It's Friendship

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is CBS, not mine.

Summary: Hotch and Emily get trapped in a vault together while pursuing an unsub and can't stand it...

A/N: Here's a new series of one-shots, all about friendship between the dark-haired pair.

Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review.

"Why is it that hate comes out so easily, yet love? It gets trapped inside." Author Unknown

"Son of a bitch" Emily muttered banging on the bank's vaulted door, pounding on it "Come on! People are trapped in here."

"Calm down, Prentiss." Hotch said moving around trying to get a signal on his phone "Anything on your earwig?"

Tapping the device in her ear, she pulled it out, "No, damn it."

Hotch kept moving around, "Ah ha. Found a signal."

Emily watched as he dialed a number, "Rossi? It's Hotch. Prentiss and I are trapped in the vault. What? Seriously? Fine. I'll try..."

Pulling the phone away from his ear, he closed it and groaned in frustration.

"What happened?" Emily asked "When can they get us out of here?"

Hotch sat down, "The vault's on an automatic timer, so it could be opened by hand..."

"Oh thank God" Emily said relieved but when she saw his face, "What else is there?"

A grunt escaped his lips, "Unfortunately the unsub cut the power, and the power company is backed up..."

"Backed up?" Emily moaned, "What could possibly take priority over an outing at a bank?"

"A hospital" Hotch said "Apparently people need power for things like breathing machines, and lights for surgeries..."

"Nobody likes a smart ass, sir." Emily muttered sitting on the floor against the wall.

"Maybe we can live without the sarcasm." Hotch said looking her in the eyes.

Feeling her breath stop, "Alright." Emily said.

Feeling antsy, Emily got up pulled off her vest and tossed it on the floor.

"God I hate this." Emily said "Why the hell did this unsub have to go and cut the power?"

Looking over at her, Hotch said, "I didn't know you hate enclosed spaces."

"I don't" Emily said folding her arms over her chest "And you don't know anything about me."

Groaning, "Prentiss..." Hotch started.

"See? Right there, you don't even call me by my first name" Emily said "You know what? Never mind, this is so not the time or the place to have this kind of discussion."

Hotch felt bad about that, and saw her lean her head against the wall as she closed her eyes, he could see that she was practicing controlling her breathing.

"I'm sorry" Hotch said quietly, "I'm sorry that I was rude or insensitive, Prentiss... I mean Emily."

"It's fine." Emily said in her usual tone of placated politeness.

"No, it's not." Hotch said getting up to sit next to her, "So, if you're not afraid of enclosed spaces, then what is it?"

She rolled her head, as she opened her eyes, "Alright, so maybe I'm not afraid, but I hate tight spaces, alright. There, I admitted it, happy now?"

"I get it" Hotch said quietly turning to look at her, "After Foyet's attack I got a little paranoid about safety. Going over the alarms and locks all the time."

Feeling bad for snapping at him, Emily looked over, "That's not an irrational fear. It's one of self-preservation."

"Thanks" Hotch told her, "And I do hope you know that I don't intend to hurt your feelings by calling you Prentiss, it's just that..."

"It's fine, Hotch" Emily told him, "It's really not a big deal. It's not like I call you Aaron or anything. That'd be just weird, and awkward. We're colleagues and you're my boss, so it's not a big deal."

Looking up at the flickering lights of the ceiling, "Well, I know we're on friendly terms and all, not exactly friends but maybe we can try to be. You are after a person I'd like to consider a friend."

"Ok" Emily said not giving it much thought, "We can try."

Hotch looked back over at her, "So... can you tell me why you hate tight spaces? If I'm not stepping over any line."

Closing her eyes, she exhaled and then looked over at him, "I guess if we're going to try the friend thing, that I'll have to tell you. But whats said in here, stays in here."

Hotch nodded, "Ok."

"When I was fifteen living in Rome, I had an abortion" Emily said looking away not seeing the shock on Hotch's face, "I sat in a cold sterile room, and was scared out of my mind. The only thing that kept me from totally losing it, was Matthew holding my hand, telling me to close my eyes and count backwards in my head."

"Matthew Benton?" Hotch asked.

"Yes" Emily said, "No one but Dave knows about it. Matthew could tell how scared I was. I felt like the walls were closing in on me, I had never been afraid of tight spaces, but sitting on that sterile table, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. But I just closed my eyes and listen to Matthew's words and kept counting."

Looking down, "Dave doesn't know about that part. No one did until now."

Hotch took ahold of her hand, "I'm sorry. I see why that case meant so much to you, because of him. Thank you for sharing it with me."

Just nodding her head, "Don't worry, I won't make you share some big secret. We all know how much you value your privacy."

Watching as she leaned against the wall, closing her eyes and quietly whispering a countdown, Hotch cleared his throat.

"My father" Hotch said feeling his voice tighten at what he planned to talk about "Wasn't the like all the other fathers."

Emily opened her eyes at that tone, looking over at him she could see he was struggling, so she placed her hand on his.

"He liked everything in a certain order and if it was even a fraction of an inch out of place," Hotch said squeezing her hand, "His punishments were severe."

Emily could hear his breathing laboring so she placed her hand on his shoulder, "If you don't want to talk about this I understand."

"I remember one time, I was about fourteen or fifteen, and Sean was maybe five, we were outside playing in the backyard." Hotch said, "He wanted to play basketball with me, but he was so small. So I gave him the ball and was helping with a lay up and he missed the basket and hit our father's car. When he came outside he looked beyond angry, and I couldn't let Sean get that punishment."

Emily felt her heart drop with each tone in his voice, "And you took it for him?"

Hotch nodded, "And when mother came home and she saw my face and arms, my father told her I fell out of a tree."

"How old were you when he died?" Emily asked.

"Seventeen, he died from cancer" Hotch told her "I had to give the perfect eulogy of how he was a great father and how much I idolized him. But when we left to go to the cemetery for burial, I told him that I was sorry he died before I got a chance to tell him what I really thought of him."

"Oh." Emily said seeing his face tense, she squeezed his hand "Do you want to tell me what you said?"

"I told him that I was angry at him for the way he beat Sean and me around, how he seemed to have my mother blind to his faults." Hotch said, "And I hated him for making me fear what I'd come home to, and wonder if when I walked through the door was I going to be beaten or ignored. That I was mad that he took his frustrations out on two children who never did anything wrong. And that I hate him because I was afraid that I'd become someone like he was and I never wanted to be someone who'd take my anger out on a woman or children."

The brunette bit her lip, sympathetic to Hotch's childhood, she subconsciously started picking her nail when she heard his soft voice continue.

"I told him that I forgave him because I need to move on with my life because now that he's gone I don't have to worry that Sean will have to go through this anymore," Hotch finished.

Emily felt the tears on her own face, "Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me."

Turning around, Hotch said, "Thank you for listening."

Hotch looked down to see their hands still connected and didn't pull away when his cell phone rang.

"Now how the heck do you get cell service but mine won't?" Emily joked whiping her face.

"Garcia's magic." Hotch said, "Hotchner. You are? Ok. Well we're still in here. Hurry up."

"We're getting sprung?" Emily asked "How much longer?"

"Few minutes." Hotch said looking at the clock on his phone "It's after midnight."

"Feels like it." Emily said stretching, frowning when she heard movement at the vault door "Looks like they're here, Hotch."

"You can call me Aaron off duty." Hotch said, "Ok?"

"Only if you call me Emily." Emily replied with a teasing smile, "Can you say Emily?"

"Like I said, sarcasm." Hotch said seeing the vault doors open.

"Wow, you two are still alive" Dave joked "Look Morgan, not even a scratch on them."

"Sarcasm is humor's ugly cousin, Morgan." Emily said standing up, heading towards the doors.

Turning around, Emily said, "You coming, Aaron?"

"Coming, Emily." Hotch replied with a smile, picking up their FBI vests.

Douglas Pagels said, "A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the nicest things you can be."

Until Next Time...

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