Criminal Minds 06x22 "Out of the Light" ~Help each other ~

A/N: Hello everyone, this story is set after "Out of the Light" SEQUEL TO "Death Wish", set in the same AU as "Can't stop him again", "Stay", "liar", "Well I lost my wife", "Yes sir, no sir, of course sir". Hotch thinks over what Ashley told him on the plane and calls her up on his office offering her an interesting deal.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

~Help each other ~

The plane had landed over three hours ago it was now 10pm and he was sitting in his office, Jack was at Jessica's for the night, and the last thing he wanted was to go back to an empty house. Everywhere he looked Emily's touch was there, but she wasn't, he tried to deal with it by gathering all of her stuff in boxes, but then Jack asked him why he was doing it if Emmy was coming back and he caved. The next day he had placed the three books and ten DVD cases he had managed to pack back in their place, his other method was exhausting himself to a point where he would pass out on the couch or even his study, but after the one time Jack came to his empty bedroom after a nightmare and didn't found him and started crying for daddy he didn't do this again, ever and of course his last method was probably the oldest trick in the world drink himself to sleep, but a. he would never do it with Jack in the house and b. once he did while he was having a sleepover to his aunt, he came home early because Jessica's father got sick, to a scene that he doesn't want his son to see ever again. A scene he grew up seeing every day. He wasn't going to do the same to his son. Lately he found another method, only when Jack was home; he would get his son to sleep in his bed, cuddling his small warm body at night, reminding him that he wasn't alone, that this time the story would have a different ending that it wasn't history repeating itself again… but Jack wasn't home tonight.

So once again he found himself in his office, looking over Doyle's files again. He looked up from the files and looked to the bullpen; all lights were off, all but one. Ashley's desk lamp was still on, she wasn't working on anything at all, and all she was doing was starring at the desk across from hers, Emily's now empty desk. The things she said to him on the plane had stuck with him, he really was playing his life those last weeks, and he did know he hadn't started to mourn for Emily, but he didn't want to. His wife was alive; he didn't need to mourn her. She was alive damn it! He didn't have to mourn her.

He heard a soft knock on his door and raised his head towards the sound, Ashley was standing there, she held a file on her hands and she was shifting from leg to leg uncomfortably. "Sir, I finished my report." She walked towards his desk and placed the file on his desk, she turned to leave but he reached and grabbed her hand. "Ashley, would you please take a seat, I need to talk to you for a while." He dropped her hand and she looked at him wide eyed.

"Look, sir what I said at the plane was… completely out of line and I'm not going to interfere with your personal life again." She said looking at the floor in front of her.

"Well Ashley, you weren't wrong. I truly wasn't, I'm not, dealing with Emily… being gone." She looked at him in the eyes, curiosity "You are the youngest member of the team, so I guess that you didn't have the kind of support from the rest, not… I'm not saying that they don't want to help, but their grieve is much worse, they are trying to deal with it, so that leaves you alone. Just like I am. They want to help, but I can't… I can't have them see me like that. Morgan already blames himself, Garcia can't even deal with the fact that she's gone, Dave's already in too much pain, and frankly doesn't want to talk about it anymore than I do and Reid… well he's bare comfortable talking to me at all, much less about Emily. I need to talk to someone who isn't afraid to tell me the hard truth, and you proved that you can, today on the plane. I need you to do that. You need to feel closer to her, you feel like no one wants to talk to you about her. You feel like you were robbed of having a deeper connection with her. I need to talk about my wife, not Agent Prentiss, not Emily, my wife. Em, the… the woman, I went home with. That insufferably but so amazing woman. The same woman you need to get to know."

"Where are you going with this sir?"

"I'm making an offer Ashley, tonight, you'll come with my, in mine and Emily's apartment, I'll open a bottle of her favorite wine and talk about her. I'll answer everything you need to know. What do you say?" Ashley raised her eyes and looked at him. Tears had filled her blue eyes. She answered with her voice breaking.

"If you are sure sir."

A/N: Hey, hope you liked it, I was watching season 6 again these days and this is one of the ideas that popped into my head, as always let me know what you are thinking, I'd love to know Also would you like to read more? I'm thinking of writing a chapter where Hotch and Ashley are talking about Emily at Hotch and Emily's place and he shows her their pictures and some of Emily's things that he has to remember her like her makeup, some of her clothes and shoes, bags etc. what do you think? Would you like it?

Till next time, Bye!