(hii hope your enjoying the story, I just want to add that with the Talia storyline I did research and read real stories about people who had suffered an abusive caretaker so I based a lot of it on real life events that do happen too people.
Anyway...Emily isn't going to happy when she finds out about Talia this chapter 👁
(Also Garcia saves the day, as usual) Also after this chapter get ready for happier chapters and cute hotchniss moments

It had been a few weeks since Talia had first started being different towards Aaron, manipulative and abusive. Throughout this time, everybody had noticed a change in Aaron but he masked what it was well, after all he was a profiler and so was his wife and he couldn't let her find out. He was too ashamed, embarrassed and felt powerless.
Things hadn't got better, like he had hoped it would. In fact, it had got worse, when Emily was gone for just day shifts it wasn't as bad. Sure, she'd call him every name she could think of. Weak, pathetic, useless. And some days, she wouldn't let him eat, but those days of the name calling and being deprived of food were the good days. It was when a case came up things got bad.

She wouldn't give him his medications, leaving him in more pain and distress. Whenever he'd get upset, she'd get angry and slap him, or push him over. Most of times, she wouldn't let him bathe until the very last day Emily was coming home so she never noticed. She'd refuse to let him go to the toilet, which led to much shame and embarrassment for him and even then, she'd not make sure he was clean until hours after it had happened, each and every time. He was reaching breaking point, and he could feel it. She had his his Walker, so he couldn't ever have the chance to do it himself, he struggled walking unaided.
Emily had wondered if his distance was due too his head injury, and how his mood swings were. She'd asked him numerous amount of times, in which he'd just reply he was tired. She thought the reason was he had given up with his recovery, he hid it well, too well.

Emily had gone on a case for three days, and they were on their way back. "Aaron, it's your fault your not clean!" She said, slapping him round the head.
He let out a gasp, it had been days since she had bathed him, "Im- sorry" he swallowed. "Sorry, won't cut it." He closed his eyes, trying to block out the noise and the pain he had from the lack of medication he'd be having. Due to this, he was much more weak and tired than usual. Which Talia did not like. However, this time, she had slipped up, and she knew she had which was why she was so stressed.
As she had got angry at him, she hit him a little too hard in the head and a bruise had appeared. She would say it was from him trying to walk, or that he fell. She would get away it, she thought. She always does.

—-
When Emily returned, Aaron was already asleep in the bedroom, it was dark and she'd only peered through to see him. She hadn't seen the bruise yet. Emily thanked Talia and she had left to go home, Emily put her stuff down and went to go to the kitchen. As she made herself something to eat as she had skipped dinner, she went to take out the trash when she saw something unusual in the bin. Aaron's pills that he was meant to take morning and night. She furrowed her brows, confused as to why they hadn't been taken. She took them out the bin and placed them on the side, she was going to talk to Aaron about it tomorrow.
Emily sighed, going to up the bedroom as she let out a yawn. She changed into some pyjamas and quietly got into bed, trying too not wake Aaron. "Talia.." Aaron said, in a scared, shaky voice.
Emily turned to him, he was facing the wall so he couldn't see her, "What? No..it's me" she said, putting a hand on his arm, which made him gasp slightly.
"Aaron..are you okay?" She asked softly. He exhaled and turned to face her, "Yeah..I just- I didn't know you was back that's all."
She widened her eyes as she saw the bruising on his forehead, "What- what's that bruise?" She asked, swallowing. In her head, things started to add together, she was starting to suspect something else. He had sounded almost frightened when he thought it was Talia, and now she'd seen a bruise, what was going on?
"I-uh- I fell..trying to walk, you know..since I'm not so good at it." That had been imprinted in his brain too say, he had begun to think it himself, that he wasn't good at it. That he wasn't improving, even though he significantly had. "No, Aaron...I don't believe you." She said softly, shaking her head. He sat up a little, he had started to panic, he knew she was suspecting something, he knew she knew him too well.
"It's the truth!" He snapped, getting overwhelmed.
"Aaron...if there's something your hiding from me, please..tell me" she said her voice breaking, if this was what she suspected, her heart was already breaking. "No-" he shook his head, looking down at the floor, swallowing deeply. He was going to not tell her, he'd kept it a secret for so long, he could keep it for longer. But he didn't want too anymore, it had gone on for over a month now, and it was killing him. Not just that it was hard for himself, but that it was hard keeping something from the woman he loved the most. "Yeah.." he said, exhaling. He was shaking slightly, anxious to tell her. "Is it about Talia?" She asked, moving her hand onto his.
He nodded, before looking up at her, a tear spilling from his eye.

"Has she...has she been hurting you?" She asked, as tears welled in her eyes. He nodded again, unable to answer, he felt too ashamed he had let it happen, and that it had happened. His old self would have never stood for anything like this at all, but he was so different now. "What has she been doing?" Emily asked, putting a hand on his face as tears fell from her eyes. She didn't want her theory to be true, she felt like her heart had shattered. Part of her blamed herself, if she hadn't gone back to work, none of this would have happened.

So, Aaron explained what Talia was doing to him. He told her how she sometimes got violent, he told her how she would taunt him by not letting him have meals, and not letting him wash or go to the toilet. He told her what she would say to him, and how she would push him too go further than he could and accuse it of being his fault. Through it all, Emily gripped onto Aaron's hand, as tears fell from both their eyes. This killed her too hear, and she wasn't going to let it continue. "Aaron..I'm so sorry" she said,wrapping her arms around his neck, as she sobbed. He shook his head, "It's not your fault, Emily." He sighed, he had gotten used to dealing with this more, sure it upset him but he felt more relief than he did sadness. Relief that he had stopped bottling it up.
"If I didn't go back to work...none of it would have happened." He pulled away, placing a hand on her face and brushing away her tears, "No..this isn't your fault at all." She nodded, not entirely believing him.
"But there's nothing we can do...there's no evidence" he sighed, looking away sadly.
Emily shook her head, "That's not true. I'm going to find..anything I can on this bitch" she said, anger fumed in her voice.

—-
Emily and Aaron fell asleep not long after, she had curled into him, resting her head on his chest as they fell asleep. She needed that just as much as she did, after not seeing each other for three days and for what had just been revealed.

The following morning, the first thing Emily did was ring Garcia, asking her for background information on Talia and for her to dig deep. She wanted Talia to be sent down for her actions, and she wasn't going to stop until she did it. Aaron had awoke in this time, and had got dressed, he could dress himself now without help which was much to his liking. He no longer needed support getting into the wheelchair, as he could lift his own weight. He had almost fully gained all hand and arm movement back, it was just the walking that was the issue.

They were sat eating breakfast together when Garcia called, Emily instantly picked it up, putting it on speaker. "What have you got for us, Garcia?" Emily asked. "Okay..so as it turns out Talia is really a Natalia, which was hidden well in her files can I just add. Anyway...she was taken into the foster system at a young age until her uncle stepped forward as her primary caretaker...in which he was abusive" they both looked at each other, that was obviously what had started it all. "It turns out..that she had been caretaking many people in Florida, in which three families filed reports on her for neglect and abuse , however due to lack of evidence...they didn't do anything. Which I find oddly unfair..since it was three different families." "So she's done it before.." Aaron said, with a sigh.
Emily nodded, "Unfortunately..yeah"
"So what can we do, if there's no evidence?" Aaron said, he didn't have much hope for this. "Okay, sir..this is when your going to both want to hug me. So I thought I'd do some digging into her now new name, which is how you two hired her..and I realised there's been some odd increases to her banking. So, I went in to do some digging and I found that Aaron had made three deposits of $2000 at a time to her bank" He shook his head, "I didn't."
"In which I presumed, so I've frozen her bank..she hadn't took any money out of it yet, but she was looking online for flights to France a week prior to these statements. My bet is..she was going to flee the states." Emily nodded to it all, "She slipped up. The reason she was never caught was because she never stole money..but this, this is our evidence." She said, "We can arrest her." She said, with a smile at Aaron. He gave a small smile back, squeezing her hand, "Thank you, Garcia." They bith said. "No problem..and I, hope everything's okay, sir. I mean, just know we're all here for you..for both of you."
"You haven't told the team have you?" Aaron asked.
"No, of course not." She shook her head.
"Please..keep it that way, at least for now." He said, swallowing. "Of course, I promise."

—-
It was finally over. Emily had contacted the authorities, and had gone to arrest Talia herself, promising Talia a strong case against her. It had taken all of Emily's willpower to not hurt the woman for what she had done. Aaron was relieved it was over, and although at first it had embarrassed him to openly admit it too Emily, he was thankful he had. It wasn't easy for him to share his feelings, it never had been, and especially not for something as serious as this.

Emily had been in contact with Strauss, and she had to explain everything, she had told Strauss that she would not be retuning to the BAU until Aaron was better. There was no way she was leaving him with another person, and the guilt she had already for what had happened dwelled on her so much that she couldn't of ever let someone else come. She told Strauss that if she didn't let her, then she would quit and work for Interpol or somewhere else. Fortunately Strauss knew how valuable Emily was to the team, and she did feel sympathy for what had happened, so she agreed to let her take the time off she needed.

—-
A few weeks had passed since Talia's arrest, and Aaron was doing better. From time to time, he had moments where he got upset over what had happened, but Emily had been a real help and he felt more like himself everyday. He was working on forgetting everything that had happened and to focus on improving walking, for Jack and Emily and himself. He had thought about maybe going to therapy to talk to someone about it , but he knew he wouldn't fully be able to trust anyone and wouldn't completely open up. The only person he fully trusted and opened up to was Emily, who was understanding about it all and comforted him which significantly helped, so he decided against that idea and realised he didn't need anyone else to help. Aaron had now almost completely got rid of the wheelchair and used it only as backup, as he could walk unaided without needing to rest after a while. It was the biggest progress in his recovery, and gave Aaron and Emily both hope that soon, maybe he could be walking unaided.