"So how long did your father work for us?" the woman in the hospital bed questioned, her fork prodding at the food her nurses had brought for her.

The pair had spent the entire day together, Aaron helping the younger woman and staying by her side when the doctors came and ran some tests to make sure she was on her way to recovery so she wouldn't have to go through it alone. He was there for her more than her fiancé had been, and they'd known each other for less than a week.

Aaron frowned, his elbows on his knees. "A few years, I believe. I'm not too sure."

"I think I remember him," Emily chuckled lowly, sticking the tip of the fork between her lips so she could taste the rice and vegetables they had given her for dinner. "In '84 I was just ten years old, and I remember this very handsome man who would follow my parents around all the time." Nodding her head, she pointed her fork at the older man who sat by her bed. "He snuck me a couple of chocolates when my mother wouldn't let me have them."

The single father found himself laughing at the look of confidence Emily had on her face. "And how do you know it was my father?"

Emily gave a shy smile. "You look just like him."

Aaron nodded, sharing a grin with the younger woman. "Well I should tell you that he sent his condolences on your accident."

The brunette took in a breath, her hand to her chest as she locked eyes with the police officer. "That's so sweet," she smiled, her teeth biting down into her bottom lip as she smiled. "I wonder how he is. What is he doing now?"

"He's retired. Does a lot of fishing before he takes my mother to breakfast every morning," he smiled.

"That's so sweet." Emily could feel her eyes stinging at the description of the man who had made her childhood as lovely as it could have been. "He sounds like a keeper," she joked, averting her eyes from the older man and back to the television she had set on mute.

Aaron frowned at the immediate change in his new friend's attitude, and he reached forward to steal the fork from her and take his hand. "Where'd you go?"

Letting the older man knock his knuckles against hers, the lawyer smirked. "I only have small snippets of him in my memory, but what I remember most is the way he could make me smile when I was upset. I was a really sad little girl," she whispered, "and I can imagine him taking your mother out and getting her to smile the way he made me smile. Does that make sense?"

"I think so." He watched her huff and flick a few tears away before he could get her attention back on him. "So what do you plan to do for tonight?" Aaron asked, smirking at the beautiful woman as she arched a brow. "Any eligible bachelors willing to take you to dinner down in the hospital cafeteria?"

Emily smiled at the joke, leaning closer to the older man as he moved closer to her bed. "If only."

"Emily Prentiss," the single father grinned, "would you like to accompany me down to the first floor cafeteria?"

"I don't think so."

Both brunettes looked up to see Dr. Fey smiling at them, and Emily gently took her hand from Aaron's to scratch the tip of her nose. "Good evening," she smiled softly to the older man, holding out her arm so her doctor could take her blood pressure.

Dr. Fey watched as the two tried not to share a laugh as he timed the injured lawyer's pulse. "I would be honored to let you two lovebirds have a date, but Emily is on bed rest. Any type of romance will be happening in this room and this room only," he warned, smiling softly to the adults. "And remember Mr. Hotchner, she has a heart monitor attached to her."

Aaron watched the injured woman immediately start to blush, and he spoke up so Emily wouldn't have to. "I wouldn't think of anything but her recovery," the single father assured the doctor, meeting the eyes of the woman he had saved and winking.

"Oh God," she laughed, finally forgetting about her trauma and what had gone on with the crash and her fiancé and focusing on what was going on in the present.

Squeezing her new friend's hand, Emily grinned. She had Aaron.

"Mr. Hotchner, can I get you a cot for the night?"

Before the officer could speak up for himself, Emily raised her injured hand in the air. "He isn't staying here. He's going home."

Aaron frowned. What she said, without even consulting him on it, actually hurt. "Emily, I wouldn't mind staying here. You need help wi-"

"The doctors are here to help me," she whispered. "You have a job and you have a son."

The doctor stepped to the other side of the room to give the couple space as he wrote down her progress. Shrugging to himself, he listened in. Maybe his son was her stepson.

"I took a week off." He watched and waited to see the brunette woman's reaction before he continued. With her eyes wide and her jaw dropping, Aaron help up a free hand. "I said I needed off to take care of a loved one, and that's what I'm doing. I don't plan on leaving you alone here, especially when you've just gotten to the hospital."

Emily could feel her eyes stinging. He took off to take care of a loved one.

Looking back to the doctor, the officer in the plastic visitor's chair sent him a smile. "If I could get a cot, that would be great."

"You don't have to do this," she whispered to the older man once the doctor had left the room. "I know that this isn't what you really want to be doing. You don't have to stay here with me." She wanted him to, God did she want him to, but it wasn't his responsibility.

She was no one's responsibility but her own.

Aaron looked at the younger woman and noticed the fear he saw in her eyes. What she was afraid of, he didn't know. "I want to stay here. For you."

Rolling her lips inward to stop herself from crying, Emily gently nodded her head and let Aaron press a kiss to her bandage.

"I'm going to go get us some dinner, ok? Do you have any preference?"

Emily wiped her tears, chancing a laugh as she shook her head. "Whatever you choose is fine," she smiled, watching him walk out of the room with a spring in his step.

She could really fall for a guy like him.