December 12

Emily had just put together her morning cup of coffee when there was a knock on Hotch's door. The latter was not awake yet, as seemed to be usual for them. She didn't mind much. Not only had she convinced herself that she didn't need sleep when not on a case, but if he was sleeping soundly, it was a distinct change from his nightmare plagued slumber and she was reluctant to wake him. Especially since Jack had climbed into bed with them last night for the first time in a couple of days. Apparently talking about his mother had stirred up his nightmares too.

So, with confusion written all over her face, she checked the peephole, her eyes widening. What was Jennifer Jareau doing at Hotch's door this early on a Saturday morning? She opened the door with a bemused smile. But it was worth it to see the surprise and confusion that flitted over the blonde's face.

"Emily!"

"Good morning, JJ," she replied, sipping on her coffee. She tipped her head to the side. "Coffee?"

"If there's some."

She snorted in laughter. They drank caffeine like it was water so there was always coffee ready. "Come on in. Hotch isn't up yet."

JJ looked closely at her friend. "Rough night?"

Emily just nodded, leading the way to the kitchen. She knew JJ was watching her, watching how easily she moved about Hotch's kitchen with a familiarity of someone who had been here too much. "For both of them."

"Em'ly?"

Her attention shifted immediately to the little boy who was sleepily rubbing his eyes. "Hey, sweetie. Are you okay?"

Jack nodded. "Daddy's twisting."

That was Jack's way of saying his father was having a nightmare and Emily felt her lower lip pout slightly at the idea of him suffering through it without her. But it seemed odd to go and comfort Hotch in bed when JJ was there. She chewed her lip for a moment before saying screw it. After all, if her concern was that JJ would read into the situation, she'd be deluding herself to think she wasn't already. In fact, she'd probably come to a lot of interesting conclusions since she'd seen Emily answer Hotch's door. So, she ruffled Jack's head as she made her way towards Hotch's room.

Sure enough, Hotch was sitting upright, his head in his hands. She perched on the edge of the bed beside him, reaching out to run a hand softly through his hair. His eyes met hers, dark and pained.

"Morning," she said quietly.

He let out a monumental sigh.

She tried for a smile. "JJ's here."

"JJ?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah," Emily replied unable to stop a smile from twisting the corners of her mouth. "You know, blond hair, kind of small..."

"She's here?"

Emily nodded. "Probably to check up on you." She smiled more fully. "I don't think she was expecting to see me first thing in the morning answering your door." Of course, had she been in JJ's shoes, she probably would have been absolutely floored. It wasn't that the team didn't know that Emily was checking up on Hotch – heck, they'd pretty much left the job to her, aware that she'd done so well last time – they just didn't know the extent. There was definitely no one at the BAU who knew she was actually staying with them.

"Okay. Give me a few minutes."

She leaned over to kiss his head as she stood. "Take all the time you need."

He didn't take long, and he actually looked presentable as he came out of the bedroom, half stumbling to the coffee maker. JJ and Emily continued their conversation as if nothing had happened while Hotch prepared his coffee. Then, once he was sitting, their conversation tapered off.

Emily sighed as she eyed the little boy. He didn't need to hear this conversation. This was a friend checking up on another friend and both women knew Hotch was less likely to give truthful answers to his emotional state with Jack in the room. So Emily pasted on a smile and said, "Hey Jack, let's go cook breakfast."

JJ waited until Emily and Jack were back in the kitchen before moving to sit on the coffee table in front of Hotch. He was as good as a brother to her, and Emily was one of her best friends. She was seriously concerned. She knew how Emily felt about the broken man sitting in front of her and the last thing she wanted was for Emily to get hurt.

"Hotch, what are you doing?"

His eyes narrowed slightly. "I beg your pardon?"

"With Emily," she clarified gently.

"What are you implying?" he asked warily.

JJ sighed. "Look, Hotch, I get that she's helping out and we're all glad she is. She seems to be the only one that can. But this can't be healthy for her either."

She was talking in riddles. "JJ-"

"You can hurt her, Hotch," JJ interrupted quietly. "Whether you know it or not, if you're not careful, she's going to get hurt."

His gut tightened. He couldn't imagine hurting Emily, not just because of what she'd done for him, but who she was for him. Seeing her and Jack playing together, laughing together, building together, had become his lifeline on dark days. When things got too rough, he thought of those moments, of their dinner only a couple of days before. Emily was his lifeline.

"I don't want to hurt her, JJ. The last thing I could ever want to do is hurt Emily."

The words were softly spoken, but as the media liaison searched the face of the man in front of her she could also tell that it came from a place of genuine emotion. It was that moment, that open look on his face that made JJ realize that maybe this whatever between them may actually work out. Maybe she'd been premature in coming to Hotch with her concerns.

"I believe you," she answered quietly after a few minutes. Then she paused. "She's good for you. You don't seem as subdued."

"She's been helping out," Hotch agreed.

"She's been staying. This explains why she hasn't answered her home phone."

Hotch felt the heat crawl up his neck. It was one thing to know that the team was aware of Emily's role in his life, a completely other one when one of the team members knew they were literally sharing a bed.

"Hotch, if she's good for you, I don't want you to throw that away. I just want you to know that you have to be careful. Emily is in as testy of a situation as you are when it comes to this. When you hurt, she hurts, and heaven forbid if Jack's upset." JJ swallowed. "Just be careful with her okay?"

Be careful with her heart.

But that wasn't JJ's place to say. No, on the contrary, she couldn't say much of anything. She was sworn to secrecy on Emily's feelings, but this was the first time she'd seen Hotch seem so concerned about emotionally hurting Emily. "It wouldn't be the same without her here."

JJ smiled slightly, just enough for it to be considered one. "I hope you have a spectacular present for her then," she said quietly. "Because you're going to need it."

He winced and JJ leaned forward, close to his ear.

"You mean to tell me you do not have a present for her yet?"

"It's still early," he argued.

"No. August, is early. So is July, and June. December? Christmas is two weeks away, Hotch, that's not a lot of time," JJ hissed.

"Emily wouldn't want anything that could be found in a store," Hotch replied, shaking his head, not even realizing the words had come out of his mouth.

That didn't surprise JJ at all because once Hotch got thinking, it could be difficult to drag him out of his web of thoughts.

Hotch found himself looking towards the kitchen and his son's voice chattering away. With Emily around, Jack talked a lot more. And Emily, patient as always, listened. Patient, kind, gentle, supportive, strong... All of those things described the woman in the kitchen so perfectly. He chewed his lip. What was he supposed to get her?

He knew daffodils were her favourite flower and she hated daisies. He'd found that out when she'd received flowers on her desk, a bouquet of daisies from a man who was definitely now her ex, and promptly took them to JJ. She was an avid reader, books only, and everyone knew Vonnegut was her favourite author. His eyes widened. He had it. Vonnegut was her favourite author, but she'd once told Jack a story of how her favourite book had been lost during one of her mother's tours of the Middle East.

He found his lips tilting up as he focused on JJ again. Then he sobered, her words coming back to him. "JJ..." He closed his eyes, his nightmare coming back to him. While he dreamed of Haley's death almost nightly, this was the first time the picture had flashed from Haley to Emily's apartment. When Emily had come into his room, he'd been trying to wipe the picture of her bloody corpse from his mind. "I could never hurt Emily."

JJ smiled. She didn't quite believe him, but she could also tell he meant it. If he had his way, if he could protect her forever, JJ had no doubt he would. The one thing she'd learned about Aaron Hotchner above all else was that when he loved, he loved deeply and with everything in him. When he cared, he gave his all. JJ had no doubt that he cared about Emily. She reached out.

"I'm not saying you'd do it consciously," she said, resting her hand on his arm. "I just want you to keep in mind that you have a lot more power here than I think you realize. You and Jack. Whatever happens while you deal with everything, you need to remember that Emily will be by your side, not because she feels an obligation, but because she wants to be here. She needs to be here."

Hotch still felt JJ was talking in riddles, riddles of power, of obligation and need, but he understood her sentiment. Still, beyond the few times he'd asked Emily to stay, everything she'd done had been her own choice. He hadn't asked her to make Jack's Christmas special. He hadn't asked her to even be a part of it. Maybe that's what JJ had mean when she'd said Emily needed to be with them?

"Guys, breakfast," Emily called from the kitchen.

Hotch felt JJ squeeze his arm as they both stood and he smiled. Never let it be said that his team didn't care about him. Then, as he met Emily's eyes, he made a mental note that after breakfast, he needed to get on the internet. He needed to buy her Christmas present.

Points to Chiroho. This, sir, is basically half of the first two paragraphs of your PM all wrapped nicely into one! I owe you.

Now, I've had a couple of reviews seriously concerned about Emily (don't get me wrong, that's perfectly okay! I'm glad you guys are worried about her!) so I figured it was time to clear a few things up and have someone specifically looking out for Emily's interest. Of course, at the same time, I could never have Hotch hurt Emily without good reason, and while okay, grief could be a pretty good reason, I still have a hard time seeing her get hurt because of something Hotch does in his grief. Well, kind of. UGH! My point is this: much like Hotch has had his day, Emily will get hers too. I'm going to have to tweak that chapter a little bit (It was written on like, the second or something!) now that I've had JJ come in here, but Emily will have her own version of heartbreak to deal with. Elsewise this would be a spectacularly one-sided story! And let's face it, not even Emily Prentiss is perfect in her strength.

And I'm sorry about this being posted late, even though it's like, half an hour. I overslept. Why, you may ask? Because I've had the Christmas Eve chapter stuck in my head and I hate stopping in the middle because the good ideas always go away, so I had to keep writing! For I-luv-to-write-law-and-order, I'm hoping to get it typed up when I finish with my questions for my final. Yay! Then maybe it'll be out of my head and I can get back to working on tomorrow! How about some Washington snow?

Now that all of my readings are out of the way, it's more likely that something else is going to get updated too. Either that, or I'm going to start delving into the December prompts. Which, if you haven't seen them, you need to go check out. Because there's 25 prompts and we'd love to see more authors use them! I know Chiroho wrote a few (which I was so happy to see!) and hot4cullenmen's made a few adorable contributions, but we'd like to see more! Please? Pretty please?

Okay, now that I've talk-typed your ear-eye off, review please! Let me know if JJ was in or out of line.