Author's Note: Continuation of the same day. And a reminder that this is a totally AU world so I completely changed their backgrounds because I thought they better suited the way they are here.


Common Ground

That night Emily curled up in her pajamas and watched contentedly as Aaron built another fire for her.

They'd had a good day. Though the day certainly had not gone as she'd planned. The good deviation of course being the morning spent making out on the couch. But then even when got to the lake, they hadn't ended up staying down by the water very long.

Even though it was just the two of them for miles, she still knew that Aaron couldn't turn off that 'protection mode' in his brain. It was obvious that no matter how hard he tried to pretend like it was okay, he had a certain degree of base unease simply being out and exposed.

The lake and the house were 'safe' but the woods basically encircled them and she knew that he would have killed for a pair of X-ray glasses to see between the trees.

So after an hour of watching him alternate between staring at her sunbathing, and cautiously eying the woods, she decided they'd have much more fun inside. She'd closed her book, jumped up and grabbed his hand.

"Let's go watch a movie."

Of course he'd smirked as he asked if that was anything like "watching television." And she'd winked as she'd told him, "maybe if you play your cards right."

But mostly they actually did really watch television. There was a marathon of old noir movies on the local station. That wasn't generally her thing, but Aaron liked them so she decided to give them a try. She liked most of them, and The Asphalt Jungle was really good, so they both had a good time basically just sitting around together doing nothing.

Not to say that when they'd taken a snack break that he hadn't also pinned her against the wall in the kitchen and kissed her until her toes curled, because he'd most definitely done that too.

But mostly they just snuggled on the couch.

Now that his lap had become a seating option, it was definitely the best seat in the house. Sadly though, the lap sitting, like the sunbathing, was another activity that they had to cut short prematurely.

That was her own fault though. They'd gone right from the lake to the couch with no stop upstairs for her to change clothes. So after a half hour of her in his lap in the red string bikini, he'd suddenly shifted her to the side and said sheepishly, "as much as it pains me to say it, I think either you have to put on some more clothes or I have to move to the arm chair."

She'd started to blush profusely.

It hadn't occurred to her that the string bikini would be THAT much of a distraction. At that point she'd been sitting in his lap with him running his palm along the outside of her thigh for twenty minutes or so. It had felt really nice, but he hadn't been doing anything that she considered sexual (of course what the hell did she know about foreplay) so it hadn't occurred to her that her state of undress might be causing a problem for him. Which was really pretty stupid as soon as she'd thought about it.

And more than a little bit embarrassing.

But it was embarrassing for both of them really, because she had seen the tinge of pink on his cheeks as well. And she'd shifted over to the couch as she said sheepishly, "sorry, I wasn't thinking." And he'd of course tried to make her feel better as he shook his head and told her, "no, no don't be sorry Emily. I LOVE the bikini, and I love seeing you in the bikini," then he'd squeezed her hands as he'd added drolly, "but having you sit around in my lap with two scraps of fabric held on with a couple of strings probably wasn't my brightest move."

She'd given him a little smile and then had run upstairs during the next commercial to pull on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Once she was dressed less like an extra from that new Baywatch show, she'd joined him on the couch again. Though the second time she'd settled for just curling up at his side.

Though she wasn't yet 'intimately' acquainted with his equipment, she knew enough to know that things didn't always settle down right away. And God knows that she hadn't wanted a repeat of that awkwardness.

But cuddling at his side was really good too, she just liked being near him.

Though she honestly had no, well for lack of a better word, "logical" reason for her growing feelings for him. She knew that he was an FBI Agent, and she knew that he was a nice, sweet guy who could make a really good omelet and was an incredibly bad breaker upper. But in terms of 'facts' about his life, she knew very little beyond those things.

Though in the alternative, he really knew very little about her either.

For all the things she chattered about to fill the air, she didn't talk that much about herself. So yes, he might have had a few more factoids about her than she did about him . . . having a copy of the family bio helped . . . but she really didn't know exactly what it was about her that he actually liked.

She honestly didn't even know if they had anything in common. And that was worrying her a little bit so she figured they might as well start with the basics.

"So where did you grow up?" she asked as he shoved another piece of newspaper under the logs.

"Well," Aaron shot her a glance over his shoulder, "my father was in the Marines so we traveled a little bit. Not as much as you probably did though," he continued talking as he turned back to the fire, "I was born in Virginia. But my dad was deployed for two tours in Vietnam when I was just a baby. Though those aren't really years you remember much anyway, so I have no conscious memory of him being gone. When he got home, he almost immediately got a transfer to Germany. We spent two years there, then a year in Japan before we came back to the States and did a year in California. But all the moving around was getting hard on my mother so he requested a transfer back east. And he'd moved high enough up the chain, and had built up enough cache after another tour in Vietnam, that they actually did honor his request. So from that point on we were in Virginia again. First he was stationed out of Quantico and then he got transferred to the Pentagon," he shot her a quick smile, "so as military brats went I had a lot more stability than most."

Emily pulled her knees up in front of her, "so what did your dad do specifically?"

If he was able to get himself stationed out of DC for that many years she figured it was something important.

"Uh," he cleared his throat, "he was a field commander and now he does tactical planning. He also teaches a couple classes up in Annapolis."

It was always a little embarrassing to tell people who his father was. Like he was bragging or something. Though as he thought about it Emily was probably the only person he'd ever met who could one up him on this front.

Her eyes widened, "wait, is your dad General Hotchner?" she asked in surprise.

The General, back when he was a colonel, had been in command of forces on the ground during the fall of Saigon. That was apparently the other "tour" Aaron was referring to.

Talk about downplaying!

He nodded, "yep, he wasn't too pleased when I decided on Harvard rather than the Naval Academy but he seems okay with my choices now."

If you were a male Hotchner and didn't have a job that involved carrying a gun then the job didn't really count. But fortunately Aaron also had his father's predilection for action, he just didn't want to sign his life away to the government. Of course the FBI also owned his ass, but he could technically walk away from them at any time. You can't just walk away from the Marines.

Not unless you want to get blindfolded and shot.

Emily raised her eyebrow, "so did your mom work at all during that time?"

Given her mother's career it was always weird to hear about families where the mothers stayed home. Though she knew that was the norm for her generation, it just wasn't a world that she could relate to. But it was nice to know that Aaron had also done a fair bit of world traveling as a kid.

Though clearly his family had run in very different circles than hers had.

As he stood up, Aaron brushed himself off and shook his head, "no, she never worked. She was a traditional cookie baking, meatloaf making, meet you at the front door and ask you how your day was' mom," his lip quirked up, "though she was Miss Georgia 1962. A top ten finalist for Miss America too, at least according to my dad."

His father loved to brag about that. Of course if he was married to a genuine beauty queen he might do a bit of bragging too.

Emily's face lit up, "was she?! That's so cool!"

Aaron walked back over and dropped down next to her on the couch, "yeah, it was kind of cool," his eyes crinkled, "definitely always had the prettiest mom on the block," he smiled, "still do actually."

Which reminded him, he needed to call his mom when they got home to tell her he wouldn't be over Wednesday. Given that had been his one day off each week that was designated "good son day." But Wednesday had been temporarily renamed "awkward official breakup with Haley day" and he wouldn't be able to do both. He needed to tell his mother about the breakup too. Not that he thought she'd be particularly disappointed. She was always nice to Haley, but he was pretty sure that the younger woman's ultra feminism had chafed his mother a bit. For one thing Haley wasn't a fan of beauty pageants. She thought they objectified women. She was of course too polite to ever flat out say that to his mom, but she had accidentally blurted something one day about Miss America being an airhead and, though she'd immediately apologized, his mother hadn't forgotten it.

So no, no it was safe to say his mother would not be sad at the loss of Haley as a potential daughter-in-law.

Emily stared at him for a second before she asked her next question, "siblings?"

"Yep," he nodded, "one sister, one brother, younger and older respectively. My brother Sean went to West Point, he's a Ranger now stationed out of Ft. Benning. And Julia she's um," his expression softened slightly as he paused, "well, she's still figuring stuff out."

Emily watched the way his eyes shifted and she debated asking another question. This was the first time he'd talked about his family and she didn't know if that was something he was comfortable doing.

After all, given that she didn't KNOW anything about them, she didn't know if they were a touchy subject in general.

Finally she decided being direct would be the best approach. So she rubbed his arm and asked softly, "I'm sorry, am I being too nosy?"

"Huh," Aaron's eyes snapped back to hers, "oh no," he shook his head, "not at all. I was just thinking," a hint of sadness touched his smile, "it's just, you know, she's my little sister and I worry."

He worried a lot actually, but that was his job. Really he just wished she lived closer so he could see for himself how she was doing.

Talking on the phone once a week wasn't a good enough indicator for him.

"Is she in school?"

His reverie was interrupted by Emily's question and he nodded, "yeah, now she is but she'd taken a year off," he huffed humorlessly, "we don't do that in my family, you know? 'Find ourselves.' My parents didn't understand."

His jaw twitched slightly as he thought about his sister crying on his shoulder last Christmas. He loved his parents but they had always been too hard on Julia. His mom thought she should find a "nice boy and settle down" and his dad, well he actually was one of the few vocal supporters of women in the military. Just like with Aaron, he thought a military career was the way to go for her. And then when she not only didn't do THAT, but told them that she needed to "leave school to find her path," Aaron had seriously thought his father was going to have a stroke right there in the kitchen.

Realizing that his pause just now was rather lengthy, and that Emily was probably waiting for a more complete answer to what he'd just said, he looked over at her.

"Julia had a bit of a rough time for awhile but I think she's doing better now. She called me last week and told me she'd picked her courses for the fall. She seemed happy. She changed her major to molecular biology and I think that's made the difference."

"What was she before?" Emily asked with curiosity.

Of course she had a genuine curiosity about his family, but it was also interesting seeing him like this. More, well, she wasn't quite sure what it was . . . vulnerable maybe. Though he'd definitely dropped his professional armor around her, this was the first time she really felt like he was completely exposed.

"Pre-med," he answered, "she's wanted to be a doctor since she was ten years old. And she's certainly got the brains for it but I just think it was too much pressure."

Emily's eyes widened in surprise, "but isn't molecular biology a really hard course load too?"

Personally she had NO patience for the 'scientific method' and gritted her teeth every time she had to pick out her math/science core requirements.

"Eh," he tipped his head, "it's not the courses, it's the people. She's brilliant but she's very shy. But now she's decided that lab research would be a better fit for her," he sighed, "I just worry that she's not going to be happy because she won't be doing what she really wants to do."

Seeing the concern on his face, Emily's own expression softened. Then she leaned over, kissing his cheek before she rubbed his knee and whispered, "you're a good big brother."

She'd often wished for an older brother or sister, somebody that she could go to if she had a problem. Her world had always been so isolated. A sibling would have made things easier.

But . . . she thought sadly . . . that wasn't in the cards for them.

His eyes crinkled slightly as he turned to look at her, "thanks," then he moved back to the corner of the couch and pulled his legs up to stretch out. Emily immediately moved over to climb into his lap, leaning back against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.

And again his world was filled with the scent of roses.

They sat quietly watching the fire for a moment before he asked quietly, "it's just you and your parents, right? I didn't see any other siblings mentioned in the file."

It was a little strange knowing things about a girl before she actually told them to you.

"Yeah, it's just us," she said softly. And then she paused for a moment before she added, "but I was almost a big sister."

There was another pause and Aaron was just about to ask what she meant when she said softly.

"My mother got pregnant again when I was seven and she went to term, but . . .," she cleared her throat, "the baby was stillborn."

Even though she was just a child at the time, Emily still remembered the sadness of those days. Everyone had been so excited about that baby, and the loss had just been devastating.

Next to the shooting, that was the worst time in her family's life. Her mother cried for weeks. And her father . . . well, it was obvious that he didn't know what to do with himself. Emily remembered that he took her for a lot of walks.

Aaron winced as his hand rubbed unconsciously across her stomach, "God, that's awful."

Jesus, he wasn't even sure yet if he wanted kids, but he sure as hell couldn't imagine losing one.

And certainly not like that.

That moment when your child's born is supposed to be the happiest in your life. But instead they had the rugged pulled out from under them.

Her poor parents.

And they had turned out a fabulous girl like Emily . . . he nuzzled her neck . . . so clearly they had to be good people. Not that such a tragedy befalling not nice people would have been okay. But it just made it more unsettling to be reminded that there was no karmic rhyme or reason to these things.

Emily nodded, her cheek brushing against his, "yeah it was just awful. We knew it was a girl and they'd picked out a name of course . . . Catherine Marie," she was quiet for a second, "they'd decorated the nursery in Winnie the Pooh," she bit her lip, "it was my idea. Daddy let me help him put the border on the wall."

To this day whenever she thought of Winnie the Pooh she thought of dead babies. If she ever got therapy for anything, it was going to be that.

Feeling the sadness bleeding off the girl in his arms, Aaron kissed her cheek before he pulled her back more securely against his chest.

What a shit thing to happen. And the bitch of it was he knew that it happened all the time. That was his worry . . . that was why he wasn't sure if he wanted to have children.

Sometimes they died.

He'd seen some terrible things in the DA's office. Horrible tragedies that he didn't understand how people ever move passed.

But Aaron didn't really want to find out how they moved passed them. He didn't want to be one of those people.

Emily cleared her throat, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to totally bring down the room," she rubbed the arm that was wrapped around her waist, "think of something happier to talk about."

He was quiet for a minute before he whispered, "which do you prefer, puppies or kittens?"

Her eyes crinkled as she whispered back, "both. But I like cats better than dogs. You?"

"Sorry, I have to go with puppies," his nose wrinkled slightly, "I'm not a big fan of cats."

Haley had a cat and the cat hated him. He had some bad scars from that damn calico.

Emily rolled her eyes as she turned to look at him incredulously, "you hate baby kittens? How is that even possible?"

"Uh," he huffed indignantly, "I never said I HATED baby kittens," he scowled at her, "who am I Hitler? I just 'prefer' puppies. That was the question Emily, prefer. Not, which would you rather see drowned in the river."

Her eyebrow quivered at his rant before she said flatly, "if you ever asked me what I'd prefer to see 'drowned in the river,' I think I'd be seriously worrying you were Ted Bundy or something."

Serial killers . . . she shuddered . . . creepy.

Feeling her shiver, Aaron's exasperation immediately faded as he realized that he'd upset her. He immediately kissed her cheek and whispered, "I'm sorry, I get a little worked up sometimes. That analogy was obviously over the top."

God Aaron, you were trying to move the conversation off dead babies and you moved it to dead kittens and serial killers! Why don't you just pull a gun on the girl if you're trying to scare the crap out of her?

Emily's expression softened as Aaron began stroking his fingers along her stomach.

It was a gentle touch, barely a whisper on her skin. But it was sweet, and it made her feel . . . well, she hadn't decided on a word yet.

Maybe it was too soon to even know what that word would be.

But she was starting to be able to read him, and she saw that the action was an apology. Not that she'd really thought that he was inclined to drown baby kittens in the river, it was just the associated inference that had creeped her out. But maybe she was just being too sensitive. So she turned her head and kissed him, "it's okay, I'm not upset with you," she gave him a little smile, "I know you aren't going to chop me up into little pieces."

His expression darkened as he shook his head, "don't joke about that, okay? I can't . . . I don't . . ."

He didn't know how to finish that sentence. All he knew was that the thought of her being in any way hurt was unthinkable. That was his worst nightmare right now.

That he'd let her down and whoever sliced up that picture of her face would come back and do it again on a live canvas.

Seeing that she'd actually rattled him, Emily groaned internally . . . good job Em. Clearly black humor had not been the way to go there.

She shifted her body so she could wrap her arms around his neck before she whispered, "I'm sorry. You're right. Given the circumstances under which we met, that was definitely in very poor taste."

God, they just kept sticking their feet into their mouths tonight!

Though as she thought about it she realized that this was really the first time they tried to talk, talk. In the past it was always her chattering and him restraining his eyeroll. Or more recently they'd started to banter and joke. But tonight was the first time they'd ever really had a serious conversation where they just tried to get to know each other.

Maybe they were screwing up because they were nervous. Maybe he . . . like she . . . was subconsciously worried that maybe they would get to know each other and then discover they didn't have anything to talk about.

And that would be that.

Here . . . she sighed against his shoulder . . . she had this fabulous guy who she really wanted to be with, but she still didn't know if they had ANYTHING in common!

Well, they were both intelligent, had traveled when they were kids, and had a good sense of humor. But was that enough?

Her brow wrinkled . . . probably not.

Well, she bit back a pout . . . she needed to find something tonight or she was going to get seriously depressed. What if their little bubble was going to burst? What if when they went back to their regular lives he didn't want to spend time with her anymore?

That would be just awful.

So she hugged him tightly as she tried to think of just one thing that meant something to her that she thought might mean something to him. Finally she had one.

She turned her head slightly to press her lips to his ear, "do you like U2?"

That was like the biggest band of their generation. He HAD to like U2!

Sensing that this one was not a casual inquiry, Aaron nodded slowly, "I wore out my first cassette of The Joshua Tree."

She tipped her head back and looked at him hopefully, "really?"

That was her favorite band. If they had music in common that was something important. That was something they could talk about.

Seeing her eyes light up, he realized that she was excited. Why was she excited that he liked U2?

Then he ran down the last ten minutes of their conversation and he realized that they'd been fumbling a bit.

She was looking for common ground.

Now he felt even worse about their missteps, but he at least knew how to make her feel better. So he leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "you know what I like almost as much as U2? Chocolate chip cookies."

Emily leaned back and gave him a big smile, "me too."

Okay . . . he was officially the best.

He gave her a soft kiss before he tucked her hair back, "yeah, but did I tell you the best chocolate chip cookies I ever had were the ones you baked last Tuesday?"

That was a fact. He wasn't just saying it to be nice.

Tears pricked her eyes as she whispered back, "really?"

He kissed her once more before he whispered against her lips, "really truly. You're the best cookie maker around."

As he leaned back she gave him a watery smile and a shy "thanks." And he immediately felt a burst of warmth in his heart.

Again . . . though it was still just a stage of like . . . a smitten stage . . . he couldn't envision a scenario where he would have any desire to walk away from her.

There was a sweet, kind, smart, funny girl sitting in his lap. How would he not be better off with a person like that in his life?

His fingers tangled in her silky locks as he looked into her eyes, "I know what you're thinking and you don't have to worry that we'll discover we have nothing in common. I like you very much Miss Prentiss," his lip quirked up, "perhaps we'll find out that the only thing we have in common is chocolate chip cookies and the color of our hair. Or maybe we'll find out that we have a thousand things in common," he shook his head, "I don't think it matters. I think we seem compatible. Do you agree?"

Aaron knew that Emily was new at this so her concern was understandable. But really, he and Haley superficially had very little in common and they'd been together for six years. And they'd been happy for most of that time.

Though he didn't think that bringing up his ex-girlfriend would really be his wisest move at the moment.

He might have made a few missteps with women this weekend but he did know that talking about a prior woman while holding the current one in his lap was a big no, no.

Emily nodded as she wiped the corner of her eye, "I do."

"Okay," he flashed a dimple at her, "then I don't want you to worry anymore. Whatever this is, it will not rise or fall based on whether you keep the ketchup in the cabinet or the fridge."

"Cabinet," she shot back immediately and he grinned.

"Look at that, black hair, chocolate chip cookies and ketchup storage, we're on a roll!"

She laughed and kissed him again before she rested her head on his shoulder, "okay, what else can we talk about?"

They stayed up until well after midnight talking about their lives. And actually they discovered they had quite a few things in common. Politics . . . both of their families were Regan Republicans . . . music . . . U2, INXS and Springsteen were some major overlaps . . . food . . . given their exposure to other cultures, they both were fairly adventurous in their culinary tastes . . . and religion . . . both went to church regularly, though Emily was Catholic and Aaron was Lutheran. All of that taken together was enough for Emily to start feeling really good about their chances of building something together.

Though she was admittedly a little bit worried about him joining Hostage Rescue . . . it sounded very dangerous . . . but it was obvious how much he wanted the position so she made sure to limit her comments to a non committal, "that sounds interesting," and moved on to the next thing. It certainly wasn't her place to be inserting her two cents into his decisions. Well, not now anyway.

Besides though, his desire to do that work was a part of who he was. And she didn't want to be the type of girlfriend . . . now that she was taking on that role . . . that tried to change her guy into something he wasn't.

From what she'd seen those relationships always ended. And they always ended badly.

Not that she was like picking out wedding china or anything, that would clearly be creepy and insane. But she didn't want to go into this making poor choices right from the beginning that were going to guarantee an unhappy ending.

Just because she was new at this didn't mean she was stupid.

It was almost one when he walked her to her bedroom door and he kissed her good night. First on the lips and then on the forehead, before he pulled her into a hug and told her that he had the best day he'd had in a long time.

Her lips curved in a faint, teary smile against his chest as she thought, 'yep, things were going really well.'


A/N 2: I was going to send this to somebody to check a particular point I put in here but I didn't get a chance to. So if you know who sees any problems with the you know what, just give me a shout ;)

When my sister was pregnant back in like '82 I think, I remember her going to the base clinic and there was a woman there who was due at the same time and then as the due date approached my sister ran into her in the waiting room and asked how things were going. The baby was dead but she was so close to term that she had to carry the fetus until her body decided it was to be born. It wasn't like today where they could do some sort of inducement or "procedure". That was almost thirty years ago. And though I was quite young I remember that was just an awful story and it stuck with me.

Hotch/Aaron is definitely a Republican in all worlds. Here I thought it would be interesting to make Emily one too. But they're "Regan Republicans" and if you live in America you know that's a certain type of conservative and I thought it would work for both of them.

I'm winding this down. They're now to Sunday and I'll be wrapping it on that day in their world. Though I will be picking up with them pretty shortly. I think rather than continuing this one out, a new ongoing story would probably be better. It will probably be called The Gingerbread House.

That little green button folks, it's right there in the middle of the screen and it really does keep all the muses alive.