.com/watch?v=EvkQTLPu8fc&feature=related based on this song - what about love by heart (epic times song) ... no this is not the whole song but it's the one i listened to about 5 billion times while writing this tiny amoutn of stuff (i dont own any of this)
more? you want more of an A/N- umm can you tell that i've gotten the song!prompt writing bug?.. cuz i did.. and there' s more to come.
umm this was beta'd!major by wren hightower with the seal of approval placed by writing2death
i have listed this as complete ..tho i think it will have either another chapter or a sequel.. so watch out of that (tho it probs wont be right away)
the title refers to the old saying 'keep it simple, stupid' .. hopefully i maintained that... who knows?
read and review? yeah.. you know you want to. (i do it about 1/60 times.. so.. dont feel bad if you dont)
Aaron rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb. It had been another hard case.
They were all hard. That was the job, find the un-sub from the clues, try not to get mixed up in the high strung emotions.
Aaron was very used to compartmentalizing. It was the only way to keep the demons at bay.
He stood at the top of the bullpen, close to the stairs. He wanted to stay in the 'pen where the rest of the team was. He didn't want to be separated from them. When he was in his office, he was so far away. At first, it felt like the best way to keep things. It reminded them that he was the boss and, in a literal manner, higher than them. When they got too much and needed a break, he could go into his office and they would be down here. But 'here' is where he wanted to be. He threw his jacket over his arm and set down his go bag. He leaned against the wall and watched them as he'd done so many times before.
The little ants were going about their busy work. Some burrowing away at the walls of paper work standing in small mountains on their desk and some going for supplies in the kitchenette. "Supplies' referring to their need to drink more coffee than humanly possible after a case, trying to make the work go faster. Which was definitely impossible. One such worker came over to his watching spot.
"Did you want any coffee?" Reid spoke up as he walked over, not quite there yet and ready to turn back depending on the answer.
"Is it fresh?" Hotch realised after he asked, it didn't much matter. He was falling asleep on his feet. Reid had stopped walking.
"Yeah, Morgan just made it." He half turned back to the pot.
"Sure, just whitener in it, if we have it," Hotch added absentmindedly as Reid went to retrieve him a mug. "You can't drink that stuff Rossi makes. You'll not taste anything but coffee for a week. Thick as mud, it is." He unfolded his arms to take the mug from Reid.
"Oh, I thought that was just sludge because no one had cleaned out the coffee maker while we were gone. I'll have to tell Morgan that it's not the cleaning crew's fault."
Hotch took a sip from the mug, definitely not black- sludge coffee, and how did Reid know just how much white he liked? "Thanks."
Reid pursed his lips and smiled, turning his head as to not drink right in front of Hotch. He sort of looked around the office others were mingling, talking and laughing over their coffee mugs. No one was really doing any work. They were all tired.
"So, you did a great job with those locals. You always do." He kept the mug at his lip and looked over it to Aaron. He was too cute, the human mix between a cute chipmunk and a curious chimp. Those long arms, legs and adorably large eyes only added to the guise that he was some sort of amazingly smart forest creature. Aaron, of course, couldn't help but notice this.
"Thanks," Hotch kept it simple. He could have said more. Something more encouraging, but he didn't. Simple meant that he could ignore the lingering stares, the face, the hand, the mind. Simple meant that he could go home and see his son who had no mother and go to the bed that had no wife and he could just be.
But on the other hand, not simple was, "I…I umm I know, I mean, I see you. And I just don't know if you see me." What's not simple was Reid. "I can't tell you what you a..are feeling. But I think I know what you are feeling. Because..I feel it too."
Reid walked around Hotch to lean against the wall and side by side they stood, each holding his mug of coffee.
"I think you've been trying too hard. You spend too much time here. You need someone to go home to that isn't Jack. I don't know what I'm proposing here but…what about love?"
"I have been trying. I feel like I need be with Jack all the time, to make up for the time I've already missed out on and the time he will miss out on without… Haley. But I also feel like I need to be here.
I'm pretending. It's what I can do to make it through the day. I just slip up sometimes."
He thought of his own lingering stares after Reid and admiration of the younger agent. "And then there's you," Hotch sucked in a deep breath.
"So…what about love? Do you know something about it that I don't," He drew his neutral, almost stern face to question Reid.
He wasn't hurt per se it's just he was realising his own faults. He had not been so good at hiding his feelings. He though he had a hard time showing them…well most of them. He had 'mildly impressed', 'not impressed', annoyed, empathetic and disappointed drawn out pretty well but other ones had been hard to master and needed some work.
"I've been lonely," Hotch admitted. He had been lonely. It was not a lonely, lonely—he had gotten over the ache of having an empty bed a while ago but he was only able to ignore the absent place in his chest, one that came from realising you will never see the face of your first love again for so long.
"You are a good boss and you've worked hard for your position but I think you need something more in your life."
With that Reid went back to his desk and to his paper work. It's not like he had the answers and it's not like he had someone to go home to. But it got Hotch thinking- 'what about love?'
