Emily rushed to pick up the phone. “Hello?”
“You sound out of breath.”
“I just got in,” she answered with a smile in her voice. She glanced at the clock. “Are you at home?”
Aaron sighed. “I am.”
Emily raised an eyebrow. “You are going to be very late,” she teased. Her gut was already telling her something else.
“I’m not going to make it.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry, Emily.”
“What happened?”
“Jack’s sick. Usually I’d leave him with Mildred, but he’s got a cold and the flu. I figured if he didn’t throw up within the two hours before I had to leave I’d send him to Mildred but…”
“He threw up,” Emily finished. An idea was forming in the back of her mind and he moved into her small kitchen, rooting around for her address book.
“He did.”
“Poor thing,” she said sympathetically. “Cu rl him up with a good movie and lots of juice.”
She heard him sigh again and heard a small whimper, a whimper she determined to be a cranky Jack. “I really am sorry.”
“I know,” she promised.
“We’ll reschedule,” he swore.
“Go be with your son, Aaron.” Her fingers flipped through the address book. Where is it…
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Mmhmm,” she said absently. She hung up then and dialled a different number. “Patty? It’s Emily? Are you busy?”
Aaron ran a hand through his hair as the credits for Madagascar scrolled across the screen. He was a little down about cancelling on Emily. In fact, he felt terrible about it. It had been a long time since they’d had a night to themselves and he’d been looking forward to it. He knew she had too. He also knew Emily truly did understand that Jack had to come first. Jack was his son and his everything, though Emily came in a very close second. He looked up at the knock on the door. It surprised him even more that it was Emily on the other side.
He blinked. “Hi.”
“Hi,” she responded shyly. “I hope this is okay.”
A smile sprouted over his face. “Yeah,’ he said, moving aside. He caught sight of the Tupperware container in her arms. “Did you cook?”
Emily snorted. “Of course not. I called Patty.”
“Patty?” Aaron asked.
“Patty’s the family chef,” she answered. “I caught her just before she was going to head home. She makes the greatest alphabet soup.”
“Daddy?”
Emily smiled softly as she moved around the couch in front of the small boy. “Hey Bud,’ she greeted, running her fingers through his hair. “How are you doing?”
“I don’t feel so good,” he whined.
“I know honey,” Emily responded sympathetically. “Do you think you could try and eat something?”
Jack whimpered and turned his head away.
“I’ll take that as a ‘no’,” she said with a chuckle, looking up at Aaron. She stood, reclaiming the Tupperware container. “I’ll put this in the fridge.”
“Miss Em’ly?”
She turned, surprised. She hadn’t been sure if Jack had fully realized it was her. “Yes Jack?”
“Can you tell me a story?”
“Daddy can tell you a story,” she suggested.
“But you’re the best story teller.” Jack whined, slowly pushing himself up so he could see his father and Emily.
Emily saw the pleading eyes coming before they fully manifested and still couldn’t resist the little boy. “In a minute, okay? I’m just going to-“
But Aaron took the soup from her hands. “I’ll put this away,” he suggested. “You start the story.”
Emily smiled her thanks and popped up on her toes to kiss his cheek. She made her way to the couch, sitting and allowing Jack to find a comfortable position. Eventually she simply pulled him into her lap where he curled against her.
“Can the story be about Prince Jack again?”
“Of course it can, sweetheart,” Emily replied, wrapping her arms around his small body.
“And monster-fighting?”
“Sure,” Emily answered, laughter in her voice. “Can I start now?”
Jack seemed to fully consider the question for a moment before nodding. “Wait!” he changed his mind, just as Emily was about to start. “We have to wait for Daddy.”
Emily smiled indulgently. She’d hoped to give Aaron a break as well as bring the soup, but she wasn’t Jack’s parent. She knew when she’d been sick, all she’d wanted was her father. Heather had been a fantastic nanny, but Emily had just always wanted Daddy.
Aaron had heard the entire exchange and sighed. He’d hoped for a few moments of reprieve to do a little bit of cleaning. It wasn’t that he was going to just pawn his son off on Emily, but since Jack was very Daddy-oriented, Aaron had gotten little chance to pick up after them. It didn’t look like he was going to get the chance though, at least not until Jack was in bed. His heart almost stopped when he caught sight of them sitting together on the couch. Cleaning, he decided, could wait.
Two hours later, after an intricate tale of Prince Jack battling the flu monster, Aaron tucked Jack into bed and went back downstairs to find Emily straightening up.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said.
She smiled as she folded the couch blanket. “How long has he been sick?”
“Three days, according to Haley. She dropped him off last night and left this morning for a business trip.” He took a seat on the couch, pulling her down beside him. “Thank you for bringing the soup.”
Emily smiled as she curled against him, throwing her legs over his lap. “I always had it when I was sick,” she revealed.
He chuckled. “You got sick?”
She smacked him lightly. They sat in silence for a moment, his fingers trailing up and down her arm.
“You didn’t have to come,” he said finally.
“I know,” she answered. “But we had a date tonight and I know Jack knows and likes me…” She shrugged. “Is it okay?”
Aaron tipped her chin up, pressing a kiss to her mouth that continued until she was panting, lips swollen, straddling his lap. “It’s very okay.”
She pushed her hips into his with a coy smile. “So I see.”
His son was upstairs, out cold from medicine and the utter exhaustion that came with illness and the only thing Aaron could think of was getting another chance to feel her underneath him. With some quick mental calculations, he figured Jack would be asleep for a long time. He dragged the zipper down on her hoodie and pushed it off of her shoulders.
Emily shook as she let her sweater fall to the floor. Thanksgiving had been the first and only time they’d had the chance and time to be intimate like this and it still felt very surreal to her. Her fingers skimmed down his chest to slide under the black t-shirt he wore. She pushed it slowly up his chest, letting her fingers graze his sides as she went.
His hands went under her tank top, brushing up her back and around to her stomach, stroking across spots he’d filed away securely. He removed his hands from her for the time it took her to pull his t-shirt over his head. Then his hands were back on her, slowly pulling her shirt over her had. Where she’d chosen to stick with the tantalizing brush of her fingertips he chose lips and teeth and tongue. She was virtually vibrating under his ministrations.
He seemed intent on focusing on her and really, who was she to argue when her body temperature was rising like it was? Their first time together had been largely centered around reminding themselves that they were together, that the want was there between them. This time felt more like she expected the first time with Aaron Hotchner to feel like. She’d assumed his dedication to his job would reflect in the more private aspects of his life.
Haley had been absolutely insane to let him go.
He was already in bed when she emerged from the bathroom, one bedside lamp on. She crawled under the sheets, curling up against his side, smiling when Aaron’s hand curled around her back. Emily sighed as she settled in, throwing a leg over his hip. Her eyes fluttered shut as he kissed her brow. She tilted her head up. “That’s one heck of a way to say ‘thank you’.”
He grinned.
Aaron woke in the middle of the night, Emily cuddled against him tightly. He’d missed having her against him, missed holding her like he had through her nightmares. The nightmares had been a good excuse to pull her against him and he had to admit, when she’d moved out, he’d found it a little difficult to sleep on some nights. He was used to a body beside him. Originally, it had been Haley and then, Emily, though not exactly by her own choice.
He knew she was struggling with the reality of their relationship. It wasn’t exactly a surprise. There were so many issues with their relationship, so many things that could break them apart, but if there was one thing they were not short on it was attraction to each other. He’d known she cared when she’d been willing to quit rather than whisper in Strauss’ ear. He’d hoped he’d shown how much he cared by coming to see her at the hospital.
Part of him felt like he’d been given a new chance with Emily. She was black to Haley’s white in so many ways and yet, at the same time, they were alike. Both were lithe figured, even after Jack Haley had dropped the baby weight fairly fast, and yet both had so much more strength to them. Haley and Emily were smart women, quick and loving. But that’s about where any likeness stopped.
Emily was witty, joked with him, didn’t order so much as suggest he do something. She understood how important his job was to him and understood that as much as he loved his family, he felt that he was helping them by fighting the real monsters in the world. Emily didn’t push him to talk when something was bothering him, something Haley had often done. She didn’t have to, not because she didn’t want to know but because she already knew what was bothering him. She understood the things that he saw was dark because she knew what it was like to see them.
Aaron often felt like he and Emily worked on the same wavelength. They didn’t do anything as cliché as finishing each other’s sentences, but when they were working, they went about tasks without any sort of prodding and without necessarily having to explain the process by which they were going to do it. They came from the same background, had experienced a lot of the same things and Emily would be able to hold her own at any family function without problems.
She was smart, she was nerdy, she was funny and she got along with Jack like he was her own child. The woman was one of the most compassionate people he knew regardless of what kind of crime she dealt with. It didn’t matter how brutal a murder was, she always found room to be empathetic and sympathize with the families. She knew herself well. She compartmentalized, but she always found time to empty her mind of the things she hated. She spent time with JJ and Garcia on her days off the same way he spent time with Jack. They were ways they dealt with stress.
And now they had each other. Aaron didn’t care about what Strauss would say, didn’t care about what anyone else would say. He hadn’t just jumped on his attraction to her. He’d thought about it, about a relationship with her, while she was staying with him. He trusted her like he didn’t trust anyone else. She was his rock, his saving grace in the blood, murder, rape and gore that they saw all the time. She had been for a while now and she hadn’t seemed to mind all that much. She didn’t pity him for anything, hadn’t asked how the divorce proceedings were going, just left him be. And yet, he’d gone to her when he’d had problems, though those times had been few and far between. Now he would be more than happy to share some of his problems with him.
He froze when she mumbled something, curling tighter into him. He sighed when she settled again and smiled. This was going to work out. He had faith in this and in them. Aaron pressed a soft kiss to Emily’s brow and smiled. Whatever people threw their way he believed he could tackle it all. Especially if Emily was by his side.