Emily/Hotch

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Title - She looks like her - RebecaPrentiss(Ao3)

Rating - General 

A/N- I'm sorry for the lack of updates, I'm in college and the semester just started back up recently and assignments have been rolling in. I'll schedule some updates for the future when I'm busy. Enjoy <3

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Aaron hadn't planed for anybody to meet Beth, hell he wasn't sure it would lead to anything, let alone sure that he even wanted it to actually go anywhere.

But by a slip of his Dave finds out.

The date was almost over when his friend enters the small restaurant, and the younger man freezes the second he hears the familiar voice.

"Aaron, I most certainly did not expect to see you here."

Hotch is then, forced to introduce her, Rossi is polite and even charming as he small talks with Beth. To the untrained eye it would seem like he had adored her, however, being a profiler made Hotch painfully aware of the slight raise of eyebrows as he took in Beth's appearance.

At first, he had attributed it to shock, after all, Aaron Hotchner doesn't date, but then he saw it, saw the look he hated the most, especially in David's eyes. The small glint of mischief laced with the idea that the older man knew something he didn't.

The next morning when Rossi comes to his office like he does every day, Aaron inquires his friend for his opinion.

"She's nice" Dave answers with little to no enthusiasm.

"Nice?" Hotch answers, sounding almost exasperated "I was hoping for a more careful insight."

"Look Aaron" Rossi sighs as he debates if his next words are worth saying "I think she might be a great woman. But, you shouldn't use somebody just because you cannot have what you really want."

Hotch pauses for a moment, his usual frown was replaced by a clear look of confusion as he wondered what Rossi meant.

"Oh, you don't see it do you?" this time some of the smug judgement was stripped from Dave's tone, his eyes softened with understanding for the younger man.

"Dave, I honestly have no idea what you mean."

"Aaron" he chuckles a little before he starts speaking again "Beth looks exactly like Emily." And then, living up to his dramatic reputation, David Rossi walks away, leaving a stunned Hotch frozen in the same spot he had been for the entire conversation.

His mind raced as he tried to analyze the situation, and that is when he saw it. Or better, when he saw her.

Emily Prentiss, the woman who had haunted his dreams and his fantasies for as long as he could recall.

Aaron had spent most of his years trying to ignore whatever he felt for her. It had started after the divorce, for some time then he no longer considered her a threat but, the second the paper was signed it was like Prentiss invaded his senses.

He started noticing the small things, how driven she was, how she could command a room with no effort and how she would smile at him, or the team reassuring and calming. The way her perfume clung to his nose even after they had parted ways, even when he had been alone at home for hours. And after all that, it became almost impossible for him not to notice the woman in her.

How her dark hair framed her face, how she knew how to dress for the occasion and looking unbelievably attractive in her regular work attire. She was in fact, extremely attractive, and once he noticed that, there was no going back.

He tried to minimize his feelings, it was just lust, she was pretty. No, actually she was gorgeous, any man would notice it, and they usually did.

Hotch never missed the way detectives and local cops would do a double take when they saw her. Mesmerized by his powerful coworker, it made the chief's blood boil.

Although Hotch tried to keep his distance, that soon became impossible, therefore, he begun trusting her more and more, allowed himself to become her friend. And the more he got to know Emily, the more he understood his feelings ran much deeper than sheer attraction.

He wasn't exactly sure of when he noticed it, but Hotch remembered clear as day the moment it became too much for him to take. His love almost jackhammering through his heart, all he could notice from then on was her.

It was warm and humid in Idaho, him and Emily had driven two hours through the countryside to follow up on a lead that led to nowhere. It was frustrating and on the way back the road felt even more bumpy and full of holes, furthermore, the minute the heavy downpour started, he knew things were not getting better.

Aaron wasn't even surprised when the SUV shook, indicating an inevitable flat tire. He wasn't even mad at it, being on the road so often meant he could change a tire in his sleep, however, he never accounted for a scenario where Prentiss would follow him into the pouring rain, discarding her jacket and wearing only a tank top in order to assist him.

He tried denying her help, but as Hotch had already previously understood, if Emily wanted something she would get it. Of course, he was never that keen on saying no to her anyways.

Aaron watched in awe as they moved in sync, her soaking wet hair dripped water on her face, and if his own situation was any similar, it could be almost comical. Two soaking wet FBI agents, changing a tire in the middle of nowhere. But it wasn't funny, it was infuriating how breathtaking she looked, how she made him almost forget how to unscrew a bolt by simply smiling at him.

Of course, it also amazed him how perfectly they worked together, it was almost as if they were one mind. And maybe they were, from day one Hotch had noticed it, how similarly their thought process was, how he could see himself reflected on her. It might have even been the reason why he had hated her in the beginning, but right now, it was the thing he admired most.

He had spent the rest of the week trying to get the image of her in the rain away from his mind. It would have been so easy for him to have kissed her then, not think about any complications, pouring his heart out the same way the rain poured onto them.

But he didn't, instead he cowardly did nothing and moped around all week.

Aaron buried himself into the triathlon training, hoping to erase her from being the image he saw whenever he closed his eyes.

And then came Beth, a few years younger than him, dark eyes and dark hair, asking him out. He didn't know why he said yes, she most definitely wasn't the first woman to do so. But she was the first one he actually said yes to.

And after talking to Dave he maybe begun to understand, when it came to features, Beth was the closest he would get to Emily. Of course, their personalities were nothing alike, and Beth, even if nice, did not make his heart jump, did not understand him like Emily did.

Even as he tried this "relationship" things had not changed between him and his subordinate, they kept on being each other's partners, having conversations with a single look. And though he tried to let Beth in, there was no place in his mind for nothing other than Emily.

God, Hotch was in very deep shit.

He was so deep in thought that when Emily appeared in from of him, he thought he had finally gone mad.

"Emily?"

"Aaron are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." He couldn't answer her, not when she said his name like that, in the quiet of his office, so full of concern and care. AIt was right there and then that he decided, he was done with anyone else, it was time for things to be just about Emily, no lookalikes.

No more running away from her, after all, he was doing a hell of a bad job in trying to do so.

"I'm fine now Em."

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