"Sorry I'm late, Haley. The budget meeting ran late, and then traffic was a nightmare. Thankfully, my afternoon is free, so we don't have to worry about time, unless you have to."
Haley gave Erin a small smile as Erin slid into the booth and shrugged off her raincoat. "I know how busy the BAU keeps people, believe me. And I have nowhere to be, Jessie is watching Jack for me. She swears that she loves being able to spend more time with us, but since Aaron has decided to move into an apartment, we're back to only seeing each other when she can come by after work."
Erin nodded. "I can't believe that our babies are almost two already. The time has flown by so quickly. I, I think that Aaron knows, well, more concretely knows that Elise is his. He finally got a good look at her after that awful case in Milwaukee."
She perused the menu as their server came up to them, allowing Haley to place her order first before ordering the first thing that sounded good to her. Haley gave her a small frown as the woman left their table to put their order in. "He had no right to go over and harass you in your home! Really, that is just beyond impolite."
She shrugged a little as she fiddled with her coffee cup. "That was an awful case. I don't think I'll ever truly get the images of what happened to those women out of my mind."
"I probably won't either." Erin shot her a sharp look, and Haley laughed mirthlessly. "Aaron was careless and left some of the crime scene photos face up. I, I didn't recognize what I was seeing at first, and then…" Haley took a deep breath as she blinked away rapidly forming tears. "That is why I wanted him to get out of the BAU. Because seeing those things, day in and day out, it changes a person. But he swears that this job is who he is."
Erin nodded as she sipped at her coffee. "He is an extremely honorable man, and would do anything to help those who needed it most. That is one of the things that I truly admire about him, even though there is such acrimony between us."
"There are some really good traits about him. And…I still love him, despite everything that's come between us. We're that cliché high school romance couple, you know. No one thought we'd make it as long as we did, and then we beat the odds and had Jack. Everything was so perfect, well, not perfect, but you know what I mean. Even though I was a complete bitch to you, I never really lost love for him. And I know that he loves me still, too. He's sent me flowers every week so far, which is a sweet gesture. But I just can't live with the ghosts of his job any longer."
Erin nodded slowly before taking another sip of coffee. "The ghosts of this job have a way of clinging to us long past when we think that they should go away. I still have a few of my own that I wish I could shake."
Haley nodded in sympathy as their food arrived. Erin was grateful for the distraction, and began to eat as she thought about this odd friendship that she had struck up with Haley. It didn't really make sense that they could forge something like this out of the flames of the woman's anger towards her, but it was nice to have a relationship with her. "I miss him," Haley said suddenly as she pushed aside her plate and rested her elbows on the table in order to rest her chin on her knuckles. "Do you ever miss Alan?"
"There are times when I do, yes. He's the father of three of my children, after all. But the relationship that I've made forged with David, well, I suppose that I should thank you for telling Alan what Aaron told you. Even though you didn't mean it for good, it has turned into one of the greatest goods in my life." Smiling a little, she pulled out her phone and called up her photos. "Here, take a look at some new pictures of Elise to put a smile on your face. I can't believe that she's nearly two already. Is Jack talking as much as she is?"
Haley took the phone and began to scroll through pictures, a silly smile on her lips as she nodded. "They're both precocious, then. His vocabulary is so good for a toddler his age. But then, we're both intelligent women, and Aaron is an intelligent man, so it makes sense that those genes would pass on. Do you baby talk at her?"
"Sometimes," Erin replied as she took the phone back from her and set it off to the side. "But I know that David talks to her like a little adult. We learned in child development that that is actually the best thing for language acquisition, since babies and toddlers mimic us so much."
She nodded as she handed Erin her cellphone. "That's what Jessica said, too. She's been so great helping me with Jack." Erin nodded absently as she scrolled through the pictures she hadn't seen of Jack yet. "I have been meaning to ask, since Aaron and I aren't together any longer, do you think that we could do something for their second birthday? Not a huge party, that would draw too many questions that you don't want, but a little get together at Jessica's? I know that they won't understand that they're siblings yet, but I think that it's important they get to know each other."
Erin's face relaxed into a smile as she nodded. "I would really like that, Haley. And you're right, they do need to know each other, and when the time is right, we'll tell them the truth." She sighed deeply. "I want to tell Aaron the truth, but there never seems to be a right time to do so. Right now, especially."
Haley blushed a little as she nodded. "He is not in a good headspace, I know. I wish that things could have been different, but we are who we are."
"And it is hard to change that. For all of us." Haley nodded as she picked up her sandwich once more, nibbling at it as she watched Erin. "So, when do you think that a good time to get together will be? And would you like to have my children there, or just the three of us?"
"It's a family affair, so of course they should be there. So, I suppose that we'll have to find a weekend when they're with you. Alan still gets custody one week a month, right?" Erin nodded as she smiled, feeling so pleased that she wanted everyone there.
"I appreciate that you're making an effort to include them." She unlocked her phone and called up her calendar, looking ahead to the next two months. "If it works for you, the seventeenth of November would probably be best. It's so close to Thanksgiving, but Alan has the children on the third, and we're having a birthday party for Elise on the tenth."
"That's when we're having Jack's party, too! So, the seventeenth will work perfectly." Haley smiled as she made a note of it in her phone, Erin doing the same thing. "Oh, and I forgot to tell you. You know that child abduction case that the team recently worked?"
She shuddered as she nodded. "I hate cases like that."
"So does Aaron. Anyway, he came over following it, said that he needed to see Jack, to make certain that he was all right, and I agreed, since I could only imagine the way he was feeling. Anyway, I couldn't help but overhear his words to Jack as he was sleeping. He seems to think that Jack and Elise will meet and know each other soon, so it's obvious that he has no clue that we're on friendly terms with each other. And I'd rather keep it that way."
"I would too, honestly. That was we can both stay out of his line of fire when he's in a snit." Haley giggled as she picked up her soda and took a long sip. "All right, so, let's make a few preliminary plans for the seventeenth. That way I have something concrete to tell David when I get home." Haley nodded and they fell into an easy conversation, Erin wishing that it had been like this from the moment that she had found out about her pregnancy. But at least they were on better terms now, working on building a good relationship for their children's sake.
