I honestly cannot believe how many reviews, follows, and favorites this story has!? You guys are so amazing, and you really motivate me to keep this story going! So as a thank you, reviewer 100 gets a oneshot of their choosing! Just make sure you have a way for me to contact you if you post anonymously so I can let you know and you can tell me what you want me to write! Also don't hate me xoxoxo

XxxxxX

Emily sped to the hospital, breaking all kinds of laws and not caring at all. Once she finally arrived, she parked her car and sprinted into the building. She was about to demand for information from the young man sitting at the front desk, but before she could, George approached her and gently put a hand on his shoulder.

"Emily, come sit down." He said softly.

"Just tell me what's happening," Emily snapped as she blinked back tears. She wasn't going to let herself get worked up unless there was a reason to.

"She's had a stroke, and she fell because she lost consciousness. They think she broke her collar bone when she fell. She's in surgery right now." George explained calmly.

"Surgery?" Emily choked out. "Why?" Truthfully, she didn't know that much about strokes, and right now she wished she did. She felt so uninformed and helpless.

"A brain bleed caused the stroke. They're doing a craniotomy to stop the bleeding and then when she wakes up, they'll have to assess everything else." George told her.

Emily ran her hands through her hair. She bit her lip and met George's eyes.

"This is so bad, isn't it?" Emily asked softly, shaking her head. She already knew how bad this was, but some part of her hoped she was somehow wrong.

"It's…not good." George settled on saying.

Emily nodded. "I…I need some air, if they come and tell you anything I'll…I'll be just outside." Emily said quickly as she practically ran out of the hospital.

Once outside, she found herself pacing. Her mind was racing, her heart was racing. She had so many questions and she knew none of them were going to get answered until her mother was stable.

She wanted to know if this stroke was related to her disease. She wanted to know what caused it if not. She wanted to know if there was something she should have been looking out for, if somehow Emily could have prevented this. She forced herself to take deep breaths, because she could feel a panic attack coming on and she was not about to let that happen in front of the hospital entrance while she was alone.

She knew it was incredibly too early to call Hotch, but she really wished he was here. She knew that he would know how to keep her calm, and even if she couldn't stay calm, that he would be right there with her. But she knew he had Jack, and she wasn't going to take away from their weekend together.

She paced for a few more minutes, continuing to force herself to breathe slowly. She felt a little calmer, but she couldn't stand the thought of going back into that stuffy waiting room. She took a breath and made herself step back inside, because she wanted to be there for George. She knew he had to be just as terrified as she was.

She found him sitting in a chair towards the back of the room all alone. She hurried over to him and sat down next to him, taking the older man's hand in hers.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you." Emily said quietly.

"No, it's okay. I did the same thing when I first got here." George said.

"When did she go back for surgery?" Emily asked, trying not to let her voice crack.

"I'm not sure exactly. It's been hours." George replied.

"That…that means something happened, doesn't it? They're operating on her brain for God's sakes, anything could go wrong!" Emily rambled worriedly.

"I'm sure someone will be out in a minute to tell us she made it out fine, and that she's going to be okay. It'll be alright, Emily." George said calmly.

Emily blew out a breath, she knew he was right. Worrying wasn't going to solve anything. They just had to wait.

Twenty minutes later, someone called out Elizabeth's name. Both Emily and George rose from their seats, eager to hear how everything went.

"Hi, my name is Doctor Greene, I operated on Mrs. Prentiss." The tall, dark-skinned said as he approached them. Realizing neither of them cared about formal greetings, he continued. "She was brought in early this morning after a fall in her nursing home. After we ran some tests, we noticed a bleed in her brain. That bleed is the cause of her stroke, which led to her fall. I had some trouble locating it, but I got it to stop and got her stabilized. She hasn't woken up yet, but she should very soon. Her right arm is immobilized with a sling to aide in the healing of her collar bone, and her head is a little swollen and bandaged. You'll notice the left side of her face is a little droopy, but that's from the stroke. I can't tell you how she'll be once she wakes up, I'll have to assess her later on. Do you have any questions? Doctor Greene asked gently.

"Did this happen because of her Alzheimer's?" Emily blurted, just needing all the information she could get about her mother's condition.

"No," the doctor confirmed. "No, this is an isolated incident. Although, I hate to say this but, oftentimes those who have had strokes have problems with their memory. The stroke may make things worse for a little while; but like I said, I can't give you an accurate prognosis just yet." He added.

"I want to see her." Emily whispered, fighting back tears.

The doctor just nodded and led them up to Elizabeth's room. Emily led George go in first and she followed closely behind him.

The doctor was saying something, but Emily couldn't process it. She pulled up a chair by her mother's bed and sat next to it, just staring at her. She didn't even look like herself. She had a giant bandage all the way around her head, she was so pale, and although she was sleeping, she didn't look very peaceful. Her arm was plastered to her chest, and it didn't look very comfortable.

Emily took her mother's good hand in hers and gently stroked the top of it with her thumb.

"Oh, Mom." She said softly.

She half-heard the doctor leave the room. Only then did she finally let herself cry. She felt George stand beside her and wrap an arm around her shoulders.

The two of them sat there together, neither of them saying anything. What was there to say? After some time, Emily had stopped crying. She looked up at the grey-haired man standing next to her.

"I'm gonna give you some time…just come find me if she wakes up." Emily said softly as she stood and exited the room quickly.

She glanced at the clock, it was barely 8am. Still too early to bother Hotch, Emily thought. She felt so selfish; it wasn't like he was obligated to be there for her. But she just couldn't get him off her mind.

She slowly made her way down to the main floor again, not really sure where she was going or what she was doing. She felt like she was just going on autopilot, like her movements were not her own.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she almost ran into someone.

"Oh, sorry." She mumbled out an apology.

"Emily?" Hotch said as he took her shoulders in his hands, making her look up at him.

"What…are you doing here?" Emily stammered out. She was surprised, relieved, and confused all at the same time. How had he known to come here? What had he done with Jack? What if this had ruined their weekend plans?"

"I woke up about an hour ago and found your note. You left your phone, so I used it to calling your mother's house. But no one answered, so I called George, but he didn't answer either. I got a little worried, so I called your mother's nursing home. I practically had to threaten them to tell me what happened and where she was, but I eventually got it out of her. Jack was still sleeping, so I go Jessica to come over and watch out for him for a bit." He explained gently.

"Aaron, you didn't…I didn't expect you to do this." She blurted.

"Why wouldn't I be here for you, Emily? I'm your friend, and you really need a friend right now. How's your mom?" He asked.

"I don't know, she's not awake yet." Emily replied simply. She was putting her walls back up, because around him they were already pretty weak, and she wasn't ready for a complete breakdown yet.

"Why didn't you wake me this morning? I could have driven you here." Hotch wondered, leading her to two empty chairs in the waiting area and gently guiding her to sit down. Then he sat next to her and waited for her to respond.

"It was so early, and I didn't know how bad this was yet. I just knew that she had fallen and that she was here. You have Jack and I know you don't get a lot of weekends with him because you're away a lot. I just didn't want you to feel like you had to be here, because you don't have to be, you know." Emily said softly, fighting back more tears.

"Jack would understand, Emily. We didn't have much planned this weekend anyway. I have to take him to soccer practice this afternoon, but beyond that we were just going to have a lazy weekend. We don't get enough of those. And I know that I don't have to be here. I just want to be. I want to help you in any way that I can. So don't you worry about anything else except your mother right now, okay?" Hotch said reassuringly.

"Okay," Emily nodded simply. She was too scared and emotionally spent to argue with him right now, anyway.

"Let's go see how your mom is, alright? Then maybe you and I can go down to the cafeteria and maybe you'll let me buy you a cup of crappy coffee." He offered.

Emily sent him a smile, though her eyes were filled with tears that she wasn't allowing to fall just yet. "There's a Starbucks two blocks away," She said softly. "If you're going to buy me coffee, at least get me the good stuff." She managed to joke as she rose from the chair and offered a hand out to Hotch.

He took it, and they walked closely together toward the elevator. They seemed to realize at the same time that they were holding hands still, and they both jerked their hands away and awkwardly glanced around the elevator. Neither of them said anything about it.

"We should invite George with us to Starbucks when we go. I think that would be good for him. He might be even more worried than I am." Emily commented as the elevator dinged and they got off on Elizabeth's floor.

"That sounds like a plan." Hotch smiled as he let Emily lead him to Elizabeth's room. Only two people were allowed in at once, so Hotch waited outside by the door.

"Hey," Emily said softly as she entered the room. George was sitting in the chair that Emily had been sitting in before, holding Elizabeth's hand and staring at the wall.

"Hey," He replied softly, never taking his gaze off the wall.

"Has anything changed?" Emily asked, knowing it hadn't, but feeling like she had to ask anyway.

"No, they keep saying she's okay and she should be waking up any minute now. But what if she doesn't?" He finally asked the question that Emily had been shoving in the back of her mind. What if Elizabeth never woke up? It was rare, but Emily had heard of people who had brain surgery that just never woke up. What if that happened to her mother? She couldn't think about it right now.

Emily cleared her throat, forcing herself to sound strong for George. "She's a fighter. She'll wake up." Emily sent him a weak smile.

"You're right. She's a Prentiss. She's not gonna go down without a fight." George returned the smile.

After a few moments of silence, Emily spoke again. "So, um, Aaron found out what happened after he threatened someone at the nursing home to tell him what was going on," she had to laugh at that image. She was sure he went all "FBI" on whoever he was talking to, and that the person had willingly complied after that. "And I ran into him downstairs. We're just about to head over to Starbucks and get some decent coffee that doesn't taste like watered down cough syrup, if you'd like to join us." Emily offered.

George looked at Elizabeth, then back at Emily as if he was contemplating the decision.

"If she wakes up while we're gone, it's okay. As soon as her eyes are open they're going to start doing tests on her to see how much damage the stroke actually did. You should really come with us." Emily prodded gently.

At this, George gently placed Elizabeth's hand back on the bed and rose slowly. "You're right, I think I will come with you; if you're sure an old man like he won't bring you down." He said finally.

"Of course not." Emily smiled as she linked his arm with his and headed out of the room where they met up with Hotch.