"Hold him for me?"
Hotch hid the grimace on his face as he took the baby from his girlfriend, holding him awkwardly against his chest as Emily shed her shirt. The couple had been together for only four months, Emily and Hotch finally getting together after admitting the love they had felt for years, and now he was the proud father of a baby Emily had been blessed with a month into their relationship.
She had gotten pregnant on a one night stand with a police officer down in Oregon, and he had the pleasure of raising him as his own.
Emily turned back around to see her boyfriend holding her son with one arm under his butt and the other around his stomach, her three month old baby gurgling in his hold, a small spit bubble falling from his lip. "What's wrong?" she chuckled, walking up to the pair and wiping the spit from her son's lip with her shirt. "It's like you've never held a baby before."
Hotch stared blankly at the younger woman.
"Really?" she laughed, turning back around so she could find herself a new shirt. "You've never held a baby before?"
"Babies don't like me."
The brown eyed woman gave a snort, throwing her head back as she buttoned up her shirt. "Why wouldn't babies like you? And how would you know?"
The little boy in Hotch's arms began to squirm, his tiny eyes squinting as he turned red.
"This is why," he sighed, handing the baby back to his girlfriend. "They're just not comfortable with me, I guess."
Emily frowned, watching the older man sit on the edge of her bed as she bounced the little boy on her hip.
"I almost dropped a baby when I was in my early twenties and she started sobbing for hours, and now it's like every child I come around knows that I might drop them and they start crying."
Trying her best to stop her quivering lips from turning up into a grin, Emily sat herself down beside her boyfriend. "Don't be so hard on yourself," she purred, pulling the Unit Chief into a kiss with her forefinger. "Joshua loves you."
Hotch looked to the brown eyed baby in his girlfriend's arms, watching as he looked up to him and pouted his lips.
"Can you say hi for mommy?"
Josh blinked, reaching out to slap his hand against the older man's.
"Hey," Hotch laughed, sharing a grin with the brunette beside him. "He sure is strong."
Emily nodded her head at the statement, running her hand over her son's soft hair. "He held my finger for twenty minutes when he was first born," she whispered, remembering the day Hotch had stayed right by her side. "He's gonna be a strong little guy, that's for sure."
"With muscles like mine?"
The mother of one felt her cheeks hurt as she smiled wide to her boyfriend, reaching out and running her hand over one of his flexed arms. "Oh sweetie, no one has muscles like you," she grinned, leaning in for a long kiss.
Hotch pulled back, putting his girlfriend's ebony hair behind her ear and giving her a smile. "Why don't you change him and put him down, and I'll go get dinner ready downstairs?"
Emily hid the tears in her eyes, her hormones still raging from giving birth only a few months ago, and silently nodded her head.
"I love you."
She let him kiss her brow, and she watched as he stood up. "I love you too." Waiting until after he had left, the new mother readjusted her son in her lap and made him face her. "He loves you too, you know."
Josh looked up to his mother with sleepy brown eyes, frowning.
Emily's jaw dropped as her son began to whine, bringing him to her chest and gently rocking him. "And now you cry when he's not here? Make up your mind," she chuckled, kissing the top of the baby's head when he calmed himself down in her arms. "You ready for bed, baby?"
Looking down, the brunette woman saw her son's mouth opening and closing, his hand reaching down to her breast. "Oh, you're hungry?" she huffed. "It's not like I just fed you." Lifting her shirt, Emily's hand brushed down her son's back as he began to feed. "Mommy's hungry too."
"Mommy better get down here before daddy eats all the mac and cheese!"
Emily laughed at her boyfriend's words, and she leaned down best she could and kissed her son. "We love you. I promise."