A/N: The end! ALTERNATE REALITY HERE! Because the reality of the situation is not ideal, so I made up this sappiness. Thanks for everything! Stay tuned for more to come in my other fics, especially Peace of Mind!
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
Hotch sat in his apartment, listening to Beth over the phone. "What are you saying?"
"Aaron, you know that I really care about you, but I just think that we've had our run. The distance," she took a breath, "It's not working like I thought it would."
He silently nodded, rubbing a hand across his forehead. He could tell over the last few weeks that things had been dwindling between them. "What do I tell Jack?" The little boy had fallen in love with her easily while they had dated.
"Whatever you think is best." Her voice lingered on the phone. "Aaron, I'm sorry. It's not you, honestly you're the most amazing man I've ever known, and I never regretted a moment of it."
"I understand. I'll make sure I send your things over this week. Take care of yourself." He waited for her to hang up and set his phone down. He stared at his hands and balled them into fists.
"Dad?" His son peered around the corner. "Who was it? Work?"
He took a deep breath and waved his son over. "That was Beth. She...she's not going to be able to make it this weekend."
Jack nodded. "Next weekend then?"
"No kiddo, I'm sorry. Her and I...we aren't going to be seeing each other anymore." He saw his son's face fall. "I'm sorry buddy, I didn't see it coming either." Years of interviewing serial killers had taught him how to keep a pretty stern poker face. But tonight, he didn't feel strong. He felt broken. Third strike and you're out old boy, he thought.
"I think...I'm going to go back to my room." Jack tried to keep on a brave face, but Hotch could see he was upset.
It was going to be a long night.
A few weeks passed and Hotch consumed himself in his work, as always. As he unlocked his front door and threw his bag to the side, he saw his son and sister-in-law standing nearby. "Did I miss something?"
Jack slung his back pack onto his shoulder as he smiled at his father. "Ashton just called me. His mom wanted to know if I could come for a sleep over. Can I?"
Hotch looked at his son and couldn't deny him some happiness. And it was the weekend after all. "Sure. Can I give you a ride?"
Jack shook his head. "No, it's okay, Auntie Jess is going to."
"Okay, well have fun. Call me tomorrow if you need a ride." Hotch smiled at Jessica. "Thanks, I'll see you Monday?"
"You bet. Have a good weekend, Aaron." She leaned over to drop a kiss on his cheek and followed a bouncing Jack out the door.
The lingering silence was deafening and he tucked his cell phone into his jean pocket and forced himself to look through the fridge to prepare dinner for himself. But the limp lettuce and half rotten celery inside stared back at him and he slammed the door shut. He dug out some flyers and decided on pizza, calling in the order quickly. He stood by the fridge, staring at the clock as the seconds ticked by.
A knock on the door startled him and he checked the peephole. He saw a flash of silky brown hair in front of him and opened it immediately. "Prentiss?" He winced at the formality and corrected himself. "Emily, what are you doing here?"
She gave him a nervous smile. "Hey, sorry to pop in like this but I really need one of your files."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Couldn't wait until Monday?" He had no doubt that Garcia hadn't given up on trying to set her up with one of many potential suitors since she had been raised from the dead, and Emily was always looking for an excuse to duck and cover when she could.
"I had a hunch and they don't have very good reruns on Saturday nights." She shrugged and looked at him. "Oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting something? I'm sorry, I should have called or-"
"No, you aren't." He moved aside to let her in. "Jack and Jessica just left. She dropped him off at a sleep over."
She nodded, not bothering to ask about Beth. Somehow it had made it through the grapevine that Hotch was a single man again, and she had to keep from rolling her eyes at the women in the office who would gossip about how they were planning to sink their claws into him next.
"What file?" He picked up his briefcase and set it on the kitchen counter.
"The Morrison file, it came in Tuesday from Dallas." He nodded and dug through the files, pulling out the one she wanted and handing it to her.
"Anything else?" She shook her head.
"No that's it, thank you. I'll leave you to enjoy your weekend." He saw something linger in her eyes as she turned away, and he put a hand on her arm.
"Wait. Can you stay?" He released her quickly. "We can go through it together. Do you have the other files? I have nothing better to do, if you want some fresh eyes."
Emily nodded and pointed to her own bag. "Are you sure?"
"Please, have a seat." Hotch heard a knock at his door and reached for his wallet. "Hungry?"
Her eyes widened slightly but she nodded. They were friends now after all, and she shouldn't be reading into it. "Yes, I skipped lunch." She watched him open the door and pay the delivery guy. She looked up and smiled in appreciation as he set the pizza in between them on the table. It was hard not to think about the events that followed the last time they had ordered the savoury treat.
He found some plates and handed her one, taking a few slices for himself and then turning to meet her eyes. "So, what do you have?"
Two hours passed as she showed him her research. She had connected two double homicides in Dallas to three potential suicides in St. Louis. "The change of the ligature marks threw me off, but I think he's evolving. Learning how to keep them controlled while he holds them before disposing of them." She pointed to the photos in front of them. "These marks on their lower chest are too similar to be coincidence. Might be a watch impression of some kind? And he likely has to travel for work which would explain the geographical dispersion."
Hotch leaned back and took a sip of his beer. "This is good work, Emily. I'll send an email to JJ right now to give the lead sheriffs the details so they can compare notes." He pulled out his phone and sent the blonde the information quickly while it was fresh in his mind. When he finished, he cleared his throat to get her attention again. "There's a good chance we'll be invited in on this one."
Emily nodded and finished her own beer. They had raided Hotch's fridge and found four beers which had been easily split between them. "I should clean up, it's getting late."
"Leave it." He took the pizza box from her and folded it up, putting it on his kitchen island for the morning garbage disposal. He turned to her. "Do you want another drink?" He pointed to a bottle of Scotch on his mantle.
Drinking with Hotch on a Saturday night after they had discussed a case, when his relationship had ended only a few weeks ago? To say that their timing was awful was an understatement. But Emily refused to let herself read anything into it. It was just a drink with a friend and co-worker, wasn't it? "Why not? I'll need to take a cab anyway." She pointed to the empty beer bottles.
He nodded and got them two glasses out of his cupboard. "Ice?"
"No thanks." She took the glass he handed her. "What should we toast to?"
"New beginnings?" He knew that this was starting to get inappropriate, but the cautionary part of him was being shoved down beneath the side of him that missed her desperately.
Their glasses clinked and they both sipped the alcohol, letting it burn as it went down their throats. They were leaning against the kitchen table, and Hotch took a leap. "Couch?"
"Sure." She slowly followed him to the couch and sat on the opposite end of him. The silence consumed them once more and Emily let out a breath. That's when Hotch decided he couldn't take it.
He slid over next to her and took the glass from her. He saw her concern, but didn't let her speak as he leaned over and let his lips touch hers.
What he didn't expect was her hand against his chest to push him away as she turned away from him. "Aaron, I can't. You just ended things with Beth." She couldn't be the rebound. Not like this. "I-"
"Emily." He brought a hand up to her face to cup her cheek, turning her head back to his. "I've been an idiot."
"We both have been," she admitted as she looked into his eyes, the regret in her face finally bare to him. "I-I never stopped caring about you, but I can't do this." She stood up and walked to get her purse and briefcase from the table but he followed her immediately.
"Emily, please, listen to me." He took a breath before continuing, holding onto her hand. "I was afraid. I lost Haley. I lost you. I was confused. We both changed and I didn't know how to fix it and we were both so broken. I thought that it was best for both of us and Jack to move on."
"So what, Beth trampled your plans and you decided that I was ready and willing?" The words coming out of her were meant to hurt him, and she hated it. How did they get here? "Aaron, do you know what that makes me feel like?" She twisted her arm away from him.
"Emily, no it's not like that." He was screwing up big time. "Please, don't go. That's not what I want. I mean, I want you, but I have for a long time."
She was confused now. "What are you talking about?" She crossed her arms defensively in front of her.
"Can you please sit down? Please?" He begged her, gesturing to the table. It was less casual than the couch. He watched her internal battle and almost sighed with relief when she nodded.
"Fine." She pulled out a chair. If she stormed out of there now, they would be screwed on Monday, and it would be hard to hide from the team. "Explain."
"Beth and I were on the rocks, and even though she ended it I knew that it was the right thing to do." He took her hand as he sat down. It was time to be honest. "I haven't stopped thinking about you since the moment you walked back through the conference room door. But I wanted to be fair to you, so I waited. And after awhile, I thought that maybe I really had lost you a long time ago. So I moved on, but it wasn't enough. Not having you was worse than I thought it would be."
She stared at him and then down at their hands. "Hotch..." This hurt more than she thought it could. "I can't tell you that I don't care about you, but I also don't know if I can take losing you again." She turned away from him when tears threatened to fall from her eyes. She steeled herself and looked back to him. "It's so easy now what we have. Do you want to ruin that?"
There was no question that their friendship had strengthened over the last year. He had saved her life after all. And it was always about her, even when Derek tore into him about hiding her from them. It would always be about her. "If you tell me you don't want this, I'll leave it alone. We can forget it ever happened."
She smiled sadly at his words. "It's not always about what I want." A single tear escaped from beneath her eyelid and slid down her cheek.
"Please Emily." He slid off of his chair, coming around to kneel in front of her to be closer to her. "Please give me another chance." He wiped the tear from her cheek and took both of her hands in his. "Give us another chance."
Emily stared at him, a million thoughts running through her head. God, they had been through so much and here they were now, back at the beginning. And she was scared...no, terrified, that some lunatic would come along and ruin things again. But she was scared that if she said no, and she lost him and some lunatic didn't destroy their lives, then she would have made the biggest mistake of her life. And she didn't think she could live with that. She looked down at him and pulled him up with her as she stood. His eyes didn't leave hers once. "I never stopped loving you, you know."
Hotch nodded, smiling at her. "I missed you so much. I didn't want to, but I did. I do." He searched her eyes as he leaned closer. "Emily, I-"
She cut him off, looping her arms around his neck to pull him down to her. Her lips crashed into his and the passion immediately unfurled between them.
He knew that it was moving too fast, but he didn't care. By some miracle, he had her back. He pushed her onto the table and her legs wrapped around his waist as they continued to kiss.
She could feel papers beneath her and she pushed him up so that she could get off, the OCD in her coming out for a brief moment. She quickly gathered up the files and stacked them on the kitchen counter, then leaned back into him and tugged him down once more.
When his shirt sailed across the living room, he knew they were both fully invested in the moment. He released her for a moment and took in her appearance. Her lipstick was smeared to one side and almost gone, and he assumed that he had a good amount of it on his own face. "Bed?"
"Yes." She took his hand and followed him to his room. It was different from the last time she had been in it, but she didn't want to waste time analyzing the interior decorating. She took advantage of the moment and disposed of her own shirt and pants quickly. Two years was a long time and she was done waiting. "Pants off, now."
He smirked at her authoritative tone and obliged, sliding them off quickly. He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her onto the bed with him, kissing along her chin as he went. "You're so beautiful. Even more than I remember." He kissed along her chest where the scar was of her removal of the clover Doyle had left her with, and along her stomach where she had been stabbed. "I hated losing you, do you know that?"
"I hated losing you too." Her hands ran across his chest to each of his scars of where he had been stabbed by Foyet. "That was the worst day of my life."
"I'm sorry, Emily." He kissed her deeply, his thumb caressing her cheek. He released her as she caught his face in her hands.
"You never have anything to be sorry for." She kissed him again softly. "We're here now." Her eyes met his. "I want you so much."
He nodded and rid them of the rest of the scarce remaining clothing between them, then reached into his side drawer, pulling out protection and readying himself. When he turned back to her, his breath caught at the sight of her smile. He took her hands and kissed both of her palms as he stared at her. "I'll never leave you again."
She sighed as they joined. "Ever?"
"Never."
And he kept his word.