A/N: I should say I have no medical expertise whatsoever. Just roll with it ;-)
*~*
The decision to kiss for the first time is the most crucial in any love stroy. It changed the relationship of two people much more strongly then even the final surrender because this kiss alreadt has within it that surrender.
Emil Ludwig
*~*
Aaron Hotchner glanced through the forms one last time. The hospital had taken Emily in almost immediately, and while she waited in pain, he had offered to fill out her forms. He knew almost everything. He walked back to her emergency room.
"How did this happen exactly again? You slipped?" Hotch asked. He would need this information for his accident report, even if it didn't happened at work. She would still need leave.
"Yeah. I was taking a shower and my foot twisted. I hit my head and when I woke up I was in a lot of pain." She said groggily. A nurse had just inserted an IV and given her a shot of morphine. They were told it would still take some time to kick in.
"What time would you say that was around?" He questioned.
"I dunno. I got home around almost at 7. Like 5 minutes after that?" She answered softly.
"Do you have any idea how long you were out for?"
"No."
"Who do you want as next of kin? Your mother? Father?"
"Sure."
"Who?"
"What?"
"Emily! Pay attention." He chided gently. "And stay awake." Hotch reminded her. Under no condition was she to fall asleep.
"Humph." Was her answer. He continued filling out the forms with her mother's contact information. He also added himself as a contact. He was her superior and responsible for her. Not every hour of the day, a sarcastic voice said in his head. Hotch ignored it.
He heard Emily shift her position again, hiss in pain and settle back down. She did that every few minutes.
"What were you doing at my apartment anyway?" She asked him again, for the thousandth time. She was looking at him directly, more focused then she had been all morning. The morphine must have been kicking in.
Hotch had tried brushing it off, but she only asked again. And again. "It's no longer important. Read this." He held the forms up to her so she could double check them. Emily was distracted enough to forget her question. She'd ask it again in about an hour or so.
The emergency room Doctor arrived, examined her shoulder, and promptly starting telling a joke about a mental patient and a psychiatrist. Hotch found it funny enough, but predictable. He could have come up with it himself if he wanted to. But Emily gave an appreciative laugh in her morphine-induced state.
"OW!" She cried in mid laugh. The doctor has re-located her shoulder so fast, her cry made Hotch jump.
"There. I don't think any permanent damage was caused. I'll send you for some x-rays, for your shoulder, torso and ankle. We'll determine if anything's broken." The Doctor announced.
"That hurt!" Emily snapped viciously, rubbing her arm and grimacing. The doctor put her arm in a sling.
"No it didn't. You felt the pop, yes, but no pain. Good day. You can go down to X-ray now." He left as fast as he had come.
"Asshole." Emily cursed after he left.
"How do you feel now?" Hotch asked concerned.
"Pissed." She grumbled. She started to flex her fingers and wrist. Hotch chuckled appreciatively this time. "Come on, the faster we get down this over with the faster I can leave." She said.
Hotch left to find a wheelchair for her. She still had a possible broken ankle. And with a sore shoulder she probably wouldn't do well with crutches. And Reid just got rid of his crutches, he thought to himself. His team was in rough shape. Rossi was the only member to remain unscathed in some way. Garcia had been shot, Reid had been shot, Morgan had been thrown through a window, JJ hit with a shovel, Emily hit by a truck and he himself had been attacked in his own home, his wife murdered and his son traumatized. He needed to keep a better eye on everyone. Lately he realized his team had been too close to the cases. Being too close got them hurt. And he could not bear any team member injured, or lost. Not now.
Hotch thought these thoughts as he wheeled Emily down the corridor. She was saying something not very important, jumbled and somewhat unfollow-able. Morphine did that to you.
They made it down to x-rays and Hotch had to stand outside in the hall. In some ways it was really lucky that Emily injured herself this way. It certainly solved all his problems at the moment. All morning he had been stressing over Strauss' latest assault on his team. As subtle as that woman could be, she was a force to be reckoned with. While he instinctively knew Emily would not want to leave the team, re-assignments were non-negotiable. And Strauss had enough power to make it permanent.
"Hellooo?" Hotch heard Emily call from behind the door. "A little help here?" He entered the x-ray room to find Emily struggling to get off the table. He dashed to catch her before she fell, again.
"Can't you wait a bit?" He asked.
"I hate x-rays." Emily simply said. Her eyes were buggy and she was feeling no pain. It was an amusing sight.
"Why?"
"Oh, I don't know. Just do. Same way I hate pickle ice cream. They just don't belong together."
They waited in the hall to get the results back. "How's Jack?" Emily asked, keeping up the conversation.
"He's doing alright. He misses his mom, a lot. Jessica, who was my sister in law, helps us out a lot."
"How old is he again?"
"He's four."
"And who's watching him now?"
"Jessica."
"You're lucky." She stated out of the blue.
"How so?" His stomach twisted like it always did when he discussed Hayley and Jack. He wasn't quite over what happened to them. Those images would always be burned behind his eyes.
"You have...someone to love...and someone who will always love you. That's pretty lucky." She sighed heavily.
"What's the matter?" He asked at her sudden change in demeanour. Before she had been happy and bubbly.
"Ribs hurt." Before he could ask her what she meant about love, the same ER doctor arrived and brought out three x-ray sheets.
"You didn't break anything." He told them. "Just sprained your ankle. We'll wrap that and set you up with some crutches. Try and stay off of it for two weeks or so. You bruised two ribs, but there's nothing I can do for that just prescribe some painkillers and tell you to rest in bed for a few days. How's that sound?"
"Great. Thanks doctor." Hotch said, shaking his hand and taking the prescription.
"Doc, can I go back to work tomorrow?" Emily asked, blearily eyed.
"How bout in a week?" The doctor stated and left them.
"A week? All by myself? That's crap." Emily cursed moodily. Hotch took her back up to the emergency room to get her ankle wrapped and painkillers prescribed.
"Do you want another shot of Morphine? Yours seems to be wearing off." A nurse asked Emily before they left.
"Sure. I'm not doing anything today." She shrugged signing off on insurance papers.
Once back in his car, Emily sat staring at the window. He waited twenty minutes, so that she was way in the throes of happiness, to tell her.
"Strauss wants you put on another team."
"Why?"
"Because of your linguistics skills. It's only for one case, a long one, but if you did well there she might have made it permanent."
"Oh. Might have? I'm not being re-asseen? Assign. Assigned." She mumbled.
"No. You're injured and out for three weeks."
"Three weeks? Didn't the doc say one week? I was sure he said one week."
"No, he said three. You're to stay off your ankle for two weeks and one more for rest. Weren't you listening?" He lied smoothly. Three weeks was long enough to be a pain in Strauss' side and she wouldn't be able to use Emily. Lucky the doctor hadn't written it down.
"What am I going to do for three weeks?" Emily complained.
"I'm sure we'll come up with something." He reassured her.
*~*
Getting her back up to her apartment wasn't as pain filled as the morning. He simply had to roll her down the hall.
"Do you know what I'm going to do?" She asked suddenly.
"What?"
"I'm going to rent every movie on my satellite and watch them. I haven't had time to watch a movie in ages."
"I've got tons of Disney movies at home. I can't even remember the last movie I watched." He said as they arrived to her door.
He opened the door and wheeled her in. The hospital had given her a wheelchair to use just for a couple days until her shoulder healed. It beat having to carry her. Hotch prided himself on being a strong man, but he wasn't in his twenties anymore.
"Where do you want to be? Down here or upstairs?" He asked her. No use setting her on the couch if he had to move her later. Why do you have to be the one to take care of her? The tiny voice in his head asked.
Because that's what friends do. He answered the tiny annoying voice.
Two months ago you would have just called paramedics and let someone else handle her.
That's not true.
Oh yes it is. Call her parents and let them take care of it. Go back to work, where you belong.
Hotch coughed loudly as if that could squash the tiny voice. He was going to be a friend to Emily, because she was one of the limited people he had. Plus, she had found him after Foyet attacked him, and had helped a lot.
Driving you to work isn't the same thing.
He coughed again. "Are you ok?" Emily asked.
"Yeah. Here." He lifted her up from the wheelchair and climbed the stairs. He had to remind himself the only reason why she was so relaxed and her body melded into his was the morphine. Her head rested comfortably on his shoulders and all he could smell was her hair. He found he really, really liked the smell and breathing in the scent of her. It felt....soothing.
He set her down on her bed and she quickly got under the covers, shivering from the cold. No wonder in the flimsy t-shirt she was wearing.
"Do you need anything? Food, water? Another blanket?" He asked.
"Hmm. Food sounds good. Yeah, I guess I'm hungry." The rumbling of her stomach agreed with her.
"I'll be right back." He said, going in search of food.
The last time he had been in her kitchen, he had been asking her to stay on the team as well. And she had gotten a concussion the next day.
"Wow." He said out loud as his remembered. He had been impressed with her so much that she hadn't ratted him out to Strauss. She was fully part of the team after that. He would do almost anything to keep her there.
Emily Prentiss had little in the way of actual food. And Hotch was not the best cook. He could make just enough to survive on his own with Jack. Snacks and Jessica were blessings in disguise.
Hotch checked the microwave clock and was astounded that it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon. He whipped out his phone and called Rossi. He had missed so much today.
"Hey-lo." Rossi answered.
"Hi." Hotch didn't know quite what to say. He had never in his life ignored any workplace responsibility. Hayley had been quick to remind him of that. And thinking of Hayley was like a knife in his gut.
"Well hello stranger. Nice of you to call." Rossi scolded.
"I know, I'm sorry. But Emily was in an accident."
"What happened?"
"She fell in the shower, but she'll be fine. Just a sprained ankle, dislocated shoulder. She'll be out for a few weeks."
"And that's fine? Wait—how did you know all this?"
"Ah...she called me." He cursed his hesitation. David Rossi was a pro at profiling. He was like a bloodhound.
"Okaay." Hotch could just see the smirking face on him.
"Anyway, did I miss anything important?"
"Everything we do here is important Aaron."
Hotch resisted the urge to growl into the phone. Rossi could be so damn obnoxious when he wanted to be. And he enjoyed awkward situations.
"Did any cases come up I should be aware of?"
"No, it was your lucky day. It's been quiet since Lockport." My lucky day indeed, Hotch thought.
"Okay. Thanks. I'll be later this evening." Hotch hung up and started mentally tallying all the paperwork that needed to be in before Friday. Since coming back to the BAU and being a single father he had spent an entire night working out a schedule so that he could be available for his son and still get everything done. He had figured one out but it left little room for personal time.
Like spending an entire day with Emily Prentiss.
He called Jessica to tell her he'd be running late while opening up a few more cupboards. Nothing was ready made or easy to make. He didn't want to go back empty handed so he poured her a glass of water.
"I said I was hungry not thirsty." Emily said once he came back up. She was propped up with some pillows and flipping through channels on the television in her bedroom.
"It would help if you had food I could make." She gave him a quizzical look. "How about we order something?" He said. He was hungry to, and it wouldn't hurt to eat together.
"Oh! Chinese. Wait—no. Pizza. Oh but a new Thai place opened up on Pennsylvania street. Or that Sushi place near—"
"Chinese or Pizza?" He narrowed down her choices. He disliked Thai and Sushi, and he was pretty sure she wouldn't like something so exotic in her current state of body, and mind.
"Pizza. No. Chinese. No—."
"Oh no, you said Pizza first." He laughed, really laughed, at her. High-Emily was so different from the one he worked with. There weren't as many shields and masks in place. Normal Emily knew exactly what she wanted when she wanted it. This Emily was very amusing. She didn't care about anything.
Even her lop-sided grin was beautiful, with her big brown eyes illuminated. He could get lost in them....
I bet you could. Hotch coughed again and immediately stopped laughing. He looked away from her and concentrated on ordering a pizza.
"Pepperoni...with cheese..." It was hard to concentrate with Emily tapping his arm. 'What?' He mouthed.
"Get extra cheese. And garlic fingers. With extra cheese."
He nodded and relayed that back to the likely pimple-faced teenager and had it delivered.
"Sit back down." Emily ordered after he got off the phone. She patted the spot beside her. On her bed.
"Come on." She urged, smiling brightly. It tugged his heart. I really shouldn't be doing this, he thought but he did it anyway. He sat stiffly beside her and turned his eyes to the television.
"Relax." She gripped his bicep, pushing him sideways a bit. "It's not like I'm going to bite you." She laughed.
"I know." It wasn't that she wasn't going to bite him. It was that he was here, with her, enjoying himself way too much. It didn't stop him from nudging her back.
"Ow." She said. He reached out and touched her.
"Are you okay? I didn't mean to hurt you."
Emily laughed. "Gotcha." She laughed harder. She leaned far over the edge and nearly toppled off the bed if he hadn't of grabbed her in time. She was still laughing but somehow she ended up hugging him.
"Would you stop falling all over the place? You're going to give me a heart attack." He chided, hand unconsciously running through her hair. She pulled back just a tiny bit, and then BAM, he was kissing her.
He didn't know why he did it. The male part of his brain was telling him to just do it. Kissing her felt like melting, watching a sunset or listening to his son's first words. Jack, his son. Hotch felt like ice cold water had just washed over him.
What was he doing!?!
He pulled back abruptly and released her. Emily Prentiss was his colleague. No, his subordinate. She was on his team. He should not be kissing her. Even if he wanted to.
"Sorry." He mumbled, trying not to blush furiously.
"Ohh." Was all she said. Her eyes were no longer shining, but wary.
"I don't know where that came from." He admitted. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand. He could still taste the kiss.
"I should go." He announced getting up to leave.
"No, don't go. Pizza is still coming." Her voice was strange, small and hopeful?
Hotch debated with himself. On the one hand, he didn't want to leave Emily alone. Just in case something happened. On the other, he had just kissed her out of the fricking blue. No amount of logic could settle that.
"I shouldn't." He told her.
"Why not?" How to answer that question? Did she want him to stay? Was she having these, mystical and out of nowhere feelings. He knew he wasn't 'in love' with Emily Prentiss and had never considered having a relationship other then professional until now.
"You can't leave yet." She said after he didn't say anything. "Someone has to be there to answer the door and pay the delivery guy. I can't go down the stairs. And then food will be here. Don't go yet..." She trailed off.
She made a reasonable argument. "I'll call Garcia and I'm sure she'll stay with you tonight." There. That was settled.
They sat and stood in silence. Emily twiddled the remote in her hand while Hotch shifted leg to leg.
"I am really sorry for that. I didn't mean it. It was a mistake" He stated.
"Sure. I get it. No need to explain." She said, not looking at him.
"I have a son. I know you know that, but Jack's going to have a real hard time without his mother. I just buried Hayley not even a few months ago. And we work together. It would upset everyone involved. Jack, the team. I'm your boss; I'm supposed to be the responsible one. And I don't have time for anyone else but Jack. And it wouldn't be fair to you. If something were to happen, I wouldn't want to risk losing your friendship, or our jobs. You've put a lot of good effort into the team. I don't want to lose you to my mistakes." How were these words leaving his mouth? He felt an uncharacteristic need to tell her all the thoughts running through his head of why he couldn't be in a relationship.
Um...she didn't ask you to be in one. You kissed her, remember?
He mentally kicked himself. He scratched his head and tried to inconspicuously observe her reaction.
"Why are you telling me all of this?" She asked what he was asking himself.
If you're going to tell her the truth you might as well be honest.
"I'm hoping there's a good chance you're not going to remember any of this."
"Oh." She tilted her head in a way that made her look even prettier. "Then why did you stop?"
"Stop what?"
"Kissing me?"
Her doorbell rang, valiantly saving the day. Hotch rushed down to get away from this situation. When he came back upstairs, Emily had ordered 'Night at the Museum'.
"This is such a good movie." She said, taking her plateful of pepperoni pizza. Hotch was slightly confused. Were they done talking?
"Yeah. Jack likes it." He said.
"So three weeks off from work?" She continued.
"Yes."
"Awesome. Nothing like a vacation in bed." She turned up the volume and settled into the pillow.
"Aren't you going to eat? I can't finish the whole thing by myself." She commented after her second slice. His plate had grown cold. He ate it anyways.
They apparently were done talking about it. Emily continued like it had never happened. Hotch wished it didn't.
He also wished she was too hopped up on morphine to remember.
*~*
A/N 2: If Emily seems out of character, remember drugs to wicked things. I tried my best to keep her in as much character as possible. This isn't beta'd by anyone, so if she felt a little off, that's why. Please let me know if I'm getting Hotch right as well. Constructive criticism/suggestions is always welcomed, but be nice please :-D.
This originally was going to be two parts, but I got a lot fo great feedback (Thank you to all who reviewed!!! You made my week!) so I've decided to continue it a bit further. I know there wasn't a lot of action this chapter, but next one will pick up. Again, thank you to all who reviewed. You are awesome.
Don't forget to review this time
~Lemony~