And they All Lived
In the ambulance Hotch watched as the EMT worked on Emily. They had an oxygen mask on her and sensors that told Hotch that her heart was beating stronger than when he first got to her. Her eyes would flutter open every once in a while, it was clear she kept going in and out of consciousness. A few times she attempted to say something to him, he squeezed her hand in reassurance, silently telling her she didn't need to talk right now.
Once they reached the hospital Emily was taken away from him by the doctors and he was directed to the waiting room. He knew they would be separated but after the past few days he didn't want her out of his sights.
Hotch was in the waiting room for over three hours before he was allowed to see Emily, the rest of the team was still cleaning up all the loose ends of the case. The doctors had given Emily drugs to help her sleep so it was unlikely that she would be waking up anytime soon. Hotch just sat in the chair next to her bed, he sat there memorizing every part of her. Her left wrist was encased in a cast and her numerous wounds had been cleaned and bandaged, but even with all of that he though she looked beautiful simply because she was lying in front of him, he was no longer forced to look at her on a computer screen.
As he had told Rossi, after Haley had been killed Hotch had wondered many times whether he was too broken to even love another person again. When Haley died she made him promise that he would teach Jack love. There was no doubt in his mind that he could do that. He loved his son and made sure his son knew how loved he was. He was even sure that he could muddle his way through Jack learning to love girls and having his little heart broken by those girls. It was himself that he was worried about, could he actually go back to normal dating and romance after what happened. And more importantly was there even enough of him left to love and would anyone actually want to love him if they knew he was partly to blame for his ex-wife's death.
Hotch was pretty sure that he wasn't even worthy of playing the love game and most of the time he was fine with that. But then this happened and all those doubts disappeared he began to feel emotions that he never expected to feel again. And the truth was they had been hiding there all along. He had been falling in love with Emily his heart just neglected to tell his brain. Today he had been seconds away from losing her permanently in any capacity. And two things became instantly clear to him, he wasn't about to waste any more time and he would love her now if she left him and would continue to love her as long as she allowed him.
He had never been too concerned about the fraternization rules but now he didn't cared about any rules the FBI might have. Rules like that were broken all the time. They wouldn't be the first members of team to date each other; there had even been married members of a team. And after all this not even Strauss could deny them this happiness.
Furthermore even if things didn't work out between them, she would still be alive and hopefully a valued member of his team and after today being alive took on a whole new priority. He may one day lose her love but he was never going to lose her the way he had lost Haley. He fell asleep thinking of all the things that were now a possibility.
No one had slept in several days so it was no surprise when Hotch woke up almost ten hours later, though he was surprised he managed to sleep that long in a hospital chair. He opened his eyes to find to find JJ, Reid and Rossi sitting around the room while Emily continued to sleep. He sat up straight trying to get the kinks out of his neck and back.
"She's still sleeping Hotch and she hasn't woken up yet don't worry. Why don't you go back to the hotel shower and grab some food she should still be sleeping by the time you get back."
"Yeah okay, where's Morgan?"
"He went to go get some coffee he should be back shortly, all the paper work is done we will fill you in on the Unsub later right now you should go get cleaned up. She is the only thing on the agenda right now." Rossi said trying to persuade Hotch to leave.
Hotch quickly returned to the hotel showered and grabbed a quick lunch then raced back to the hospital, he didn't want to be away from her, he especially wanted to be there when she woke up. Though he had to admit it felt good to be clean and fed but now that he was both those things what he really wanted was to look into Emily's eyes again. But he knew he would have to wait a few more hours till her could get that wish.
"Garcia wanted to fly out here but I told her it wasn't worth it we should home in a few days." Morgan said as they sat around waiting for Emily to wake up.
"Yeah the doctor said that once she wakes up she shouldn't have to stay here too long so we might even be able to fly home tomorrow night depending on when she wakes up." Hotch replied. They were all silent for a while each of them thinking about the events that had happened over the past few days.
Hotch looked up suddenly as Emily squeezed his hand and then let out a moan. He stood up and moved closer still holding on to her hand.
"Hey welcome back, how are you feeling?" He asked staring into her beautiful brown eyes.
"I'm not sure my head is fuzzy and everything hurts." She said weakly.
"We'll get a nurse in here to give you some meds for the pain." Morgan said.
"Wait no I don't want any yet I'd rather let my head clear a bit." She said with as much force as she could find.
"That's fine you don't have to take anything you don't want to." Rossi said calmly.
"Thanks, what happened? The last thing I remember is waking up in that box what happened after that?"
"We got there a few minutes after you passed out we killed the Unsub and Hotch got you out and got you breathing again." Morgan said trying to simplify the events as well as he could so as not to upset her.
"It's really good to have you back Emily; I can't begin to tell you what it was like without you." JJ said giving Emily a big smile trying to change the subject.
"Yeah everyone started fighting with each, other please don't leave us along again." Reid begged and everyone laughed.
"You guys were fighting?" Emily asked more than a little shocked, she couldn't imagine these people fighting with each other.
"We had a little fight yes, I thought Morgan and Hotch were going to come to blows." Rossi added with a smile.
"And I said some really mean things to Garcia I think I owe her a new Troll doll or something lest she wipe out my identity." JJ laughed.
"Well I'm glad you all made up" She said with a smile. "And I am very glad you found me, how did you figure it out?"
"It was Garcia actually she was able to track the video signal back to the Unsub's house." Morgan informed her.
Soon the conversation died down and Emily and Hotch sat there staring at each other, JJ and Morgan picked up on this rather quickly.
"I think we should go call Garcia and tell her you woke up." Morgan said.
"Yeah and I for one could use some more coffee, Rossi, Reid you want to get some with me?" JJ asked coyly trying to get them to leave.
"Yeah" they both said reluctantly leaving Emily and Hotch alone.
"We'll be back in a bit" Rossi said giving Emily a smile and a wink.
Once they were gone Emily turned and asked the question she really wanted the answer to. "So what's the damage?"
"Not good but could have been worse, I was able to stop an over eager local officer from impaling you with too much glass."
"I guess I should be thankful for the small things. So are you going to tell me or do I have to wait for the doctor?"
"Well first off you are dehydrated and in need of a few good meals hence the IV, a broken wrist which I image you could have guess given the cast on your arm. Unfortunately you did get some nice cuts from the glass on your knees which had to be stitched up."
"Those things I could have guessed how are my ribs?"
"Three broken ribs, you're not going to like this but the corset he forced you to wear actually helped your ribs by making it harder for you to move it kept them in place. That is until I came along and performed CPR on you, so you are going to have to be very careful with them for the next month or so. Now for the really bad part, the cuts on your arms and legs had begun heal so they couldn't stitch them up which means they are going to take longer to heal will likely leave scars. That is except for the really deep cut on your right thigh which was beginning to show signs of infection.
They had to open it up, a small scab had managed to forming and they cleaned it out then they stitched it up. So it may be a bit more painful than the other ones but it should heal sooner which is good. On top of all that the doctor is worried about the other wounds getting infected so he has you on some harsh antibiotics which will likely make you sick for the next two weeks."
"Great that sounds like so much fun, so how long till I get to come back to work?"
"Oh you won't be coming back for a while, if you are a really good patient I may let you back on desk duty in a month but don't think I am going to let you back in the field until a doctor tells me that your ribs are completely healed."
"What if I'm not a really good patient?"She asked with a glint of mischief in her eyes.
"Well then it could be months till I let you back to your desk, and I am not playing so wipe that pout off your face." Hotch said with a laugh.
"Fine I can't see how I am going to be able to do much for the next few weeks so I have no doubt that I can be a good patient."
"We'll see, Emily about what happened"
"Aaron please I don't want to talk about it right now later I promise." Emily begged.
"Okay you're right there is plenty of time later."
"I just called you Aaron is that okay?" she asked in a shy tone.
"You can call me anything you want" He said giving her hand a soft squeeze.
"Then there is something I would really like to do." She removed her hand from his and moved it to his face. "I wanted to make sure you were real" She rested her forehead against his enjoying the moment of peace as she tried to absorb as much of his strength as she could. Reluctantly she let him go but took his hand once more.
"Emily when we get back to Virginia I want you to stay with me." Hotch asked her and she just stared back at him. "You don't have to stay with me but the doctor said that you shouldn't be left by yourself so you are going to have to go home with someone."
"No I want to go home with you I was just a little shocked that you were asking me."
"Emily I know what I said a couple months ago but I was a jerk and an idiot not to mention a coward, I was afraid of a new relationship. But I almost lost you and I know how big of a fool I was. You told me how you felt a few days ago and I want to tell you that I feel the same way, please give me a second chance." Hotch begged.
"You could never be a coward Hotch you are the bravest person I know and I told you a few months ago I will take you any way I can get you, though I like this way better than the first offer you made." He gently bent down and gave her a light kiss on her lips.
"That's good; I have to warn you the whole team and probably a few of the local officers know how I feel about you."
"How exactly did that happen?"
"Well during that fight that Reid mentioned, Morgan accused me of not caring about anything and I responded in a very loud voice that I in fact cared about you a great deal, I also may have pushed him but that was only after he pushed me."
"Wow you two really did almost come to blows what the hell happened while I was gone."
"We couldn't find you we didn't have a clue where you where, we couldn't catch a break, everyone was tired and very frustrated and we all lashed out at each other. It was really hard to watch him hurt you and not be able to stop him though I am sure it was much harder being the one tortured."
"Yeah" she said quietly side stepping the issue she wasn't ready to talk about not yet. "What exactly did JJ say to Garcia?"
"She accused her of fooling around with Kevin instead of doing her job, it didn't go over well."
"I can imagine not, that is not something I would ever say to Penelope Garcia."
"Me either." He said with a laugh.
At that moment a nurse entered the room and checked Emily's wounds and vital signs making a note on the chart at the end of the bed.
"The Doctor will be in to take a look at your wounds in a few hours in the mean time I suggest you try and get some more sleep. " With that statement she gave Emily another dose of pain medication. She gave Emily a reassuring smile and then exited the room.
Once the nurse left hey fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes as Emily started to get drowsy.
"Wow that stuff works fast" Emily joked with a yawn.
"I believe that is why they call it the good stuff." Hotch said with a playful smile
"Aaron I don't want to be alone, please don't leave me alone, since I woke up in that hell hole I have been alone and I don't want to be alone anymore." She pleaded with him quietly.
"Don't worry I'm not going to leave you, and if for any reason I have to go somewhere I will be sure one of team is always with you. You don't have to be alone."
"Thank you" she said a tear had fallen down her cheek and he wiped it away for her.
"Why don't you close your eyes and get some more sleep I think you need more than fifteen hours."
"I was asleep for fifteen hours, god how can I still feel so tired?"
"That's your body it is going to need a lot of rest to recover from all your injuries. Just close your eyes I'm not going anywhere."
"Okay" she said with a yawn as she closed her eyes. "I love you" she whispered as she let sleep over take her.
"I love you too" Hotch whispered back.
A/N Sorry it is so late tonight, tomorrow will be earlier I promise. I hope you enjoy and I love the reviews thank you so much!
