Disclaimer: I do not own criminal minds or any of the charters in the show.

FBI agent Aaron Hotchner came into work feeling like shit. The papers finalising his divorce had come through the door this morning, and the lease on the flat he was renting was due to run out tomorrow and he still hadn't gotten around to paying next installment of rent. Ever since he and Hailey had argued a couple of months ago and he had walked out, he had been living on his own with Jack visiting every other weekend.

The walk up to his office for Hotch was one of shame to him; bosses didn't usually come into work three hours late, and if they did they at least had a reasonable excuse. But he had none, he had overslept, something that he had been doing a lot lately. He had a routine of going to bed a three in the morning and waking up at seven, if he was lucky this kept the nightmares at bay, however, today wasn't one of his lucky days.

The rest of the team were already there and waiting for him, they all knew that there was something going on; the leader of the team didn't turn up three hours late for no reason and then there was the simple fact that they are all profilers, but none of them were willing to ask. Even Rossi didn't dare ask what was wrong, and he was the one who usually made it his business to finding out what was wrong with everybody.

No one that is apart from Emily; she was the one person that he could rely on, she was his rock. But what he wasn't aware of was that as he was telling her about his day and his divorce, she was going through her own problems.

At first glance, you wouldn't guess that there was anything wrong with Emily, but if you looked close enough then you would be able to see where the concealer had been applied a little too thick on her face, and that she always favoured her left arm to her right when punching Morgan. You would also see, if you happened to look at her the exact moment she turned her head slightly, bruises on her neck that she kept covered with her hair. However no one ever looked close enough to notice.

As well as relying on makeup and lies, she relied on black coffee. They all did; the only thing that kept the entire team going was black coffee.

There were times when Emily had been up all night, tending to her injuries, and had not managed to get any sleep, so she drank coffee to keep. When Hotch had been awake all night, unable to sleep due to the divorce that loomed over his head, and was called in he drank coffee.

To the team, coffee was as essential as breathing.

It looked to be one of those days he observed as he surveyed the bull pen from his office. His team hadn't been needed for the past few days which to him was strange as he knew that there were case files piled up to the ceiling in JJ's office. He decided to puzzle over that conundrum later.

When there were no new cases, the team got fidgety and when they got fidgety tempers flared, he remembered when Morgan had accidentally knocked Emily's coffee cup filled with hot coffee into her lap, needless to say it hadn't gone own well.

He saw Emily walk past his door and called her into his office.

"Emily, could you come in here for a moment please?"

She couldn't say no to her boss, well she could but it wasn't polite and it would probably border on insubordination.

"Yes, sir."

"How many times have I told you to drop the 'sir'?" he joked.

Over the past few months they had fast become close friends, and seeing that they were in each other's company for the vast majority of the day they had decided, out of ease, to drop the formal titles around others, and just stick to 'Aaron', and 'Emily'.

"Too many to count, 'sir'."

She knew her tone came across as sarcastic, but she was in pain, and she didn't care. All Emily wanted to do was go to the toilets and change one of the dressings on one of the deeper wounds that he had given her just this morning when she hadn't made breakfast properly.

"Sorry about that, si-" she stopped herself then carried on, "Aaron."

She managed not to sound as if she was mocking him, but failed miserably.

"Emily, you okay?" he asked, the concerned showing on his face.

"Yeah, Aaron, I'm fine, just in a bit of pain. I banged my side yesterday as I was walking past my counter top." At his pointed look she reiterated, "Seriously, a few aspirin and I won't even notice the pain."

She wished that it were that easy; normally aspirin didn't do anything for her as she had developed a certain tolerance to pain killers, a fact that never lightened her mood.

Emily had always prided herself on the ability to think and to lie on her feet, but the fact that it was partially the truth didn't hurt; she had hurt her side, but it wasn't but walking into the counter top.

"Sure?"

Emily gave him one of her famous glares. The self-labelled 'Emily-glare' was something that Morgan always seemed evoke from her, and sensing that she was in no mood for joviality, Aaron held his hands up in surrender.

"Did you want me for anything?" she questioned. Emily's patience was wearing thin; she really needed to go to the toilet.

"No, not really, I just thought I would tell you that my final divorce papers came through, all I have to do is sign." He sat down at his desk and put his head in his hands.

"Aaron, I'm so sorry. What does it say about visitation rights to Jack?"

She knew that he loved the boy more than anything, and that not being able to see him daily was getting him down.

"Every Sunday and alternate Saturdays."

Emily didn't know what to say, but his posture to her everything she needed to know. She knew he felt ashamed; he had put his career before family, and everyone knew that was a sure fire way to end a marriage. Aaron had told her once that he felt like a failure as a father because he wasn't always there for Jack; she had reassured him by pointing out all the good things about your dad being a Special Agent, but it had done little to lift his spirits.

"At least it's something," she said, knowing that those four words were most probably the lamest words of condolences ever uttered.

There was a time when they didn't know if Hailey would allow him any visitation rights. During that time he was a mess, he once came into work reeking of alcohol and she had sent him home as soon as she had seen his face.

"Yeah."

Emily thought about how much she knew of him and how little Aaron knew of her. However, she had purposely kept it that way as she didn't want to burden him with her worries; he had enough of his own. So Emily never told him of the makeup and the bruises, and if she could manage it without needing help, she was never going to.

Her secrets remained just as that, secrets. No matter how much she longed to tell someone, she knew she couldn't. She wanted someone to hold her and make the pain go away and Emily knew the someone she wanted was Aaron, but she knew that she would never have the guts to tell him; she was too scared.

"Listen, Aaron, I know that now's a really bad time, but I really need the loo, do you mind? If you want I can come over to yours later, and we can bitch about Strauss again?"

That managed to evoke a small smile from him, it was something. "Yeah, sure. I'm sorry for keeping you." He looked up at her and saw that she was desperate.

"It's fine, so I'll see you later?" She knew that he needed to talk, and after she had taken care of her more pressing problem, she would lend him her ear.

"Emily, we work together."

She rolled her eyes at that, "I mean outside of work."

"Yeah, is eight okay for you?"

"Make that half past; there may be no cases at the moment, but I still have a lot of paperwork to catch up on."

"Deal."

She gave him a smile that he returned as she walked out the door. Thankfully he hadn't noticed her small limp, and made her way towards the toilets.

After walking into the toilets the first thing Emily did was check that every one of the stalls was empty. As there were only two it took no time at all, but she had had a few close run ins in the past and it never hurt to be safe. After she had locked the main door that granted access to the toilets (it hadn't been easy stealing and making an impression of the key from the janitor, then retuning it and not flushing guiltily every time she saw him) she sank down to the cold tile floor, hissing in pain as the movement jarred her side. Lifting her top she could see the once white bandage had red splotches dotted over it, and had she been in a more macabre mood she would have played dot to dot as she had done once before. With practised ease she took of the bloodied bandaged and changed it for a clean one, determinedly ignoring the five letter word carved into her skin.

'Bitch'. It was a new word he had added to her collection just this morning. If someone were to look close enough, not that they would, they would see various other four letter words engraved at various other parts of her skin. She was a mess. Thankfully though, to see the rest of those words you had to lift her top, and there was no way she was going to let that happen.

After washing her hands and making sure the other bandaged had been disposed of properly Emily made her way over to the mirror and looked at her reflection. She didn't even recognise the woman who was staring back at her. Emily felt a lone tear slip down her face and whispered the words she wished she could say to someone other than her reflection.

"My boyfriend is slowly killing me Aaron, and I can't even tell you. The worst part is I've fallen hopelessly in love with you, and I know that you don't feel the same way about me. I need you to help me, Aaron, before it's too late."

A bang on the door startled her from her confession.

"Emily?" Aaron's voice sounded tentative and unsure, something that he was usually not, but she didn't notice; she was too busy staring at her reflection, seeing the imperfections supposedly masked by the makeup.

"Yes?" Her voice sounded broken and unsure. She only hoped he didn't notice.

"We have a case."

"Okay, I'll be right out."

After taking one last look at herself in the mirror to check that her makeup was still doing what it promised on the package she turned to face the metaphorical music; it was show time.

However, what Emily didn't know was that Aaron had heard her whole confession; thin walls seemed one of the perks, if you could call it that, of government funding.