A/N: Back again with NPH 10. So exciting! I'm having so much fun with this.

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who followed my last piece, Going to the Chapel and to mention those who reviewed that NPH instalment: fanficlover, miaa29 and PandaMeetsSquirrel…this one's dedicated to the three of you.

PLEASE NOTE: This is NPH 10. If you aren't already following this series, I recommend that you make your way to my author profile page and start with NPH 1, as some or all of this will not make sense otherwise.

DISCLAIMER: I sadly do not own Criminal Minds, its storylines or characters. I can only claim to manipulate them for the purposes of this story.

The Colour Red – Chapter 1

Emily sat in the chair in the waiting room with a cup of water and the distinct desire to murder the man currently pacing in front of her. Not only were his movements achieving the results of making her feel like she was on something moving; therefore producing nausea; but he was making her dizzy. She'd asked him to stop a few minutes ago and that had lasted a minute.

She dropped her head back against the wall and took a slow deep breath. She'd been ill on and off for the last week, making their honeymoon interesting as they explored their surroundings. She'd come to relish the moments where she could stop moving and just relax but those moments had been few and far between. Aaron had generously offered to cancel most of their activities, but despite her discomfort she had been having fun so she'd waved off the offer.

She'd come to the conclusion that either she did have cancer and this was a side effect or else the blood tests were wrong and she had an infection in the knee and this was still a side effect. Considering her knee was feeling better than it had been since the accident, she worried that the former theory was the correct one. Unfortunately, worrying only made her more unsettled and made the condition of her stomach worse.

She took another sip of water as a voice called her name. She opened her eyes and got slowly to her feet with some help from Aaron; deciding she'd forgive his tendency to need movement when he was nervous because he really was extremely good-looking and very attentive to her needs. It still didn't make the nausea go away however and she found as she went to move that she was dizzy and more.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," she muttered in a panicked voice.

Aaron swept her up off her feet and rushed her down the hall to the bathroom where he supported her body and head as she was violently ill. The doctor joined them a few minutes later with a glass of water and a wet cloth.

Emily took the glass and had a sip of the cool liquid with relief, though she eyed the fluid closely.

"What is this?"

"It's got a drop of a new anti-nausea drug in it. It's still pretty experimental or else I'd outright give you a complete dose. How do you feel?"

"Surprisingly better."

"Just sip the water; if you drink it too fast, research has shown it won't do you as much good."

Aaron used the cloth to cool her temperature as she leaned more fully on him. He looked at the doctor and asked softly, "Do we know anything more concrete?"

"Do you feel up to making it into my office Emily?"

She nodded and slowly made her way out of the bathroom and down the hall.

"I'm glad there was no one else about to witness that embarrassment."

The doctor rested his chest on his joined hands and sighed. "I wish I could tell you it won't ever be witnessed but chances are good someone will see you throwing up sometime in the near future."

She looked at him in horror. "You mean I've got cancer and I'm going to need chemotherapy?"

He laughed softly. "Nope; your blood came back negative for cancer and your white cell count is delightfully normal so I'll be taking more blood for a conclusive test. Certain lab techs are being closely investigated as we speak while they try to find who 'your' blood actually belonged to. Take a breath for me now and put your head down between your knees." He moved around his desk and helped her get her head down. "Just stay down there until the dizziness passes and breathe."

Several minutes later she slowly sat back up. "Better? Good; now we can get to the juicy bit. I will be sending you to give me a urine sample in a minute."

"What did you find?" Aaron demanded as a thought began to blossom in the back of his mind. He shot his wife's pale face a look and flicked a brief glance at her abdomen. It would explain the nausea, vomiting and her sudden dizziness.

"The test that just came back did reveal something else I found interesting. Emily, when was your last period?"

She opened her mouth, closed it and frowned slightly. "Do you know, I honestly don't remember but I'm pretty certain I'm late and I'm…" her voice trailed off as a thought hit her and she lifted a hand to her abdomen. They hadn't been trying but they hadn't always been that careful either. She looked up at Aaron and found him watching her closely. He smiled suddenly at her and she grinned back.

Looking back at the doctor, she asked "Do you think I'm pregnant doc?"

"The blood tests indicate you are. A urine sample will allow us to run a pregnancy kit and if it comes back positive, I'll want to get you in for further tests immediately so we can start monitoring how everything progresses. I would have preferred you gave your pelvic region a little more time to recuperate from the accident but since we can't change what has already happened, we can definitely start preparing for what may happen. The more we do preventatively, the better.

"However, first things first, let's get this news one hundred percent confirmed."

He sent her off to the bathroom with a little container and when she returned, he used her sample to run the most accurate pregnancy test currently on the market. A couple of minutes later, they had their answer.

He waited a moment as Emily and Aaron savoured the news they'd just been given before continuing. "As you were told back when the accident happened, delivering naturally is out of the question as there is no guarantee your pelvis will be able to handle it so we'll need to book you in for a caesarean section. The when of this will depend on several factors; how big the baby is and how your pelvis progresses with the growing strain on it. You'll be seeing me for weekly tests from now until your baby is born and we'll start assessing for a delivery date when you reach your third trimester."

"Will I have to stop working?"

"Of course not. For the most part, you'll be like any working mother-to-be; you'll just be more closely monitored than most and you may need to ride a desk for the last few months if the travelling puts any undue strain on you. We'll keep a close eye on your blood pressure and your stress levels. With luck your knee should be better by the time you start having to place additional weight on it and there are some easy exercises that will help with any additional pain caused by your pelvic region over the next months. Do you have time now for an initial scan?"

Aaron grinned. "That's the beauty of my being the boss. I'll just call in and let them know the meeting will be later than normal if we run late here."

The doctor smiled as he gestured them over to the side of the room. "Just a tip for you from one husband to another with a wife who worked through pregnancy; don't overdo the protective streak. As a father already, I'm sure you remember all the worry of the first time around. This time around, you need to trust Emily to know when to stop and what her body can handle. It'll be worse for you because you'll be working with her but she is an extremely smart woman in addition to being an honest one and you need to believe that as such she won't be doing anything to harm this child."

Emily leaned her head on Aaron's shoulder as he helped her onto the table. "It's alright doc. I've no doubt we'll talk it all out in the near future and that everything will be fine." She added with a cheeky smile, "He can always sleep on the couch if anything goes wrong."

He shot her an amused look and lightly kissed the back of her hand. The doctor shifted her top up and unbuttoned the top few buttons of her pants before squirting a cold gel on her stomach.

"I'll explain this as I go."

"You don't need to; I was pregnant at 15 and I've been through all this before."

"Did you give the child up for adoption?"

Emily closed her eyes against the question and was comforted by Aaron's hand stroking through her hair.

"She chose to abort the pregnancy at the time."

"I see. Well, let's concentrate on the here and now, shall we?"

Emily mouthed a thank you at her husband as the doctor concentrated on moving the scanner about. He pressed a light kiss on her forehead and they both turned to watching the screen.

"Here we go kids."

She looked more eagerly at the screen. "What exactly am I meant to be seeing?"

The doctor pointed at a darker splodge in the centre of the image on the screen. "That there in the middle of the lighter colour is the kidney-bean sized baby you are carrying; this combined with the features that have developed already tell me you're about 8 weeks pregnant."

They exchanged a look and replied "Vegas."

"Ah yes, the elopement I heard about. Well, looking closer, the baby is developing normally and your pelvis is currently unaffected. I'll check you over thoroughly today and we'll chart that with weekly appointments. I know it's possible that you'll miss a lot of your appointments due to being out of state, but as much as possible, I want to see you every Monday morning from now until you deliver. When you miss the appointment, I want to see you as soon as you return; I'll make time no matter how busy I am and I want you to do the same. If you are away at all over Christmas, let me know now and I'll look into who could see you over the break."

"We'll be down near Marion from the 23rd for about 2 weeks."

"I'll look into that and get back to you. Now, I'll print a picture off for you, we'll get you some information I want you both to read over and a list of foods I need you to avoid as much as possible."

New Section-

They walked into the meeting room at about a quarter past 10 to find everyone was waiting for them.

"You're here; you're finally here," Garcia and JJ chorused happily and Emily smiled as she moved to embrace them.

"What they mean is you're late."

"We don't mean that at all. Garcia would you do the honours?"

"Way ahead of you sweetpea," she said as she smacked Derek on the back of the head.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"Mistaken ideals."

JJ bounced slightly. "A whole week of skiing in France. A whole week! Can you believe it? Will turned out to be dreadful where snow is concerned but he had fun cause I had fun and I skied for a whole week!"

Garcia and Emily exchanged amused smiles as Emily took her seat beside Dave and the older man quietly welcomed her back.

"Me next," the other blond said and Emily gestured for her to go ahead as JJ picked up the controller for the screen. "Kevin is the very best! We had two days in Paris at Disneyland of all places and then we spent four days exploring Italy and getting up to mischief. It was so great!"

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Is any of that mischief going to come back to bite me on the butt?"

Garcia pretended to be affronted as everyone laughed.

"What about you chickee? You have a gorgeous tan there so I'm guessing Europe wasn't the destination."

Emily stretched slightly and settled back with a contented smile. "Bora Bora, Tahiti. White sand beaches, crystal clear blue waters and a luxury bungalow situated over the water. It was perfect."

"And we are perfectly late. You ladies can continue to share stories later. JJ?"

"Right; coming back to the real world. Augusta Police believe they have a serial rapist. Six victims in the last three months; one a weekend every second week. All were raped by the same man but the DNA is not previously in the system."

"So if we catch him in the act we can match him up but finding him is going to be difficult. Do we know anything about him?"

"He doesn't kill his victims and he has a type; all are voluptuous blonds with delicate facial features by the looks of it."

"All the women report a man with a really deep, husky voice ordering them to take off their clothing and lie on their backs with their eyes closed. He threatens them with a knife and if they don't comply he usually cuts them a bit to make his point. None of the women who were cut fought after that so we don't know if he'd be willing to kill as yet to get what he wants."

"It says here he wears a ski mask and he only ever takes off his pants. So we don't know what he looks like?"

"All the victims agree the man is tall but he comes at night, moving fast and they all say once they saw the knife they didn't pay much attention to anything else. He's slight, but all say that despite that, he's ah, rather large."

Garcia and Reid looked down as their faces went red and Emily raised an eyebrow as she looked at six similar descriptions. "This almost sounds like he uses a dildo; otherwise he'd have to be taking pills to gain this kind of size."

"I can see what may be available in Augusta in that, um, area but it might be hard to pinpoint with most of that kind of thing sold via the black market."

"Anything you could find would help Garcia. Also, dig into their backgrounds and see if you can find anything linking these six women to each other beyond their looks. And see if you can find an event that may occur only every two weeks that might get this guy going."

"Will do boss man." Garcia gathered up her computer and notebook and walked out muttering about joining a gym and getting an appointment with her hairdresser as soon as possible.

They all smiled as they watched her go. "JJ, call Augusta and let them know we're on the way. Everyone, wheels up in 30 minutes."

End-

A/N: Sorry for the subterfuge but I don't want everything to just be sunshine and roses for our fav couple; I would like them to have to work at some of it.

As always, I love reviews, so please let me know what you think.