When Emily woke up the next morning, with a pounding headache and an empty bed. She knew that she shouldn't have gotten drunk last night but it started with 1 drink and before she knew it, she was a few hours into drinking. Although she was missing her daughter, Emily was grateful that Marissa dropped Natalia off at Elizabeth's house for the night. She did not want to have that conversation of having to explain to her daughter that she was drunk.

Eventually getting out of bed and looking around her bedroom, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and felt disappointment and shame. She slept with someone last night and brought someone into her home, into her daughter's home. Home was supposed to be a safe place and Emily felt the opposite.

"Oh Emily, what did you do now?" She said to herself walking into the bathroom and starting the shower. While standing there, with warm water flowing down her back, it bothered her. She's been drunk before but never to the point where she can't remember the night before.

After she got out of the shower, she groaned when she saw the mess on her bedroom floor. Clothes, mainly her's, were scattered everywhere. She stepped over a pile of clothes and picked out a tank top and leggings out of the dresser.

After getting dressed, She slowly started picking up some of the clothes that were still on the floor. One of the pieces of clothing that she had picked up, was a black blazer jacket. She knew it wasnt hers, it was too big to be hers. It had to be mystery man's coat. She then started to look through pockets to see if there was any kind of clue of identification. Luckily or actually not luckily enough, she pulled a badge out of the pocket. She gasped when she saw the name. She knew that she had made a mistake and a big one at that.

"Oh my god" She sat on her bed and threw her hand on her forehead. She started to feel sick and ran to the bathroom. After vomiting whatever she had left in her system, she sat back and sat on the floor near the toilet. She sat there lost in her own thoughts.

"How can I be so stupid?" she asked herself.

When her stomach seemed to have settled, she stood up and headed back into the bedroom. She placed the blazer on her bed and picked up what was left on the floor. After a while, Emily slowly but eventually pulled her sheets and blanket off of her bed. She didn't want any remembrance of the night before. The idea of the remanence still in her bed, made her nauseous. Going downstairs and throwing the sheets and blankets in the washer, Emily laid the blazer on the couch. She had no idea how she was going to approach this with him. A kiss is one thing but this is different. They were together for one night and it would be one night he got home, he went to take off his blazer when he had realized that he had left his coat with his badge on the floor in her apartment. He knew that she was going to find it eventually but now was just a cruel game of waiting.

He had no idea that she had already figured it out.

Emily had figured out that they both knew. She assumed that he must have seen her when he woke and decided to leave in a hurry. The more she thought about it, the more angrier she became. How could he have just left her like that? Naked and alone, knowing that she was going to wake up confused. "Idiot." She thought. She wanted to yell at him.

Knowing that she had to say something to him eventually made her want to punch a hole through the wall. She didn't want to talk to him, but she knew that she had too. Looking at the clock, she realized that her daughter would be home in a few hours and if she didn't talk to him now, there would never be another chance. She took a deep breath and grabbed her phone off the table and opened her conversation with him.

"We need to talk." she texted him

His heart raced when he heard his phone go off. He knew that it had to be her so early in the morning. He was Torn, did he want to have this conversation now? Or did he want to ignore the text and act like he didn't receive it in the first place? After some time, he chose that he had to be a man and take care of the situation. If roles were switched, he would want to know as well.

"Yes, I agree. Can we meet or something in an hour? I just need to take a shower and ask Jessica if she can keep jack for a few more hours." he replied

"Sure" She said

He knew that he was in for quite the conversation but he knew it had to be done
On the same note, Emily called her mother and confirmed what time she was bringing Natalia home.

"Emily honey, I'll bring her home around 2. Is that okay?"

"Yes, thanks Mother. I just have some things to take care of and I don't want her to be here when I do."

"Is everything okay Em?"

"Yeah. Just some work things that's all."

"Okay honey. If you insist. "

"Thanks Mom."

After hanging up, Emily looked at the clock and it was 730. She walked over to the couch and laid down. With her head still pounding, she took in the silence and closed her eyes. Emily had fallen asleep and didn't hear the message from Hotch to let her know that he was on his way to her house.

When he arrived, he still hadn't heard from her yet. He walked up to her door and knocked a few times but no answer. He knocked one more time and still no answer. He called her again and was able to hear her cell phone ring through the door. Panic started to creep in on him and he started to become worried. He grabbed the key from where he had left it and unlocked the door.

When he walked in, he noticed that she was laying on the couch, as he walked closer, he noticed that she was sleeping. He had no idea how much of a deep sleeper she was but she must of been exhausted if she hadn't heard her phone ring when he called her. He started to whisper her name and gently shake her awake. He felt bad having to wake her up but this talk was going to happen now or it was never going to happen. He stopped when he noticed her eyes starting to flutter open. It took a minute for her to realize who was standing in front of her. She sat up confused.

"How did you get in?" She asked rubbing her eyes

"I grabbed the spare key and unlocked the door"

"Im going to need to find a new hiding spot " She said with a small laugh

"There's not much room out there, I don't know how you're going to find a new hiding place em"

Emily sat up in the couch, Aaron took the spot sitting next to her.

"Listen Aaron, we need talk about what t happened last night. "

"You found my jacket?"

"Yeah, if I hadn't found that, I wouldn't have known who was with me last night. I remember bits and pieces from the bar but I don't remember everything"

"Emily we don't have to talk about,"

"Yes we do Aaron, we have to talk about this. " She said frustratedly

"Emily you don't have to take that tone with me, We made a mistake." he said as stood up in front of her

"You're lucky that I'm only giving you this tone, I want to yell at you but my head is already screaming at me, so i don't think yelling is good idea"

"Yelling? It's not just my fault. we made this choice together. "

"No I understand that, I'm not angry about that, you left this morning before I woke up."

"So your mad at me for leaving you?"

"Yes, do you know how humiliating it is to wake up completely naked and knowing that you had sex but not sure with who? No you don't. You woke up and realized that it was me and left. "

"I'm sorry Emily but I panicked. "

"So you panicked and left? That's your reason?"

"Yes? What did you want me to do? Wait for you to wake up and then say, Hey I know that you just woke up but we slept together last night and I'm going to go home."

"That's now what I'm saying Aaron."

"How are you getting mad at me for leaving in the early hours of the morning, when I could ask you same thing about you." He said raising his voice

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't act like you don't remember Emily. "

"Oh come on Aaron, I'm not in the mood to play any games. "

"That night that we met at your mothers house, I came back the next day and i found out from your mother that you had left. You didn't even say goodbye."

"Aaron that was like 13 years ago. "

"So what Emily. That still hurt my feelings. But you didn't care now did you?"

"Didn't care? "

"Yes, if you actually cared, you wouldn't have left they way you did,"

"I did, I tried Aaron! " Now she was yelling as she stood up from the couch to face him

"What?"

"That night after you left, my mother cornered me and basically told me to stay away from you. You were the help and you weren't at her highest of expectations. I got angry with her, she couldn't keep controlling my life. I actually liked you and even considered to stay after we had met but even before we met, I was already planning on leaving"

"But..."

"I'm not finished." she hissed "After i slammed the door on my mother, I waited and made sure that she wasn't awake. I went into her office and found your information. I wanted to say goodbye Aaron. When I got to your house, I rang the doorbell and you weren't home. I even called but that went straight to voicemail. As I was leaving, I got caught up with your neighbor Steve and he told me that you had left and he didn't know when you were going to be back. So don't even say that I didn't try Aaron, because I did. You were the one who wasn't there." She said with a tear finally escaping her eye

"Emily I.."

"I couldn't stop thinking about you for days. I wanted to hear your voice and hear your laugh. It's crazy because we had only really met that day. I tried Aaron and I can't sit here and let you throw that in my face. " She said as she sat back down on the couch and put hands on the head and her elbows on her knees

"Emily I'm sorry, I had no idea and to be honest, I'm surprised Steve didnt say anything to me."

"I told him not too."

"What! Why?" He griped

"You not being there was a sign to me. A sign that it wasnt supposed to be. I used to believe in signs back then and it was a red flag to me. Plus you were working for my mother, that probably wouldn't have ended great either. "

"You were that number that called me around 2AM. I didn't answer because I thought someone had the wrong number. "

"Yeah that was me. Look Aaron, I'm sorry. But I can't change things of the past and what happened, happened and we can't go back in time. But now we have something else to deal with. We have to deal with the fact that we slept together last night. We have to talk about what the means for us."

"Emily I just found out that what I thought was a lie for the last 13 years and how are you so quick to push it aside?"

"Because Aaron, Like i just said. What happened, happened and I can't change that. But now we have an even bigger problem to deal with. I can't be strung up on the past meanwhile having turmoil in the present. "

He gave her a look and lowered his voice. "I just keep thinking how are lives could have been different if I would have been home."

"To be honest, I wondered that as well and then I met Levi and my whole world changed. I still wondered about you from time to time but I knew you had to have met someone. I mean how could you not." she sat back down on the couch

"Sorry, I just need a moment to absorb all of this information. I was always so angry with you. I mean I actually liked you and when I came back the next day to ask you out, I heard your mother saying that you had left in the middle of the night and you might not be coming back. I was so hurt. But now I know the truth, it just makes everything feel like a lie. " he the sat next to her on the couch

"I always wondered what you thought when I left. I always wondered if you were mad or sad or even if you didn't care. At the time I didn't know you very well, so I didn't know how you'd react."

"Yeah I was pretty hurt, but then Hailey came back into my life and then we eventually had Jack. I always knew you were somewhere out there, but I just didn't know if id ever see you again. "

Aaron the found himself starring at Emily. He could see her mind working in her face. Deciding what she wanted to say and how her face changed when she didn't want to say something. He knew that her head was pounding from the hangover but also going through a million different memories in her head.

She then placed her head into the palm of her hands with her elbows pressing into the top of her thigh. She then finally spoke.

"You know after Natalia was born, I always imagined what life would be like if Levi had survived and if he was there to help me. Before Natalia was born, I used to cry because I was scared of the idea of doing it alone. I sometimes imagined what life would have been like if I had never met him and stayed with you instead. But I was reminded that I wouldn't have Natalia. Now that I have her, I don't know or wouldn't want to know life without her. You know its crazy, we talked for a few hours and I saw you once in a while around my mother's house but I imagined you in my life so much."

"You and I have had almost the same scenarios in life but just in different parts of the world. "

"I know I've caught on," she said slightly laughing.

"But Emily last night, I."

"Aaron, look, what happened last night, happened. I know I asked you to come over here so when can talk about it but now I'm realizing there's not much to talk about. I mean its not going to change anything, "

"I know but Emily. People are going to find out. People always find out."

"How are people going to find out Aaron? It's not like you or I are going to be blabbing about it at the office. Nothing is going to change between us. "

"Emily things have already changed. Are you saying that we should act like nothing happened?"

"I think that's the only option we have Aaron. "

Aaron stayed silent, he glanced at Emily and looked back down to the floor. Some part of him knew that what she was saying was true and the other part of him wanted something more. This is the same woman, that he always wished he had gotten to know more. The woman that captured him the moment they met. She had been with the team a year now and she has captured him the same way that she had captured him before. He knew that he wouldn't tell her how he felt, he didnt know where she stood on that spectrum. A million thoughts had crossed his mind and ultimately, he knew that choice that he had to make.

"Emily, fine, we can act like this never happened. I agree. The dynamic of the team wont change. Nobody will know. "

"I hate this as much as you do Aaron. I hate lying to the team but I feel that this is something that we have to do."

"I agree and also Emily. I do have to ask you. I'm unsure or quite frankly, i can't remember if we used protection last night, so..."

"I'm on the pill. I already thought of that before you arrived. We're covered. " Emily said with a half smile on her face.

Aaron shook his head in a nodding way and stood up. He saw his blazer on the chair in the corner. He headed over and grabbed it. He was getting ready to leave when he looked back at Emily .

"I know we just talked but I feel like we talked about everything and nothing at all at the same time."

"Ironically, i feel the same way. We both know what needs to happen and this is what our life is now and if people find out eventually then we will bite that bullet then. I doubt anyone would find out. This is something that happened between you and I. Nobody needs to know that besides us. "

"I agree." He said

"Leaving?"

"Yeah I better get going, I need to get home to Jack and I know that Natalia is going to be home soon and with our jobs, I know that every minute that we get with our children is..."

"I understand" Emily stood up and followed him to the door.

"I'll see you in the office, Emily."

"Yes, I'll see you at the office. " she gave his a slight smile.

After she locked the front door, she went back over to the couch and sat in the same spot she was before. She then slowly laid on her side and grabbed the blanket off the arm of the couch. She thought about how the first few days were going to be awkward but hoped that everything would go back to normal.

Little did the both of them know, their life was going to change in a very big way.