"Little do you know" - Hotchniss

you're my home

The following days, Emily had basically moved in with Hotch. She had refused to at first, but did not want her to be alone and at some point, she had given in. They had had a little argument about the fact that Hotch wanted to sleep on the couch, so Emily could sleep in his bed. Emily felt like she was taking his place away, so she wanted to sleep on the couch instead. But Hotch had won the argument, as always.

Jack was back home as well. The little boy was more than excited to have Emily around all the time. He loved her with all his little heart, wishing she would stay with them forever.

Emily and Hotch had decided to wait with telling anyone that she was pregnant. At the moment, she still needed to get used to the thought that a baby was growing inside of her, even though it was not visible yet. They had been to a doctor, to check if everything was fine and getting a first look on Emily's child. The doctor had been a bit confused as she congratulated both of them, but then got to know that Hotch was only the best friend.

Even though the baby was not his, Hotch nearly teared up as he saw the little figure on the monitor of the ultrasound. Emily had cried as well, but it were tears of happiness. The circumstances were not the ones she would have wished for, but she couldn't change it. Sometimes, all her fears came back again and she would start to panic, but for moments like this, she had her best friend, who was talking to her until she had calmed down.

They had also started to look for the father of the baby, and there was no other way than asking Garcia to help them, since she could basically find everyone on this planet. Sadly, Emily did not even exactly remember how he looked. All the alcohol had removed the major memories from her mind. She had just told Garcia that she had met someone some nights ago and wanted to see him again, leaving out the fact that she was pregnant. Garcia was not good at keeping secrets, so this was the safest way to go.

This one evening, they had just returned from a case and picked up Jack from Haley's place. Hotch knew how exhausted Emily was, since it was really late.

After he had brought Jack to bed, he returned to the kitchen, were he found her eating some snacks.

"Hungry?", he smirked.

She nodded. "And we're tired as well."

Her let out a small chuckle and reached out with his hand to get some pretzels as well, but she slapped on his hand. "Those are mine!"

"But I'm hungry, too", he laughed.

"Get yourself something else!", she snapped.

Hotch smiled at her mood-swings. Sometimes, she was totally fine and in the next second she turned into a monster. He thought he would be used to this, since she always used to have mood-swings when she had been on her period, but now, they were way heavier.

"Then I'm gonna call the delivery service", he shrugged.

"Order something for me as well, please", she then begged, turning back into the 'normal Emily'.

"I thought you have wanted pretzels?", he smirked.

"I do, but I wanna have a pizza as well", she grinned and he chuckled as he called the delivery service.

About half an hour later they were sitting at the kitchen island, each one eating their pizza.

"You know that you have to go on office duty soon, right?", he asked her in a serious voice.

"Cool down, Hotch", she sighed. "I'm only 5 weeks pregnant!"

"Only? You do know that doing field work is already dangerous for you and your child at the moment. If it was up to me, I would directly put you on office duty.", he sighed.

"But you can't because nobody knows about this.", she reminded him, giving him a warning look.

"I know, but if you're not going to tell them soon, then I will still put you on office duty.", he replied and she furrowed her eyebrows.

"Sometimes I hate the fact that you are Unit Chief", she sighed, but she knew he was right. She would endanger her baby if she would continue to go after unsubs outside. Still, she did not feel ready at all to tell the others.

Hotch knew how she felt. Emily would never put her unborn child in danger on purpose, she was just too scared of the reactions of the others.

"Do you want some slices of my pizza?", he asked. "I won't be able to eat it all alone." To Emily, this wasn't even a question. She took two slices and put them into her box, like she was scared that he would eat them before she could.

He yawned. The previous case had been exhausting and had kept him awake for a long time, which even had survive without coffee. Since his best friend wasn't able to drink any coffee or alcohol, he had decided to quit both of it, too, knowing that the next nine months would be hell for him. Yet, he did it for her. He pushed his own feelings aside, because he knew how hard things were for right now. She wouldn't need more things to worry about.

After they had thrown the empty boxes away, they headed to the bathroom. They brushed their teeth next to each other, just like little kids, then got changed - Emily in the bathroom, Hotch in his bedroom - and then they sat down on his bed next to each other, backs leaned against the wall. They always did it like this, and later he would go downstairs to sleep on the couch.

While they were watching the news, Emily's left hand lightly slipped on her stomach. Hotch noticed in the corner of his eye, softly smiling to himself.

As the news had finished, Hotch got up. "I should go now. We need our well deserved sleep, don't we?", he smiled.

"Could you stay a bit longer?", she whispered, immediately regretting it. She was crossing the line again.

But he directly knew what was going on. She was having doubts again.

"Sure", he nodded and sat down again, raising his arm so she could slip under it and lean her head to his shoulder. Usually, the never got this close on purpose, but in the past few days Hotch had figured that this made her calm down when she was panicking.

"I'm scared", she whispered as she had rested her head on him.

"I know", he spoke softly. "And it's totally okay to be afraid, Emily. This is all new to you, but I know that you are going to do great and that I'll never leave your side, no matter what the other's say or think, okay? This child is going to have the greatest mother and a good home."

"I hope he or she is going to find the same home as I have when he or she is grown up", Emily smiled. "Because I have the best home one can have."

"You do?", he chuckled, even though he did not really understand what she meant.

"Yea. Because you're my home."