Hey guys! Here I am with a new chapter... Enjoy and review!

For the past few hours, Hotch had been choosing his words carefully. He had been planning his speech down to the tiniest detail, trying to account for every possible situation, every possible reaction. The memory of how scared she'd seemed back at the victim's mother's house – how scared of him! - still sickened him. He shouldn't have been so harsh, shouldn't have screamed at her. Hell, he shouldn't have let her join the team on this case in the first place! But she was here, and he had screamed at her. Nothing could change that. What he could change now was what came next, so he had spent hours trying to find a way how to tell her everything he wanted to tell her, everything he wanted her to know, without offending her, hurting her, scaring her. Now that he was finally standing in front of Emily's door, he was prepared for everything. Well, almost everything: For starters, something he wasn't prepared for was her not answering the door...

He knocked again, worry overtaking his thoughts. She knew he was coming to see her – he'd told her, and she'd nodded in agreement, hadn't she?

Why wasn't she answering the damn door? "Emily?" Another, almost desperate knock. "It's me, Hotch." Nothing. "Emily? Please open the door!" No reaction. Hotch gulped. She had to hear him! Unless... No! Hotch tried to push that thought away, but fear was a strong opponent. He could feel it invade his thoughts, cloud his judgment - and before he realized what he was doing, he was searching the pockets of his jacket for the second key card he had asked for at the reception during check-in.

Hotch wasn't sure whether Emily knew he had asked for a key to her room. After Garner, Foyet and Doyle, the team had developed a habit of handing each other spare keys to their homes and key cards to the hotel rooms they stayed in during their cases - just in case... By now, each of them had a spare key to every other team member's home, but when they were on a case, the standard procedure was just giving a second key card to the one living in the room closest to your own, and that had happened to be him (well, technically him and Rossi, but...). Hotch shook his head, trying diffuse the guilt creeping up inside of him. He wasn't doing anything wrong: He had told her he'd come by her room after calming down the victim's mother, whom Emily had insulted before Hotch had sent her back. And here he was but Emily wasn't answering the door. The next logical step was to open it himself and check on her. Period. Hotch sighed and swiped the card through the card reader on Emily's door. While entering, he announced himself loudly but nobody answered.

"Emily?" He repeated. "Are you here?" She didn't have to answer this time, because as soon as Aaron turned around the corner, he saw her. She was sitting on her bed, facing the wall. She was so calm she seemed like she was frozen. She was breathing, right? "Emily?" She didn't even look up. Slowly – predictably - he walked towards her and finally knelt down next to the bed. "Emily? Talk to me. Please!" No reaction. "Emily... you're scaring me!" "'m fine." She whispered. "No, you're not!" Hotch scanned her body for clues, for hints. There had to be an explanation for why she... Suddenly, he froze. "There's... there's blood between... your thighs!" She didn't react. What the hell was going on? „You're bleeding" Hotch repeated, his voice urging. "I know" Emily finally whispered. "I..." She stopped, closed her eyes shut and bit her lip. Was she in pain? "Do you need... anything?" She didn't reply. Was she shutting him out on purpose or was she unable to respond? "Emily... you're bleeding!" Hotch repeated, gently touching her shoulder to make her look at him. That was when she erupted in what could have been anger or fear. Her second "I know!" was a desperate, shrill scream. Emily pushed his hand away, jumped up and fled to the bathroom. The lock clicked into place before Hotch had even realized what had just happened. Shit!

Seconds turned into minutes. Two. Five. Maybe ten, until Hotch finally brought up the courage to gently knock on the bathroom door. "Emily? I'm sorry... I didn't mean to..." To what? Didn't mean to intrude your privacy? Didn't mean to scare you? Didn't mean for any of this to happen? Why did everything he said sound so cliché? He sighed. „Do you... need anything?" He finally asked. "Please leave" Her voice was barely a whisper, desperate and breathy. It broke Hotch's heart – because she sounded so fragile, and because he knew he had to deny her request.

"I'm not leaving. Not until you talk to me, Emily." The silence that followed was eventually broken by a clicking sound. Emily had unlocked the door but it was still closed. Hotch waited patiently.

„Hotch?"
„Yes?"
A sigh.

„There's a pair of black sweatpants in my bag. Could you...?"
„Of course."

Hotch passed the pants through a tiny crack in the bathroom door and waited. When Emily finally came out, she kept her eyes glued to the ground and sat down on the carpet floor, leaning against the wall. Hotch followed her lead, however leaving enough space between the two of them so Emily wouldn't feel threatened by his presence.

„Why won't you look at me, Emily?" Hotch asked after a while. „How can you look at me?" „What?" „You... you know what happened. You saw me breaking down right in front of you. And now you've even seen... this! How can you still stay here? I'm... I'm disgusting and pathetic!" She choked on her tears. "What? No, you're not!" No reaction. „Please look at me! You are neither disgusting nor pathetic, Emily. None of this is your fault!" Emily desperately tried to hide the tears streaming down her face, but her painful sobs gave her away. Hotch sighed a painful sigh and took a leap of faith and slowly reached out for her hand. When she squeezed back, he let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Please talk to me, Emily" She shook her head. "I can't" "Yes, you can!" Another head-shaking. Hotch sighed. "The blood... was that...?" Emily nodded, avoiding his gaze. He didn't say anything, just waited for her to continue. "They told me this was gonna happen." Hotch frowned, not knowing what she was talking about. Emily gulped. "The doctor in the... hospital. The one who... the one who examined me..." Emily paused, hoping Hotch would understand but he just stared at her in confusion. Oh god! "She said the pill would start my..." She inhaled deeply. "She said it would start my period so I wouldn't get... pregnant." Hotch's eyes widened. "Oh." "Y..yeah." Silence.

"I... I think you should go now" "Emily..." "Please, Hotch. I know we... have to talk, but... not tonight. Please! I just need... I..." Hotch sighed. "It's okay. Shh. You're right. You need to get some rest. We can talk tomorrow." "Thank you."

Hotch got up, sighed and hesitated. "You don't have to go through this alone, you know?"
She didn't respond.