Disclaimer: You know what you get when you combine don't and own? Dow'n! I totally dow'n CM!
Author's note: This is an idea a played with for a while. I don't know where it's going or for how long, but I'm willing to write till I find out.
Hotch glanced at his son behind him in the car. He couldn't help feeling guilty about all the times he wasn't there to drive his 5-year-old son to kindergarten or to pick him up afterwards. He tried his best to be a good father but it was hard.
"You seem excited," he told his son as he kept kicking his feet in the air.
"Can you drive fathder daddy?" Jack asked and flashed his dad a huge smile. His missing front teeth gave him a small lisp and made his son look like he was up to no good.
"You know I have to keep at the speeding limits. I have to be a good example."
"But I wantth do hurry up and get there!" his son said and leaned forward. "Annie'th gonna be there!"
"Is Annie your girlfriend," Hotch asked. He couldn't exactly remember what he had thought about the opposite sex at that age. If he had felt like his son he must have felt a great deal of disgust.
"Noooooo!" the boy in the backseat yelled with a shocked look on his face. "Girlth are mean! And girlfriendth are for gwown-upth! Like daddy!" He exclaimed and shot back in the seat. Hotch felt his heart sink and twist.
"You think I should get a girlfriend?" he asked his son. He couldn't grasp the idea of finding a girlfriend and even less a substitute mother for Jack. But if his son missed a mother figure and aunt Jessica wasn't enough, he would have to come up with something.
"All the thuperheroeth has girlfriendth!"
"Even Captain America?"
"He had many girlfriendth!" Hotch frowned. He would have to go through those comics some day, God knew what his son had been learning from them.
"But you don't have one?" His son shook his head violently. "And you don't want one?"
The shocked look on his son's face softened to a concerning one instead. It felt wrong to see those emotions in the eyes of a boy so young.
"Are you gedding old daddy?" his son asked softly.
"A little bit every day I think," Hotch replied still feeling a little shook up about his son's behavior.
"I think you are daddy, 'cause you just forgod whad I told you righd now!" he said and a smug smile spread on his face. Hotch felt his face crack into a smile too as he realized the power his son held over him.
"Well it seems like you're right," he said as he pulled to a stop in front of the kindergarten.
He held on to his son as they walked to the opening in the fence surrounding the kindergarten area but Hotch noticed the rush Jack seemed to be in.
"Are you sure some special girl isn't in there waiting for you?" Hotch asked his son and mused at the indignant looked he got as answer. "Had to ask" he smiled to himself. He always felt relieved when he smiled around his son. But if he thought about it those probably were the only times he smiled. He felt his smile fade away at that thought.
God he felt old.
He gave an acknowledging nod to the nursery teacher welcoming the kids at the gate.
"Mrs. Terragni," he said to the older Italian woman.
"Mr. Hotchner," she replied. She knew how he struggled to make ends meet after his wife passed away at felt a great deal of respect for the way he coped.
"Mitheth Terrarni where's Annie?" Jack asked eagerly as the nursery teacher let him in. She smiled at him.
"She's right over at the swings," she said and pointed in the given direction. Jack's face lit up.
"Annie!" He yelled and started running towards the swings.
A woman in a yellow summer dress turned at the sound of her name.
"Jack!" she called back and opened her arms wide to welcome the boy with a hug.
Hotch felt his heart speed. His mouth turned dry, his hands sweaty.
"Hayley," he breathed.