AN: Thanks for the support and feedback for this story. I've been working on it for a long time and am glad that it is finally at a place that it can be published.

I wanted to address a question I've gotten from several people about the near tragedy part of this story. What I'll say is that that part of the story starts around chapter 17 however there is a clue before then about the direction of that event. Also no one from the BAU dies in this story.

CHAPTER 10

As the team rested on the way back from Seattle, Hotch looked across the jet at his wife sleeping peacefully in the seat next to JJ. Over the course of the case, her mood had improved. Her explanation a couple of days ago was that JJ was finally back, Jordan was gone and she was a few thousand miles from her mother.

Between when they returned from Alabama and when they left for Seattle, Emily had gone over to her parents house for dinner. It was the first time Emily had seen her mother since they had gotten married as her parents had been out of the country for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

When she arrived home later that evening, he immediately deduced that the news had not been accepted well. He wanted to go with Emily however she decided that it would be received better if he was not there. Seeing how upset she was, he wasn't sure if that was the case.

When he asked what happened she shared that her mother had gone off on a tirade about being in a relationship with her boss. She wouldn't accept they were married when she heard that they had eloped.

Emily had told him she left shortly after her mother had continued as proof that he wasn't committed to being married was the lack of an engagement or wedding ring. It had taken some effort on his part to get this bit of information out of Emily.

Looking down at his hand, Hotch remembered that he had worn a ring during his marriage to Haley. If he looked closely enough, he could still make out the remnants of a tan line on his left ring finger. However he and Emily had decided to forgo rings.

As much as he wanted them both to be wearing that traditional outward symbol of their commitment to each other, they were both reluctant. Though the reason had to do with their jobs, it wasn't because they were keeping their marriage secret.

It was because rings would draw attention from the UNSUBs that they chase. Hotch had already experienced it during his marriage to Haley. It was attention that neither of them wanted.

But the reaction of the Ambassador had him back to considering alternatives. The ring containing Henry's birth stone that JJ had returned to the team with had given him an idea.

He had been looking for another piece of jewelry that would convey a special meaning for them. After doing a few web searches, he decided to visit a jewelry store where he knew the owner to see if he could create what Hotch had in mind.

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Emily was confused when she entered their apartment and Aaron was not there. He had left the office early that day. She had heard him explaining to Dave that he had an errand to run. An errand that he had not mentioned to her that morning.

After putting her bag and purse down, she walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine. Carrying the glass with her as she opened to the refrigerator, Emily examined the options available for dinner before taking out the salmon fillets and broccoli she had put in there that morning. Putting the broccoli in a steaming basket, Emily finished prepping the salmon before placing it in the oven.

As she set the table Emily could hear keys juggling at the door followed a minute later by the door opening and Hotch walking into the apartment carefully assessing her mood.

Emily rolled her eyes at his not so subtle attempt to profile her and turned back to the kitchen as she said, "hey."

Hotch nervously walked towards her and asked, "can you come talk to me?"

Emily lifted the lid on the steamer and checked the time on the oven before nodding and walking out of the kitchen and sat down on the couch. Hotch sat down next to her and reached for both of her hands and pulled them over until they were resting with his hands on his thigh. He waited until she looked up at him, the confusion and apprehension visible on her face.

He hated that look, especially knowing he had put it there. Squeezing her hands, he said, "I'm sorry for not telling you I was going to leave early today. I wanted to surprise you and I couldn't do that if I told you what i was doing."

Emily huffed and shook her head before asking, "surprise me how? You know I don't like surprises, Aaron."

"I know but I'm hoping you are going to like this one." After giving her hands another squeeze, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the box from the jewelry store. Emily's eyes widened as she noticed what he had in his hand. She had known she was going to regret telling him about the comment her mother made as soon as she saw his face that day.

Pulling back her hands she then moved away from him on the couch as she said, "Aaron we talked about this."

"Emily I know we did and I respect that you don't want to wear a ring. That isn't what this is." He noticed her relaxing as he explained. He reached out and pulled her back so she was sitting next to him again. Once she was, he handed her the box and watched as she slowly and carefully opened it.

Inside the box was a gold necklace. Emily carefully took the necklace out of the box and closely examined it. It had two interconnected circles of gold, one inside the other. Set inside the smaller of the circles was a diamond solitaire while on the two sides there were bluish green stones at the connections of two circles.

She looked up at him quizzically and asked, "topaz?"

Hotch nodded and said, "apparently November has two stones. I noticed that you already had some jewelry with topaz so I went with that so you would have something different that JJ does with her ring."

Emily nodded and looked back down at the necklace and noticed their initials and the date of their wedding on the inner surface of the larger circle. She ran her finger over the necklace before looking up at him and saying with her eyes glistening, "it's beautiful. Thank you."

Hotch nodded before saying as he watched her carefully examining the necklace, "I know we talked about not doing rings but I still wanted you to have a piece of jewelry. I got the idea for a necklace and when we got home from Seattle, I went to a shop in Manassas that is owned by the father of one of my law school classmates. I described what I was interested in and he drew it out for me. I just got a call last night that it was ready and wanted to go pick it up before a case came up. It's already almost our three month anniversary and I wanted you to have it as soon as possible."

Emily held the necklace up before asking, "can you put it on for me?"

Hotch smiled at her request before nodding as he took the necklace from her hand. He had taken a massive chance with the decision to buy it, hoping that this would be her reaction.

After securing it clasp, Emily turned back around to face him while holding onto the pendant. As she moved her hand away from it, she looked down at it before looking back up at him, her eyes glistening. When he had caught her eyes, he said, "I'm glad you like it. The chain is slightly longer so you have the option of concealing the pendant under your shirt if you feel more comfortable."

Emily looked back down at it and nodded. As when they had their conversation about wedding rings, there were going to be situations while on the job that she would want the option of hiding her necklace as well. At least this was going to be easier to do that with than a ring.

Before she could answer, the alarm on the oven went off and Emily began to stand up to turn it off and check on their dinner. Before she could walk away from the couch, she felt Hotch's hand on her shoulder as he said, "I'll get it."

A while later as they were sitting at the table for dinner, Emily turned to Hotch and asked, "so does this mean you don't want to get the tattoos we talked about?"

Hotch looked back at her and smiled as he said, "no at all. We can still get those. This was in addition to that not instead of."

Emily nodded before saying, "I love you."

"I love you too Em."