"Little do you know" - Hotchniss

warriors

It felt like the whole planet was standing still as Dr. Meyer stood in front of him.

"Her water broke during surgery", she sighed. "We had to get them out, otherwise they wouldn't have survived."

Even though it was only one simple sentence, Hotch's mind started spinning. It took way longer than usual to finally realize what she had said.

"So they are alive?", he whispered, his eyes wide open.

"Yes", Dr. Meyer nodded. "But since they were now born more than a month too early, they are both in incubators right now."

"Will they make it?", he asked, his heart probably standing still.

"I can never promise anything", she said in a serious tone. "But it looks better than I expected it."

"How is Emily?"

"She's recovering from surgery, she should wake up any minute. Do you wanna see her?"

He nodded, not able to say a word. "It looks better than I expected it", he repeated in his head. That was good, wasn't it? And Emily would wake up any minute, that meant that all three were at least okay, didn't it? His mind was an absolute mess.

"Let someone page me when she woke up and you wanna see your girls", Dr. Meyer smiled and pointed at a door down the hallway.

"Thank you", Aaron finally managed to say and quickly walked down the hallway, stopping in front of the door. He took a deep breath before he opened it carefully.

He had Emily seen in a hospital bed before, but this time, she was only connected to one machine, and only one hose entered her arm. She was sleeping, still she looked exhausted, but who could blame her? Her whole body looked fragile and he was sure that his heart had skipped a beat when he recognized that her baby belly was gone. Of course it was, still it took him by surprise.

Taking a chair, he sat down next to her bed, waiting for her to wake up.

It didn't take her long to slowly open her eyes, and he recognized that her eyes were filled with fear. She was scared, and it obviously didn't get better as she realized how flat her stomach was.

Her eyes shot up, meeting his and her hand immediately gripped his. "Aaron-"

"It's okay", he said softly. "They are okay."

"They are okay?", she whispered.

"They are in incubators right now", he explained.

Emily felt like someone had lifted a whole ton of stones from her shoulders. For a brief second, she had really thought that she had lost both of them. She wasn't able to remember anything from the surgery or the checks on her before, but she didn't mind. All that counted was that her children were okay at the moment.

"Have you already seen them?", she asked him.

He shook his head. "Dr. Meyer said we should let someone page her when you are ready."

"Hell, I am ready!", she exclaimed but directly regretted it, as she realized that her body was not able to give her so much energy yet.

-

Only some minutes later, they were standing in front of the neonatology. Aaron had insisted on moving Emily's wheelchair on his own. She hated that she was not able to walk on her own, but the scar on her belly still needed time to heal.

She reached up to squeeze his hand softly before Dr. Meyer let them in guiding them to two incubators without names.

Tears immediately shot into their eyes as they met their daughters for the first time. Tears of relief, tears of joy and maybe even tears of fear as well. It was a pure mix of emotions.

Aaron reached out with his hand to carefully touch his daughters little arm for the first time, and Emily did the same with the other twin.

Both babies were asleep and still really small, since they missed more than a month in Emily's belly, yet they looked fine. They were of course way weaker than a healthy baby, but under the given circumstances, it was clear that they were. Small hoses entered their body and Emily immediately felt sorry for them. They had to go through so much already.

"These two are little warriors", Dr. Meyer smiled. "They are even able to breathe on their own, yet I decided to give them some support to make it easier for them. I've already seen babies who were born only two weeks too early that didn't look as good as these two. And if I am honest, when I told you about your high risk of miscarriage months ago, I wouldn't have believed that both of them would actually make it."

"How long do they have to stay here?", Emily asked, not able to take her eyes off her daughters.

"As long as necessary", the doctor answered. "I guess two weeks are the minimum, but not longer than four if they continue to stay this strong."

"Thank you", she then whispered and looked up at Dr. Meyer. "For saving them."

Dr. Meyer just smiled and checked on the machines that were connected to their babies and the incubators.

"Oh, we still need names for the files and name badges", she then said.

Emily looked at her boyfriend, who rested one hand softly on her shoulder and gave her a small nod.

"Sadie and Avery Hotchner", she smiled and looked back at the girls again.

Aaron and her had had a hard time agreeing on names. Emily loved the way Sadie, but she had actually thought of name Westlyn as well, whereas he was going for Avery and Charlotte. In the end, they had decided on a compromise and chosen Sadie and Avery. And in that moment, both of them were glad that they had agreed on these names, because to them, they fit perfectly, now that they saw their daughters.

They spent hours in front of the two incubators, and later, even their parents, Jack, Kaia and the team came to welcome the two girls.

Emily would have to stay in hospital for some more days as well, so they could check on her scar regularly, but she was fine since this way, they were always close to the neonatology in case something happened.

At the end of the day, both of them were really exhausted. Aaron hadn't slept for more than 20 hours, and Emily was still recovering from her surgery. After everyone had gone home and JJ had taken Jack and Kaia, they found themselves in Emily's room again.

"Lay with me?", she mumbled, her eyes already half closed.

"Of course", he smiled and kicked off his shoes before climbing into the bed. Immediately, she snuggled close to him, burying her face in his side and breathing in his unique sent before she closed her eyes. He wrapped his arms around her carefully, so he wouldn't hurt her by touching the scar somehow.

"Good night", he whispered and pressed a soft kiss to her hair. "I love you."