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After Haley, Aaron was sure that he’d never fall in love again. At least not fall in love as hard as he had loved Haley. Then suddenly Emily was there, a support he didn’t know he needed and slowly, so painfully slow that he didn’t notice it until it was too late, and he was in love again. And she loved him as well.
It had been a year of grief, of Aaron not focusing on anything but work and being the best father to Jack that he could be. And she was there, a silent friend for him to lean on, until he didn’t have to lean on her anymore, but instead just wanted to have close.
It started with a coffee, he was buying one for himself and just happened to buy one for her. When she smiled her thanks, early in the morning and he felt his heart clench, he knew that whatever he felt for her was way past just friendship. The following week she met him for coffee instead, but he still paid for it.
It became a coffee every morning for the next ten days, not that he was counting or anything, and on the eleventh morning she asked him to go with her to an event her mother was hosting and when he said yes, he could see the relief wash over her face.
After the event he walks her to her apartment even though she said she was fine walking up on her own. She was wearing a black dress and he had been forcing himself not to gawk at her all night.
“You look beautiful.” He finally tells her as she’s leaning against the door and she looks away at the same time as her cheeks redden.
“Thank you.” She smiles, her teeth digging into her bottom lip. “And thank you for coming with me.”
“Not a problem.” He chuckles and absentmindedly pushes some hair that has fallen over her face behind her ear. “Good night Emily.” He says quietly and she turns to unlock her door. As he walks toward the elevator he hears her voice, soft and breathy.
“Hey Hotch?”
“Yeah?”
“When are you going to ask me on a real date?” She smiles, her grin wide enough to be infectious and he smiles back.
So they go on a real date, and then another, and then another. Then they’re three months in and he blurts out that he loves her in the middle of a fight. It makes her yell even louder, somehow fueling her anger until she actually recognizes what he’s just said and she stops yelling. Instead she kisses him, molds her body against his as he wraps his arms around her.
“I love you too, you fucking ass.”
It makes him laugh, causes him to pull her against him again and she swallows up the laugh in another kiss.
The team finds out around the four month mark and to be honest Aaron is surprised that no one besides Dave picked up on it sooner. It’s an adjustment for them all, different reactions from them all, but they can all see how well Emily and Aaron fit together. It’s a new side to both of them that they’ve really only seen glances off before and in the end they’re happy for them.
They’re still careful at work, because they have to be, subtle to the point that JJ once tells Emily that no one would ever believe that they were a couple. It makes her smile, because that just means that they’re doing what they promised from the start. Coworkers as work, lovers at home. But then comes the times when they’re getting comfortable, when they don’t have to ignore the impulses to grab the other’s hand or a kiss to the temple. Like when one night, they’re heading home from Iowa and Emily leans her head on his shoulder.
It's like their magnetized and his arm wrap around her, pulls her tighter against him and kisses her cheek. She smiles as the simple gesture, turns her head to catch his lips in a gentle kiss and when she pulls away Derek is looking at them with a less than amused look on his face.
“We get it. You’re in love.” He’s not really annoyed, is actually really happy for his friends but it’s fun to tease them. When Emily gives him the finger he can only laugh.
“You’re just jealous.” She snuggles closer to Aaron, lets the warmth of his body heat up hers.
“Listen Princess, if it’s one thing I’m not jealous of, it’s your love life. Who would want that man snoring in your ear all night?” He’s too slow and Emily kicks his shin under the table, a smile grazing her lips when he winces.
“Thank you honey.” Aaron kisses her again, makes an extra loud kissing sound only to annoy Derek even more.
“What’s it like dating Hotch?” Penelope asks one night out of the blue. They had just gotten back from Oregon and it was late. Everybody had gone home for the day except her, she had waited for the team to get back like she always did. She had watched as Aaron and Emily walked in behind the rest of the team, hand in hand, and when he walked to his office she had given him a gentle smile, and Penelope was curious.
“What do you mean?” She turned in her chair just as JJ came to join them, having heard the question. If Spencer and Derek did, they seemed set on ignoring the female gossip.
“I mean, what’s it like?” Penelope bent lower to make sure that Aaron couldn’t hear her “Is he… fun?”
Emily couldn’t help the chuckle, the question not surprising considering how serious he always was at work.
“He’s…” She stopped, her eyes glancing towards his office and a warm smile graced her lips “amazing.” When she turned back to the two blondes she was met by narrowed eyes. “What?”
“You’re… glowing.” JJ’s head fell to the side as she studied her friend “Like, seriously if you smile any bigger your face will split in two.”
Emily rolled her eyes but her smile didn’t faulter even as she felt a blush rise on her cheeks.
“You really love him don’t you?” Penelope looked between the closed door to their boss’s office to the brunette.
“I love him so much it’s scaring me.” She admitted and her friends both grinned.
“You’re disgusting.” Penelope said and when Emily’s eyes narrowed she quickly added “But like, in the cutest way possible.”
That was the moment Aaron opened his door and saw the three women standing around Emily’s desk, all with grins on their faces. He chose to ignore the fact that they were probably talking about him and locked eyes with his girlfriend.
“You ready to go home?”
“Yes, please.” Emily shot her friends one last look before moving with him towards the elevator.
He comes home to his apartment later than her, is met by the sound of Jack’s laugh flowing through the apartment and he feels his chest warm. Quietly he makes his through the apartment just in time for him to see Jack cuddled against Emily as she reads to him.
“Daddy!” The young boy jumps from his bed and into his arms and he picks him up.
“Hey buddy. How are you? Did you have a good day?” He kisses the top of his head and puts him down, watches as he crawls back into bed and under the covers.
“Yepp!” Jack leans against Emily and picks up the book that she had put on her lap. “We’re reading.”
“I can see that.” He kisses Emily and sits on a chair next to bed but the young boy scrunches his nose at his father.
“Emily is better at reading. This is our story time.” It causes them both to laugh and Emily ruffles his hair.
“Thank you honey.” She winks at Aaron and takes the book from Jack’s hand. “But I think dad can stay for story time, just this once.”
Less than thirty minutes later and Jack is asleep against her and he helps her to climb out of the bed that’s too small for her.
“He loves you.” He mumbles as he pours them both a glass of wine, and her arms wrap around him from behind.
“I seem to have that effect on Hotchner men.” She smiles into his shirt as she inhales his scent. “Good thing I love them too.”
It’s their one-year anniversary but they don’t plan anything special. They chose not to tell anybody because they didn’t want to make it a big deal. But still, they should have known that between Penelope and Dave nothing is a secret and they manage to set up a date night for them. Dave watches Jack and Penelope makes reservations at a French restaurant that she knows Emily loves but is impossible to get a table at. Neither of them asks if she hacked their reservation system, but when they sit across from each other neither care how they got there, they’re just content that they’re there together.
“You make me really happy.” She tells him after dinner, her arm around his waist and his around her shoulder as they walk through the city.
“I didn’t think I’d ever be this happy ever again.” He admits and it makes her chest ache because she had been there when Haley died, had picked up the pieces of him after. It had been anything but easy, but as she stared into his eyes, so dark and gentle she knew that this was it. He was it.
“Do you want to move in together?” His words break through her thoughts and stops her in her tracks “I mean, we basically spend every night together already and we…”
“Yes.” She interrupts him, already nodding. “Of course I do.”
So they buy a house, a house with three bedrooms, and a backyard with a pool.
“This could be your study.” Emily tells him as she holds the keys to their new home. It’s finally moving day and she’s standing in the middle of the smaller bedroom, maps out where his desk should go when he comes up behind her.
“Or, this could be Jack’s little sister or brother’s room.” He murmurs against her neck, his arms tightening around her middle when she turns her head to look at him.
“Yeah, or that.” She smiles into the kiss, lets his tongue press against hers as she turns in his grasp to wrap her arms around his neck.
“When you two are done with that, the movers want to know where the couch should go.” Spencer stands in the doorway, an awkward look on his face. “And Penelope just opened the wine.”
That makes Emily hurry downstairs but Aaron doesn’t move not quite realizing that she just agreed to have a baby with him.
“You alright Hotch?” Spencer asks, his eyebrows knitted together as he takes in the dumbfounded look on the older man’s face.
“This will be the nursery.” He answers, like that was answer enough.
Actually, it kind of was.
Nine months later and Emily is eight months pregnant. It happened quickly, maybe too quickly but it makes Aaron smile and even though she hates actually being pregnant and all the fuzzing over her, she’s glowing.
“It’s just sweat. It’s a thousand degrees outside.” She argues as she sits in Dave’s kitchen, finishing off some pasta.
“You’re beautiful Bella.” Dave gives her one of his famous Rossi glares and she concedes and ducks her head just as Aaron comes in carrying dishes.
“He’s right, the most gorgeous woman in the world.” He kisses her cheek on the way to the sink and Dave suppresses the urge to roll his eyes at them.
“You’re blind, both of you.” She huffs and with some difficulty gets up from her seat. “Just watch me waddle away.” She tells them over her shoulder as she makes her way outside to the rest of the team.
Aaron doesn’t look away from her until she’s out of sight and when he turns back to the sink, Dave is smiling at him.
“So when are you asking her?”
He should have known that he couldn’t hide something as big as a ring from his best friend.
“How did you know?”
“I know everything Aaron.” He pours them both a glass of scotch “And you’ve been grinning like an idiot for the past two days.” He holds his glass up in a cheers and ignores the glare Aaron sends him as they both take a drink.
The day his daughter is born is anything but perfect. He just barely makes it in time for the delivery, Emily is screaming every profanity in the book and in the midst of the chaos, his daughter is born. She has dark hair and Emily’s eyes and she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
“You did so good sweetheart.” He kisses her sweaty forehead and wipes her tears, and then watches as she holds their daughter for the first time.
“She’s so small.” Emily whispers, her eyes glued to this life that they had created together. “What if I’ll mess her up?” She’s suddenly looking at him with panic and he kisses her forehead, then her lips.
“You won’t.”
Elodie Hotchner is just as beautiful as her mother and when Aaron sees the tiny baby cradled in Jack’s arms, who in turn is leaning against Emily the words fly out of his mouth before he can stop them.
“Marry me.”
Emily looks up from her children, exhausted, but tears of happiness in her eyes and she knows that this is the moment she will cherish forever.
“Yes.”