The Back Problem
Disclaimer: CBS owns Criminal Minds, not me.
Summary: Hotch rushes to the rescue when Emily's hurt.
Timeline: AU Present Day
A/N: This popped into my head and well you know the rest. Enjoy this quick oneshot.
Thanks for reading, I hope for some reviews.
A Latin Proverb said, "Injuries put us on guard."
Emily rolled over, groaning from the ache in her body as she glared at her alarm clock. Somedays she really wants to chuck it across the room just to break it.
As she reached up to bang her hand on the clock she groaned and fell face forward on the bed.
"Oh" Emily said wincing as she felt the sharp shooting pain throughout her back, "Oh God, not again."
Emily tried to control her breathing as she felt herself unable to move, "God, how the hell am I going to get to work if I can't even get out of bed?"
Unable to move, she seen her charged cell phone and reached over, cursing herself as she grabbed onto the charged cord and pulled at it. She sighed as the phone fell off her end table and onto the bed.
Pulling the phone from it's cord, she grabbed the phone and hit her contacts list. She hit call, not caring which team member she dialed just as long as one of them passed along the message that she was still alive but not able to move to come in.
"Hotchner" Hotch's voice said through the phone, "Hello? Hello?"
"Hotch?" Emily said mentally berating herself for her weary and weak sounding voice, "It's Prentiss."
"What's wrong?" Hotch asked trying to keep the panic from his voice, "Are you all right?"
"Not really" Emily muttered, groaning in pain, "I can't come in today."
"Why?" Hotch asked, he knew Emily well enough to know that nothing, not even being hit by a car would keep her out of work.
"I... well this is kind of embarrassing" Emily said inhaling deeply, "I threw out my back."
"What?" Hotch asked, shocked.
"My back went out when I woke up" Emily said, "And now even to me it sounds like a line to get out of coming to work. Damn it. I swear it's true, though."
"Ok" Hotch said, "I'll pass it along to the team and Strauss. Get some rest."
"Thanks" Emily said.
"Is there anything you need?" Hotch asked.
Emily inhaled deeply, "Unless you're a masseuse with the hands of a God, no. I'm just going to sleep this off and probably go see my doctor if this is still bad tomorrow."
"Rest, Emily" Hotch told her, "You just take care of yourself. The BAU will still be here when you're better."
"Thanks" Emily said sighing as she ended the call tossing it next to her pillow.
Emily woke up to the sound of knocking on her front door, "Oh you've got to be kidding me?"
Emily tried rolling to the left then the right, and muttered, "Why do I feel like a turtle stuck on it's back?"
She took a deep breath and rolled a little on her right side grabbing the edge of her end table and pulling herself up.
"Oh you son of a bitch" Emily muttered, grabbing her cell phone, "Wait until I'm back to full Prentiss form you will rue the day you knocked on my door."
Emily slowly walked down the stairs, wincing all the way. A brief flash of the Hunchback of Notre Dame played in her head.
"I feel your pain Quasi Modo." Emily muttered as she walked to the front door, unable to peer outside she'd welcome a home invader maybe his push in would fix her back.
Emily rolled her eyes, when she seen Hotch standing at her front door, "What are you doing here? You know I called in. I mean I didn't hallucinate the phone call did I, because that would suck for me."
Hotch chuckled as he walked in, "No, you're not hallucinating, Emily. I called off today."
Emily tried to turn to look at him, but winced and crumpled against the wall, "You what?"
Hotch took ahold of her arm, "I took a day off."
Sighing when he helped her sit down on the couch, "But you never take days off. Only twice since I joined the BAU did you even take time off and that wasn't by choice."
Hotch rolled his eyes, and grimaced when he seen her try to reach for the blanket.
"Ah" Emily said closing her eyes as the pain rushed through her back.
"Are you ok?" Hotch asked the berated himself, of course she wasn't ok.
"Oh yeah, I'm having a blast" Emily groaned out, "Look, it's sweet of you to drop by, but I'm not in the company mood."
Emily hissed as she felt she was paralyzed from the shoulder blades down.
"So yeah, I'll see you in a day or two." Emily said taking a deep breath.
"I'm not going to leave you here like this." Hotch told her.
"What?" Emily asked trying to focus on anything but the intense pain in her back, she took a deep breath.
"Come on, I'll take you to bed." Hotch said getting off the couch and bending over to pick her up.
"What?" Emily asked, "No, no. You'll only end up throwing your own back out. I'll be fine just give me a minute."
"Emily, I doubt even you could make it up those stairs." Hotch said nodding in the direction of her staircase.
"Hey I made it down there by myself" Emily told him, she didn't care if she sounded like a stubborn child, she was beyond caring at this point.
"Yeah after about an hour" Hotch muttered sarcastically, "All right, I'm going to slide my arm under your back and your legs..."
"Yeah you're a real pick up artist" Emily muttered, she looked over and seen the look he shot her, "What?"
"I'm carrying you up those stairs whether you like it or not." Hotch told her, taking off his suit jacket then rolling up his sleeves.
Huffing out a sigh, "Fine, but this never leaves this apartment. Got it?"
Hotch smirked, "Ashamed that you need help?"
Emily rolled her eyes, "More like what Garcia will think."
Hotch shrugged his shoulders and bent down picking Emily up bridal style, "Wrap your arms around my neck."
Emily winced and closed her eyes as she wrapped her arms around his neck, he smiled when he briefly smelled the vanilla scent on her. Trying to control his rapidly beating heart he made his way up the stairs towards her room.
"There we go" Hotch said placing Emily on the bed, smiling down at her while she tried to get comfortable on the bed "See that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Yeah, thanks" Emily muttered, "Look can you go into my bathroom's medicine cabinet and get me a pain pill?"
"You've thrown your back out before?" Hotch asked.
"No. But a couple months ago, I hurt my knee and I never really took the medication." Emily told him.
Hotch walked over to the bathroom, looking through the medicine cabinet and realizing he liked being here like this, being a helping hand. Being here for her.
Right before he was was going to go give her her pills, he saw it and he smiled. He knew the perfect way to help her and keep close to her.
"Here you go" Hotch said passing her the pain medication and a glass of water, "So on a scale of one to ten, how bad does your back hurt?"
"Twelve." Emily said setting the glass down, not noticing that he seen her flinch.
"I think I know what my help ease the pain, and will help take your mind off the pain." Hotch told her.
"Huh?" Emily asked trying to keep her mind focused but the pain and the medication was making it hard.
"Take off your top" Hotch told her, watching her eyes widened at that.
"What?" Emily asked, her cheeks turning pink at the thought of him seeing her topless.
Holding up a bottle of lotion with a coy look on his face, "I'm going to massage your back."
"Since when did you get your PhD in massage therapy?" Emily asked, "Or is this some cheap ploy to feel me up?"
Hotch chuckled, "Well there you caught me. I some how conspired with the world for you to throw at your back just to cop-a-feel."
Emily sighed, "Really Hotch."
Hotch leaned down, "I'm going to help ease the tension off your back. So either take off your tank top or I'll do it for you."
"Turn around" Emily told him, Hotch sighed but turned around smirking at that.
As she slowly took her tank top off, she quietly whimpered at the pain that ran through her.
"Uh, Hotch?" Emily said, "I've got one arm out, but..."
"You need help?" Hotch asked feeling sympathy for her.
"Yeah." Emily said, "You can turn around now."
Hotch turned around, he seen her arms covering up her chest as the other arm reached for the hem of her top.
"Here" Hotch said walking up to her and removing the garment from her body, "Ok, you lie down on your stomach and I'll give you a deep massage, ok?"
Taking a deep breath, fine" Emily said grabbing a throw blanket holding it up to her chest and lying down on her stomach.
"Don't worry, I'll make you feel better" Hotch said, not missing the way she muttered, 'I bet'.
Hotch opened up the bottle of lotion and poured some on his hands, rubbing them together and slowly placing his hands on her back, kneading the soft muscles in her lower back.
"Is this were the pain is?" Hotch asked, his hands tracing around her slender waist.
"Mm hmm" Emily mumbled into the throw blanket, "That feels good."
Hotch felt her sigh as he moved his hands up her back, his thumbs going up her spine and she mumbled her approval.
"You like that?" Hotch asked.
"Yeah." Emily said softly, she felt more lotion hit her back.
As his hands moved from her spine up to her shoulder blades as his thumbs deeply pressed into the knot on her back moving deeper up and down her back.
"God, you're hands are miracle workers" Emily said turning her head to the side.
Hotch chuckled lightly as his hands went down her back and swooped up again deepening the pressure on her back.
Emily felt her back pop when Hotch dug his knuckles on her back, "How's that feel?"
"Oh my God" Emily said sighing, "That feels so much better."
His hands went from down to up again, working on the tight muscles of her lower back towards her hips and back up again.
When Hotch looked back down he could hear, her continually sighs of content. He placed the heel of his palm down on her spine and went up it once again and heard the residual popping in her lower back.
"Oh God" Emily moaned.
Hotch leaned down and kissed her shoulder causing her to turn her head to look up, "Thank you."
Hotch smiled down at her, "Anytime."
Hotch wanted to touch her, but he knew she was in far too much agony for that, so he walked over to get her a shirt to help her in it.
"Emily" Hotch said helping her up, keeping his eyes off of her body, "Lets get you dressed."
"Ok" Emily said covering her chest, as he pulled the shirt over her head and she slowly made her arms go in, "My back is feeling alot better, thanks to you."
"See, I told you I'd make you feel better." Hotch said smirking at her.
Hotch sat down next to her, "Are you hungry or something?"
"You're still staying?" Emily asked raising an eyebrow at that.
"I told you I had the whole day off, I'm not leaving you here alone." Hotch told her.
Emily smiled, "Well I could do with a little something to eat."
Moving to sit up, Hotch placed his hands on her shoulders, "I told you, you probably couldn't even make it down the stairs."
"You're not carrying me down the stairs again." Emily protested.
Hotch raised an eyebrow at that, "You're really going to question me?"
Emily rolled her eyes as she twisted her neck feeling at ease from the burden of her back.
"All right fine" Emily agreed, "But if you end up with a bad back I get to massage you."
Emily turned around to see a boyish smirk on his face, "That sounds fine to me." Hotch told her.
Emily raised an eyebrow at that, wondering if just maybe he liked her too.
"Come on Rhett Butler" Emily told him in a Southern accent, "Carry me down them stairs."
"Frankly my dear I don't give a damn." Hotch said in a Clark Gable tone causing her to laugh as he kissed her forehead.
Confucius said, "Forget injuries, never forget kindness."
THE END
Well i hope you all enjoyed that, leave a review and let me know