Emily kept in her sad sigh as she looked away from her fiddling fingers in her lap to the clock tower sitting just yards away. It was cold and she was getting that feeling that it was about to rain, but she didn't get up from her seat on the bench.
She was waiting for her boyfriend.
They had been going through the worst rut they had in a while, but it wasn't as if they were fighting all the time. When they were fighting, at least they were talking. There had been no fighting, no disagreements, no arguments, no nothing.
They had been growing apart.
But Emily had loved the older man for years and he her, but they'd only been together for two out of the good twenty years they'd known each other. Going from a barely knowing one another platonic relationship to a friendship that had brought both out of their depressions, and now they were in a romantic relationship. She was his Cinderella and him her Prince Charming, but their fairytale had turned a corner when their relationship had been accompanied with problems from their work.
He had been afraid to send her out into the field with Morgan and they had argued. The only reason he didn't want her there was because it was easily seen she'd get hurt, but that was not her boyfriend's call to make. He was her boss, but he wasn't going to push her around now because they were together.
Since that first fight, they'd been going downhill.
Emily watched her cold breath collect in front of her as the cars continued passing by. They hadn't made a date for them to go on, but more of an ultimatum. And not the kind that would end in them hating or questioning one another.
All they were trying to do was find out where they were in their relationship.
If by nine o'clock Hotch wasn't to meet her by the clock tower, they were no longer meant to be in a relationship. They loved each other, but it hadn't been working out.
They had grown distant from one another; Hotch no longer held her hand at the dinner table nor accompanied on her trips down to the bookstore every other weekend she could, and Emily had stopped sitting beside him at Jack's soccer games. It was as if they couldn't connect anymore.
She ran a finger underneath her eye to stop a tear from freezing to her skin. Looking back to the clock, the FBI agent watched as the clock's hands continued to tick closer and closer to the destined time. Even though they'd been going through a rut, Emily didn't want to be without the older man. He was the only man she'd really ever loved, and to give that up would break her heart.
"Miss?"
Emily's head turned at the voice, and she did her best not to let her face fall when she realized it wasn't who she'd hoped for.
The older man gave a gentle smile to the woman in the trench coat. "Do you need a ride?"
She watched him shiver in the cold, and with a small shake of the head the agent hugged her body to try and warm herself up. "No thank you," she said kindly.
"Are you waiting on something?"
Rolling her lips, Emily smiled through her sadness. "Someone."
Crossing her legs as she readjusted her seat on the bench, Emily looked up, rain starting to drizzle down through the clouds of frosted breath around her. She didn't frown, but she didn't smile. It was almost nine, and she wouldn't move if a sink hole threatened to take her and the bench she sat on.
She was waiting for Aaron.
Emily bit her lip as she heard the bell begin to ring.
Nine o'clock.
She did her best to keep her tears from falling as she finally stood from her seat, feeling her hairs stand on end as the cold rain started to pour down on her. "Figures," she whispered to herself, eyes squeezing shut to try and rid the blurriness from her vision.
Emily's head turned at the sound of a familiar song, her eyes meeting those of her boyfriend as he got out of his car.
She stayed glued to her spot on the sidewalk as he came running through the small town's traffic, letting him hug her to his chest when he got to her. "You scared me," she whispered, her tears melding with the rain on his jacket.
Hotch pressed a long kiss to Emily's wet hair. "I love you."
Leaning back, Emily looked into her boyfriend's light eyes and gently nodded her head. "I love you too."
He slowly ran his fingers down the younger woman's cheek before he leaned in, resting his forehead against hers. "Don't run from me next time."
"Don't make me run," she challenged, her gasp swallowed by the older man as he kissed her.
"I won't," he breathed, his words fanning her cheek as he pulled back. "You matter to me."