Emily noticed Hotch had been acting weird lately. The more she watched him the more she realized that he was only acting strangely around her. He would avoid eye contact. If she accidentally brushed against his arm he would tense up. Whenever she tried to have a conversation that didn't have anything to do with a case he would uncharacteristically stutter and abruptly end the conversation and walk away. Emily still didn't know how school was going for Jack since Hotch could never finish his train of thought whenever she asked.
Emily worried that it might have been something she did. Maybe she upset him and she didn't realize it. It wouldn't have bothered her so much if he was acting the same way towards everyone else, but she saw him talk to Rossi and Reid without struggling for words, and JJ grabbed his arm the other day but he didn't tense up. She was concerned, but she wasn't sure what she should do or say. If she made him mad or upset for some reason she didn't want to make it worse by bringing it up.
Thankfully one day she was having a conversation about her nonexistent sex life and she saw Hotch gaze at her out of the corner of her eye but the second she looked up and locked eyes with her stoic unit chief he blushed a deep crimson red and quickly looked away. At that moment Emily realized that she was the reason that he was acting so weird. It suddenly all made sense to her. The stuttering, lack of eye contact and tensing up when he was around her were clearly signs that she had been missing until now. Aaron Hotchner liked her. At the realization a small smile played across her lips. Finally, the man she couldn't stop thinking about liked her back.
Clearly there was something stopping him from confessing his feelings to her. It dawned on her that maybe he didn't realize that she felt the same about him. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized that she was going to have to subtly hint to him that she felt the same and she wanted him.
The next day at work when Hotch strolled in and only mumbled a greeting, Emily realized that getting it through his head was going to be a challenge. But it would be an entertaining one.
Brushing against him to get coffee and asking what was wrong had Emily fighting to keep the smile from her face. The fact that a simple hand on his arm could cause him to drop his coffee was a great accomplishment for Emily. She realized with a wink towards her boss that getting the great Aaron Hotchner to not be nervous around her was going to the biggest job she's ever had. And she was looking forward to it.
After the long and extremely horrible day where Hotch dropped his coffee every time Emily walked by or looked at him, Hotch gave up the idea of telling Emily how he felt. If he was unable to have a normal conversation while holding a drink how was he ever supposed to tell her how she made him feel?
It seemed like Emily was aware of his feelings. She wasn't afraid to touch him or wink at him, and that never happened before. She had always kept her hands to herself. In a way, it seemed like she was in Hotch's apartment when he gave himself the pep talk on how to woo her. But that was crazy. There was no way she could know about his feelings for her…right?
The paranoia was all in his head. It had to be. But why the sudden desire to touch him? He knew she was always hands on with Morgan and Reid, but she was never that way with him. Did this mean that she felt more comfortable around him now? If that was the case, maybe she did feel something for him. Was it possible that it wasn't all in his head? If so, how the hell could he get her to confess how she felt about him?
The best plan seemed to be that if he couldn't tell her how he felt, then he was going to have to get her to tell him how she felt. There had to be a way to get her to do that, but he just didn't know how.
Emily for one was enjoying making Hotch act very un-Hotch like. She was bringing a side of him out that no one has ever seen, and she was taking all of the credit secretly. Sadly no one else was getting to enjoy the fact that she was the reason for him spilling his coffee and stuttering on occasion.
The fact that Emily was able to make Hotch lose his train of thought while briefing the team of a new case, just from her crossing and uncrossing her legs while wearing a short skirt, had Emily chuckling on the inside. She knew she was going to have to end this soon. The thing is she wanted him, so why not give in and let him know how she felt? What was the worst that could happen? Sure he could fire her, but with the glint he always got in his eye when he saw her, she was willing to take that chance. Tomorrow, she told herself, that would be the day where she let Hotch know that it was okay if she made him uneasy and nervous, and there wasn't a reason for it because she wanted him as well. Only problem was, she had no idea what she was going to wear.
