"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Emily growled when her phone pinged a grand total for four hours later. Her face was buried in her pillow, blankets pulled over her head, muffling her grumbled lament. Her arm emerged from the cocoon of blankets to grope blindly at the bedside table for her phone.
"What is it?" Dawn asked as she moved about the room, dressing for work. She'd been attempting to do so quietly to avoid waking Emily after she'd gotten in so late, assuming she'd spend the day in bed to recover.
With a huff, Emily batted the blankets away from her face, leaving her staring darkly at her still lit phone screen. "Work..." she muttered like the word were an epithet.
Dawn paused, looking incredulous. "You literally just got home – I thought you had the day off?"
"I do. I did..." She shook her head, sighed. "No rest for the wicked, right?" Relenting to the call of duty, she rolled over, climbed out of bed. "I'll call you later, she murmured, pausing to kiss her.
"Emily?" Dawn asked, confused, as she rounded the nurses' station, setting a stack of patients' charts on the desk. "What are you doing here?"
She gestured over her shoulder at the ICU bay where Hotch was half-conscious. "It's a long story," she said, "He's my boss."
A moment passed in which Dawn digested that information, tried to make sense of what she'd learned of his injuries. "I didn't realize. He's lucky to be alive – the surgery was touch-and-go." She glanced over Emily's shoulder at Hotch. "Do I want to know how he got nine stab wounds without a single organ being compromised?" she asked, just loud enough for Emily to overhear.
She didn't respond. She didn't need to. They both knew that Dawn already knew the answer.
"Should I be worried?" Dawn asked. "Should you?" Another pause, this one a little too long to be entirely innocent. "Emily?"
"They're putting his family in WITSEC," she admitted. She could see Dawn's brows rise, concern on her face. "The UNSUB profiles as mission-oriented, he doesn't care about the rest of us," she assured without Dawn having to say the actual words.
She didn't seem convinced. "Can you promise me?" She paused, waiting for Emily's answer. "Can you?"
Emily couldn't quite meet her gaze. "You know I can't..." she whispered. "You wouldn't promise a family their loved one will survive a surgery..."
Dawn nodded her understanding, though it was clear she wasn't pleased. "I suppose that means we won't be going away any time soon?"
"Do you ever think about what would happen?" Dawn asked as they lay in each others' arms in the hot tub of their hotel room. "If it were you?"
When it had become clear that Foyet wasn't sticking around to make catching him easy, life at the BAU had continued more or less as normal. Which meant that Emily had managed a weekend away afterall. She wasn't sure she could actually remember the last time she'd had a real vacation, even if said vacation only lasted three days...and she knew Dawn well enough to know that she probably hadn't taken time off since her honeymoon with Charlie.
"Hmm?" She pressed a kiss to Dawn's neck. Around them, steam lifted off the warm water to cloud the air and fog up the mirror.
"It could've been you," Dawn continued. "You could've been the one lying in the ICU fighting for your life."
Emily sighed; she'd known Dawn was feeling the fear after Foyet's attack, but hadn't known quite how to broach the subject, given how very real the possibility was.
When she didn't speak immediately, Dawn continued, "If that had been you, I would have had to stand idly by and let your mother make all the medical decisions for you without knowing a damn thing about your life or your wishes. And don't for a single second pretend that she would allow me to see you."
She nodded slowly, unable to deny the veracity of that. "Dawn..."
"I almost pulled the plug on Charlie – I thought it was what he would've wanted...and maybe he would've, when I'd known him. But people change. I've changed. If there's one thing I know, though, it's that your mother hasn't."
"Okay, so I'll talk to her and..."
Dawn didn't let her finish. "I want to be your medical proxy."
For a few moments, Emily gaped. "Okay... Is that... Is that even a possibility? With us not being, you know..."
"I'd have to recuse myself from your care, but yes."
Emily nuzzled into her neck. "So, you don't want to get engaged?"
It was Dawn's turn to stammer. "What... Like now?"
She shrugged, but it was clear she'd put more thought into it than she was letting on. "I want to marry you, Dawn. I thought that's what we both wanted..."
"I want to marry you, Em...but I don't want you to propose just because of what happened," she murmured. "I want it to happen because you love me and it's the right time."
Interlacing their fingers, Emily stroked her thumb along Dawn's. "So, when will the time be right?" she asked, gently teasing.
With a soft little sigh, she leaned back into Emily's chest, hot water lapping around them with the movement. "Just so long as it's not over take-out Chinese after a long shift while I'm still wearing scrubs with vomit on them..."
"Your standards are too high," she joked. With a contented little smile, she rested her chin on Dawn's shoulder and said, "Just so you know, I already have the ring."
She raised a brow, though Emily couldn't see the expression. "Cocky little thing, aren't you?"
In unspoken answer, Emily's hand wandered along Dawn's thigh. "With good reason," she husked near her ear, mischief in her tone.
Dawn let out a shuddering breath as Emily's fingers found their target, anything further she might've said on the matter all but evaporating in her throat.
