Aaron had been gone for four weeks, and already Erin felt like she was crawling out of her skin with worry. He had been able to contact them after his first week there, though he couldn't go into specifics as to his location, which she understood. Still, Jack and Elise had been so happy to hear his voice and see his face, since Jessica had managed to wrangle a video call for them. She was just on edge from David working longer hours, since he had taken over Aaron's duties while he was gone, and the cases were happening faster, or so it seemed. Even with Agent Jareau back, she knew that everyone was feeling overwhelmed by the increased workload, and that tempers were already starting to fray. And it didn't help that she could see the way that Agent Morgan and Penelope would squirrel away in his office, acting shifty, as if they were doing something that they didn't want anyone else to know about.

Sighing, Erin rubbed her hands against her face as she took a few deep breaths, trying to find her center. A soft knocking caught her attention, and she looked up to see David standing in the doorway, a bag of takeout in his hands. "I take it that you've been able to find a case close to home?"

"You didn't check out where we were going beforehand?"

She shook her head as she got to her feet, heading over to the table and watching as David came over to join her. "Now that Agent Jareau is back, I trust that she will use the best discretion in the cases that I hand off to her. There's just too much to do to have one more thing on my plate right now. Especially since I'm worrying so much about Aaron and how he's doing over in Afghanistan. He looked tired in the call we had Saturday, after Jack's game."

"He probably is tired, since he's doing a lot of work over there. But you can't let that cloud your work that you're doing here. Our children need their sweet momma leading them right now, even Jack. I know that it's not fair to ask that of you, since you probably want to be vulnerable with us, with me, but they need to know that there is someone strong enough to take care of them while all this upheaval is happening. We're working so many cases in quick succession, that I'm not home as often as I'd like to be and give you the support that you need. Yeah, Jess is there to help you, but she's a friend."

"That is very true, and I don't think that her girlfriend would like it very much if I had her sleep with me," she teased, knowing that it would get a rise out of David. From the lecherous chuckle that slipped from his lips, Erin knew that she had made the right choice by joking. "Not that I ever would do that. There was only one woman who ever slept in my bed, and I'll probably never talk to her again."

"I, I didn't realise that you and Alex had slept together," he said as he set out their food. Erin shrugged as she picked up her fork and dug into the salad he had brought her. "Erin?"

"You know that I don't like to talk about my past mistakes, even though Alex was never a mistake of mine. I loved her, and in my naivete, I thought that it would last forever. Turns out that forever only lasted through our time there, but we were still friends. Until Amerithrax. I still love her, in a more muted way, but it's there. I'm in love with you, before you ask. If that makes sense."

Erin shoved a bite of salad into her mouth so that she could focus on something other than the words she had just spoken to her fiancé. She knew that it probably wasn't the most appropriate time to bring up that subject, but she had been unable to stop the words once they had bubbled up from her heart. David reached out and pressed his hand over her arm. Looking up, she saw that he was wearing an infinitely patient look and that sweet smile that she had fallen in love with all those years ago. "Erin, the love that we have in our hearts for different people never really dies or goes away, it just changes into something more manageable. So you love her, but you love me more. Right?" She nodded. "That's all I would ever ask of you. We've built something so good out of the wreckage of your mistake with Aaron. This revelation doesn't change how I feel about you, it just helps me understand you all the more. I still love Carolyn, but we were never going to work out after we lost James. I threw myself into my job, we grew apart, and it was hard to find the softness in us."

"You know, this is probably why I love you so much. You see my heart, and you find things in your heart that mirror my feelings. You mean the world to me, David James Rossi."

"And you mean the world to me, too," he replied as he slid his hand down her arm to clasp her free hand, squeezing it a few times. "Oh, stellina, I know that it took so much for you to feel comfortable with telling me this, and I am glad to have this knowledge. Now it makes a little more sense as to why you want to make amends with her so much. You feel like all this love is building up in you with nowhere to go. Because the love you have for your children, for me, for Jess, hell, for Aaron, is different than the love you have for Alex. I wish that I had an easy answer for you, but life is never easy. But you will always have me by your side, I promise."

"Thank you," she whispered as she took a few deep breaths. "You know, I feel freer than I have in years."

"That's what happens when you share your burdens. They become easier to bear. I hope that this means you're going to open up to me more often." He gave her a small wink, and she blushed a little as she nodded. "Good. Because we're a partnership, and I want to share everything with you from here on out."

"Good. Then you can tell me why Penelope and Agent Morgan are acting so shifty. I know that it's not related to the cases that you've been working, because that wouldn't give them that reaction to people watching them in the hall as they hole up in his office."

David cleared his throat as he gave a small shrug, and she knew that he was definitely keeping something from her. "I have my suspicions about what's happening between them, but there hasn't been enough evidence for me to say for certain?"

"David."

"Fine. I think that they're trying to track down Ian Doyle on the down low, because Morgan wants revenge for Emily's murder. Kitten's going along with it because she's so grief stricken that she would do anything that would bring closure to her, to us. And I can't say that I blame them, I'd be doing the same, but I also know what kind of man Doyle is, and I wouldn't do anything that would bring potential danger into my home. I love you and the children too much to do that to you."

Erin nodded, giving him a small smile as she took another bite of salad. "I do understand that, darling. Just, watch over them as best you can, because I don't want any of you to end up hurt as a result of what Ian Doyle might do." He gave her a small smile before leaning in and kissing her cheek softly. "We'll get through this next five months together, and we will hopefully bring closure to Penelope and Agent Morgan." He smiled before kissing her cheek once more, and as they continued to eat, their conversation turning to something a little more easier, and she allowed herself to think about what the future was going to hold for them all.