Into the Grey

David placed the last plate in the dishwasher. "You know earlier when we were out on the patio you never answered my question."

Erin leaned up against the sink. "I thought it was rhetoric."

"You know damn well it wasn't." he closed the dishwasher and turned it on. "I was completely serious."

"Fine." she agreed. "Aaron was the safer option."

He ran his hand over rounded abdomen. "Define safer."

Erin smirked at him. "Touche." she replied. "Aaron was already in the loop. It was easier to reach out to him. And yes he was the safer option, emotionally speaking."

"I would have supported you, Erin." he told her. "I would have been there with you and for you."

She nodded in agreement. "Had I called you I know where it would have led. The same place it always leads with us."

"And yet it led there with Aaron."

"It was different with him." she confessed. "Slow and sensual. You and I have never really done that, David."

He fell silent.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Not what you wanted to hear? You really shouldn't ask questions you don't want to hear the answers to."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Now you answer a question for me." she told him. "What was the point of this evening?"

"I just wanted to spend some time with you." he confessed. "I wanted to show you that I can be a good friend too. And that there doesn't have to be any ulterior motives."

"Like that night at the Gala?"

"That wasn't an ulterior motive." he assured her. "That was curiosity. When you were talking to the Governor and Grant excused himself to get the two of you a drink his hand slid across your abdomen. I put two and two together. And I assumed, naturally, that the baby was his."

"Grant knew that the baby was Aaron's." she said. "I was very open and honest with both of them about the pregnancy. Grant supported my decision. We had been talking about separation and divorce since before I made the decision to go into treatment."

"And after treatment?"

"We decided to transition slowly into divorce." she told him. "It's difficult to just up and leave a twenty year relationship. There was so much at stake, most importantly our children, but our well-beings, and our careers as well. And I feel so incredibly guilty, David. Whilst I wanted a new start without Grant, I didn't...I never pictured it turning out quite like this."

David reached for her, pulling her into his arms and letting her burrow into his warm, comforting embrace. "I can't imagine how hard this had been for you." he whispered. "For your children. But you're one of the strongest women I know and that you're going to get through this. Not without bumps and bruises and scars along the way, but you're going to come out on the other side."

She let the tears roll freely down her cheeks. "I'm not even sure where the other side is right now."

He gently rubbed her back. "There's still a lot of darkness right now, but the light will come. And you're not alone in any of this. I'm a phone call away as is Aaron, obviously."

"Maybe you're not such a bad friend after all."

"With over twenty years of history behind us not all of it can be bad." he dropped a kiss into her hair. "We just have to rebuild a little bit that's all."

/

The moment Aaron keyed himself into his apartment he knew that she was there. The light scent of her perfume floated through the air. He placed his briefcase and keys down at the entry table and made his way into the livingroom, loosening his tie as he went.

He looked down to find her asleep on the sofa. Blonde hair fanned out over his dark pillows. "Sleeping beauty." he said, leaning forward and pressed a quick kiss against her lips.

Erin rolled over onto her back. "What time is it?"

"Almost midnight." he said. "Why aren't you sleeping in the bed?"

"I dosed off after getting Jack to sleep." she told him. "Jessica wasn't feeling well. She called me this evening when I was on my way home from dropping the kids off with their aunt and uncle." she pushed herself up into a sitting position. "How did it go in Kansas?"

"We got lucky." he offered up. "Only took about sixteen hours to catch the guy."

"Excellent work, Agent Hotchner."

"I thought so, but I'm exhausted." he stood up. "What do you say we get some sleep?"

She picked her cell phone up off the cocktail table. "I was sleeping until you interrupted me."

He started down the hallway to the bedrooms. "You would have hated me in the morning when you had back pain."Aaron pushed the door open to Jack's room and found his son sleeping peacefully.

Erin came up behind him and wrapped her arm around his waist. "He's a wonderful little boy." she said. "You should be proud."

"I am." he smiled. "After Haley I didn't now if we were going to get through it, but here we are on the other side. He's happy and healthy and thriving."

"You left out incredibly smart, funny, and absolutely adorable." she told him. "We had an at length discussion about different types of dinosaurs and their habitats over dinner."

"Did he suggest the names Titan and Rex for the baby?"

"Oh at least twice."

His hand slipped down into hers. "Thanks for being here with him."

"Anytime." she led him further down the hall and into the master bedroom. "And I mean that, Aaron, all you have to do is ask. I want Jack to be apart of my family too even though you and I are not romantically involved."

"You don't know how much I appreciate that."

"Yeah, I do actually." she told him. "I want my children to have a stable environment too. It's all I've ever wanted for them."

Aaron shuffled through his dresser until he came across the pair of green pajamas he was looking for. "Well lucky for them I think the two of us can provide that for them." he gave her the pajamas. "We make a pretty good team."

"At least at home."

"And sometimes at the office."

Erin started turning down the bed. "Hopefully we can find more common ground in the future."

He smiled at her. "I seriously doubt that."

They had completed their nighttime rituals and comfortably settled into bed. Aaron's hand gravitated to the swell of her stomach, pushing soft cotton out of the way, and sliding over taunt skin. "How was your date?"

"Date?" she arched her eyebrow. And he knew she did even in the darkness of the room.

"Mmm." he sighed. "With Dave."

"That was not a date." she insisted. "He's a friend."

"Are you sure that's all?"

"Well that's more than we've ever been before." she told him. "And besides with the kids and the baby I just don't know if I'm up for another relationship so soon. Grant hasn't been gone all that long."

"Life is short, Erin." he said, softly. "You and I know that all too well. We all deserve to be happy."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that if you think you have any kind of future with David you owe it to yourself to see what happens."

"I don't know." she sighed. "I come with a ton of baggage these days."

"Don't we all." he agreed. "That's not a valid excuse though. Grant would want you to be happy. I know he would."

"I'm still grieving him." she confessed. "I don't know if I'll ever stop."

"We're not meant to. We just need to find away to deal with it and keep living our lives. I don't want you to make the same mistakes I made after Haley died." he explained. "Nothing is guaranteed and love is most definitely worth the risk."

"You think I could love David?"

"No." he replied. "I know you already do. The way the two of you battle there has to be something more than adversity between the two of you. You just have to decide what you want to do about it."

"I feel like your pushing him toward David." she said. "What if I think you and I are the better option?"

tbc...