Plausible Deniability **EDITED**

Part Eight

I double-checked the text message from Evan for her address and kept an eye out for the right building. I had just enough time to get home and say goodbye to Jack before he and Jess left, (her wanting to get an early start in the morning) before Evan text me that Reid had dropped her off and she was waiting up for me. I had told her to just go to sleep and rest, that we could just meet up in the morning but even over text, she was persuasive.

I pulled the car over and looked across the street for the right building number, not imagining that I was supposed to be looking for a tall, mirrored building that screamed 'pretentious single alpha-male'. Of course, I had imagined what Evan's place could look like numerous times and I honestly half-expected a little brick building like mine, kept up well enough to pull in new tenants but not nice enough to warrant unwanted company.

I pulled back out into traffic to turn down the side street, following the arrowed signs to the visitor parking lot. I grabbed my re-packed go bag and her jacket that I still had in my car and headed up to the front doors. I re-read another text for the door code and pushed the few silver buttons on the keypad and heard the 'buzz' that let me in.

    "Uh, okay," I mumbled to myself in astonishment, this being the last place I would have expected Evan to live. Other than it seeming out of budget for someone working at the BAU, it just didn't seem Evan-like. I knew she wasn't much for flashy things, her comfort lying in simple and humble materials, much like myself. But my sneakers squeaked across the marble floors as I crossed an grand foyer to the elevators.

"Can I help you, Sir," a man with a mop came up behind me, a look of suspicion on his tired face.

"No, thank you. I'm just here to see someone."

  "You know where you're headed?"

"I think so," I checked my phone again for the right floor and number.

"Okay..." he raised a brow at me as doors opened and I pushed the button for the tenth floor. "Have a good night."

"Thank you," I mumbled back and walked inside, the man still watching me as the doors closed. I felt butterflies building up in my stomach, just knowing what this weekend was going to bring. I knew we were probably going to spend the whole three days naked in her bed, napping and watching television, eating cheap take-out food and doing it all over again. I was excited and nervous, this being the first time for a lot of things.

  Our relationship was still pretty new to me, not just in time but in every possible way. She was a lot younger than me, my reflection in the elevator doors reminding me that I was probably the oldest man she had ever been with. My hair was greying and my eyes were growing wrinkles, my stomach was getting soft from not running as often as I used to. She was also on my team, me being her superior at work was definitely a situation I had never been in before. I had never even considered dating someone in the whole of Quantico Station, let alone someone I was supposed to be in charge of. And then there was just Evan being Evan. She was crass and loud and obnoxious at times, not qualities I would usually look for in a partner. But underneath those tattoos and band t-shirts was a young woman who cried watching a video of a puppy get stuck in a sewage grate, knew every word to almost any 80s pop song and who thought that this single dad was worth her time.

The elevator doors opened and I stared down the long hallway of doors, checking the numbers as I went. Hers was the last door on the left, all the way at the end of the hall. I grinned to myself and knocked, the door swinging open only half of a second later,

"Aaron," she smiled with tired eyes, half naked and leaning against the door.

"Hey," I smiled back and walked inside, the smell of cinnamon and citrus hitting my nose. "Candle?"