Part 2 – One Touch Says It All

Author's Note: First... WOW and thank you all so much… I got up this morning to check my email and was inundated with responses to the first chapter… Which I can admit that I so wasn't expecting… I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed and a little shy. I'm gonna answer my reviews tonight when I get home from work but this, posting now, is my heartfelt thank you.

Originally I wasn't going to post this part until tomorrow morning but your responses gave me the push to polish it off this afternoon before heading off to work… I get now why people say that reviews are like candy and highly motivational. :-D

Okay, this chapter feels like a bit of tease because it's so short but there's a lot compacted into a small space, but believe me, the next part, which is three times the size makes up for it… I hope. I should have it up late Thursday night, provided that nothing interferes between now and then (read into that real life).

Aaron's gaze was focused on JJ as he spoke in the same clear soft tones that he always used when dealing with the media liaison, but there was something more under it this time. Something that made Emily's eyes snap open and her body flush with excitement.

"The trucks are ready to go." He looked down at Emily briefly and she drew in a sharp breath at the look in his eyes. Hotch turned back to JJ continuing where he left off before he looked down at Emily, he knew he should have kept his eyes off her till they were alone. "Go with the others; tell them we'll be along shortly."

JJ looked down at her friend and was about to object when Hotch raised his hand slightly. What she saw there, in his eyes, startled her down to her very shoes. He heard everything they said, and if she had to hazard a guess he wasn't at all unhappy with what he had learned about her dark haired friend.

She moved forward and rested a hand on his forearm, looking up into his eyes, scrutinizing him, trying to find the thing that she needed before leaving her best friend in his care.

Aaron gently rested a hand over top of hers, giving it a soft squeeze. His eyes softened at the concern in her gaze. Concern for a woman they both cared a great deal about. "It's okay JJ. I'll take care of her, I promise."

She smiled softly, gave him a small nod before moving off to where the others were waiting. Aaron stood there and watched as she pushed them all at the truck, hurriedly encouraging them to get in, before giving one last look back, she climbed in herself and they drove off.

On silent feet he moved over till he was standing directly in front of Emily, his body blocking out the overhead light and bathing her form in darkness while cloaking his own face in shadows. Emily tipped her head back and wished she could see what he was thinking but the lack of light kept her from seeing anything clearly and she desperately needed something. Some indication of which way she should behave, she needed that clue from him and she wasn't getting it.

Hotch gave her a reassuring smile, turning slightly so that the light reached his face. He reached out a hand towards her, willing her to take it, to take that last step, take him. His breath caught in his throat as he waited for her to make a choice, the same choice he had made before coming over to her.

Emily reached up her hand but hesitated for just a moment unsure of the question he was asking her with his eyes and outstretched limb. But she somehow knew if she took his hand, things were going to change between them. "Hotch?"

"Take my hand Emily." His voice was soft and reassuring but there was a shift in his manner, just below the surface that she couldn't pin down and it had her more than a little unnerved.

Emily peered up into his dark, dark eyes, searching for answers to thousands of questions. Ones she didn't even have formed yet and tentatively placed her fingers within his grasp. Somehow she knew that by taking his hand, she was making the right choice. She just wasn't sure that she understood the options yet.

Finally, levering herself up off the ground with his help, she was shocked slightly when he didn't move away, in fact, stepped closer to her. Her body was trapped between the hard brick against her back and the wall of his chest.

Her breath hitched in her chest, "Aaron?"

He moved slightly closer murmuring, "Trust me?"

"Always trust you." She said it with finality as if there was never another option and while her voice was soft, it was also clear and sure.

There was a hairs breath between them and she could feel the heat radiating from his form, causing her own body to heat in response and she thought that perhaps, she understood what he was asking. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply through her nose, taking in the crisp clean sent of him, reveling in the sense of comfort she received from that one thing alone.

Aaron reached a hand up and cupped her chin, tilting her face up so that he could see her unobstructed for the first time that night. Even though she tried to suppress it and cover it up, Hotch could see the latent fear in her eyes, the same sad look she had when standing with him and Dave behind the ambulance as Morgan led the suspect away. Now, he knew what the look said and was humbled to see it directed at him.

Still holding her hand in his other one he lifted her it up to his neck. She trembled slightly as he pressed her palm against his carotid artery, allowing her to feel the strong pulses of his heart through the soft skin. His own hand covered her smaller one and he closed his eyes, breathing deeply through his nose. It had been so long since anyone touched him, really touched him, and he felt an unexpected pleasure thrumming through his blood at the contact.

She stared up into his face and when he opened his eyes again she saw nothing but understanding in their depths, comfort given and received. Aaron glanced down and watched as his other hand cupped her elbow before slowly sliding up the length of her arm feeling the definition of her muscles, the strength contained within her compact frame, strength that was inherently Emily Prentiss and had little to do with her physicality.

There was something in the way that he touched her that was methodical, gentle and achingly intimate. She felt his slightly rough skin caressing the bare flesh of her neck, cupping it as he stepped a little closer. Ever so gently he tugged her the remaining distance until her cheek was pressed into his chest. He never said a word, one hand holding hers to his neck as the other slid from her neck down the length of her back, tracing the line of her spine till he was holding her firmly to his chest.

Emily closed her eyes and allowed the last of the tension and worry to seep from her body. She breathed deeply, inhaling his scent and allowed it to comfort her further. She didn't know how long they stood there, like that, under the light of a distant lamp but she was never more grateful for the type of man that Hotch was as she was at that moment.

He pulled back and gently brushed at the underside of her eye, capturing moisture that never managed to escape. He took her hand in his own and started to lead her to the front of the building.

"Come, the rest of the team will be wondering where we are."

Emily was slightly surprised when he never let go of her hand even when they were in full view of the station house. Just led her over to the lone SUV in the parking lot, opened the door before helping her in. He continued to look at her with that same enigmatic look as he closed the door and moved to the driver's side.

She shifted in her seat and turned to look at him as he drove. Emily was certain that she could spend a hundred years and still find things about this man that she didn't know. In the last half hour there had been a paradigm shift in their relationship and she couldn't figure out what it was.

Seemed that the man sitting next to her was the one with the answers and right now, he wasn't sharing.

Aaron Hotchner was quiet and reserved on the surface, speaking only when necessary and saying only what needed to be said, nothing more. And in that moment his manner created another level of intimacy between the two of them. There seemed to be a tacit understanding between the two of them that words didn't need to express.

The trip to the hotel was a short one and Emily had been so caught up her thoughts that she was startled at the change of scenery. Hotch pulled into a parking spot, turned off the truck and got out. A feeling of total unreality filled the cab as she watched him move around the hood to her door. Again he held the door open, helping her out before folding her hand firmly in his own and leading her to the entrance of the hotel.

Aaron held the door open for her and allowed her to enter first, placing his hand on her lower back and guided her inside. Rather than moving to the bar where the rest of the team was gathered he stopped long enough for JJ to look up. He tipped his head to her, communicating something with his look, and started to usher Emily away again.

The blond looked up and gave them both a soft smile and a nod before turning back to her conversation with Reid.

Emily could admit it; she was more confused than ever. She would give anything to know what was going on in his mind at the moment.

The confusion continued to grow as they stopped in front of her hotel room door. Hotch smiled softly at her, brushing the back of his fingers down her cheek, before moving off towards his own room, never saying a word, leaving her dazed and confused in the hall.

She stood there, blinking, stunned stupid for several minutes before finally pulling herself together and letting herself into her room.

Emily felt like she had landed on a different planet as she stood next to the utilitarian hotel bed. Her mind rattled through the events of the evening, from the shooting, to her talk with JJ, her strange encounter with Hotch, and the trip through the hotel.

There was something missing from the whole thing and it left her with a slightly unsettled lost feeling. She tried to connect the dots but her experiences with men never left her with the knowledge she needed to figure out what Hotch had been thinking that night.

Visibly shaking herself of her thoughts she went about her evening routine and tried to put it out of her mind. She would think about it again when she was a little more focused. She went about everything in the same, normal, pattern that she did every night. She pulled her night clothes from her go bag and headed for the bathroom. She changed into a tank top and shorts, brushing out her hair, cleaning her teeth. But still that same feeling of everything being different followed her and she couldn't seem to shake it.

When the knock came ten minutes later, she assumed it was JJ checking on her again before heading off to bed herself and thought nothing of opening the door.

Hotch stood there before her dressed in a t-shirt and jogging pants and had that same perplexing look in his eyes that she couldn't decipher. In his hand he carried his room card, gun and credentials. Without thinking she stepped aside and watched with wide eyes and her lips slightly parted as he moved over to the bed, dropping his items on the bedside table. The opposite side from where her same items were laying.

Hotch came over with a full smile on his face at the look on hers. She was completely confused and it was a look that he enjoyed putting there, seeing her so completely off balance because of something he did. Using a single finger he pushed up and her lower jaw and chuckled softly when her mouth snapped shut.

Grasping her smaller hand in his own he pulled her forward and hugged her tightly to his chest, burying his face in her soft hair.

"You are truly delightful." He pulled back and smiled at her and without conscious thought of her own she smiled back, simply in response to a look on his face that she didn't get to see that often.

Honest, pure, real happiness.

He reached out and grasped her soft palm in his own. He found that now that he had finally allowed himself to touch her, crossed that final barrier between them, he couldn't stop doing it.

Aaron tugged on her hand and led her around the room locking the door and shutting off the lights as they went. He carefully toed his sneakers off and pushed them under the end of the bed with his foot, tapping them lightly till they lined up perfectly with the end of the bed post. Emily smiled at the strange little ritual and at the fact that she was allowed to see it.

They moved further up the bed and he pulled back the covers on the side of the bed that he had claimed and motioned of her to crawl in. When she hesitated he reached out and cupped the sides of her face, smoothly brushing her hair back from her cheeks.

For a moment he contemplated kissing her, finally closing that last distance between them, but he repressed the need. That wasn't what this was about. He leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to her forehead before pushing her into the bed.

"Get in Emily." Any hesitation she felt disappeared at the contentment in his voice.

Once she was settled in the center he crawled in next to her, pulling the warm blankets up over them and blocking out the chill of the air conditioning.

"Hotch…." Emily's voice was soft and confused but there was a slightly needy quality to it as well, that tugged on his heart strings.

Wrapping his arms around her he pulled her tight to his chest. "Sssshhh, this way you won't have to wait when the nightmare comes."

Emily finally understood what he was doing, what this had all be about, and laid her head down over his heart. A completely relaxed smile graced her features and she allowed her eyes to close.

TBC in Part Three – Behind Closed Doors (Rated M)