"I don't suppose that you're as creeped out by this case as I am?"

Alex looked up to see that Dave was giving her a bemused smile, and she nodded a little as she gestured for him to take a seat across from her. "There's something that I can't quite put my finger on. While the case does seem to point to the fact that there is a religious component to everything that's occurred so far, that doesn't feel like the right answer? I just don't know what the right answer is at the moment. I don't like being stymied like this, because I hate feeling like I'm reaching for that golden ring, only for my fingertips to just brush against it, rather than grab hold of it."

"I know what you mean," he replied as he sat down, leaning back in the seat as he watched her closely. Alex didn't particularly care for feeling like a butterfly pinned to a board, and she wondered what he was thinking about. "Cases like these always seem to bring out the weirdos, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of red herrings as we conduct our interviews."

"That's good to know, since that will help us weed out the truth from the fantasists." She let out a long breath as she picked up her tablet once more, flipping through the crime scene photos as she tried to figure out what it was that bothered her about the whole case. "So, did Garcia seem a little squirrely to you?"

"More so than lately?" he asked, laughing a little, and she shook her head as she rolled her eyes a bit. "I think that everything is all right with her, if that's what you're asking. She's a resilient woman, even if she seems like a delicate flower at times."

"I think that she's perhaps a little more delicate than you see her as, Dave. She's just really good at putting on a good front, and you know it. But then, which one of us on the team isn't like that?"

He nodded as he folded his hands together over his stomach. "That is very true, Alex. But Garcia's also survived being shot, so I don't think that we need to worry all that much. Why the concern?"

Alex shrugged a little as she glanced out the window at the clouds. "Just something that I was discussing with a friend. I do get concerned about you all, you know. I'm not completely heartless."

"I've never thought that you were, Alex. You just have some very tall walls built up around your heart, due to the past, which is completely understandable. But who is this friend that you talk about us so freely to? Anyone that I might know?"

Alex felt like she had been backed into a corner by opening up her mouth in such a hasty manner, and she gave a small shrug as she looked down at her tablet once more. "I have a friend who calls at midnight to check up on me, and see where my head and heart are at. Usually, that would be James's job, but since he's still in Africa, Louise has very kindly stepped into those shoes. Even if it means that she'll be calling me at three in the morning on this case. If she calls during this case. She doesn't have to call every case that I'm on after all."

She knew that she was rambling in an effort to get Dave away from asking any more questions, but that seemed to be exactly the wrong thing, since he gave her a little smirk before clearing his throat and tapped at his stomach with his fingers, his eyes narrowing a little as he considered her. "But it sounds like she calls enough for you to be very intimately acquainted with her."

"You make it sound so smarmy to have a friend who calls you at a set time on an irregular basis. I think that it's rather nice that I can rely on Louise so well."

"Yes, but you don't let people in, even Morgan's said that you're a closed book to him. And yet this Louise can just call and you drop everything to talk to her. Or wake up to talk to her."

Alex tilted her head to one side as she more carefully looked at him before glancing out the window. "I see that JJ has been talking to you, then."

"A little, yes. She was talking to Hotch about why you're so tired some mornings, and I couldn't help but overhear the conversation. And you know, the funny thing is that my girlfriend seems to have that same problem on the same mornings that you do. It's almost as if she also has a midnight caller that she talks to. Are you certain that you're talking to this Louise?"

Alex felt trapped, and she carefully schooled her features so that her microreactions wouldn't give anything away. "While I may not agree with what you're insinuating, Rossi, I will honestly say that I have been talking to someone named Louise for a good number of weeks. I think that I would recognize Erin's voice on the other end of the line, don't you? After all, we worked very closely together for the entire duration of the Amerithrax case, and would often spend hours on the phone, talking about our suppositions on that case."

"Voices can change in the space of a decade or two."

"But not patterns of speech. Remember, you're talking to a linguist who is accustomed to truly listening to the way that people speak, along with what they say." Their eyes met once more, and Alex prayed that he would believe her protestations, since she didn't want to share this precious time she had with Erin, and she felt like if Dave were to know what was going on, he'd put a stop to it somehow. Finally, he nodded once more, though he didn't appear to quite believe the words she had said. Still, it was good to start think about what would happen if, or more likely when, people truly started putting things together and figuring out that she and Erin had made up somewhere along the way.

"Hey, what are you two talking about?"

She looked up to see JJ standing next to their seats, giving them a cheery grin. There was something comforting about the expression, as if she was trying to defuse a situation that had gotten a little too tense. "We were just talking a little bit about my midnight caller, and how I seem to be keeping you from sleeping on the nights that Louise calls."

A part of Alex hated how cool her voice sounded, but JJ didn't appear to notice the tone as she plopped down in the seat next to Alex, patting her knee gently before drawing in a short breath. "I was talking to Hotch about how sweet it was that you have a friend who calls at a set time every case. There's a comfort in ritual, which is why I love being able to read Henry his bedtime story when I'm away from him. And from what I've overheard as I swim up from sleep for a few seconds during those calls, I can tell that you're both really good friends. I would love it if Garcia called to talk things out, but that's not her style."

"Really? For all the gossip and chatter that she does when we're in the bullpen, she wouldn't call and talk to you like this?"

JJ shrugged as she pulled a leg up to her chest, contorting her body so that she could look at both of them a little more easily. "She doesn't like talking over the cases, even the more mild ones that we sometimes see. She prefers to focus on the good things of life, and that can make it hard to decompress with her. I mean, Will and I sometimes do talk while I'm in the field, but he understands that I can come to him when we get home and lay everything on the table. Are you able to talk to James at all?"

Alex nodded a little as she crossed her arms over her chest. She knew that it was a defensive posturing, one that Dave would take notice of, but it couldn't be helped. She didn't like talking about her relationship with her husband all that much, since things were still so nebulous between them, especially now that these old feelings for Erin had started to resurface. "We do more of our talking when I'm at home, of course, since it's easier to connect with him then."

JJ nodded as she let out a small yawn. "Things are like that with Will a lot of the time, too. He's so good at taking care of Henry, and so I don't begrudge him wanting to talk about things in person. Though sometimes it does get to be a little much. I wish that things were easier for all of us, but we lead extraordinary lives."

Dave laughed as he nodded. "I think that that might be the understatement of the decade, Jayje. There has never been anything ordinary about the lives we lead."

"Well, you're the famous author and world class lothario. How did Strauss manage to tame you?"

Alex tried to swallow her smirk at JJ's impertinent question, but Dave must have caught the expression, as he rolled his eyes at both of them before shaking his head. "Erin hasn't tamed me, she's just helped me scratch an itch that I needed taking care of. We work well together, what can I say?"

Again, that flippant attitude bothered Alex far more than she knew it should, but she couldn't bring it up without starting another argument with the man, and she definitely did not want that right before the case truly started. "Are you certain that's all it is?" JJ pressed on, asking the question that Alex wanted to, in a better way than she would have phrased it.

"That's the boundaries that she's placed on things, so yes. And honestly, I don't think that I'm cut out for long term, tied down, relationships. Even if the sex is incredible."

JJ quickly looked over at Alex before bursting into giggles. "That was definitely much more information than I ever needed hearing," she said as she shook her head a little. "I don't want to think about you two in that sort of situation. It's like thinking about your parents that way."

Alex let out a mock gasp of indignation. "We are barely old enough to be your mother, Jen!"

"Oh, you and Strauss are the same age? I never knew that."

Dave settled back in his seat, a pleased grin spreading across his face as he looked between the two of them. Alex knew that she had opened this little can of worms, and would have to discuss it now in an effort to deflect from other things. "We are. We actually met in the Academy, so our history is a lot longer than most people assume."

"What was she like back then?"

Alex took a deep breath, wondering what she would tell them, since she knew that Dave would be listening to see if he could find any information that would give him an in with her. Finally, she focused her attention on JJ and gave her a small smile. "She was always quiet, always studying people, trying to figure out what made them the way they are. We worked together well, and it was good to have her as a roommate."

"You were roommates?"

Alex nodded, thinking about their late night talks. "We were. It was a good thing, since we were both competitive. We didn't give each other any mercy, either. Because if friends can't push each other to be their best, what good are they?"

JJ grinned at her as she nodded. "Emily and I were like that a lot, too. It's good to see that overachievers are the same, no matter when they were born." Alex rolled her eyes before nodding. "I just hope that…"

"That things don't fall apart between the two of you, the way it did between Erin and myself?"

"Yes."

"I don't think that it will, since you most likely won't be put in the same position that we were. And from what I know of you, you're not as stubborn as we are." Alex hated how soft her voice became with those word, since she knew that David would pick up on them, but there was nothing to be done about that, sometimes the truth bled out of a person before the flow could be stopped, and she only hoped that this wouldn't further clue him in to the fact that things were different between her and Erin now, as she didn't want to share this change with anyone else yet, not when the tenderness was still so nebulous. And even though she knew that Dave was quickly catching on to how things really were between the two of them, Alex still wanted to hold everything tightly to her chest, since that was where it belonged.