Hey everybody!

This is my first Criminal Minds story :) I have been wanting to write one for a while but haven't been inspired until now.

I'd like to thank Khalek for the help with the story even though she isn't a H/P shipper, it means a lot to me that she helped :) I'd also liked to thank my friend Lauren for editing :).

Disclaimer- Sadly I don't own anything :'(

"Surprise I'm home!" Emily called happily as she walked through the front door with a bottle of champagne in one hand. "And I have an expensive bottle of champagne!" she closed the door, and flicked the living room light on.

"James, are you home?" Emily placed the bottle of champagne and her keys on the kitchen table as she walked further into the apartment.

"James, honey?" she called again, but got no answer. That was unusually strange, he always greeted her when she got home, she had seen his car in the garage so she was sure he was home. She shrugged it off guessing that he might be in the shower, after all she wasn't supposed to be home for another day, so he probably wasn't expecting her.

She began to make he way up the stars and noted that oddly none of the hall lights where turned on, usually James left the house lit up like a light house, it was one of his habits she found annoying. Through the dark she could see something laying on one of the steps. She bent over and picked it up, on closer examinations she realized; it was a pair of James's dress pants. She rolled her eyes, trust him to be to lazy to carry them the short distance to the laundry.

"James how many times do I have to ask you to actually put your clothes in the laundry!" she scolded as she made her way up the rest of the stairs. As she reached the top, instead of hearing her fiancé's reply she hear muffled groans coming from their bedroom. Upon hearing that sound her stomach tightened and she instantly felt sick. She recognized those noises. She slowly moved forwards, and lifted her hand and placing it on the door handle. She had a good idea what she would see when she opened the door, but she still couldn't stop herself, she needed to know. Tears where already beginning to well in her eyes, she swallowed trying to keep the tears from spilling over. In one swift movement she opened the door and roughly flung it open.

Just as she had suspected she saw James bent over some naked floozy. James's head snapped towards the doorway as he heard the door hitting the wall.

"Oh god Emily!" he exclaimed leaping off of the blonde wrapping a sheet around his body. "This isn't what it looks like!" he pleaded moving towards Emily who stood still, frozen in horror.

"Emily I'm sorry I can explain" James's pleading voice snapped Emily out of her daze.

"Don't even try you jerk" She turned away from James who was slowly approaching her. Emily hurried back down the stairs, followed closely by James.

"Emily wait I can explain!" he called after her. Emily spun around to face him.

"How the hell can you possibly have an explanation for screwing around!"

"Emily it's not like that, you know I love you, I just... you're gone for so long and I get lonely."

"Don't you fucking dare try to blame this on me!" Emily could feel hot tears running down her cheeks. She felt like throwing up, and new she had to get out away before she shot her 'fiancé'.

"Come on Em, it means nothing" James said grabbing her arm as she went to leave.

"Fucking let go of me now or I swear to god I will shoot you!" Emily yelled. James saw the rage in her eyes and new she was serious, so he let go of her arm.

"I'm sorry Em... I." he began but was cut off by Emily.

"Just shut the fuck up!" she began to remove her engagement ring from her finger.

"Come on Em we can talk about this" he tried to stop her from removing the ring, but Emily shoved him backwards, and he stumbled and tripped over one of the kitchen stools and falling to the ground.

"Go to hell James!" she said as she through the ring in his direction. " I hope you and you're bimbo have a nice life!" With that she turned, grabbing her keys from the kitchen counter and fled from their apartment, slamming the door behind her.

She hurried back to her car, shivering on the cold night air she had thrown her jacket off when she had gotten home; she was a little busy trying to restrain herself from shooting him to remember to grab it on her way out. Emily finally collapsed into the seat of her car, she turned the engine on and cranked the heater and finally let herself cry. After a few minutes of quite sobbing Emily lifted her head from the steering wheel and rubbed away her tears with the back of her hand, she took a deep breath. Once her breathing was semi-normal again, she pulled her mobile phone out intending on calling JJ and asking if she could stay with her. She had almost finished dialing the number when she remembered that JJ was spending the night with Will, while Garcia and Morgan looked after Henry.

"Crap" she muttered; that meant staying with Garcia or Morgan was also out. That left Rossi, Hotch or her Mother.

"Great" She decided staying with her Mother was definitely out; just on principle and she didn't much feel like staying with Rossi, god only knew what he got up to at night. She sighed realizing that only left one person- Hotch. For a brief moment she debated just staying in the car but knew she risked the chance of freezing to death. So with another sight she hit speed dial 1.

Hotch collapsed onto the couch, relived that Jack had finally fallen asleep. He loosened his tie as he sipped his whisky. It had been a long and tiring case but not just because of the case; he hadn't been sleeping well for the past two weeks because of dreams. But they weren't the nightmares that usually kept him awake; instead they were dreams of a certain Emily Prentiss. All varying; from sex dreams to dreams of him finding her dead at the hands of Foyet. Ever since the dreams had started it was hard for him to be around Prentiss, he kept finding himself wanting to reach out and run his hands through her hair or take her hand in his. But he knew he couldn't do that not only would it be against fraternization policies he also felt like he would be betraying Hayley's memory. But that wasn't the only issue now he felt the need to protect her, and found himself becoming distracted with worry for her safety despite the fact he knew she could look after herself. He took another sip of his drink and lifted his feet placing them on the coffee table. He rested his head on the couch and let his heavy eyes close. Hotch had almost drifted off to sleep when his cell started ringing. He sat and reached for his cell that was sitting on the coffee table. Please don't be JJ please don't be JJ he silently prayed. But when he looked at his phone he saw that it was none other than Emily Prentiss. His stomach instantly clenched and he began to panic that something was wrong.

"Prentiss is everything ok?" he mentally scolded himself for sounding so desperate.

"Hey Hotch... umm" She stuttered feeling like she was going to start crying again.

"Prentiss what's wrong are you ok?" Hotch asked worried.

"I... I hate to ask… but I need a place to stay tonight? I'd ask JJ but she's spending the night with Will" Emily rolled her eyes at how pathetic she sounded.

"Yeah of course you can stay here, but what about?" He left the question hanging knowing that Emily would know what he meant.

"I...I don't... I can't talk about it" Emily said shaking her head.

"Ok... but you're ok?"

"Physically I'm fine; I'll be at your place in a few minutes."

"Okay bye"

"bye" Emily hung up wiping away a stray tear that had escaped.

Hotch stood up, running his hands through his hair.

"Perfect" he muttered sighing. The woman he was currently having very sexually explicit dreams and thoughts about was going to be staying in his apartment. He swallowed the last of his drink before rinsing the glass and putting away the bottle. He wondered exactly what had happened to cause Prentiss to need a place to stay. He had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the jerk she was engaged to. His fist clenched at the thought that James might have hurt her in some way; he suddenly had the urge to be the man to a pulp. His thoughts were broken by a soft knock on the door.

He walked over and unlocked the three dead bolts and opened the door.

"Hi Prentiss" Hotch greeted awkwardly and stepped to the side letting her in.

"Hey, I really appreciate this Hotch" she thanked, offering a sad smile as she walked in, her 'go' bag in hand.

"Don't mention it" Hotch said brushing of the thanks. Emily followed Hotch into the living room. Hotch could see Prentiss had been crying and wanted to ask what the hell James had done to her. "Do you want something to drink?" Hotch asked walking towards the kitchen.

"Ah yeah a coffee would be great thanks." Emily sat down on the couch, as Hotch got to work making the coffees.

A few minutes later Hotch placed her drink on the table in front of her.

"Thanks" She smiled reaching for the coffee. Hotch took a seat on the couch across from Emily.

"I...I really appreciate this Hotch" she said dropping her head, and not making eye contact.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Hotch asked leaning forward's towards Emily.

"There isn't much to say" She looked away from Hotch trying to compose herself; knowing that if she looked him in the eye she would start crying again. "I…I came home and I uhm" Emily could feel herself chocking up. "and...I found him with another woman!" Emily hung her head in shame.

Hotch's fist's clenched in range he never liked James but hadn't thought this would ever happen.

"I'm sorry about this" Emily said still trying not to cry. Against his better judgment Hotch stood and moved towards Emily, he took her coffee cup from her and placed it on the table.

"You don't need to apologize" He reassured sitting next to Emily.

"I just I thought it would be different this time but he tried to blame me!" Emily finaly let the flood gates open and began to sob. Without thinking Hotch wrapped his arms around Emily, and Emily buried her face in his chest as she clung to his shirt.

"It's not your fault... Emily" using her first name sounded strange to both of them. "It's not your fault" He repeated rubbing her arm gently, trying to comfort her. They sat together on the couch until Emily stopped crying.

"Oh god, Hotch I'm sorry" She said sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "I'm a complete mess." Emily mumbled trying to flatten her hair.

"You look beautiful" Hotch, couldn't believe he said that, even though it was the truth it wasn't something he should be saying.

"Thanks Hotch" Emily said smiling the smile turning into a yawn. This reminded Hotch that it was getting late.

"It's getting late Emily" You can take my bed and I'll sleep on the couch"

"No Hotch I cant let you do that" Emily said shaking her head.

"I insist"

"Ok if you're sure?"

"I'm sure" Hotch said firmly.

"Ok." Emily reached for her bag but Hotch grabbed it before she could and he began walking up the stairs to his room, followed by Emily.

"The bathroom's just down the hall past Jack's bedroom.

"Ok."

"Oh and the remote to the TV is just in the drawer" he pointed to the nightstand on the left side of the bed.

"Ok cool thanks"

Hotch pulled a spare blanket from the wardrobe.

"Well I'll leave you to it" He said awkwardly. "Good night"

"Night" Emily said as Hotch left the room, closing the door as he left.

A few minutes later Emily had changed and brushed her teeth, she was grateful that she had her 'go' bag with her so she had pajama's and a change of clothes for the next day, along with her toiletries.

She flicked back the cover on Hotch's bed and slid in; she pulled the cover up around her and sighed. All the bedding smelt like Hotch, it was strangely comforting to her but she didn't spend anytime wondering why; all of her thoughts where plagued by James. She swallowed back angry tears. She decided to see if there was anything decent on television. She found one of her favorite old TV shows and was happy for the distraction.

A few minutes later there was a soft knock on the door.

"Come in" she called.

"Hey sorry I just need to get a pillow, I forgot. Sorry" Hotch apologized stepping into the room

"No worries, she reached for one of the spare pillows and passed it to Hotch.

"Thanks, hey is that The Love Boat?"

"Yeah I use to love this show"

"Me too" Hotch admitted smiling.

"Well take a seat" Emily said patting the empty side of the bed. Hotch hesitated a moment, knowing how intimate it would feel laying in bed with Emily after all the reoccurring dreams. He knew he should decline the offer, but just couldn't bring himself to. So he sat down on the empty side of the bed.

"I watched re-runs of this every Monday night for years when I was in college." Hotch commented as he got comfortable.

"Same, highlight of my high school nights after homework."

By the time the episode finished both Hotch and Emily had fallen asleep.

So there it is. I hope it's ok. I'm a new criminal minds fan, the first episode I watched was 100 and I was hooked! But I have now seen 1,2,3 and I am half way through season four, so I hope the characters are ok.

Ok I am kind off stumped what to do next so if any one has any idea let me know. I don't know how long it will take for Hotch and Emily to get together but I wont drag it out to long :)

Thanks for reading and please review :) I cant promise regular chapters cause I'm busy with Uni but I'll try as hard as I can :)

xx