"Little do you know" - Hotchniss

whiskey

"Why haven't you proposed yet?", Emily blurted out and looked over to Hotch.

This time, they were at her apartment, with Kaia peacefully sleeping in her room. Emily had consumed quite an amount of alcohol, Hotch instead had stayed sober so he could look after Kaia. He knew that she didn't plan to get this drunk, not with her daughter around. But the Whiskey had gone down her throat way too quickly, and here she was.

Another month had passed, another month with messed feelings, another month with undone decisions. Emily's offer from Interpol was still open, she had one more month to answer it. And Hotch had still not proposed to Scarlett. It was like something in him was holding him back, and he knew what it was. It was Emily.

"I don't know", he sighed. He was aware of the fact that she had only asked this because of the alcohol running through her veins, but he still wanted to answer honestly. "I keep asking myself if she is the One."

"I thought she was perfect?", Emily mumbled.

"She is", he nodded. "But I don't know if she is perfect for me. Maybe she is better off with someone else?"

Emily shrugged and reached out for another Whiskey.

"I think you've had enough", Hotch smiled and took the bottle out of her hand. "You're already drunk."

"I am not!", she snapped.

"Trust me, I have experienced you drunk way too often to not see it", he chuckled and with a small sigh, she let her arm fall down.

"Are you seeing anyone special in the last time?", he asked and got back to the previous topics; relationship.

"Yea", she mumbled. "Her name is Kaia Anjelique Prentiss and she's pretty amazing."

Hotch chuckled and took this as a 'no'. He wondered if her being in a relationship would make it easier for him. But she was a single mother, which was keeping his hopes up too high. It would hurt both of them, wouldn't it? It would ruin their friendship, right? He couldn't risk losing her just because he had started to have feelings for her a very long time ago. She would have given him hints if she felt the same way, she would have - even though he himself had never given her a sign of his feelings.

"You know", she said and looked at him. "I keep asking myself if I should have tried to fix Josh's and my relationship, especially for Kaia. But I know that he just was not right for me, he was childish, and naive, terribly dependent of his mother - I guess I have never even really loved him. I have just loved the image of a family."

These sentences showed Hotch that she was really drunk. She would never say her deepest thoughts out loud if she was sober or still able to think clearly. Obviously, she was neither of both options.

"If he didn't make you happy, then he wasn't the right one", he replied shortly.

"Nobody makes me truly happy. Apart from Kaia", she muttered. "and you."

He raised his head and looked over to her, but she was just staring to the ground. She meant their friendship, he was sure.

"Children are the key to happiness", he sighed and smiled, thinking of Jack. "It gets hard some times, but in the end, they make you luckier than anything else."

Then it was Emily who raised her head to look at him, but he had already looked away. God, her brain was filled with this dust of alcohol, she was not even able to think clearly anymore. Words were just slipping out of her mouth before she could stop it.

"True", she nodded. Kaia really was her key to happiness. Even though she had not expected this 'key', she could only repeat it again and again, her daughter was everything to her.

"What about Interpol?", Hotch then asked. She'd be honest, he knew, because she was drunk.

"I don't know", she sighed. "I really want to go, but it's like there is something holding me back."

"What do you mean?", he asked, feeling the tension in his body rising.

But before she could reply, Kaia's voice entered their conversation. Immediately, Emily tried to get up, but she could only stumble slowly, embracing herself on every furniture she could find.

"Let me do it", Hotch smiled and quickly walked to Kaia's room.

Emily's daughter had never been a baby to cry a lot. But if she did, it was not easy to calm her down again - except for Hotch. It had been like this since she was born, she had always relaxed as soon as he was there. He bended over and lifted her out of her bed, gently rocking her in his arms. Kaia was wide awake, looking around in her dark room, turning her head all the time. But, she had stopped crying.

"You should get some sleep, little girl", he smiled, even though he knew that she wouldn't agree with him if she understood him.

"Mommy!", Kaia babbled and pulled at his shirt.

"Mommy is not feeling very well", Hotch chuckled. "But I promise that she'll be there when you wake up." He knew that she would be hungover as hell, but that would not stop her from looking after her daughter. "And the sooner you sleep now, the sooner you will see her."

He smiled as he carefully put her back into her little bed, waiting until she had fallen asleep. Then, he silently left her room and got back to Emily. Unfortunately, he had forgotten that she had gone after the Whiskey bottle earlier and had left it with her before looking after Kaia.

"Give it to me", he chuckled and pointed at the bottle in her hands.

"No, I can take it", Emily slurred. "I'm totally fine."

"Nope, you're drunk", he corrected her. "And I already have to take care of your daughter, and if you drink any more I will have to sing you to sleep just like her."

She had problems to stand straight as he pulled on the bottle, but she managed to keep her hands on it. It took him by surprise how strong she still was, even though she was drunk. They both kept pulling, neither of them winning. It was like two three-years-old's were fighting over a toy.

It was this one certain pull that she hadn't been prepared for and she stumbled forwards, the bottle smashing against his chest, and she smashed against the other side of the bottle. They had probably never been this close and he could smell the scent of Whiskey coming from her mouth.

Without any hesitation, she looked up into his eyes. Usually she would have immediately looked away again, but she was far away from thinking anything but clearly.

He looked down at her, not able to look away neither. There was something in her eyes that captured him, kept him close and stopped him from moving away.

And the next thing they both registered was how she got on her tiptoes, crashing her lips on his.