Disclaimer: I do NOT own Criminal Minds, but I wish I did.
Okay, I'm sorry if it's a bit naff but I've never written for anything other than (my beloved) CSI. You can probably tell by the writing that I struggled with this but hopefully I will get better in future stories.
Just for Tonight
She looks out of the peephole and sighs. He's the last person she expected to see.
She wipes her eyes and slowly pulls open the door, making sure she hides the left half of her badly bruised face behind her hair.
"Hotch? What are you...doing here?" she whispers, so quietly he barely heard her.
"I wanted to make sure you're okay."
"I'm...I'm fine. Listen I was just off to bed so..."
She tries to shut the door on him but he blocks it with his foot, causing Emily to whimper and jump away.
He pushes the door open and steps into her apartment.
"Please don't..." she pleads and she turns away from him.
She walks over to the window and looks out at the city lights of Washington. Her arms automatically wrap around her body as she starts to cry again. She's in pain and, if truth be told, she's scared. She knows that Benjamin Cyrus is dead, that he can't hurt her, or anybody else, again, but she's still scared. She's scared of what happened to her and Reid.
"Emily..." he whispers, moving up behind her. "Turn around. Look at me."
She shakes her head and a sob escapes her lips.
He slowly moves to stand beside her, his fingers lightly frame her face and he turns her so that she's looking at him.
The left side of her face is slightly swollen and there's a dark blue bruise covering her eye and small cuts punctuate her jawline.
"Oh, Emily..."
"Honestly, I'm fine." she says.
His eyes wander down the front of her white blouse, he sees blood seeping through from the hastily bandaged cuts over her chest and abdomen.
"Emily, let me take you to hospital to get cleaned up."
"No. No, I'm not going anywhere..." she cries. "I'm okay, I just need to put a new dressing over my wounds."
She tries to compose herself but her tears start to fall faster.
He softly runs his hands down her arms and takes hold of her shaking hands.
When her eyes meet his she completely breaks down. Her knees give way and she falls against him as sobs shake her body.
He wraps his arms around her and slowly leads her over to the couch. They sit down, she buries her face against his neck and he allows her to cry.
After a while, when her tears have subsided a little, he kisses the top of her head and speaks up.
"Emily, I'm so sorry. We should've stopped him..."
She sniffles and looks up at him.
"No, I said 'I can take it' because I could. I'm fine, just... bruised."
"He can't hurt you anymore."
"I know. I'm not scared of Cyrus. I had to let him deal with me because I couldn't cope if something had happened to Reid. Cyrus would've killed him, in front of me, and wouldn't be able to cope with that. I knew he wouldn't kill me." she whispers. "But then... I thought... I thought Reid and Morgan were... I thought for a split second that we'd lost them. "
"We haven't lost them. Reid's fine, a bit shaken up but he's fine." soothes Hotch. "And Derek? Well... you know what he's like, he's as tough as old boots, nothing fazes him."
Emily smiles a little.
"Yeah..." she sighs, before realising that she's being a bad host. "Oh, I'm sorry, can I get you anything? Coffee? Water?"
He shakes his head and chuckles a little.
They sit in silence for a while, both revelling in the feeling of being close. Their mutual attraction starting to show to one another.
"Hey, can I ask a favour?" Emily asks.
"Sure."
"Would you..." she swallows the lump in throat and then reality kicks in. "Actually... forget it. It doesn't matter."
She stands up and moves into the kitchen and busies herself with making some coffee. A few moments later she feels her body tense up at his presence behind her, but she continues with the task at hand.
"Emily, what is it? You can ask me anything."
She turns her head and looks straight past him, focusing her eyes on a picture which is hanging on the wall.
"No. No, it's okay. I was going to ask if you would stay with me, just for tonight, just until I fall asleep. But I forgot you need to get home to Jack."
She tries to smile confidently at him.
"Emily, Jack's with his mom. I'll stay with you if you'd like."
She stares at him for a second, unsure that heard him correctly.
"Would you? Just until I fall asleep. If I can fall asleep."
"I'll stay all night. I'll be right on the sofa if you need me." he replies. He opens his arms to her, "Come here..."
She steps into his warm and safe embrace and sighs.
"I hate this." she whispers. "I'm a strong and confident woman and I'm acting like a scared teen. I hate feeling like this."
"Hey, you've been through a lot. You have a right to feel scared and shaken. I'll see you through this, we all will."
She inhales his scent and smiles up at him.
"Thank you. But you don't need to sleep out here. We're both adults, I'm sure we can share a bed. I promise I won't jump you."
They both laugh as she pulls away from him and leads him towards her bedroom.
A half hour later, after she's cleaned herself up, he's laying on the bed next to her and watching her drift off to sleep. He turns his head towards her when she moans as she rolls over and he smiles. She looks so beautiful, her dark hair hanging loosely around her face. He wants to hold her; to take away her pain, but he's not ready, neither of them are.
He knows he won't sleep. He can't stop thinking about what happened, to both her and Reid. In his head he can hear her moans and cries as she's beaten. He can hear the fear in her voice as she instructs the team to stay away. And although he didn't witness what happened to her, he can clearly see Cyrus beating her; her thin frame being slammed off the wall and being kicked as she lays in agony on the wooden floor.
He sighs and leans across and softly kisses her bruised cheek before settling back against the pillows.
"Goodnight, Emily."
The End
Thanks for reading.
Okay, this didn't turn out like I planned, too much talking, but meh... I'll try better next time.
Hopefully, my next Criminal Minds fic might be a smutty one.
Lynne x