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Lacy here peoples with the next Major Episode. Well episodes. Lo-Fi and Mayhem. The only more major one for Aaron and Emily is Minimal Loss and trust me, that is coming. But for now, we have shootings, being blown up and Kate. Joy. Oh not to mention Cooper hitting on Emily. *grins* Aaron will love that. *grunts* Providing he looks away from Kate long enough to notice. Ooooo, last note. Taking a tiny note from Officer Down and having Emily hurt when Cooper gets shot. Nothing bad, just a graze. Have fun!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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Aaron knew most people believed he couldn't see anything passed the job. Only a couple of people knew that wasn't true. Dave and Emily. A prime example of others being wrong was right now, as he watched Detective Cooper hit on Emily. Aaron wasn't entirely sure why but he felt a sting of jealousy. It's not like Emily was flirting back and if she was, it was only subconsciously. And also, Aaron had no romantic ties to Emily so there was really no reason for him to be jealous. Or so he told himself. The smirk Dave kept giving him was obviously trying to tell him otherwise.
"Hey, you alright?"
Aaron gave Emily once last look before turning his attention back to Kate. "Yeah, I'm fine."
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Emily had known Aaron was watching her and Cooper. She'd seen him from where he was in Kate's office. She also saw the small spark of jealousy that she was sure only herself and Dave could pick up on and if the smirk on Dave's face was anything to go by, he had in fact picked it up. She didn't get why he was smirking though. Nor did she get why Aaron was jealous. First, she wasn't responding to Cooper's flirting with anything more then an eye roll, she hoped and she and Aaron's weren't romantically involved so what was there to smirk or be jealous about?
"Emily,"
Reid's voice called Emily out of her thoughts. "Yeah?"
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When Aaron heard about Detective Cooper being shot, the first thing he wanted to know is if Emily was okay. He knew the two had been partnered together when everyone was sent out on the streets and if the detective had been hit, it was possible Emily had been too.
Dave had told Aaron that Emily had been grazed by a stray bullet but she'd taken the unsub down and kept Detective Cooper stable until helped showed up. The only problem now was getting Emily to accept medical attention of her own. Aaron told Dave he'd take care of it when he and Kate showed up.
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Emily glared at Dave. She'd heard him tell Aaron she was refusing medical attention and knew he'd be all over her ass as soon as he arrived.
"I'm fine." Emily said.
Dave rolled his eyes. "Of course you are. And I'm sure you'd be saying the same thing if you were in Cooper's place but that's because you're as stubborn as Aaron and I. Unfortunately for you, he and I over rule you."
Emily continued to press a sterile pad to the wound on her arm and Dave heard her mutter something about pig headed bastards. He assumed she was referring to himself and Aaron. He brushed it off. It was for her own good and she'd thank him later when she wasn't being forcibly admitted to the hospital with an infection.
"Prentiss,"
Dave smirked while Emily cringed. They both knew the tone Aaron was using. Dave pulled Kate aside while Aaron moved over to Emily.
"Do I have to drive you to the ER myself or will you willingly get in the back of the ambulance?" Aaron asked, his arms crossed.
Emily huffed. "I'm fine, Hotch. It's just a graze."
Aaron looked down at Emily's arm and noticed the blood soaking through the pad. "Yeah, I can see that. Just a graze that needs to be cleaned and stitched. So I'll ask again. SUV or ambulance?"
Emily knew she wasn't winning this. "SUV." No way was she going in an ambulance for a graze. That was ridiculous.
Aaron nodded. "Go get in. I'm gonna check in with Dave real quick and let him know."
Emily walked away muttering, "Yes, by all means, let the other guard dog know the prisoner is behaving."
Aaron almost snorted and watched her get in before moving over to Dave.
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Emily winced as the area around the graze was numbed and almost punched the poor intern when they stuck the needle in the wound itself to numb it. That hurt like a bitch. Aaron caught the stiffening of her body and placed a hand on her back from where he was behind her. He knew she was annoyed with him but that was not going to stop him from comforting her in any way he could.
Emily looked away as the doctor came over and carefully sewed her wound closed with about fifteen stitches. Okay, so maybe it had been worse then she thought.
"Alright Miss-"
"Agent," Aaron stopped the doctor.
The older man nodded. "Right, sorry. Agent Prentiss. Make sure to keep the sutures as dry as possible, try not to use your arm too much and go see your doctor when you get home to make sure it's healing alright." he wrote on a script pad and handed the paper to Emily. "This is a very mild pain killer. If anything, it'll help you sleep until the stitches come out."
Emily took the paper and nodded. "Thank you."
Aaron repeated Emily's words and the doctor left. Catching the look on Emily's face as she carefully shrugged her FBI windbreaker on, Aaron sighed.
"I know you're not happy with me," he said. "but you know I worry."
Emily gave her own sigh. "I know." she scrubbed her face with her good hand. "My mind just wasn't on myself. I was worrying about Cooper and the fact that none of what happened made any sense."
Aaron frowned as Emily quickly signed her discharge papers, brought over by a nurse but didn't question her until they were leaving.
"What do you mean it didn't make any sense?"
Emily frowned a bit. "I mean, when I reached the unsub, he was calm, focused. It was like he wanted us to catch him, wanted us to kill him. It was like suicide by cop."
Aaron agreed with Emily. That didn't sound right. "Did you tell the others?"
Emily nodded. "Yeah."
Aaron let his hand rest on the small of Emily's back. "Alright, let's go see if they came up with anything."
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When Emily saw the video of Aaron and Kate getting blown away by the bomb under the SUV, she was sure her heart would never start again. Even though Dave kept reminding her that Aaron was okay, that he wasn't hurt, they both knew she had to see him in order to let herself accept that. When it came to her best friend, seeing was believing with Emily.
When JJ got the call from Morgan that Aaron wanted them at the hospital, Emily unplugged the laptop as fast as possible and grabbed her windbreaker, arriving at the elevators and nervously jamming the button with her thumb.
"Breathe, Emily." Dave said softly as he came up beside her. "You'll see him soon and see for yourself that he's okay."
Emily crossed her arms over the laptop, pressing it to her chest and nodded. "I know."
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Dave watched relief flash across not only Emily's face but Aaron's as well as they took each other in when the team reached the hospital. He could tell from the way Emily was avoiding looking at Aaron that she didn't want him to see just how scared she'd been. No matter how well she covered her feelings with everyone else, Aaron had known her long enough to see through anything and know how she was really feeling.
Knowing it wasn't the right time to be thinking about it, Dave couldn't help but hope maybe this whole thing would give his best friends the massive shove he'd been aiming to give them over the last few months.
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It was over. The terrorist was dead, the bomb gone without harming anyone, thanks to a very idiotic Derek Morgan. The only thing that dampened the relief was the loss of Kate. Emily knew Aaron was hurting over it but she also knew that he wasn't about to show that while surrounded by the team. He'd save it for when they got home, as they still shared her condo, and even then it would take a lot of patience on Emily's part before he actually said anything. But she was prepared for that. Just like she knew he was prepared to wait for her to talk about the fact that her partner, at least for the day, had been shot and she'd had to shoot and kill a kid. Needless to say it would be a long night for both of them.
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Or maybe it wouldn't. Turns out the pressure of the case and everything that had happened had piled up so high that once Aaron got home from Morgan driving him back from New York, he just started talking and once he was done, Emily took her turn. They just flopped down on her bed, stared at the ceiling and talked everything out. It was probably the first time in the whole time they'd known each other that they talked so easily and freely. They both considered it a huge step forward.
"I'm really glad you're okay." Emily said after a brief silence.
Aaron squeezed the hand he'd been holding. "I'm glad you're okay too."
Emily rolled over, thankfully on her good side, and curled up against Aaron. "This case was too close. For both of us."
Aaron wrapped his arms around Emily as he let out a long sigh. "It really was." he pressed a kiss to her hair. "But we're still here."
Emily nodded against his shoulder. "And we've still got each other."
Aaron smiled. "Yeah, we do."
Silence fell over them again they let it. They were both talked out, too tired to move and perfectly content to stay right where they were.
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*smirks* You were all expecting them to move from friends to more, weren't you? Sorry, that's not coming yet! *dodges fruits and veggies* Ha! I knew those were com- *gets hit by worm* Oh that's just gross. *wipes face* Evil people, let me know what you think, flame policy stands and thanks for reading. *walks away muttering* I need to go wash the worm goo off now.
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