A/N I wrote a version of this story for my creative writing class years back and so I applied it to Criminal Minds and thought it fit...

I own nothing

I'm staring off into space, lost in my own mind. The apartment is dark. The only sounds in the room are Aaron's breathing and the soft hum of the TV. I'm tucked into his body on the big couch, his arm protectively and possessively holding me to him as he sleeps. I don't blame him after the events of the evening.

I had a reunion to go to, it wasn't necessarily high school or college, just a get-together chock full of people from my past. I figured with the success of my job at the BAU and my recent engagement to Aaron, I would have enough ammo to battle the daemons of my past. Looking back, I think I forgot about one particular daemon.

FLASHBACK

Emily walked into the full banquet hall and signed in. She left the guest spot blank. Aaron said he would come, but the last case had been hard on us all and she wanted him to have time to relax, so she told him to stay home. She took a deep breath, she was ready for this. She was a successful woman with a man that loved her; these people had nothing on her.

"Oh my gosh, Emily Prentiss!" a familiar voice gasped from behind her. Emily spun around and came face to face with Leah Michaels. She'd know her for the better part of her life. They didn't go to school together because of Emily's family was constantly moving, but their parents ran in the same circles. She gave Emily a quick over looking before her eyes landed on the ring on her left hand. Emily blushed. She and Aaron had been together for awhile, but the engagement was still very new. She wasn't used to the attention. "Is that an engagement ring?" Leah inquired.

"Uh, hi Leah, and well, yes," Emily managed to get in before Leah absolutely went off.

"Really? Is it with that guy, uh, the G- man? Hatch, or Hodge, or something, wasn't it? Don't you two work together? Doesn't he have kids?" The questions came like bullets. Emily hesitated for a minute, trying to piece together a sentence that would answer all of them at once.

"It's Hotch, Aaron Hotchner actually, but yes, we do work together for the Behavioral Analysis Unit for the FBI and he has one son, Jack," she fired back, covering everything.

"Oh I bet he's a real bad ass," Leah grinned. Emily smiled to herself; Aaron was sort of a bad ass. The two guns he constantly carried and the battle scars he wore with pride told her that. She shrugged to the woman. "Do you have a picture of him?" she wondered. Emily thought for a minute. She had to have a picture of him somewhere; he was her fiancé for crying out loud. Then it clicked. He was the current background on her phone. She fished the electronic device out of her purse and hit the button so the screen lit up. Aaron's face appeared. His raven hair, dark questioning eyes and one of his rare smiles hung between his perfect dimples. Emily showed it to Leah. "Oh, he's handsome and he looks dangerous," she gushed. Emily all but rolled my eyes. Aaron was only dangerous if you were an unsub, or if you threatened her or Jack. She smiled and excused herself to move further into the reunion.

Then Emily saw him. Jayden Wyatt. He was her boyfriend for a short period of time and my date to one of the dances she went to while she was in school in the US. As she recalled, the night hadn't ended well. She wouldn't put out since she had already learned the consequences of that in Rome, and that pissed Jayden off. He grabbed her wrists so hard they bruised and pushed her into a wall, hard. She walked out with a concussion. She hadn't thought about him again since that night, until that moment at the reunion. Emily tried to doge out of his line of vision, but was too late, he'd already seen him. She swore under her breath as he started walking towards her. She wanted to move, she wanted to turn and run, anything, but before she knew it he was at her side.

"Hello Emily," he spoke with a sinister smile.

"Jayden," she replied politely. He began to speak again, but was cut off by the sound of her cell phone ringing. She motioned for him to hold on as she looked for her phone. Emily thanked everything holy that someone decided to call at that particular moment. She checked the caller ID, it was Aaron. She never loved him more than she did right then.

"Hey," Emily greeted.

"Hey Em, I was just calling to see if you were having a good time," she could practically feel him smile through the phone.

"It's been good," she responded somewhat vaguely.

"Is everything alright?" his voice suddenly concerned. There were pro and cons to being engaged to a profiler. This was definitely a pro. He knew something was up and she didn't even have to say a word.

"Uh, yeah, actually I was thinking of leaving early, do you think you could come get me, so I don't have to take a cab home?" Emily asked.

"Of course sweetheart, I'll be there as soon as I can," he promised.

"Can you come inside when you get here?" she all but begged.

"Emily, what's going on?" now he was certain that she needed him for more than a ride.

"Some people want to meet you," she lied.

"Ok, I'll see you soon," Aaron replied, not pressing the issue any further. She was obviously in a situation where she couldn't say anymore. She had tried to use the phone call to put some space between me and Jayden, but failed miserably. Jayden wasn't letting her off that easy.

"What's his name?" he asked.

"Who's name?" she knew exactly who he was talking about, but decided to play dumb.

"The bastard that put that ice on your left hand," Jayden all but growled.

"Hotch," Emily figured one word answers would work best. She was hoping to remove myself from this conversation and go wait for Aaron. She was thankful her apartment wasn't far away. He would be there within minutes.

"I hope he knows what kind of slut he's marrying," Jayden threw back. "Not that I would know, you put out for everyone but me," he added. She could feel herself growing angry. He suddenly entered her personal space and leaned in to whisper. "You think you can tease me like that and get away with it?" Emily's eyes widened. She could suddenly feel the pain in her wrists, like the bruises he inflicted were still there and fresh. The back of her skull throbbed like he had just thrown her up against the wall. Emily suddenly had the courage to say to him what she couldn't that night.

"Get away with it? You gave me bruises and a concussion! Trust me I didn't get away with anything, you jackass. Not that I deserved any of it, all I did was refuse to have sex with you!" Emily spoke through clinched teeth.

"That's what dances were for you little bitch, it was an excuse to have sex under the guise of a formal event," he hissed.

"You son of a bitch, all you did was use me the entire time we were together, you were an abusive asshole," she screamed. As she finished her sentence, she felt his hand connect with the side of her face.

"You don't speak to me like that!" he yelled.

Aaron heard the slap followed by gasps as he walked in the door, but never imagined it had anything to do with Emily. He saw all the faces turned towards a couple in the corner. The woman was clutching her face. He couldn't mistake that form, or that hair. It was Emily. That man had just hit Emily. His Emily. He took long strides to get to her.

Emily felt two hands settle on her hips. She knew they didn't belong to Jayden, his were crossed across his chest. She spun to find herself face to face with her fiancé.

"Oh, Aaron," she breathed. He brought a hand up to gently caress her injured cheek.

"Em, what did he do to you?" he asked, his dark eyes pleading for an answer. She just gave him a look, letting him know this was not the time or place to have that conversation. He gave her a curt nod and put his body between her and Jayden. If Emily wasn't going to give him an answer, he was going to get one, one way or another. "What did you do to her?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Jayden replied with a grin.

"Nothing my ass, why is your hand print on the side of her face?" Aaron pressed on.

"I was putting the bitch in her place," Jayden stated simply. "She deserved it, for the way she spoke to me," he added. Aaron had had just about enough.

"No, she didn't, no matter what she did, nothing warranted physical confrontation," he was trying to go completely federal on the guy. Emily watched as Jayden's fist moved in Aaron's direction, but with his honed reflexes, Aaron blocked. "Come on Emily, let's go home," he instructed, taking her hand and starting towards the door. Faster than anyone could react, Jayden grabbed Emily's wrist and tried to pull her back towards him. Aaron hadn't noticed and kept walking.

"Aaron," she called, trying to get him to stop the tug of war of which she was currently the rope. Jayden managed to twist her arm behind her back, causing and insurmountable amount of pain. "Hotch, stop," Emily begged, trying to release herself for his grasp. Aaron finally turned around and noticed her pained expression. He noticed the sly grin on Jayden's face.

"Let go of her!" he commanded. Jayden only laughed and twisted her wrist more. That was it. Aaron threw a fast and forceful punch to the center to Jayden's face. Jayden let go of Emily's arm in favor of tending to his bleeding nose.

Aaron put Emily in a chair close by while he talked to the Police officer working security. He gave the officer their information, saying Jayden had assaulted a Federal agent and they were pressing charges.

Emily was in so much pain. It was making her nauseous and light headed. She was fighting the urge to vomit and pass out at the same time. She was certain Jayden had broken her wrist. Compared to that, the sting of her face was nothing. Aaron finally retuned to her and ushered her out of the hall.

"We need to get you to the emergency room," he stated, emotionless, as if they were on a case. She knew he was upset, so she said nothing. He wasn't ready to talk about it.

The wait at the emergency room wasn't long. Emily figured it had something to do with the excessive swelling of her wrist. After a few x-rays, they confirmed her suspicions; her wrist was in fact broken. They put her in a soft cast until the swelling went down and told her to come back for her hard one when it did.

Aaron had still barely spoken by the time they were driving back to her apartment. Emily nervously toyed with the edge of her shirt as tears stung the back of her eyes. She couldn't help but feel that he was mad at her. When they made it to the apartment, he instantly went to get ready for bed. Emily followed his lead, silently sulking the entire time. When Aaron was in his sweats and a t-shirt he left the bedroom for the living room.

"Aaron, talk to me, please," she pleaded as she sat down on the couch next to him. He sighed heavily and dropped his head into his hands.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"Jayden Wyatt, an ex boyfriend. He was abusive, and I was scared of him so I didn't leave. That was until the night of the end of the year school dance. He threw me up against the wall near the bathroom and walked out. I left the dance and went straight to the emergency room, much like tonight. He gave me a concussion and I gave him the boot. I hadn't seen him since," Emily spilled everything.

"Why did you tell me about him?" Aaron wondered.

"He slipped my mind, I honestly haven't even thought about him in ages," Emily shrugged.

"I was scared, I heard him hit you. It was like you were in the compound all over again. I have enough fighting the urge to protect you from the job, I never thought I'd have to protect you from your social life too," he admitted.

"I'm so sorry, Aaron," Emily whispered as she began to cry again.

"I know, and it's ok, you don't have to cry, just don't scare me like that again," he said, pulling her into his lap and cracking a small smile. "I love you, Emily," he expressed.

"I love you too, Aaron," Emily replied, burring her face in the crook of his neck. He softly kissed her hair.


It's getting late and there's nothing on TV. As much as I hate to wake the beautiful man sleeping beside me, I know it for the best. If I don't, we will both be stiff and sore in the morning. I softly say his name and pull him from the depth of sleep. He dark eyes can barely stay open and we move from the couch. He leans heavily into me as we walk down the hall, not quite awake enough to be sure of his footsteps. We crawl into bed and his arms wrap around me again. I smile to myself as I think about what Leah said. Aaron was a bad ass, but only when he needed to be, when he didn't, he was a big teddy bear. I burrow further into his body as I finally drift to sleep.