The team had thankfully drawn the short straw and managed to have a week at home working on custodials and catching up on paperwork, which allowed Alex to teach her classes at Georgetown and have a little time for herself as she tried to work out the puzzle of just who Louise was. Her little chat with JJ had started her mind working in overdrive as she tried to think about just where she might know the woman from. Letting out a sigh, Alex set aside the paper she was grading and stretched out on the sofa in order to try and run through her thoughts.

As she stared up at the ceiling, Alex found her thoughts turning away from Louise and focusing on the situation between Erin and Rossi. Their sharp words still stung her mind, since she didn't want to be at odds with him, though she had known that his having a relationship with Erin might end up causing more issues than she would like. And that is exactly what had happened. And yet, when she thought about it more in depth, she found that she was less concerned about how things between her and Rossi would turn out, and more about if he would end up hurting Erin. Which didn't make any sense at all, as she was still persona non grata in Alex's world, and Alex wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible, maybe until the end of time.

But as was happening more and more lately, whenever her thoughts turned to Erin, her brain floated up the image of her close to tears that night the team had returned from Texas, when she had opened herself up to Alex in an effort to get her to forgive, and every time her heart ached. She didn't want to think about the reason why her heart might hurt so much at the thought of Erin, because acknowledging that would require a little more emotional honesty than she wanted to work through at the moment. She was still building her relationships with the team, and she didn't want to throw Erin into that mix, even if she was sleeping with Rossi at the moment. And yet, she also knew how much of a battle it was to stave off an addiction, and that there were real issues with people entering into a relationship so soon after attaining sobriety. For all she despised Erin, she didn't want to see her slide back into the arms of alcohol, since no one deserved that. Even if she never spoke to the woman ever again, there were still things that she wouldn't even wish on her worst enemy.

Shaking her head a little, Alex picked up her phone and looked at the display. It was nearly ten, and the papers would wait until the next evening to finish, as she didn't need to have them finished until Thursday, after all. Sitting up, she slipped off the sofa and cracked her back to work out the kinks that had developed while she had been hunched over grading before making her way upstairs.

Bypassing the bedroom, she went into the bathroom and stripped off her clothes, dropping them into a pile on the floor before stepping into the shower and turning it on. The cold blast of water at the beginning woke her up a little, and she let out a long breath as she stamped her feet a little to brush off the cold while the water warmed up, until the temperature was right, and then she went about washing her body and hair. Humming beneath her breath, Alex thought about how the next day would go. She and Reid were going to lead a class on forensic linguistics, and she was looking forward to that small pivot from academic teaching to more hands on applications of the major passion of her life.

"Erin would say that you are looking forward to this too much," she said as she rinsed the soap from her body and then turned the water off. Standing in the shower, she allowed the excess water to drip off her body before grabbing a towel and wrapping it around her body. Stepping out, she twisted her hair up in another towel to let it dry before she picked up her lotion and worked the crème into her skin to help keep in the moisture. Once that was accomplished, she removed both towels, dropping them in the hamper before scooping up her clothes and sorting the dirty ones into the hamper before picking up her phone and heading into her bedroom.

Alex tossed the phone onto the bed before hanging up her blouse and trousers. For some reason, her eyes darted over to the full length mirror in the corner of her room, and she looked at her body critically. She had known that the passage of time had affected her body, but these last few months of chasing down unsubs had lent a little extra toning to her body. She chuckled a bit to know that James would appreciate the new lines she had, even as a small part of her brain whispered that Erin had always liked her soft. Shaking her head to quiet that voice, Alex opened her pyjama drawer and pulled out a short nightie before making her way back to the bed as she tugged it on.

Dropping down onto the bed, Alex reached over and picked up the book she was currently reading, It was an engrossing novel, and she was glad that James had suggested it to her. She had so completely lost herself in the words on the page that she didn't realise that her phone was ringing until it had almost gone to voicemail. "Hello?" she answered a bit breathlessly, not knowing why she sounded like that, since she hadn't done anything more than fish around for her phone.

"Were you sleeping, Alex?"

Her face relaxed into a smile as she shoved the bookmark between the pages of her book and dropped it back onto her nightstand as she sat up and rested against the headboard. "No, I was actually in the middle of a book and lost track of time. I should have been finishing up some grading, but I have tomorrow evening to do that, and wanted a little time to myself?"

"That's perfectly valid. What are you reading?"

"Don't laugh, because it is so completely out of my wheelhouse, but it's Clive Cussler's Raise the Titanic!. It is completely ridiculous, especially since we know that it is impossible to do just that, after Ballard's discovery of the wreck, but I sort of get the appeal of turning your brain off and just going with what's written on the page."

"Sometimes that can be the best thing, yes. Are you home this week, then?"

Alex let out a breathy sigh as she nodded. "Yes. And I'm really glad for it, as it's allowed me to catch up on life at home. Though Reid and I are teaching a class on forensic linguistics tomorrow, and I am looking forward to that a lot. Though the students might regret having me as a teacher, since I tend to be a little…"

"Driven?"

"That is one way to put it, yes," she said with a laugh and smiled down into her lap. She knew that she should be prying for more information about Louise, in order to try and figure out why she was familiar to Alex. "But this will just prepare me for classes on Thursday. I've missed my students, and hopefully, I won't have any drama with them like I had with the team. Well, not the whole team, just Rossi."

"What happened?"

There was a sharpness to Louise's tone that took Alec by surprise, since she knew that the woman didn't really know Rossi beyond what Alex had said about him. "We were still working that horrible case in California, which is the reason why we're home right now, since Rossi went to Mexico to try and track down the unsubs, so since we're a member down, we drew the short stick of home. Anyway, before I get off on a tangent about that, let me circle back to the issue at hand."

"I like listening to your voice, so you don't have to feel bad for tangents."

That was the most personal thing that she had heard Louise utter, and she rubbed her thigh absently as she thought of a way to respond. "I like listening to your voice, too," she finally said before taking a deep breath and continuing on to her tiff with Rossi. "So, Rossi is sleeping with Erin, I think I've told you about that. Anyway, I was asking that he take into consideration the fact that she's not even a year out of rehab yet, and shouldn't really be in a relationship right now. That's one of the tenets of AA, after all, because it is such a volatile time for her. And even though I don't want to reconcile with her, I still don't want to see her hurt. Rossi didn't take too kindly to that, and intimated that things weren't even that serious between them, like it was just a casual friends with benefits thing."

"And why does this bother you if you don't care for Erin?"

That was a good question, and she took a few moments to answer. "Because I know that Erin is a steadfast woman in her intimate relationships. She wouldn't just sleep with him as some random hook up, as that's not her style. So that means she most likely is more invested in this relationship than he is, and that's not fair to her. I just, I don't know why I feel so conflicted, because I shouldn't be, but I don't want her to end up hurt."

"And she's the same age as you, yes?"

"Yes."

"Well, then, I should think that she is a fully functional adult who can make her own choices and doesn't need you to police them for her? Being concerned is one thing, but if you're not going to go to her with those concerns, well, then maybe you know that it's really none of your business?"

Once more, Alex was shocked by how vociferously Louise was reacting, since this didn't seem like a normal reaction for the woman. "I, I didn't think…"

"It is quite clear that you haven't, Alex. Good night."

And before she could say anything more, Louise had hung up the phone, leaving the empty sound of a disconnected call in Alex's ear. Slowly, she pulled the phone away from her head to look at the display, almost willing Louise to call her back, so that they could work this out. She didn't know why the woman was so upset, she didn't know why her concern for Erin would be seen as interfering in a situation that she wasn't a part of. Because she was a part of the situation, no matter what Louise might think. Anything that would affect the cohesion of the team was something they all needed to be concerned with, and she didn't understand why her friend didn't realise that.

Reaching up to touch her cheek, Alex was surprised to find that there were tears wetting the skin there, as she hadn't realized that she had started crying at some point. And since she didn't have a number for Louise, she couldn't call her back to press for the reason why she was so upset. "This is going to be a long night," she muttered as she plugged the phone onto the charger and then scooted down on the bed so as to stare up at the ceiling. "You need to get to sleep so that you can teach well tomorrow, Alex. You can't allow this argument to throw you off your game, because Spencer will ask questions that you don't really want to answer." Taking a few deep breaths, Alex reached for James's pillow and drew it close to her chest as she turned onto her side and curled her body around it. Somehow, though, she knew that it was going to be a long night.