Erin was grateful that Alex followed her into the bullpen, because she didn't know how Aaron was going to react that morning. She knew that he was going to be a little upset with her, since she hadn't come directly to him, instead allowing Alex to divert her away from that destination. Still, they had to part ways at her desk, and she gave the woman a small smile when she took hold of her hand and gave it a small squeeze of reassurance before Erin went up the stairs to reach Aaron's office. Still, her hand hesitated on the doorknob, not certain that she had the courage to face him down that morning, not after she had already been through the wringer with Alex.
"You should head on in, Erin. We're waiting for you."
She jumped a little to hear Penelope's voice in her ear, and she turned her head to look at the younger woman, seeing that for the first time since Erin had known her, she was wearing a patently false smile. It was not a pleasant sight to see, as she could make out the anger bubbling beneath the forced gaiety, and Erin swallowed thickly as she nodded, turning the handle and pushing the door open. Aaron was not behind his desk, instead, he was seated in one of his chairs in front of the sofa. Hearing the sound of the door opening, he looked over and gestured for them to take a seat in front of him.
Hesitantly, she made her way over to the sofa and sat down, making certain to keep her spine as straight as she could make it as she looked at him coolly. "That look doesn't work on me any longer, Erin. Especially not when I am this angry with you."
"I have no idea why you might be angry, Aaron. This is just a natural progression of what I've been tracking for the last five months or so."
"There is nothing natural about the fact that an unsub was close enough to our children so as to be able to talk to them and give them gifts."
"How do you know that he talked to them?" she snapped, trying to ignore the feel of Penelope's warm hand on her arm as she confronted Aaron, trying not to allow her anger to get too out of control, as that wouldn't serve her well in this case. "Well?"
"I wasn't entirely certain of that until you told me so, just now, Erin. Did you manage to get a look at the unsub, at least?"
Erin was relieved that he asked her a question where she wouldn't have to lie to him, and she shook her head slowly as she let out a long breath. "No, neither David, nor I, saw who was driving the blue car. The most that we know about the unsub is that he's a male, since Catherine and Elise both addressed him as the nice man. I was more concerned about our children being all right than in trying to catch a fleeting glimpse of the unsub driving away."
"You still could have written down the license plate, and had Penelope run it, so that we could track down the man."
"And you don't think that a man so wily as to stalk us all wouldn't take counter measures to ensure that nothing would come back on him?"
Aaron pierced her with a furious look as he shook his head. "Any little scrap of information that we can gather on this bastard is a good thing. When we were hunting Foyet, we gathered every single tiny scrap of information to build the profile. No detail was too small, you know that!"
Erin felt herself become so cold that she shivered as she slumped into the corner of the sofa, unwanted tears welling up in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around her body and pursed her lips in an effort to keep from crying. "That was a low blow, Hotch," she heard Penelope say, though the sound was quite hazy, as if someone had filled her ears with wool. Then the woman was reaching out to her once more, curling her hand around Erin's shoulder before tugging her over so that she was resting her head on Penelope's shoulder. "You both lost so much because of that bastard, and you throw it in her face?"
"I…"
"What, you didn't think before you spoke? You allowed your anger to cover up how scared you are about the fact that this Replicator man is so close to us that he can create near perfect replica rag dolls of Erin and Blake? Because that is understandable. You lashing out at a victim is beyond the pale, and I know that you wouldn't be like this to one of the women that you interview out in the field."
Erin glanced over at Aaron, seeing him also deflate as the anger seemed to leave his body in one breath. "You're right. But Elise is…"
"Elise is loved by everyone here, even Blake. Yes, she is your daughter, which makes it more difficult for you, but you must know that Erin and Dave are doing everything they can to keep her and Catherine safe. Also, there are three other children in that house to think about as well. This affects everyone in our lives, since the Replicator seems hellbent on torturing us all."
"It seems like he has a focus," Aaron replied as he leaned forward, his hands dangling between his legs as he looked at them both. "It seems like he is targeting my family."
"Aaron," she breathed out as their eyes met. It was hard to keep his face in focus, as her tears kept clouding her vision, but Erin fought to keep from bursting into sobs, as she knew that she truly wouldn't be able to hold back the flood that morning, and she didn't want to head back into the bullpen with swollen, red, eyes. "I, I have a theory on who this unsub might be."
One of his hands shot forward, gripping her knee tightly as his gaze bored into her. "Who?"
"I've been talking about it with Lexie, to get a feel for things, since she is on the same track that I am in our way of thinking. And I know that you're going to hate me for saying this, but we're not going to tell you who it might be until we have more concrete proof that it is him. It's not just our daughter that he's targeting. He's going after Lexie, too, and I want to protect her as much as I possibly can. If we were to tip our hand too quickly, and not have the right evidence lined up, he could slip through our fingers and we'd be back to square one."
"Erin."
"I know. It is a very dangerous game that I am playing, especially since he's made contact with my youngest children, but do you also remember that Foyet had alarms set up on his names, both those known and unknown to us? Given what this Replicator knows about our movements in the field, and where we live, and countless other little details, I just want to have all my ducks in a row before I bring it to you and the team. I know you won't understand, David doesn't understand, Alex truly doesn't understand, but this is the way that it has to be until we can pull the trigger on the gun to start the racehorses."
She knew that she was babbling, but from the look on his face, she knew that he was staring to get what she was driving at. "It's like when we tracked down Doyle," Penelope murmured, and she turned her head to look at the younger woman, having forgotten that she was there for a moment. "I hated keeping everything close to the vest, that everyone knew what we were doing, but we still didn't accept help, in order to keep everyone else safe. God, we really are all alike."
Aaron cleared his throat to get their attention once more, and as she looked at him, Erin could see the resignation on his face. "I'm starting to realise that more and more as the years go by. I don't like this, and I know that you don't like it, either, but I think that you're possibly correct in this case. Promise me that the instant this changes, you'll read us in."
"That was always the plan," she replied as they got to their feet in unison. It didn't surprise her when Aaron pulled her into a tight embrace in front of Penelope, but the hug was quite welcome. As she breathed in the comforting scent of his aftershave, Erin wondered just how she'd get herself out of this particular quagmire, wanting to keep everyone safe for as long as she possibly could, and knowing that it would be a very difficult task indeed.
