7 years - Hotchniss

six years before

"Hotch", Morgan exclaimed, his voice growing louder and louder, but Hotch didn't fully recognize him; his voice still seemed miles away.

The sound of the shots kept echoing in his mind, replaying it over and over again.

Two shots.

"Hotch, can you hear me?"

It had been two shots.

6 years ago:

"Aaron", Emily yelled and knelt down next to him. "Can you hear me?"

At the sound of her voice, ridiculously muted, his eyes fluttered open to meet the brown ones of his girlfriend, filled with slight panic. He felt how the violent ringing in his ears got louder, so he immediately cupped them with his hands, trying to make it stop.

Emily immediately understood. "We need a medic", she yelled to the rest of the team, who stood a few feet away as Morgan lead the Unsub away. "He has problems with his ears again."

Ever since Hotch had been involved in an explosion a few years ago, the ringing in his ears returned from time to time, rather irregularly, so he hadn't bothered to consult a doctor about it, much to Emily's disapprove.

"No medic", he managed to croak.

"Shh, don't talk", she advised quietly, knowing that talking would only increase the pain in his ears.

Internally, Emily felt how her mind unburdened. After the Unsub had fired his gun at Aaron, she had immediately thought that he had been shot. And he obviously had been, yet his vest had caught the bullet, and she knew that it would probably only be one or two broken ribs and some bruises.

However, the image of her boyfriend falling backwards to the ground, not moving at all, would never leave her head again.

"And don't move", she added as she felt how he sat up next to her, letting out a slight groan at the pain in his ribs.

Hotch wasn't able to reply, his hands still at his hears, begging the ringing to stop. He felt how Emily moved one hand to the base of his skull and drew small circles on it, calming him down at least a bit.

The medics arrived shortly afterwards, taking care of Hotch's broken ribs and, at Emily's disposition, also checking his ears. Unsurprisingly, he refused to drive into the hospital, so the two medics did the best they could right there.

Emily stood a few feet away, her arms crossed in front of her chest as she critically observed how her boyfriend got patched up.

"You okay?", JJ asked as she stepped next to her best friend.

"Yes", Emily sighed, her eyes still fixed at the scene in front of her. "Just glad when we can finally head home."

"They'll probably advise him to stay home tomorrow", the blonde said.

"And he'll probably give a shit about that", the brunette rolled her eyes at the thought.

They had all caught bullets in their vests at least once, and they all knew that the pain of the bruises and the injured ribs would accompany Hotch for at least a week, especially when it came to sneezing, laughing, running or sitting down. Basically every move hurt.

After the medics had released Hotch, the whole team drove back to the hotel, all of them gathering their bags in order to fly home from Santa Monica. Emily and Aaron had remained silent until they had closed the door of their hotel room behind them. Emily knew that he only let his guard down when he was alone with her, so she figured that it was senseless to try and talk to him beforehand.

"Be honest", she said as she stuffed her clothes into the black travel bag. "Did the ringing stop?"

"Yes", he nodded, slowly taking off his jacket. "They gave me some pills and they seem to work."

"If it ever starts again, you will go and see a doctor, okay?", Emily asked. "Please, promise me this."

"Fine", he sighed , too tired to argue. "I promise."

A content smile formed on Emily's lips and she moved over to his bag, quickly packing it up. "Em, I can do that on my own", Hotch immediately tried to stop her.

"I know", she shrugged. "But I also know how much these bruises on your torso hurt, so just let me do this quickly."

He let his hands fall to his side and watched her as she stuffed his clothes in the bag, a rather unhappy look written all over his face. He hated it when she did that; taking care of him like he wasn't able to do it on his own. Nevertheless, she was right about the constant pain in his abdomen, though he would never admit that.

"See?", she grinned as she zipped up the bag. "Done."

"Thank you", he replied.

She turned around and stepped closer to him, her hands carefully wandering up his arms before they locked behind his neck, determined not to touch his bruised body parts.

His right hand found her waist before he leaned in and kissed her.

"Thank you for not getting bumped off today", she then smiled.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily", he huffed, holding back a chuckle. The smile on her lips grew even wider before she kissed him once more.

"I'm glad. Come on, let's get going", she then said and lifter her bag. "I cannot wait to get home."

And neither could he. The medics had advised him to take the next day off, but he wouldn't tell anyone, as he planned on going back to work as usual. Little did he know that Emily knew exactly what he had been advised to do.

Hotch tried to ignore the looks the other agents gave him as soon as the two of them arrived in the lobby. He never really understood why they made such a big deal out of this when it concerned him; just last month Morgan had caught a bullet in his vest and he had also acted completely fine about it, especially since he probably held the record on catching the most bullets in total.

Emily hadn't caught one ever since she and Hotch had gotten together, and he was more than glad about this as he didn't know how he would react if she ever got shot.

Oh, if only he had known back then.