"Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict."

– William Ellery Channing

"They're trying to build a case on the fly," Stan said, checking his watch. He and Erin had been in the interrogation room for over 10 hours. With no sign of actually being questioned any time soon. He knew as soon as he left, the DOJ would find something and he wouldn't leave his client hanging.

"What's our strategy?" Erin asked. She avoided asking the question because she didn't want to be overheard, but the longer they waited the worse things got. She needed to know for sure that Stan was on her side and not running up the clock to pad his bill. "We don't have much to work with-"

"Ain't that the damn truth," Stan gave an aggravated huff. "We're gonna rattle the cage." Fed up, he stood up from his seat and stalked towards the door. Stan opened the door so forcefully, the door to the interrogation room bounced off the wall.

Erin never moved. Even if she could have, she was so stunned by Stan's sudden temper, that she didn't want listened to Stan in the hallway, as he berated the agents in charge.

"Alright this is bullshit," he bellowed. "You're denying my client basic, human rights. Take off the cuffs, find her some food and let her go to the bathroom."

"Sir, Handcuffs are protocol." The younger agent tried to interrupt Stan's tirade.

"Hell with your draconian protocol! She's not violent, she's a Section Chief for the FBI, For God's sake. She's never seen the inside of a jail cell and she sure as hell doesn't deserve to be here. We both know you're using the handcuffs to intimidate her." A pause hung in the air, Stan waited for his words to sink in."Tell me Agent, do you think your pregnant wife could sit on a toilet with her hands cuffed in front of her?"

Erin waited, straining to hear the agent's answer.

When he didn't answer, Stan continued. "If that's a 'no' then I maintain my earlier statement. You're denying her access to food and a toilet after 10 hours. War criminals receive better treatment. If this is how the FBI treats one of their own, they should change the motto, because I don't see a lot of integrity demonstrated here."

Erin nodded, relieved, finally there was someone on her side. Food didn't feel like a priority, but at least Stan was thinking ahead. Her body ached, letting her know that she needed to move around. Moments later, the door opened and Stan and an agent filed in. Begrudgingly the agent withdrew a set of keys and unlocked the handcuffs. "There's a bathroom down the hall," he said without meeting her eyes and stalked towards the door. "I'll send someone to escort you."

"Wait-" Erin said. "I'll tell you whatever you want in exchange for a bottle of water."

The agent nodded wordlessly and closed the door behind him.

Stan looked at her, totally bewildered,"What are you doing?"

"I'm hoping to speed up this process." She said quietly and laid her head down on the table in exhaustion. "If they think I'm willing to cooperate-"

Stan cut her off, "Now's not the time to start profiling people."

She looked up slightly, "Well, we'll see if it works. I don't know what else to do." She said, feeling sorry for herself.

"It wouldn't kill them to treat us like people," Stan ground out. Erin could see why he and Dave were one had much patience for the brass.

"It wouldn't," Erin agreed, rubbing her wrists. "However, it would undermine their authority over me and make them look weak. Now," Erin got to her feet. "I'm going to take my creature comforts where I can get them." She said, clinging to the back of the chair.

Stan checked his watch, they'd been here over 10 hours. He was starving, he could only imagine how she felt. "I'm going to track down a vending machine."

She sat back down, waiting for the dizziness to subside. She squeezed her eyes closed and tried to regain control. "Sounds like a good plan," She said. The lights in the interrogation room seemed brighter and more intense. She didn't realize the pain in her head until now. The last thing she needed was a migraine, right before an interrogation.

J.J. waited in the conference room, the clock ticked on the wall in front of her. She watched the interrogator's carotid jump in his neck, as she waited for questioning to resume.

"Agent Jareau," the interrogator squared his shoulders back. "When you were on your covert assignment, you did something that influenced Erin Strauss. She recommended that you take profiling classes."

"I'm not sure what you're implying." J.J. said, offhanded. She rested her elbow over the back of the chair, she would be here awhile, she might as well be comfortable.

"She helped to secure your promotion. She's never recommended that kind of promotion before. Were you aware that she influenced your promotion? Do you feel some sense of obligation towards her and David Rossi?"

"Why would I feel obligated towards anyone, Sir?" J.J. retored. "I worked my way up the chain of command, the same way as everyone else."

37 hours and counting. Tick tock.

J.J. focused on the sound of the clock. They knew everything she faced in Afghanistan ...A..b..c..d….She let her thoughts trail off. She faced worse than a room full of bureaucrats, every day. They wouldn't break her.

"Agent Jareau! Answer the question!"

"I feel I've earned my place in the Bureau, Sir," she said, icily

"Agent Rossi was instrumental in bringing you back from 'the State Department.' Your working relationship with him leads me to believe that you're closer to him than anyone else on your team."

"What are you asking me?" J.J. asked, calm and cool.

"Do you feel obligated to keep his relationship with Erin Strauss, a secret?"

"I'm not aware of any relationship, outside of work. I don't know how anything other than a professional relationship could exist between them."

"I don't think that's true." The interrogator spat and pulled out an I-pad. "I have video evidence that you saw something happen between. Here on federal property."

"A lot of interaction happens between colleagues-especially behind closed doors."

"Agent Jareau, you can stop stalling, right now!" He slammed the tablet down in front of her, she watched a video pulled from security cameras. She watched herself and Penelope, watching the window of Rossi's office. Pressing the screen, J.J. tried to zoom in on the window, to see what was happening but the image was too grainy.

"I'm sorry," J.J. pushed the tablet across the table. "I'm not able to make out what this is. If this is a video of Rossi and Strauss, I can assure you, they're arguing behind closed doors."

"Who else is on that surveillance video?" He shot back.

J.J. couldn't stop the words from coming out of her mouth. They had already questioned Penelope once and J.J. knew the Ethics Committee would have to drag the technical analyst in by her hair if they decided to question her again. "I don't know what you're talking about, Sir. I can't make out anything on that video."

"We're done here," He said curtly. "Send in Aaron Hotchner."

J.J. glanced at her watch again, 36 hours and counting. Tick tock. "Yes, Sir."

Erin stood in the ladies room, thankfully it was small enough to accommodate only one person at a time. She used the restroom, washed her hands, making an effort to drag out the time. The female agent standing outside the door, would just have to wait. The lights in the bathroom weren't as bright and her head didn't hurt as bad.

Erin locked the door and stroked her belly, trying to soothe her anxious gave her a good excuse to be there. Off camera, for longer than five minutes. She stretched, bounced slightly on her toes. Anything to stay awake. It wouldn't do her any favors to fall asleep during an interrogation. If they ever got to that point. Her freedom was riding on the BAU, whatever Dave's team knew or didn't know about her relationship with him, she hoped they kept their mouths shut. They would never intentionally betray David, so by extension, she was under their umbrella. She smiled at the thought. Maybe, once the investigation was over, her little family could coexist with the family David had built at the BAU. She liked the idea. When the investigation was over, it would end eventually. The DOJ couldn't hold her forever.

A knock at the door startled her out of her thoughts. "Strauss!"

She knew that voice, it was a different agent, than the one who escorted her to the bathroom.

The agent knocked again, louder this time to remind her where she was. "Hurry up in there."

Damn, she wanted to go home. Still, questioning seemed like a long way off. She ran the water in the sink and splashed some water on her face, drying off with a handful of paper towels.

She listened briefly, Stan's voice carried through the hallway.

"Come on now," he sounded annoyed at the agent, "give her a few minutes. She's pregnant and probably a little sick, since you've starved her for the last 10 hours. There's no window, she can't escape." Stan said, his tone was light, almost friendly. Like a used car salesman who was bargaining for his client's privacy.

Erin chuckled grimly, the more time she spent with Stan, the more she understood his friendship with David. At first, she thought only a Rossi man was capable of charming the authority out of a federal agent. Then she heard the agent relent.

"Five more minutes or I'm coming in."

Erin was so happy to get that little reprieve, that if not for her relationship with Dave, she could have kissed Stan.

Dave continued pacing. The waiting was driving him nuts. He hated to wait, with passion in a normal situation. However, this was not a normal situation. Not by a long shot. The woman he loved, was five and a half months pregnant with his twins. Her freedom was on the line while he waited for the DOJ to finish their witch hunt. The next 2 days would decide his family's future. That knowledge felt more like a death sentence than his heart attack. His thoughts spiraled, he sank down heavily in his office chair. Rossi he thought to himself, you have got to get it together! He needed a clear head when he went into the lion's den. One misstep, one wrong statement and Erin would be served up to the courts on a platter. Knowing the DOJ the way he did, those predators wouldn't stop picking her apart until her bones were clean. He thought about all they had to lose. Those thoughts led to thinking about his kids at home. They had to be scared to death, not knowing what was going on with their mother. He'd talked to Will and Jessica,and informed them of the pre prepared meals that he kept in the freezer, for nights when neither he nor Erin felt like cooking. They could live on the trays of Lasagna and Carbonara De' Rossi for the next 6 months and never put a dent in his stash. He gave himself a mental pat on the back, if he were still in Boy Scouts, he would have earned his preparedness badge. Good thing too, he mused, because according to the bank their accounts were still frozen.

Dave felt wearier than his years. He dreaded calling the kids. He knew they would have a million and one questions, but he would have no answers. Still, he wanted to hear their voices, just to know that they were safe. He took a deep breath and picked up his cell phone. One of the hardest jobs of being a parent, was talking to your kids about serious subjects. Especially, when you don't know what to say. He dialed his home number, thinking all the while, tick tock, clock please don't stop.

When Paige didn't answer his call, he pulled the phone away from his face to check the time. 9pm, he figured Mackenzie would be asleep. Probably in her mom's bed, like she always did when he was out of town. Paul was a momma's boy, he might be awake, but Paige was a worrier, no doubt she would be up and running. Probably Googling her way to a law degree. He put the phone back in his pocket and resumed burning a track in the carpet.

Erin walked out of the bathroom and turned to face her escort. "So, Chief Strauss…" The woman drawled on. "You said it would be a fast fall. Did it hurt when you finally hit the bottom?"

"Agent Thomas," Erin regarded the other woman her poker face intact. After all, the other woman was one of Cruz's flunkies, who had searched the Rossi mansion. During the search, Erin imparted a few words of wisdom to the younger agent because The Bureau didn't need any more underhanded bureaucrats. "I wouldn't say I'm at the bottom, so I can't tell you if it hurt," Erin said blithely. Agent Thomas glared at Erin, snapped the handcuffs tightly on her wrists. "When you get there, let me know?" She sniped as she paraded Strauss back to the Interrogation room.

"I'm not planning to get there, but keep me posted." Erin fired back, giving the agent a glare that would freeze boiling water.

She sat back down at the table. Agent Thomas unlocked one of the handcuffs and snapped it to the table. Before turning on her heel and walking out of the interrogation room.

Stan filed in a moment later, dropping a pile of junk food on the table. "Pick your poison," he quipped, unwrapping a package of Twizzlers.

Erin snatched a package of peanut butter crackers off the table and opened the package. Suddenly, the door opened and Agent Thomas filed in. She sat a bottle of water down in front of Erin. "You said you would tell us everything, in exchange for some water." Agent Thomas unscrewed the lid and handed Erin the bottle. "Now's the time to pay the piper."

Erin took the water in her hand and took a sip. "Your service is appreciated." She said and replaced the cap.

35 hours and counting. Tick tock. Tick tock.

Bring it on.