Emily felt herself let out a breath, her throat constricting with that all too familiar lump that settled near the hollow. Her fingers slowly wiped away the drying tears that lay on her cheeks, reflecting on the long conversation she and her best friend had just had about his ex-wife.
She looked up to see the older man staring down at his hands in his lap, and she knew he was holding in his tears and emotions just like he always did. "Aaron?"
The older man looked up from his lap, his red, stinging eyes looking into the brunette's dark doe ones just a few feet away. He nodded to the younger woman in front of him, her pale lips stiffly staying together.
"Aaron, can you talk to me?"
Hotch felt his shoulders slack as he leveled himself against the pillows behind his back. "You know Emily, we've been talking for the past half hour about my marriage, my son and my dead wife." He looked up into her eyes once more, watching as they seemed to lose their sparkle. "I think I'm a little talked out."
Emily gave a nod, sucking her lips into her mouth before trying for her signature smile. "Yeah, of course." She pointed towards the door, knowing their friends were just out there, somewhere in the hospital, waiting for their time to talk to the ill man. "If you want, I can go and get the team now. I know they've just been dying to see you, Aaron."
Hotch nodded to the brunette, watching as she tried for her best smile. He sighed, knowing that she was trying her best to make him feel better and make him feel more comfortable.
It just wasn't working.
"Yeah, you can go get… the team?"
"The men and women we work with, Aaron."
The older man gave a grunt. "Yeah, ok."
Emily nodded, gnawing at her bottom lip as she stood from her chair.
"Emily?"
The younger woman turned in her spot on the glossy, hospital floor, her eyes looking to the man with sadness in his eyes. "Yes Aaron?"
Hotch gestured towards the door, his eyes on his small blond son who sat at the desk across from his hospital room, his butt in Dr. Jenson's chair. "He's ok, right?"
Emily spun her head, her gaze dropping onto the young boy who smiled in her direction. "I'm sure he's just fine, Aaron. He's really a happy, little boy." She looked back to her friend. "Is that all you need right now?"
"Could you maybe see if that Beth woman is ok?"
The brunette felt her heart swell, her smile popping out once more when her friend remembered the woman that he truly was in love with. "While the team is in here, I'll go to her room and make sure she's alright."
The older man let a real smile grace his stoic features. A tired one, but a real one at that. "Thank you, Emily."
"Anything for you."
Hotch's eyebrows furrowed as he watched the younger woman make her way out of the room, seeing her give a small wave to his son and watching as the little boy immediately waved back. There was something about her that made him think what they had just wasn't friendship.
