Hey everyone, sorry it's taken me so long to post this chapter. I guess if you want to blame anyone you can blame my teachers. *laugh* I enjoy being a senior in high school and all, but it's so taxing. Anyways, I will try to get at least two more chapters up by Sunday as well as two other oneshots that came to me the other day. Good thing I have like no homework.

I'm so glad Hotch is staying on the team btw, I didn't really think he'd retire though. I mean come one, it's Hotch we're talking about here. I cried a little when watching Haley's funeral. Oh and next weeks episode looks epic. Seriously, he just buries Haley and then Emily gets in a freaking car accident. What the hell? *sigh*

I do not own Criminal Minds (if I did we all know Emily and Hotch would've been together ages ago.)

Please enjoy&review (it would make me very happy)


Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

~Albert Einstein

- - - - - -

Emily hadn't felt so at peace in days.

She was stirring the pasta on the stove when a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her waist and pulled her closer to the warm body they were attached to. Emily smiled and let her other hand rest on her captor's arms as she leaned back into his solid frame. She sighed contently as she felt a kiss on her neck. It was bliss being able to touch each other after so long.

Well five days wasn't very long, but when you had to constantly fight the temptation to shower your boss with affection in the middle of a case time certainly dragged its feet. Almost a week had passed since their relationship officially began and in that week Emily and Hotch were give no time to truly enjoy it.

Emily ended up staying the night that Saturday enclosed in Hotch's secure embrace on the couch. They fell asleep to some movie on the T.V. Emily would never forget the smug-like expression on Jack's face when he woke them up the next morning. Together they spent Sunday indoors, playing games and watching movies. Emily and Hotch both agreed to let some time go by before breaching the subject of their new relationship status with Jack and the team. Besides, that was one of the perks of having a relationship that could potentially ruin their career; there was no rush to tell anyone.

Unfortunately, the second Emily and Hotch set off in the office Monday morning JJ fell upon them with a nasty case in Ohio. Emily and Hotch were running late so everyone else was already in the conference room. Ignoring the questioning stares they received, Emily and Hotch immediately slipped into their professional skins and effortlessly jumped into the case.

Emily brushed off Morgan's insinuating remarks after Hotch dismissed the team to pack up and rolled her eyes at Hotch before she left his line of sight. That was what their relationship had been confined to during the case: Stolen looks and the occasional well-placed touches. Now that they were working, Emily filed her feelings for Hotch away in a little box and pushed it towards the back of her mind. If they were going to make this work they had to prove to the team, as well as themselves, that they could remain professional and not let their emotions reek havoc with their ability to compartmentalize.

Emily would admit it was a difficult task. He made it even harder when he stood so close to her. She couldn't count the times that they almost slipped up. Unluckily for them, Dave managed to catch on to the faint hint of change in their behavior. It was hard for the older profiler not to smile his I-knew-it-all-along smile when he saw Emily and Hotch working together. They might as well have been wearing a neon sign as far as Dave was concerned. He contained his smugness, for Emily's sake, and was very well behaved. He figured they'd tell the team when they felt the time was right, or when they got caught: Whichever came first.

The case had been a long one and Emily was relived when the unsub was finally taken down by Morgan, who was obviously glad to have the ability to tackle people once more without waiting for backup. Hotch didn't even reprimand him because he remembered the thrill he felt when he was in Morgan's shoes not too long ago. They were able to fly back home Friday and were greeted by the familiar sight of an excited Jack and a joyous Garcia. After settling in, the team tackled some paperwork until their eyes literally wouldn't stay open. Reid was dozing off when Hotch came down to tell the others to go home. He was quite anxious to get home as well.

Morgan was chatting with Emily and Jack, who was sitting comfortably in her lap. Hotch's met Emily's eyes once she turned away from Morgan and he could feel his professional mask slipping off his face. Her eyes reflected the need he felt so desperately inside and he knew how hard it had been for her during the case to hide something she felt so strongly. He had fought fairly hard himself to resist the urge to bury his hands in her dark hair on the occasions that she sat so close to him. He needed to get her home as soon as humanly possible; for both of their sakes.

"Can we go home now Daddy?" Jack asked sweetly as he looked up at Hotch.

"I second his question," Morgan said, "minus the 'daddy' part," he laughed seeing the look Hotch shot him.

Emily chuckled, reached over, and threw her pen at Reid who jerked awake mumbling incoherent apologies. Hotch smiled faintly as Reid looked down embarrassed. He felt sympathy for the young agent and decided that he'd spare them any more torture. "Yes we all can go home Buddy." Hotch said watching as Morgan and JJ, who seemed to appear out of thin air, rushed to the door: Garcia was not far behind. Emily was packing up when Dave said his goodbyes and Reid, after ruffling Jack's hair, followed suit. It seemed like everyone was in a hurry to get home tonight. Not wanting to look too suspicious, Emily and Hotch came in different cars and parked a ways away from each other. They both knew that Emily would be coming over to Hotch's once she slipped into something more comfortable.

Emily had already assured Jack that she's be coming over for diner so he wasn't upset when they parted ways for the time being. Emily was able to let her hand brush Hotch's lightly as she walked past him, which caused identical grins to light up their faces.

Sure enough it didn't take Emily much time before she was knocking on Hotch's door then pulled into his apartment and attacked with a flurry of teasing kisses that Hotch had been holding back for days. It was a nice way to be greeted Emily had to admit: One she could get use to.

"Where are you?" Hotch asked softly, bringing Emily back from her mind's wanderings. She laughed as he nuzzled her neck affectionately and couldn't help but feel very lucky to witness his softer side. "I'm just thinking about how we've got out work cut out for us." Emily said truthfully knowing full well that Hotch had thought about the same thing once or twice during the case.

Hotch stiffened at her words and put some space between them. "Are you having doubts?" Hotch asked suddenly overcome with a bought of insecurity and quickly he tried to put his shields back up before Emily could catch onto his hurt tone. He felt his cold and clinical side take over as Emily turned around to face him, her face incredulous.

"Of course not Aaron. I'm just saying it's going to be tricky especially if we continue to slip up a little. We are working with profilers after all, it's a miracle that they haven't picked up on it yet. They will though…" Emily let her voice trail off as she saw his eyes soften. She certainly hadn't meant to upset him. She knew that he hid his uncertainties and weakness very well and it was obvious to Emily in that moment how much she could hurt him if she wasn't careful. That thought alone made Emily shudder in horror, she'd never do something to hurt him intentionally. Emily grabbed his hand and pulled him back towards her, missing the proximity of his body.

"Plus you know how Dave and JJ are. They're pretty much convinced if you so much as hand me a file, we must be engaged." Emily said lightly remembering the looks they had tossed her way during the case. Hotch smiled and followed her pulling force back towards her body where he really wanted to be. Emily knew Emily was right and he felt a little guilty for overreacting, if you could call his reaction overreacting. Emily had already spent a great effort convincing Hotch that she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon and as Hotch kissed her forehead Hotch realized he wouldn't have it any other way.

Emily wrapped her arms around his body and hid her face in his chest, feeling it rise and lower with each breath he took. Emily couldn't deny that being so close to him made her feel as if nothing could ever go wrong.

"Hey Emmy is dinner almost done?" Jack's voice broke through the little bubble Hotch and Emily had created in the kitchen. Emily and Hotch reluctantly broke apart, smiling at each other, and Emily turned to face the little boy who was just now walking into the room.

"Yes sweetie, you and Daddy go sit down and I'll bring out your bowls." Emily replied before Hotch could get the bowls down from the shelf.

"Kay! Come on Daddy." Jack said grabbing Hotch's hand and dragging him out of the kitchen. Hotch laughed and followed his son into the dining room. Emily quickly finished preparing the pasta and hurried out to eat with her favorite men and found herself wanting their nightly rituals to become a permanent series of events in her life. Until then though, Emily found it easy to be content with everything knowing full well that one day there would be more to them than evening meals and park visits on the weekends. Just give it time.


So, I'm still brainstorming ideas for this story...so I'm enlisting your help. I would love it if you all could give me ideas. I've had a few about knocking Emily up, so maybe that could happen. Depends on what you all think. Honestly, I'm gonna wing it. *laugh*

I hope you all enjoyed my first chapter, I'm not sure how long this story will be, so enjoy the delicious ambiguity of this story.

Peace out.