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"Damn." Morgan sighed as he slopped onto the couch in Emily's oversized room. "I never get over how comfortable this thing is." He said. Emily smiled as she dumped her bag next to Morgan's by her door and she shut it.

"Yeah, it's pretty good." She agreed before she landed face first onto her bed. They were silent for a few moments before Emily turned over so she was looking at Morgan. "So," she began with a slightly evil tint in her brown eyes. Emily sat up and tied her hair in a ponytail. "What the hell is up with you and Penelope?" The question had been bugging Emily for a while. Around week six of the first term, a new student came into their grade. At first glance, she was completely crazy looking. She had a wild sense of style and was so exuberant that it was a little overwhelming. But within five minutes of talking to her, Emily adored her. She had a fun, flirtatious attitude which transformed into a bubbly energy when you were around her. You couldn't help but smile when you had a conversation with Penelope Garcia.

"Nothing really," Morgan shrugged, as if he didn't really see why Emily was asking the question. "Just a little fun flirting, that's all." Emily hummed, making it very obvious that she didn't believe him, but didn't push it any further. "Hey, Em?"

"Yeah?"

"Is everything, you know, okay with you?" Morgan asked hesitantly, sitting up on the two seater couch. Emily studied Morgan carefully for a very long time before letting out a soft sigh. She knew that he was only asking because she was one of his best friends, but she couldn't hide the twinge of annoyance she always felt when people tried digging around in her past or feelings.

"Everything's fine, Morgan." Emily replied, trying to make her voice sound less tired than she actually was. "Just, getting a little anxious about the holidays, that's all. You know, studying for the exams in term 2." Morgan eyed her not in a suspicious way, but in more of a concerned brother kind of way.

"You know you can always come to me, Emily, right?" He asked softly. This is what she really loved about him, he never prodded where he knew she didn't want him prodding around in, but he would always push for her to get things off her chest, if only for her to be able to process her thoughts better.

"Derek," Emily began in a soft tone. She rarely used his first name, and when she did, it was during serious or emotional conversations. "Thank you. Thank you for always being there for me." Emily smiled softly at him. There was a moment of shared contentment between the two of them, and Morgan looked as if he was about to say something when there was a knocking on Emily's door. Sighing, she got up and unlocked it to meet the face of her mother.

"Emily, I need you to – Oh, good afternoon Derek." Her mother's tone of voice turned from a slightly exhausted frustration to her pleasant 'we have guests' voice when she saw Morgan sitting up from the couch.

"Afternoon Mrs Prentiss. How have you been lately?" Morgan asked politely. Emily's mum gave him a tight lipped smile before she replied.

"Oh, I've been good, thank you. I was just about to come up here to see if Emily had started her homework yet; I didn't know she was bringing somebody over." The way she toned her words had Emily inwardly groaning at her mother. Had it been anybody but Morgan (or JJ) in her room, she would feel the overwhelming need to blubber apologies to them. However, her friends had (sadly) gotten used to the slightly rude and blunt ways of Mrs Elizabeth Prentiss.

"We were about to start making notes for Law, mother." Emily said pointedly, giving her mother a look. Elizabeth looked between Emily and Morgan a few times before giving them something which was meant to look like a smile, but came out as something more of a grimace.

"Lovely. Well, I'll leave you two to it then." Elizabeth concluded. Just as she was about to shut the door behind herself, she looked over her shoulder to Emily and continued, "Emily, darling, please don't lock the door," Before exiting her room.

Completely disregarding her mother's request, Emily locked the door with exaggeration motions which caused Morgan to smile a little.

"Damn. I…God." Emily sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I'd apologise on the behalf of her…but…" Morgan waved his hands dismissively.

"Don't even worry about it. I'm used to it by now." He gave Emily a crooked smile but Emily just groaned.

"That's what I was afraid of." She mumbled, before being true to her word and pulling out her Law textbook with Morgan and they began to make notes on the new topic.

Emily seems more distracted than usual. Aaron noted to himself as he watched the students work on drafting their essays. Distracted would be an understatement. He corrected himself. The only progress he could see that Emily had made was that she picked up her pen and wrote the date on the corner of the page; that was almost eighty minutes ago.

Aaron sighed, he figured that perhaps he would talk to Emily today, like Dave had suggested all those weeks ago. The first term was about to end, and about halfway through term two the year 12's would be having their first lot of examinations and submissions of assignments. Although it wasn't like Emily to not be on top of her work, it seemed as though something was clearly bothering her.

The bell rang for the end of the English double lesson, and for the start of the five minute break between classes. Students began immediately packing their bags to go to the next class when Aaron stood up to address them all.

"I want a completed, edited draft for the next lesson. I'll try my best to get around to all of you seeing as we have a double lesson and read your introductions and first body paragraphs to see if you're going on the right track." The class moaned a little at the homework, but made no outright complaints. "And Emily?" Emily's head snapped up at her name being called. "A word please?" The brunette nodded hesitantly at her teacher before casting a glance back to Morgan, JJ, Penelope and Spencer as they left the classroom; Spencer giving her an encouraging smile, Penelope giving her a saucy wink, JJ had a sympathetic expression on her face and Morgan had a slightly concerned one. As each of the students left the classroom one by one, Aaron took his seat behind his desk while Emily stood awkwardly about a meter away from it.

"You can sit down you know." Aaron offered with a smile to an obviously nervous Emily. Emily blushed and pulled up a chair and sat in front of his desk. They sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to the laughter, chatter, and footsteps of the school kids walking to their next class, before a bell rang starting the next lesson of the day. Then there was complete silence.

"Am I in trouble?" Emily finally asked with uncertainty. She had never spoken out of term in class, always handed homework in on time, never been disruptive in any way; so she had no idea what Mr Hotchner would want to talk to her about which was so important it was pulling her out of her Maths class – not that she was very disappointed in missing it.

"No, of course not. You are an exceptional, cooperative student who is a pleasure to teach. You are by no means in trouble of any sort." Aaron assured. Emily relaxed marginally which Aaron was pleased about.

"Then, if you don't mind me asking, why am I here?" Aaron sighed, not sure how to broach the subject. Never before had he attempted to get to know a student on a more personal level; or anybody for that matter. He generally kept to himself, not seeing the need of having a long-term relationship of any kind. So how does he broach any form of personal topic with one of his students he's known for barely two months?

"I just wanted to see how you are going." Aaron stated as casually as he could, mentally smacking himself in the face at the phrasing. Emily raised a surprised eyebrow, but showed no other change of emotion. "See…I just wanted to make sure you've been…coping well with the pressure of year 12 so far." Aaron tried to channel Dave through his words, but they seemed to be coming off more impersonal and intruding than he would like. Aaron could see Emily's hesitation in answering the question, her body language closing herself off the Aaron's questions. Sighing, Aaron muttered under his breath this is never going to work before standing up from his chair, and pulling another student chair quite close to Emily…

Too close perhaps.

"Is everything okay, Emily? You seemed fairly distracted today. Now I understand there are just some days where you don't want to be doing anything, but I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't something more serious plaguing your mind." Aaron tried to express his honest concern through his eyes as he made steady eye-contact with Emily. The room felt a little stuffy, despite them being the only two people in it. Emily's breathing seemed to have halted, and Aaron was worried for a moment that she was going to pass out before Emily let in a deep breath and sighed, only breaking eye contact on the exhale, before looking back into Aaron's eyes again.

Emily found herself overwhelmed by the sincere emotions of concern and caring which seemed to roll over Mr Hotchner's body. It made her feel warm, secure…but most of all she felt she was talking to a man that she could trust with her feelings. Not a teacher, but a man. It sounded silly in her mind, but at that moment Emily didn't see the two of them as student and teacher, but as two friends. Odd, because never had they had any personal conversations of any kind. Something which surprised Emily was that she didn't feel any of the annoyance she had felt when Morgan asked her the same question a few days ago, rather she felt…cared for. It was a good feeling, she found, and she wanted it to last. Before she even realised it, the words were tumbling out of Emily's mouth.

"I'm just starting to feel anxious again." Emily explained, looking down to see that she was playing with her finger nails again. "I just feel this impending doom which is looming over me, and I feel as if no matter how hard I try, and no matter the results I achieve, I'm always failing one way or another." As Emily spoke, her finger nails were cutting into her thumb harder and harder. She hadn't even noticed the increase in tempo until her fidgeting was stilled by a large, warm hand which enveloped both of hers.

Emily tried not to widen her eyes at the touch, but the feeling brought a wave of emotion through her stomach which washed away all rationality, and the only thought in her mind was that she wanted that hand of his in more places than where is was currently situated. Seeming to miss the internal emotional havoc which was inside of Emily at the moment, Mr Hotchner squeezed Emily's fingers in a soft, tight kind of way; a way that made Emily feel like she was safe.

The two sat in a silence for what felt like forever. Emily was trying to battle the overwhelming urge to look away from the deep intruding gaze of her teacher, thinking that if she looked into those eyes, those eyes which were wide with concern, for a moment longer…she wasn't sure what she would do. Casting her gaze to her lap, Emily studied the way Mr Hotchner's hand so easily cupped both of hers. Not having his emotion-filled eyes to distract her thoughts, Emily became acutely aware of how her fingertips tingled at the contact. She could feel his eyes studying her face and Emily chewed on her lip while she tried to think of anything but how she thought she could almost feel his breath on her neck.

Maybe she was just getting a little carried away.

She shocked herself, it's not as if she's never had sexual feelings for somebody, I mean, come on, she's a 17, almost 18 year old female. It would be strange if she hadn't had feelings like these for someone. But it was the fact that it was for her English teacher, a man she could never satisfy her sudden hunger for, made it all the more frustrating.

Aaron's eyes studied the younger girl's features, wondering what she was thinking so deeply about. On one hand, he wanted to ask, to be invited into her thoughts, but on the other Emily's momentary distraction was giving him the opportunity to look over her facial features in a more…private way. He had forgotten everything at this point. Where he was, what time of the day it was, the fact that he was sitting with his student…

Aaron snapped out of his thoughts just then, and a flood of panic washed through him. His student. He repeated in his head. He examined how close he was sitting next to her, and how Emily's eyes were trained upon his hands which were cupping her own, and his mind began to race.

Shit. Dammit Aaron you stupid, stupid fucking…

"Sorry, I just got lost in my thoughts then." Emily's eyes met Aaron's unexpectedly and in the second their eyes connected again he forgot what he was worrying about.

She has the most beautiful eyes…

"You can always come to me; you know that right, Emily?" Aaron said, staring deeply into Emily's eyes. "About any problem you may be having, whether it be English related or not. I'm always here for you to talk to if you need." Emily felt too emotionally overwhelmed to speak, so she only nodded her head and gave Mr Hotchner a weak, but hopefully reassuring smile that she was all right. They kept eye-contact for a few more minutes, 'Just to make sure she was really okay.' He told himself when he thought of their conversation later on. "Okay, well, I've kept you out of class for long enough, let me write you a note for being late." Mr Hotchner got up and the second his hand left hers, Emily felt as if a cold bucket of water just covered her face and body, clearing her mind from the haze which it was in just a few seconds earlier. Mr Hotchner handed her the note, giving Emily one of those rare, dimple-faced smiles which warmed the very core of her stomach.

"Thanks sir, for everything." Emily returned Mr Hotchner's smile easily. She surprised herself at how at ease she felt around him, at how everything just felt so natural.

"Anytime Emily, I mean that. Whenever you want or need to talk, my door is always open for you." Mr Hotchner replied smoothly. Although he didn't show it on his face for Emily to see, he had surprised himself at how easily the promise fell from his lips, and how he knew that he was going to keep that promise. Emily just responded by smiling back at her teacher, before walking out of the classroom, casting one last quick glance over her shoulder, meeting Mr Hotchner's eye again before closing the classroom door behind her.

The rest of the day dragged on a lot longer than usual. Lunch was surprisingly uninteresting for Emily, she just wished she could go home all ready and ponder her little meeting with Mr Hotchner over the weekend. JJ and Morgan had asked her what they had talked about, but Emily merely shrugged, saying that he was just checking if she was all right. Reid gave Emily a curious glance, but said nothing. Because he was in her maths class, he was there in the classroom when Emily walked into the lesson with fifteen minutes to spare, and Emily knew that Reid must have known that she and Mr Hotchner had talked about something else apart from how she was going for her to be gone for twenty-five minutes. Emily was very grateful that he didn't say anything about it.

Finally, after the bus ride home and after catching up on the missed math work, Emily crawled into bed at nine at night, exhausted. She closed her eyes and that night was the first night she dreamt of her English teacher and his large, warm hands in a way that was sure to make the older man blush if he ever knew.