"Little do you know" - Hotchniss

second of all

Hotch was not able to move as he stood next to Emily's bed, waiting for her to wake up. 50%. There was a chance of 50% that their baby would survive. His heart sank and tears silently rolled down his cheek. He knew that the fetus was fine at the moment, but how do you expect a parent to react when they get to know that their unborn child could die any minute?

Emily looked horrible. Every single bit of color had disappeared from her face, which made her raven hair look even darker in contrast. Her eyes were closed, and three different hoses entered her arm under a bandage.

Just this morning they had been so happy as she had told him about her pregnancy. But now; he had only learned that he would become a Dad again, he didn't even know if he would really reach that point.

"Aaron?"

Her voice was weak, choked. He immediately stepped closer to her bed, carefully taking her hand. It was ice-cold.

"Hey", he whispered, having a hard time to hold back more tears.

"What happened?"

"You were suffering from an active gastric ulcer but the doctors were able to remove it and to stop the bleeding, as well as helping your body to recover.", he explained, shivering.

It took her some seconds to understand all these information. Then, her eyes widened: "The baby!"

And she saw the tears in his eyes. She knew. She knew that something was up. Suddenly, her eyes filled with tears as well. "Aaron, tell me that everything is fine", she choked.

He couldn't tell her. It would break her, he knew.

"Aaron!"

"The baby is fine, but", his voice broke. "It was influenced as well and - and there is a high chance of a - a miscarriage.", he looked down, knowing that she would now panic.

But she didn't say anything.
This couldn't be true. Her mind was spinning, she felt like she was running out of air, like someone cut her lose and she fell and fell, lost in the darkness. Why was this happening? What had she done wrong?

"How high?", she then whispered and he finally looked up to her again.

"Em-"

"Say it, Aaron", she cut him off, using all the strength she had to speak loudly.

"50%", he whispered and a tear left his eye.

"50%", she repeated, and then the tears flooded her face as well.

And there they were, crying and holding hands, neither of them able to say a word. They were just too shocked.

Both of them were pulled out of their thoughts as Dr. Meyer entered the room.

"I see you've woken up", she said and looked up from her notes. Only then she discovered both of them crying. Immediately, she put her notes aside. "I know this is hard for you. But especially now both of you have to stay strong. If you start to accept the fact that you might not give birth to this child, it will only make things worse. Fight for your child, be strong for your child. It needs both of you now more than ever. You have to give yourself a start, understood?"

Both of them were only able to form a nod as an answer. They wiped away the tears and listened to Dr. Meyer as she informed them about the upcoming treatment.

"I think I've talked enough now", she then smiled and let out a small sigh. "Good. Do you now wanna see your child?"

Emily's eyes widened and she looked at her boyfriend whose eyes had widened as well. Neither of them had seen their baby yet on an ultra-sound.

"Of course", he whispered and squeezed her hand.

As Dr. Meyer then worked on the settings for the ultra-sound, Emily suddenly thought about the other children at their house.

"Oh my God", she exclaimed. "What about Jack and Kaia?" As far as she remembered, they had been asleep as they had left to the hospital.

"JJ", he just smiled. "Don't worry, she's taking care of them."

Emily smiled and let herself sink against the back of her bed again. "Thank God", she whispered and internally thanked her best friend for being such an amazing person. She knew that JJ wanted to have kids on her own with Will one day, but Emily sometimes had the feeling that JJ was still hoping that Reid and her would somehow work out again.

"Ready?", Dr. Meyer smiled and they nodded and Emily lifted up her shirt. She didn't have a real baby bump yet, but Aaron and her immediately smiled in tears as their eyes looked down on her stomach.

As the cold jelly touched Emily's skin, it immediately brought memories of her first pregnancy back and she remembered how nervous she had been back then. She was nervous at the moment as well, but it was a different kind of nervousness. Back then, she had just been nervous and excited to see her baby for the first time. Now she was nervous and worried to death because of her high risk of a miscarriage.

"Oh!", Dr. Meyer exclaimed after she started moving the connection to the machine over her stomach.

"What?", Aaron asked her, chewing his own lip. Emily had her eyes just fixed on the doctor, waiting for an answer.

Dr. Meyer furrowed her eyebrows and looked closer at the display, which was still facing away from them. "Give me a second", she mumbled. Emily and Aaron exchanged worried looks, and she squeezed his hand to remind him that they had to be strong for their baby.

"Okay", Dr. Meyer then smiled. "First of at all; at the moment, everything seems fine. There is a little, but steady heartbeat. If I didn't know about the gastric ulcer, I would promise you that everything is perfectly fine, but I cannot give you this promise, I guess you understand. The risk is still at 50%."

Hotch let out a small sigh and smiled at Emily. A part of their bodies relaxed, knowing that everything was okay, at least at the moment. Yet, the high risk of a miscarriage still caused pain for both of them.

"And second of all?", Emily whispered. "Can we finally see him or her?"

"Second of all", Dr. Meyer smiled. "I found two little heartbeats. May I introduce you to your twins?", and with these words, she turned the display into their direction.