Emily's eyes flickered from her friend to the doctor, he body shivering as she felt Aaron's hard gaze still on her. Why had he looked at her so harshly? She couldn't remember anything that she had done before leaving the room to make him look so angry.
"Alright Aaron. Everything seems to be looking good for now." Doctor Jenson smiled. "Just press that red button on your remote and I'll be notified if you need anything. Ok?"
Hotch nodded, his eyes staying on his so-called best friend as the doctor looked towards Jack. "Jack, do you wanna come with me for a little while?"
Jack looked up from the crayon in his lap. "Why?"
"I think your parents need a little alone time. And besides! My friend Nurse Lexi has some cool suckers and I bet she'll let you have one. You can even pick which color."
Emily sighed as her fingers worked her temples. "I'm not his mother." Her eyes shot up to see Hotch's scowl, and he visibly gulped as she sat up in her chair. "But that would be great if you could take him for a couple of minutes."
Doctor Jenson nodded before taking Jack by the hand, letting him jump off of the bed before leading him out of the room.
Emily looked to her friend and gave a timid smile, her fingers rubbing over her warm knees. She let her tongue swipe over her lip before taking a breath. "So Aaron, what hav-"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
The brunette's eyebrows scrunched together, her forehead creating her deep frown creases. "Excuse me?"
Hotch's eyes hardened and voice deepened, his words getting louder and louder as his fingers dug into the sheets that covered him. "Why didn't you tell me about my wife?"
Emily let her features soften as she shook her head, her elbows coming to rest on her knees. "Aaron that is a majorly soft subject for you. I didn't think I should bring it up while you're still in the hospital…"
"She's dead, Emily! My wife is DEAD and you didn't think that it was important to tell me?" He sat up straighter in his bed and pointed a finger at his friend. "You're the one who is supposedly my best friend! And yet you couldn't tell me that? Emily what the hell!"
Emily held out a hand as her back stiffened, her eyes hardening on the brunette in the bed. "Now you wait just one minu-"
"No I will NOT wait, Emily! This is my wife. My goddamn wife and you didn't have the decency t-"
"I told you that I wanted to wait until you left the hospital! I never said it wasn't important or that I wasn't going to tell you. Stop putting words in my mouth."
Hotch shook his head. "I have total memory loss, Emily. You may not be able to tell me most things, but this is something that should have definitely been on the 'to tell' list! The 'tell Aaron immediately' list!"
Emily sucked in a breath as she looked to her friend, her hand still outstretched to him. "Aaron, you have to listen to me. The first thing on my mind when I got here was not to remind you about your wife, alright? The first time going through that was hard enough on you. Why would I make that pain happen again when it didn't need to right now?"
The older man looked towards his friend, tears welling up in his eyes. "What was her name?"
Emily's dark eyes caught Hotch's, and she felt her heart begin to beat in her throat as she looked at him. "Her name was Haley. Haley Brooks."
"Did she have blond hair?"
The brunette's breath caught in her throat as she nodded. "Yeah, she did."
Hotch shook his head as his hands fisted the sheet in his lap, much like a frightened young child. "I remember her."
