Hi guys! First of all I would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who voted, because this story won for "Best Hotch/Emily" fic in the Miscellaneous category of the Profiler's Choice Awards! I really didn't expect this story to get so popular or to have so many of you love it. I kind of came up with the idea on a whim and I have loved watching this universe grow and change as I've been writing! Second, thanks for your patience, as always! I try to get these up as soon as I can! There are only about 3 or 4 more chapters as it stands right now, but I do have plans for a sequel so don't worry! : )

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By the New Year, Emily had finally moved into Hotch's apartment. It had once been his, and now it was theirs. Getting into a routine with them was simple and easy and the most effortless thing Emily had ever done. She loved coming home, seeing all the pictures around the apartment. Some his, some hers. Her own set of keys stored in the bowl by the door. Her clothes taking up space in the closet and dresser. It seemed right.

Personally, Emily's life couldn't have been more perfect. Things were looking up for her professionally as well. She had an interview for a position on a child advocacy team set up for two weeks from now, and she was really excited about it. She wouldn't have to travel, but she would still be helping the most innocent victims of crimes. She missed the team, but now that she was stateside again, she got to see them all the time. She sometimes found herself missing the rush of the old job, never really knowing how long she'd get to be at home before they jetted across the country again. She sometimes missed the thrill of being in the field; but she was ready for a change. She was ready for normalcy and a new life.

Jack loved having Emily move in, he loved that he got to see Emily all the time. Now when his dad went on a case, Emily was always there to be with him. Emily made sure Jack saw Jessica as often as possible. Everything seemed to be going perfectly for the little makeshift family.

The team was currently out on a case in Indiana. Luckily the team had been able to stay home through Christmas and New Year's, a rare occurrence. They had been gone for a few days, so Emily had been taking care of Jack. This was the first time she was solely responsible for him for the whole time Hotch was gone, so she had been understandably nervous at first. But of course, everything was going fine and Jack was thrilled to get to spend so much time with Emily.

The last time Emily had talked to Hotch earlier that day, it seemed that they'd found who they were looking for and would be home by the next morning. Emily was glad, she missed him when he was gone, and even more so now that they lived together. The brunette was sitting on the couch in the living room going over her résumé for the hundredth time. She wanted to make sure it was perfect for her interview even though she still had two weeks. She was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. She put her laptop on the coffee table in front of her and went into the kitchen where her phone was sitting on the counter, JJ's name flashing across the screen.

"Hey," Emily smiled as she answered.

"Hey, Emily." The brunette's stomach dropped immediately at the sound of JJ's voice.

"What happened?" Emily asked, feeling her pulse increase.

"Hotch was shot, Em. He's in surgery right now. I don't know anything else." JJ said.

Emily tried to breathe, she tried to make herself ask questions, compartmentalize. She couldn't do it. She felt herself breaking.

"What…what happened?" Emily asked again.

"We were at the unsub's house, and we…we all cleared it and we thought he'd fled. So we were going to go back to the precinct and regroup, maybe have Garcia look into other properties or something…and as soon as we got outside…he was there. It happened so fast…I don't know." JJ said. Emily could hear the fear in her voice.

"Wasn't he…didn't he have on a vest?" Emily demanded.

"Yes, but the bullet missed the vest and lodged in his lower abdomen, near his hip." JJ said simply, leaving out all the details…like how much blood there had been, how there was no exit wound, how the doctors had to find the bullet and keep it from bleeding out.

"I'm coming there. What hospital? I'll book a flight right now." Emily said, going back over to her laptop, phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder as she furiously began typing.

"No, don't. I mean…I just think that maybe you and Jack should stay there. Just until we know more." JJ said quietly, knowing how stubborn Emily could be.

"Oh, God…" Emily breathed. "What am I supposed to tell Jack? I have to pick him up in, like, an hour. He'll sense something's wrong. I don't want to lie to him…but I don't want to scare him." She rambled.

"I think that Hotch would want you to be honest with him." JJ supplied.

"But what if…I mean…how bad is it?" Emily asked. She had to know.

"I don't know, Em. I'm sorry. I wanted to wait and tell you until we knew more about his condition, but Rossi convinced me to go ahead and tell you. He knew you'd worry if you didn't hear from him." JJ said.

Emily blinked back tears. She knew the possibility of him being injured on the job was high. He'd been injured before. They had all been injured to some degree or another over the years. But this, this was different than all the other times. This time she was in love, this time it wasn't her boss or her friend; it was her boyfriend.

Why does this always happen? Emily thought to herself.

"Why does what happen?" JJ asked. Only then did Emily realize she had spoken out loud.

"It's just…every time things are going well for one of us, something like this has to happen. We're finally happy, I'm finally happy…and now this. It's just…it's not fair, JJ." Emily admitted, slamming her laptop closed and leaning back against the couch. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to fight of an inevitable headache.

"Don't think like that. He's going to be okay. It's Hotch. Something like this won't bring him down." JJ tried to encourage.

"I…I need to go. Call me when you know something? Anything." Emily begged.

"The second I know, so will you. It's going to be okay, Emily. I know it will." JJ said.

Emily hung up, she was breathing fast and her eyes burned with tears. She forced herself to calm down, she had to keep her head right now. If not for herself, then for Jack. Glancing at her watch, she realized she had just enough to make a phone call before she needed to go pick Jack up.

With shaking hands, she picked her phone back up and called Jessica's number.

"Hello?" Emily heard the blonde answer.

"Hi…it's Emily. I know you're busy at work but…" Emily took a breath. "It's Aaron." Emily relayed what information she knew to Jessica, asking for any advice on what to tell Jack.

"I know you don't want to scare him, but I think you should tell him." Jessica said, saying almost the same thing JJ had told her. "I hate that he understands things like this, but he does. As long as you're there with him, he'll be alright." Jessica said.

"Okay…thank you." Emily said sincerely. "I'm gonna go and pick him up now."

"It'll be okay, Emily. Aaron's strong, he's healthy. He'll be good as new before you know it." Jessica assured her.

Emily thanked her again and hung the phone up. She took a deep breath and pushed herself up off the couch. She felt almost as if she was on auto-pilot as she got her keys and purse and headed out to the car. She forced herself to focus only on driving as she headed to Jack's school, and that seemed to help her. By the time she got there and took her usual spot outside with all the other parents, she felt a little calmer. She wasn't shaking so much and her heart wasn't pounding in her ears anymore.

She felt herself smile as she heard Jack yell her name and greet her with his usual hug. She hugged him back just a little tighter than normal.

"Did you have a good day?" Emily asked as she led him back to her car.

Jack nodded and proceeded to tell her every detail of what had happened at school as Emily drove them back home. Emily's nerves grew as they approached the apartment complex. She could tell as she glanced in the rearview mirror that Jack was picking up on her anxiousness.

"Are you okay, Emily?" Jack asked innocently.

"I'm okay, but there's something we have to talk about when we get inside." Emily said as they pulled into the complex and she parked the car.

Jack just nodded, sensing that whatever it was was serious. Neither of them said anything else until they were in the apartment. Jack put his backpack down at the door and went over to the couch and sat down, waiting for Emily to do the same.

Emily sat next to him and decided to just get to the point.

"While your dad was working on the case today, he got shot. JJ called me and told me that he was in surgery. As soon as she knows more she's going to call and tell us." Emily said, instinctively reaching over and putting her hand on his shoulder.

"He's gonna be okay though, right? After the surgery?" Jack asked.

Emily took a breath. "He'll be fine." She assured him, even though she had no way of knowing if that would be the case. She just hoped she was right. "I don't want you to worry, but JJ and Jessica thought you would want to know."

Jack just nodded, keeping his eyes fixated on the floor.

"Look at me, honey." Emily said softly. Jack looked up to meet her eyes. "It's gonna be alright, and I'm right here." Emily said again to no avail.

Emily couldn't help but feel like she'd made a mistake, like maybe she should have waited until she had more information. She hugged Jack to her with one arm and grabbed her phone with the other and sent a quick text to JJ asking if she had any information. JJ replied that she didn't.

After a few minutes, Jack pulled away from Emily. "Can I go to my room?" He asked.

"Why don't you stay out here? You can do your homework and I'll be right here to help if you need any." Emily suggested. She didn't want him to worry alone in his room. Jack just silently agreed and went into the kitchen to set up his homework at the island.

Jack finished his homework quickly, only asking Emily how to spell a word one time; then he sulked back into the living room to watch TV. Emily started dinner, though she knew neither of them would really want to eat anything.

Just as she got everything out to make them grilled cheese sandwiches, Emily's phone rang. She answered it hurriedly, not even checking the ID.

"JJ?"

"He's fine, Emily. He came out of surgery fine and he should be awake any minute now. They want to keep him for a couple of days just to make sure there's no post-op problems or infections or anything. But he's fine." JJ said quickly.

Emily felt herself relax a little, but she knew she could only completely feel at ease when she saw him.

"When he's awake I want to talk to him." Emily said.

"I'll go check and call you back." JJ said, knowing what Emily was thinking even though Emily didn't say it.

After JJ hung up, Emily went into the living room and sat next to Jack.

"He's okay, he's waking up soon and JJ is going to let us talk to him." Emily smiled.

Emily thought Jack's demeanor would change upon the news, but it didn't. He just nodded and turned his attention back to the TV.

"Jack," Emily said, reaching for the remote and shutting the TV off. "What's wrong? You can tell me."

Jack just picked at a loose thread on his shirt.

"It's okay if you're still worried, but I promise you your dad is going to be just fine." Emily said with confidence.

"I thought…I was scared that he would…" Jack started to cry. Emily could recount maybe twice she'd seen Jack this upset. It was incredibly uncharacteristic of him and it worried her a little.

"Oh, honey." Emily said, pulling him into her lap. "I know, I'm sorry if I scared you earlier. Maybe I should have waited to tell you. But he is just fine, you'll be able to talk to him soon." Emily told him.

"I wanna see him." Jack said quietly, making no move to get up from Emily's lap.

"I know. We'll see him soon." Emily promised, not really sure what else to say. She just kept Jack close to her and reassured him over and over again that Hotch was okay.

After several more minutes, Emily's phone finally rang again. She answered it, Jack still sitting in her lap.

"Hello?"

"Emily, it's me. I'm alright." Hotch's voice came through. Emily had never felt more relieved in her life.

"I'm so glad you're okay, and I really want to talk to you, but somebody else needs to hear your voice more than I do right now." Emily said. She carefully slid Jack off her lap and gave him her phone; she got up and went back into the kitchen to give them a little bit of privacy. She hoped talking to Hotch would calm Jack down. She knew the boy wanted to physically see him, she felt the same way.

Jack entered the kitchen a few minutes later and handed her the phone, he looked a little better at least. She sent him a smile as he left the room again, putting the phone up to her ear.

"Hey," She said.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Hotch asked.

Emily was on the verge of crying out of relief, but he made her laugh through the tears. "You just got shot and you're asking me if I'm okay?"

"JJ told me how worried you've been." Hotch said.

"That's an understatement. I've kind of been a wreck." Emily admitted.

"Jack told me you made him feel better." Hotch offered, she couldn't see him but she knew he was smiling.

"I tried…he was so worried about you. I'm glad I helped him, though. You know what would really help me?" Emily asked.

"What's that?" Hotch wondered.

"We want to come see you. I don't think either of us will be able to sleep until we see you in person." Emily said.

"You don't have to do that." Hotch said. "I'll probably be out of here in the morning."

"You won't, you had major surgery. JJ said they're keeping you for a couple of days." Emily argued.

"They are, but I'm really fine and there's no need for you guys to waste the time to come up here. I'll be back by the end of the week." Hotch said.

"It's not a waste of time, Aaron. We love you, and we want to come up there and see for ourselves that you really are okay." Emily said firmly.

"No." Hotch was just as firm as her.

"I don't know why you're being like this. If it was me lying in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound a few states away you'd fly out on the first flight and stay with me the whole time. Why won't you let me do that for you?" Emily asked.

"Jack has school. He needs to stay there and you need to be there with him." Hotch told her.

"Jack needs to see you, Aaron. I've never seen him so upset. How do you expect him to go to school and get anything out of it if he'll just be worrying about you the whole time?" Emily fired back. This was the first time they'd ever so intensely disagreed on something since they'd gotten together. Emily wasn't sure what to do.

"Just stay there, okay?" Hotch pleaded.

"Is there something you aren't telling me? Is there a reason you don't want us to see you?" Emily accused.

"Emily. I want to see you, I want to see Jack. But I don't want the two of you flying out here for nothing. I am fine."

"It's not even a long flight. A few hours at most."

"Why can't you just do this one thing for me, Emily? I want you and Jack to stay there and wait for me." Hotch said finally, his voice tired.

Emily bit her lip. "Sure. Whatever you want. Can I at least call you in the morning? I'm sure your son would like to talk to you before he goes to school."

"Yes, you can do that. You or Jack can call me at any time." Hotch told her.

"Okay. Talk to you tomorrow, then." Emily said a little more bitterly than she meant to. She hung up the phone and took a moment to calm herself down before she went to check on Jack.

"Hey buddy, how are you feeling?" Emily asked as she sat down next to Jack.

"Better. He said he has to stay for a couple of days, though." Jack shrugged.

"I know, but he said you can call him before school. And when you come home, you can call him again. He'll be home before you know it." Emily smiled.

Jack didn't ask about going to visit, and Emily wondered if it just didn't occur to him or if Hotch had told him they couldn't come. She wanted to know why he was being so stubborn. She knew she could be stubborn as well, but she'd never shut him out like he was shutting her out. It stung a little bit, Emily realized as she and Jack had dinner; though neither one of them ate very much.

That night, Jack ended up crawling into bed with Emily not long after she went to bed herself. She knew he was still worried even if he wasn't saying anything. She hardly slept that night, but when Jack finally fell asleep next to her she at least felt like she was doing something right.