."

"I know that feeling very well, Erin." He scooted forward so that he could reach out and take hold of Erin's hand once more. "I'm certain that Penelope has called James for you, Alex, but if he won't be home, you're more than welcome to join us again."

"I think I might take you up on that offer, if James isn't home. I was telling Erin that we are going to have to take a long leave of absence to make up for this ordeal. Do you think that we'll get a nice hazard bonus for this?"

"I will make certain that you, at least, receive that. Myself? I think that I'm going to retire. I need to spend time with my family and take up a few hobbies to occupy my time. I just, I came too close to losing everything again, and I know that my children and David would probably appreciate it if I just didn't take any more risks with my life. After all, I've been in the middle of a war zone."

That was news to him, and it appeared that Alex was taken aback as well, since she blurted out as much. "When were you in a war zone, Erin Strauss?"

A soft chuckle escaped her lips, and from the look on her face, he knew that she had revealed something she wasn't supposed to. "Um, back when Jennifer was requisitioned to the State Department? There was a sensitive operation, and I had to take a leave of absence. Aaron remembers that, since I asked him to cover for me, I think that he assumes that that was my first stint in rehab, given what happened in Florida where everything went off the rails. But no, we were in Afghanistan, and what we saw there touched us in different ways. For me, it just exacerbated my already spiraling alcoholism."

Dave nodded as he tightened his grip on her hand. "War is hell, and I am so sorry that you had to see what you did. I wish that I had been able to help you back then, because I could have walked you through it, based on my experiences in Vietnam."

"And I should have talked about it to a therapist. But we all know that profilers are the worst at therapy, and I would have just buried it anyway, because I didn't want to seem like a failure."

"That is an incredible amount of strain to put yourself under, Erin. Anyone would have had trouble dealing with that," Alex said as she sat up in bed, hobbling over to Erin's side and picking up her other hand. "You need to be kinder to yourself. And your friends need to be more understanding. I know that we're still finding our way back to the place that we once were, but I hope that you can come to depend on Penelope and myself…" Her voice trailed off as tears clogged her throat, and Dave nodded to her, completely understanding what she was asking.

"I have been trying, Lexie. It's difficult when you've grown accustomed to going it alone. And I have felt so alone for so many years. It took forced rehab to get me to open my eyes to the people around me who care about me, and I am so grateful for David, Penelope, and you." She turned her head to look at him, and he drank in the love that shone from her, wishing that moments like this could last forever.