Author's Note: This one is a continuation of the same Starbucks day. Them at home later that night.

Prompt Set #13 (December)

Show: Friends

Title Challenge: The One With the Creepy Holiday Card

Late December: Monday Night

Sharing Big Problems With Little Brothers

"Aaron, come on, it'll be fun! Even if you're on call or whatever, it's not like you'll be in the middle of nowhere. You can fly anywhere in the world from New York. In fact . . ."

As his brother continued talking, Hotch closed his eyes and bit back a sigh.

For the last five minutes Sean had been trying to convince him to take Emily to New York for New Year's Eve. He had already reminded him of their promise to get together more often, and then he'd pointed out what a good time they'd had in October at the opening. And now he was . . . again . . . telling him about the black tie New Year's Eve party at the restaurant.

Emily would love it.

And it was killing Hotch listening to Sean describing the band and the guests and the food, because he knew that Emily would love it! She'd love to see Sean again, she'd love to go dancing again, and she'd love to play dress up.

But they couldn't go.

She was starting her radiation on the 29th, and the party was just two days later. Not to mention, two hundred plus miles away from her doctor and the oncology clinic. And if Hotch could just TELL Sean all of these things, then his brother would understand their situation. And then he'd stop making him feel guilty about declining his request to fly up for the weekend.

But he couldn't tell him.

They hadn't told anyone yet about her cancer, and two days before Christmas seemed a hell of a time to dump it on anyone. Especially Sean. He really liked Emily. Not only had they hit it off at the party in October, but since then the two of them had been writing and emailing regularly. It had all started with Emily's thank you note for inviting her to the opening. Then Sean had immediately written back to her with a half a roll of glossy photos that the photographer had taken at the party that night. Emily then emailed him for a couple of copies, and from there one thing led to another.

They'd been conversing at least once a week since early November.

As their relationship stood now, Hotch was more likely to get an update on Sean's life from Emily, than Sean himself.

Not that that bothered him in the slightest.

In fact, Hotch had been thrilled that the two of them had struck up such an easy friendship. Especially given how it had been only a few weeks after they'd returned from Sean's party, that Hotch had realized he was in love with Emily and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. The fact that she had already been welcomed into the family by his brother, really was icing on the metaphorical cake.

And since he and Emily had officially gotten together a couple of weeks ago, it seemed like Sean would be the logical first person with whom to share that news. Of course Emily's fall, subsequent biopsy, and the fallout therein had delayed the sharing of that happy development. But this past Friday, after they'd decided it was time to start reengaging in life again, they'd begun talking about the OTHER things that they'd been putting off doing.

Telling Sean that the two of them were now living together, had been high up on that list.

And it had been agreed . . . okay, Emily had decided . . . that given how it was his brother, the announcement of the change in their relationship would probably be more logical coming from him than her.

Although Hotch had of course seen her point, he still wasn't all that keen on the idea of discussing his love life with his little brother. They just didn't talk about things like that.

Feelings.

By the end of the night, he'd decided on an approach that, luckily, had received Emily's seal of approval. The idea being that a picture was worth a thousand words . . . aka a half an hour of an awkward phone call. So Emily had helped him pick out a Christmas card from the both of them, and then Hotch had signed it, "love Aaron, Emily, and Jack." Inside he'd enclosed a change of address, and a freshly printed picture of his girlfriend holding his son in her arms, as they both grinned up at him from in front of the snowman family that the three of them had built earlier that morning.

As far as symbolism went, Hotch felt that was about as 'on the nose,' as he could be.

And it was clear that Sean had indeed "gotten it."

They'd mailed the card out on Saturday afternoon, and Sean had called with his congratulations fifteen minutes ago . . . barely two days later. And as Hotch listened to him continuing to go on about what a great time the three of them would have in the city, Hotch finally saw that he was going to have to tell him. Because before he'd known about the party he'd let it slip that they were off rotation until the new year. So there was just NO logical excuse that he could come up with, to explain why he and Emily couldn't go up to visit for a couple of days.

Besides that though, Hotch didn't want to lie to his brother.

It was one thing to simply not mention something, but another thing entirely to go out of his way to make up a false story. That idea didn't sit well at all. So with a weary sigh Hotch dropped down onto the bed as he finally cut his brother off.

"Sean," he spoke softly, as though that make it less upsetting, "Emily's sick."

And Sean stopped talking.

For a moment there was silence, and then his brother came back quietly, "I'm assuming from your tone that you don't mean she has a cold."

That's when Hotch stood up and began to pace around the bedroom again.

And here we go.

"No," he scrubbed his hand down his face, "no I don't mean that she has a cold." He took a breath, "she has a brain tumor. Malignant."

Hearing the sharp intake of air on the other end of the line, Hotch winced before he spoke again.

"And I'm so sorry to tell you now, like this, but I just didn't want to make up a lie for why we can't visit. Her treatment begins Monday and there are side effects, and, well, I'd love to see you, but it'll be awhile before we can go anywhere."

Sean bit his lip.

"Jesus, Aaron," his voice was husky, "I'm so sorry. What did they say about her uh . . . chances?"

"She's going to be FINE!" Hotch shot back sharply. And then he realized that there was a little too much bite on his words, so he softened them.

"I mean," he continued on in a quieter tone, "that the doctors said her prognosis is good. But she was just diagnosed last week and this is all very new, we're still adjusting. And like I said, her treatment starts Monday and we need to stay close to home."

Sean nodded, "of course, I understand completely." Then he paused for a moment as he looked down at the picture of Emily and Jack in front of the snowman family.

There were big smiles on both of their faces.

This was such horrible news. Not just in principle, but Sean really liked Emily. She was so funny and really sweet, and clearly she'd been a good influence on Aaron. He'd probably talked to his brother more over the last four months, than he had in total for the entire previous two years. In part, that was a result of his accident in August, but he also knew a lot of that was Emily.

She'd been a bridge.

An effortless means to keep communication flowing. And of course . . . a more selfish thought came to Sean's mind . . . it was SO his brother's life that he'd fall in love with a great girl like her, and then something like this would happen. His lips pursed.

Aaron never could get a break.

And with that thought an idea suddenly came to Sean . . . so he blurted out.

"I could come down for a couple days," he spoke somewhat excitedly, thinking that this was EXACTLY the thing he should do, "you know, ring in the New Year and visit for a bit. If uh," and he cleared his throat as he faltered a bit, realizing that he did actually need their permission here, "if that was okay with you guys?"

Hopefully it would be okay, Sean really did want to see them. Now more than ever. The pain in his brother's voice was clear even over the phone, and God knew how Emily was handling this. It had been just over two weeks since Sean had last heard from her, but he'd just assumed that she'd gotten busy with the holidays.

If only that had been the case.

But if Sean could come down, he could give them some emotional support. If nothing else, he'd be a distraction. And really, this was the first time that Sean could recall having an opportunity to pay his brother back for everything that he'd done for him when they were kids. The bottom line was though, they were family, and families supported each other.

It was time to step up.

Hearing his brother's offer to come down and visit, a faint smile touched Hotch's lips.

"Yeah," he whispered back, "if you can get away, that would be really nice. I'm sure Emily would love to see you. Jack too. And I just moved in here with her, so you could stay at my apartment. It's just a few blocks away."

This was a really good idea actually. Because this would be something for Emily to look forward to. Right now all they had on the horizon were bad things. The radiation beginning, the side effects . . . telling the team. But a holiday visit from his brother was something nice, normal.

It would make her happy.

Sean smiled softly, "okay then," he walked across his living room and flipped open the day planner sitting on his desk before he dragged his finger down the page, "I'll hand off party hosting completely to my partner, and see you guys next Wednesday, okay?"

"Yeah," Hotch nodded, "just email me your flight info, and we'll see you at the airport."

"Will do, big brother," Sean tapped his finger on the desk as he said softly, "and give my love to Emily."

"Yeah," Hotch cleared the lump out of his throat, "yeah, I will."

And he hung up before he started to get emotional.

Sean looked down at the buzzing phone in his hand.

"Merry Christmas Aaron," he whispered back. And then he put down the phone and opened his laptop.

He needed to book a flight.

/*/*/*/

For a moment Hotch paused in the upstairs hallway trying to think of the best approach to make this announcement to Emily. Although the end of it was good news . . . the beginning was not. Because last week she had very SPECIFICALLY decided that she didn't want to tell anyone about her cancer yet. And what had he just done?

He groaned . . . told his brother about her cancer.

Hopefully she wouldn't be too upset though. After all, at least he hadn't told HER family that she was sick. Now that . . . he bit his lip as he flashed back on their conversation over the weekend . . . that would have been very bad.

Because Emily didn't want her parents to know that she was sick.

And her feelings went WELL beyond the understandable reluctance to share bad news with loved ones. No, she was adamant . . . in that 'this topic was not up for discussion,' adamant . . . about keeping all of this from them.

Indefinitely.

Of course regardless of her current feelings on this issue, Hotch knew that eventually she was going to have to tell them. This was much too serious a situation to hide. Best case, there were a good five or six months of treatment and recovery ahead of her. And even though her prognosis was good . . . it was still cancer. As much as it pained him to think about, a good prognosis didn't mean that things couldn't still go wrong.

That she still couldn't die.

And if something . . . his chest started to hurt . . . God forbid did go horribly wrong, her parents would be completely blindsided. And that would be an avoidable cruelty if they just were told what was happening.

Also though, as a parent himself, Hotch had a different perspective on this situation than Emily did. And he knew without a doubt, that in their position, he'd want to know that his child was sick. In fact, he would probably be furious if that news was kept from him.

But . . . he sighed . . . one thing at a time.

He'd decided it was best to drop the parents' discussion for the moment. They were still very early days now, so he saw no reason to push it yet. Emily just needed some time to adjust before he broached the topic again.

After a couple weeks of treatment, hopefully she'd be more amenable.

But as he finally turned and started down the stairs, Hotch was trying to remember if they'd had any specific discussion which would have prohibited him mentioning her cancer to his family as well. As he thought back, he was fairly sure that Sean had not been mentioned by name. Though he was also fairly sure that his brother's inclusion had been implied in the, "keep this to ourselves," mandate.

After all, if she'd wanted to tell Sean, then she probably would have mentioned that when they were discussing when to tell him they were living together.

Oh well . . . he stepped off the last riser, giving his beloved a soft smile as she turned to look at him . . . 'tis the season for forgiveness!

"Honey," Emily's nose wrinkled as she held one of the Christmas cards out towards him, "who is this person?"

Despite his concerns about her reaction to his news, Hotch couldn't help his lips from twitching slightly in amusement when he saw the clear disdain on her face.

"Well," he crossed over to the couch, "without even looking, I'm going to guess from your expression, that's the card from my cousin Mary Anne."

There had only been one card in his batch of mail that had put that same look on his face. His cousin was a bit of a hippie, and every year she seemed to be topping herself in out and out flakiness. This year she'd done a family photo Christmas card. Unfortunately the word "tasteful" had apparently not been one of the mandates when they were having the discussion with the photographer.

Her entire family was dressed in nothing but fig leaves.

Hotch wasn't quite sure how Adam and Eve played into Mary Anne's telling of the birth of Christ, but regardless of her reasoning, the picture of two adults and two adolescent boys standing there in nothing but foliage, was VERY disturbing.

Emily looked down at the card again and then back up to Hotch.

"These people are related to you?" She asked with disbelief.

Dear God . . . she scooted over slightly so Hotch could sit down . . . if this behavior was indicative of a previously unknown genetic defect in his family tree, then she might have to consider adoption after all!

"Yes," Hotch dropped down on the couch next to Emily "Mary Anne is my father's, sister's, daughter. And that," he pointed at the card, "is her husband, Keith, and those are her boys, Brendan and Cody." He paused for a second before adding the obvious.

"The family's a bit eccentric."

"Ya think?" Emily shot back sarcastically as she dropped the card back into the pile on the table. Then she realized that her words came out much bitchier than she'd intended.

These people were . . . as hard as it was to believe . . . Hotch's family. And even if they were total weirdos, she shouldn't make fun of them.

That was just rude.

So she turned to her man with an apologetic pout. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so um, well," she patted his knee, "I was rude. And I do apologize."

Hotch's eyes crinkled as he laced his fingers through hers.

"It's okay. They are admittedly very different than, well," he rolled his eyes, "anyone else we know, but Mary Ann is a nice person, she's just a bit flaky. They moved out to California five or six years ago and she got into crystals and psychics and auras and all that metaphysical . . . stuff," he sighed, "I know that she sounds strange, but she's got a good heart."

In fact, Mary Ann had been a corporate attorney until her oldest son had been diagnosed with leukemia at the age of eleven. She'd quit her job to take care of him, but the cancer had been too aggressive, and he'd died less than a year later. It was after that loss that she'd started getting into all of the mumbo jumbo that seemed to offer her so much comfort now.

Feeling a punch in his chest, Hotch's fingers tightened around Emily's . . . of course you never can tell what grief will do to you. Losing someone you love can destroy your whole sense of self. And someday he'd tell Emily the rest of Mary Ann's story, why she was the way she was.

But not today.

Not only was it depressing on its face . . . and cancer related . . . but he knew that Emily already felt badly about what she'd said, and he didn't want her to feel any worse.

Emily tipped her head onto Hotch's shoulder as she looked down at the card again.

"Do you ever see her?"

She was trying to picture this person . . . in her fig leaves . . . having dinner in Hotch's home.

"No," Hotch shook his head, "like I said, she's in California and they don't get back here much anymore. I don't think I've actually seen her since . . . well, it's been awhile."

Christ, he'd almost said the funeral!

"Hmmm," Emily murmured back noncommittally. She didn't want to say, "good," as that would again be categorized as a rude response, but she couldn't deny that she was relieved that these people wouldn't be coming to visit anytime soon.

If those fig leaves were their regular choice of outfit, she'd have to put plastic on the furniture.

Hotch stared down at Emily's fingers intertwined with his . . . and then he began talking about the other thing.

Best to just rip the band aid off.

"I just did something that you probably aren't going to be too happy about," he took a breath, "but I did have my reasons. So if you could please try and hold off on being angry until I'm done talking, it would be appreciated."

Emily's brow wrinkled in confusion as she lifted up her head and turned to look over at Hotch in profile.

"What did you do?"

Hotch's gaze remained fixed on their fingers as he responded softly.

"I told Sean about the tumor."

Seeing Emily's knuckles start to clench up Hotch finally lifted his head and turned to look at over at her face.

Oh yeah . . . he bit the inside of his cheek . . . she was pissed.

"Why," Emily hissed, "would you DO something like that after I specifically told you that I didn't want ANYONE to know?!"

Then she yanked her hand out of his and jumped up off the couch.

What the FUCK?!

Even though Hotch's instinctive reaction was to respond defensively to her accusatory tone, he bit down on his own temper as he stood up to face her.

"I had to," he continued on in the same quiet timbre as he tentatively reached over to take her fingers again.

But she still clearly wanted no contact with him, because she just yanked her hand away and took another step back.

"Why did you have to mention it at all, Aaron?" Emily asked through gritted teeth. "How exactly, did it come up?! Did Sean just RANDOMLY in conversation happen to ask if either one of us were recently diagnosed with a MALIGNANT BRAIN TUMOR?!"

Hotch flinched at the pitch she reached at the end . . . now they'd reached the yelling stage. Again, his instinct was to respond defensively to her offense. So he closed his eyes for a moment and counted to ten. When he opened them again, he looked into her eyes and reminded himself what was feeding her anger.

Fear.

Fear that if they started telling people, then those people would start treating her differently. Treating her like she was sick.

Treating her like she might die.

"Sweetheart, please, listen," he pleaded while taking a step towards her, "he called to invite us to New York for a New Year's Eve party, and he just wasn't taking no for an answer. It's a federal holiday and he already knew that we weren't on call next week, so I had no good reason to decline an offer that we both know you'd love to accept."

Seeing her jaw slowly begin to relax, Hotch again tried to take her hand . . . this time she let him.

"And I know that this is your situation, Emily," he took a breath before he said sadly, "but it's my situation too. And he's my brother, and I just couldn't lie to him about something so important," he tugged her closer, "okay?"

Emily bit her lip as she stared down at the floor for a moment . . . all of the anger was draining out of her. Once it was gone, she slowly dragged her eyes back up to Hotch's.

"Okay," she said softly before she let out on a sigh, "and I'm sorry for yelling at you." Her fingers came up to brush along his jaw, "you're right, he's your brother, and the decision to tell him was yours to make. I should have let you explain first before I reacted."

Her cancer wasn't just her cancer, because her condition affected both of them. And it wasn't fair of her to ask Hotch to keep her secret, from his brother.

That was his relationship and she had no right to place a wedge between the two of them.

"It's okay, sweetheart," Hotch pulled her into a hug as he murmured against her hair, "I know why you got upset, and I hope you know that I wouldn't have told him if I hadn't been boxed into a corner."

"I know," Emily whispered back on a sigh, "I know."

"Good," he kissed the top of her head as he rubbed her hand down her back, "then we're okay?"

"Of course," her eyes crinkled as she tipped her head back to look up at him, "it's going to be cold tonight, and you're my own personal furnace. If you're going to sleep on the couch, who's going to keep me warm in bed?"

His lips twitched.

"How is it that in all of these theoretical scenarios, that regardless of my status as the injured party, I'm always the one that's expected to sleep on the couch?"

"We've already been over this, Aaron," she leaned up to smack a happy kiss on his lips, "you're too much of a gentleman to kick me out of bed."

Hotch huffed down at Emily in amusement before he tucked her back against his chest again.

She knew him too well.

Fortunately, the fictional 'couch sleeping scenario' continued to remain fictional. And neither of them were the type to go to bed angry . . . especially given her current condition . . . so it was unlikely that he'd ever have to drag his blanket and pillow downstairs anyway.

But then suddenly remembering that he'd forgotten to share the good part of his conversion with Sean, Hotch patted her back.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, I have good news too."

Emily tipped her head back to give him a little smile.

"What's that?"

"Well," his eyes crinkled slightly, "because we can't travel, Sean's going to come down and see us instead. He'll be here for New Year's, and I told him that he could stay at my apartment." Hotch's eyebrow went up as he looked down at her, "sound good?"

Emily's face lit up.

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Then she looped her arms around Hotch's neck and continued on, "so we've got a pretty busy week, huh? The party tomorrow night with JJ and Will, Jack and Santa coming Thursday night, Christmas Thursday day, radiation on Monday, and then Sean coming next," her eyebrow went up, "Wednesday?"

Even though she was terrified to start the radiation treatment, part of her wished that it had begun already. Right now it was something that she was dreading, and she was really hoping that dread wasn't going to put a damper on the rest of her Christmas plans this week. Of course she was also hoping that her headaches wouldn't completely RUIN her Christmas plans either!

The last few days, her symptoms had been fairly low key. A couple of dizzy spells, and a few minor headaches that she'd been able to control with Extra Strength Tylenol. But she knew that soon enough, things were going to start taking a turn. That not long from now Tylenol would stop being a magic bullet, and she was going to have to break out the hard stuff.

She just wanted to get through this one week though . . . get her 'Best Christmas Ever with her Best Guy Ever' under her belt . . . and then she'd accept whatever came after.

Hotch nodded, "yep, Wednesday." Then he bit his lip, "sweetheart, are you sure that you still want to go to this party tomorrow night?" His brow wrinkled in concern, "after a full day at work, that's going to be a lot of hours on your feet."

This was the Women in Law Enforcement party that she'd asked him to take her to last month when they were in Atlanta. And he knew that she'd been looking forward to it, but he was just worried that she was trying to do too much. Just cram too much living into these few days before her treatment started, and the exhaustion and the other side effects would begin to take their toll on her.

Hearing the note of concern in Hotch's voice, Emily gave him a soft smile.

"I'm sure. I know it's going to be a long day, but I really do want to go. I want to see JJ, and I want to eat cheese puffs, and shrimp cocktail, and dance with my guy," a hint of sadness touched her smile, "I just want everything to be normal. And I promise that if I start to get tired that I'll tell you. I just want to go for a little while," she touched his cheek, "okay?"

"Okay," his eyes crinkled slightly, "if you're sure." Then his gaze shifted over to check the time on the cable box, "but if we are going to the party, then maybe we should go to bed a little early tonight."

The only way she was going to be able to do everything she wanted to do this week, was if she got enough rest.

Emily's eyes also snapped over to the clock before she nodded, "yeah." She looked back at him, "you're probably right," and then she gave him a little grin, "but could you maybe run me a bath while I make some cocoa?"

Hotch smiled as he started walking her towards the stairs, "of course, sweetheart. But why don't you just go lie down for a bit. I'll run your bath and bring your cocoa up when it's ready."

Even though it was barely nine thirty, Hotch could the little shadows under her eyes . . . she was tired. And as she looked up at him he could see that she was debating whether or not she wanted to admit to that fact. Finally she nodded.

"Okay," she gave him a little smile, "thanks, honey."

When this was all over, she was going to owe him about two years of being waited on hand and foot.

"Good," his eyes crinkled as he scooped her up into his arms, "then let's get a move on."

She started to laugh.

"Aaron," Emily giggled as he started carrying her up the stairs, "I'm not THAT tired!" And she saw him wink at her.

"The bath/cocoa resort plan comes with couch to bed service," they stepped onto the landing and he paused to look down at her with a soft smile. She thought he was going to say something sweet and romantic but instead she heard, "how about tomorrow night we try it piggy back style?"

Her lips twitched before she let out a snort.

"Sure."

A/N 2: Hotch's brother didn't exist in the original version of the story, but now that they have a good relationship with him going from Girl, it was only logical that there be some inclusion of his reaction to the news, and his role in their life, during this time. Ditto for JJ and Will. As she'd still be on maternity leave, and Emily will be going out on medical leave within the month, it was also logical that there would be bonding there with them both out of the office. And I had written the Women in Law Enforcement holiday party with JJ and Will in attendance as a chapter for Girl, but I never did find a good place to put it there. Which is fortunate because minimal tweaking was required to make it work for this next phase of their lives.

FYI, JJ and Will, and their respective relationships with them, play a key part in their lives during Emily's sickness.

And that fig leaf Christmas card was not simply a product of my imagination. You can actually see that on Awkward Family Photos . com. It's really just very wrong :(