Episode: Painless

"Hey." A soft voice lifted Hotch from his case file reverie and he smiled lightly as Emily sat down across from him.

"Hey."

"How's Jack?" Hotch looked up quickly, a small smile quirking across his lips that he unsuccessfully tried to hide. "I... just had a feeling."

Good God she's mothering him. She's said almost nothing to him and she's already his surrogate mom.

A surge of butterflies fluttered through his stomach at the very thought.

"There's a ... kid that's being mean to him at school." Hotch paused, gauging Emily's reaction. She looked so worried that it was hard to contain his smile despite the worry he felt himself. "And... Jack's solution is to invite him over and make friends with him."

"That is ... the sweetest–and saddest–thing I've ever heard. How did you find out?"

"His teacher told me."

"Jack didn't tell you?" More worry topping Hotch's own as he shook his head slowly.

"Ah, that must be hard." Hotch looked up as Emily spoke, her voice washing over him and reminding him just how goddamn much he loved her. "He wants to solve it himself and you wanna let him. But there's probably a part of you that wishes you could step in."

"Um, there's a part of me that wants to protect him from anything that could hurt him but I know I can't."

"No... but you can show him he doesn't have to face it alone."

For a moment he was seriously considering just kissing her then and there and not stopping until the plane landed a few hours later. The urge was so strong and the thrill that hummed through him running so deep at the fact that he could have and wouldn't be killed via paperwork for sexual harassment. All of this forced him to look down trying to change the topic as quickly as possible.

"How did you get by in Paris?"

"I um... I played a lot of online Scrabble," Emily laughed mysteriously. "With some girl named Cheetobreath."

"Was it at least in French?"

"No, not exactly." Emily's smile was infectious and Hotch looked out the window and onto the inky black clouds below them.

"Hey," Emily paused, waiting for Hotch to look back over, the clouds forgotten as he studied Emily's face for an explanation. "Maybe... I shouldn't come over today."

"Why not?"

"Because you need to spend time with Jack. I can tell and I don't mind. Really."

"Jack won't-"

"Hotch," Emily leaned forward, grasping his hand in her own. "It's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"It's not that big a deal, I just want to make sure Jack's ok with all this and if you need to talk to him then I'm not stopping you."

Hotch smiled, squeezing Emily's hand for a moment, tugging her forward and into a kiss.

"Thank you,"

"For what?" Emily pulled back, frowning.

"Everything."

Emily just smiled, about to lean in again when Derek's headphones came flying out of nowhere, accompanied by his voice calling,

"Hey, PG-13 back there, got it? Nobody's joining no mile-high club with me on board!"

In the Open – Benjamin Francis Leftwich