For the hundredth thousandth millionth time, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for your sweet words! And just a little heads up, this story will be taking at least a 10-day to 2 week break. I'm not going to be able to update for a bit, but I do plan to keep writing during that time, so when I come back I will be extra prepared to update for all of you amazing people! Your encouragement and super sweet words motivate me more than you'll ever know!

Seventy-two hours later, Emily had finally been fever-free long enough for her to be allowed to go visit Elizabeth at the hospital. Her fever had to be one for 24 full hours before they would let her visit. George had been better enough the previous day, so he'd at least been able to be with her when Emily couldn't. Word had apparently gotten out that Emily hadn't been feeling well, because in the last three days every member of the team had come by to visit her and George. Reid and Alex came by with several different kinds of soup and books for Emily and George to read while they were getting better. Garcia and Morgan stopped by with enough ice cream for a small army and lots of bureau gossip. JJ stopped by alone, bringing a get well card from Henry and a stack of movies. Rossi brought her favorite wine and told her that it was for when she was feeling better.

And Hotch came by every single day. Usually it was sometime after he left the office, before he went to pick up Jack. As much as Emily enjoyed spending time with Jack, she insisted that Hotch keep him at home so she wouldn't give him whatever cold had decided to take over her immune system.

The previous night, Hotch stopped by just before 6pm, bringing sandwiches from a deli close by for George and Emily. He'd also brought flowers. Emily had never really had a favorite flower; she'd never really even taken a lot of time to admire them in the past. So it was surprising to her that Hotch had thought to get her any. Especially not purple azaleas.

"What the heck are these for?" Emily had asked in confusion, her voice nasally and congested sounding. Even though her fever had gone down, her other cold symptoms seemed to want to stick around. "I mean, they're beautiful, but…"

"These are actually from Jack." Hotch had clarified. "He was a little sad that I'm allowed to come see you, but he isn't. So I told him if he told me something to get you, I'd pick it up for him and bring it to you."

Emily couldn't stop herself from smiling at that. "That's probably the absolute sweetest thing I've ever heard. You'll thank him for me?"

"Of course I will," Hotch had told her.

It had been strange for Emily to accept all these people around her, taking care of her and bringing her things. From a young age, Emily had learned to comfort herself and not depend on someone else to take care of her. She'd been a little stubborn at first, but she'd been too tired to really put up any arguments. Truthfully, Emily was glad that she had so many people in her life willing to do so much for her. She honestly couldn't remember the last time she had felt so content in her life.

Unfortunately, not everything was going perfectly. She still felt pretty sick, but since her fever was gone she was determined to force herself to get ready and go to the hospital. It took her almost an hour to drag herself out of bed and into the shower, another half hour to force herself back out of the shower, and then another twenty minutes of sitting on the edge of her bed trying to talk herself into walking downstairs.

By the time she made it down, she was feeling a little bit better. At least clear-headed enough to drive. Nearly an hour later than normal, she had finally made it to the hospital.

When Emily got up to her mother's room, she found her doctor already there waiting. That wasn't normal, and Emily immediately felt herself tense at the situation. She feared the worst, something her brain had trained itself to do. She was well aware of how pessimistic she could seem, but she always thought that maybe if you were expecting bad things, they might not seem so bad once they actually happened.

"Emily, it's good to see you. I'm glad you're feeling better." Doctor Greene said with a light smile. Something in his eyes told Emily that he wasn't there to make small talk.

"Thanks," Emily forced her own weak smile. "What's wrong?" She asked, not wanting anything to have to be dragged out. If there was bad news, she wanted it quickly and straight-forward.

"Your mother's had a rough couple of days. Her short-term memories are practically non-existent. She can barely remember anything from one minute to the next. She's been very hostile toward the staff, and yesterday she didn't recognize her friend that stops by with you…George, right?" Emily nodded, too afraid to say anything. George hadn't mentioned Elizabeth having any problems, but she knew he kept that from her on purpose. He knew that if Emily knew, she would stop at nothing to be there for her mother, putting her own health on the back burner. She wanted to be mad at George for not saying something, but she couldn't find it in her to be angry right now. All she felt was worry.

"Well," Doctor Greene continued. "This morning was particularly bad, and she became a threat to herself and my staff, so we had to sedate her."

Emily's eyes widened, she could literally feel the anger growing from the pit of her stomach. "She's a sixty eight year old woman with Alzheimer's recovering from a stroke and you are telling me that the only way you could contain her is to sedate her?" She didn't mean to sound so accusing, but she didn't fully understand what was happening. Elizabeth had had these kinds of problems before, but she'd never had to be forced into sedation.

Doctor Greene looked like he was keeping something from her, like there was more he wasn't saying.

"Just tell me," Emily demanded, her voice breaking but only slightly. She couldn't let herself seem weak right now.

"Emily, she- she tried to hurt herself." Doctor Greene admitted softly.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked, breathless as if she had run a mile or two. Was the room spinning? She couldn't tell.

"She was resisting the IV and she pulled it out on her own. It didn't extend beyond that because we sedated her, but we were worried for her safety." The doctor's words sounded foreign, distant, like Emily couldn't piece them together properly.

"I need to see her." Emily said quickly.

"She'll be sleeping for at least another hour, and I can't promise you it's going to be easy when she wakes up." The older man in front of her said sincerely.

"Nothing about this has been easy." Emily said stiffly, not really meaning to sound so cold. She turned around and went into Elizabeth's room, forcing herself not to cry. She didn't bother sitting on the hard, plastic chairs that were set up in the back of the room. She slowly and carefully maneuvered herself onto Elizabeth's bed so that she was sitting next to her mother. Emily's legs were dangling off the end, her feet touching the floor. She leaned back into the pillow, propping herself up with it slightly.

She looked down at her mother's sleeping frame and felt like she didn't recognize the woman in front of her. Emily had never seen her mother look so pale. Elizabeth's cheeks were sunken in and her eyes had dark circles that never seemed to go away, but right now they seemed even more prominent. Her hair was pulled back and not properly combed and styled like Emily had always seen it up until recently. It was like until this moment, Emily hadn't allowed herself to see all the changes that were happening physically to her mother.

Sure, it wasn't possible to ignore the memory lapses and the still marginally slurred speech that sometimes happened since the stroke. But somehow Emily had been able to look past the dark circles, the paled skin, and overall the frailness that had developed over the past two months.

Emily looked away, she knew if she kept looking at Elizabeth, she was going to start crying. She couldn't do that now. She took a breath and let it out slowly, a sure sign that she was way more stressed out than she was ever going to let on.

She exited the room quietly, knowing that she needed to tell George what was going on. She knew he would want to be there for Elizabeth when she woke up, and truthfully Emily didn't want to be alone. She only hoped that things would start looking up soon, because she knew that emotionally she couldn't handle any more bad news for a while.

XxxX

"So they sedated her?" Hotch asked curiously that night. He and Emily sat on his couch in Hotch's living room, drinking the wine that Emily had brought over that Rossi had given her.

"Yeah." Emily said tightly, swirling the dark liquid around in her glass. "I mean, I know it was necessary. I've known that's something that might have to happen, but actually experiencing it? And knowing she was all alone, and probably terrified because she didn't remember what was happening makes it that much worse." She admitted, never looking up from the contents of her wine glass. She always found it easier to talk when she wasn't making direct eye contact.

"Don't blame yourself." Hotch said firmly, but gently. It amazed her that he always seemed to know what she was feeling, even if she didn't voice it out loud.

"It's hard not to." She replied, her voice completely void of emotion. "The few days I can't be there, something like this happens?"

"It would have happened anyway, Emily. She's been doing well for a good amount of time." Hotch reminded her. He knew that even if it was hard, Emily deserved the truth. "And given what she's gone through lately, that in itself is pretty incredible."

Emily sighed, placing her wine glass down on the coffee table and sitting back on the couch, her knees pulled up to her chest protectively.

"I know that. I do. It's just…" she sighed again. "I can't remember a time in my whole life that she and I got along really well. When I was younger I do remember her being there a little more. But then she and my Dad got divorced, which they probably should have done a lot earlier than they did, and it was like nothing else mattered but her work. She was hardly ever home, and when she was she was criticizing me for almost every little thing. And I probably should have tried to fix my relationship with her as an adult instead of just ignoring it like I did." She picked at a loose thread on her pant leg.

"But lately I've been visiting her every day. And I don't dread it. I actually enjoy spending time with her, and we actually talk and laugh. I just wish that I'd done this before she got so bad, you know? What if she thinks I'm only doing this out of pity?" Emily asked quietly.

"I don't think she thinks that, Em." Hotch said honestly. He still hadn't told her that he had gone to see Elizabeth a few days before. Not because he was keeping it a secret, but because it honestly just kept slipping his mind. Sometimes when he was around her he felt like he could quite possibly forget his own name.

"You know," he said after a moment of quiet. "I went to see her that day you called and told me you were sick."

Emily's brow furrowed in confusion. "You did?"

"You told me not to, but you were a little…well, not yourself." He laughed. Emily groaned and hid her face behind a throw pillow.

"I should have called you before I took cold medicine." She mumbled into the fabric.

"Anyway, you seemed really worried that she wasn't going to have a visitor that day. So I went to see her and we talked for a bit." He told her.

"Thank you," Emily said honestly, putting the pillow back down on the couch so she could face him properly. "You didn't have to do that."

"I know, but I wanted to. She really does love you, Emily. She always has, it's obvious in the way she speaks about you. She just wants you to be happy, and that's a really big part of being a good parent." He told her honestly.

Emily smiled softly, her eyes misting with tears that she refused to let fall. "Thank you," She said again. At his confused look, she spoke again. "For being Aaron Hotchner." She clarified.

He pulled her in for a hug, knowing that she needed it. She would never in a million years let on, but he always knew. Neither of them said anything for a while, just needing to be with each other. For now, that was enough.