Hi and welcome back. This is part 2 of New boss, new luck. It might be an advantage, to know part one. But here is a little look back. Feel free to join in.
Chief Strauss got a temporary replacement, Rosslyn Baines. From Atlanta, single mother of a 15-year old daughter and former protégée from Jason Gideon. Hotch and Jack meet her and Billie in a store, not knowing who she is. Rose and Hotch fall in love with each other, but decide, to keep their relationship professional, when it comes to light, she is the new boss. Billie doesn´t accept this, she continues to visit Jack and Hotch. She loves Jack like a little brother and she looks up to Hotch, who treats her like his own, when Billie gets sexually assaulted by her boyfriend. Rose, being at a conference has news of her own. Her night, three months ago with Hotch, had consequences.
If that wasn´t trouble enough, Roses younger sister Florence arrives from Paris. Her ex-boyfriend is chasing her, Flo took something from him. Spencer is dragged into it, unwillingly. He starts to like Flo, even if she is the most eccentric girl, he ever met. Flo´s boyfriend Alain, an art thief, catches them together in Reid´s apartment, holding them hostage, until he gets his Picasso back.
Hotch and Rose are on time and Alain gets arrested. Flo had to take quite something, Alain hit her hard.
Finally Rose tells Hotch about the baby, she is expecting. Hotch is a bit shocked, at first, but he loves Rose and he loves the child, too.
This is where we left the Hotchner family. Flo and Spencer´s trip to Atlanta happens about 2 weeks later.
DISCLAIMER: I don´t own Criminal minds, I don´t gain any money with this, it´s written just for fun.
So, let´s get started. English isn´t my usual language, so please be patient and don´t kill me for the grammar, it might be unusual sometimes. But have fun, anyway...oh and please, some reviews would be great.
XXX
Florence and Spencer stood in a row at the American Airlines counter and constantly got strange looks by the other people waiting. Flo's face still looked like after a boxing match, her ex-boyfriend had done a great job. Reid did somehow feel the need to constantly explain that he wasn´t a basher. "Oh, loosen up, Doc. No one thinks that you´re a thug, you´re only a half-pint." Flo said with a wry grin, Reid himself wasn´t sure about that.
"Atlanta, please. Twice. At 1 p.m.," Spencer said.
"First class?" the assistant asked, Reid shook his head and wanted to ask for tickets in economy class, when Florence intervened.
"Of course we are flying first class, economy is out of the question." She handed the woman at the counter a black credit card.
"I'll do it," she said, as Spencer protested. Oh great, Spencer thought. Now I´m not only a basher, but also a gigolo. Gosh, Reid wanted some of Morgan's sovereignty, only a little bit. Morgan, who had asked him if he still had all his marbles, after Spencer said that he´d accompany the Chief´s sister to Atlanta.
"Women like Florence are pure poison for you, pretty boy", had been Derek's exact words. Spencer, however was simply tired of being treated like a little boy from Morgan, he just decided to ignore the warnings of his colleague.
XXX
"What´s on your mind?" Hotch asked his future wife in the small kitchenette of the BAU.
"Spencer," came promptly from Rosslyn.
"Spencer? Uh, that hurt. You told me, you´re thinking about me, all the time."
Hotch made one of his rare jokes and Rose nudged him affectionately.
"I´m just concerned, Flo has not yet recovered, she refuses to tell me what was going on with my ex-husband and she has looped with Reid to Georgia. Don´t tell me I should not worry."
"No, I'm saying you should have a bit more confidence in one of your agents and your sister anyway. I know, Florence is a little," Hotch was looking for a suitable word, "peculiar."
"Oh, come on, 'peculiar' doesn´t hit the spot," Morgan interjected, who joined them. "No offense, Chief."
Rose shrugged, Morgan was right. Since Reid knew her sister, he was pursued, got a ticket for speeding, sexual harassment and attempted bribery, his home was destroyed and he was handcuffed to the bed. To be honest, Florence didn´t bring people, and of course herself, in trouble on purpose. Not at all, it was like trouble was looking for Flo and then it just happened.
"Chief Baines?" Rose said into her cell phone. "Yes, Mr. Bennett, I am waiting for your call since yesterday. Your construction supervisor has spoken of static problems. No, I don´t understand, Mr. Bennett," Rose muttered angrily, "we don´t want to tear down any walls in the attic, we want drywall. Yeah, I also think we should talk about this issue again. I´ll be home by 5 p.m. today. What? Then you will have to skip that. May I remind you, your construction business isn´t the only one out there and finally I pay you appropriately. Yes. That´s what I was expecting to hear. See you at half past 5."
"What did he say?" Hotch wanted to know. Jack and he had moved over the weekend to Rosslyn and Billie´s place and now tried to make the most out of Roses house. "He´s coming this evening, we´ll talk about the attic again. We clarify that today, hopefully." Rose was angry, craftsmen. At first, everything was no problem at all, until the problems popped up like mushrooms after the rain. She just felt ripped off by the construction company.
"Why are you going to change something? Your home not necessarily occurred small to me, Chief," Morgan was curious and asked.
He and Rossi had helped with the moving boxes, so he knew Rosslyn´s home. "Billie wants to spread herself out a little bit, she said we could use her room for something else."
"What for?" Morgan was confused.
"Tell him," Rose said to Hotch, laughed and walked into her office.
XXX
"How difficult it can be to land an aircraft," Florence nagged at her seat. Reid sighed, "because that's not only a bit of rain, what´s coming down now, but a powerful thunderstorm with a downpour."
"I always thought pilots practice situations this," Flo was unhappy, she wanted to be at home.
"Tell me about your family," Reid tried to distract her a little. He had just remembered, it wasn´t a good idea to quote statistics about plane crashes in this situation.
"Maman, Marie is originally from the city of Nice. Papa was on vacation with Rosie in southern France. Rosie's mother died in a car accident, when she was in Jack´s age. Maman has instantly fallen in love with the two of them and followed Papa to Atlanta. A few years later I was born and another few years later, our youngest sis, Corinne. She´s 21 and doing an internship in Scotland, at a fellow distillery of Papa."
Reid had such a feeling that Flo stacked deep, when she called her father a distiller. She had a black credit card, that meant, without any limit. He was looking forward to her family. Reid's family background was not necessarily the cream of the crop, to put it mildly, he was not talking about it, not if he had to. Flo shifted in the seat, her ribs ached again, Alain knew how to slam.
She leaned against Spencer, "Thank you, for joining me, I've already said that, right?" Reid smiled, "about a hundred times." He put his arm around Florence, it felt right when he did that.
"Cherie? 'ow long said the man, it will take?"
Charles Evans looked at his wife, smiling. She still looked like the 20-year old, beautiful woman, he met in Nice, almost 30 years ago. She was jumping up and down, could hardly wait to finally wrap her daughter in her arms. They knew from Rosslyn, what happened in Washington, Florence had escaped a disaster. Nevertheless, Charles Evans was shocked, when his daughter stepped into the arrival hall. She was wearing big sunglasses, but they hid only very inadequate in how many colors Flo´s face was shimmering. Behind Flo was a lanky young man. That had to be Dr. Reid, Rose had told Charles about him, also.
"Oh, mon Dieu, mon Dieu!" Marie put her hand to her mouth, what had this cretin done to her daughter?
"Maman!" Florence sobbed and rushed into her mother´s arms.
"You must be Dr. Reid," Charles said to the young man who had stopped, a bit uncertain. Reid nodded, "Spencer, please," he blushed again as he shook hands with Flo's father. "Welcome to Atlanta, Spencer, even though the circumstances could be better." Charles shook Spencer's hand vigorously and Spencer liked Flo's father immediately.
Reid was not surprised at all, when Charles turned onto a small side street, at the end of it there was a huge estate. Reid almost expected to see Scarlett O'Hara in the driveway, the ambience overwhelmed Spencer. An employee led Reid in one of the guest rooms. "Dinner at 7:30 p.m., Sir. You want to be picked up?"
"Uh, no, I´ll find the way," Spencer said, a bit irritated and grabbed his bag to unpack. A little later there was a knock at the door.
"Spencer?" Florence asked from outside, "can I come in?"
Reid opened the door, "of course, your father is just a 'distiller'?"
Florence smiled, "Maman says, you should never swagger with what you have."
"This is very reasonable from your mum," Spencer said seriously. He looked at Florence. How pretty she is, he thought. She wore a short, red dress, formfitting in the right places and she didn´t wear a bra, Reid took note of that with a low moan. He knew she did it on purpose, she probably wanted to make sure that he lost his mind. And she was on the right track.
"I knew, you´d like it," Flo put her arms around Spencer's neck and pressed her lips gently on his. She knew Reid for about two weeks now, she knew he needed time. She pulled back from him. "Let´s have something to eat," Flo said and took Reid's hand.
The dinner went pretty well and in a very pleasant atmosphere, Reid watched, fascinated, how close Flo's parents were. Hardly a minute passed by, where they did not touch each other or smiled at each other. And just like at Rosslyn´s table, there wasn´t anything negative mentioned at the dining table. That changed, however, when Charles and Spencer changed place and sat down in the library, after dinner.
Flo's dad handed Reid a very generous bourbon.
"So tell me, Spencer, what exactly happened in DC? Rosslyn has expressed herself very vague to the matter." Charles looked invitingly at Spencer.
"Um, Flo had difficulties in Paris, with her boyfriend. She decided to leave and to pay Rose a visit. Flo had no idea that her boyfriend was a wanted art thief. He tracked her down, when she was with me and demanded back his property, Florence was in possession of a stolen Picasso."
"And you handed the picture over?" Reid took a long gulp, this was about to get difficult.
"No, sir, if I had done that, Flo would have been dead."
"So you watched this bastard abusing my daughter?" Evans said sharply.
"I knew my colleagues were close, Sir, also I was handcuffed to the bed. There was nothing I could do."
"You are sure he would have killed my daughter?"
"Without a doubt, Sir, van Szandt was going to totally lose control." Spencer poured the rest of the glass down his throat.
Charles refilled Spencer´s glass.
"And Rosie's boy friend, this Agent Hotchner? Is he good enough for my child and my granddaughter?"
Reid cleared his throat. "I don´t think Rosslyn could find someone who loves her and Billie more than Hotch does."
Evans seemed to have calmed down, he stopped to walk around the room and sat down.
"It is difficult to have three daughters and two of them having a penchant for adventure," Charles sighed. "But I'm not so much worried about Rosslyn, she was always able to take care of herself. But Florence, she is so carefree and flighty, she needs someone to keep her on the ground, Spencer, you know?"
"I-I do not know if that might be me, Sir." Reid stammered uncertainly. Charles laughed, "You´re exactly the right one, Spencer. And now stop calling me Sir, it´s Charles."
XXX
"I'll get it," Hotch said as the doorbell rang. Outside stood a very thin, young man with chin long hair and a shy smile.
"Good evening, Sir. I'm Ethan Ford, Isabelle and I know each other from the ballet. She forgot her cell phone, I wanted to return it."
"Billie and Jack are in the backyard. Come on in, Ethan." Hotch let him in.
"Who is it?" asked Rose from the kitchen.
"A visitor for Billie, she lost her cell phone. The right door leads to the kitchen, there is an exit to the garden." Hotch turned back to Ethan.
"Good evening, Mrs. Baines," Ethan said politely.
"Hi Ethan," Rose answered, she knew the boy. "Billie is outside, playing football with Jack. Just go."
Hotch joined Rose in the kitchen, "do we have to worry about him?"
Rose laughed," I don´t think so. Jack said, Ethan is not her kiss-friend."
"Kiss-friend?"
"Yes, according to Jack there are two kinds of friends. The one´s you kiss and the one´s you don´t. If you look at it from this perspective, you're my kiss-friend now."
Hotch had to laugh," where did he get that? Andy?"
" Certainly, Andy also told him, how to make babies. We´ll have to tell Jack that I'm pregnant, Aaron. For Jack, I'm still "Billie´s Mum". I love Jack, I mean, I don´t expect him to call me Mum, but I want him to know, what´s going on."
"You worry about that?" Hotch asked," I´m gonna talk to Jack, today."
He kissed Rose on her neck and put both hands on her belly, Hotch felt the little bulge already and smiled all over. He couldn´t wait to hold his little one.
"Jack is going to be a perfect brother to little dwarfy", he said and Rose groaned.
"Oh, Lord. I wish you and Billie would stop, calling him or her 'little dwarfy'. I always imagine, giving birth to Sleepy or Grumpy and I don´t find that funny at all."
She threatened Hotch with a wooden spoon, "Don´t you laugh, Aaron!"