"Chief Strauss, Director Shepperd is on line one for you."

"Thank you, Helen." She picked up her phone and pressed the flashing button. "Yes, Steve?"

"Erin, I need to see you in my office, as soon as possible. We have a situation we need to discuss."

Erin took a deep breath, wondering if this was finally the moment she would get fired. She'd been on such ice since her return from rehab. "Yes, of course, Steve. I'll be there in five minutes."

"Great. And bring your iPad, you're going to want to take notes." He hung up and she stared at her phone. At least she knew for sure she wasn't getting let go. Yet.

Standing, Erin smoothed her skirt and picked up the device from her desk. Leaving her office, she smiled at her assistant. "I'll be back later, Helen. Please take messages if I get any calls. If there's anything urgent, tell them I'm with the Director."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Erin went out to the elevators and rode up to the top floor in silence, her foot tapping an anxious tattoo. Finally, the doors opened and she stepped out, once more adjusting her clothing. "Everything's going to be fine," she whispered. Quickly walking into the outer office, she stopped in front of the desk of Shepperd's assistant. "Excuse me, may I just head in?"

The man smiled up at her kindly. "Yes, Chief Strauss, they're waiting for you. Don't worry, you're not the one in trouble." Winking, he stood and opened the door for her.

Going inside, she saw Steve, the other Section Chiefs of the Bureau, and Ms. Garcia were seated around his round table. "Ah, good, you're here, Erin. Please, have a seat." The only remaining chair was next to Ms. Garcia, and she sat reluctantly, not knowing how the other woman would react. She'd been volatile ever since Agent Prentiss had left for the second time. They locked eyes and Ms. Garcia gave her a small shrug.

"All right, Steven, fill us in on why we're here," the SCD from Counter Terrorism said, sounding thoroughly bored.

"Very well. I don't know how many of you follow the local rag newspaper, but some very sensitive information about the FBI and our departments is being leaked there. We need to find the leak, stop it, and now."

"Do you have any leads?" Erin found herself asking, and Steve smiled at her sadly.

"No. But you should know that the latest 'blind item' was about you and what you've been through." Erin felt her mouth tighten into a frown and he nodded. "That's why we need to act quickly, before all our secrets get exposed to the general public."

"There's no way our department can take time off to search for the perp," the SCD for missing persons said, and Erin watched the others nod in agreement. Which meant she had just lost out on the proverbial 'not me' contest.

"Shit," she murmured and heard Ms. Garcia giggle lowly.

"All right, it looks like SCD Strauss will be in charge of finding out who our mole is. And helping her will be our finest computer tech, Penelope Garcia. Erin, I'll be assigning someone to take over Ms. Garcia's position until the mole is revealed."

Erin nodded faintly and watched Steve dismiss the others, leaving her and Ms. Garcia alone with him. "Steve, how am I to manage this on top of my normal workload?"

"I'll help you out as much as I can, Erin. I know you and Alan have been working on your marriage, so I'm going to try to keep you here as little as possible. And rely on Ms. Garcia. She's going to be the backbone to this operation."

She nodded and looked down at her iPad. "Is there anything you can give us to start on?"

"It's someone who can access the personal files of everyone here. The only ones protected, so far, has been your main team, Erin. While I don't want to plant the idea that it could be one of them, given that Agent Prentiss has just left us once again, I do want you to start there. Can you set aside your feelings, Ms. Garcia, and assess them clinically?"

Erin looked at the younger woman and saw the conflict of emotion warring there on her face. "I guess I'm going to have to be, Sir. This is seriously going to suck, though."

"I imagine it will, Ms. Garcia. But we need to get a handle on who is doing this. The sooner, the better."

"Yes, Sir." He nodded and stood, and Erin took this as their cue to leave. She stood as well, picking up her iPad. "One more question, Director. Am I going to be in my office?"

"No. You'll be shadowing Erin every day. This is going to put you on a more regular schedule, but your pay will remain the same, since I am asking you to do extremely distasteful work. I'll be expecting weekly progress reports as well."

They nodded and Erin moved towards the door. "Coming, Ms. Garcia?"

"Yes, Ma'am." They exited the room and she stalked over to the elevator. This was not how she had expected her life to turn out, shackled to a woman who hated her for eight hours a day. "This wasn't my choice, either, Ma'am."

Erin stabbed the down button before whirling around to face her. There was a latent hostility in her eyes, along with honest curiosity. "My personal life will not be under the microscope. Here is the one thing you need to know. Alan and I are separated and he has custody of the children. You may not ask questions."

She turned back to face the elevator doors and tried to ignore the warm hand on her arm. "I'll need to grab some things from my office. Do you want to come with me or head right back?"

"I suppose I should come with you and explain what I can to Aaron." The doors opened and she stepped in, pressing the six button. It seemed fitting to hear Ms. Garcia hum along with the elevator music, and she tried not to sigh in exasperation. "Let's get this over with."

Every eye in the bullpen turned towards them as they entered. Squaring her shoulders, she looked around for Aaron, finding him in his office. Climbing the stairs, she knocked twice sharply before entering. "Chief Strauss, what can I do for you?" he asked as he stood.

Ever the gentleman, she thought as she took a seat. "I just came to inform you of a temporary personnel change that Director Shepperd is making. For the next few weeks, and perhaps months, Ms. Garcia will be assisting me with a sensitive investigation. It goes without saying that I am not at liberty to discuss what we will working on."

He nodded and stared at her. "You're not happy with this."

"Would you be, Aaron? She's going to be like an underfoot puppy for weeks. The first real test of my sobriety comes in the form of that blonde whirlwind."

"I doubt that, Erin. You've been amazingly resilient so far. I know she can be a bit overwhelming at times, but she always means well. Try to keep that in mind as you work with her."

"I'll try if you try to keep Agent Morgan away from my office." Just as she finished saying that, she heard a commotion in the bullpen. They both stood and looked out to the window to see Ms. Garcia trying to hold back Agent Morgan. She shrank back into Aaron's comforting presence as the man broke free of the other woman's light grasp and bounded up the stairs.

"Hotch, what the hell? Did she tell you what's going on?"

"Derek, back off a little," she vaguely heard Aaron say. All she could focus on was the shaking of her hands, the watering of her mouth, as the craving washed over her. "This is coming directly from the Director." She weaved a little on her feet and he reached out to steady her. "Are you all right, Erin?"

"I'm fine," she snapped, pulling her arm free of his light grip. "If you'll excuse me, I have things to square away before our special assignment begins."

She stalked from the room, feeling harsh tears prickle her eyes as she passed by Dave's office. Their relationship had not worked out quite as she had hoped, though they'd parted as friends. Behind her, she could hear the clacking of heels and knew Ms. Garcia was trying to catch up with her. Erin didn't slow down until she was entering her office.

Helen looked up and the smile on her face quickly died at the look on Erin's face. "There were no calls, Erin."

"Good. Direct any further calls for me to Director Shepperd for the time being."

"Did he suspend you?"

"No. Worse. I'm on special assignment for a while and working closely with Ms. Garcia. If she asks you for anything, please see that she gets it."

"Of course." Helen went back to work, trying to ignore Ms. Garcia as she appeared at Erin's side.

"This way, Ms. Garcia." She ushered her into her office and closed the door behind them. "My office is sound proof, so we can freely discuss the case in here. Helen takes our lunch order at eleven, and we eat at noon. Do you have any questions?"

"Kind of. Director Shepperd was wrong. The unsub has hit our team by talking about you. Once you started a relationship with Rossi, you became part of the family. Just because you're no longer dating doesn't mean that changed for me. Even if you don't like me."

Erin nodded sharply, trying not to let those damnable tears flow down her face. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she closed her eyes. "Look, I don't want to start this mess until tomorrow. As soon as you're set up here, I'm going home, and you can, too."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Erin. If we're going to be together like this, you might as well use my name, and I'll use yours."

"All right then, Erin." Penelope sat on the couch and began to lay out laptops and an iPad. It didn't take long and they were soon leaving. Erin knew this was going to be the longest period of her life.