10 things I hate about you - Hotchniss

strength

Some week passed and things got a lot easier between Aaron and Emily. They didn't consider each other as friend yet - even though they obviously kinda were - but they had stopped to hate the other. In fact, Aaron had even helped Emily to avoid some awful meetings and to sneak out at night. Those were things Agent Hotchner would usually never do, but Emily brought out a completely different side of him.

Emily was still struggling with the thought of Jason, yet Aaron had kinda managed to keep her busy and distracted most of the time. Sometimes, she was really glad that he was there.

"Can't you tell them I am still sick?", she sighed and shot him a sad look. "I really want to go to these games!"

Aaron had just entered her room and told her about her mother's latest plans, but Emily didn't intend to go to any dinner or meeting that night.

"I already excused you for a dinner last week, it's going to be too obvious", he replied. "And do you really think that it is a good idea to attend a football game where you are going to face Jason for the first time again?"

"I want to face him", Emily spat. "I am more than ready."

Anger shot through her veins and she took a deep breath.

"I don't believe so", Aaron furrowed his eyebrows.

"Hotch, I need to go there! I need to do this for me!", Emily exclaimed.

"Did you just call me Hotch?"

"I think so", she shrugged. "Sounded weird. But I guess it'd make the perfect nickname for you."

"I don't like nicknames."

"I don't care."

"Whatever", he rolled his eyes. "I need you at this dinner tonight. I know that you hate it, but this is also important for my job and future. Please."

"And this is important to me as well, don't you get that? If I don't show up there tonight, they'll believe that I'm still crying myself to sleep because of Jason", Emily shot him a begging look.

Hotch knew that she actually did cry herself to sleep some nights, but he would never tell her. That would only make her angry, and if there was one thing he couldn't stand, then it was an angry Emily Prentiss.

"Emily, you are not ready to 'come back' tonight!", he shook his head.

"You're only saying this because you want me at this dinner tonight", she hissed.

"No, I'm saying this because I know that you are overestimating yourself", Aaron explained. "It's easy to say that you are ready and that you are over him if you aren't seeing him. The challenge is to look Jason in the eye and see his smile and hear his voice and still be able to say 'this is not what I want anymore'. Right now, you feel strong as hell, you are angry and somehow really motivated, but we both know that it still hurts. And it's going to get even worse when you see him tonight."

"Stop profiling me", Emily sighed. 

"This is not profiling", he replied. "This is just a fact. I experienced it myself."

"But I am not like you", she exclaimed. "Did it ever occur to you that a girl might have a stronger mind and heart than you do? Oh, of course not. Why did I even ask?"

"There are many people out there, including women, who are a lot stronger than I am", Aaron simply said. "But at the moment, you don't count as one of them. You are probably the strongest girl I have ever met, no doubts, but at the moment you're just too broken."

There were some minutes of silence until Emily finally sighed and gave in: "Fine. You win. But next time, I won't give in and you will have to help me again, okay?"

"Sure", he gave her a short smile. A smile formed on Emily's lips as well as she saw his dimples showing. God, how she loved his dimples. Wait, had she actually just thought about Aaron Hotchner's dimples? Hell, she really needed to go out again as soon as possible.

_

Aaron had been waiting in the hallway for ten minutes already and he was getting slightly impatient. After another five minutes he decided to pick her up. 

As he entered her room without knocking again, he just found it being empty.

"Emily?", he called out, taking a short look in her dressing room and bathroom, but he couldn't find the ambassadress' daughter anywhere.

"Fuck", he cursed to himself and discovered a note pinned to one of the windows: 

I'm really sorry, but I had to.

"Damn it", he cursed again, realizing that she had given him way too easy earlier. He should have noticed that. 

Quickly, he made his way downstairs and informed the ambassadress that Emily had just thrown up and that he would drive her to a doctor. Elizabeth had actually wanted to see her daughter to make sure that he was telling the truth, but to Aaron's luck, her guests arrived just in that moment. 

Taking a deep breath, Aaron left the mansion and walked to his car. Emily hadn't told him the place of the game on purpose, but finding the only football game in town wasn't that difficult. 

He parked his car some streets apart from the football field and went the rest by foot. He was really angry, she had used his trust and not kept her word. Aaron had really believed that they had already been over this phase. Additionally, he knew that Emily would feel even worse after the night and he wanted to save her from that before it was too late. 

The field was surrounded by many people in the age of Emily and Aaron. He had no clue why this match was so popular, but it seemed like nearly a whole school was coming to watch it even though it was summer break. Finding Emily around here would be really hard.

Looking for his way through the crowd, Aaron kept looking closely at the people, trying to find someone who could know her. As he discovered a group of girls, all having a cigarette at the edge of the field, he decided to just talk to them. 

"Excuse me, have you seen Emily Prentiss?", he asked.

"Why?", one of them asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I'm a friend and it's really-", he started, but a certain voice cut him off. 

"Hotch?" 

It was barely a whisper, more a sob, and before he had even turned around, he knew that he was already too late.