Alex stared at the display screen for a few seconds, wondering just who was calling her at midnight. It was too weird a time for it to be a telemarketer, though it very well could be a wrong caller. Still feeling a little off kilter from her conversation with her father, Alex decided to just throw caution to the wind and answer it, knowing that even if it turned out to be a prank call, she could work out some of her irritation and anger on a stranger and not feel guilty about it. No matter what her conscience might say afterwards.

"Hello?" she answered shortly, still irritated by the fact that there was no number on the display, that it gave off the impression that the call was coming from a government number.

"Oh, hi, I think that I might have called the wrong number. This isn't Alex, is it?"

The voice sounded vaguely familiar to her, and she was thrown off by the fact that she was being addressed by name. Taking a deep breath, she answered once more. "Yes, this Doctor Alex Blake. Why?"

"I was just told to call this number and ask for Alex. I know that it's late, but this was the time specified to make this call. Do you know why that might be?"

There was real confusion in the caller's voice, along with a softness that intrigued Alex. And once more, before she could stop her mouth, she began to speak. "I suppose that James might have asked you to call at this time, since this is when we always talk to each other when big life changes happen. Though I can't imagine why he wouldn't tell me that he was having one of his friends call."

"Perhaps he's been a bit too busy to mention that," the woman replied, and Alex nodded as she turned onto her side, grabbing the other pillow to prop beneath her head and offer her more support as she settled in for a conversation with this mysteriously familiar voice. "So, is there anything that you'd like to talk about? Or should we just call this a failed endeavor and I can go to sleep?"

"No, I think that I'd like to talk to someone who is entirely neutral towards me. Well, as much as a friend of James's can be. Unless you have to get to sleep?"

"No, I have time for you, otherwise I wouldn't have called. What's on your mind, Alex?"

She paused a moment before deciding to dive right into the crux of her issues. "I start a new job tomorrow. Well, not entirely new, but one I haven't worked in nearly two decades. I've wanted to be back ever since I was demoted and had my reputation dragged through the mud because someone I loved decided that I wasn't worth defending in her need to save her own skin."

"That's awful!"

"I know, and what hurts most is that I would have sacrificed anything for her if our situations had been reversed. I suppose that I should be grateful that I was at least able to stay on the East coast, and work with the Maryland field office of the FBI, as our other colleague was not quite so lucky. He was transferred out to the middle of nowhere, and then I never heard from him again. Not that I can blame him, since he was certain that fact that I retained a cushy job was due to the fact that I was having an affair with that woman. The ironic thing is that our affair had been over for decades by the point I was demoted, since life, you know?"

"I do. My parents were not supportive of gay people, and were quite glad that I married a man, after my sister expressed interest in forming a life with a woman when she was in graduate school. Prejudice and bigotry run deep in certain circles." The woman let out a wistful sigh. "But, more about why you should be happy about going back to your old job. What are you looking forward to the most?"

Alex chuckled a little at that neat turn of conversation, since it was so flawless. "You are a very positive person, aren't you?"

"I rather like focusing on the good things in life. The bad is what sticks with us for far longer than we'd like, and it's been said that it takes seventeen positive interactions to soothe away one negative one. So, what are you looking forward to most tomorrow?"

"Do you want the petty answer or the positive answer?"

"The positive one, please."

"All right. I am looking forward to getting to meet Agent Jareau. Currently, she is the only member of the team that I haven't met or worked with before. The other two are in England, working on some special assignment with Interpol. And I'm going to try and not let myself become intimidated by the fact that we now have a technical analyst to help run information for us, so that we can continue to work without as much downtime."

"That is a very good thing. So, how many people are on your team?"

"Including me? Seven, which again, will be a change. When I was last with the BAU, it was unusual for us to work in trios. Pairs or by ourselves was what was normal. My dad has already told me that I need to play nice, since he knows that I have the tendency to be a bit of a lone wolf."

"That has its place, but he's right, you have to pull your weight with your team. Do you have any idea what you'll be doing tomorrow?"

"I hope that we'll be headed right into the field, as I do not want to run into my former colleague. And I know, you want me to remain positive and all that, but when I think of Erin, I just feel like Mrs. White from Clue." The woman on the other end of the line stifled a giggle, which felt like giving her permission to barrel ahead with some venting. "She wants to make amends with me. I guess that she had developed a full blown drinking problem after I left the BAU, and hit rock bottom last December. She's reached out once a month since entering rehab."

"And how do you feel about that?"

Alex flipped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "I feel like I want to tell her to fuck off and leave me alone, but that would be less than ideal in my current situation, since she is going to be my supervisor. Well, sort of. She's my boss's boss, so she'll be cracking the whip over him to keep us in line. A part of me wants to rip the band aid off the moment I return to work tomorrow and ask her, nicely, to stay out of my way. But another part of me wants to preen."

"Oh?"

"I know, that is petty of me, but I just want to show off how well I landed on my feet and that I've been able to move on and make a better life for myself despite the setbacks I faced. Oh, it would be so much easier if James was here, so that I could go over this with him. He knows the whole messy backstory, and would be able to tell me that my feelings are valid."

"He would be right, your feelings are valid. However, you have to think about if that validity is a good thing. You wouldn't want to cause strife on your first day back, right?"

She let out a deep sigh as she ran her free hand through her hair and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I know. It would completely destroy everything that I have worked so hard for, and would accomplish nothing. I have to be the better person, even if I don't feel that way, because it will be better for everyone in the long run."

"I'm glad that you know what the best response is. That speaks to who you are as a person."

There was a note of affection in the woman's voice, and Alex frowned a little at the tone, since it almost felt like she knew her. Again, that weird feeling of déjà vu slithered down Alex's back as she wondered just how much James had told the caller about her. "My dad always insisted that our moral compass pointed towards true north, and I think that an upbringing like that doesn't easily go away."

"My parents tried to instill those same values in me, as well. I just learned a bit of ruthlessness from my father, and that streak never seemed to fully go away, no matter how much I tried to ignore it and be the better person. Though my job is such that a little ruthlessness helps smooth certain greasy wheels. I don't particularly like that, but I do what must be done to keep others safe."

There was another pause as Alex thought of something to say in reply. "Well, I don't think that you can be that ruthless, since you sound very nice and have admonished me to stay above petty things in our short phone call."

"Umm, sometimes I feel like I'm better at nudging people to be their better selves than I am at following that advice myself. Though that often seems like the way life goes, we're all much better at giving the advice that we most need to take ourselves."

That was very true, and Alex nodded a little as she turned back onto her side once more, trying to stifle the yawn that was coming to her lips. "Well, I hope that you have a good evening, but I really should be getting to sleep now. I have to wake up early, since the commute into Quantico will take so much longer than my commute to campus, and I have no idea what time I should leave yet so that I'm early, but not too early."

"Oh, I remember those days! You don't want to be seen as too eager, but you don't want to be seen as just there for the paycheck. It, it was really nice to talk to you, Alex. Do you think that we could do this again?"

Alex drew in a deep breath before she answered the woman's question. "I think that I'd like that. It has been really good to talk to someone who doesn't know me and therefore cannot judge me. But you'll have to be the one who calls, since your number isn't showing up on my phone."

"Oh, yes, sorry about that. I'm calling on my work phone, and it's blocked automatically. I'll give you a call in a few days, then, to let you settle into your new job, and then follow up with you to see how things are going. Sleep well, Alex."

Before Alex could reply to the woman, she had hung up, leaving Alex to stare at the phone in frustration as she plugged the device in and turned off her lamp before pulling the sheet up to her shoulders and letting out a satisfied sigh. There had been something so lovely about communicating with another person, and she wished that she could find that same connection with someone in her life that wasn't connected to her job. It was kind of James to at least think of her, but that didn't necessarily translate into a good friendship with someone who's name she didn't even know. The next time that the woman called, Alex would make certain to ask for her name, especially since the woman knew hers. "I am going to have to remember to ask James about the call, too, and thank him for thinking of me," she murmured as she made herself comfortable on the bed and closed her eyes, settling quickly into sleep as she thought about what the next day would bring for her.