safe with me - Hotchniss

the eighth month

"One month", Emily mumbled to herself as she walked into the kitchen of Hotch's and her apartment. "One month left."

She was tired of carrying her baby belly around all the time, which had grown a lot the past few weeks. Neither her or Hotch could wait to finally meet their son after all these months.

Yawning, Emily grabbed a bar of chocolate. As she was about to open it, she felt her baby kicking again. She wasn't going to lie, he kicked like crazy. Especially when she was trying to sleep.

"Whoa, calm down, baby boy", she chuckled and gently placed one hand on her belly. "I know that you are down there, don't worry."

"I'm home!", she turned around as soon as Hotch's voice entered her eyes. Immediately, a huge smile crept on her face. A smile she would never be able to wash off as long as he was around.

"Hey", she greeted him as his head popped into the kitchen.

"Here you are", he smiled and walked towards her, carefully wrapping his arms around his super-pregnant fiancée. "How are you two?"

"Great", she replied and placed her hands on his biceps. "He's kicking a lot again. How was work?"

"We got our guy", he grinned proudly. "And I got you something."

"What's that?", she raised her eyebrows.

"Well, even though you asked me to marry you, I still wanted to give you this", his hand reached in the pocket of his jacket and he quickly got down on one knee. Opening a small box with the most beautiful ring Emily had ever seen, he asked: "Emily Prentiss, will you make me the luckiest guy on this planet and marry me?"

"Of course I will", she laughed and bent down, kissing him passionately.

"Even though you just did that", she grinned as he slipped the ring on her finger. "won't change the fact that I proposed first!"

"I know", he sighed as he got up. "And I'll never ever forgive you that."

"Well, poor you then", she smiled and kissed him again.

Usually every little girl dreamed of the perfect proposal with candlelights and roses, and so had Emily Prentiss. Yet, her relationship with Aaron was something she had never experienced before, he was so special in so many ways and let her feel things she had never felt before. When she had asked him to marry her, she knew that she wouldn't regret doing it. This had been the proposal she had wanted and she didn't need any candles and flowers anymore. She just needed him. Him, for the rest of her life.

Nevertheless, Aaron as this typical alpha male felt like he should have asked her to marry him. It made him even worry that she'd might think that he hadn't thought of marrying her. He truly had.

"You know that I would have asked you, too, don't you?", he then said, his voice more serious.

"What?", she asked.

"I would have asked you to marry me, too", he explained. "I was a bit scared that you asked me to marry you because you felt like I wouldn't ask you, so you did it yourself. But I had thought about it, more than once. I really had."

"Hey", Emily reached out and softly cupped his face with her hands. "I know you did. I hadn't planned to ask you just like this, out of blur. I never meant to scare you, honey. Okay?"

A small smile formed on both their lips as they stared in each other's eyes.

"Okay?", she repeated.

"Okay", he whispered and kissed her forehead. "Wanna move to the couch?"

"I thought you'd never ask", she chuckled. "My legs are dying."

"Well then", he said and carefully picked her up in the bridal-style.

"Aaron!", she laughed and hit his chest playfully. "Let me down! I weigh like 200 pounds!"

"Trust me, you don't", he grinned as he placed her on the couch.

He turned on the TV and laid down next to her, raising his arm so she could slip under it and rest her head on his chest. A few minutes, they stayed silent and kept their eyes on the screen.

"What about Max?", Aaron suddenly asked.

She raised her head to look at him. Their son's name had been quite a tough question for both of them the past few weeks. They just hadn't been able to find the perfect name. As strange as it was, they had easily agreed on a second name - but the first name had still been quite a task.

"Max?", she repeated.

"Yea", he nodded. "It just popped on my mind as I thought about our future. I don't know why. Emily, Aaron, Jack and Max. And Sergio, of course", he added as he saw the black cat in the corner of his eye.

Letting out a laugh, Emily turned her head to shot a short look at her cat, then looked back at her fiancé. "I guess he'll always love you for counting him as a part of the family", she grinned. She still remembered how much Sergio used to hate Hotch in the very beginning, but they kinda warmed up to each other.

"Max...", she then repeated again. "I guess I like the sound of that name."

Immediately, Aaron's eyes widened. "Really? Please be honest, I -"

"Babe, I am honest", she chuckled. "I think that's the perfect name for our son."

"Max Grayson Hotchner", he smiled. "I really like that."

"So we finally found a name?", Emily smiled back.

"We just did", Aaron replied, his eyes glowing in happiness. He moved one hand to her belly, feeling some of the kicks their son was still giving his mother. "I can't wait to meet you, Max.", he whispered and it nearly moved Emily to tears to see him this emotionally happy.