Author's Note: I listened to 1000 years by Christina Perri while writing this, so that is where the title comes from. Also I listened to I Never Told You by Colbie Caillat while writing the ending if you want to hear another song that fits the mood too.
Emily's POV
"Emily, why am I receiving this?" Aaron asks me, holding up a letter informing him that I am going undercover to try to catch the latest unsub.
"Because I am the only person who fits the profile of his victims and if this guy is our unsub, then I need to go there."
"YOU WANT ME TO STAND HERE AND JUST LET YOU RUN OFF INTO THE ARMS OF A POSSIBLE UNSUB? EMILY YOU CAN'T ACTUALLY THINK I WOULD LET YOU DO THAT!" Aaron's voices raises in volume as his eyebrows get tighter together.
"LIKE YOU HAVE A CHOICE! IT'S MY DECISION IN THE END! I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I ACTUALLY WANT TO CATCH THIS UNSUB AND IF THAT MEANS THAT I HAVE TO GO AND FLIRT WITH A POSSIBLE UNSUB, WELL THEN I WILL; BUT YOU WON'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CAN NOT DO!" We stop yelling and just glare at each other. "It's my life that would be in danger, no one else's. It wouldn't effect anyone else either."
"Emily, you know that's not true!" He says looking hurt that I would say that.
"Right now it has to be," I say as I walk out the door.
"Emily!" I hear his voice call to me as I walk away from him. I can feel the team's eyes watching me as I walk to get ready for tonight, knowing what has happened and what can happen tonight if anything goes wrong. As I pull on the outfit that they had set out for me, I dread leaving the safe haven I was getting ready in, regretting the fact that I was hurting Aaron and secretly scared that tonight might go wrong and I might lose him. I focus more intensely on the outfit, trying to block any other thoughts from my mind. Right arm strap, left arm strap, pull the dress down to make it as long as possible; right leg of the stockings, left leg of the stockings, right pump, left pump, right earring, left earring. After putting on the right amount of makeup to make me look believable, I walk out of the dressing room and see the team waiting for me, with Aaron near the back. Though he was looking away when I first opened the door, he turns to look at me and I can see that his eyes don't care about what I was wearing like some of the team, but instead he was looking only at my face and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from backing out at that moment.
"Agent Prentiss? Are you ready?" Agent Lee, from the homicide unit, called from the glass doorway of the BAU.
"One moment," I say knowing that I was going to have to say goodbye, just in case anything went wrong. I turn and look at my family. I hug each member, saving Aaron for last.
"You so better return gumdrop, because even when all of us were standing here, you two were the only two in the room." Garcia whispers in my ear as she hugs me. Everyone said little things in my ear as we hugged and I know that they all wanted me to return safely, since each one said things like hers; something like how I owed them a cup of coffee or that we still had a movie to watch or something along those lines. I could feel each of them going slowly back to their desks and slowly I was left only with Aaron. We look at each other for one moment and I am torn between whether I should give him a hug or a cold shoulder. He finally breaks the moment and hugs me. My arms wrap around him before he whispers in my ear.
"Stay safe and we'll talk when you get back." I feel his arms squeeze me just a little before he lets me go so that I can return soon. "Anything happens to her and I will destroy you and your team, you can count on that." He says to Agent Lee and the man's eyes get larger as I look into Aaron's eyes for one last time before leaving. I walk out of the building leaving my heart behind. The drive to the bar where the unsub is ended up being silent as all I could think about was Aaron's threat and his promise. I walk in and feel a few sets of eyes on me. I can see the unsub sitting at the bar, and I know that if I play into his fantasy, then I can leave sooner. I walk over to the bar and order a beer, not really wanting to get drunk.
"Maybe a pretty girl like you should let a real man order for her, because a girl like you shouldn't have to order for herself." He says to me and I can start to plunk the pieces of the profile in from his actions. The cockiness, the smooth talking, even the way he dresses, and looks.
"Well, I haven't had a real man in my life in a while to do that for me." I say, trying to play along.
"Maybe I should show you how it's done." He says and orders me a drink. We talk and after a few drinks on his hand and half of that on mine, he moves on to the next part of his plan. "How about we move this party somewhere else? There is a quite room in the back that not many people know about." My gut feeling is to say no and run away screaming, but I know that if I continue on playing this part, we will get closer to a point that they can arrest him.
"Sure," I say and his hand grabs mine and my hand wants to pull away from the strange hand, yearning for one hand, and one particular hand only. I follow him to a room, where he shuts the door and locks it. "Why are you locking the door?" I ask, trying to sound confused.
"Don't want anyone to interrupt us right?" he asks. One moment I am looking at him and the next moment I am on the ground, the stinging of his palm across my face showing through. "Who the hell are you?" He asks. "You know too much!" The split personality shows through, just like the profile predicted.
"What are you talking about?" I ask, sounding scared, and feeling it just a little bit, while I clutch the side of my face. He comes over and grabs one of my shoulders with his left hand.
"You. Know. Too. Much." He says as he adds a punch with each word. My ear piece, by this point, is yelling at me to give the signal, and they will be in as soon as they hear it. I don't call it out wanting to make sure that we get as much information as we can.
"I don't know anything."
"LIAR!" He screams at me as he throws me against the far wall. "YOU KNOW TOO MUCH!" he says as he kicks at me, his feet hitting me in the back of my thighs.
"What do I know too much about?" I ask trying to get answers from him.
"Everything! You would give too much away, if they find out. They can't know who I killed, they can't know, and now you know too much." He smiles a sadistic smile at me. "So I'll just have to kill you." He says before kicking me once more, this time in my stomach.
"Emily, say it and get out of there please!" Aaron's voice rings in my ear and I should have known that he wasn't going to let me be here without him close by. "They have everything they need."
"You're right I do know too much!" I say and feel his foot collide with my rib cage, as the door swung open and Agent Lee and the rest of his department follows SWAT into the room. Agent Lee takes our unsub away as Aaron runs to where I am and pulls me off of the floor.
"Em." He says, not caring that my blood is getting all over his shirt, as he scoops me up in a honeymoon style and carries me to where a medic is waiting for us. He stays with me as they check me out and once they decide that I am safe to go, he drives me back to the BAU. A silence fills the car, not an awkward silence but a calming silence, as he holds my left hand in his right. I know that sooner or later, we will talk, but before that can happen, the team wants to see that I am alive. I don't say anything as the pain from the evening is starting to catch up with me, and I know that there is not much that can be said before we talk. When we get to the BAU, he comes to help me out of the car. "Hold on," he says and reaches back into the car to pull out his earlier abandoned suit jacket. I look at it questioningly, as I didn't understand why he wanted to grab it so badly when the SUV would be here when we were leaving. He holds it open towards me and I slip my bruising arms into the sleeves, ready to feel more covered then I had since I had put the dress on. "You ready?"
"I don't know if I'll ever be," I say knowing that they would all over react to my injuries. "Let's just get it over with." He weaves his fingers to hold mine.
"I'm here for you, always," He says as we start to walk inside.
"I know." I say and we stay quiet the rest of the way up to the BAU. When we walked in the doors of the BAU, five sets of eyes turn to look at us.
"Emily," They all say at once, sounding relieved. We walk to the bullpen, knowing that our family had been missing us, and worrying over me, probably more than they needed to. I feel like I should be hiding from them, worrying about them seeing the bruises, worrying that they will treat me differently.
"Are you ok?" Garcia asks me.
"I'm fine." I say and I can see that she doesn't like the choice of words. Aaron gives my hand a soft squeeze, to remind me of his support. "Honestly."
"Princess, you really want us to believe that?" Morgan asks and I nod.
"I am fine, really. If I wasn't I wouldn't be here. Aaron wouldn't let me be here otherwise." They all think about it, and they know that Aaron would want me to be at the hospital if I wasn't ok. Garcia is the first to come over and hug me, with the others not far behind.
"I still can't believe you agreed to do that!" Garcia said, "What if something had happened?"
"I don't think about the what if's, I live with the what happened. Life is for living, not for regretting." I say.
"Plus, we all know if something had happened, Hotch would make his threat reality. Who knows, he still might." Morgan flashes a smile, and I am happy that he at least can tell that things are going to be fine.
"Emily, your body probably needs sleep after what you went through today. We'll let you go home," Rossi says and smiles towards me, glad to see that I was home now.
"Yeah, we'll all see you Monday anyway," JJ tosses into the conversation. Everyone said bye to Aaron and I before we walked out of the doors we had come through earlier. During the drive towards our apartment, I could only think of what could happen once we get home. I know that I hurt Aaron with my decision and my words, but to be honest with myself, I know that Aaron might just give up on us because he might think that I don't believe in us anymore, and out of anything… that is what I dread the most. Upon entering the apartment, Aaron goes and checks that Jack is asleep since it is way past his bedtime, but while he is checking on Jack, I walk out on our balcony and as I close the front of his suit jacket to keep the air from hitting me to hard, I wonder if this might be my last time sharing this home with the two guys that I wish and hope will stay in my life.
"Why?" He whispers as he leans up against the balcony next to me. "Why did you say that it wouldn't effect anyone else? You can't possible think that's true Emily."
"Because I needed to believe it myself," I say quietly, hearing how stupid that sounds now.
"Em, I can't picture my life without you anymore. When I received that letter, all I wanted to do was take grab you and run out of the office, so that I knew I was protecting you. Emily I love you, but I need to know that you will be safe and you choosing to run off towards an unsub, that nearly killed me. It made me hate you so much for choosing to do it."
"I understand Aaron. If it were to happen to me, I would want it too." I close my eyes trying to keep the tears that I won't be able to keep back for too long. "Can I at least say goodbye to Jack before I go?"
"What?" He asked suddenly turning to look at me.
"Aaron, please, I understand that you're mad and you can't love me after what I did, but can I please say goodbye to Jack? I…" I try to swallow the tears back, "I can't just walk out without it."
"Em, I'm not kicking you out." I turn to look at him, now not comprehending what he was saying. "Did you not hear me when I said I can't picture my life without you?" I stare at him, speechless. "Emily, as I said, I love you. I was furious, but not enough to make me ever stop loving you. Sometimes things are going to make me mad at you and you mad at me, but I will never stop loving you. I never will." He repeated.
"Aaron…" I blink time after time trying to get the tears to go away, so that I could see Aaron clearly. He pulls me into his arms and as a few tears fall from my eyes, I whisper, "I'm so sorry."
"Em, I couldn't picture losing you like I did Haley. To think that an Unsub could take away another girl I love, I almost ran into the room the moment he hit you. All I wanted to do was get you out of there, keep you by my side." I let my tears flow softly as I rest in his arms, the only place I wanted to be since I had agreed to this mission. "I try everyday to make sure that nothing I do will keep me from coming home to you and Jack." He lifts my chin softly so I am looking up at him. He looks into my eyes, "I want to have you by my side every day of forever. Please, don't ever say that your life would be the only one in danger, that your life would be the only one effected, because your life is my life."
"I know that now. I'm sorry Aaron. I promise you, every day of forever, I'll be with you." I say through my tears.
"That's all I'm asking for," He says before softly kissing me. "Just give me every day." He says and as we stare at each other in the moonlight, I see my forever.
Author's Note: Thank you to the reviewer that pointed out that holding Emily's right hand in his left would really be difficult! I changed it now :)