Author's Note: As you can probably tell from the title, this is a transitional chapter. And it's short.

Very.

Very.

Short.

Early January-Mid February

The End, The Murky Middle, and The Beginning

They woke before dawn, and this time they made love.

Emily knew the difference . . . Hotch let her get on top. And he remembered everything that she liked, and everything that she didn't. He stroked his thumb along that spot on her hip, and his teeth along her nipple, and then he told her that she was beautiful and kind and that he was so grateful that she was in his life, and that any man would be blessed to have her. And she was sad when it was done.

So sad that she began to weep.

That's when he rolled her beneath him and kissed the tears from her face as he whispered over and over, "don't cry Emily, please don't cry."

And she tried . . . for him . . . she tried. But she couldn't help believing that she was about to lose something that she'd never actually had.

Afterwards, they took a shower together. Hotch winced when he saw the bruises which had formed on her back from their first time in the bar. But then he kissed them and told her that he was sorry.

Emily told him that she wasn't.

And when they were finished, he pulled on a towel so he could make coffee and start breakfast. And while he was doing that, she got dressed for the day before she went out to the car to get his bag. They had breakfast and shared the paper.

Almost like a real couple.

Then later . . . as she had promised . . . she kissed him goodbye at the front door and they held hands until they got to the car. Only then did they pull away.

With both of them curling their fingers.

And when they got to the office, things between them weren't weird or strange . . . but they were different. Their relationship was different.

Stronger.

And if anyone noticed that from that day forward, they always sat together in briefings, or that they went out for both coffee and lunch together almost every day . . . even though they had never done either before . . . well, no comments were made.

That was probably for the best.

Because Hotch had become very protective of both Emily, and their new relationship. And it was never wise to get between Hotch and anything that he cared about.

Things would not have ended well for that person.

But then one day, about three weeks later, he slipped up himself. He called her "Emily" while they were both on duty. It had happened right there in the middle of a police station in Lincoln, Nebraska. Again, nobody on the team seemed to notice. And why would they?

Really, it was just her name.

But for Hotch, it was something different. That's when he finally started to really believe that maybe things would be okay. Because he had somebody in his life again that cared about him, who he could talk over his problems with, and share his day, and for a very long while he hadn't thought that would ever happen again. And although his feelings . . . his attachment and affection for Emily . . . had grown much deeper now, he also knew that as long they worked together, things would have to remain platonic. But he had mostly made his peace with that.

He'd had to.

So everything was going along well with their new normal. Hotch was content in ways that he hadn't been in years, and when they were together, Emily, she seemed truly happy. She definitely laughed and smiled more with him than it seemed like she did when he saw her interacting with the others. And when he touched her hand, or whispered something in her ear, he'd see how her breath would quicken and often a faint blush would touch her cheeks.

He would find himself doing those things just to see those reactions.

Just to get that confirmation. The confirmation whatever their relationship had evolved into, it wasn't just him feeling these things that he did. Again, it was enough.

Mostly.

Then, six weeks after that night which changed everything, just after eight o'clock in the morning, Emily suddenly slipped into his office and shut the door behind her. When Hotch looked up, she leaned back against the wood and turned to face him. His eyebrow quirked up.

"What?"

She threw her hands in the air.

"I'm late!"

A/N 2: And finally, we're off and running!

As I said from the beginning, there was a transitional aspect to the sex all through the night, until we arrived at the next morning and, 'making love.' It's obvious they were pretty attached by that point, and then they had another month of platonic bonding and spending time together before Em's little discovery. Kind of drop kicking them emotionally to the way they felt about each other by early October in Girl proper. So just on the verge falling in love.

And again, this was VERY short, I know, but I actually added 200 words to it from the original version! I still couldn't get it over a thousand words, I tried, but the brevity was kind of key here to leapfrog over those weeks, so there was only so much I could puff up without taking away from the style that I liked the first time around.

Thanks all!