hotchniss one-shots

Minimal Loss

hotch's pov

"We have to go in," I said urgently, as soon as I realised what was happening.

"We'd be risking the lives of everyone in there," Rossi argued as I paced back and forth.

I pulled the headphones off, running my hands over my face.

After a few seconds, I put them back on, and tried to think of another solution.

Just as I did, I heard Emily crying out again, and I felt the tears in my eyes.

This was the hardest thing I've had to do in my years with the BAU; listening to the woman I love being in so much pain, and not being able to do anything to help her.

Emily and I have been together for months now, but so far we've managed to keep it a secret from the team.

Now, however, I don't know how much longer I can keep it together.

"I can take it," I heard Emily mutter, and I glanced over at Dave to see if he was thinking what I was.

"I can take it," she repeated.

"She's talking to us," I said quietly. "She's telling us not to go in."

I rested my head in my hands and sighed.

It was one of the many, many things I admire and love about Emily, that she will do anything for people she's never even met before. She always puts everyone else before herself.

But this time, that thought terrifies me. She's getting beat to near death, and she's still thinking of everyone else in the compound.

I still wanted to go in, but I knew now more than ever that we couldn't do that. It would be too risky.

~~~

It had taken a while, but we'd made a plan. We were going to go in at 3am, and at least try to get all the women and children out.

We'd managed to get the message through to Emily, and she'd told us that she would try to get them down to the tunnels below the compound. She'd also told us that she was fine, and that we needed to stop worrying, but of course I couldn't help it. There's still so many things that could go wrong tonight.

I heard footsteps approaching behind me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"You know that you can't go in, right?"

"I know what you're going to say, that I'm too close to this," I started, but Dave cut me off.

"You are Aaron. Don't think that none of us have noticed that there's something going on between you and Prentiss. I'll admit, the two of you have done a pretty good job at hiding it, but we're a team of profilers," Dave laughed.

"I love her Dave. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to her," I sighed.

"Which is why you can't go in," he said. "You would be too focussed on getting Prentiss out of there."

"If I don't go in, you've got to promise me that you'll get her out of there safely."

"You know I will, you don't even need to ask," he told me, and I nodded.

~~~

I ran forward as soon as I heard the explosion.

My eyes scanned the crowd, but I couldn't see her anywhere.

I saw Dave stood by the gates, and ran over to him.

"Where is she?" I asked, but I could tell that he didn't know.

"Where the hell is she Dave?" I repeated, a lot louder this time.

Panicking, I ran up the stairs towards the compound, still looking through every crowd of people that were going the opposite way.

That's when I saw her, and I could finally breath. She was okay, she was alive.

Not caring who would see us, I sprinted over to her, and it didn't take long for her to notice me.

As soon as I reached her, I pulled her into a hug, wrapping my arms around her and holding her close.

"Aaron," Emily whispered, so quiet I could barely hear her.

"It's okay, you're safe now, I've got you," I reassured her.

I knew the team was probably watching us, but all that mattered to me was that Emily was okay.

"Come on, let's go home," I said quietly.

"We need to finish the clean up and reports," she muttered, but I shook my head.

"No, the local PD can handle that."

We started to walk back towards the SUV's, and I kept my arm around Emily the whole time.

~~~

On the jet, Emily sat in the window seat, and I sat beside her.

Half an hour into the flight, she was asleep, her head resting on my shoulder. Being careful not to wake her, I took off my blazer, laying it over her like a blanket.

There was no way the rest of the team didn't know about me and Emily by now, so there was no point in trying to hide it.

Smiling slightly, I pressed a kiss to her head, before leaning back in my seat, and trying to get some rest myself.