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whitecrossgirl · 11 days

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Early Hours

She was sure she hadn't slept properly in years, but she wouldn't change her life for anything.

Emily and Aaron are woken up in the middle of the night by their children.

-x-

Hi friends,

I know four days isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things for someone not to post but it is a long time for me so am sorry about that. Not to be 'one of those' fic writers, but I have the mumps and up until today it was fully melting my brain and face, and now it's just slightly melting my face. So I can write again!

This is a belated birthday fic for the lovely @whitecrossgirl. So sorry this is a few days late, but I hope you like it. Thanks for always being such a hype woman and always being happy for me to write things that make you yell. Here's to another year of unhinged fics and yelling <3

Let me know what you think!

-x-

Words: 2.5k

Warnings: none

Read over on AO3, or below the cut

Emily wakes up slowly, a luxury she hadn’t been afforded very often lately.

She rolls from her side onto her back and sighs contentedly, arching her back as she stretches. It’s only when she winces at the ache in her breasts, the fullness of them, that her eyes fly open as she sits up, switching on the lamp on the nightstand as she desperately looks for the reason she’d barely slept recently - her two-week-old son.

“Look, Elliot, Mommy is awake,” Aaron says quietly, and Emily turns to look at him, the momentary panic she’d felt over not having been woken up by her son’s hungry cries gone as soon as she lays eyes on them. Aaron is sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard, with Elliot lying against his chest, his palm wider than the baby’s back as he kept him securely against him. Elliot was awake, his eyes wide as he looked around, content in his father’s embrace.

“Hi sweet boy,” she says, leaning in to kiss Elliot’s head, taking a moment to breathe him in, before she kisses her husband, her lips catching the corner of his before he turns his head to kiss her properly. She smiles as she pulls back and pushes some of his hair from his forehead, her smile getting wider as he flops back down. He looked impossibly handsome like this, deliciously rumbled from sleep, relaxed in a way she would have once thought wasn’t possible for him, “Morning honey.”

He kisses her again, the action lost as he presses a smile against her lips, “Morning,” he looks at the clock on the nightstand and smiles when he sees it’s 3 am, “It’s technically morning anyway.”

She hums and kisses him one more time before she pulls back, placing her hand over his on their son’s back, “Is he okay? You could have woken me up.”

Aaron can’t help it when his smile gets wider, her love for their children something that never fails to make him fall impossibly more in love with her.

It was something that had started before they got together as he watched her with Jack, the little boy who would one day transition from calling her Emily to Mom. She was attentive with him, talked to him on his level, and never made him feel like he had less than all of her attention when he needed it. Jack had told Emily that he loved her before Aaron had, beating his father to the punch, and Aaron still felt guilty even all these years later about the flash of jealousy he’d felt leaning against his son’s bedroom doorframe as Emily repeated it back to him.

It was that same evening when Aaron asked her out on a date, nerves bubbling in his belly in a way they hadn’t since high school and he’d asked Haley out. Emily had barely let him finish his question, pulling him into a hug and a soft kiss before she told him she’d been waiting for him to ask.

She still made fun of him even now by bringing up the fact he’d asked her if that was a yes, as if the way she was pressed against him, the taste of her lips still lingering on his, wasn’t an answer in itself.

His love of watching her be a mother, something he’d always known she’d excel at, only increased when she was pregnant with Lucas. She’d spent the entire pregnancy worried she wouldn’t be any good at it, that her mother’s lack of maternal instinct was genetic, and he’d constantly reassured her that she’d be amazing, that she already was with Jack. The moment she’d held Lucas against her chest for the first time, her hands shaking as adrenaline and hormones washed through her, he’d seen the unrelenting love on her face as she memorised the now two-year-old’s features, her knuckles trailing down his soft skin as she soothed him with nothing more than her quiet reassurances and touch.

When they found out Elliot was going to be a boy too, he’d asked her if she was disappointed that they weren’t having a girl, both of them aware of the fact this would be their last baby. She’d simply smiled and ran her fingers through his hair, tears shining in her eyes as she told him it was clearly her lot to be surrounded by Hotchner boys, a fate she wouldn’t change for anything.

“We were okay sweetheart,” he says, turning his attention to his youngest son, pressing a kiss to his dark hair, “Right buddy?” He looks back up at his wife and passes Elliot over, knowing from her demeanour, the way her fingers twitch at her sides, that she wanted him in her arms, “I think he just wanted to snuggle, and you needed some sleep.”

She holds Elliot against her and kisses his head, “Daddy gives the best snuggles, huh Eli?” She says smiling as he immediately presses his face into her breasts, “Okay, I get it. You’re hungry.”

She adjusts her hold on the newborn and undoes the top few buttons of her shirt, the one that used to belong to Aaron, and unclips one of the cups of her maternity bra. She winces a little as Elliot latches on, scrunching her nose up as she holds him to her.

“It’s still hurting?”

She hums gently and runs her hand over the back of Elliot’s head, “Less than before his tongue-tie procedure yesterday,” she says, blowing out a slow breath as she looks up at Aaron, her lips pressed together as she takes a second to try and regulate her emotions, “At least he won’t remember it.”

Aaron wraps his arm around her shoulders and shifts closer, pressing a kiss to her forehead before he looks down at their son.

It had been clear since the day Elliot was born that something was different than when she’d had Lucas. He didn’t ever seem to eat enough, he barely latched and would fall asleep the moment he did, and nursing hurt in a way Emily didn’t remember it hurting the first time around. It was only when he was a week and a half old that the paediatrician told them Elliot had a tongue tie. Emily had insisted on being in the room whilst it happened, not wanting to be away from her baby for any real period of time, and whilst Aaron thought it would be best to take the doctor’s advice to step out into the hallway he let her take the lead. He’d held her tightly against his chest, his arms firm around her middle as the doctor did the procedure in front of them. Elliot had cried, something they were reassured was more of an automatic reaction than a reaction to pain, and then he’d passed right over to Emily, only calming down when he was in his mother’s arms.

“You both did really good yesterday,” he says, kissing her forehead again and she pulls back, her eyebrow raised in disbelief.

“We both know if you hadn’t been there literally holding me back I would have knocked that doctor out,” she says, looking down at her son, sighing contentedly as he continues to feed, “Even though it seems to have helped.”

“That’s because you’re his mom, sweetheart,” he says, hooking a finger under her chin to make her look up at him, stamping his lips against hers, “I’d call you a mama bear but, after you glared at Dave the one time he did, I won’t.”

She chuckles, “That’s smart.”

“I know,” he replies, his smile only getting bigger when hers does. Elliot grunts as he pulls away and both of his parents look down at him, his eyes drifting shut now he is done, “Looks like he’s full.”

Emily lifts Elliot and kisses his cheek before she settles him over her shoulder, rubbing her hand on his back, “Soon enough he’ll have the same appetite as his brothers,” she quips, “Good thing we have my trust fund otherwise we’d be screwed by the time they are teenagers.”

He laughs as he leans in and clips the cup of her bra back into place before he buttons her shirt up for her. She smiles at the gesture, the quiet way he always looked after her. At first, she’d found it suffocating. She’d struggled in the early days of their relationship with the unrelenting way he loved her, acts of service she’d never experienced from a partner before something she’d mistaken for control. She loved it now, loved how he looked after her, how he looked after their boys, and she couldn’t imagine life without it.

Elliot breaks the silence by burping and it makes them both chuckle. Emily kisses his temple, “Good boy.”

Aaron is about to offer to put him into his bassinet when the bedroom door opens, they both look over to see Lucas stepping into the room. He’s sleepy, his pjyamas rumbled and his dark hair a mess. His favourite toy, a stuffed frog that Penelope had given him, his hanging from his hand.

“Mama? Daddy?”

“Luke,” Aaron says quietly, “What’s wrong? You should be sleeping.”

“I woke up,” he says, stepping closer to the bed, his gaze shifting to his younger brother half asleep on Emily, “I sleep here?”

Aaron sighs and turns to look at his wife, his eyebrow raised as she smiles and shrugs. It had been a difficult transition for Lucas when it came to being a big brother. He’d found it hard to split his parent’s attention, especially Emily’s, with the baby and whilst they’d done everything they could to prepare him for his new sibling it was still an adjustment for all of them.

More often than not these days he would find a reason to sneak into their bed in the middle of the night, and whilst Aaron was sure it was something they should discourage he was too tired to try and have that conversation with his wife.

“Come on buddy,” he says, pulling the covers back so Lucas can join them in bed. The toddler runs over and climbs over Aaron to sit in between them, his attention immediately on his mother.

“Hi Mama,” Lucas says, resting his head on the opposite shoulder to where Elliot was lying, “Was Eli hungry?”

“Yes he was, sweet boy,” she replies, turning her head to kiss his cheek, doing it again when he giggles, “Once he’s asleep we’ll all try to get some sleep too.”

Lucas nods and leans in closer to Elliot, his nose pressed against his, “We have fun later Eli, sleep now,” he says, kissing his brother’s forehead like he’d seen both his parents do countless times.

Emily presses her lips together to stop herself from crying, the tenderness of the gesture enough to make tears press at the back of her eyes.

“That’s so sweet, Lukey,” she says, exchanging a glance with her husband before she wraps an arm around the 2-year-old and pulls him closer, “You’re such a good big brother.”

Lucas beams at her, his smile the one she hopes Elliot will have too, and he leans into her, “Need to be like Jack.”

Emily kisses his head one more time and she tilts her head to look down at Elliot, sighing gratefully when he’s asleep, “Looks like it worked, baby, he’s asleep now.”

“I’ll set him down,” Aaron says, already climbing out of bed and rounding it to gently ease the baby out of her arms, “You two stay there and settle down.”

She doesn’t argue with him, she simply nods before kissing her son’s head before she relinquishes her hold on him, “Night, Eli.”

“Night Eli,” Lucas repeats, slipping further into Emily’s embrace as she shifts to lay down, content to wrap himself around her as he rests his head on her chest, “Love you, Mama.”

She pulls him closer and rubs her hand up and down his back. She never got used to how it felt when her children told her that they loved her. It was something she never wanted to take for granted, something she knew she never would take for granted.

“Love you too, sweetie,” she says, pressing her face into his hair to breathe him in. She smiles at Aaron as he climbs back into his side and he lays down next to them, hooking his arm over the both of them. Emily’s smile gets wider and she leans into Lucas, the little boy already getting sleepy, “We love Daddy too, huh?”

Lucas nods and turns over to look at Aaron, reaching over and patting his cheek, giggling as Aaron makes a show of turning his head and kissing his palm, “Love you, Daddy.”

“I love you too, Lukey.”

Emily feels warmth spread through her chest at the sight of them together. Every single thing she’d been through was worth it for this, for the simple ordinary life she never thought she’d get. She wouldn’t change it for anything, and wouldn’t want to miss a moment of any of it.

Even the long early hours of the morning when sleep seemed like an impossibility.

“We should get some sleep,” Aaron says, as if reading her mind as he reaches over and ruffles Lucas’s hair, “Elliot will probably wake us all up again in an hour or so.”

Lucas’s response is cut off as the bedroom door opens again and Jack walks in, tears shining on his face as he scratches his head as he shuffles further into the room.

“Everything okay, Jack?” Emily asks softly, sitting up and resting her elbow on the bed. He shakes his head and sniffs.

“I had a bad dream,” he says, almost seeming embarrassed that he had, as if being almost 9 years old meant he should have outgrown it.

Aaron immediately shifts further away from Lucas and Emily, making space between them as he pulls back the covers, “Come on, buddy. We have room for one more.”

Jack doesn’t need to be told twice, and he climbs into the bed with his parents and his little brother, contently sighing as he snuggles up against his father.

“You ‘kay Jack?” Lucas asks, patting his cheek gently, and Jack nods.

“I’m okay, Luke,” he assures him, laying his arm over him and Emily, smiling when Emily holds his hand.

“We need sleep,” Lucas says seriously, “Eli will wake up soon.”

They all chuckle and Aaron reaches over to switch the lamp off, laying his arm over his family as he holds them close. He falls asleep content in the knowledge that they were safe and happy, and that he’d lived up to the promise he’d made to Haley.

Elliot wakes them all up just over an hour later, and Emily feeds him again, content as she sits surrounded by her Hotchner boys.

-x-

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