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Dave feels the explosion from two streets away. It vibrates through his entire body, and briefly stops him in his tracks.
Shit.
He looks to JJ who is standing next to him and they wordlessly run towards the scene where the rest of the team were. They turn the corner and are immediately met by Derek, his face as concerned as theirs.
“Morgan, what the hell happened?” He breathes out, looking out for the rest of the team. He sees Spencer rushing towards them. Aaron and Emily were nowhere to be seen. He looks towards the building where the explosion had clearly come from, part of the roof blown off and the fire that was coming out of it.
“The bastard blew himself up.” He seethes. “Hotch and Prentiss were close, Detective Brockner too.”
“Oh my god.” JJ exclaims, covering her mouth. “Are they ok?”
“The EMTs are with them.” Spencer says, nodding over in the direction of the explosion. “They’ll both need to go to the hospital to be checked out.”
“We need to secure the scene, help the cops get it sorted.” Derek says, falling into the place of their leader whilst he was hurt. “Rossi, you go to the hospital with Hotch and Emily when they are ready to go, keep us up to date on them.”
“Wait, why did I get that job?” Dave asks. “I’d rather be on clean up here.”
“I was on hospital duty last time.” Derek says shrugging his shoulders, a gleam to his eyes that Dave hated.
“That was Reid.” He says pointing at Spencer. “All he wants is jello.” He ignores Spencer’s protest as he continues. “You know as well as I do how much of a pain in the ass those two are going to be with both of them being hurt.”
They stare at each other for a moment, both silently arguing as JJ and Spencer stand there watching.
“Rock, paper, scissors for it?” Derek finally says, his fist out in front of him. Dave nods his agreement, instantly losing with his scissors to Derek’s rock.
“Best of three?”
“Not on your life, Rossi.”
Dave curses in Italian as he watches Emily get led to an ambulance, already asking questions about how Aaron was doing.
He was just grateful they were in DC, and he didn’t have a long flight ahead of him too.
_____________
He’s in the waiting room for an hour before someone comes with an update about Emily, saying she is awake and insisting that he went to see her.
As soon as he enters the room she is being treated in Emily bolts up in bed, too fast for her pounding head if her poorly disguised wince was anything to go by. She is holding an ice pack to her own forehead. Dave can see a bruise also blooming on her face, her cheekbone potentially fractured from where her head had hit the ground hard.
“Is he ok?” She asks immediately. “What about his hearing? His ears already aren’t great since New York-”
“Emily.” Dave says calmly, interrupting her before she can reel off more questions at him, her demand that he goes to check on Aaron clearly on the tip of her tongue. “You were much closer to the blast than he was. His ears will be fine.”
The look on her face tells him that he hasn’t placated her, at all.
“Can you go check on him? Please? Make sure they know about his ears. He won’t have told them.”
He sighs and nods, leaving the room in search of someone who could lead him to Aaron’s room. He eventually finds it, walking in to find his friend being settled into a bed clearly against his will.
“Dave. Where’s Emily? Is she ok?”
“She’s ok. She’s getting looked over. She sent me here to check on you.”
“I’m fine.” He says, a little too quickly for Dave’s liking. He looks to the doctor in the room, her coat introducing her as Doctor Helm, his eyebrow raised.
“He will be fine. Several cracked ribs from how hard he hit the floor, a little bit of smoke inhalation and a concussion. We’re keeping him overnight just to make sure but he should be discharged first thing.”
“See, I’m fine.” Aaron says. “Now please check on Emily.”
“Your fiancee is my next patient to look in on Agent Hotchner.” Doctor Helm says, an amused smile on her face. “I’ll take good care of her I promise.”
Dave finds himself walking between their two rooms repeatedly over the next several hours, both of them insistent they were fine with instructions on how to look after the other.
“Pain meds make her nauseous - make sure she has apple juice. It helps settle her stomach.”
“He’ll refuse to wear the compression socks, he hates wearing socks in bed, so you’ll have to make sure he does.”
The Fitbit that JJ bought him as a joke the previous Christmas beeps and tells him he’s hit his step count for the day. Dave briefly considers pulling Doctor Helm aside, and asking who he had to speak to to donate a large amount of money to the hospital. The only caveat being that Aaron and Emily were put in the same room.
He walks back to Aaron’s room for the final time, knowing the news he had to deliver about Emily’s scan results wouldn’t go down well.
“Emily has to stay overnight.” He says hesitantly. “She has some minor internal bleeding and they are going to monitor it, see if it stops by itself.”
Dave braces himself for the outburst, for Aaron’s concern for his fiancé to come out as anger. What he isn’t ready for is how his friend attempts to stand up, clearly forgetting the IVs he is attached to himself. A nurse manhandles him back into the bed.
“Are they always like this?” Doctor Helm asks Dave as he walks back into the room, her eyebrow raised at him as he pinches the bridge of his nose.
“You have no idea.”
He thinks about asking them to knock Aaron out. He has a $100 bill he could slip into the doctor's hand with little fanfare. His wallet is already in his hands when he realises he’s have to tell Emily, and that she would probably be more of a pain in the ass if she knew Aaron was unconscious
When they are alone, the doctor leaving them with an amused smile on her face, Dave looks at his friend.
“She’ll be fine, Aaron. She’s had worse.”
“Can you stay with her?” Aaron asks, his voice serious enough that it stops Dave from being sarcastic. “She hates hospitals. She’d never admit it but since she was in Bethesda she finds them...difficult.”
Dave hears what Aaron hasn’t said. That this could cause Emily nightmares, triggering memories of when everyone she loved thought she was dead, and part of her wished she was.
“Of course.” He says, nodding at Aaron. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
_____________
The sound of the door clicking shut wakes her up. The first thing Emily is aware of as she wakes is the pain in her abdomen and head. She groans as she blinks her eyes open, the harsh fluorescent lighting of her hospital room making her head pound a little harder. She looks around the room and she’s surprised to see Dave in the chair near her bed, fast asleep and snoring.
“Dave?” She says, trying to wake him. She gives it a few seconds before she tries again, her voice louder. “Dave.”
He doesn’t stir and Emily grumbles in frustration, looking around before her eyes land on a cardboard container on the nightstand, something she knew had been placed there by the nurses in case she got sick in the night, the pain medication in her system making her feel constantly nauseous.
She picks up the unused container and throws it at him, her aim impeccable as it hits his shoulder. He startles awake, the snore that was half way out coming out as a snort instead. He looks at her, affronted by his rude awakening.
“It should be illegal to snore that loudly in a patient's room.” She says. “What are you doing here anyway?”
“Your fiancé insisted that I stayed with you.” He explains, sounding exhausted as he sits up properly, straightening out in the chair he had been slumped over in. “There was a not so subtle comment about more paperwork than any one man could handle if I left you by yourself.”
“Is he ok?”
Dave just about manages to stop himself from rolling his eyes. His feet were still sore from all the back and forth he had done between their rooms the day before.
“He’s fine, Emily.”
Any retort she has is interrupted by the door to her room opening, a doctor who looked far too young to work at the hospital walks in, a smile on his face that Dave found irritating on his limited sleep.
“Agent Prentiss, I’m Doctor King, how are you feeling this morning?”
“Fine. Sore. Keen to get out of here.” She replies, throwing Dave a glare when he laughs.
“Someone will come take you to the radiology department this morning. If everything looks good you will be able to go home this afternoon.”
“Great.” She says, feeling genuine relief. All she wanted was to see Aaron, to lay in bed next to him instead of in this uncomfortable hospital bed without him. “Can you tell me how Agent Hotchner is doing?”
“Oh I can’t give information about other patients.” Doctor King replies, a slight nervousness to his voice that immediately sets Emily on edge.
“He’s my fiance.” Emily says, sitting up slightly. “I’m his next of kin.”
“Oh.” He replies, swallowing as he looks between her and Dave. “And no one has come to speak to you?”
“No.” She says, panic spreading through her body like ice. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry but Agent Hotchner died a couple of hours ago.”
Emily feels everything slow down around her, the air stolen from her lungs as she tries and fails to breathe.
“What?” She chokes out, looking over to Dave who looks just as confused as her. “Dave.” Her voice catches in her throat. The rest of her question goes unasked, and he’s out of his chair in seconds, prepared to go check on Aaron himself. Knowing Emily won’t believe it until he does.
“I’m on it, Bella.”
He walks the relatively short distance between their rooms, the walk that he had made countless times the day before. The frustration he had felt at both of them yesterday was nowhere to be found, wanting nothing more than to walk into the room to find Aaron there, frowning at him for leaving Emily on her own.
The room is empty, with no sign of his friend in there at all. The bed Aaron had been laying in when he had seen him only a few hours before was empty. Stripped of bedding with mattress clearly recently wiped down. The room is ready for the next patient, whoever is unlucky enough to need it.
Dave feels the world close in around him, panic stealing his breath as he wonders what the hell happened. What had caused his friend, who had been fine only hours ago, only kept in the hospital as a precaution more than anything, to decline so rapidly so fast. Dave takes a steadying breath and leans against the doorframe of the room for a moment so he could centre himself. Knowing that, for now, he had no room for his reaction to the loss of his friend.
He had to go tell Emily.
_____________
She knows the second Dave re-enters her room that it’s bad news, the continued mumbled apologies from the doctor sounding like white noise. His eyes downcast, hands shoved in his pockets as he clears his throat as he approaches her bed.
“Emily-”
“No.” She sobs out. “No.” She throws the blankets off her lap, swings her legs out of the bed so she can stand, the pain that had been coursing through her suddenly gone. Her body going numb.
“Emily.” Dave repeats, his own voice wavering as he steps towards her, steadying her with a hand at her elbow. “You need to sit back down.”
“No.” She says, pulling herself out of his grasp. “I need to see him.” She looks past Dave to the intern that was still hovering in the doorway. The doctor whose name she had already forgotten who had casually delivered her the news that had broken her world in two. A face she would always remember. “I need to see him.” She repeats.
“We don’t usually-” The doctor starts, before both Dave and Emily turn to look at him, fierce looks on their faces. “We can organise something.” He’s out the room in seconds, clearly wanting to be anywhere else, pulling the door closed behind him.
“Dave.” Emily says, voice cracking as tears fell relentlessly down her face. “What am I supposed to do?”
He doesn’t have an answer as he guides her to sit back down on her hospital bed, her feet unsteady. He sits next to her and puts an arm around her. Emily’s lack of resistance to the gesture gives away her shock, her devastation.
“We’re getting married. He asked me to marry him.” She says, covering her mouth with her hand, sobbing as she talks. “What do I do without him?”
“Tell me what I’m supposed to do.” She stutters out, repeating the phrase again as she wipes her face only for the tears to be immediately replaced. “Please, Dave. Tell me. Because I don’t know. You said he was fine. You told me he was fine.”
“He was.” Dave says trying to keep his own emotions in check. “He was fine.”
“He’s dead, Dave.” She says. “Nothing is ever going to be fine again.” She finally shrugs his arm off of her, wincing as the movement pulls at her bruised ribs. He stops touching her, putting a small amount of space between them on the bed to respect her boundaries.
Emily looks at the ring on her left hand, remembering the joy she had felt when Aaron had placed it there only a few weeks prior. The promise of being his wife was something that had filled her with so much love, so much happiness it felt too good to be true.
She should have known it was.
“What do I tell Jack?” She asks, knowing that there is no right answer, that there is nothing Dave can say that will help. “He’s not even 10 and he’s lost both his parents.”
“He has you.” Dave says, trying to be reassuring, but Emily’s response is a scoff.
“And who am I to him?”
“You’re his legal guardian, Emily. You’ve helped Aaron raise him the last few years. Jack loves you and you love him. We’ll help you figure the rest out.”
Emily nods and her chest racks with a fresh wave of sobs, her grief overwhelming. Washing over her like a relentless wave. Pulling her out to sea and dragging her under, no sense of relief in sight.
“I don’t remember the last thing I said to him.” She says sadly. “I hope it was good.”
Dave knows there is nothing he can say to that, nothing that he can say to make any of this better for his friend, so he sits next to her in silence, happy to provide whatever comfort she needs. He isn’t sure how much time has passed when she rests her head on his shoulder, her sore body shaking with grief.
He checks the clock on the wall and sees it is now close to 8am. Only 30 minutes have passed since they were told the live changing news. He knows they need to let the others know, to let the news go past the tiny hospital room they were in. Ripples in a pond that would be so far reaching he couldn’t think beyond telling the team. Helping Emily tell Jack.
“Em- He’s interrupted by the door opening, cutting off any useless reassurances that had been on the tip of his tongue.
“Hey, sweetheart.” Aaron says as he walks in with a bag in his hand, gently closing the door behind him. “I’ve been discharged, Jessica brough us some spare-”
Aaron stops when he sees his fiancee and Dave sat on the bed, twin looks of shock on their face as he looks at them. He’s immediately concerned at the tears in Emily’s eyes, the devastation on her face.
“Emily, baby.” He drops the bag to the floor and walks over, a slight limp as he moves across the room. He cups her face in his hands and runs his thumbs over her cheeks. “What's wrong?”
She starts to cry in earnest, leaning forward so her head is against his abdomen. She grips at the back of his shirt, her fingers digging in as if she would never let him go.
“Dave?” Aaron turns to his friend as he cups the back of Emily’s head, his fingers tangling in her hair.
“They told us you were dead.” He says evenly, his words making Emily cry harder into Aaron’s shirt.
“What?” Aaron asks, his eyebrows furrowing. “I was discharged first thing. I came in here and you were both still fast asleep. So I went to call Jess, she met me with fresh clothes for me and Em.”
Dave blows out a breath and stands, clapping a hand on Aarons shoulder. Apologising quickly when the other man winces, his delight at his friend being alive making him briefly forget that he was still injured.
“I’ll give you guys some space.” Dave says as he walks towards the door. “I have an intern to hunt down.”
As soon as Dave is gone all of Aaron’s focus is back on Emily, her tears seeping through his shirt, her nails digging into his back through his shirt. He tries to pull himself from her grasp but she only holds him tighter.
“Em, it’s ok. I’m here.” He reassures her, pulling himself away enough to sit next to her on the bed. She's wrapped up in him again immediately, leaning against him as she holds him close. Ignoring both of their injuries just so she could feel him. His heartbeat steady under her cheek.
“I thought I’d lost you.” She rasps out. She attempts to heave in a breath, her lung still stuffed full of grief, of the bleak future she had briefly seen without him.
“They made a mistake. I’m right here.”
She pulls away suddenly and kisses him fiercely, her hands tangling in his hair as she holds him to her. He kisses her back, her tears wetting his cheeks. She tastes like grief and desperation. He tries to pull back, to talk to her, but she stops him. Her hands holding him in place.
“Em.” He says as he finally pulls back, his forehead against hers. “I’m okay. I love you and I am here.”
“I love you too.” She says. “I thought you were dead. You have no idea…”
Her words fade away, as she considers the weight of them. He may have never thought she was dead, but he had stood at a grave that bore her name. Carried a coffin that was supposed to have her body in it.
Aaron didn’t have to try too hard to imagine life without her.
“Have they said anything about discharging you yet?” He asks, unsure how long they have sat there in silence, their foreheads pressed against each other as her breathing started to even out. She nods, clearing her throat before she speaks.
“I need to have a scan, they said someone would come by to do it soon. If it’s clear I am free to go home.”
“Okay.” He kisses her quickly. “I’ll wait right here with you.”
She grasps his hand, unwilling to let go of him for a second.
_____________
Dave knocks on Emily’s hospital room door before he enters, only opening the door when he hears Aaron call out for him.
“Everyone in here decent?” Dave asks as he walks in, the room feeling lighter than it had when he had last been here. Emily is now also in her own clothes, a pair of sweatpants and a sweater he assumed had once been Aaron’s. They were both sat on the bed together, Emily practically glued to Aaron’s side.
“Yes, Dave.” Emily replies, rolling her eyes at him. “We’re decent.”
“Rumour has it you guys need breaking out of here?” He says holding up his car keys.
“Just waiting on my final paperwork.” Emily says, leaning her head against Aaron’s shoulder. “Doctor King just left.”
“Oh did he?” Dave says, attempting to sound innocent.
“Apparently he got confused. Detective Brockner died this morning.” Aaron explains. “Someone reminded him of the importance of making sure he had his facts straight before he speaks.” He raises his eyebrow in amusement at his friend, his smile making his dimples come out.
“Well how about that?”
The door opens again and Doctor King is standing there, a nervous look on his face and some paperwork in his hands. His eyes visibly widen when he sees Dave, making the older man smile.
“Here is your paperwork Agent Prentiss. You are free to go.” He mumbles, crossing the room and handing her the paperwork in a matter of seconds. “Again, I’m really, really sorry.”
He leaves the room as quickly as he entered it, not waiting for either Aaron or Emily to speak.
“What the hell did you do to him, Dave?” Emily asks, a small laugh escaping her.
“Nothing important.” He answers, turning back to look at them. “Let's get you both out of here.”
He drives them home. Occasionally looking in the rear view mirror to see them sitting next to each other on the back seat, their hands still linked, Emily still needing the physical connection.
As he leaves their house after helping them in with their things he feels a hand on his shoulder stopping him. He turns to see Emily standing just behind him, a trembling smile on her face.
“Thank you, Dave. For earlier.” She hugs him, holding him tighter than he thought she would currently be physically capable of doing.
“Not a problem, Bella.” He kisses her cheek before pulling away. “Let's hope we never have to do it again.”
_____________
They spend the afternoon on the couch, cuddled up as they watch terrible movies they both loved. Jessica kept Jack overnight, they spoke to the young boy on the phone, assuring him that they were both ok and would see him the following morning.
They climb into bed early, both worn out from their injuries and the emotion of the day. Aaron switches off the light in the ensuite as he finishes his nighttime routine, climbing into bed next to Emily with a sigh. He turns to look at her and sees how she’s staring straight up at the ceiling, her eyes shining in the dim light of the lamp on his nightstand.
“Sweetheart.” He says gently, reaching out and cupping her cheek, tilting her head to look at him. “Are you okay?”
“No.” She breathes out, tears flooding her eyes. “I’m not okay.” She blows out a breath that is shaky as she tries to smile at him. “I’m not okay, Aaron.”
“We’re both here, Em. We’re okay.”
“I spent half an hour thinking you were dead today, Aaron.” She chokes out, shaking her head at herself. “I...I didn’t know what to do.” She reaches out for him, stroking her hand through his hair. “And I was so relieved you were ok, I didn’t even think about Detective Brockner or his family. He had kids.”
He shushes her, pulls her as close as he can given they both have bruised and fractured ribs, wanting to press comfort into her skin as his hand drifts below her shirt and lands on her back.
“That’s not on you.” He says, holding her tighter when she grumbles in disagreement. “It isn’t.” He kisses the top of her head, his hand warm against her spine as he tries to hold her together.
“We got lucky today. One day we might not be.”
“Baby.” He murmurs against the top of her head. “You can’t think like that.” He can’t promise that they won’t get hurt, that the moment she lived in today might not one day be their reality, but he can tell her what he wants out of their lives. What he sees so clearly ahead of them. “We’re going to get married. Maybe have a kid or two with my eyes and your attitude.”
He laughs when she pinches the skin on his back, a laugh huffed out against his neck. She pulls back to look at him, her hand on his cheek. She kisses him, tries to put everything she felt for him into it.
“I love you.” She whispers against his lips as she pulls away. “So much.”
“I love you too, sweetheart. More than you know.”