undercover love

Fault

alex wakes up many hours later. the bed feels different, colder, and she realizes that david is gone. she sighs, rolling over to check the time, the room still pitch black. it's 2am and david isn't in bed. it's strange becuase she vividly remembers falling asleep with him. she peels the blankets back, getting out of bed to find him. she can't imagine what he would be doing at this hour. she exits the bedroom and doesn't see any other lights. until she reaches the kitchen, she can see a dim light. when she reaches the doorway, she's confused by what she sees. there's a case file with pictures- that she can't make out, spread across the counter. but the strangest part is david. he's facing away from her and the file and his shoulders are shaking, almost as if he's crying.
"david?"
he turns around instantly, wiping tears away quickly. "are you okay?" he asks her, wanting to know why she's awake or if she's in need of something. 
"me? i'm fine...but you....what are you looking at?" she asks, beyond confused.
she's only seen him cry once, and it was when she was abducted and he first found out about her pregnancy. he doesn't usually open up like this and show emotion. she walks towards him, desperately wanting to know what he's looking at.
when she's standing next to him she sees what it is. it's her case. the pictures are from the cameras the unsub used to show the team her and JJ. there's pictures of her tied to a chair, being cut open, her unconscious. most of them are her in rough shape, covered in blood.
her mouth drops open in awe, she didn't think it was this bad. she turns to him and sees he's trying to hold back tears but they're spilling down his cheeks. she knows exactly why he's reopening this file. "it's not your fault." she says, looking into his dark chocolate eyes. she just knows, somehow she just knows that he blames himself. he doesn't say anything. "come on, talk to me david." she pleads.
she wants to be there for him and console him the way he always does for her. he takes a deep breath. "if i wouldn't have left without you that morning, we would've driven to work together and there wouldn't have been any tension on the jet. hotch could've paired us together."
she can see the love and undeniable sadness in his eyes. "it's not your fault babe. there's nothing you could've done to keep this from happening. david i don't blame you, hell i don't blame anyone. it just happened." she says honestly.
"alex you almost died..."
she gently wipes the final tears away, and wraps her arms around his neck. "but i didn't. i'm right here."
he wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her body against his. "i love you alex. so, so much."
"i love you more." she answers.
they both know it'll take a while to come to terms with everything that's happened but they'll get through it together. They walk upstairs together and get back into bed, alex faces away from david, allowing him to wrap his arms around her waist. Holding them together.

when she wakes up that morning, she can tell david is awake by the way his hand is moving up and down her leg. she stretches, rolling over and looking up at him. "'morning." he says, leaning down to kiss her.
"'morning." she answers, pulling away. her voice raspy from just waking up. she's now in his arms, their lazily laying together.
"i think you should start working on the babies room." she puts emphasis on the word "you."
"me?" he teases, "what are you going to do?"
she rolls her eyes, "i'm growing the whole damn baby!"
he chuckles, "okay, okay."
their conversation is cut short by his phone ringing. they'd better not have a case is all he's thinking as he reaches for his phone. "rossi." he answers- its garcia.
"hey i know we're all supposed to be off work and whatever, but hotch thinks we have a case. he's on the phone with the director i guess and... i don't know. would you mind coming in?"
he sighs, "yeah...yeah i'll be right in."
"i'm sure if you need to stay with alex...you probably can, i mean i can talk to hotch for you-"
he cuts her off, "she's fine penelope, she'll be fine."
"yeah, right, okay well we'll brief when everyone gets here but be prepared for anything i guess. i'm not really sure what this is. i was just told to bring everyone in."
"thank you penelope." he says, ending the call.
alex groans, "are you fucking serious? hotch said you'd have 2 days off. i got out of the hospital fucking yesterday."
"relax. garcia said she didn't know if it's a case or not. and watch your language, we're gonna have a baby soon."
she glares at him and he gets out of bed. he chuckles as she moves to lay exactly where he was.
he smiles to himself as he walks to the bathroom to shower. he showers and dresses quickly, hoping the faster he gets there, the faster they can figure this out and all go back home. sure he loves his job but sometimes it's a lot. especially with the thoughts of the last case still fresh in everyone's minds. he buttons his shirt as he walks into the bedroom. alex is asleep again and he knows she isn't sleeping well at night. he feels her move every few hours and he knows that it's the only way she would have found him last night. she'll talk about it when she's ready, but he's a damn profiler for gods sake. plus it's not hard for him to tell when something is bothering her. it's obvious that it's from the abduction, but it's common. almost everyone gets PTSD. small noises wake her up now and she shifts upon hearing him enter the room. she sits up, facing him as he finishes getting ready for work. his back facing her as he talks, "are you going to be okay while i'm gone? i can stay." he's only saying this becuase he hasn't left her side since that first day in the hospital.
"i'm fine david."
her words paint a different picture than the look in her eyes.
"call me if you need anything. i'll come home." he reassures her. she nods, silently praying that there isn't actually a case and he won't be gone long. "oh and no driving." he says, taking her car keys from atop the dresser. she glares at him but he won't change his mind. she's on heavy medication and he likes to know where she is anyways. "rest." is the last thing he says, walking over to kiss her goodbye. she returns the kiss, "be careful."
he nods, "i love you."
"i love you too."
he goes directly to the conference room when he arrives to the BAU. hotch and the rest of the team come in behind him. Garcia then begins the briefing on this "complicated situation"
"this morning, two guards from virginia state prison were stabbed to death by two unsubs. they are now on the loose and the governor has appointed us to find them.

"us?" derek questions, "why cant S.W.A.T take care of it?"
hotch steps in, "because we profiled these men to catch them. we know exactly what they'll do and why."
the team nods, "so they called us in to play a statewide game of hide and seek." rossi says sarcastically.
hotch ignores him but reid bites back a smile.
"we're going to split up. everyone start by going through their backgrounds. refresh your memories of their old cases. rossi and i will take Luke Ramirez. emily, derek, and reid you will be in charge of Antonio Clauson."
everyone nods in correlation to their assignments, now breaking off to begin their work.
rossi vividly remembers this case. 7 bodies, all dumped in the own unsubs backyard. 
it was a hell of a stupid dump site, it practically lead the agents right to the killer.
Luke invited the victims over on dates, killed them with multiple stab wounds, then laid them to rest in his backyard.
he was sentenced almost immediately. he wasn't the brightest killer, leaving more than enough evidence to convict him.
Rossi looks through the file quickly, he knows hotch is thinking the same thing. there's no doubt in either of their minds that Luke would go back to that backyard. that infamous dump site. he would want to go back to where it all started, try and relive those nights.
that house is where they would start.
the drive from Quantico to Richmond is almost two hours. granted, both agents are almost positive this is where Luke would go, if their wrong they've wasted almost 2 hours of valuable time.
Both men are quiet throughout the ride, they both just want to solve this and resume their precious days off.
when they arrive it's early afternoon. they both edit the car and draw their guns, walking towards the old backyard. hotch is the first to see him. luke is sitting on the ground, where the bodies had been just months ago. "FBI. put your hands in the air!" hotch yells.
there's really nowhere for him to go, the backyard is fenced. luke runs for the fences but hotch is faster, he takes him down swiftly, handing him to rossi to cuff and load into the police car.
rossi hands luke to an assisting officer. finished with one of the easiest cases he's ever worked. him and hotch reload their car, both agents expected that to be a little harder. all that's left is locating Antonio Clauson, which they hope the rest of the team has already completed.
"so how's alex?" hotch asks.
rossi takes his eyes off the road momentarily to look at hotch in the passenger seat. it feels like he waited to ask him this question, almost as if he knew when wouldn't be a good time.
rossi sighs, hotch is the only person he's ever opened up to before alex.
"i honestly don't know. all she ever says is that she's fine. i know she's not sleeping well, and she's not eating either. i don't think she's eaten since we got back."
hotch nods, but looks at him seriously. "if you needed to stay with her, you could've. we could have managed."
rossi shakes his head. "she's getting better."
"dave i'm serious. do what you need to do."

when they reach the BAU it's nearly 4pm. they notice the rest of the team in the conference room, hopefully that means they've caught their unsub. "were you successful?" reid asks as hotch and rossi enter the room. rossi answers with a nod.
"were you?" hotch asks and emily nods as well.
"good work." hotch says, stone faced.
"you may all resume your day off, still effective tomorrow as well."
everyone disperses, mumbling "goodbyes" as they leave.
rossi catches hotches eye as he leaves, nodding his silent "thank you."

he hasn't heard from alex all day and he's unsure if that's a good or bad thing. when he enters the house she's reading on the couch. "your home early." she says, her eyes not leaving the page.
he sets his keys on the kitchen table,"mm hmm."
he walks into the living room behind where she's sitting on the couch. his hands move to her shoulders massaging them, and her whole body relaxes. she closes the book, turning around to look at him. "what was the case?" she asks, she had expected it to last a lot longer.
"2 escaped from state prison."
she nods in understanding and he moves from behind the couch to sit by her.  he sits and she immediately moves closer to him, her legs drawn up onto the couch and her head leaning against his shoulder.
"are you working tomorrow too?"
"no. we get tomorrow off."
"really?" she says surprised.
he nods.
"but i also have a book signing tomorrow night...that i would like you to go too."
"your kidding." she looks up at him, searching his face for a reason to believe he's lying.
he smiles at her, "no i'm not kidding."
"damn."
"i'll take you out to dinner after."
she smiles, "deal."
he chuckles, she has no idea what else he has planned.