"I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!"

Theodore Roosevelt

"I still think having lunch with Carolyn is a better idea than going to see Andy," Erin said, watching David tie his tie in the bathroom mirror.

"Lunch with Carolyn is not a good idea." Dave said, coming out of the bathroom.

"Why not?"

"Because she's my ex wife and I don't want to see her."

"You don't have to come."

"Ooh, yes I do." Dave shook his head, "let me save our jobs and we'll revisit this obsession you have with my ex wife when I come back."

"I'm not obsessed with her."

"You looked her up on Facebook."

"So what? I didn't add her, that should count for something."

"You scrolled through her profile for three hours last night." Dave argued, " You probably know more about her now, than I did the whole time we were married. And I know, because the light from your phone kept me awake." He said and sat down next to her on the bed and pulled on his shoes.

"Well," she said coyly, "We could have been doing other things. If I had known you were awake."

He flashed a boyish grin, "Bye, Erin. I'll be back in a bit."

"Yeah," she waved her hand, "get out of here."

"What? He shrugged, "don't I get a kiss for good luck?" He asked, leaning towards her.

"You don't need it, we didn't do anything wrong."

David Rossi sat back, watching the clock on the wall. How many times had he been pulled into the Director's office in his 20+ year career? Answer, too many to count. But it was the first time he felt like he should be afraid. He wasn't, but a lesser man might be. The chair he sat in was lower than the pine wood desk in front of him; an intimidation tactic, made famous by the Russians. Andy Robinson was 15 minutes late, another trick to establish dominance. It appeared that the director of the FBI was pulling out all the stops to intimidate him. Dave chuckled to himself and lightly touched his badge, nice try Andy.

He pulled out his phone to check on his stocks, the price of gold wasn't as high as he'd like, but the return would make for a nice wedding present for Erin.

Suddenly, the door burst open; Andy flew into the office in a rage, slamming the oak door behind him. His face shone an ugly shade of crimson as he rounded the desk and slammed his phone down, which Dave now realized; had been against his face a moment ago.

"What the hell happened to you?" Dave asked, forgetting the formal pleasantries.

"Well, 'hello' to you too." Andy growled, dropping into his chair. "We both know I didn't call you in here to discuss my golf game."

"It's too cold for that," Dave shrugged and pocketed his phone.

"I've spent the last 3 days going over the budgets with a fine-toothed comb. The DOJ is on my ass, their investigators won't lay off until I give them someone's head to roll."

"And you want to give them Erin's," Dave asked, raising an eyebrow. It didn't take a profiler to see why Dave had been summoned by the director. If Andy was willing to meet face-to face this wasn't good, Dave kept the thought to himself. It wouldn't do to let Andy see him sweat.

"I don't want her head. I want to go home and kiss my wife, but I can't until this is resolved."

"Then clue us in," Dave leaned forward to meet Andy's eyes. "What exactly is the DOJ accusing us of? I know we're not being put through the wringer because I took another post."

Andy shook his head, almost regretfully. "I shouldn't have put her on the short list to replace me. I knew she was too fragile. She screwed up payroll and they're investigating her." Andy's eyes drilled into Dave's as he spoke in a harsh whisper. "They're looking at you, too."

"How did she screw up?" Dave's neck prickled, "the last time I checked, I'm supposed to get paid if I'm pulling double duty." He shrugged, "But I don't need the money." He said smoothly, leaning on the edge of his seat.

"Listen to me." Andy said, laser focused on Dave. "They know how much you spent on your electric bill this month, Rossi. You're screwed. Turn out some lights and get the hell out of this relationship while you still have a career. I give it less than 48 hours before the DOJ is knocking on your door if we can't explain where this money went.

"That's not about to happen," Dave fired back. His heart pounded, sweat pooled in the collar of his shirt. "How much money are we talking about?"

"I can't say. Truthfully, I've already said too much. Dave, you, Erin and I have known each other for a long time. Erin has already accused me of selling out, from your attitude when I walked in here today, I can tell you think the same thing. I've already stuck my neck out too far."

"So, stand by her." Dave said, shock and betrayal hit him in the gut. "You've known her half her life. How can you believe she's guilty?"

" I don't. But my opinion doesn't matter. You both know how politics work around here; The smart thing would have been to cut you off at the knees as soon as there was a hint of wrongdoing. Instead of trying to help clear your names, I should have been doing damage control with the President. After all, I was the one who submitted her name for nomination. But Dave, I've done all I can do. I can't hold the sharks back forever" the Director said, falling back into his chair, looking defeated.

"I'm not asking you to," Dave said, offhandedly, "I'm asking you to look again. How can we defend ourselves if we don't know what is going on?"

"Listen," Andy leaned in close across the desk, "One of you has to stay free to raise your kids. She's a glorified office manager. You're a Fed, you wouldn't last an hour in prison."

"Prison? How much money is she being accused of taking?" Dave asked again.

"That's classified." Andy said flatly, "The point is, she stole from the Justice Department and that's a felony."

Dave stood and slammed his hands on Andy's desk, he leaned forward to meet the Director of the FBI, nose to nose. In a tone fit for late night radio, Dave said; "You got soft in your old age, Andy. The guy I know wouldn't doubt his friends so quickly. You and I know, if Erin did screw up payroll, it was a mistake, not an attempt to steal money from the government. You need to check your records again."

"My ass is in a sling, same as yours." Andy stood up, a sudden powerhouse over Dave. "I don't know why they're looking so hard. If it were anyone else, we could clear this whole thing up with an email."

"Why her?" Dave asked, "why can't we clear it up with an email?"

"I don't know why the DOJ is going to extremes. All I can presume is it's because she is on the shortlist to replace me. I'm doing the best I can, Rossi. I need you to work with me."

Dave reached into his pocket, withdrew his badge and credentials and laid them on the desk. "I need two hours, to get the kids out of dodge. They've been through enough already. Don't subject them to seeing their mother interrogated and their house searched."

Andy ducked his chin, his jaw tight as Dave laid his gun next to the badge. He couldn't make any guarantees, but he would do the best he could. Rossi understood the unspoken promise as he left the director's office and headed towards the elevator; in a hurry to exit the building.

What the hell was going on? Dave thought as he walked out of the office building. Dave slammed the door behind him and power walked across the parking lot. He grabbed his phone and dialed Paige's number.

"Hey, what's up?" The young lady answered on the first ring.

"Hey, I..uh.." Dave fumbled to come up with an explanation, "I..Mom and I need some alone time-do you think you kids could go to your dad's house for a couple days?"

"First of all,Ew..." Paige spat, suddenly disgusted. "I did not need to know that. Secondly, We'll be out of here in 20 minutes."

"Okay-drive safe. Love ya." Dave said, but the line went dead before he could finish.

Next, he dialed Erin's number as he walked to his car. The sun warmed his back as it reflected off the melting snow, but it did nothing to thaw the block of ice that settled in his suddenly too tight chest. In the blink of an eye, the very thing he lived his whole life avoiding, he had become. What fresh hell was he living in? His heart sped up as he thought about the fact that Federal agents would soon be kicking in his door, to search his house and potentially arrest his fiance.

The whole situation was bizarre. When would they catch a break, he wondered? Erin's gut feeling was right, this situation was a lot worse than either of them had imagined, when he left home, earlier. He thought this would be something that he could smooth over. Worst case scenario, they would be reprimanded. She might lose her position as Section Chief of the BAU, but Neither of them had realized the situation was so severe. Suddenly they were faced with a Search and Seizure. The thought that they could be arrested, had never entered his mind when he left home.

He had asked Andy to give him two hours, so he would have time to get home and warn Erin in person. He hoped beyond hope that Andy could hold off the warrant long enough for Dave to get home. A fresh wave of fear gnawed at him, what would happen if Cruz and his team beat him home? Erin could handle it, but she would be blind sidded. "Dammit," He cursed, merging onto the freeway. They were supposed to cut back on stress.

There was no way Dave was going to let his pregnant fiance be ambushed. Heart pounding, doing his best to concentrate on the road, Rossi growled, "hey Siri. Call, Erin."

"Hey," she answered. Her voice surrounded him in the car. He wanted to bottle the sound and keep it forever. She sounded flirty, happy he noticed and he wanted to die, right there on the spot for taking that feeling from her, when she worked so hard to get there. "How did it go with Andy? Are we friends again?" she asked.

Dave swallowed tightly, "Honey, he's always been our friend."

"That's not how it looked to me when he eviscerated me in front of the Ethics Committee."

"I know." Dave said tightly. "Listen, Mateo Cruz is coming to the house in an hour. So, I sent the kids to Mark's for the night. He's investigating problems with payroll records."

"Mateo? Why is he coming here?" She hadn't heard from or about Mateo Cruz since her mission in Afghanistan. Suddenly, it dawned on her, Andy was holding back the whole time. Cruz's time in Afghanistan was a stepping stone, now he was an investigator for the Justice Department and he was coming to comb through her house, every keystroke she made was going to be under scrutiny. There was no way around it, she could go to jail. Chances of that happening were slim, but slim was not the same as non existent. What would happen to her kids? Would they go live with their father or would he let them continue to stay with Dave and the babies? What about their babies? Would she have them in prison, or would they let her wait to serve her sentence, until after she gave birth? Would Dave bring the babies to visit her or find someone else to help him raise them? Would Mark let the kids visit or do his best to turn them against… Dave's voice interrupted her mental panic. His voice pulled her out of the rabbit hole she was spiraling down.

"I love you. I'm on my way. No matter what, we will get through this together."

"You too" She said and hung up the phone. Her knees felt weak and she sat down on the sofa. What was she being accused of? She'd spent hours combing over the payroll records from the last year, there wasn't a dime out of place. What the hell was going on? She watched Paige's car pull out of the driveway, she hadn't told her eldest daughter the severity of the situation. She lied and told her kids that she and Dave were going on a romantic getaway for the weekend. If everything went south, it might be the last time she would see her children, the thought sent chills down her spine and fear prickled at the base of her neck.

Dave drove home, his thoughts reeling. What the hell had Erin done? There's no way she would steal from The Bureau, besides the fact that she didn't need to, it wasn't in her character. Erin Strauss, abhorred a thief. His thoughts turned back to the kids, he hoped they were at Mark's by now. He couldn't let the kids see their mom get arrested, with any luck it wouldn't come to that. He'd give every dime he had for the rest of his life to keep their family together. He pulled into the garage and let himself in the side door.

"Erin?" He called, walking through the house. He found her, five minutes later, on the sofa. In her favorite navy pants suit. Hair made-up in perfect curls and flawless make up. The expression on her face made her look like a caricature of the powerful, section chief she was.

She stared at the wall without seeing anything. "It's over, isn't it? Everything we worked so hard for? Our big, happy family was just a pathetic delusion, wasn't it?" She asked, he could tell she was far away, distancing herself from their reality. Or maybe, he realized she was trying to prepare for the shit-storm coming their way.

He sat down beside her and pulled her against him. They sat in silence because, sometimes there are no words.