A/N: This was written for the Chit Chat on Author's Corner Back to Basics Spring Challenge. The pairing I had to write was Hotch and JJ, and the three prompts were a Cherry Popsicle, a sudden rainstorm, and white shoes.
She knows she really shouldn't be mad. It was a sweet gesture, and were it not for her ruined bag, she'd be smiling at how adorable the act had been. She walks into the sixth's floor small bathroom. Sitting her bag on the linoleum counter, she begins removing its sticky contents.
She wets a paper towel and carefully wipes her saturated wallet, trying not to think how much it had cost her. Her keys, a few pens, sunglasses, her long last earring. Slowly she empties the bag.
After she sets several manila folders on the counter, each now outlined in sugar and Red-40 dye, she finds the source of the mess. She picks the package up with her forefinger and thumb, careful not to spill any of the melted syrup still contained in the wrapper.
She feels a small twinge of anger looking at the cartoon cat smiling back at her, its wide, toothy grin hidden behind a thumbs-up. She reads the words "Chillin' Cherry" written across the side in bright bubble lettering, before tossing the Popsicle remnants into the trash.
She quickly wipes out the bottom of the bag, cursing herself for even buying the frozen treats. The mess wouldn't be this bad if she had discovered Henry's surprise earlier in the day. Despite her sticky fingers, she smiles thinking of her son and his attempt at making her happy. That morning he had run into her bedroom waving the cherry popsicle over his head, begging her to let him have it.
She had told him it was too early for sweets, but that she had put a special treat in his bag for later. His grin had been contagious. JJ smiled back at him and told him to go put the popsicle back while she continued applying her make-up. Looking back, she realizes she should have put the popsicle back in the freezer herself.
She throws away the large pile of used paper towels and quickly washes her hands. Her belongings balanced in her arms, she exits the bathroom and begins making her way back towards the empty bullpen. Everyone had left early, each having plans for the weekend. She had been on her way out, too, when she had plunged her hand into the sticky mess while searching for her keys.
Walking past the double glass doors, she spots the familiar outline of a tailored suit making its way towards her. She pushes the elevator's button and turns to face her boss.
"I thought you left already," he asks, slipping his phone back in his pocket. She gives him a tight-lipped smile and gestures to her newly dyed wallet.
"Henry threw a popsicle in my bag this morning. I just found it."
He smiles, noticing the red tinge decorating her fingertips, "Cherry?"
"How'd you know?" She asks through a laugh.
The slight ding of the elevator catches their attention, and they step inside. As the doors slide shut, he presses the button for the ground floor. "When Jack was four, he realized that if you hold a marker to a piece of paper, the ink would bleed into the paper." JJ looks at Hotch; amazed at the way his normally stoic face lights up when speaking about his son. "He sat on his bed, pushing an entire pack of markers into a coloring sheet. Unfortunately, the ink bled through to the bedspread, the sheets, and the mattress."
JJ laughs, thinking of the time she and Will woke up to find Henry coloring the headboard on his bed. "I guess I'm adding markers to my list of things never to buy," she adjusts the empty bag on her shoulder as they exit the elevator, "along with popsicles."
Hotch pulls his keys out of his pocket before turning to JJ. "You might want to add gum, Play-Doh, and white shoes to that list," he offers as the wind starts to blow.
JJ tosses her hair back, trying to stop it from blowing in her face. "White shoes?"
Hotch shrugs his shoulders and laughs. "Most boys don't know how to keep white shoes white."
"Hotch, you're talking to the captain of the varsity soccer team. I didn't know how to keep white shoes white," she says, recalling her mother yelling because she had ruined another pair of school shoes.
Hotch unlocks his car and is about to climb in when a thought crosses his mind. "Hey, JJ. Did you finish the Lewis file?"
She grins wide and holds up one of the folders in her hand. "I can give it to you now if you think Strauss will be okay with it looking like I dropped it at a crime scene."
He grins and shakes his head. "I think she'll be okay 'till Monday. Have a good weekend JJ."
"You, too, Hotch," she yells as the rain begins to fall. Hotch offers a quick wave before pulling his door shut. JJ waves back as she hurriedly walks to her car, the now ruined files held above her head.
When she makes it to the safety of her car, she leans her head back on the headrest. As she puts the car into gear and starts navigating the familiar streets, she thinks of her grandmother's very saying. When you have kids, they give you twice as much hell as you gave your parents.
She knows she had her moments when she was younger. Maybe even enough to account for the crayons on the headboard, the melted popsicle, and the Reese's cup in the DVD player.
Remembering the flooded bathroom and six hundred dollar plumber's bill to remove a trapped Lego from the drain, she starts wondering how much hell Will had given his parents.
A/N: Please R&R