This is my first fanfiction. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters.

CHAPTER 1

Aaron Hotchner walked into his house late in the evening. Taking in the silence and low ambient light he dropped his go-bag and briefcase at the bottom of the stairs and toed off his shoes before climbing the stairs.

Reaching the top, he approaches the first door and quietly walks into the room. Leaning over, he places a kiss on Jack's forehead before tiptoeing back out of the room. Opening the next door, he enters his daughter's nursery. Glancing into her crib, he is pleasantly surprised to see the infant sleeping peacefully.

In the days leading up to the team's latest case, she had been unusually cranky, only sleeping in small bursts. He had felt conflicted leaving Emily, who hadn't slept for more than a couple hours at a stretch for several days, when the team had been called for this last case. However, she had given him a kiss and told him that she would be fine with the kids. The team needed him on the jet.

Thinking about Emily as he quietly exited the nursery, he headed for their bedroom at the end of the hall. As he crossed the threshold of the room, he was surprised the find the room empty. Retracing his steps down the hall to check the upstairs playroom before taking the back staircase down into the kitchen.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he noticed movement coming from the laundry room.

He walked over to the doorway of the laundry room before saying. "Hi sweetheart."

As much as he wanted to walk in and surprise her by wrapping his arms around her, he now knew better than to sneak up on the trained FBI agent, having made that mistake once early in their relationship.

He had come over to her apartment unexpectedly early for dinner and had let himself in with his key when she didn't answer the door. He had found her hanging laundry in her closet, not realizing she hadn't heard his greeting because she was listening to music through earbuds, he embraced her from behind. Thirty seconds later, he had found himself on the floor in extreme pain holding his face and groin, 2 body area of his that she had claimed to really love.

Emily had been horrified when she turned around and realized it was him that she had just taken down.

The team, of course, had been concerned when he walked into the office the next day with his nose taped, 2 black eyes from the broken nose and a significant limp. Emily had been mortified when their concern turned to humor when they heard what happened.

However since that day, the men of the team, especially Reid, were careful not to sneak up on her.

Emily turned and smiled before walking over to him. "Aaron, I didn't hear you come in."

Hotch pulled her into a hug and placed a kiss on the top of her head. Not letting go, he responded softly. "I must have missed you when I went upstairs." He took a few deep breaths, breathing in the smell of her shampoo before continuing, "I see that Natalie is sleeping again."

Emily chuckled and moved to place a chaste kiss on his lips before stepping away from him, continuing to fold laundry. "Yes, thank goodness," she said while rolling her eyes before continuing, "the day after you left her new teeth broke through. She is back to sleeping mostly through the night since then. How was the case?"

Hotch sighed and shook his head before answering, suddenly feeling exhausted. "Long and awful. We caught the UNSUB this afternoon. Suicide by cop."

Hotch stepped away from the laundry room heading back to the entryway to get his go-bag. Arriving back at the laundry room, he immediately noticed the suspicious look that his wife was giving him as he took the dirty clothes out of his bag and separated the items into the sorter or onto the rack to go to the dry cleaners.

"What aren't you telling me, Aaron? What happened?" Looking down he cringed knowing he should have expected her to know. She was a profiler too.

He walked over and placed his hands on her shoulders before answering. "When we caught up with the UNSUB, he tried to shoot his way out." He took a deep breath before continuing. "He killed the head detective. Dave and Spencer were both hit too."

"What! Are they OK?" Emily said panicked. The hardest part for her about not travelling with Hotch and the team was when she heard that one of them had been hurt while on a case.

Hotch held onto her shoulders and after making eye contact, answered softly. "Both got hit in their vests and were cleared at the hospital to fly back. They said to tell you they are fine and will see you tomorrow." As he said as he pulled her into a hug and held her until he could feel her relax.

"I'm so glad they are OK." Emily said quietly still curled up against his chest. Hotch reached up and started to rub circles on her back. They stood like that for a few minutes until Emily looked up at him and asked, "Did you eat Aaron?"

Hotch shook his head while looking at her. "No, not yet. I wanted to see you first."

Emily turned and pulled him gently by the arm towards the kitchen. "I'm glad you did but you need to eat." When they reached the kitchen, she stopped and leaned in to give him a kiss. "I have a plate for you in the warming oven. Go sit down and I'll bring it over for you." As Emily walked over to the oven, Hotch sat down at the kitchen table.

A couple of minutes later, Emily walked over and placed a plate with grilled salmon, mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus in front of him. "Thanks Em." Hotch said as he started to eat.

Stepping away from the table Emily asked, "Do you want wine?"

"Please." Hotch replied and Emily walked over to cabinet to take out a glass before walking over to the wine refrigerator to pour his wine. Hotch watching as she moved around the kitchen before returning to the table and sitting down after handing him the wine glass. "So tell me about your week." He asked after taking a sip from the glass.

Emily smiled at him and looked towards the stairs before she said. "Well. It improved greatly once Natalie started sleeping again." They both laughed before Emily continued enthusiastically, "she is still trying to figure out crawling but it won't be too much longer.

Jack learned to pump himself on the swings so he has been spending as much playground time as possible at preschool and at home on the swings. He'll probably want to show you. He also has not stopped talking about his party tomorrow."

Emily stopped and walked over to the counter and came back with several pieces of paper. "I'm so glad that we did so much of the shopping for it last weekend."

After sitting down, she continued while looking down at the list in front of her. "I just need to go to the grocery store in the morning to pick up a few things, the cake at the bakery and the party store for the balloons I ordered. The decorations are laid out in the dining room and I'll work on the ones on the table when I come back..."

"What, I don't get to do anything?" Hotch asked annoyed. He knew that he missed time with the kids with his work at the BAU. But the team had flown back and it was in time for him to help set up for the party and Emily was still planning on doing all the setup herself.

Emily looked up at him confusedly and then took in the look on his face. She knew how hard it was for him to travel and be away from her and the kids.

Going through what she had just said, Emily realized the error in what she had just said and sighed. She knew that involvement with the kids was a sensitive subject for him. Haley had gone out of her way to exclude Aaron from Jack whenever possible after they separated, even violating their custody agreement at times in doing it. Whenever the team was is town, Aaron wanted to know when any appointment or activity for the kids was, no matter how short or mundane so he could do his best to be there.

Emily reached over and held his hand as she replied softly, "of course you do. You've been gone all week and I was going to take care of those errands so you could stay here and have time with the kids, especially Jack. They've missed you and I can tell you missed them. Believe me, there is plenty to do." She gestured over to the pile of paper in front of her. Going through the pile, Emily pulled out a sheet and handed it to him, "I even have a list that you and Jack can work on together."

Hotch took the sheet which was appropriately titled 'Jack and Daddy's Fun List' and read through it before looking back up at her smiling. Every item on the list was an activity that not only needed to be done for the party but also ones they both knew Jack would love doing. And after several days away would love even more to have his dad help him complete it.

Hotch reached over and cupped her cheek. "I'm sorry Em. You're right. I do want to spend time with them. But I also wanted to be involved with setting up for the party. I can also see how tired you are and it sounded like you were going to try to do everything yourself."

Emily nodded before leaning into his hand and sighing. "You're right. I am tired. I'd like to extend my reduced hours at work for another week but I don't know if that's going to happen."

Emily had taken a 4 month maternity leave. However when she returned last month, it was with reduced hours to ease back into the BAU as now being the mother of 2. Not that she had been absent from the BAU for 4 months. Since Natalie was about 7 weeks old, Emily had gone into the office for a few hours each week to check in with her team and attend the weekly department meeting.

Hotch had wanted her to take 6 months of leave. He had been concerned that it would be too much for her with the amount of travel he did with his team. After disagreeing and Hotch finally acknowledging it was ultimately Emily's decision, and after talking to Dave and Strauss, he took himself off of the travel rotation for the first month Emily was back at work. The case he had just returned from was only the third time he had travelled with the team since Emily had returned to the BAU after Natalie's birth.

"How is work going?" Hotch asks sitting in his seat.

Emily had been promoted to Unit Chief for a new separate team within the BAU over a year earlier. Her team was smaller and did not travel unlike the rest of the BAU teams. It was mostly comprised of promising agents who had taken the profiling courses but needed practice before they could be considered for one of the other BAU teams.

Emily stood up and cleared the dishes off the table before walking over to the dishwasher and started filling it. "I had a meeting with Strauss yesterday. We decided to transfer Callahan and Marshall off my team."

Hotch sighed before continuing. "Well, Callahan I'm not surprised about but what happened with Marshall?" Hotch had had more than one negative run in with Agent Callahan while Emily was on maternity leave. She had been a source of negativity for Emily's team and the BAU as a whole for several months. It was worse than when Jordan Todd had covered JJ's leave when Henry was born.

Emily shook her head and looked at him sadly. Amy Marshall, on the other hand, was an agent that Emily had started mentoring even before she came to her team. Whatever the reason for the transfer had to been significant. "The cases were getting to her. Some acting as a trigger."

Agent Marshall had been kidnapped and held for several days during an investigation of a rapist while assigned to the FBI field office in Sacramento 2 years earlier.

"We talked with her and she is going to transfer to a desk position in CTU doing analysis. If she gets counseling and psych signs off, we will consider her transferring back in 12 months. I hope she does. She'd be a good profiler."

Hotch looked on as Emily looked at the table in front of her, recognizing the internal struggle she was having. He hoped that this aspiring profiler would consider coming back to the BAU too.

"So what's the plan? You only had 4 people on your team to begin with." Hotch said trying to rotate the subject somewhat to break his wife out of the funk she had suddenly fallen into, knowing the necessary administrative decision hadn't been an easy one for her.

Emily looked over at him with a tired look on her face before throwing her hands up and answering, "I know! That's why I don't think I can delay going back full time next week. Greene from Cooper's team was shot and had knee surgery. He won't be cleared to even travel with their team for at least a week so Strauss is going to have him float over to help Walker and I starting Monday. I also have a couple of agents that have completed the profiling courses that are ready to come over. It's just going to be a lot of orienting everyone." Hotch stood up and walked up behind her and started to massage her shoulders.

After a couple of minutes, he could feel some of the tension go away. He took her hand and pulled her up to standing. He place his index finger under her chin and lifted it until she was looking at him before saying softly, "Tell me what you need. With Dave and Reid hurt we are off rotation for at least a week. Maybe we should conference together for the week."

"That sound like a great idea." Emily said leaning up against him. "I'm so glad you're back, Aaron. I missed you."

They moved closer until their lips met. What started as a chaste kiss quickly heated up and became passionate. They broke apart a couple of minutes later, breathing heavily. Emily leaned forward and was resting her forehead on his chest while they both tried to catch their breath.

Then Hotch leaned down and started to place small kisses as he moved up her neck. She turned her head to give him better access. When he got to her ear, he whispered, "I missed you, too." He could feel her smile against his chest. Moving over to the other side, he placed kisses on her neck then lightly licked her earlobe for which he was rewarded with a moan from her.

Turning her head until her mouth was at his ear, Emily whispered, "Show me." Hotch stopped and looked at her before lifting her bridal style and climbed the stairs.