Chapter 14

"Thank you." Emily said as she sat back down. Relief ran through her. She could have lost him; she could have missed the chance to tell him that she loved him.

The nurse came and took Emily to Hotch's room thirty minutes later. Emily walked in and saw that he was still asleep. She walked closer and gasped when she caught sight of his face. There were cuts and scrapes all over and there was a long gash across the top of his forehead. Almost the same place as Jack's; Jack's had taken only four stitches to stitch up his wound, but she could the Hotch's took at least ten. There was an ugly bruise already forming around it, which made it look so much worse.

She made it to the side of the bed and couldn't stop herself from pushing his hair back off his forehead gently. Letting her hand rest softly on his cheek, she gently stroked her thumb back and forth across his cheekbone. Her tears slid down her pale face as she cried silently for him. His eyes opened slowly to see her standing there with her tear streaked face and pained look on her face.

"Hi." He said softly; reaching up to take the hand she had on his face, holding it in his as he lowered it to his chest.

"Hi. How are you feeling? Are you in pain? Do you need me to get the nurse to get you something for the pain?" She said quickly and he could hear the panic in her voice.

"No Emily, I'm fine for now. I think I'm still high on the Morphine they gave me for the surgery." He replied with a laugh. Then his thoughts went to his son, how could he have forgot about his son. "Is Jack okay? Was he hurt? How bad is it?"

"Calm down Aaron. Jack is fine. A little bruised and cut up but he is fine. He will think it is awesome that the two of you have matching cuts on your foreheads though. You know he wants to be just like you. He only needed four stitches. He will be sore for a few days at least but nothing serious. You on the other hand gave us all a scare. You coded in the ambulance. They said it was from your head hitting the window; something about it caused stress to your brain. You had surgery on your shoulder to repair you rotator cuff and to put your shoulder back in the socket. The doctor said that you should heal fine if you follow the therapist's orders." Her tears still had not slowed down despite the fact that she could see that he was okay.

He let go of her hand and reached up to wipe her tears away.

"Don't cry, I'm okay I promise." He said soothingly.

"Aaron I could have lost you both tonight. I could have lost you before I told you that I love you. You both could have been gone and I would have lost the best thing I never had a chance to have. I'm sorry Aaron, I should have asked you to stay longer. It wouldn't have happened if you had stayed…" She cried harder.

"Shhh, this was not your fault Emily. It wasn't your fault, so don't blame yourself for what happened. Now quit crying and tell me again."

She looked at him, not understanding what he was talking about. She thought back to what she had been saying and realized what he wanted to hear. This she would never deny him, now that she had said it aloud.

"I love you Aaron. I love you and I love Jack and I am sorry I never told you how I was feeling. I want…" she stopped herself before she said too much, too fast.

"What Emily? What do you want? Tell me… please."

"I want… to be with you and Jack. I want a future with you Aaron. I'm tired of running away from what I want." She said quietly, scared of what his reaction would be.

Hotch smiled up at her widely. "I want that too Emily." He said as he pulled her down closer to him until her face was just inches from his.

Emily placed he hand on either side of him to brace herself so she wouldn't fall on him and hurt him. Their lips met tentatively, he slowly worked his mouth over hers. His tongue traced her lower lip until she granted him access to the wet cavern of her mouth. He gave a low growl as his hand moved under her hair to nape of her neck; pulling her down to where she was practically lying on top of him.

They were so caught up in their kiss that they didn't hear the door open and their friends walk in. The door closed behind them quietly and they stood there like voyeurs, watching the heated kiss between the two oblivious people on the bed.

Dave was the first one to speak and Dave being Dave, couldn't help but tease the two.

"Aaron I don't think you are in any shape to be accosting Emily right now." He snickered at them as the two broke apart.

"Be quiet Dave. We were just showing each other how we feel for one another." Hotch commented.

"You were showing each other something alright, but it looked like you were showing Emily your tongue to me." Dave laughed heartily at the dark haired man in the bed. "Well Emily, is his tongue okay? It will heal won't it?" Dave teased some more.

"I can honestly say that he has definitely not got any problems with his tongue." Emily said smiling back at Dave as she got up off the bed to stand beside it again.

The others just stood there laughing at the teasing between the other three. Penelope brought Jack's still sleeping form and laid him on the bed beside Hotch. Jack opened his eyes and saw his daddy looking down at him.

"Daddy you're okay. You didn't go away like mommy. My Emily was right; she said you'd be okay." He said sleepily against Hotch's side.

"I'm fine buddy. Look I have a cut on my forehead like you." Hotch said, pointing to the cut.

"Cool." Was all the sleepy little boy said before he drifted off back to sleep.