Author's Note: Written for the Theme Song Challenge, my prompts were Hotch and Love Will Come Back by Chicago. Initially I had grander ideas for this story, but for some reason, it just worked out better as a drabble-ish piece. I actually cut out about half of it and I think I'll use it in another story, but this is it for now.
Hotch sighed as the pen dropped from his hand, the ink of his name still drying on the divorce papers in front of him.
This was it.
It was over.
All of the late nights, holding her hair back while she threw up, watching her amazing strength as she gave birth to their son.
None of that mattered anymore.
And just like that, all of the love they shared, all of the pain they experienced together, all of the joy they tasted…
None of it mattered anymore.
Because with a sign of his name and the filing of a document, a ten-year marriage shattered just like that.
And just like that, he was supposed to move on. To pretend it didn't hurt.
He was supposed to pretend that it didn't matter.
If it were only that easy.
Instead, all he felt was empty.
In the end, he decided, maybe love wasn't supposed to be hard.
Maybe it wasn't supposed to be complicated.
Because when lunch conferences turned into lunch dates,
and lunch dates melted into dinner dates,
then dinner dates easily turned into weekend adventures.
And suddenly, before he knew it, he couldn't live his life without her.
Maybe that is what love was.
Regardless, now that it was back, he wasn't about to let it go.