Lidia's P.O.V (Alex’s step-sister)

Alex's work team had left Chicago a week ago and She was still making the final arrangements for moving back to DC. three weeks that's how long Alex has in Chicago well technically two because she is planning on staying in DC for the week of her sister's Josie's birthday. 

I had sent off my college application for several colleges in DC I am hoping to get into Washington State the most though 

I came stomping into our room with an excited grin Alex was sitting at the desk hacking into the wifi on her laptop. "I got in!" I exclaimed "I got into Washington State," I was literally bouncing on the balls of my feet 

"That's great Lid congrats," She smiled at me closing her laptop. I pulled her suitcase out from underneath her bed. "Lidia term doesn't resume for another 2 months you don't need to start packing now," she laughed 

"No," I laughed back, "we are going on a trip to celebrated mum said we could,"
"Okay then where are we going," she replied not completely convinced  
"New York, Manhattan to be exact," 
"For how long," 
"I told mum two weeks we are spending the first week with my aunt she's cool you'll like her but the second week you are introducing me to David Rossi "
"So one week in Manhattan and one week in Virginia," 
"Yep for your sisters birthday,"
"That means I only have a week in Chicago, you sure you can't convince her to let us go away for three weeks,"
"Sorry hank is adamant that you will be in Chicago on your 18th birthday," 
"Yeah to go to the airport that's about it," she replied sarcastically, "when do we leave?"
"Tomorrow, mum will take us to the airport Aunt Kellie will pick us up at the airport in New York. It’s a three hour flight but it beats 20 hours on the subway,”
“Sometimes I prefer trains, I fly so often with my job it gets on my nerves,”
 

The rest of the night was spent throwing clothes at each other and packing our suitcase. By 10am the next day we were in the car on the way to the airport Hennery had tried to convince us to get us to only stay for the week but nothing he said would make us change our plans.  The flight was brief and Alex and I were just grabbing our bags when someone grabbed me from behind. I squealed and spun around “Mike,” I yelled throwing my arms around his neck, “Alex this is my cousin mike, mike this is my step sister Alex,”
“so your mums still with that jerk,” he smirked, “no offense Alex,”
“none taken, jerk is polite compared to how I refer to my father,” she replied pulling the handle out of her bag
“come on mum’s just getting coffee,” he said grabbing my arm
“I would kill for a cup of coffee right now,” I sighed
“don’t say that I might have to call my team out here,”  Alex joked
“your team?”  questioned Mike
“Alex is a FBI agent,” I said
“I was an intern until my father stuck his nose where it didn’t belong,” she corrected with a cringe
“an intern what was your field,”
“behavior analysis, I was with the behavioral analysis unit, or BAU for short,”
“profilers,”
“you know what profiling is,”
“ I’m currently studying criminology at NYU,”
“you want to work in criminology?”
“crime journalism,”
“ah so it would be our job to get you out of a job,”
“what do you mean,”
“we have a member of our team who’s is a press liaison, a lot of the time her job is to keep murders out of the press,”
“seems fair you don’t want everyone to go into a state of panic especially if serial killers are involved,”
“finally a journo who understands where we are coming from,”
 

He laughed just as we got to the coffee shop inside the airport. We got to the small coffee shop and I skidded to a stop in front of my aunt we hugged. “I ordered you girls a cappuccino each I hope that is ok,”
“coffee is coffee,”
“unless it is crap, but what can I say my godfather has Italian parents,”
“you must be Alex,”
“yeah, whatever you have been told its not true,”
“so you’re not a total bitch to the ass hat who married my sister,”
“actually that is true,”

Kellie’s order was up and the barrister pushed four cups of coffee over the counter. She handed them out, the warm liquid was bitter but refreshing the way good coffee should be. Hot enough to warm you from the inside out, but not hot enough that it burnt your throat. Kellie drove us to her apartment on the upper side of Manhattan. It was small but lived in. they hadn’t bothered to clean up to much sure. There were multiple homemade cushions on the sofa, and an easel with a half finished painting on it covering the walls were photos of Kellie, mike and my family also there were several paintings of different scenes, countryside, beaches, and cities. 
“Did you paint these?”Alex asked running a hand along the frame of one of the paintings
“ yes I sell my paintings, but unfortunately it doesn’t pay the bills so I have to work a day job as well,” sighed aunt Kellie
“they remind me a bit of Claude Monet,” alex smiled
“you know classical art,”
“Italians have expensive taste, and my godfather is a bestselling author who is refusing to retire as an FBI agent,”
“sounds a lot like the lifestyle I want not actually having to work but doing it anyway,” aunt Kellie smiled “come on I will show you to your rooms,”
 

Alex’s P.O.V

We had been in New York for three days and Lidia’s cousin and aunt had stopped asking me about myself which I was thankful for. It was on our third day that we were walking down one of the streets near the apartment we were staying in. I saw the police department ahead of us and thought that if I was on a case here I wouldn’t hesitate opening that door and going straight in but now walking past the police building it felt so foreign and odd. A man walked out and I noticed that he was a man I could recognize in a crowd of thousands. He was a man I looked up to, and loved more than almost anyone else in the world. “David,” I shouted and began to run down the street he looked around but couldn’t see me. Lidia was in step with me as I ran. I bounded to a stop just outside the police department. “David,” I said in a loud voice. This time he did see me.

“Alex, hi umm hi what are you doing in Manhattan,”

“I could ask you the same question, but I am celebrating the fact that Lidia go into college and that I only have a week left in Chicago after my holiday,” I smiled before realizing that Lidia and Dave had never met, “Dave this is my step-sister Lidia, Lidia this is…”
“Supervisory special agent David Rossi,” Lidia cut me off, “I’ve read all your books,”
“Lidia he is 50 years older than you please tell me you do not have a celebrity crush on him,”
“I do not,”
“your blushing,”
“am not,”
“no your just the color of a tomato,” Dave joked, “but to answer your earlier question Alex we are here on a case,”
“you want any help,”
“I’m not sure your gonna have to ask Hotch and Erin,”
“Strauss is here,”
“yes I am here,” smirked Erin Strauss walking down the steps, “Aaron wants to everyone to go over something Garcia found. Alex if you want to come in and help with the rest of the case it would be greatly appreciated,”
“Lidia do you mind,”
“go save people’s lives I’ll tell mike and Kellie you have to work a case,”
“no just tell them I ran into some friends we can’t let them know ok,”
“why not,”
“because we try to keep these things out of the media and mike is a budding journalist,”
“okay here’s the key if your coming home late try not to wake them,”
“Sure,” she handed me a key and I pocketed it quickly as she walked away.

I walked into the police department and David and Strauss went into a conference room inside was Hotch, JJ, Blake and Jay.  

“if spires has been dead for a month, he can’t be our guy ,” stated Dave after the others got over the shock of seeing me
“then why do the dealers keep paying him?”
“They don’t know that their courier died someone else must be taking his place,”
“the Unsub,”
“he killed spires so that he could get his hands on the drug supply,”
“who else would know about him being a courier?” Blake questioned, “Another baggage handler?”
“sure,”
“they could have been paid to look the other way,”
“Garcia can you look to see if any of the other baggage handlers have records of drug abuse,”
her fingers tapped away at the keys before she stated “a few minor infractions but nothing that sticks out,”
“widen the search have any airport employees had a drug death in the family recently,”
“mmmm, yeah the daughter of Larry Feretich, Megan, died two months ago due to a suspect ecstasy overdoes,”
“there’s your trigger,”
“where did she die?”
“The obsidian, it’s the other club owned by Jim peters,”
“so this guy didn’t sell to the club that his daughter died at why?” I asked “I mean wouldn’t that be where his revenge should be targeted,”
“he’s smart he avoided dosing the obsidian, so that we couldn’t connect the murders to him,”
“Garcia, where’s Feretich now,”
“at the airport,”
“okay notify Morgan and Reid,”

 The arrest was made and it was nearly midnight. And Reid and Morgan got a confession, by the time I was ready to go back to Lidia’s aunt’s house it was nearly 12:30.
“why don’t you come to the hotel stay the night there,”offered dave
“ you can bunk with me,” suggested jay placing his had over my shoulder
“no way,” David snapped, “never gonna happen,”
“dive seriously, you’re worried about my virginity, I have a two year old daughter,”
“yeah and your never having another one not until your married,”
“you don’t even have to worry about that Dave,”
“and why is that,”
“lets just say, I only just got over PMS,”
“oh god I don’t need to know,”
“ you asked,”
“and  I regret it,”
“ good,”
“you can stay with Jay as long as you promise that what you just told is the truth,”
“swear on my own life,”

We were packing up the case files when Strauss came over to us, “I just got off the phone with the Canadian airline they are shutting down there dealership immediately,”
“bout time,” snorted Jay
“I don’t know about you lot but I’m exhausted I’m going to go back to the hotel and have a nice hot bath,” she sighed looking mostly at David with a hint of something else besides tiredness in her eyes
“I could drive you, I’m heading that way,” suggested Blake.
“thank you Alex,” Strauss said the pair of them walked away and David stared longingly after Strauss,
“could you be any more obvious,” laughed JJ
“ I think I preferred you before you were a profiler,”  he said dumping a whole lot of case files in a box
“oh really,” JJ rolled her eyes
“JJ, try coming home to that, and more,” I said pulling myself onto the desk
“shut up you,” Dave said with a joke hitting me lightly on the head with a file. I did the only mature thing to do I poked my tongue out at him

Jay and I got a cab back to the hotel and in the car he asked “is that true, you know what you said before,”
“which bit,” I asked but the thought that ran through my mind was so it is true all guys think with their dicks.
“coming home to David and Strauss flirting that must be awkward,”
“ohh, you remember that night when we went to the movies and to dinner and you told me about midnight trails,”
“yeah,”
“well I had told Dave that I would be home 10 maybe 11 so he didn’t need to wait up, this translated in his mind, to I’m staying the night at Jay’s so you really shouldn’t wait up,”
“And?”
“I came home and on the couch was David making sweet love to Strauss, of course I couldn’t see her face so I thought it was just some random chick and then I walked into the kitchen and came back out and realized it was Strauss she was standing in the hall way with stockings ripped shirt half undone and her hair was a mess,”
“god , and I thought it was awkward seeing my parents kiss,”
“yeah try seeing your substitute father kissing your boss, his boss,”
“that’s just messed up,”
“tell me about it,”
“so how long have they you know,”
“been together,  apparently over a year I only found out 6 months ago so I guess profiling makes them good secret keepers,”
“yeah, I guess,”

He led me up the stairs to his room 808 right across the hall from Strauss. He opened the door it opened into a living area in there was a small mini bar a bathroom and a huge double bed in the middle of the room.  He opened his go bag which was sitting on the end of his bed. “Here,” he said chucking me a pair of my shorts. “You left them at my house ages ago, I’ve been meaning to give them to David but it hasn’t happened yet.”
“sure, sure you just wanted to keep them for yourself,” I laughed
“I’m gonna have a shower, I’ll see you when I’m get out,” he rolled his eyes and sighed
“I’ll probably be asleep Lidia snores so I haven’t exactly been sleeping well,” I stifled a yawn.

He pulled a pair of pants out of his bag and walked into the small bathroom. I dug through the clothes until I found a big button up shirt. I pulled of my jeans and my shirt and pulled his shirt on I crawled under the covers and closed my eyes a short time later Jay touched my arm, I just moved slightly and opened my eyes. A man with a mask on covered my mouth to stop me from screaming. He pointed a gun at me and forced me out of the room.  I could still hear the rush of water like rain on a tin roof from Jay’s shower.

The man lead me into Strauss’s hotel room she was sound asleep “wake her,” he hissed into my ear and let go of me he had locked the door of the room behind us so the only way out was through the window and I wasn’t all to crazy about heights.
“Erin,” I said shaking her shoulder, “Erin wake up,”
she rolled over and blinked a couple of times before recognizing me,  “Alex? What’s the matter?”

The man step out of the shadows and into the little patch of light cast by city lights outside. “Do what I say, or I will kill you, and then her,” he grabbed me from behind
“wha… what do you want,”   she stuttered and I thrust my elbow into his rib cage and skidded away to where Strauss was standing.
“Stupid girl,” he hissed rubbing his side. His voice was husky “Blind fold her,” he held a gun to Strauss’s temple.
“What if I don’t,” she argued.
“I put a bullet through your brain and then I will kill her, and then the rest of your team.”  His threat seemed empty but sincere at the same time.

 Strauss moved like a robot and bound the blind fold over my eyes. She did it carefully but quickly trying not to get any of my hair caught in the knot. She finished and I felt her hands drop away from my head. The man grabbed me by my hair and threw me against a wall I felt a chair fall over as I crashed into it. I could tell that my leg was bleeding where something had scratched it and my hip would of certainly of bruised. I moved my hand to remove the blind fold and felt something metallic pressed to my temple I heard the click of a gun being loaded. “Don’t,” he hissed and I felt something slid over my hand forcing them together the plastic dug into my hands. I could hear Strauss and the man arguing he was forcing her to drink.  She had been sober for a year this would have been one of the worst tortures someone could force her to do to herself. She must have drunken the mini-bar dry because he moved to me and removed the blindfold my hands had been bound by zip ties and the skin where they had dug in was rubbed rare. Strauss was curled up in the fetal position, surrounded by bottles she was sobbing quietly.

The man pulled of my bracelet and my watch revealing the four long scars the only four scars I had ever been ashamed of. He stuffed a piece of glass into my hand. It cut into my palm. It looked like the steam of a wine glass something that was definitely not part of the room.  He forced me to carve several more gashes into my wrist as well as a side wards figure of eight into my wrist. Scarlet blood streamed out of my wrist and dripped onto my lap. Staining Jay’s white shirt with blotches of red. the one thing I had promised myself is I would never cause myself harm again.

He heaved me to my feet and I dropped the piece of glass I stepped on it as I tried to move away from him. He injected a needle into the back of my neck I vaguely recall climbing the fire escape up to the roof and slipping on several steps and his hand catching me and forcing me up the ladder. He forced me down and bound my bleeding hand to a railing everything seemed to be pulsing heaving and dropping under my body, “one day your daughter will thank me, and your sister will soon be joining you.” His voice got muffled into the heaving of the world around me I was thankful when the blind fold covered my eyes it stopped the dizziness slightly.

He left me in the freezing cold on the roof of the hotel. The drug the man had given me was starting to where off now the earth had stopped heaving and I had the sudden urge to puke.  There was someone climbing up the fire escape I flinched away from the noise thinking that it was the man that had forced me to break the only promise to my self   several moments ago. The man that had forced Erin Strauss to give up her sobriety. The sobriety she had worked so hard to get, she had been sober for a year she even began sponsoring other alcoholics. Her sobriety chip was always in her pocket, if it was not in her hand. I had always thought I had hated Erin Strauss, but I do not believe that to be true anymore.

I had never hated her. I needed her like a young child needed their mother. In a way I would be happy if both Erin and David got married. After his third divorce I had made David promise that he would never marry any woman again. But if he married Erin I would be happy if he proposed.

"Alex," his voice drifted through my thoughts as if I was drifting into a dream. "Alex, come on. Alexandra, please, I'm begging you wake up, please,"
It was now that I realized that the blindfold was no longer covering my eyes. The darkness was surrounding me was coming through my closed eyelids.

I flitted my eyes open and saw David hovering over me. His eyes were dark with panic and the torch attached to his gun was spilling the out light casting odd shadows on his face. "Alex oh thank god," he dropped the gun and pulled me into a hug.
"Don't you dare apologize," I croaked before he spoke again. I pushed him out of the way as I lost the contents of my stomach. My body heaved and shook with nausea. David looked at me worried, but the worry soon shifted into defense as a sound came from just on the other side of the building. He grabbed his gun and rounded the corner leaving me in total darkness.

"Rossi, what the hell happened," came Morgan's voice.
"Erin's room was a mess. And Jay was unconscious in his bathroom, Alex was nowhere to be seen,"
"Alex?"
"Around here, I can't help feeling there is another reason he wanted us to come to the roof." He said looking out over the railing briefly before turning back to me. Morgan cut the restraints binding me to the building he noticed the figure of eight on my wrist and I shook my head asking him not to bring it up. "Jay!" I croaked in what was supposed to be a worried tone but it sounded exhausted more than anything.
"He is fine the paramedics said he would be fully recovered late tomorrow afternoon," David said helping me to my feet. I stood leaning against the wall trying not to pass out as the other two talked about Strauss. David lied about her drinking I guess it was not to hide it from him but to let her tell the others when she felt it.

David's phone rang and he answered half heartedly Morgan pulled my arm over his shoulder and my toes only just touched the ground as he ran down the stairs to where the elevator was David hit the button for the lobby both of them bounced agitatedly on their toes David ran out and Morgan dumped me onto one of the plush couches in the lobby. One of the receptionists came up to me and offered me a bucket. Blake and Reid came inside and sat either side of me. "Was it Wailand?" Asked Reid

Hotch and David had filled them team in and the rest of the team all got letters the day after they were told. "I don't know, I was blindfolded," I croaked feeling useless as I buried my face in my hands 

JJ came back into the lobby. Reid and Blake helped me to my feet and silently we walked to where the others had gathered. "Rossi?" Reid's voice was worried. I saw the upset expression that was fixed on David’s face. The only time I had ever seen that expression was the night he returned home after Caroline died in his arms. He never said anything he just slowly drifted into his room. I didn't see him the next day it wasn't until the next night that I forced him to eat something and tell me what had happened to Caroline.

I didn't need him to tell me what had happened this time. She was gone, Erin Strauss was dead.
There was no way David would ever fully recover.