Here we go again, I know it took me pretty long to update this but school has been crazy and it seems like every teacher wants to torture us :D But yesterday I sat and wrote most of this chapter and I finished it today :D So I hope you enjoy.
I just remembered that I hadn't wrote a disclaimer so here it goes: I don't own criminal minds (goes for the whole story)
NOW ENJOY!

Aaron Hotchners eyes opened.
It was a dull morning, and it brought him a cold awakening. Once again a frosty spell descended upon his dismal heart.
Yesterday he had been drinking, Jack was with Haley so he had nothing to worry about. Still it had been nothing than a sweet self-deception, it didn't offer him comfort. No buzz would bring peace to his mind, numb his thoughts of her.
He pulled himself out of the bed and walked into the bathroom. He stared at his reflection in the mirror. The bags under his eyes were evidence of his dreams. There was nothing he could do, he was held captive by his own memory. No matter what her reaction had been; his hope did not let him give up on her.

Emily stood in the break room, pouring coffee into her mug. For what seemed the hundredth time this morning her thoughts drifted off.
How long had she been looking for him? So long she had hoped for any sign of him? She had cursed fate, for not leading her back to him. In her dreams she came back to him, every night. She was stuck in a world of hope and pain. And now? What had happened?
It was not long before the door opened. Nobody else but Aaron Hotchner stepped into the room.
To say it was awkward would be an understatement. Still there was this spark, an electric feeling connecting them in some way. A ring of fire closing in on them.

"Hey."

"Hey."

Silence spread in the room once again. She longed to feel his arms around her, for feel him holding her.
Stop it, Emily. Think about JJ.

"Uhm, you want some coffee?" The brunette asked meekly, running her own finger over the rim of her cup. She tried to distract herself from the feeling that tingled in her stomach and tugged at her heart; he stood so close to her, his scent waved over and she couldn't help but feel drawn to him.

"Sure. Black, no sugar."

"I know."

Emily filled another mug with the hot liquid, without looking at him. She knew she would only be captured by them and it would do her no good watching something she couldn't have.
She slid the mug over carefully and their hands touched briefly as he reached for it. Scratch that.
They were supposed to touch briefly. Almost instinctively his hand tightened around her fingertips.
Their eyes met once more and this time they lost the track of time.

That she didn't pull away showed him that her actions had been out of nothing but panic. He saw in her eyes, which were now glued to their touching hands. She was immersed in tracing the patterns of his hands and he was immersed in watching her, her beautiful face, her beautiful eyes, her beautiful everything. An endless beauty that filled the deepest parts of her heart.

His hand reached up to caress her cheek, careful as if he was scared to break her, or this moment, in which space and time had no meaning, no importance to them.
She closed her eyes and as she nuzzled her face into his palm, she noticed that it fitted right in, as if it was made for it, as if it had been waiting for her all this time.

"You and me, that's something special."

The moment broke like glass and the pain from the cuts took them back to reality.
Emily took his hand and pulled it down, shaking her head. It was now or never. Telling him, no lying to him wouldn't be easy but it needed to be done. For JJ. For her best friend.

"Maybe for you it's special. Not for me. We had a nice evening, but that's it." She waited a second before she said once more the one thing that ripped her heart apart. "A fling."

"You know that's not true." His voice was so convinced she knew it would be pointless.

"What do wanna hear?" She asked through gritted teeth. She felt her own resolve breaking at his insistence.

"The truth."

"It is the truth, for god's sake!" Tears sprung to her eyes and she turned around, furiously wiping her eyes.
Damn it, how could she lose control like that? She had never let anyone see her weak and she was sure as hell that she wouldn't start now. She breathed in deeply and put a professional mask on.
"We had a few nice moments and we should leave it at that, before…before we get hurt, or hurt someone else." Her voice was monotone and deep inside she felt a little pride, other than that she just felt empty. "Now do me a favor and stay out of my life."

Emily sat on her desk in the bullpen, pondering over what happened in the break room. Had she really told the man she loved to stay out of her life? It had been clear that he didn't believe her, when she said it was a fling, and if the roles had been revised she wouldn't have believed him as well. She had felt it, too, that night. When they were looking up and a falling star made its way over the sky, with an unknown destination, it reminded her of them. A bright passionate sensation, whose most burning wish it was to find an ending in love.
But now that she looked at it, it seemed like their falling star had already crashed, and in the process shattered into thousand pieces.
She tried hard to convince herself, that they would only hurt themselves, trying to pick up those pieces and put them together again.

When the lights turned down, they don't know what they heard
Strike the match, play it loud, giving love to the world
We'll be raising our hands, shining up to the sky
Cause we got the fire, fire, fire, yeah we got the fire fire fire

"Hey Prentiss. That's your phone right?" Morgan threw a paper ball at the brunette, aiming at her head. As soon as her head made contact Emily's head snapped up and she immediately went to pick up her phone.
"Prentiss." She answered and heard Morgan snickering. She slapped him on the back of his head, as she left the crowded bullpen to take her call in private.
As soon as the glass doors closed behind her and it was quiet again she spoke.
"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?"
"I'm from the St. Elizabeth hospital. You are Emily Prentiss, right?" A shudder ran down her spine as the woman mentioned a hospital.
"Yes, that's me. Has something happened?"
"I'm sorry, I have to tell you that your father had a heavy heart attack. He died shortly after he was admitted."

"Ma'am? Are you still there?" The woman called into the phone.
Emily calmed her breathing and ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah, uhm Yes, I'm still here. How do you know it's him?"
"He had his driving license on him. Still we need a family member to identify the body." ''
Still perplex Emily changed into professional mode. " I'll be there in 10'. Have you told his mother yet?"
"Mary Rose Prentiss? No, we haven't been able to get a hold of her."
"Okay, I'll call her later. I'll be at the hospital as soon as I can."
"Ma'am, you don't have to come today, we can-"
The voice of the elder woman was cut off as Emily ended the call.

Stiffly she walked through the glass doors and suddenly the noise and agility in the bullpen seemed out of place. How could everything just go on after someone who was so important to her was gone?
Morgan must have spotted her because he gave her one of his special 'Derek- Morgan grins' and called over to her: "Ellie Goulding, huh?"
She ignored the comment and went up to Hotch's office and the familiar tingling in the pit of her stomach emerged, which she felt since the night she had spent with her 'mysterious man', though it was not as strong, since it was clouded by a new extent of guilt. She had never felt this way before.

She heard the 'come in' and snapped out of her thoughts. She hadn't even realized that she had knocked.
Emily opened the door, walked in and closed it behind her again.

Hotch looked up and met her eyes. He immediately recognized the deep sadness clouding her eyes. A worry tingled in the pit of his stomach. "What's wrong?"

A small wave of shock rode through her. Was he really able to look through her like this? Read her mind even though she was trying so hard to guard and protect it from a strangers view? Many people may not have noticed but deep inside of her hid a shy, cautious woman, who rather ran from the accusing glares and the high expectations.
But she pulled herself together and showed her brave side.
"I need to go to the hospital."

Emotionless voice. It took him only seconds to realize that right now there was no breaking through her walls. "Hospital?"

"My father had a heart attack. He-He didn't make it. They want me to identify the body."

Silence. First tense then it grew somewhat comfortable. Not comfortable in a sense of 'Nothing matters' but in a way that showed them how deeply they trusted each other, not only with their lives but with their feelings, I as the narrator will simply call it universal trust.

"I'm sorry for your loss. Take as much time as you need."

Emily knew he wasn't gonna push her or play the knight in shining armor, and she was grateful for it.
But even though she knew how to take care of herself, there was a tiny little part of her that wished, she could just fall into his arms and take comfort from his embrace.
But she couldn't.
So she straightened herself, nodded and stepped out of the office.

After the identification was done she decided she would take a little walk in the park close to the BAU.
She could blame the cold of the winter for her red nose, she had got as she allowed a few tears to fall after she made sure she was alone. They hadn't helped her feel better though, she wasn't sad, rather angry at the whole world and god. How dare he to just take her father away? Her fists clenched and she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood to keep in the angry tears that once again had filled her eyes.

She was surprised to hear a quiet 'Hey' behind her. A voice she'd recognize everywhere.
Aaron.
She turned around and saw him standing there, a few snowflakes, she hadn't even realized were falling, in his black hair.

"Aren't you cold?" He asked it with such care that it shocked her. Why wasn't he mad at her, after everything she had said this morning? Is that what love did to this man? That her own mind used the word love didn't surprise her, yes she believed that he loved her, she felt it, too, so she settled for a soft response.

"I'm fine. How'd you find me?"

"You see this spot of the park from the BAU. You've been standing her for 30 minutes."

"30 minutes." She mumbled under her breath and suddenly noticed the shiver running through her body every 10 seconds. "I had a lot on my mind. But now that I think about it I should really get back to work. I still have a lot of files left. And I gotta call my grandma, tell her what happened, then there's still-"

"Hey."

She stopped her rambling and looked at him. Suddenly she felt everything in her collapse, as if a gush of cold water had been poured over her head. Tears filled her eyes and trickled slowly down her cheeks and this time she didn't try to stop them. It didn't matter anyway. He knew how she felt.

Seeing her this way, Hotch felt his own heart break a little. He would do anything to stop her pain so he stepped a little closer, opened his arms for an embrace and then stopped shortly in front of her.

Emily knew he let her make this decision and she was grateful for it. Quietly she took the last step, put her head on his chest and cried.

To say Jennifer Jareau was furious was an understatement. Her fist clenched and she snorted.
"My best friend, huh?" In her mind she finished her sentence.
My best friend cuddling with the man that is supposed to be a fling.
Fuming she stepped back from her office window. She had seen enough.

After a while Hotch had pulled her over to a little bench, right where they were sitting now in comfortable silence. Emily wiped her eyes once more then touched the wet mark she had left on Aarons jacket.
"I'm sorry for that."

He just shrugged then smiled genuinely. "Tell me about him."

Emily knew the topic had changed and smiled at the memory that immediately overcame her as soon as she thought of her father. She had never been sharing these private stories but she was sitting in front of her soulmate and she knew it, even though she could never admit it.
She smiled sheepishly before she started talking.
"Once my dad took me to the circus. I was thrilled and of course I wanted to work at the circus from that day on. So I packed my stuff, my blankie and a chocolate bar –" She laughed quietly and gazed dreamily. "and sneaked out."

"You ran away from home?" Hotch chuckled.

"Yeah. I even made it to the circus. Of course they called the police immediately, and to be honest, without the make-up the clown was rather creepy. I just wanted to go home, but I was scared what my dad would say."

"I'm sure he was worried sick." He squeezed her hand softly and she nodded.

"I remember it as if it was yesterday. When I walked through the door, he was…nothing but relieved. He wasn't mad, he didn't shout like I expected him to. He just hugged me close and thanked god that I was okay." Emily chuckled once again and smiled softly. "Now I'm wasting your time with my sentimental stories."

"I could listen to you for hours."

She looked into his eyes but immediately felt guilty. Hadn't she promised herself to keep her distance? And now she sat her, telling her supervisor stories about her father. She stood up and waved over to the FBI building.
"I probably should get going before they start worrying."
And with that she walked away from him once again.

Emily walked into the bullpen for the second time this day. It was already late so Morgan and Reid had already left but in JJ's office she saw still light. She decided that she was gonna tell JJ about her father, she had known him, too and she didn't want to keep it from her. Without knocking she walked in.
"Hey."

She was surprised by the angry glare the blonde sent her way. "What are you doing here?"

"Is something wrong?" Emily stepped closer to JJ's desk.

JJ jumped from her seat and her face was full of anger. "You're damn right, that something's wrong. I saw you and your fling over in the park today. You almost kissed!"

The brunette's mouth fell open. "I have no idea what you talking about. I actually –"

"Come on! You call me your best friend and then you lie to me?! I know what you're doing. You don't want me to have my 'happy end' with him. You don't want me to be happy! You deceiving me and you're doing it on purpose!"

"God JJ!" Emily stopped the blondes angry insults. She herself had completely forgotten why she even came here. Right now she was just angry and hurt. "Alright. If you really think that I would do that… then we can end our friendship right here and right now. Is that what you want?"

Oops, another cliffhanger, sorry ^^
So Hotch and Emily are getting closer and JJ is mad.
What do you think will or should happen, leave your ideas!