Alex shook out her shoulders as she stepped out of the elevator, the last one to leave it. From the corner of her eye, she saw Hotch and Erin having a hurried meeting, and she watched as Erin pressed a stack of files into their leader's hands as she continued to talk. There was something almost distressed about the look on Erin's face, but she tried not to let that get to her as she anticipated meeting Garcia and Morgan for the first time. As she approached the bullpen, she could see JJ and Reid talking with a man and woman, who she assumed to be the other two members of their team, and she plastered a neutral look on her face as she heard the woman talk.

"…but is she nice?"

Alex did not like the gossipy tone to this Garcia's voice, and so she decided to nip that right in the bud by putting the younger woman in her place. From the way that JJ and Reid were looking at her, she knew that the look on her face had hardened a little, and she squared her shoulders as Garcia said something unintelligible to Morgan before turning around to look at her. "Nice, from the Middle English to mean foolish or stupid. I do hope that you are not meaning to imply that I am foolish or stupid, and are instead using the word in its modern form?"

Garcia stammered out a reply as Morgan smoothly brushed her aside, and in that moment, she could see exactly what Reid meant about him. He was smooth, in that smarmy way, and she regarded him coolly as she shook his hand. "Derek Morgan. How was Seattle?"

"He made the Green River Killer look like a saint," she sang out as Hotch slipped past them, a concerned look on his face.

"Let's get this briefing under way," he called out over his shoulder as Erin followed close at his heels, her face set in a similarly drawn look on her face. Alex straightened her shoulders and followed the others up to the conference room, happy to take up the rear in this case. She took a seat next to Reid, carefully keeping her gaze away from Erin's eyes. It was rather difficult to keep her focus, as she was taking notes and hoping that Erin wouldn't ask her any direct questions. Still, she couldn't help but interject her thoughts on the fact that they were seeing a reemergence of the Silencer when that evidence appeared on the screen, and Erin gave her an almost proud look before Hotch carried on that line of thought.

Soon enough, the briefing was concluding, and she got to her feet, wanting to get ahead of Reid so that she wouldn't be stopped by Erin, only to hear her name fall from that woman's mouth. "Alex, a moment?"

She paused and stiffened her spine before turning to look at Erin. "Can I help you?"

"I just wanted to say that I was sorry that I haven't had the opportunity to speak with you before this. I wanted to reach out before you left for Seattle and tell you how glad I am that you're back."

"It took a lot of hard work to get here, Erin, as well you know. Now, if there's not anything else, I need to get going to Texas." Erin opened her mouth as if to say something more, but then she nodded, giving Alex that same sad smile that always broke her heart. Before she would allow her resolve to crack and break, Alex turned on her heel once more and strode from the room, taking a few deep breaths as she tried to calm her spirit in order to start this case fresh and right. JJ gave her a look as she stepped on the elevator with the team, and she shook her head a little as she listened to the chatter around her.

By the time they landed in Texas, she was in a better headspace, having been able to focus in on the job at hand. Still, Alex felt like her thoughts were divided as they started to work the case and figure out where the Silencer was headed, and it was a struggle to remain in the moment as she went about her day. It was a surprise to get a call from Morgan, since she didn't remember ever giving out her mobile number. "Garcia probably gave it to him. She can hunt down any piece of information, no matter how hard it might be to find. She once hunted down a victim in a case based only on his previous name and location. That's something that I couldn't do, but she knows how to get that stuff."

Alex nodded as they trudged up to their hotel room, suddenly glad that they had washed their clothes before leaving Seattle, since that meant she could just slip into her pyjamas and fall into bed, hopefully to fall right to sleep. "So I need to guard myself carefully around her?" she asked as JJ unlocked the door, letting them inside.

"She means well, really."

"That doesn't answer my question."

JJ sighed as they claimed their usual beds, and Alex dropped her bag onto the mattress before taking a seat on the bed and looking at JJ steadily. A small blush stained her cheeks as she sunk onto her bed, and Alex waited for her to speak once more. "She means well, but she can push boundaries, or blow right past them when she thinks it is in the greater good. I get that you're a private person, and if you explain that to Garcia, she'll understand your reticence to be so open. There have been a few times where she got into trouble for that."

"That's good to know. Thank you for telling me the truth."

JJ gave her a small smile as she opened her bag and pulled out her pyjamas. "I'm going to take a shower, since I didn't grab one yesterday. Do you mind?"

"No, I'll take one after you." JJ nodded and disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Alex along in the room. After taking off her boots, Alex stretched out on the mattress and stared up at the ceiling. A sick, heavy, feeling filled the pit of her stomach as she considered the fact that she had to contend not only with Erin trying to wheedle her way into her life, but also a busybody who had access to all the information that she wanted to keep to herself. Like Ethan. Shaking her head a little, Alex sat up and ran her fingers through her hair, wincing a little when she tugged a little too hard on the snarls there.

She bent over and fished her brush out of the bag and began to work out the snarls in her hair, still thinking about what she would do with two people in her work life that she would have to avoid. It was bad enough that trying to avoid Erin seemed to be an impossibility now, though she was trying desperately not to allow that to affect how she was working this case. Alex tossed the brush back into her bag as she picked up her phone and sent off a quick email to James, telling him that she was less than pleased with her new colleagues, and she didn't know if she would be able to work with them well.

After that was sent, Alex called up the current crossword app that she was working her way through, needing the distraction that it offered her. She had almost finished her third puzzle by the time that JJ exited the bathroom, and she gave the woman a small smile before plugging her phone onto the charger. "Let me guess, Candy Crush?" the younger woman teased, and Alex shook her head.

"Crossword puzzles. I prefer a pen and paper, but when travelling, the phone will do. I'll see you in a little bit." As she stood, she moved to her bag at the foot of her bed, pulling out pyjamas before dropping the bag on the floor next to the bed.

"There's not a balcony for you to sit on if your midnight call comes."

"I noticed that. I suppose that I can take the call in the bathroom, if I get one tonight. I don't particularly relish heading down to the lobby that late at night in my pyjamas." JJ giggled a little as she nodded, and that soft sound actually calmed Alex a little. Though she would never say it to anyone, JJ reminded her of the Erin she had met at the Academy, which was probably why she liked her so much.

The shower was relaxing as well, and Alex padded back out to the bedroom, unsurprised to see that JJ was already asleep, curled up around her pillow. Before she could stop herself, Alex went over to her bed and pulled the covers up around her shoulders, wanting her to be comfortable while she slept. Yawning widely, Alex slipped beneath the covers and made herself comfortable as she started to fall asleep herself, finding that she was much more tired than anticipated, though she knew that part of that was due to the fact they were on back to back cases and dealing with two time zone changes.

Just as she was about to completely go under, she heard her phone rumble against the nightstand, and she reached out to answer it as she sat up. "Hello?"

"Hello, Alex."

She let out a soft sigh at the sound of Louise's voice, and after slipping out of bed, she grabbed her pillow and the top blanket as she made her way over to the bathroom. "It is so good to hear your voice, Louise. Just give me a moment to get situated in the bathroom. There's no balcony for me to sit on, and while I told JJ that I don't want to sit in the lobby and have people stare at me in my pyjamas, it's more that I don't want anyone to overhear these conversations. I find myself loathe to be that open."

"I understand," Louise replied as Alex settled down on the floor, sitting on her pillow as she leaned back against the door and covered her legs with the blanket. "Are you comfortable now?"

"I am. Well, as comfortable as I can be, headed on back to back cases, with new team members that I'm not certain I'll get along with, and dealing with Erin getting into my personal space before we left on this case. It just all feels to be too much?"

"And that is what these calls are for, Alex. Now, where would you like to start unpacking?"

There was something a little familiar about that phrasing, and Alex frowned a little as she shifted her position a little. "I suppose with the new members. My other teammates gave me a little bit of a head's up in regards to them, but actually meeting them was a revelation. Derek is a bit of a jackass, but he seems to be trying to charm me, since he doesn't really know me yet. Not that I'll open myself up to him, or the others really, since I tend to privacy. But it's the technical analyst that truly unsettles me."

"Why?"

"JJ has told me that she's a digger, and she tries to find out as much information as possible on people and situations. I don't want her to go trawling through my history to find out the secrets that I won't share with the team. They don't need to know about my son in order to trust me with their lives in the field. They don't need to know my history with Erin, because that has no bearing on how I interact with my team."

"Still no closer to a détente with Erin, then?"

She shook her head a little as she let out a deep sigh. "I wish that I could say that I'm in a place to be forgiving and kind, but I'm not. She cut my fucking rope when I was the most vulnerable, and I nearly lost everything that I had worked so hard for. I loved her, and she still betrayed me in the worst way possible."

"That sort of burning brand will continue to hurt your heart as well, Alex. Sometimes, you need to forgive the person in order to move on, not because they want to be forgiven. Just, think on that?"

Alex sighed as she nodded. "I know that you're right, but I'm not in that head space yet. And it might be easier if Erin would stay out of my space for another few weeks. I know that she won't do that, because she feels desperate to make amends, and I just can't offer her that at the moment." Another sigh escaped her lips as she thought about the case ahead and how she needed to focus on that and not on her issues with Erin or Garcia. "So, do you want to tell me something good that's going on in your life so that I can focus on something positive?"

"Of course I can, Alex. Just let me know when you need to go to sleep."

"Okay," she replied as she allowed her shoulders to drop a little in relaxtion, ready to listen to her friendly voice tell her something good.