Nightmares

At first everything was fuzzy, slowly the world came into focus, she was lying on her back staring at a large florescent light.

Her whole body throbbed with pain and when she tried to move she ran into glass in every direction.

She was back, locked in a coffin, dying.

Immediately it felt as though someone had placed a giant rock on her chest, she couldn't breathe and panic started to set in.

She began thrashing around tears were already streaking down her check she wanted out right now.

And then his face came into view, he had that evil grin on his face, the nameless Unsub who caused all her suffering.

"You're dead" She screamed "Get me out of here". She kept screaming over and over again begging for someone to save her.

Aaron Hotchner woke to movement next to him; he turned to find Emily tossing and turning violently around the bed. Quickly he tried to put his arms around her, pulling her close to him.

"Emily it's okay, it's just a dream wake up sweetheart please just wake up." He tried holding her tight hoping to prevent her from moving around too much. The last thing either of them wanted was to spend the night in the Emergency room getting her wounds re-stitched.

"Em wake up you're having a nightmare." He said a bit louder, he could see that she had been crying, there were tear stains all along her cheeks, now the tears were replaced with desperate screams. He pulled her further into his arms in the hopes that she would feel safe and wake from her nightmare.

Finally she woke with jolt, her heart pounding and panting to catch her breath. She looked at Hotch and burst into tears once more.

"I was back in that coffin, I couldn't get out and I couldn't breathe, the Unsub was standing over me grinning." She sobbed. "Tell me his name so that I at least know who to cruse in my nightmares." She growled through clenched teeth.

"George Grant" He said quietly.

"George Grant, seems like such an unimposing name for such a horrid person." She spat through her tears. "It felt so real, I was back there in a glass box, but it was so much worse, I couldn't breathe at all and the pain was so much worse. I was stuck there dying all over again and no one came to help there was just him standing over me waiting for me to die." She relaxed a little in his arms but the tears continued to fall.

"Emily it wasn't real, you survived and he is the one who is dead, you won, you escaped."

"You saved me I would have died if not for you." She cried

"We are a team remember we did it together, everyone did their part and you did yours, you survived till we got there, that was your job. He used that video link on you and you alone. It would have taken us twice as long to find him if Garcia hadn't been able to trace that feed. If not for that video link he may have killed a lot more women.

"We caught him and we would have never done it without you, we did a very good job despite everything that happened. My only regret is that you got hurt. I don't like it when any member of my team gets hurt and I really don't like it when you get hurt.

"Right now we both need to just focus on the fact that you are alive." He said trying to convince her that the case was over and she needed to spend her energy on getting better.

"Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm alive, the claustrophobia and the nightmares, there are times when I feel like I am stuck in this loop where I am repeating what happened over and over again. It's not all the time but when it happens it is so real." She laid in his arms clutching his shirt in her good hand and sobbed.

"This is real, I am real" He said grabbing her hand from his shirt and squeezing it tight. "I promise you it will get better. You need to remember you survived and he has no power over you anymore." He said this with such conviction that she was finally able to separate herself from the dream.

"Thank you." She whispered as the tears finally subsided.

"Always" He kissed her forehead.

"I am so tired of crying Aaron, I don't think I have ever cried this much before in my life. I never use to cry in front of people before this happened, then he came along and now I cry at the drop of a hat. It is so frustrating because I hate to cry in front of people, it embarrasses me so much and now I am always crying in front of someone, I feel so weak."

"Emily no one thinks less of you for crying. You have been through a horrific experience that most people would never survive.

"You get to cry, you get to yell and shout and no one is going to think you are weak. I know you hated the fact that we watched him hurt you and I'm sorry we watched but none of us thought you were weak we thought you were so strong.

"No one just expected you to lie there and be unaffected by what he was doing to you, we all understood. Except Reid he wanted you to stop crying so that you wouldn't pass out."

She laughed even though it caused a twinge of pain. "It is his way of trying to help."

"I know, he was worried about you, we all were, but not once did we think you were weak. And I have been with you the whole time since we rescued you and nothing you have done has made me think you are weak. I think you are the strongest person I know, you need to believe me." She nodded trying to believe what he was saying.

"How are you feeling?" He asked changing the subject. "I would imagine you could use some more pain meds, I have a feeling that the reason you had a nightmare tonight is because at the hospital they kept you on a constant stream of drugs, which kept you asleep but in a bit of a haze. Tonight is the first time you tired to sleep through the night on only one dose. We could set an alarm or something to wake you up for another dose, if you want, it might cut down on the nightmares for a little while."

"No, I would rather have nightmares than risk becoming addicted to these pain meds. I am sure you can understand." He nodded, recognizing her reference to Reid's previous problem.

"I am tired of falling asleep all the time. It feels like all I have done for the last few days is sleep and I am craving human contact. I would rather be in pain than sleep the day away."

"I understand"

"But I think that in a little while I will take some, I think I aggravated all the cuts and bruises by tossing around because they really hurt right now. But as soon as I can I would like to switch to Advil during the day and save the real stuff for night."

"I think you are going to have to give it a few days before you can manage to do that but I understand why you want to and I support your decision completely."

She laid there snuggling in his arms for a little while, then she decided to finally ask the question that had been on her mind for the last couple of days. She moved into a sitting position to see him better.

"Aaron what are we going to do about work and our relationship." She asked. "It isn't like we can keep it a secret Strauss is going to see part of those videos and she is likely going hear what I said to you."

"You leave Strauss and work to me I know how to handle it. Rules are always bent or broken and I know several people who owe me some really big favors, I have been waiting to call them in for something really important and I would say this meets that definition. You just worry about getting better; work will be there when you are ready to come back."

"You are pretty wonderful Agent Hotchner did you know that?" He made her feel so special he was prepared to do so much for her, she wasn't sure she had every fully seen this side of Aaron Hotchner but everything she saw made her love him more.

"Well Agent Prentiss I think you are pretty and amazing what do you think of that?" He gave her a quick kiss on her lips, he found that he had a strong desired to kiss her a lot and it was very nice to be able to do it just about whenever he wanted.

"Well if that's the case I think we make an excellent pair."

"I hope so." Hotch said with a smile.

"Are you sure I have to wait till tomorrow to have some Ice cream?" She said with a little pout, she didn't meant to change the subject but she wanted something sweet to erase her bad dream.

"Are you telling me you are hungry?" It had been about four hours since she had eaten the broth and he was hoping that her appetite had decided to return.

"No not really, actually I am still pretty full from before but I want ice cream." She pouted a little bit more, she knew she couldn't really eat any ice cream at the moment and she knew it was childish but she really wanted some.

"Then I am certain you have to wait till tomorrow to eat it, I don't want you making yourself sick." He was beginning to learn how cute she looked when she pouted and he found it really had to say no, but if having Jack as a son had taught him anything it was how to say 'no' to a very cute face.

"You have been spending too much time with Dave, you have the whole mothering thing down pretty well." She said sticking her tongue out at him. He only smiled in response.

"Speaking of mothering I called your mother to let her know you were alright." As soon as the words left his mouth he held his breath, he knew that her relationship with her mom wasn't always the best and she was likely to take this news very badly. He hadn't actually meant to tell her like that, he was only trying to help and warn her of a possible call from her mother.

"Wait why, how did my mother find out what happened to me?" Emily was taken completely by surprised; she didn't expect their playful conversation to turn to the topic of her mother. She didn't think her mother knew what was happening and she had hoped to keep it at that way. Emily had wished that she would be the one to tell her mother what had happened once she was better. She couldn't help but feel a little upset that Aaron called her mother.

"Your abduction was splashed all over the news." He tried to explain.

"Why" Up until now the thought that her abduction would be on the news simply did not occur to her. And as a private person the idea that all of New Haven if not the entire country, knew she had been abducted greatly violated her sense of privacy. For a moment she forgot she was talking to her boss and forgot everything the team went through to find her and she questioned him.

"Because you were missing and we had no leads. I made the call I told JJ to do it and I stick by my decision." He said a little too formally reverting back to his FBI personal.

"I understand I'm sorry I wasn't trying to say you were wrong to do it because it was the right thing to do, I just had hoped that my mom didn't know what was going on." She hadn't meant to question his decision as a leader; she would never do that to him. The whole conversation had taken her by surprised, she was unprepared and to be honest up to this point she had been talking to the man who had recently agreed to be her boyfriend, not her boss

"I assumed she knew something and as a parent I can tell you that you want to know what is going when it comes to your child and I don't think that goes away no matter how old the child gets. I am so sorry if she didn't know and I told her by calling her." He said taking a softer tone, he didn't want to upset her and he hadn't meant to be harsh a moment ago, it was still a reflex to having his decisions questioned. He knew he was doing the right thing calling her mother but he also knew that Emily would have preferred to be the one to do it.

"No you were right to call her, I just wish there was some way I could have made it easier on her. Where is she?"

"In Europe she is suppose to be back next weekend, which is the earliest she could get back."

"That is good; I should be up to seeing her by then. I really want to see her, it has been over two years since I have seen either of my parents. While I was in there for a few minutes I reverted back to the five year old who wants her mommy to make it all better. And I hated the idea of dying without seeing her again. It sounds silly but I really want a hug from her." A few tears returned to her eyes as she thought about her mother. But then her thoughts turned very serious.

"I said it before but I am going to say it again you must promise me that no matter how much she asks you will never show her those videos, my mother does not need to know all the graphic details, I will tell her want I want her to know." There was a hint of desperation in her voice.

"I promise I won't show her and I will make sure the Garcia never lets anyone else." He knew she wanted to spare her mother as much pain as possible and he would gladly help her any way he could.

"Thank you. After doing the job as long as we have I know that no parent needs to see those things happen to their child all she ever needs to know is what I tell her."

"I understand and from now on I defer to you on the issue of your mother." Dealing with one Prentiss woman was enough for him and from now on he was going to make sure it was the one who loved him.

"Wise decision I have much more experience dealing with her than you do." She said with a laugh.

"Very true, so are you ready for some more pills and maybe if you are up for it you might want to try and get som more sleep. Or do you need to watch some TV or something before you can get back to sleep?" She needed sleep but he didn't want to push her into going back to bed if her nightmare was still haunting her.

"I think I am ready to try and go back to sleep, so hand over the stupid pills and we'll see if I can get back to dreamland with happier dreams this time, preferably with a cute FBI agent in them." She said with a giant smile.

"No one has called me cute since high school." He said handing her some pain pills

"Then you are way past due." She said then thought for a moment. "Sorry you probably prefer gorgeous, handsome, and sexy."

"Take the pills" he said blushing.

"Did I manage to make the great Aaron Hotchner blush?"

"I think I preferred cute, now I feel like the wizard of oz." He said as he helped her lay down and then turned out the light.

"Oh I got lots of names for you but they will have to wait till we can do certain extra circular activities."

"I look forward to hearing all the names you have for me, but for now let try sleeping."

"Sounds good" she said with a yawn. She snuggled up to him as best she could. She felt safe and warm next to him and it wasn't very long till she was once again fast asleep.

A few hours later Hotch found himself trapped in his own nightmare.

He was once again racing to save Emily from death, she was trapped in that glass box and he needed to save her, except this time it took too long and he got there too late and Emily was dead.

He knelt down next to her body and tried in vain to revive her. He kept performing CPR trying to breathe life back into her body but nothing worked. The EMT kept telling him that she was gone but she couldn't be, he had to save her, he couldn't lose her.

Eventually Morgan and Rossi were standing next to him.

"Hotch she is gone" Morgan said.

"No I promised I would save her."

"Aaron you have to stop you can't save her, come on get up and let them take her away."

"NO"

He bolted straight up in bed, panting and drenched in sweat. 'It was just a dream, it was just a dream' he repeated to himself as he tried to calm down and catch his breath. He buried his face in his hand for a moment and then wiped the sweat off his face.

He looked over at the sleeping form next to him for confirmation of his mantra. She was right there sleeping beside him, she looked so peaceful asleep, there was no trace of pain on her face, when she was awake there was always a hint of pain hiding somewhere on her face. He needed to touch her to convince himself that she was real and his dream was only a nightmare.

He caressed her cheek then brushed away her bangs and kissed her on the forehead. It appeared that she would not be the only one having nightmares from the previous week's events. But unlike her, he didn't have drugs that would put him back to sleep.

He knew there was no way he would be able to go back to sleep for a while, his heart still had not returned to its normal rhythm. So he decided to partake in one of his favorite activities, watching her sleep. He laid on his side and propped his head up with his elbow and just watched her. Her chest slowly went up and down, the steady rhythm proceeded to calm him down and allowed him to relax once more.

A/N I am so so so sorry that it has taken me this long to update this chapter, family and life (new job, new appliances ect) got in the way a little, and I had to fight with this chapter a lot and there were a lot of rewrites it just wasn't working and I didn't want to put it out until I thought it was the best it could be. I hope I didn't unset anyone with the wait and I hope you enjoy the chapter. Thank you for reading and a big thank you to those who have reviewed.