Work Text:
“You could have just gone home, sweetheart. I would have met you there.”
She hums as she rests her head on his shoulder, taking the opportunity while they are alone in the elevator to soak a little of him in after a long few days away on a case. He’d sent everyone else home, told them not to come in until Monday, a weariness in the air around them on the jet that long days and short nights had left them with. He’d told her to go home too, had squeezed her hand under the table as he smiled softly at her, a flash of her Aaron peeking out from behind the Hotch mask he wore, but she’d refused, had followed him to his car and then back to the office, determined to spend as much time with him as possible.
“I think I would have fallen asleep before you got back,” she mumbles, turning her head to press a kiss against his shoulder before she steps away, leaving an acceptable distance between them in case anyone was in the hallway when they stepped out of the elevator. Their relationship was a poorly kept secret at work, and she knew reasonable deniability was their saving grace. It couldn’t last forever, she doubted it could even last another month or two, but for now she was taking advantage of it, enjoying every second she got to have working with him and going home afterwards to either his place or hers. “And you’re too much of a gentleman to wake me up for sex.”
He laughs, a full bodied thing that makes her smile, the sound something that never failed to pull joy out of her, and he shakes his head at her, throwing a wink her way just before the elevator doors open. “I thought you liked it when I’m a gentleman.”
“Sometimes,” she mutters under her breath, but just loud enough for him to hear, her smile wide when any response he might have is cut off as one of the agents from the counterterrorism team smiling at them as they pass him, as he leaves work for the evening. She follows Aaron into the bullpen. “Do you know if Pen is still here?”
“She said she’d stay until we got back,” he replies, placing his briefcase down on her desk as he pulls out some paperwork, “I have to give her this anyway.”
“I’ll come say hi to her,” she says, walking in tandem with him as they head towards Penelope’s office, “It’s her support group tonight, so she’ll be glad the case is over.”
He knocks on the office door and then opens it, humming when they find it empty - a hot cup of tea on the desk and the screens locked but still lit up, “She must have just stepped out.”
Emily nods and then groans in delight when she sees a familiar tin on Penelope’s desk, “Oh, she baked something,” she lifts the lid off, “Cookies!” She exclaims, lifting the tin up to sniff them, letting the scent of peanut butter and sugar wash over her, “Exactly what we need,” she says, taking two out of the tin before she puts it back down on the desk. She hands one to Aaron and smiles when he hesitates, “She always lets me have some.”
He nods, entirely unable to say no to her and takes the cookie. They both take a bite at the same time, and he moans, smiling at her when she stares at him for a moment longer than necessary, a flash of something in her eyes that makes his stomach flip.
“These are good cookies,” he says as he finishes it, and she nods, looking at the tin on the desk as if she’s going to go for a second.
“They really are,” she says, but she’s stopped from getting a second cookie when the door opens and Penelope bursts in, yelping when she realises her office isn’t empty like it had been when she’d stepped out just a few minutes earlier.
“Emily! Hotch,” she says, her hand on her chest as she tries to calm herself down, “When did you get back?”
“A couple of minutes ago,” Emily says, wiping a crumb from the corner of her mouth. She watches as Penelope’s eyes go almost comically wide, flicking back and forth between the two of them and the tin on her desk, the lid not quite pressed on.
“Did you eat a cookie?” Penelope asks, her voice wavering ever so slightly, her eyes still darting back and forth between them and the cookie tin.
“Yeah, sorry,” Emily says, furrowing her brow at her friend’s behaviour, “Usually you don’t mind so we just had one each-”
Penelope looks at Aaron so quickly that Emily is sure it must hurt her neck, her eyebrows almost at her eyeline, “ You ate a cookie.”
Aaron nods and clears his throat, “Yes,” he looks over at Emily, “She said it was okay.”
Emily rolls her eyes, “Tattletale,” she mutters before she meets Penelope’s eyes, “What’s going on? Usually, you don’t mind.”
“Oh, I don’t,” she says, clearing her throat as she avoids eye contact, “But I think you’re about to,” she adds, her smile tight as they both look at her with confusion painted across their faces, waiting for her to carry on, “They have weed infused peanut butter in them.”
There’s a moment of silence, loud as it settles over them, before Aaron and Emily reply in unison.
“What?”
She nods, her lips pressed together as she clasps her hands in front of her, “They are for my support group.”
Emily chokes on a surprised laugh, “Why does your support group need weed cookies?”
“It relaxes everyone,” she replies, shrugging, “It was my turn to bring something.”
“Garcia,” Aaron says, pinching the bridge of his nose, “You do realise this is a Federal government facility, right?” He says, sighing as he looks at her, and she nods, “And cannabis is not legal federally? Meaning you have illegal drugs in a government building.”
“I know,” she says as she winces, “I know, but I wasn’t planning on anyone eating them here, so I didn’t think it would be an issue,” she says, smiling when Aaron raises an eyebrow at her, “It won’t happen again.”
He nods and places his hands on his hips, looking back and forth between his girlfriend’s amused expression and their friend’s horrified one, and he clears his throat, “Okay, that’s good enough for me.”
Penelope almost sags in relief before she clicks the lid to the tin back in place and starts to pack up her things, “I should drive you both home.”
“Pen, that’s okay-” Emily starts, but Penelope shakes her head as she grabs her purse and the tin of laced cookies, cutting her off before she can finish her sentence.
“No, it’s a particularly… potent brand,” she says, avoiding eye contact with Aaron again, “I’d feel better if you let me drive you.”
Emily sighs and nods, “Fine,” she says, “But we’re stopping for snacks on the way. I get hungry when I’m high.”
She takes great delight in the slightly horrified look on Aaron’s face before he ushers her out of Penelope’s office, his touch on her lower back fleeting as he asks to make sure they get Doritos.
___
She feels it kick in just before they get back to her place.
It washes over her like a wave, a relaxing head rush that has her giggling before she can hold it in, one hand wrapped around Aaron’s in the back of Penelope’s car and the other holding onto the bag of snacks they’d bought on the way. She turns to look at Aaron, giggles again when she sees the slight redness to his eyes, a haziness to them she’d never seen before.
“You’re very handsome,” she says, leaning in to kiss him, stamping her lips against his, the action almost lost to the giggle she presses against his lips instead. When she pulls back, he’s smiling at her, love and affection he usually kept private, something just for them, shining in his eyes.
“And you’re very pretty,” he says, furrowing his brows as his words don’t match what he’s thinking, the word pretty not doing her beauty or the way he felt about it any justice.
“God, you guys are adorable,” Penelope says as she pulls up in front of Emily’s building, smiling as she turns to look at them in the backseat. “I should get a picture of this,” she says, her smile fading when they both raise an eyebrow at her, “But I will not, nor will I ever tell anyone about this.”
Emily hums, “Good plan,” she says, leaning forward to kiss Penelope’s cheek as a goodbye, “Thanks for bringing us home.”
“It’s the least I could do,” she replies as they climb out of the car, “Considering I got you both high by mistake.”
Aaron leans back into the car, his arm still around Emily’s waist, “Remember…”
“No more weed cookies at work,” Penelope finishes for him, her lips pressed tightly together to hold in a laugh as Aaron trails off, forgetting what he was saying halfway through his sentence, “Stay safe. Drink plenty of water.”
“Yes, Mom.” Emily says sarcastically as the car door closes, and they wave her off, standing there on the sidewalk for a few seconds too long before she turns to look at Aaron, “What were we doing?”
“Going to your place,” he replies, and she giggles again, nodding as she leans in to kiss him.
“That’s right,” she says, leaning against him as he guides them into her building, his desire to make sure she was safe overriding anything else. She pats his cheek, smiling when he makes a point of kissing her palm, “You’re so smart.”
He chuckles and wraps his arms around her from behind as soon as they make it inside, stamping his lips against her neck and then her jaw as she digs through her purse for her keys, “I have another smart idea.”
She hums and turns to look at him, giggling once again at the look on his face, at how his tie and collar were rumpled, as if his suit was an extension of him and was high too.
“Yeah?” She mumbles, kissing him, another giggle stamped against his lips that he returns, his laugh something she loved even more than usual as she tastes it on her tongue, “What’s that?”
“We go inside,” he says, kissing her cheek as they approach her front door and she slips the key into the lock, “We eat all of our snacks,” he says, kissing her jaw, smiling against her skin when she shivers, “And then we have lots of sex.”
She groans and unlocks the door, turning in his arms as she opens it, laughing as they both almost lose their footing, saved only by his strength and his reflexes that had thankfully not been dulled by the weed. She laughs as the door closes behind them, their bag of snacks squished between the two of them, the crinkle of chip packets and candy barely noticeable as she stares into his red-rimmed eyes.
“That,” she says, kissing him again, her arm hooked around his neck, “Is the smartest thing you’ve ever said.”