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“You should go home,” Rossi advised. He had agreed with Morgan that he would stay to see Aaron and Emily back to the BAU safely. They all knew that Foyet was going to strike and strike soon and they wanted to be ready. However the fact remained that they had been working nonstop for the past two days without an hour of sleep between them,
“I can’t, not yet.” Emily replied as she pointedly poured herself another cup of coffee and looked at Rossi, challenging him to send her home. “You know he won’t go home either.”
“I can stay with him,” Rossi offered and Emily shook her head. Although Aaron had barely spoken a word since they had left the prison, Arnold’s hysterical, mocking laughter echoing in their ears, Emily knew that he wanted her to stay with him. That he couldn’t handle facing or working with another member of the team. Not tonight. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Emily said softly as she glanced back up towards Aaron’s office. He was hunched over his desk, attempting to reexamine and reread the files he had long since memorised; trying to find the slightest, merest breadcrumb that could help them catch Foyet before anyone else was hurt. The metaphorical clock had started counting down to its inevitable conclusion; the only problem was that they had absolutely no idea how much time they had.
Rossi looked at her with paternal concern before he reluctantly nodded. “You’re both as stubborn as each other. Someday, he’ll realise how lucky he is to have you.”
“Maybe,” Emily dismissed as she swallowed back a yawn. Right now, they didn’t have time to sleep. There was so much that needed to be done before that could happen. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Take care of yourselves,” Rossi said as he hugged her tightly. Emily hugged him back before she returned up to Aaron’s office. Aaron looked up at Emily as she entered and shut the door behind her. He quickly wiped his eyes and cleared his throat as Emily took a seat on the couch and picked up one of the files and a pen.
“What did Rossi want?” Aaron asked, his voice thicker than usual. Emily wisely ignored both the thickness of his voice and the wetness of his eyes and considered her answer.
“He was just checking in,” Emily replied as she sipped her coffee. She had made it stronger than usual, hoping the stronger, more bitter taste would help keep her awake for a while longer. “He wanted us to go home but apparently we’re too stubborn.”
“Maybe we are,” Aaron said quietly. At least he was. Was it not his stubbornness that had caused all of this in the first place? His refusal to take the deal, his insistence to always have to be right; but could he really have done anything different? Would he have been able to live with himself if he had accepted the deal? Was all of this worth the cost of his stubborn nature?
“That’s not a bad thing. It means that we’re strong enough to stand by our decisions, whatever the outcome.” Emily stated wisely. Aaron looked at her wide-eyed; although he and Emily had become closer friends over the past few months, he still was taken aback whenever she seemed to read him like a book. It was like she had a window into his head and he appreciated that there was so much that he didn’t need to say to Emily. Simply because she already knew what he wanted to say.
“Now come on,” Emily said encouragingly. “We’ve got work to do.”
Early the next morning, Rossi walked into the bullpen before the others could arrive. He wasn’t surprised and had expected to see a light still on in Aaron’s office. Rossi sighed and headed up to Aaron’s office. He didn’t normally indulge his parental instincts but if the two of them had stayed up the entire night working, he was grounding them. They would go home and sleep and not work for two full days. Rossi pushed open the door and sighed fondly at the sight before him.
Emily lay curled up on the couch, fast asleep. One hand trailed down towards the floor. Aaron was lying on the floor, having clearly fallen asleep sitting up against the couch. Emily’s hand dangled just above his head, the tips of her fingers nestled into his hair as both continued to sleep soundly. Rossi silently turned down the blinds, flicked off the light and eased the door shut. It would be a while before the others started to arrive and something told him that whatever came next, the two of them would need all the sleep they could get.
“Such a shame,” Rossi muttered to himself as he headed to his own office, his mind drifting back to the two sleeping agents in the office next door. It was a shame that they clearly cared for one another deeply but were unable to either admit it or do anything about it, not to mention, now was the worst possible time for either of them to realise just how deeply they felt for each other. If only things were different...