Daylight had broken as Hotch turned over in bed and opened his eyes. He sat up after he realized that Alex wasn't next to him. "Oh, I wondered if you had left," he announced as he saw her sitting at the table.

"I couldn't sleep." She kept her back toward him. She had a towel laid out in front of her and a handgun disassembled.

He got out of bed and watched her cleaning her weapon. "How long have you been up?"

"A few hours," she answered, succinctly.

"I was thinking of going to for a run. Would you like to join me?" He looked down upon her.

Alex stopped her work and turned around. "You know I think that would be a good idea. Just let me finish this." She turned back and rapidly reassembled the sig sauer in under a minute. She cocked it and placed it back on the table with a satisfied grin on her face.

"I can see that you haven't lost your touch," Hotch complimented.

An hour had flown by and Alex's attitude had drastically changed. She and Hotch were laughing together as they kept a steady pace on the dirt road heading back to the hotel.

"Hold up a second." Hotch stopped to crouch down. Alex stood above him with her hands on her hips and letting out deep breaths. "Have you picked up our tail?" He asked.

"Yup. He's been on us for at least the past mile." She referred to the man who was jogging a short distance behind them.

"What are you thinking?" He asked, questioning the man's intentions.

The two started to jog again.

"I think he's just keeping an eye on us. If he wanted anything else, there was a better opportunity back there where all trees were overgrown."

"Agreed."

She glanced to her pseudo boyfriend, "Do you want to have some fun?"

"What are you thinking?"

"You up for a race?" She smirked.

"Oh, I'm not sure," Hotch panted. "Try to keep up." He blurted out as he took off past her.

"You're gonna pay for that, Aaron!" Alex shouted as she chased after him.

They ran into the hotel lobby snickering with each other as they waited for the elevator.

"I don't know whether I should shower first or eat," Alex shared, "I'm starving."

"You go up to the room and shower. I will go get us some breakfast," Hotch suggested.

"Sounds good." She gave him a peck on the cheek just as the doors opened.

Hotch carried a handful of to-go boxes in his hands as he made his way down the corridor toward his room. He inserted the key and opened the door. "I am so sorry." He quickly turned his head once he saw Alex standing naked in their room.

Alex grabbed the towel and attempted to cover herself with it by holding it up in front of her yet still exposing her backside. "I didn't realize you would be back so soon." She grinned when she saw that he still had his back toward her. "It is okay; you can turn around."

Hotch was uncomfortable as he saw Alex attempting to fix the towel that wasn't able to be completely wrapped around her. He then couldn't believe what he saw. His eyebrows furrowed, "why didn't you tell us?" He demanded.

"Tell you what?" Alex questioned.

"That you have one of Sloane's tattoos," he fixated on her.

Alex became defensive, "you knew that anyone that worked for Sloane had a tattoo." She picked up a pair of cut-off shorts and slid them on. With her back toward Hotch, she dropped the towel and pulled over a shirt.

"You have more than just one of Sloane's 'X' tattoos. I clearly saw the 'X-V-I' on your left hip." Hotch called her out. She brushed past him as she pulled up her damp hair into a messy ponytail. "Don't you understand; this information changes his profile." Hotch chastised.

"His profile? He's a bastard! There's your profile!" Alex blasted.

"Having a previous sexual relationship with Sloane explains why he's been so fixated on you. We need to know to what end," Hotch tried to explain.

"We aren't talking about some random case, Hotch, we are talking about my life! You have no idea what that man has done!"

"Tell me." He stepped closer to her.

"I don't need to be profiled and have my details pinned onto a board." She stared him down even as he towered over her. "You know what, I need some air."

Alex stormed out of the room with Hotch close behind attempting to stop her.

Rossi stepped off the elevator just as Alex pushed past him and jumped in then frantically pushed the button to go down.

Hotch rushed but came just as the doors were closed.

Rossi glanced at his friend, "lover's quarrel?"

Hotch was not amused. "I just needed to—it doesn't matter." He let out a deep breath then tilted his head. "Alex tends to confide in you. What has she told you about all of this?"

"A whole lot more than she's told you, apparently." Rossi put his hand on Hotch's back. "Come, let's go have a chat and I will fill you in on what I can."

Alex stepped out to the vacated pool area. She wrapped her arms around herself as she looked up into the pure blue sky. She let out a deep breath and mumbled her frustrations in Russian.

"Are you okay?"

Alex turned around to see Garcia standing next to her.

"I'm sorry," Garcia started, "I didn't mean to interrupt but you looked like you were upset. Then I hear you talking to yourself in a foreign language and I thought 'this can't be good' so I wanted to come over here and see if you were okay and if there was anything that you needed."

Alex forced a smile. "I'm just having one of those days."

Garcia nodded, "Oh, I've had plenty of those. There was this one time a guy I thought liked me but he only wanted to kill me because he thought that I figured out that he had killed a bunch of people. I was shot and ended up in the hospital—" She looked to Alex. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm rambling."

Alex genially smiled, "That's okay." She looked around at the pool deck, "where is everyone?"

"I was just speaking with one of the guys over there, they have it closed off in preparation for the gala tonight." Garcia's eyes widened. "Are you going to be okay for tonight?"

"Yes, I will be there."

"Great!" Garcia wrapped her arm around Alex's. "Because I can't wait for you to see the outfit that I have for this thing. I went crazy shopping for everything mermaid that I could find. Ariel, eat your heart out!"