Late morning sunshine pressed its heat against the high picture windows, but the blackout shades over the glass didn't let the light in. The main bedroom of the cabin was still dark and cool as a cave when Dave laid in bed, pressed against the soft sheets. A plush, silk clad pillow under his head. He'd been awake for at least an hour; he'd tended to Carlo and expected to fall back to sleep without a problem. That didn't happen… he was about to get up and start a pot of coffee when Erin rolled over, throwing one arm across his chest. A third of the king sized mattress was empty behind her.

Now, Dave had two choices: he could get up and go make coffee. Or stay in bed, bored. He was mulling it over when Erin, still deeply asleep, tossed her leg over his, pushing him closer to the edge of the mattress. There was only one option.

"Move over." He grumbled, his right leg hanging off the edge if he wanted to, he could brush his toes against the floor. The movement behind her eyelids let him know that he would just have to get comfortable living on the edge. He couldn't even get irritated, this trip had been good for her; she ate well, slept better and there was more color in her face. The quality time away from home was working wonders for them.

He glanced down at her left hand, the alexandrite and diamond ring seemed to glow in the dim lighting. Erin loved that ring. She never took it off. It made him wonder why she wasn't more excited to get married or plan a wedding. Any time he brought it up, Erin said she didn't need to be married to feel secure and the legalities didn't matter. But, if that were true, why did they both work so hard to follow and enforce the law, since the law didn't matter?

"Are you taking something to sleep?" Dave asked, an hour later. They were having coffee and toast in bed, waiting for Carlo to wake up.

"No." Erin slid her empty plate onto the nightstand. "Why?"

"Because you were out. I don't think an earthquake would have bothered you."

She shrugged and took a sip of black coffee. "When I woke up, you were in the middle of the bed, crashed out, with your arm around me. Did you know you slept like that?"

"Like what?" Dave asked innocently, sitting up against the pillows. He pulled his feet up and dragged the quilt up over his waist.

"With your hand on me," She explained, rolling over to face him.

"Well, I sleep better that way," He pinched her bare hip, where the band on her yoga pants had rolled down, to prove the point.

She raised her arms over her head, stretching deliciously across the soft sheets until her back popped. "I guess I'll allow it." She rolled over and raised up to kiss him. "I sleep better too." She patted his cheek, "But I need you to do something with your breath. It smells like fresh dog shit."

"On it!" He tossed the covers back, putting his feet on the floor and made a beeline for the en-suite bathroom.

Erin got out of bed when she heard the shower running and slung Dave's big, fluffy robe over her shoulders. Coming to the cabin was one of the best ideas she'd ever had. Dave was more relaxed than she'd seen him in awhile. He barely glanced at the liquor cabinet, instead he fell asleep on his own; and they were connecting and bonding as a family. Time away from the BAU was exactly what they needed.

The BAU put a lot of pressure on Dave, the thrill of the hunt and the high that came from making a real difference in the world, made him love his job; but as soon as he pulled into the driveway, he'd turned his phone off. He wasn't chasing anything or looking for a thrill. But he was happy. If this is how he would be when he retired…maybe he wouldn't lose his mind like she originally thought.

Erin didn't have long to consider Dave's retirement. "Mom!" Cassie yelled, banging on the oak door. "Dave!"

"What is it?" Erin called out and yanked the door open. "Cassie, what's wrong?"

Cassie's green eyes were wide and blonde curls were thrown haphazardly on top of her head. "Paul's not in his room and I can't find him."

"Did you check the yard?" Erin's mind frantically raced to all the places her son would have gone. "The cottage?"

"I called Mrs. Rossi already, she hasn't seen him. He's not in the yard or by the pond. I didn't want to go to the lake by myself."

Erin yanked open the drawer of her nightstand and her pulse picked up. Her phone was still there. Her mouth went dry as her daughter's words echoed in her head. "He's alone in the woods."

"He's on that trail," Dave said, emerging from the bathroom, fully dressed. He wanted to brush it off because Paul had taken to the great outdoors like flies to honey. "How long have you been looking, Cass?" He asked, yanking on his boots.

"I don't know. I took a shower and went to his room when I was dressed to see if he wanted the last Pop Tart."

"I'll go down the trail and see if I can find him." Dave said, following Cassie down the staircase. When they stepped into the kitchen, Dave couldn't turn off the profiling part of his brain. The kitchen seemed normal at face value, but something was off.

"He left the milk out," Erin held the gallon jug to her nose, the smell alone made her want to be sick. "It's been out for a while." She said, holding her hand over her mouth as she poured it out.

"So" Dave walked through the kitchen, eyeing the dirty cereal bowl and spoon that sat in the sink, rinsed clean. The only dishes in the sink. "He made himself a bowl of cereal and took off."

"How long does it take for milk to go bad?" Cassie asked.

A few minutes later, Dave and Cassie were headed out the door. Dave wanted to insist that Cassie stay with her mom, but she was 18, stubborn and too much like her mother. Staying behind while her younger brother was MIA wasn't an option.

They tried to keep their footsteps light when they walked, being careful not to disturb the wildlife. If Paul were this close to the house, he would have just come home. "Paul Strauss!" Dave bellowed. Then waited a beat for a response. Nothing.

"He's probably fine," Dave said, as they approached the first clearing, about halfway up the trail. He wanted to comfort Cassie, let her know that he had a handle on the situation. "It's normal for a young man his age to lose track of time like this. Paul!" He tried again, his voice ringing out among the ancient trees and saplings. "Paul Strauss!"Another beat. No response.

Leaves and twigs crunched underneath their feet, adding to the natural symphony of the woods.

The midmorning sun over the canopy of trees tinted the light green as they moved deeper into the woods. The thick foliage seemed to swallow them, pulling them further and further away from the safety of the cabin with every step.

Cassie stepped off the dirt trail, onto the grass, pushing down green onions and weeds with her feet. "Paulie!" She called out, then, even though she knew he wouldn't hear her; she whistled with her fingers.

"If he could hear me, he would whistle back."

"I get it. You guys have a system," in that moment Dave realized that Cassie had been an older sister who was responsible for her siblings, longer than he had been a dad. "I'm glad you came along." He squeezed her shoulder affectionately. "We'll find him."

The corners of her mouth lifted when she looked up at him. "You shouldn't tell me stuff like that, if you want my head to fit through the door."

Dave kept his eyes on the ground, scanning for clues. "Well.. siblings have no secrets from each other…. It's parents who are the interlopers."

They walked a few feet further, "Huh…" Dave paused at a rotten log. Someone could sit there and take a break. He rolled it with his foot, a streak of purple spray paint cut through the dirt and creepy crawlies living in the log.

"Do we even have spray paint?" Cassie thought back to the junk drawer at home, of all the various art supplies that had accumulated over the years, purple spray paint was the odd thing out.

"No." He snapped a picture with his phone, just in case. "I haven't seen any. There's nothing in the cabin that color."

"Paul wouldn't do that," Cassie had to make that clear. "Dad taught us to Leave-No-Trace. Paul won't even pee in the woods when we go camping."

"You're dad's on the right track, pee attracts bugs and won't stop animals from coming to your campsite, but right now, I wish Paul wasn't such a stickler for the rules."

"We have to find him today." Cassie looked up at the sky, bright hot sunshine poured over them. "I meant," she cleared her throat awkwardly, "We have to find him before dark."

"We will." Dave wanted to reassure her, let her know he had a plan. "If he doesn't turn up in the next 20 minutes, I'll call for Search and Rescue."

Back at the cabin

Erin paced in front of the picture windows in the living room with her cell phone clenched in her hand and Carlo against the opposite shoulder. Allison was upstairs asleep and Erin didn't see the point in scaring her to death.

Still, her mind raced, switching between the worst case scenario and dismissing it. Not again, there was no way another of her children had gone missing. Erin tried not to look out the window, imagining the pond on the other side of the glass, being dragged for her oldest son's body. She clutched the phone against her face, trying not to think. Nobody was dragging anything, they weren't at that point.

The crackling, whiny, staticy and repetitive 'hold' muzak grated on her nerves.

She thought the Missing Person's unit would have some sense of urgency. For them, it was just a Wednesday morning in July. Not even her rank and position got her on the phone with the SAC any faster.

The front door opened, Erin spun away from the window just as the line clicked. "Chief Strauss?"

"Never mind," she clipped. "Thank you."

She tossed the phone on the couch and faced her son. Paul had the nerve to stand in front of her like nothing happened. Erin wanted to throttle him. "What the hell were you thinking?" She snapped, "Where have you been?" She grabbed his hands, looking him over for cuts and bruises. He wasn't hurt, so she didn't feel bad for yelling at him.

Paul shuffled from foot to foot, unsure of what to say. He knew better than to pull his arm back from her grasp. "I–"

"Disappeared," she said, filling in the word for him. "Paul, you disappeared." She snapped and dropped his arm.

He didn't have an answer.

Well?" Suddenly, Erin was seething, "What do you have to say for yourself? You have about 30 seconds to come up with an explanation." She demanded, one hand on her hip, the other held on to Carlo.

"Mom–" Paul tried to interrupt.

"Make it good."

"Mom–stop. I'm sorry. Nothing happened. I went for a walk and got a little lost."

"Why didn't you take a phone to call for help?"

"Didn't need one yesterday, I thought I knew the route."

After what happened to your brother–" Her voice dropped, half threatening, half deeply disappointed. "You know better."

"It wasn't like that–" Paul rushed to defend himself, "I went for a run because I want to get in shape for Baseball tryouts."

"I don't care what it was like. You took off without telling anyone where you were going. After everything this family has been through, you didn't have enough consideration for your family to leave a note. Cassie was scared to death, she and Dave are out looking for you. Did you even think about your family?"

He shrugged, wiping one foot on the welcome mat. "I didn't think about it."

"You had the first part right, Paul. You didn't think. You might as well forget about getting in shape. You don't need to. You're not playing sports this year."

"What? Mom, come on." He stomped his foot, leaving dirt in the carpet. "You don't mean that."

"Go take a shower. You smell like a sick goat."

"Yesterday," Paul fumed with his hand curled into a fist at his side. "Dave said I didn't have to take a phone! I told him I could handle it and he agreed! You should go along with him."

Erin and Dave sat across from each other at the kitchen table. Neither was happy to be there. "You told him he didn't have to take a phone." Erin repeated, standing up, with her hands on her hips. "Why did you think that was a good idea to put that thought in his head?"

"That trail is a straight line," Dave tried to defend himself. "I didn't think he'd get lost."

"He got off the trail, Dave and wandered around aimlessly until–" she stopped. He knew where this was going. "It's a miracle he ran into our backyard."

"He made it home, just fine," Dave pointed out. "Besides, there's barely any cell reception out there. It wouldn't have mattered."

"Your phone rang just fine when I called you to come back." She said, narrowing her eyes at him. "Find a different excuse."

"Then we'll buy him a cell phone, he'll take his permit test in a few months anyway. What do you want me to do? Lock him in his room?"

"I don't know! Just," she threw up her hand, exasperated, throwing words like grenades aimed at his chest. "Don't tell my kid what he doesn't have to do."

Dave visibly winced, "your kid, huh?"

It sounded worse when he said it. "Dave." His name hung in the air. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

"Yeah, you did." He let the sentence hang, it hurt more than he wanted to admit. He'd invested so much into this family and to hear that he had no real say in it… "Tell me, what am I allowed to do? If he runs out in front of a car, I guess I'm not allowed to stop him since he's not my son."

"Little dramatic, Dave. Paul's 15, I highly doubt you'll be in that situation with him."

"Not the point. What about when Allie's stumped on her math homework, am I allowed to help her? Can I put gas in Cassie's car? Or check the oil when she needs it? Or is she walking home since I'm not allowed to go get her?"

"I promise I didn't mean it. You made your point."

The chair he sat in, scraped across the floor. "Sure. you didn't mean it." He grabbed the keys off the table. "You said it."

"Tell me where you're going," Erin said quickly.

He dropped the keys, suddenly defeated. "Nowhere. It's your car. Your car and they are your kids."

"David— come on. You know you can take the car." He'd bought the damn thing after all, but she wasn't going to bring that up. "I just want to know where you're going."

"I don't care about the car, I don't actually want power over the kids. I should have told Paul to defer to you. I care about where you and I are headed."

She stiffened at his tone. "You know where we're headed…"

"I thought I did," He said and rubbed a hand over his jaw, down his chin

Erin's neck prickled "What the hell do you mean by that‽"

"You don't want me to have any say in your kids, but we're all supposed to live together? That doesn't make any sense."

"That's not what I meant— come on, David. Please stop."

"It's what you said. I think you've been holding out on me. We've been together over a year."

"We've packed a lot of shit into that year. But I still want 25 more!"

"But you've suddenly decided that I don't have any authority over your kids. When I had plenty of sway a few months ago when I painted their rooms or when you asked me to teach Paul how to drive, instead of asking his father."

"You have more patience with him. Pete's a hothead."

"You're really not coming off well here, Erin."

"Oh I'm Erin now." She planted her hands on her hips. "Two hours ago I was Cara, Bella, Tesoro, whatever!"

"You're butchering my language." Dave grimaced, "and two hours ago I thought we were a family! I'm just glad to finally hear what you've been thinking this whole time. We're not a family, there's you and your kids in one group and me—I'm just—" his voice broke. "What am I? Just some guy who pays the mortgage."

"We are a family," Erin insisted. "Stop talking like that."

"You're not 'some guy' to me." A soft voice carried over the banister.

Erin paled, as she looked up for the source of that voice. The kids weren't supposed to hear them arguing.

Dave wheeled around and caught on first. "Allie, how long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough—" Cassie cut off her sister and stepped off the staircase behind Allison. "Dave's not 'some guy' Mom."

"I never said he was," Erin pointed out.

"You can't break up," Allison said, big, sincere eyes pleading with them to work it out.

"I won't go on the stupid trail anymore!" Paul blasted into the living room, his hair dripping down his face. His clean t-shirt was damp from the shower that he'd rushed through to get back into the living room. "You don't have to worry about me, I don't even like it out there anymore. I promise, I'll stay put."

Dave chanced a glance at Erin, she was as confused as he was.

"Nobody's breaking up." Erin assured her three young eavesdroppers. She glanced at Dave for reassurance.

"I promise," Dave interjected. "We're just talking."

"Loudly," Allison complained.

"It sounded like a fight to me," Cassie pointed out. She walked into the kitchen and poured half a mug of coffee, topping it off with creamer. "Everything feels up in the air. I don't like it."

Dave pulled out the chair beside him. "What do you mean?"

"Come on," Erin said, waving Paul and Allison over. "Family meeting. You first, Cass."

Cassie dropped into the hard wooden chair. "First off. I don't like wondering if we're going to say or do something that makes you break up. After everything that's happened, I'm on eggshells all the time; waiting for the next bad thing." Cassie said, taking a sip of coffee to keep busy. " Second." She took another sip and swallowed. "The worst thing that could happen right now is that you guys break up."

"We're not breaking up," Dave and Erin said in unison.

"I wish everyone would get that through their heads." Erin said, "The only way Dave's going anywhere is if I remove him."

"You're stuck with me." Dave promised, with his hand on Erin's knee.

"Your friends don't like us." Allison looked up at Dave, "what if you get tired of not having any friends?"

Dave's chest clenched at Allison's tone, she was sad, but accepting and far too cynical for a 10 year old. Anyone who didn't like that child had to have a screw loose. Without missing a beat, Dave said, "Real friends accept the people you love. If they can't learn to care about my family, then I guess they aren't really my friends." It would hurt to lose his relationships with the people on his team, but he would only grieve for the friendships he thought they had. Not for how it really was.

"Paul," Erin eyed her son. "Do you have anything to add?"

Paul shook his head. "The girls covered it."

Dave and Erin didn't leave the table, but they sent the kids outside with Mudgie. The kids had strict orders to stay in the front yard where they could be seen from the kitchen window.

"You might not need the security of being married, but I do." Dave said, once the kids were outside "Cassie wasn't wrong. We don't know where the hell we're going."

"Yes, we do. I just don't know when–"

"What difference does it make? Neither of us are going anywhere. This could only be mutually beneficial for both of us. I can put you on my life insurance. You can upgrade your health plan–"

"I don't want your benefits."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because. Don't we have enough going on? We had a baby, an abduction–we don't need anymore big events right now."

Dave held up his hand. "I got it, but a wedding only takes one day. Maybe a couple hours if you play your cards right."

She pulled out her chair and sat down at the table across from him. "I don't know how a piece of paper is going to change things—"

"It sure as hell won't make it worse. We're all living in limbo, waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Erin opened her mouth to respond, but he cut her off. "Come on, Erin. If we were married you wouldn't have been upset when I refused to sleep with you; because you had the security of that marriage license. And neither of us are going anywhere, because we both know what an expensive, pain in the ass it is to get divorced."

Erin rolled her eyes, but smiled. "I'm not going through that again," she swore.

"Neither am I. A wedding doesn't guarantee a happily ever after, or I wouldn't be thrice divorced, but I believe with all my heart that the two of us getting married would provide the stability that we all have been craving, especially the kids. The two of us, making that commitment, would show them that we care enough to put in the work to ensure our relationship makes it."

Erin thought about it, without a word. "You're not wrong."

Dave's lips turned upward. "Thanks for giving me that much, at least. I shall mark those glorious, romantic words onto my heart forever more."

"I hope you do," Erin smiled, "When you're done with that, will you find a marriage commissioner and make our appointment?

"You don't have to ask me twice," Dave grinned, lifted her hand off the table and planted a kiss on her wrist, across the infinity mark scar.