"Did you want to head out for supper, Alex?"

She looked up to see JJ standing in front of her desk, a bemused smile on her lips. "Don't you need to get home to your husband?" she asked as she saved what she was working on before turning her full attention on her colleague.

"Eh, Will needs to spend a little more time with Henry, and we're all getting together. Well, everyone except for Rossi. He tried to beg off that he was too tired, but we all know that only means that he's spending the night with his girlfriend."

Alex laughed a little as she nodded. "Well, as long as said girlfriend won't be there with us, I think that I would enjoy having supper with everyone." JJ smiled as Alex pushed away from her desk and grabbed her purse, shoving her phone into it before shrugging into her jacket. "Let me guess, we're headed out for Chinese?"

JJ nodded sheepishly as she walked with Alex over to the elevators. "It's our thing, and it's easiest, given that PG's a vegetarian. There are more options for her there."

"I still eat chicken sometimes!"

Alex turned to see Garcia scurrying over towards them, a bright smile on her lips. "Interesting. Since when was chicken a vegetable?"

"Since dolphin was considered a fish and therefore edible during Lent and not bound by the traditional fasting from meat. You're not the only one who knows obscure facts," she said as she slipped her arm into JJ's. "But it is really difficult to give up sesame chicken, especially when the cravings hit hard. But I am so glad that you're coming with us! Gideon was the one to start bonding suppers when we were home, and it's nice to have them every once in a while. Our new team members sometimes get lost in the shuffle."

She gave a small nod as they all stepped into the elevator. "So, am I following one of you over to the restaurant?"

"I was planning on driving Jayje over, so if you want to ride with us, you're more than welcome!"

"I don't want to inconvenience you, Garcia. Especially since I probably won't stay as late as the rest of you. I do have classes to teach tomorrow, after all."

"That's right, no rest for the weary," JJ teased as they stepped out of the elevator. "I'll make certain that Garcia drives slowly enough so that you can keep up with us. And if you get lost, well, I'll call and give you directions."

Alex nodded and they walked over to their cars. After getting behind the wheel, she waited for Garcia to pull out, and then she was following her over to the restaurant. Thankfully, it was actually on her way home, so she figured that she could spend a little extra time with the team before heading on home.

"I'm glad that you were able to make it tonight."

She looked up into Hotch's eyes, and nodded a little. "I thought that it would be nice to get to know everyone else a little better on a more neutral space. There's a large difference between work mode and personal mode."

"That is very true," he replied as he placed his hand on the small of her back without really touching her. She chuckled to herself at the fact that he was a true Southern gentleman, and she nodded a little as they walked into the restaurant together. After they were seated, Alex grabbed her phone and sent off a quick text to James, letting him know that she'd be occupied that evening with her team. "How is your husband doing?"

"He's well. I wish that his assignment in Gabon would end soon, but I understand his need to be there. It was easier when I was just teaching, since we could carve time for each other on the weekends, but now that I'm doing this as well, it makes things a little more difficult."

"That was one of the things that Haley hated about the job. But this is in my blood, and it's hard to let it go, knowing that there might be predators that get away if we don't hunt them down."

She nodded as she picked up her menu, quickly settling on shrimp lo mein that evening. As she waited for their server, Alex took a look around the table, finding herself actually missing Rossi's presence, since he was always good at telling stories. Still, she was going to sit back and listen to what was being said, hoping that she wouldn't be asked to contribute much in the way of conversation. She knew that it would be difficult to keep that delicate balance between saying too much and keeping herself private. She especially did not want to discuss Erin at all, and she was almost certain that Morgan would use this opportunity to get a little more information about their disagreement.

Still, Alex found herself participating with little pithy anecdotes, combing the recesses of her brain for a few stories about Rossi that she could share with them in order to keep them from getting too close to her. "Are you leaving already?" Garcia asked when she pushed her chair away from the table.

"Unfortunately, yes. It's an hour drive home, and I still have to prepare some notes for the lessons tomorrow. I'll see you Friday, unless we get called out on a case?"

The others nodded, and Alex gave a small wave before she left the restaurant. The drive home was a little quicker than anticipated, which she was grateful for, since she truly did have a lot to get through before the next day. After brewing a mug of herbal tea, she went into the living room and got to work on finishing up what she wanted to talk about the next day, drawing in threads of what her TA had already gone over.

Alex became so lost in what she was doing that she lost track of time, and so was startled when her phone rang. Picking it up, she felt her eyes widen to see that it was already midnight, and she knew that Louise was on the other end of the line. "Oh, thank God you called. I was going out of my skin today," she answered without looking at the display, listening to Louise chuckle. Again, that feeling of familiarity swept over her senses, but she couldn't quite place why she felt that way.

"Has it been that bad, then?"

"Well, Erin has left me alone since our little tiff that night the team returned from Seattle, so I suppose that is a spot of good. The team wanted to do some bonding tonight, and I agreed to go with them, since Rossi decided to spend the evening with Erin. It was nice, and I managed to keep them from prying too much into my life by offering up anecdotes of things that happened before they joined the BAU. But I mostly just listened to them talk and unwind."

"And did you enjoy being included with the group?"

Alex drew in a deep breath as she made herself more comfortable on the sofa. "I did, strangely enough. Though I think that I'll never really get close to Morgan or Garcia, I'm forming a tentative friendship with JJ. There's something about her that reminds me of the best of Erin, so it's easier to connect to her. That, and she's a mother, too."

"That does make a difference, yes. So, are you headed out on a case tomorrow?"

"I don't know yet. I'll be teaching all day at Georgetown, so unless I get a call from Hotch letting me know that I'm needed urgently, I'll be away from the BAU. I love teaching, truly, but I think I'm going to miss being there."

"That's because you fought so long to get back to that place, it feels wrong to not be there, with your team. But if you're teaching, I should probably let you go. I'm assuming your day starts earlier than when you're at the BAU."

"Actually, I get to sleep in a little. Thirty minutes might not feel like much, but I'll take whatever I can get."

Again, Louise chuckled, and this time Alex joined in, feeling a little more at ease for hearing her voice. "I can completely relate to that. There were times when I would use my lunch break to catch up on sleep when one of my children had a rough night. It drove my partner crazy, because she always wanted to discuss what we were currently working on during our lunches."

"That sounds eerily familiar to my situation with Erin when her eldest was so colicky that she couldn't get a decent night's sleep to save her life. Alan was never any help, since he always tried to say that he needed his rest to be able to be a good attorney. He was such a jackass, that I was actually relieved to hear that they got a divorce. Or at least, I'm assuming that they divorced, since Erin was never one to cheat on her partner. In fact, until she cut my rope, I would have said that she was steadfast and true in all things, so maybe I got that wrong, too."

There was a brief pause before Louise spoke once more, and Alex frowned a little to hear pain in her voice. "I know that we've discussed Erin and what she did to you before, but from what you've told me of her, I don't believe that she is one to cheat on her romantic partner. That doesn't ring true to me. But then, I've only what you've told me about her to go on, so I could be completely wrong. This will be hard, I completely understand, but try to grant her a little more grace than you currently do. For me?"

Alex blew out a short breath as she stared up at the ceiling of her living room. "I suppose that I could try, in my heart, to do that. Though that doesn't mean I'll change how I interact with her at work. Just because I might try to let things go for my own benefit does not mean she needs to know that, as I don't want her trying to wheedle her way into my life once more."

"That is a perfectly valid way to look at things, Alex. How are your classes at Georgetown going? Didn't they just start for the semester?"

"They did, and I had to do a teleconference for the first session of all three courses I'm teaching this year. That was definitely a learning experience, and one that I hope I don't have to repeat in the future, since I felt like I wasn't in total command of the room. I'm not one of those teachers who has to have strict control, but I do like to make eye contact with my students, to try and get a feel of if they're having struggles, or if I'll need to watch out for them later on down the line. There's so much you can learn in that first meeting, and I feel like I couldn't accomplish that. Hopefully, tomorrow goes well, and I can make those connections."

"I'm certain that you'll do fine, Alex. You are an intelligent woman and an excellent teacher, at least from what I've heard from James. Try to take into consideration all that you are capable of and let that lead you tomorrow. Now, I really am not going to keep you any longer. You should get up to bed and have a good night's sleep to prepare for everything you'll encounter in the morning. But Alex?"

"Yes?"

"I am truly glad that we get to talk like this. I think that it's doing both of us a lot of good." Before Alex could reply, Louise had hung up, and she pulled the phone away to stare at the screen, wondering just what her new friend meant by those cryptic words. Still, she knew that there would be time enough to ask Louise later, when she next called and talked to her.