Author's Note: Totally random reposting coincidence, but I like that Hotch is in peril here and Emily is currently in peril over in Second Chances. It keeps their 'damsel' energy balanced :)

To a more serious side point though, given how the current arc here is following a terrorist attack in New York, I couldn't put THIS chapter up, on the 9/11 anniversary. It would have felt creepy, and VERY distasteful :(

But now, a direct continuation in our fake world.

Bedlam

"AARON! AARON WHAT'S HAPPENING?! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!"

Emily was screaming her words into the cell phone clutched desperately in her right hand. Something had just blown up.

Something BIG!

OH CHRIST! Her eyes started water . . . and Hotch wasn't answering her!

All she could hear was a dead line.

And she didn't know what the fuck that MEANT! He could be dead . . . her palm smacked into her forehead . . . or he could have just dropped his freaking phone! All she knew for sure was that he needed help! And she nearly fell off the bed scrambling to go snag her gun and ID off the dresser. Then she ran over to grab her vest and jacket from the chair.

Thank God she hadn't gotten undressed!

And so as she was yanking her door open she already had the vest half on. That's when she began yelling for the others.

"ROSSI! MORGAN! REID! JJ!"

She started running down the hall, vest half strapped, while she randomly pounded on doors. And she was doing that because she no longer could actually remember who was staying where. That was incidental knowledge.

And her brain had pushed it away

But it didn't matter anyway, because she hadn't gone more than five feet before half the rooms on the floor had a head poking out of them.

And fortunately the four doors that she needed to open, were among them.

Rossi and Morgan both came running out, both in their underwear, with guns in their hands. Rossi was clearly wide awake . . . though Morgan looked half asleep. And then Will and JJ appeared, him with his hand on her elbow. The two of them were still dressed.

Reid was three steps behind the rest of them. He was in a towel.

And he had a toothbrush hanging from his mouth.

Everyone was yelling as they hurried towards her.

"What is it?!"

"What's happening?!"

"What's going on?!

Their words were tumbling over one another so Emily couldn't really make out who was saying what. But it didn't matter anyway, because they were all basically asking the same question. So she just directed her response to the person who got to her first.

Rossi.

"It's Hotch!" She frantically explained while yanking the last of the straps into place on her vest, "I was on the phone with him, and we were talking, and then something blew up. Something," her voice thickened as her eyes dropped to the carpet, "really big."

Her gaze snapped back up to Dave's now horrified one . . . all she heard from the others were gasps.

She couldn't look at them.

"Dave," her voice cracked, "the line went dead so I don't know what happened to him. But either way," she shook her head and cleared her throat, "we have to go NOW! He and Kate had their meeting at City Hall, but just before," she swallowed, "well, just before the explosion, Hotch said that they'd had to park like three blocks away from there. So he," she flapped her hand while impatiently correcting, "they, are somewhere between City Hall and Federal Plaza."

Though part of Dave's brain knew that he was reacting too slowly to the news that Emily had just told him, still, for a moment he just stared back at her.

His eyes were wide, and his hand was shaking and he was tuning out all of the questions he could hear being shot rapid fire from the team members around them. Questions didn't matter right then. Because right then he was just trying to keep from completely losing his shit. Really, he was trying to mentally process the implications of what he'd just been told.

That Hotch might very well be dead.

But that was not a future that he was willing to accept.

So he blinked, snapping himself out of the initial shock that was paralyzing him. Because there was work to be done.

And minutes were being lost.

"Okay," he grabbed Emily's arm from where she was still trying to pull on her windbreaker, and started running towards the elevators, "let's go!"

"Wait," Morgan yelled from behind him, "hold up! Dave, you're not dressed! And we need our gear!"

"Ah shit," Dave froze, dropping Emily's arm as he spun back around to realize that he hadn't even closed his door let alone pulled on his fucking pants!

And though he and Emily had reached the elevator bank, he saw Morgan and Reid had turned and were running back to their rooms while JJ was standing frozen in the middle of the hall. Her eyes were bright and glistening with undisguised horror and panic. She was biting down on her fist.

Will had disappeared.

"Give us one minute," Dave muttered to Emily as he turned to begin running back down the hall, "just one minute."

"You have until the elevator arrives!" Emily yelled over her shoulder while jamming her finger down on the Down button, "if nobody's back by then, I'm leaving anyway!"

Although she knew that wasn't the wisest course of action . . . none of them should be out on their own, most especially now . . . she didn't give a fuck. She wasn't going to dick around waiting for the guys to get dressed while Hotch was out there hurt or . . . she swallowed down the bile rising up . . . dying.

NO . . . she screamed in her head . . . he is NOT dying! Don't even think it!

Yeah, that was the best advice. Because there was NO way that she was going to be able to think rationally, or even attempt to look after her own safety, if she let her brain wander even a step down that path. Because that path only lead to misery and grief.

And they already had enough of that in spades.

Fortunately she was distracted from those darker thoughts, by the sound of whooshing air behind her. She spun around to see Will, twelve paces away, rushing back out of JJ's room. He now had his leather jacket on, and his New Orleans PD badge hanging around his neck.

He was jamming his holster onto his hip.

"Will!" she started to call out to him, just before hearing the elevator door begin to open behind her, "are you coming too?!"

He was nodding as he double timed it down the hall.

"Hell yeah," he bounded up with his badge smacking against his chest, "let's go!"

"Great," she huffed out a sigh of relief, "thank you!"

Even though she'd been prepared to leave without the others, at least now she wouldn't actually have to go it alone!

So she and Will hurried through the open elevator doors. And it wasn't until Emily spun back around to hit the button for the lobby, that she saw JJ was now hurrying towards them.

She was trying to pull on her vest.

But there was no way that she was going anywhere. Not when she'd just pulled herself out of the field because of her pregnancy. Not only would Emily not allow her back out there now, but she knew damn well that Will wasn't having any of that either.

She'd just heard him mutter "what the fuck?" from just behind her.

So Emily preempted the imminent domestic dispute, by handling the matter herself.

"No," she violently shook her head even while her hand slammed down on the elevator door to keep it open, "you stay."

JJ's face twisted.

"Bu . . ."

But Emily cut her off again . . . this time brutally.

"You'll get us killed," she bit out harshly, "we'll be too busy worrying about you getting hurt, to worry about ourselves."

Yes, that was cold, and she could see JJ flinch at her words, but there were no time for niceties.

They needed to go.

So Emily finished up quickly, though her tone softened a bit.

"You stay here, and coordinate. Tell the others that Will and I are taking four blocks out on the East side of the Plaza. The guys should start searching from the other directions. And the cells probably won't be working well so . . ."

She pulled her hand back and the door started closing in her face.

". . . we'll text if we find anything!" She shouted into the diminishing space.

At the last second, JJ's vest came flying through the door . . . it smacked Emily in the chest.

"For Will!" She yelled.

And then the door slammed shut.

Emily jammed her thumb down on the Lobby button, as Will hastened to snatch the vest up from the floor.

"What is she thinkin'?" he drawled while pulling it up to his chest, "she's half my size."

"Try it anyway," Emily pointed to his stomach, "if she's already a few months along, then she's probably been wearing a larger size to make sure her abdomen's fully covered," she shrugged, "it might fit."

"Yeah, well," he started shrugging off his jacket, "she is second trimester, so I guess it couldn't hurt to try."

'Better than getting shot in the gut anyway,' he added to himself.

But unfortunately, the vest (second trimester or not) still wasn't big enough. Though it did basically cover his chest, it came up short on his stomach, and he couldn't pull the straps to tighten it properly anyway.

And he could see Emily's gaze flitter anxiously between him standing there in the ill fitting gear, and up to the bright red numbers showing their slow descent to the lobby.

"Not good enough," she murmured, "but I guess for now it's better than nothing."

At least his heart was covered. But even in her state of controlled panic, Emily knew that it wasn't safe for him out there without proper gear. Though it really wasn't safe even for anyone with proper gear either. Just ask Detective Cooper. Her eyes started to burn.

Or Hotch.

"Just barely," Will grunted back while yanking his jacket on again, "but I guess I can make do with it if I have to."

"No, no," Emily turned away to hide her watery eyes, letting them bounce up instead to the red numbers as she pulled her phone from her pocket again, "it'll be okay. I just remembered we usually have a couple spare vests in the SUVs. Mostly they're the bigger sizes. We'll get you one of those."

"Great," Will muttered to himself, "I just joined the FBI."

"What was that?" Emily murmured back absentmindedly, even as she fruitlessly tried Hotch's cell again.

"Nothing," he shook his head while lightly patting her arm, "nothing at all. And don't you worry about Hotch. You know he's a tough SOB. I don't care what blew up," Will shook his head as his jaw twitched, "he's not dead."

Feeling the tears start to pool in her already watery eyes, Emily gave a quick jerk of her head . . . it was the closest she could get to an actual nod.

"Yeah," she sucked in a breath while swallowing over the lump in her throat, "yeah, I know. He's strong. And it's stupid," she added softly, "but I think I'd feel it if he was gone."

Will's head swiveled to look down at Emily in surprise.

"Are you two involved now?" He asked softly.

Aside from this trip to New York, it had been some months since he'd last seen the whole team together. But JJ hadn't mentioned anything to him about Hotch and Emily dating. Though as he saw Emily's cheeks redden, he realized that perhaps JJ didn't know about them either.

Hmm . . . he bit down on his lip . . . it seemed they weren't the only ones who had gotten together on the down low.

Emily slowly lifted her head. Now her glistening eyes were wild with a whole new layer of panic.

SHIT! She hadn't meant to say that out loud! But fortunately she was saved from Will's searching eyes, by the elevator's arrival in the lobby.

And there was no time for her emotional drama at the moment anyway, it was all about the physical drama right now. So she just murmured, "nobody else knows," as she screwed her fist up to wipe the tears from her eyes.

Before Will could respond to her beyond a, "got it," the doors began to slide open. And fortunately he also seemed to understand that this wasn't the time for actual conversation. Because as soon as the gap in the doorway was big enough . . . he darted through the hole.

She was right behind him.

They raced across the lobby, clearly scaring the shit out of everyone who saw them.

But Emily had no time for public relations. Besides . . . she began fumbling in her pocket . . . everyone was already scared shitless anyway.

This was just another fanning of those already existing flames.

So she quickly put those people out of her head, and had yanked her keys out of her jeans before she'd even slammed through the revolving door of the lobby.

From there she and Will barreled through the half dozen armed security guards standing out on the front walk with her yelling, "FBI! MAKE A HOLE!" Then she and her new (temporary, and former) partner, both took a flying leap over the three foot tall wall of sand bags that were surrounding the front entrance of the hotel.

It was management's small effort to keep an explosive laden car from ramming into the lobby.

And though they did both cleanly clear the top of the sand wall, unfortunately Emily landed down, hard, on one knee. But Will immediately yanked her up. And then . . . with him still pulling her along . . . it was a stop and go, brakes screeching, horns blaring, hobbled run (for her anyway) across Amsterdam Avenue. It might have been after eleven, but it was still New York City.

The traffic never stopped.

Finally though, they reached the other side of the street. And directly opposite from the hotel itself was the hotel's parking garage.

Emily's heart was pounding, and her knee throbbing, as she passed the attendant and ran up the ramp. It was two seconds after she'd turned the corner, that her SUV came into sight.

She hit the button for the door locks.

It was when she heard the click though . . . that she froze in her tracks.

Oh Jesus!

"The locks!" She gasped while spinning around to Will coming up two steps behind her . . . he stopped short, "that was the last thing I heard before the explosion!" Her hand came up to her mouth, "I didn't even consciously process the sound at the time. But I know I heard it. Hotch hit the locks, and then I heard the explosion." Her head whipped back around to the SUV just ahead of them.

"It was a car bomb," she finished on a whisper.

"Well," Will's jaw snapped shut, "shit." He immediately put his hand on Emily's bicep and pulled her back three more steps.

"And how long ago did you leave this one?" He asked quietly.

"Um," she swallowed, "like an hour. But this one's in a garage with an attendant on the exit. And I know Hotch and Kate had street parking. Hotch mentioned it. And really," she turned to look up at Will, "they can't expect to take out the whole task force with car bombs, can they?"

That would be insane. And a hell of a lot of explosives!

"I don't know." Will shook his head slowly while tugging Emily back another step, "but you were on the news when that detective was shot, so just like Hotch and that woman, you are a face of the Task Force, Emily. So I don't think we should go anywhere near that SUV."

"But," Emily's hand curled into a fist, "you need another vest, and how are we going to find Hotch with no vehicle?!"

God DAMN it! They had no time for this bullshit!

"We've got a vehicle," Will started dragging Emily towards the stairwell off to the left, "I rented a car, it's up on four. And I have nothing to do with this case. So come on," he shook his head as they started moving double time towards the stairs, "I just wish I had some damn gear with me."

Once they got up his parking level, Will had Emily stay by the stairwell for a moment while he ran down to check under the car and look inside the windows. When he was over by the stairwell, he'd already hit the locks for the remote entry, and (fortunately) nothing had happened. So it seemed like they should be fine.

Still, when it came to being blown into tiny little bits, it didn't hurt to be cautious.

But then she heard Will yell, "looks all clear," while hopping up to his feet again.

Thank God.

At that point Emily was just shoving her phone into her pocket. She'd sent a text to the rest of the team asking JJ to send the bomb squad to check out their SUVs, and for the rest of them to find alternate transport until they were cleared.

Fortunately the text seemed to go through.

So she took off at a run down to where Will was just opening the driver's side door. And again . . . nothing happened. Still though, he put his hand up for her wait a second by the next car over while he sat down in the rental, and turned on the engine. But once that was purring softly, she ran over to the passenger's side and jumped in.

Will was just clicking his belt.

And her door had barely slammed shut, before he peeled out backwards. She was yanking on her own seatbelt as he spun them around the first ramp. The tires were screeching when they made the first turn going at least fifteen mph over the suggested speed limit.

But still he kept going with the accelerator down.

Actually he was going fast enough that Emily started to get a little nauseous. But fortunately just when her stomach started to turn, they reached the bottom level of the garage. And she was just about to open her mouth to tell him to just flash his badge at the attendant . . . when he smashed through the striped wooden barrier.

She nodded to herself as the wood splintered up and hit the windshield.

Well, yeah, that'll work too.

Still though, she flashed her own badge and yelled, "FBI! EMERGENCY!" out her open window, just to appease the screaming attendant. And she only did that so he wouldn't call the police.

The last thing they needed was to have an APB out on Will's rental car!

And from there Will fishtailed them off the final ramp of the parking garage, and pulled out onto Amsterdam . . . in the process he cut off three lanes of traffic.

With horns blaring and brakes screeching (and everybody swerving) he then proceeded to speed the wrong way up for a block and a half on one of the busiest streets in the country.

Emily had a white knuckle grip the entire way.

But she said nothing to him. She actually was planning to give the guy a kiss when this was all over. Because somehow (and she'd have to ask him later how that was) but he seemed to have a pretty good understanding of how the New York traffic patterns worked. Because going the wrong way up this short one way section of Amsterdam, was going to save them at least five minutes in the drive towards City Hall.

And at that point they needed to save all the minutes they could.

It was just as he jumped the curb and turned down a side alley, that she got a text from Reid that he and Morgan had commandeered a hotel van and were going to cover the West side of the plaza. Then Rossi popped through to say that he'd flagged down a passing livery car, and they were coming up the South.

The last text was from JJ.

She said the bomb squads were all tied up (not a surprise), so she was having hotel security cordon off and evacuate the entire garage. Better safe than sorry.

Emily was typing back a quick, 'good call,' just when she heard Will suck in a breath.

"Ah shit, Emily," he muttered, "I think this is it."

Her head snapped up to see that he'd just made another turn. And now less than a block away, and less than fifteen minutes from the point where Hotch's phone had gone dead, they found a wall of emergency vehicles blocking their path. A quick glance out to the street sign just behind them, confirmed what she'd feared.

They were definitely less than three blocks out from City Hall.

This was it. Her breath caught . . . this was where it had happened. And her eyes started to water when she realized that she'd actually lost count of the number of emergency vehicles in front of her. It was at least a three alarm response from the fire department. And there were well over a dozen NYPD sector cars. Plus the bomb squad. Arson. Special Operations.

Everyone was there.

And beyond the vehicles there was a gap . . . and then there was a wall of fire.

As Will bounced them up onto the sidewalk . . . the only place to park . . . and pulled to a stop in front of a leather shop that had had its windows blown in, Emily felt her level of despair rising.

For a fire that hot, and a response this massive, the explosion had to have been incredible. And a second later, when the truth of what that meant really hit her, she choked down the sob that rose up.

There was NO WAY that Hotch could have survived if he was that close to the epicenter! Oh Jesus!

Aaron!

And it was very possible that she could have given in to that wave of grief that was about to engulf her . . . but for Will. He reached over and took her hand.

"There's always a chance he survived the explosion, Emily," he whispered softly, "but he's got no chance at all if you give up on him now. Because nobody," he shook his head firmly as he looked out over the mass casualty response in front of them, "and I mean NOBODY out there is going to even entertain the idea that anybody could still be breathing in that firestorm, unless we make them. Because they don't know Hotch, we do."

Slowly, Emily lifted her head, and she turned to look over at the man next to her. Seeing the sympathy and compassion on his face, caused one lone tear to slide down her cheek.

"Do you really think that he could still be alive," she jerked her chin towards the fire burning down the block, "even in that?"

Her words were faint . . . but still cautiously hopeful. Because the thought of losing Hotch now, this way, it would have broken her completely. So she would happily grasp at any straw she could find . . . if only Will could throw her one to catch!

But then she saw him nod as he gave her a sad smile.

"I absolutely do. Like I said at the hotel, Hotch is one tough SOB. If anybody could survive Armageddon itself, it's him. Now come on," he gave her hand a shake, "let's get in there."

For a second she just stared back at him . . . then she sucked in a ragged breath.

"Yeah," she slowly exhaled as she rapidly blinked the moisture from her eyes, "let's do it."

So he dropped her hand, and she quickly untangled herself from the seat belt, while he yanked the keys from the ignition. His door flung open a second before hers did. They jumped out, and a millisecond later the echo of their doors slamming shut bounced off the building around them. The outer edge of the barricade was just a few buildings away.

They both took off at a run.

A/N 2: I was pleased to be able to write Will into this storyline where he actually got to do something substantive. If I haven't mentioned before, he's my favorite canon character to write outside the team proper, and I figured with him being right there when everybody got the news about Hotch, that he'd definitely gear up and go with them. I also liked the idea that in this universe, somebody new being the first one to find out about Emily and Hotch's relationship.

Thanks for sticking with it!