Hi everyone, here's the new chapter to Topeka, and I'm sorry for the delay in posting. This might be the last posting for a while as my baby's due in 3 weeks and it will be pretty crazy for a while afterwards, I'm sure.

If you have a moment, could I ask that you pop across to the Criminal Minds Chit Chat on Author's Corner Forum to nominate your favorite fic and/or author if something has caught your fancy in the last 12 months. There are some excellent works out there and it would really make the author's day! Thanks!

In the meantime, please leave me a review. It would totally make my day!

"Hotch? Hotch, can you hear me?" Emily looked with concern at her Unit Chief as he lay pale-faced on the hospital bed. Despite the turmoil raging within her mind about the news she had just received, she was worried about him. There had been a sickening crack as he had landed on the ground and the doctor's examination of him had revealed a large knot the size of an egg on the side of his head. Dr Alexandrov had tried to reassure her that her supervisor was going to be fine after probing around the site of the injury, but his joke about the fact that this 'egg' was not the type of eggs that he usually dealt with in his obstetric practice had really not been helpful at all.

What in the world was he doing here? And how did he even know she was here? Awesome. Not only was her supervisor lying before her possibly severely concussed, but he also knew that she was pregnant. With triplets, no less. A surge of nausea accompanied that thought but she ruthlessly pushed it down. Focus, Emily. You can freak the fuck out later.

Preferably somewhere where there was a bucket around.

"Hotch?"

He stirred slightly and frowned, his eyelids fluttering open. Thank goodness. His eyes slowly focused on her, before confusion clouded them.

"Wh..where am I?" That wasn't a good sign.

Emily leaned closer. "You're in the hospital."

His brows drew together. "But what was I doing here?"

"I'm not really sure, Hotch. But you fell and bumped your head." Maybe she'd be extremely lucky and he won't remember what he had heard before he fainted. She crossed her fingers on both hands on her lap, out of his line of sight.

"That explains the headache," he replied in a low voice, raising a hand to his head. He grimaced when it encountered the raised bump. Frowning, he looked up at her. "What about you? What are you doing here?"

Uh oh. "Nothing much. I was, uh...just...getting checked out." That was true.

Hotch stared at her for a long time, his intent gaze almost causing her to shift in her seat. She felt as if he was trying to discover her deepest, darkest secret. Which was currently falling pregnant with triplets during a one night stand to a complete stranger whom she didn't remember. That really was as bad as it sounded. Although really, who would ever believe that story?

Well, aside from JJ and Garcia, that is. And Morgan, Reid and Rossi. And Gina and Anderson. And the whole freaking BAU. Geez.

"There was something...I think I came to look for you to tell you something..." Hotch interrupted her musings about how her sluttyness and resulting payback was going to be spread throughout Quantico and the whole of the J. Edgar Hoover building in the near future, killing her reputation and her career at the same time.

Her eyes flew back to his. "What...was it?" he said, thinking aloud.

"Ah, Agent Hotchner!" boomed a familiar sounding voice.

Emily whirled around to see Dr Aleksandrov at the foot of the bed, together with the generously-sized masculine-looking female nurse who accompanied him earlier. The brunette agent muttered an expletive under her breath at their arrival.

"It is good to see you awake! I told your lovely colleague here that you will be well. Did I not, my dear?"

She smiled weakly. "Yes, you did."

"I am so very sorry for mistaking you as her lover, that was extremely presumptive of me, and I do beg your pardon." The Russian doctor gave them both an apologetic smile as he came up to the other side of the bed.

"And there it is," said Emily in a low voice. So much for hoping Hotch had amnesia.

Hotch frowned. "Lover?" The poor man looked completely confused.

"Yes." Dr Aleksandrov shone a light into the Unit Chief's eyes, before straightening up, looking pleased. "Pupils equally reactive. Very good. Oh, yes, I thought you were Agent Prentiss' lover when you first came in during the ultrasound. She assured me that you were not." He laughed loudly. "Actually, I believe she screamed that out as I was trying to examine you. I could barely hear myself talk, never mind think." He turned to Emily. "You have an excellent set of lungs, Agent. A very good screamer."

Emily saw Hotch blink as if in slow motion and felt like sinking through the hospital floor in embarrassment at the stunned look that appeared on his face.

Completely unaware of the double entendre he had just uttered, Dr Aleksandrov continued. "Now that my work is done, I will leave the both of you. Agent Prentiss, I suggest you follow up with an obstetrician in relation to your pregnancy. You must take care of yourself, da? As for you, Agent Hotchner, I am happy to discharge you on the condition that you go home with someone so that they can check on you during the night to ensure that you are not suffering from concussion. Otherwise you should stay here and I am sure Nurse Groenig here will be more than happy to monitor you."

Nurse Groenig bared her teeth. Emily thought she saw a hungry look in the small eyes. Yikes.

"NO!" Everyone looked in amazement at the shout from the prone patient. Hotch cleared his throat as he tried to sit up. "I mean, I will be fine, thanks."

Emily quickly stood up to steady him before he hurt himself again in his hurry to get off the bed. Who could blame him, really. The nurse looked like she hadn't eaten in years and Hotch was a delicious roast meal. Damn, she needed to stop watching so many Supernatural reruns.

"Very good, then. I will be going now. Nurse?" The doctor moved to the door. "All the best to your both."

Nurse Groenig followed him reluctantly, casting a last longing look at Hotch. Emily bit her lip at the horrified expression that flashed across his face.

The door finally closed behind the two medical staff and Emily looked up questioningly when her supervisor stopped moving. "Hotch?"

He looked serious. "Emily, I think you need to sit down. I have something to tell you."

Great, she thought, feeling a little sick. "I have to sit down? Wow, it must be something earth shattering," she quipped, her heart thudding when he didn't respond to her grin. What now? Oh, come on, get a grip, Em, it can't be something as earth shattering as the news that you're carrying triplets. Still, she gripped her hands together in her lap as he looked intently down at her from his standing position.

"Emily, I..." He paused, an uncertain look appearing on his face. Strangely enough, that expression, which she rarely ever saw on him, took away her anxiety.

"What is it, Hotch? You can tell me."

"I'm not quite sure how to say this," he said, after a long while. "Do you remember Gina's wedding?"

"Yes." Well, technically she remembered the wedding, just not the night that followed.

"That night..." Hotch cleared his throat. "It was me, I mean, it was I that you spent the night with." A dull flush rose up from his throat to cover his face.

Emily froze. Her mind went blank and a very long silence reigned. She didn't know how long. She felt like she had lost track of all time and space.

"Emily?" Hotch looked anxious.

"I...what did you say?" she asked numbly. It was like her brain was mired in mud. She struggled to process his words.

"We spent the night together after Gina's wedding." As if realising that she was in shock, he knelt down before her. She stared at him speechlessly as he covered her cold hands with his. "I know this is a shock for you, but it's true. I've...started to remember bits and pieces of that night."

A wave of shame rushed through her. Oh God, she slept with Hotch? Slept being a technical word. There wasn't much sleep involved. Her face went red as a vision of her on straddling her Unit Chief came to her mind's eye. "You mean you knew all this time and didn't tell me?" The fact that he had known it was her made the situation a billion times worse.

"No," he replied hurriedly. "I didn't know until a short while ago, I swear. I think we both had a little too much to drink that night." His voice was gentle, as was the look in his eyes, where she was expecting condemnation.

Her breath hitched. "Hotch, I...don't know what to say." What do you say when you found out you spent the night with your boss? Why the hell hadn't she watched more Days of Our Lives or The Bold and the Beautiful or The Young and the Restless. This situation must have happened on one of the shows. Or maybe all three of them.

A thought crossed her mind that maybe after this she could very likely be known in the BAU as 'The Slutty and the Brainless'. Or 'The Old and Yet Bountiful'.

"You don't have to say anything right now. I know this is a lot to take in. We can talk about the other thing later."

In other words, her pregnancy. The reminder made her feel a wave of queasiness. Despite that fact that she had barely processed what he had just told her, she had to ask. "Hotch? How do you feel about the babies?"

He breathed out slowly, not breaking his gaze from hers. "Honestly? I think it's incredible." His voice was quiet, but filled with reverence. "An unexpected miracle." He swallowed visibly as she tried to hold back her tears. "I hope you think so too."

"I do," she whispered.

"Well, then." He gave her a brilliant smile which made her heart stutter, then stood up. "How about I take you home and then we can talk?"

Emily opened her mouth to reply in the affirmative. Unfortunately, at that precise moment an overwhelming wave of nausea struck. She automatically leaned over, then threw up uncontrollably.

All over his black laced-up shoes and charcoal slacks. Her flats, tucked under the chair she was sitting on, were untouched.

Oh no. Slowly, she lifted her eyes to his, feeling utterly miserable.

His laughing gaze was not at all the reaction she had expected. His tone was gently teasing. "You know, all you had to say was no."

She couldn't reply for the life of her.

He smiled. "Just wait there, I'll call the nurse for some water and get cleaned up. I'll be right back."

Only one thought reverberated in Emily's head as she stared at Hotch's departing back.

Freaking hell, I'm falling in love with my Unit Chief.