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petercapaldisvoice · 2 years ago

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Fire & Ice - Chapter 2

The case was over, the danger was gone and they could go home and finally celebrate Christmas.

The case was over, so she'd let her defences down, not knowing that the worst was to come.

Chapter 1 can be read here

-x-

Hi friends,

Thank you so so much for the love/yelling on chapter one - it genuinely means the world. Really hope that you enjoy this chapter and I'm excited to know what you think!

-x-

Warnings: Canon typical injury

Words: 3.7k

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

He wakes up suddenly.

It takes a moment for everything to register, his mind blank as he tries to remember falling asleep in the first place. It all comes back at once.

The patch of ice he hadn’t seen until it was too late. The pain in his head from where it had hit the steering wheel, the ache in his ribs from where the seatbelt had held him in place as the car span out of control and hit a tree.

He groans as he blinks repeatedly, trying and failing to clear his vision, to lessen the ache in his head. He slowly turns his head to look at Detective Rooney, to check in on the man who had been with him, but his eyes widen when he realises he’s not there, the empty seat and space where the passenger door should have been staring back at him.

He grunts as he undoes his seatbelt, his instinct to find the other man, to make sure he is okay, overriding any concern about his own injuries. He tries to push open the door on his side of the car but it’s jammed, crumpled shut, so he climbs over the centre console, his body burning with pain in protest and he steps out onto the snow-covered ground, the sound of it crunching below his unsteady feet.

It was dark, his eyes straining as they adjust so he could see. He opens his mouth to yell out Detective Rooney’s name, chastising himself internally as it takes a second for the other man’s first name to come back to him.

“David,” he yells out, looking around, walking carefully further down the bank they’d crashed into, “Dav-”

He stops as he spots him lying in a creek, and he comes close to losing his footing as he speeds up, almost falling over as he makes it to the other man’s side. He thinks nothing of it as he slips into the water, the shock of the cold stealing the breath from his lungs as he reaches for Detective Rooney, the pain in his ribs only increasing as he lifts him out of the water, laying him down on the snow-covered ground.

He collapses next to him, any adrenaline he had fading, his breath stuttering as his wet clothes stick to his skin, the cold seeping into him. He thinks of his phone still in the car, cursing himself for leaving it behind in his attempt to find Detective Rooney.

He slips into unconsciousness again, the cold and his injuries finally catching up with him.

___

Emily blows out a breath as she checks her watch again, nerves starting to spark in her stomach, the feeling switching from impatience to concern as more time passed, “What’s taking so long? And why isn’t Aaron answering his damn phone.”

They’d been gone almost twice as long as Aaron said they’d be. The team had finished packing everything up and were just waiting to go home, something they were all keen to do as soon as possible. She’d tried to call him more than once and sent a few texts that had remained unanswered.

“They probably just got caught up at the jail, Detective Rooney did say that there was barely any cell service on route,” Dave says, his smile wry, “You’ll get your boyfriend back soon enough.”

She rolls her eyes at him, but any response is cut off as JJ stands up, her own desire to get home clear, “I’ll call the county jail,” she says, pulling her phone out of her pocket, “See what’s going on.”

Emily smiles at her friend as she walks away and she checks her phone again, sighing at the time before her smile widens at the picture of her and Aaron that she had was her wallpaper. She’d changed it from a picture of Sergio when they told the team about them, an urge she didn’t fully understand to put their relationship, their love, on display forcing her to switch it. It was a selfie she’d taken of the two of them on a recent date night, their cheeks pressed together and wide smiles on both of their faces.

“Never took Hotch as a selfie kind of guy.”

She smiles tightly at Derek as she looks up at him. At first, she thinks he’s being snarky again, but she can see the soft look in his eyes, the half he’s offering her. It was an olive branch, the first sign of recognition that he’d been unfair to her.

“Well,” she says, locking her phone and slipping it back into her pocket, “I have my ways to convince him,” she raises her eyebrows at him, and he grimaces, something that makes her chuckle, “He is my boyfriend, Derek - we do have se-”

“We’ve got a problem,” JJ says as she walks back over, her shoulder tense, and Emily feels the spark of worry in her stomach catch fire, making her belly roll.

“What’s wrong?”

JJ sighs as she grips her phone, her eyes full of sympathy that makes Emily angry in a way she knows her friend doesn’t deserve, “They left over two hours ago,” she says, “They should have been here by now.”

It feels like the earth shifts beneath Emily, making her glad she’s sitting down, all the worst case scenarios briefly overwhelming her, “Wh…what? Then where the hell are they?”

She’s never been more grateful for Derek’s ability to take over a situation, the man passing out instructions to everyone. He tells JJ to call Penelope so she can track Aaron’s phone, he tells Dave to try calling him again and gets Spencer to look over the route they would have taken on a map.

It’s only when Derek places his hand on her arm and squeezes that she realises she’d been frozen in place, her eyes fixed on the wall ahead of them. She snaps her head to look at him, the kindness in his smile enough to make her want to yell at him.

“Everything will be fine, Princess,” he says, squeezing her arm again, “They probably just got stuck in some snow somewhere.”

She nods, not quite sure she believes him, because life had never been quite that kind to her, “Yeah,” she replies, swallowing thickly, “Everything will be fine.”

She doesn’t think she’s ever been so terrified when Penelope calls back and confirms Aaron’s phone hasn’t moved for over an hour.

___

Derek refuses to let her come at first, a stern look on his face as he tries to stop her from getting in the SUV with him and Spencer. She makes it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she is going with them, her winter jacket already on as she climbs into the passenger seat.

The journey is tense, quiet, and every mile stretches out ahead of them as Derek drives.

“Can’t we go any faster?” She asks for the dozenth time, picking at her thumbnail, the sting of it distracting her from everything else, from the fact she didn’t know what had happened to the man she loves.

“Not in these conditions,” Derek replies, his patience with her irritating.

“The place where Penelope tracked Hotch’s phone is just around this bend,” Spencer says from the back of the car.

Derek frowns, “Are you sure, there’s nothing out here?”

“I have an Eidetic memory,” Spencer quips as the car comes to a stop, “That’s why you had me look at the maps and brought me along-”

“Guys,” Emily says, already unbuckling her seat belt as Derek parks up. She frowns as she sees something metallic, the headlights of the SUV catching it before they switch off with the engine, “I think I see something.”

She grabs her flashlight and is out of the car in seconds, Derek just behind her as she spots the car Aaron and Detective Rooney had left the precinct in earlier. She gasps at the sight of it, the metal wrapped around a tree, and she barely registers Derek calling back to Spencer and asking him to call for backup and an ambulance. She gets closer to the car, ignoring Derek’s insistence that she’s careful. She shines the flashlight in the car and swallows thickly when she sees that it is empty.

“They aren’t here,” she says as she turns back to Derek. Her chest feels tight, anxiety she can barely hide anymore filling her lungs, “Where the fuck are they?”

“They can’t have gone far,” Derek says, he shines his flashlight down the hill next to them, and he stops, his eyes going wide as he spots the two men next to the creek, “Em…”

She turns, and her breath catches in her chest, her ribs aching with it as she tries and fails to breathe back out.

“Aaron.”

“Hotch.”

She and Derek yell out simultaneously, the sight of him lying on the ground, just a few feet from Detective Rooney, enough to make them briefly freeze on the spot. She almost loses her footing as she slides down the small hill, and she grazes her hand on the ground as she puts it out to steady herself, but she doesn’t feel the sting.

Emily kneels next to him, the cold wet feeling of the snow beneath her not registering as it seeps through her pants. She reaches out for him, hesitating momentarily before touching his neck, mentally preparing herself to feel nothing, preemptive grief filling her lungs. She feels a faint pulse, too faint, and gasps at how cold he is, the temperature of his skin enough to make her pull back in shock like she’d been electrocuted.

He was usually so warm.

Derek checks on Detective Rooney and curses under his breath as she shakes his head, “He’s gone,” he says, looking up at Emily, “Is Hotch-”

“He’s alive,” she says, cutting him off before he can finish his sentence, not wanting to even put the words out there. She shrugs her thick winter jacket off her shoulders as she lays it over Aaron, “He’s freezing cold,” she looks around, “Where the fuck is that ambulance?”

“It’s on its way, Em,” Derek says, watching her carefully as she shifts closer to Aaron, pulling his head into her lap as she does her best to stay calm. Derek unzips his jacket and lays it over her shoulders, smiling softly at her as she jumps slightly, her hands already moving to shrug it off and lay it over Aaron. He stops her and shakes his head, playing his hand on her shoulder, “Keep it on, we both know he’d kill me if you have hypothermia when he wakes up.”

She nods, knowing he is right, that Aaron’s first priority is never going to be himself. She reaches for Aaron’s hand, clenching her teeth to stop herself from crying at how cold he is, and she sandwiches it between hers, rubbing her skin against his to try and get some warmth back into him.

“Don’t do that,” Spencer says, appearing out of seemingly nowhere with a blanket he’d pulled from the trunk of the car, “Trying to warm someone's limbs like that can cause stress on the heart and lungs, he could have a heart attack.”

Emily drops Aaron’s hand like she’s been burned and she chokes on a laugh, her breath visible as it is forced out of her chest, “What am I supposed to do? Just sit here?”

Spencer nods, “The hospital isn’t far from here,” he says, “The ambulances should be here soon,” he looks past Aaron to Detective Rooney, “Is he…”

Derek nods, “He’s dead,” he confirms, “I’m not sure how they ended up down here.”

Emily runs her fingers through Aaron’s hair, pulling out snowflakes as she goes, “I’d put money on Aaron doing something stupid and heroic,” she says, shaking her head, a tear finally falling onto her cheek as she hears sirens in the distance, “He never thinks of his own safety.”

If Derek and Spencer have something comforting to say, they don’t say it, and she’s grateful, unable to cope with platitudes as she sits on the cold, wet, ground, cradling the man she loves in her lap.

When the ambulances arrive, Derek has to physically pull her away from Aaron, his grip on her tight as the EMTs do their job.

___

She keeps her eyes fixed on him, the rhythm of his heart rate on the monitor a reassurance she desperately needs.

She’d sent the others back to the hotel. In the morning they’d likely go home, something she knows Aaron will insist on when he wakes up, but she’d stay as long as he was here. The thought of leaving him here something she wouldn’t even entertain, no matter how much he tried to convince her.

She holds his hand, his skin warmer now than it had been earlier but still cooler than usual. She hooks her fingers around his wrist, the feeling of his pulse another reassurance she needed, the thready, slow pulse she’d felt earlier still haunting her. The press of it permanently tattooed into her skin.

If they’d been any later, she could have lost him. That’s what the doctor had told her. If he’d been out there for much longer than he had been he would have died.

The thought alone is enough for tears to press at the back of her eyes as she stares at their linked hands. She knew in the grand scheme of things she hadn’t been with him for long, but she couldn’t imagine her life without him.

“Em?”

She looks up so quickly that her neck pulls, something she barely feels as her eyes meet his, a relieved sigh escaping her as she squeezes his hand.

“Hi,” she says, “How are you feeling?”

He clears his throat, “Sore,” he says, his ribs aching in a way that was familiar from injuries in the past. He shivers, cold seemingly having settled in his bones, even though he was under multiple blankets, “Cold.”

She smiles and stands up, perching on the edge of the bed, needing to be as close to him as possible, “That’s not surprising,” she says, leaning in to stamp a kiss against his lips. When she pulls back she adjusts the cannula delivering him oxygen, making sure it’s straight as she carries on, “You did go for a swim in a creek when it was snowing,” she tries to joke, but it falls flat and he squeezes her hand, “What the hell happened?”

“I lost control of the car,” he says, shaking his head like he’d done something wrong. He frowns as Detective Rooney comes to mind, Emily’s presence - her warmth - having distracted him so far, “Did Rooney…”

He trails off and she sighs, running her thumb back and forth over his wrist, “He didn’t make it,” she says, shifting closer when she sees the guilt flash across his face, “I’m so sorry honey.”

“He had his seatbelt undone,” he says, swallowing thickly, guilt bitter on his tongue, “He was thrown from the car. I found him in the creek,” he says, shivering as if the mere mention of the water makes him cold again, the memory of it, of his wet clothes stuck to his skin, making him tremble, “I tried to save him.”

She sighs as he unknowingly proves her right, and she leans down, resting her forehead against his, “When you’re better,” she says, stamping her lips against his, “We’re going to have a conversation about you putting yourself in danger like that.”

“He has…had a family.”

“And you have one,” she says, her eyes stern as she pulls back to look at him, “How do you think Jack and I would cope if we lost you.”

He smiles at the way she casually refers to herself as his family, and it takes everything in him not to ask her to move in with him on the spot.

“So,” he says, smiling softly, “When can you break me out of here?”

She knows he’s changing the subject so he doesn’t have to talk about it, and she knows they’ll talk about this again. Talk about the guilt he feels about Detective Rooney, and her irritation at him putting himself in a situation where he could have died in order to try and save him. Now wasn’t the time. She’d wait until the were home, when the cold chill that had permeated his skin had gone completely.

She shakes her head lovingly at him, “Between your grade 2 concussion,” she says, pushing his hair out of his face to see the bandage on his forehead, “Your hypothermia and your four cracked ribs, I think you’ll be here for a while, baby,” she smiles as he groans, and she cuts him off before he can reply, “And no, I am not taking you home against medical advice.”

He sighs, but he knows he’d do the same if their positions were reversed, “Well, if you won’t take me home, you should at least get into bed with me,” he says, smiling softly at her, “Warm me up.”

She hesitates, because she doesn’t want to hurt him, but she nods, wanting nothing more than to snuggle up to him, to feel him breath against her. She kisses him once more before she shifts so she can join him in the bed. She’s careful not to jostle him as she pulls him into her side, his arms wrapped around him as she kisses his cheek.

“Better?” She asks quietly and he nods against her, his forehead against her neck.

“Much better,” he replies, pressing a kiss to her collarbone, “I’m sorry we’ll have to delay Christmas again,” he says, tilting his head to look up at her, “And New Year. I know the holidays are important to you.”

She holds him even tighter, “Not as important as you,” she says, kissing his forehead, smiling against his skin, her lips on the edge of the bandage there, as he yawns, “You should get some rest, sweetheart,” she says, pulling back to look at him, “I’ll be right here.”

“Love you,” he says, closing his eyes, his exhaustion taking over.

“Love you too.”

She plays with his hair as he falls asleep, something she knows always helped him relax, and she sighs in relief as he gets heavier against her. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and types out a text to Jessica, hesitating for only a moment before she presses send.

I’ve had an idea. If I book a flight for you and Jack how quickly could you get here?

Only a couple of minutes pass before she gets a reply, the message making her smile wildly.

I’ll start packing!

___

“Daddy has been sleeping a long time.”

Aaron frowns in confusion as he starts to become aware of his surroundings, sure he must still be dreaming if he can hear Jack’s voice. They’d been here for a couple of days now, his release from hospital still several days away, and he missed his son. He’d tried to send Emily home but she’d refused, stubborn in her refusal to barely leave the hospital, let alone the state.

He hears Emily chuckle, “That’s because he needs the sleep to get better, sweet boy,” she says, her voice quieter than Jack’s.

Aaron opens his eyes, his confusion only deepening when he’s met with the sight of Emily sitting on the chair next to his bed, Jack contently curled up in her lap, his focus on a toy that she’d given him to keep him entertained. It makes a tension he hadn’t realised he’d been carrying around in his chest ease, his two favourite people in the world always enough to make him feel better.

“Jack,” Emily says, smiling as her eyes meet Aaron’s, her cheeks warm as he looks at them both with so much love she thinks she could cry, “Look who’s awake.”

Jack looks up, his smile wide as he tries to climb out of Emily’s lap quickly, “Daddy!”

“Careful, Jack,” Emily says, grabbing him and placing him softly on Aaron’s bed, her smile soft as Jack is immediately gentler, “Remember what we said, Daddy will be sore.”

He nods and settles next to his father, “Hi Daddy.”

“Hi buddy,” he says, hugging his son, wincing slightly at the pull in his ribs, “What are you doing here?”

Jack pulls back and smiles at him, “Me and Aunt Jessie flew here today! Emily paid for our flights - I had a huge seat,” he says, his enjoyment of his flight something he hadn’t stopped talking about to Emiyl since he arrived, “We surprised you!”

Aaron chuckles and looks at his girlfriend, “I’m definitely surprised.”

She feels a mix of joy and embarrassment warm her from the inside out, “Jess is at the hotel,” she explains, “Jack wanted to stay here with you and me.”

He smiles at her as he hugs his son, “What made you decide to do this?”

She shrugs as if it’s nothing, as if she hadn’t given him what he himself hadn’t realised he needed, “We missed Christmas together, but we didn’t have to miss New Year together,” her smile soft, “Even if we do have to spend it in a hospital.”

He smiles, everything he wants to say trapped in his chest as he shakes his head in disbelief at how it feels to be loved like this. Something he thinks he’ll spend the rest of his life trying to prove to himself that he deserves.

“Jack,” he says, looking down at his son, leaning in like he was sharing a secret, “I think Emily should come over and snuggle with us, don’t you?”

She rolls her eyes as Jack nods enthusiastically, “Just like at home!”

“Yeah,” Aaron says, looking back at her, unwrapping one arm from around Jack and offering it out to her, She shakes her head and takes his hand, letting herself be guided towards the bed, climbing in on Aaron’s other side, the three of them squished together, the pieces of the family that they were building slotting together perfectly, “Just like at home.”

-x-

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