"I can't talk long, Erin. Anne wants us to go talk with the families of the victims, to see if we can find out any information that might help us catch the son of a bitch that's doing this."

"I know, I just wanted to hear your voice. I have this weird feeling that something bad is going to happen soon, and I detest this heaviness in my heart. Please tell me that you're taking every precaution to be safe."

He let out a long sigh, which told Erin that things were not going well for them, and she wished that he could come to her office so that she could hold him close and remind herself that everything would be okay in the end, even though that was not what her heart was feeling in that moment of time. "I think that we're going to be fine, but I worry about Hotch. He and Emily are going to the prison where Karl Arnold is being held, to try and get his insight onto family annihilators. They're such rare unsubs that we don't have enough previous profiles to build a good working theory on what is going through this man's mind. You know that I don't try to personalize these cases, but I can't help but see our little family destroyed in this manner. I cannot wait to be home with you and the children tonight."

"Hopefully, you'll be here in time to read Elise a bedtime story and tuck her into bed."

"That sounds like heaven, stellina. How do you feel about the baby?"

It was Erin's turn to let out a sigh, and she pressed her free hand against her bump as she gazed at the picture of her family on her desk. "Honestly? I feel okay. I know that I should be more worried, but this pregnancy has gone so well that I haven't felt concerned about her. But that's shifting a little, the closer we get to the holidays and Haley and Jack aren't home. I don't know what that says about me, but I'm just a little terrified that something is going to happen to them, and that will cause something to happen to this little one."

"Is that why you haven't thought about a name for this little one?"

She cleared her throat before taking a small sip of water. "You noticed that?"

"It's kind of hard not to notice, Erin. I promise, everything is going to be all right with Haley and Jack, and our little bambina will be perfectly healthy."

Erin wanted to yell at him to not make promises he couldn't keep, since no one knew the future, but she held her tongue as she nodded. "I will hold onto that promise as tightly as I can, David. Now, much though I hate to say this, I know that I have to let you get back to work. Again, please, watch out for yourself, and if you have a moment, text Emily and have her do the same for Aaron. I love you."

"I love you, too, Erin," he replied before ending the call, and she slumped in her chair a little as she tried to find her sense of equilibrium once more.

Her personal phone jangled in her purse, and she opened her desk drawer and pulled it out, smiling to see that it was Karen. "Kare Bear! What has you calling me at work?"

"I just wanted to hear your voice, and since I'm all caught up on my school work, I asked my teacher if I could take a moment to call you. She thinks that it's so brave that you're having a baby at forty-eight."

Erin laughed out loud at the obvious eye roll she heard in her daughter's voice. "Well, I don't think it brave so much as we wanted this baby, even though she was a complete surprise."

"I think that Papa Dave's genes must agree with you more so than Aaron's."

Erin frowned a little at the very casual way her daughter let her know that she knew the secret they'd been keeping from them. "I'm sorry?"

"Oh, come on, Mom. I'm not ten. Aaron has been spending a lot of time at our house lately, since Haley and Jack went into WitSec, and Elise looks like him and you. There's nothing, really, of Papa Dave in her, but Bruce and Tabitha haven't seen that yet. I'm not going to tell them, because that's up to you three, but seeing the resemblance between Leelee and Aaron, it makes certain things surrounding your split with Daddy make a lot more sense."

"I do hope you realise that this is not how I imagined this conversation happening?" she interrupted, feeling like circumstances were spinning out of her control.

"Yeah, I bet you were going to wait until you thought that Jack and Elise were able to understand that adults are messy and complicated, and mistakes happen, but sometimes there are also white knights who come to the rescue of the damsel in distress and give her and her children the best life possible out of a horrible situation. We're an almost fairy tale family, Mom, and I will never give Tabby shit again for believing that those kinds of stories can happen."

Erin let out a soft sound of agreement as she leaned back in her chair, absently massaging her baby bump as she thought of what to say next. "I was very lucky that David was able to look past the rough patches in our earlier relationship. He was the only one I could think of who might stand up for me and help protect and shield Elise from Aaron's anger. And while you might think that you're old enough to know the whole story, that will be something that I don't share with you, ever. I had to work hard to move past what happened, and it is something I do not wish to relive, especially since Aaron and I are on better terms now. I hope that you can respect that decision, Karen."

"Of course I can, Mom. Ugh, Mrs. Brown is indicating that I have to get back to study hall now. I'll see you when you get home. Bye!"

Karen hung up and Erin shook her head a little as she dropped the phone back into her purse before taking a few deep breaths and turning to her computer, knowing that she had to get busy with returning emails that afternoon, as she had been putting that off for far too long. "I brought you a cup of tea, Erin," Helen said a few minutes later, and she looked up from the email she was composing to one of the police forces they had worked with earlier in the year to give her assistant a grateful smile. "I just feel like there's something in the air that is not boding well for Alpha, and for you."

Erin's expression slipped into something a little more wry as she took the cup from Helen's hand and sipped at the brew. "You're feeling it, too, then. I tried to tell David that something is wrong, but he promised me that everything will be fine with Haley and Jack and this baby. It was a nice platitude, but I don't know if I can believe it with what we see every day. It almost feels like this easy pregnancy has been in anticipation of what I would see at the end of this. Though I am trying not to focus on the negative feelings, because that's not helpful for the pregnancy."

Helen nodded as she reached out and patted Erin's shoulder lightly. "And I will try to keep things positive on my end for you. You have ten weeks to go, yes?"

"Yes." She gave Helen a small smile before turning her focus back to her email, knowing that she had a lot to get through before she could head home and spend some much needed time with her children.