Suspenders
Disclaimer: I don't own it and I blame this idea on Pandorabox's Rossi muse; he escaped and came to me. Ass.
It had finally happened; that undefined-for-the-sake-of-their-sanity thing between them had finally snapped. It had snapped in a way that had only happened in her raunchiest fantasies: during a case. She'd been playing bait, again, (why did so many of these assholes have a thing for blondes?) and Hotch had come to her defense when the unsub had her cornered. To add to the drama, he hadn't simply shot the bastard, but beaten him with his bare hands instead. It wasn't her fault that on the rare occasion he eschewed the gun for his fists, it always got her blood pumping just a little bit harder; it was just sexy as hell when he went all over-protective alpha male on someone. Usually, she could get her reactions under control before anyone saw, but this time, their eyes had met too quickly, a breath had passed, and something had flashed in his eyes. But of course, the rest of the team poured into the dingy alleyway before either of them could say a word.
Yet his eyes had remained on her for the rest of the day: at the police station as they finalized paperwork and packed up files, across the table during dinner as they celebrated closing the case, and in the lobby of the hotel as he instructed them all to get some sleep before meeting for the early morning flight back to Quantico. It hadn't been a total surprise when he escorted her to her room; he'd checked on her, on all of them, under similar circumstances in the past. But this time, the same look from before was still in his eyes, barely below the surface as he made sure she was alright. And instead of a gentlemanly good night at the door, this time found them against the wall, lips sealed together and clothes flying as the alpha male broke free.
It had been the best night of her life and they'd repeated it often over the following three months. The team was oblivious so far; they kept things as they'd always been in the office and used the more isolated of their rooms at various hotels, as it was rare for all their rooms to be in a single row. They didn't share a bed every night on cases, but often enough; having each other to hold made the horrors they saw slightly more bearable. Their boys were thrilled, and they'd discussed officially moving on together, but hesitated because they didn't want to have to tell the Bureau and risk splitting up the team.
Everything changed the day that Rossi wore a pair of suspenders to work.
JJ hadn't thought anything of it when she saw Strauss pass by her office door on the way to the team bullpen; the Section Chief did that relatively frequently. Nor did she think anything was unusual when Rossi walked into the daily briefing a couple of hours later without his suit jacket but with a pair of suspenders clipped to his jeans instead of his usual belt. He was old-fashioned in his own way and she'd never given much thought to his accessories, so it didn't register on her radar until she saw Aaron blanche for a split second at the sight of his friend and pinch the bridge of his nose, as if warding off a sudden headache. That was unusual.
She bit her tongue to keep from drawing attention to Aaron's unusual behavior but followed him to his office after they'd finished the briefing. Her armload of files was more than enough cover for her to justify dropping the blinds and latching the door behind her. Setting the files on the corner of his desk, she rounded the side to lean against the edge next to his chair.
"Aaron, are you alright?"
"I'm going to kill Dave," Aaron dropped into his chair, one hand coming up to rub at his temples while the other situated itself on her knee.
"You say that at least once a week, usually to his face. What did he do this time?"
The hand on her knee shifted to clasp her hand as their eyes met, "He and Strauss got back together again. They're meeting up some time today."
JJ had to blink several times as she tried to process that non-sequitur, "How do you know?" He was an amazing profiler but not a mind reader. What had she missed? To her further amazement, a hint of pink surfaced on his cheekbones. Hotch did not blush! "Aaron?"
The pink darkened slightly as his dark eyes skittered away from hers to focus on a random bit of wall over her shoulder, "Dave told me once years ago that he hated suspenders, except for one reason…," he had to take a breath and visible gather himself before continuing, "…that reason being that you could get a quickie or a blowjob in the office without the risk of getting caught with your pants around your ankles. He claims it's easier to cover things quickly." His eyes briefly met hers and she felt her own cheeks heat up as she fought off the resulting mental images of that confession. His eyes flickered back to the wall, "Strauss came in earlier today to inform me that she's submitting her retirement paperwork and recommending me for the job if I want it. I told her I would think about it and get back to her tomorrow."
They were quiet for a couple of minutes, hands clasped but lost in their own thoughts before she finally squeezed his hand and asked, "Do you want the job?"
His eyes finally met hers steadily, "Part of me doesn't; I hate politics and I love the team. But I'm considering it for two reasons: a steadier schedule for the boys and you. With a layer of supervision between us, it would make things easier when we finally tell the Bureau about us. But I wanted to discuss it with you before I commit to it."
She nodded; that was a conversation for later, at home, after the boys were in bed and the only interruption they had to worry about was a thirsty child. "And Dave and Strauss?"
"I'm going to kill him because every time he gets up to his in-office shenanigans, it's a pain in the ass for me. But if they're serious enough that Strauss is retiring, then I'm happy for them. She's healing, and I think it, and he, will be good for her. It'll be good for them both. I just don't want to hear, or see, them again." His shudder spoke of days gone by and hearing things through thin walls that he just didn't want to hear, and it made her giggle.
A knock on the door had them dropping hands, her picking up a file folder from the stack and handing him its counterpart before going over to unlatch the door. Thankfully, it was Reid on the other side and he didn't even blink when he saw her there, folder in hand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I just had a question about the Atlanta file."
"It's alright Reid, come in." Hotch closed the newly-opened file and set it back on the stack, "JJ, we'll finish going over these later."
"No problem Hotch." She crossed the few steps between door and desk, added her folder to the stack and picked up the whole thing. A small hidden smile for Aaron became a larger one as she turned towards the door, "I'll see you later. Bye Spence."
JJ did her best to appear unaffected as she made her way back to her office. Once she was safely behind her own closed door she set down the files and dropped heavily into her chair. Her mind raced over the various possibilities related to Aaron taking on the Section Chief job, the implications of Rossi and Strauss being together. But for the life of her, her brain kept bringing up a mental image of Aaron wearing a pair of suspenders under his suit coat….
As it turned out, Aaron did take the job when Strauss…Erin…retired six weeks later. Hotch had used the transition as an excuse to make another change within the BAU, namely hiring an assistant for JJ to train, both to cut back on her travel for Henry (and Jack) and to ease the strain of covering two positions. With Rossi coerced into taking on the Unit Chief position and Morgan stepping up as Senior Profiler, it wasn't a huge change, but it was a transition. They planned to tell the team, and the Bureau, about their changed relationship in about three months, when things had settled down a bit.
It was at Hotch's promotion party (dinner at the local Chinese place) that they found out that at least one person had noticed the change in their relationship. After they'd eaten, Rossi handed Aaron a small gift bag, "Congratulations kid, and good luck. You're going to need it." He waved a hand at the bag, "A little something to make the new job easier to cope with."
JJ leaned over to peer into the bag as Aaron pulled out the top layer of tissue paper covering the gift. When she saw what was inside, her cheeks erupted in a blush.
Aaron glared.
Rossi smirked.
Nestled in the bag, coiled innocently in a bed of tissue paper, was a pair of black suspenders.