Present…
The team was standing outside of the hospital room, watching who they thought was their dorky, sarcastic, badass federal agent lay in bed with a small child with tears running down her face. It was a sight they never imagined. Rossi, Reid, JJ, and Garcia were all looking through the glass, while Morgan was pacing, unable to look at the sight before him. Hotch was just leaning against the door, trying to sort through his frequent and racing thoughts.
The team had arrived not long after Emily and Hotch. When they did however, Emily was already in full blown mom-crisis mode, talking to every doctor she could get her hands on.
But that was hours ago.
Now all they could do was wait. Wait for Emily to talk to them, wait for her daughter to wake up, wait for any news.
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Emily Elizabeth Prentiss had never been more worried in the past few hours than she had been in her entire life. Her baby girl was sick, again, and she couldn't help her. She knew that there was a chance that this would happen, but never thought that it would. Not to her.
When Emily and Aaron arrived to the hospital and the initial chaos had subsided, they were moved out of the emergency room and into the ICU where Emilia could be further evaluated. Emily knew that the team was just a few minutes away at this point, but she didn't care. Right now all that mattered was her daughter, and the team would be something she dealt with when she had the energy.
"Emilia Emily Prentiss. Age is almost three. History of head trauma which resulted in trauma induced epilepsy. No known medication allergies and is currently only taking one prescription for the previous seizers." The resident doctor stated to the quickly filling room full of young looking doctors-probably interns.
Emily wanted to listen, she really did, but hearing all the talk of the brain waves and how they misfire and the rapid question and answering had her in a haze. But this was her daughter, she needed to be nothing more than a mother to her. So she waited to hear what the treatment plan would be, and she would just go from there. The doctors decided that since Emilia was still unconscious, they would put her on a continuous EEG machine and monitor her brain waves.
They came in just a few minutes later, and started setting up the wires that connected to Emilia's head. The wires transmitted the waves from her brain and sent them through a wire and to a computer, where it would be monitored by a doctor at all times.
Emily stood and watched as the tears fell. She couldn't help them, not anymore. And she didn't care that they were there, her toddler was unconscious and attached to countless machines.
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Aaron Hotchner did not get overwhelmed easily, but he was overwhelmed. He was completely out of his element and from the time he entered the hospital, he had no idea what to do for Emily or Emilia. He never had a sick kid, Jack had only been to the hospital one time as a baby when he had a severe cough. Emily was visibly tense and anxious, but he could tell that she knew how to handle the situations ahead. They may not have known what was wrong with Emilia or what was going to happen, but Emily looked like she could handle it. However she looked like she could handle anything.
He was sitting on a chair on one side of Emilia's hospital bed, with Emilia laying close to him and Emily laying on the other side in the bed. She was holding her in her arms, stroking her daughters arm and occasionally kissing the top of her head, pleading her to wake up. Aaron was holding Emily's other hand, unconsciously rubbing circles with his thumb. At one point he scooched his chair closer to the bed and laid his head on the mattress, with Emilia sandwiched between him and Emily. This was the best part of Emily and Aaron's current relationship, they could comfort each other without words, and they both knew it.
This was the position they were in when the team finally showed up. They were surprised, nonetheless, to find their colleagues in this close and domesticated of a position. But the biggest surprise of the day had already been taken, so they pushed it aside. Aaron was the one to see them first, Emily's eyes were too blurred by tears to recognize the figures. He got up and made his way cautiously to the door, not before he made sure Emily didn't want to see them.
"You guys don't have to be here. There's nothing you can do, you should go." He said, trying not to look at the pained faces of his close friends and employees. It was Garcia who spoke up first.
"Don't have to be here?! This is Emily we're talking about. We're not leaving her when she clearly needs us." She could barely get the words out because of the tears that had started to run down her cheeks and her voice that had begun to crack. Garcia had always been emotional and she was always extremely protective of her team.
Derek just looked angry, he had the same half surprised half complete rage face he had when they left him in the parking garage. It was clear that he wasn't taking Emily's-and now Aaron's-lying very well.
JJ hadn't said a word, which isn't surprising. She and Emily had grown close throughout her time at the BAU and to not know that Emily had a daughter was well, surprising. Aaron registered that it wasn't just anger he saw in her face, but sadness.
It was obvious that Rossi had a lot to say, especially to Aaron. He was like a father to Emily, and was one of Aaron's best friends. He knew the most of Aaron and Emily's relationship, it doesn't take a profiler to realize how Aaron talks about her and the way he looks at her means more than friendship.
Reid was most the concerned. He was a doctor, after all. He didn't need to see the chart or even be in the room to know the situation wasn't ideal.
"Hotch, what's going to happen to her?" JJ barely mumbled out.
"I…I can't really…Emily…" he stammered. He knew he wasn't supposed to tell them, per Emily's requests.
"Oh cut the bullshit, Hotch! Stop trying to protect her, we already know her big secret, we might as well know the rest and help if we can." Morgan countered.
Hotch was slightly taken aback by this outburst, but this of course didn't show. He just nodded his head, with a slight tilt suggesting they go to the waiting room. He sighed before he continued,
"I can only tell you the bare minimum, Emily doesn't even want you to know that much. Her daughter, Emilia, has a seizure disorder that was a result of some sort of head trauma, I'm not sure what. Because of this she developed epilepsy and there was a risk that it could get worse, like it just did. She had a terrible seizure today and is now unconscious, the doctors aren't sure why yet. That's really all I know and that I can tell you, I'm sorry. I should get back." With this Hotch stood from the group and slowly started back towards Emilia's room, but not before getting stopped by Morgan.
"Hotch, wait. Is she going to be okay? The kid, I mean. And I guess Emily, too. Are they going to be okay?"
"I don't know, it's out of our control right now. But I do know that Emily needs her friends. She made a decision not to tell you about her daughter, and now that you know you can't be an asshole about it, Derek. I mean it. Besides the obvious, she's completely devastated about what's happened today, she feels really bad about lying to everyone."
He just puffed out his chest, nodded and left, not before adding with a smile "Prentiss and the Boss Man, I like it."
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I am SO SORRY that this took so long. I encourage you all to look at my profile page, I explain why it sometimes may take me a while to update. Thank you for your support! I promise the next update will be quicker.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I decided to come back to the present, but the next chapter it might be back to the past, there's a lot of unfished E&E business to take care of.
As always PLEASE review! A huge thank you to everyone who did! You are AMAZING and reading them helped me so much, and made me smile when it was hard to, so thank you for taking the time!
