"Little do you know" - Hotchniss

homecoming

"Welcome home", Emily whispered as they entered their new house, each of them carried one of the twins in her arms.

Two months had passed. Unexpectedly, the twins had to stay more than four weeks in the incubators, since Dr. Meyer wanted to be 100% sure about their health condition before they would be able to go home. Especially Sadie had some problems in the first weeks, she was the smaller and weaker one, but by then she had already gained some more strength.

Emily smiled down at Avery in her arms, who was looking around with her wide, brown eyes which were similar to Aaron's and her own eyes.

The house was completely silent, since JJ would stop by later to drop off Kaia and Jack. They had all agreed that it might be better if the babies had a calm homecoming.

"She's already asleep again", Aaron smiled and rocked Sadie softly.

"Let's bring them to their cribs", Emily whispered and they walked into their bedroom, where two baby cribs were already waiting for them. Carefully, they laid both of them down. Sadie was still sleeping peacefully, and Avery was slowly closing her eyes as well. They would sleep a lot in the first days, Dr. Meyer had told them before they had left.

Aaron stepped closer to his girlfriend and wrapped his right arm around her waist as they watched the twins.

"I'm so happy", she whispered and leaned against him. They had made it, both of them. She would have never dared to get her hopes up that high the previous months, but now she was just thankful that fate didn't decide to take one or both of them away.

"Me too", he smiled and pressed a soft kiss to her hair.

"You kept your promise, right?", she said softly, looking up to him.

"There were times that I thought I couldn't", he sighed. "But I had promised you, and I keep my promises."

A smile formed on her lips and she brought her hand to his cheek. "I love you", she whispered before she gently pulled his head down to her, kissing him. She grinned into the kiss as she felt how he kissed her back almost immediately as her lips touched his.

"I love you, too", he replied after they had parted again. "And I have always asked myself if I told you often enough while you were in surgery. I should tell you every minute, of every day, Emily, because I love you so much. I have loved you for such a long time, there is no one who knows me as well as you do and still accepts me the way I am. I can't stop asking myself how I deserved someone as perfect as you, I mean, look at me; I'm a complete mess."

He felt how his fingers got a bit sweaty as he shoved his hand into the pocket of his trouser, looking for the little box he had bought some days ago.

"And when we're together, everything feels so easy and time passes so quickly. Look at us, about one year and nearly 9 months we finally managed to get together and now we are parents of two little girls, we bought a new house and we have a family with four kids in total. I already wanted to ask you some time ago, but it just didn't feel right to do it at a hospital, so-"

Pulling out the little box, he let go of her hand and got down one knee.

"Aaron, what are you doing?", she asked, her eyes wide open.

"I'm asking you to become my wife.", he said and opened the box, revealing a beautiful ring. "Emily Prentiss, will you marry me?"

Every single word was stuck in her throat, and her mouth just stood open as she stared down at the ring in front of her. Whatever she had expected, she had not expected a proposal. But she loved him, more than anything, and she wanted to spent the rest of her messy life with him.

"Yes", she whispered, tearing up in joy. "Hell, yes!"

He smiled as he slipped the ring on her finger before getting up again, immediately being pulled into a passionate kiss by his fiancée.

"I love you", she repeated. "I love you so damn much."

He was about to reply, but she had brought his lips back on hers again, and his hands were pulling her even closer by her waist while she was tugging on the hair of the base of his skull lightly. They chuckled as they finally broke apart, both running out of air. He leaned his forehead against hers, looking her directly in the eye.

"You make me the luckiest man on this planet", he breathed. She saw this little spark in his eyes, a spark of happiness.

"Same goes for you", she grinned and wiped away the tears on her cheek. God, she had always promised herself not to be such a stereotypical girl that would start to cry at her proposal, but she just couldn't help it; there were just too many emotions.

They eventually had to break apart as JJ dropped of Kaia and Jack. Of course she immediately noticed the new ring on Emily's finger after Aaron had walked to their bedroom with the kids, so they could see their siblings.

"Oh my god", she exclaimed and grabbed her best friend's hand, looking closely at the ring. It was silver, with one huge, crystal clear diamond on top, and the ring itself was covered with smaller diamonds. "Please tell me it is what it looks like!"

Emily grinned and nodded. "Of course it is."

"Congratulations, Em!", JJ pulled her into a tight hug.

"Thank you", Emily smiled. "It goes without saying that you'll be a bridesmaid, right?"

JJ nodded excitedly, looking back at the ring again. "Damn, I bet this one was expensive!"

Emily just smiled down at her hand. She didn't care whether the ring was expensive or not. The ring was the most beautiful she had ever seen, but she would have said yes even if he was proposing with a plastic ring.

She still wasn't able to realize that she was going to marry her best friend, the love of her life.

Looking at JJ again, she raised one eyebrow. "Now that we have some seconds on our since Aaron is able to occupy for children a once, you have to tell me everything about Reid and Will."

JJ let out a small sigh and followed her to the kitchen, where they sat down after Emily and brought them something to drink.

"I nearly slept with Reid again", she sighed and looked down.

"Wha - wait, again?", Emily blurted out.

"There are some things I might have to tell you about us", JJ whispered and in the next minutes, Emily learned that JJ and Reid had already been in a secret relationship twice.

Just after they had finished talking about the whole story, the heard one of the twins crying. It wouldn't take long for the other to join, Emily knew.

"God, this is going to be fun", Emily sighed. "As soon as one of them wakes up, the other one does, too."

They headed to Emily's and Aaron's bedroom, finding Aaron, who was trying to calm down Avery, and Kaia and Jack who were still observing Sadie, who was surprisingly still asleep.

"I guess she's hungry", Hotch said, obviously relieved that Emily had arrived, and handed his daughter to her.

Peace. They had finally found peace, or at least for the moment. They had managed to bring their children home in safety, something they hadn't even dared to think about some months earlier. It was the tight bond they were sharing, the way they couldn't live without the other. It was also their stubbornness, which brought them so close. Their love for each others had so many different factors that they knew for sure; they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with each other.