10 things I hate about you - Hotchniss

worthy

"What happened to your nose?", Elizabeth Prentiss furrowed her brows as she discovered the patch on Aaron's nose as he entered her office.

"Nothing serious", he quickly said. Never in a million years he would openly admit that Emily had broken his nose the day before.

Aaron knew that he had gone too far by insulting her, but he hadn't been able to help himself. After Jason had rejected and he had comforted her, he had actually thought that they'd be able to build a friendly basis, without this annoying competition between them - especially since they knew that they had to stick around together for some more time. To be honest, he had just started to sympathize with her a bit, but now he knew that nothing would ever change her ruined character.

"I hope so", the ambassadress sighed and looked down at her papers again. "We have an important dinner tonight with a colleague of the state secretary. His wife and son will be there, too. Make sure that Emily will be downstairs in time and that she looks presentable. I want his son to like her."

'How could someone possibly like her?', Aaron thought, but just nodded and said: "Understood. Anything else?"

"No, that's it", she replied. "Thank you."

He left the office and was about to go to Emily's room, but he stopped halfway. He'd tell her later, he didn't really want to face her right then. Turning around, the young agent walked into the huge garden. Leaning against the wall of the pavilion, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second.

When Aaron had started his job at the ambassadress' house, he had expected everything, but not a young girl to ruin everything for him that heavily.

Emily laid in her bed, staring at the wall above her. Her whole body felt numb after crying all the time. She didn't even know what made her cry more, the pain she felt because of Jason or the pain she felt because of Aaron's words.

She knew that Olivia had tried to call her, but she hadn't replied. She hadn't left her room since the incident with Agent Hotchner apart from getting something to drink. It was like Emily Prentiss had fallen into a deep hole.

Hours passed, feeling like seconds.

The knock on her door was harsh, but she didn't even recognize it. As usual, Aaron entered without waiting for her reply.

"Your family has an important dinner in two hours, which you have to attend", he said coldly. She didn't reply.

"Are you seriously not going to talk to me?", he sighed. Again, Emily remained silent.

"Look, I'm - I'm sorry", he sighed. "I didn't have the right to say the things I said."

For the first time, she turned her head in his direction. Only then he recognized how bad she looked. Dark circles surrounded her eyes, which were red from crying, her skin was pale and she looked like she had been starving for weeks.

"For how long have you laid here?", Aaron asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

She just shrugged, slowly getting up. He watched her walking over to her wardrobe and carelessly pulling out a black lace dress.

"I'll pick you up at 6", he just said and left her room. Closing the door behind him, he knew that he couldn't just leave her like that.

In the meanwhile, Emily had taken a short shower and pulled the black dress on. As she was brushing her hair, she looked at herself in the mirror with tired eyes. That was what she was, tired. Her soul was tired. She was even too tired to discuss about going to the dinner that night.

Was she really that bad? Was she not worthy of love?

Emily had always had a lot of self-confidence, but it seemed like all this had been shattered within some hours two days ago. She herself had not known that she was that fragile, but it only proved one thing to her: never lose your heart or your trust to a person.

All her life, she'd had problems at trusting people, her friends at school had been the only ones that had managed to make her open up - including Jason. And now there she was, not able to talk to her most important friends, him and Olivia - alone again.

And Agent Hotchner, he had been completely different. Until that point, Emily hadn't even known that she had actually trusted him. But she had, without any reason. Nevertheless, he had proven her wrong, too.

She covered the dark circles under her eyes with a lot of make-up and tried to make herself look more or less alive. Failing terribly, she just shrugged and sat down on her bed again. It was like she was paralyzed again, just like when Aaron had talked to her.

The knock on her door was softer this time, but she didn't answer anyways. Asking himself why he was even knocking all the time, Aaron walked in. He had brought a plate with food, some coffee and even a new pack of cigarettes.

"Greta was really glad when I asked her for a meal for you", he said and placed everything in front of Emily. "You should really eat something before you go down there, it will make you feel better. And coffee will give at least a bit energy. I hope that's the right brand of cigarettes."

Her eyes were glued on the plate in front of her. She wasn't hungry at all, but she craved for cigarettes. And yes, it was the right brand, Marlboro Gold.

"I'm going to leave you alone", he sighed as he realized that she wouldn't talk to him. "See you in one and a half hours."

"Hey, Aaron", she whispered and his eyes widened at the sound of his first name. Emily Prentiss had never used his given name before, especially not in such a weak voice. Only then he realized how much this situation had actually broken her.

Slowly, he turned around again.

"I'm sorry for breaking your nose. I shouldn't have done that."